It was past five in the afternoon when I finally got to sit down for lunch. At that point, it made more sense to call it dinner.

If there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that this body had one hell of a metabolism. Back home, I could easily have one or two meals a day without feeling hungry. Maybe it was a question of habit because I rarely had the opportunity to eat properly when in the field since I had to either watch over my colleagues or my equipment.

Currently, I was helping myself to a fourth serving of roasted potatoes and mystery meat, and I still wasn’t feeling full. Although the kitchen staff seemed to be aware of Leticia’s habits, judging by the amount of food they had prepared.

While I had been stuffing myself with anything I could get my hands on, all the while maintaining my best impression of a civilised person, the head maid was listing to me, in great detail, all the things that needed renovating around the house. I tried to remember as much of that as I could, but I knew that ultimately, I would have to turn to her again for further clarifications.

“That’s all for the renovations.” The head maid finally concluded.

A waiter took this opportunity to take my plate away. A maid whom I didn’t know, but who seemed to temporarily fill in Margaux’s role, approached me and asked if I would like something for dessert.

“Yes, I would love some sweet coffee, or tea, depending on what you have. And could you also bring something sweet for the three of us?” I gestured towards the head butler and head maid who had long since taken a seat at the table after I had insisted that we could disregard proper manners this one time.

“I would like some tea as well.” The head butler added before my maid had had the opportunity to ask him.

There was definitely something going on with him, but that was also something that could be sorted out later. Emmy politely refused a drink when asked, and we continued our – mostly one-sided – conversation.

“As I was saying,” Emmy continued once our drinks were served, “We are severely understaffed. Usually, it would take over a hundred employees to run a mansion such as this, but these are dire times and our county is lacking motivated youths.”

“Pardon me, I’m afraid I don’t quite follow,” I intervened, “From what I have seen, and heard, the dukedom is, and has been, in a state of peace and prosperity. There is no internal conflict, as far as I’m aware, no famines, no natural disasters. The economy isn’t doing too poorly, so I really cannot phantom why our estate would be lacking personnel.”

I did pull half of that out of my ass, but I was fairly sure that someone would have warned me if half of my territory was dying from something, or if we were on the verge of war.

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple.” Sygen intervened. “Our economic situation isn’t as stable as my lady is making it out to be, and the possibility of a war is never far away considering the neighbours we are forced to cohabitate with. But my lady is right about one thing; your territory is as prosperous as they come. Maybe too much so.”

“Too many opportunities to leave, no incentives to stay.” I concluded.

“My lady is quite sharp.” Sygen approved.

“And people from other countries have no reason to come and work as maids and cleaning staff at this residence when they can achieve much higher salaries and prestige in other fields.” I added.

Emmy nodded.

“The only country who’s underdeveloped enough to send people over for these kinds of jobs is Melltorp, but you must have seen yourself what kind of situation people live in there, so I doubt you’d want any of that in this house.” The head maid continued.

“They may be all human, but not a single one of them is worthy of even laying eyes on your estate, let alone you, yourself, my lady.” Sygen added.

My distaste of the man was growing by the minute. I didn’t know where Melltorp was, or what its citizens did to deserve such criticism, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to fall prone to such xenophobic ideals.

“We’ll see about that. If the situation gets too dire, I would rather have a well-maintained household than comply to some arbitrary standards of purity.”

“As the lady wishes.” Emmy agreed, probably out of desperation towards the lack of qualified staff.

“But if I may suggest,” she continued, “The situation isn’t dire yet, we have been managing as is for quite a few years, and if continue to recruit talented youths, like Margaux, we might just be able to pull through. Yes, just about.”

She said that last sentence with a quieter voice, as if she was doubting her own words.

“Ahem, if I may,” the head butler intervened. “It is getting quite late, and I would like to inform my lady of our current state of affairs.”

“You may.”

Emmy got up and excused herself. I could have sworn I saw her mutter the word ‘asshole’, in the direction of the butler. I didn’t trust her all that much either, but if even the head maid disliked that man, something had to be done about him.

“Now to the issue at hand,” Sygen turned towards me.

“Just a minute.” I interrupted. “Could I have some more, warm beverage?” I asked the maid that had stayed behind.

Truth be told, I had no idea what I was drinking. It wasn’t tea, nor was it coffee. But it tasted sweet, and that was good enough for me. Once my drink had been refilled, Sygen spoke again :

“As I was saying,” He paused, almost expecting me to interrupt him again. But despite how it might have looked, I knew at least some semblance of manners.

