Growing Hive

“Master? Did you request me?” a short woman with short pink hair asked as she bowed her head.

“Yes. I’ve got a new concubine but something is wrong with her. Nobody would want to become a concubine or I should say slave of my household. That’s what makes it fun for me yet this Liz accepted it so quickly and what’s more, the guard who was meant to protect my son, attacked my son the same day she arrived. Skeiron changed his behaviour rather quickly as well and for some reason, I can’t shake off this thought of being in danger,” Jareg said while tapping his fingers on the table.

“Master? How could you feel threatened by a lowly woman like her? She should be above the eight hundredth level to be able to hide her power from you, but then what could possibly interest her enough to come here? If I may be as rude to say this, I think that Master is overthinking it,” the pink haired woman said humbly.

“That’s what I’m thinking as well but for some reason, I feel threatened. You’ve been serving me ever since we escaped from the elves. You know how much it took for my grandfather and me to make a place of our own. I even lost my father… My point is, my instincts and cautious personality have saved me from the slave-hunting elves many times in the past. I’m quite sure that there is something wrong with that woman and so I want you to follow her and my son without their notice.” Jareg leaned forward in his chair and looked into the woman’s eyes with a serious face. “If you see her do anything strange, make sure to tell me, okay?”

“Certainly, if that is your desire?” the woman bowed. “Right, Master. Why did you let her have a wish?” she asked as she raised her head.

“Hmph, it was to see what she wanted. I thought I would find something, but she just asked me to teach her magic and soul related matters. I agreed to teach her the stuff the academy here in the city teaches. It took only a moment for me and it probably just saved her some time and money,” Jareg leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“Certainly, that isn’t much for saving the young master’s life,” the woman nodded. “Anyway, I’ll keep watch on her, just in case,” she added.

“Good, I must attend the meeting in the palace since some idiot robbed the mine… I’ll return in the evening, take care of my son until then. Remember, don’t get exposed!” Jareg clenched his fists.

“Yes!”

He stood up from his seat and teleported straight to the palace of the human district. Although the people in this kingdom had nothing against the other races, other than the hate they felt for the elves, they lived in separate districts to avoid trouble because of different cultures. If a few ogres or beastmen visited the humans’ district, they treated them equally well or poorly. Everyone knew that it was never the race that was bad. It was just that some people were bad while others were good.

After all, many of the current nobles were once slaves of the elves and they some of them were saved by ogres while others by beastmen or the other way around. As a result, these three districts lived in harmony with each other.

Jareg looked down and upon seeing the buttons of his shirt standing a bit to the side, he fixed his clothes and then walked towards the door of the palace. Two guards stood in front of it and after seeing his ID card, let him in. He found a few others nobles already waiting in the hall, so he immediately joined them and started to chat with them. A few minutes later, a human standing two meters tall appeared in the middle of the hall.

“Welcome, my subjects, let’s proceed to the meeting room,” he spoke silently yet his voice reached everyone. As he snapped his fingers, everyone in the hall disappeared and reappeared in the intersection of the three districts where was a smaller, circular building. There was a round table in the middle with three chairs where the human king took his place and soon the other two kings appeared as well.

The nobles stood or even levitated behind the kings they were related to and waited in silence for the meeting to start. On the table was a large and detailed map of the city, but nobody bothered to take a look at it after seeing it many times. Even the colour of the parchment was turning yellowish as time started to take its toll on it.

(AN:\Full-size picture link: https://i.imgur.com/26LeqcH.png)

Spoiler: Map

The green parts showed the locations of the parks in the city, the blue parts were the lakes, the yellow buildings were the three palaces, and the red one in the middle was the place where they hold the most important meetings, alas, their current location.

Tastar, the human king, shook hands with Rhor, the ogre king, and Argon, the beastman king who was a tiger type. “Hahaha, I haven’t seen you two pimps in a while then all of a sudden I was being told that there would be a meeting,” Rhor patted Tastar’s shoulder with his large hand.

With a height of three meters, even Tastar seemed short. “I was training so it couldn’t be helped. Although the elves switched leader who supposedly doesn’t like slavery, we can’t trust them and we must become stronger to protect our subjects,” Tastar said with a smile and then looked around at the nobles present.

“They all have come, it seems,” Argon said as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Indeed,” Rohr nodded as well.

“Certainly, you’ve heard of the news, but somebody robbed the mines of our kingdom and then left this message,” Tastar’s rough hand reached towards the table and when he pulled it back, a piece of paper was on top of the old city map.

“Have you found out anything else?” Argon leaned closer and sniffed it.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t find out anything yet, but for some reason, only the people beneath the sixth realm were knocked out, so the attacker probably couldn’t knock out anyone above. Not wanting to fight is understandable and unless it’s the doing of a genius, we should look for someone above the seven hundredth level,” Tastar said.