“The situation up north is unstable, to put it gently.” He continued. “The miners threaten to revolt every year, although they still haven’t acted up on that threat. The magic stones are also getting scarce, and ‘tunnel-sickness’ as the locals call it, still has no cure. Of course, you may already know that this territory does not solely rely on its mining facilities, but ore and magic stones are one of our main exports, along with timber.”

I nodded, acknowledging the issue. I knew fair and well the danger of underground mines, active or not. In addition to your usual rock slides and explosive gas, a surprising amount of metals were water-soluble and cancerogenic. If I were to make an educated guess, ‘tunnel-sickness’ was caused by overexposure to said metals.

“Forgive me if I sound ignorant, but is there no other way to obtain these magic stones?”

I knew that metals had to be mined, there was no way around that. But if magic stones could be made, or somehow created with renewable resources, it would already be a big step forward.

“Through monster subjugation, of course, but my lady must already know that. If you are suggesting that we, here in Alliarè, possess means of artificially creating magic stones, then you are mistaken.”

He paused for a second.

“And before my lady asks, we don’t really have the need for nationwide monster subjugation campaigns. Most if not all towns are equipped with protective barriers, and we have several mercenaries on-call all day, every day, to intervene if needed. The last monster appearance was recorded two weeks ago, near the Sovalia province. As you may note, the latest monster sighting in Ashkimmer happened mere days before your arrival here-”

“I did not ask.” I interrupted him.

Although it would have been helpful to get a better insight into the relationship between the dukedom and the mercenaries, as well as extensive information on their activity and how much of the annual urgent they pocketed, there were more urgent matters at hand.

“Now, I allegedly have a lawyer, by the name of Scott.”

And thank god their name is so American and easy to remember, I thought.

Sygen smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

“Yes, what about them?”

“Let’s start with their whereabouts.”

“Unknown.”

“Reason for absence?”

“Unknown.”

“Did they get into some sort of an accident, should I be sending men to find them?”

“I believe that isn’t necessary, but you can do so if you wish.”

I shook my head. I didn’t understand.

“They are very likely passed out drunk in some back alley. It’s their second favourite occupation, after pestering the, now defunct, duke about taxation policies.

“So they do work here?”

“In a way.”

I covered my mouth with my hand and bit down on my lip in frustration. Why could this man not give me a straight answer?

“Listen,” I paused, trying to collect my thoughts and censor out the cussing. “I understand that it is getting late, and that you have other matters you wish to cover, but I need, and I insist, I need, to understand the situation surrounding my key personnel. Mx. Scott is part of said personnel, and if I am not able to talk with them directly, I at least want to know their whereabouts and behavioural history. Did I make myself clear.”

“Yes my lady.” The butler responded, but, either on purpose or by accident, failed to hide the disdain painted all over his face.

“Just in case I wasn’t articulating enough, I will spell it out for you. I want a report on them tomorrow morning.” I ordered in the most authoritative tone I could muster.

Giving out orders wasn’t something I usually did. I tended to work with people, not above them, but I felt that this situation called for it.

“I was also told that the previous accountant was fired from his post. I hope you won’t find it too inconvenient to compile a list of potential candidates, I wish to start conducting interviews at the earliest convenience.” I added.

“I will do according to your orders, my lady.” Sygen answered. Although his facial expression was neutral, this time, his tone was rather sour.

“Now if I may carry on with my report?”

I nodded.

“The timber trade with the Eastern territories and the isles has increased by two dozen of a hundred in the past half-decade. Out exports are averaging one hundred thousand stones via marine routes, and three-quarters as little via overland passes, …” Sygen rambled on.

I lost track of the numbers he was giving me really fast. I wasn’t sure if people here just spoke like that, or if he was trying to annoy me, either way, I ended up interrupting him after fifteen minutes and asked for a written report.

He scoffed. Outright scoffed, when I made that request, so I decided that I had had enough of his antics for one evening.

“Then I shall excuse myself.” I said before quickly getting up and walking out of the room.

I didn’t look back to check his expression, but as soon as I was out of the room, I had to stop and wait. I hadn’t memorised the layout of my mansion yet, so I had to rely on maids and servants to make my way around.

“My lady?” The woman who had served me during the meal had followed me out of the dining room.

“Yes, I apologise for the outburst. Could you show me to my quarters please?”

“Of course, my lady.”

The maid started leading me through the endless hallways of my mansion. As great as I was with directions in open areas, I was utterly useless inside a building. This had never been much of an issue before since those office spaces and labs I did visit always offered floorplans, be it in digital or physical format, but still, I simply could not understand the way the mind of architects sometimes functioned.

“We are here, my lady.” The maid said as we turned around the same corridor Margaux had led me through earlier.

I thanked her and headed towards the open doors of my room.