“The smell was removed with a spell, I couldn’t find a clue either,” Argon put the paper back on the table.

“Enough beating around the bush!” Rohr slapped the table. “So basically, we don’t know anything about the offender, but theoretically, the knife ears did it!”

“Yes.”

“The quickest would be to ask them, don’t you think?” Rohr asked.

“Well, I thought of the same thing. It could have been done by just one elf who hates their new leader and wants to cause a war to break out,” Argon said.

“Mhm, that’s why we should send a convoy and ask them. If the convoy doesn’t return in seven days, we shall take it as a declaration of war,” Tastar agreed as well.

“Good, then let’s vote. Anyone got a problem?” Rohr looked at the nobles present.

One of the ogres stepped forward and said as he bowed down, “Your majesty, I wish to be a part of that convoy. We better send a few capable people.”

“No, we can’t afford to lose strong people if they dared to play the dirty game and killed you. We must send unimportant people,” Rohr refused instantly. As one respecting only the strong and talented, he didn’t care about the lives of the weak.

“I agree,” both Tastar and Argon nodded.

“Any other objections or remarks?” Rohr asked.

Meeting silence, they named a few weaker but reliable people in the city who would become a part of the convoy and then left the place. Their loss wasn’t even two million world crystals. To these kings, it didn’t amount to much, but could they just sit and watch silently as they were being robbed?

As Jareg returned to his mansion, Skeiron ran up to him and grabbed his hand, “Father, Father! How would it go? Have you heard anything?” he asked with shining eyes as if he was expecting to hear some interesting rumour.

“Are you interested?” Jareg raised his brows.

“Yes!”

“Hehe, that’s a good thing, Son. We’re going to send a smaller convoy to the elven forests and wait for their answers. We can’t attack another powerful nation without any evidence regarding the robber. Once the convoy returns with an answer, another meeting will be held where we decide what to do. Maybe some nobles will find out more about this case,” he explained to his son who took in every bit of information.

“Will grandfather try to find clues as well?” Skeiron asked.

“I don’t think so, I haven’t asked, though. By the way, where is that woman?” Jareg frowned.

“Oh, she had to leave because she had something to do. She should be back soon.”

“Hmm, okay,” Jareg replied, suspicion welling up in him.

“Father? Is something wrong?”

“No. Go and train else you won’t become strong like me!” he patted his son’s shoulder. Nodding his head, Skeiron left the place and moved towards the yard.

While at another place, the pink haired woman was following Liz from afar. Due to the high difference in abilities, not even Liz could sense the woman’s presence, but the latter wasn’t following too closely either. After all, one couldn’t just become invisible.

Jareg had yet to find out that Liz was sent out by the chef to buy ingredients, but the latter took a rather strange route and didn’t just go to the nearest shop either which roused her tracker’s suspicion.

Where is she going? Anna, the pink haired woman thought. I should tell about this to Master when we return. As she jumped onto the roof of one of the buildings, she saw Anna walking towards a black-haired woman in an alleyway. Hmm? Did I find something? she thought, but Liz just passed by the black-haired woman and went back to the main street without saying or doing anything.

But as soon as she did, she stopped in her tracks and touched her side as she raised her voice, “Ah! My bag!” she turned to look at the black haired woman, but she was nowhere to be seen. Liz ran back into the alleyway with a depressed face and looked around while Anna just looked at the scene in wonder.

Anna closed her eyes and used her senses to pick up on the black-haired woman’s presence who was already far away. But remembering her Master’s command not to reveal herself, she just ignored her.

“Damn it! Even though the chef sent me to an expensive store! How should I deal with this,” Liz grabbed the sides of her head and paced around nervously. “Aaaah- Master will definitely punish me for sure for losing the world crystals.”

“Fucking bitch! How did she even rob me?”

”What to do? What should I do? Maybe I should run away? No, that wouldn’t do. I’ll just confess everything honestly! Maybe the young master will help me, even if just a little bit. AAAH DAMN IT! Yeah, let’s do that,” Liz nodded her head furiously and made her way towards the Greywing mansion. Seeing her getting closer, Anna turned on her heels and backed out, keeping her distance.

“Hmm- so she was sent to buy ingredients by the chef and the location was specified as well. She’s bad luck,” Anna murmured to herself, looking at Liz’s back. “I’ll keep following her, but Master’s assumptions should be wrong.”

After Liz returned to the mansion, she explained everything to Skeiron as if the latter didn’t know about it already and waited for her ‘punishment’, but Skeiron let her off lightly. Anna made a detailed report to Jareg who decided to still keep an eye on her. By doing so, he felt at ease knowing that his son was safe from any harm.

But there was a slight problem. Despite a few days passing by peacefully, not even once did Anna see Skeiron having sex with his concubine. She felt the need to voice her thoughts and report it to Jareg.