The massive doors that guarded the way to the royal palace closed as soon as Victor's party left the premises. With the guards standing on both sides of the gate, the only way forward was leading them through the Crown gardens all the way to the bridge connecting the Royal land with the rest of the capital.

After going down the stairs, Victor couldn't help but stay in place for a moment and stare at the insane view in front of his eyes. Flowers were segregated by their colours, creating various patterns on the vast garden expanses. To their right, the plants formed three layers of white, red and white, with a golden crown in the middle.

On the opposite side of the road, the gardeners took great care to maintain the royal crest of a white hippogriff standing proudly on a dark blue shield. Those two most important symbols in the country decorated the immediate surroundings on the main road, with different flags and crest symbolising various princedoms and counties that were united under the rule of the King.

Travelling through the main road took Victor's party north, voiding the possibility to admire Perran colours, located at the southern end of the gardens. It wasn't that the Commonwealth disregarded this faction importance but rather the overall concept behind the fields, laid out according to their relative location from the capital city. Even if at first the officer considered going to his homeland memorial place, that would require them to cross the entire length of the Royal garden twice!

"What do you think about this mission? It sounded like the king just wanted to remove us from the picture!"

Unable to bear the solemn silence maintained from the very moment that the ruler dismissed them, Klimmer asked. As Perran Kirkut, he had great capabilities allowing him to flaunt his title with a deserved pride, but when it came to scheming and politics, it was Leila who showed the best expertise in the topic!

"It sounded shady for me as well. If the times are as dire as his majesty Laszlo implied, would he really let go of his trusted aides? Victor, could you enlighten us? You know the king the best from us!"

Great friendship connecting the ruler with the Perran Hesman wasn't a secret to anyone. The entire court kept their opinions to themselves despite various whispers of favouring this particular faction only because of Victor himself. Ruling over such a diverse bunch of people, officer's old friend had to tread carefully even despite the crown on his head. No matter how powerful he was, just a single wrong move could spark the flames of rebellion!

"He couldn't let me go just like that. My report is probably being discussed right now, hence I can't really imagine those senators giving up on the one who usually cleans the mess they create. While I'm not sure whether the spying matter is real, we could use this opportunity to monitor the western continent."

Closing to the garden's gate, Victor stopped talking to prevent the guards from hearing their conversation. While on the paper they worked directly for the Royal House, the officer expected that at least three of the great court figures had them on their pay list.

After paying their respects to the guards and leaving the crown lands, they dived right into the busy street of the capital. With the palace located just to the side of the town centre, they had to travel quite a big distance to reach the Perran headquarters. Back in the times when Commonwealth entered its expansion phase, a need for a centralized city aroused. With more and more counties joining the federation under the influence of either diplomacy or the army at their gates, the future capital of the state needs to incorporate all sorts of powers within its borders.

With the escalating need for a crown town, ancient city planners meet with quite a trouble. If they were to divide the districts by the existing factions, it would cause unrest among the newcomers to the union, lacking their own place in the most important place in the country. To avoid this problem, the entire area was separated into specialised districts. Thanks to this solution, every influential figure had to excel in at least one field to gain the privilege of settling down their headquarters in the capital.

"Continuing with the talk from before, the King couldn't outright support my idea of investigating the west. While its Perran raison d'etre, he can't ignore current state problems. With the solution he came up with, we have free reins in doing whatever we want there under the pretence of looking for spies."

Mixed with the crowd, even if someone was tailing them, he had no way to eavesdrop on their conversation with all the commotion everywhere around. Even Victor's friends had to almost hug him to hear what he said.

"I wish people would remember what is our purpose in the first place. With the growth of the Commonwealth influence, commonfolk and even the court officials started treating us as Kingdom's tool to solve dirty matters."

Hugging Victor's arm with her whole body, Leila murmured under her nose. This was the problem that annoyed the entire traditional part of their faction. With how effective they were in dealing with uncommon troubles, they were burdened with more and more missions, while their budget for the west operations constantly thinned down. No matter how many times they applied to the King to change this trend, they would be given empty promises.

"There is nothing we can do about it. If we refuse to work as hard as we used to, we will lose a lot of influence in the capital, limiting our possibilities even more. What's worse, we can't even take on side jobs to improve our situation, because the Kingdom would consider this a treason!"

Smashing his fist on the nearby wall, Klimmer stopped for a second to calm down. Only when his breath returned to the usual rhythm, did he pick up the pace and catch up with his friends.

"We can't expect the politicians to understand Perran morals. They only see the immediate profits and loses, while they don't dare to look farther into the future. In the end, if we fail to endure our current situation and decide to ignore the cause, all of the hard work of our ancestors, the sacrifices they made, the blood they shed… all of it will turn meaningless!"

With her mood considerably soured by that realisation, Leila tightened her embrace around Victor's arm. Seeking comfort in the heat of his body, she turned silent for the rest of their march.

As soon as they left the core of the city, the streets became a lot wider and less populated. Right on the district border, there was a special stable that they entered. Fully dressed in their uniforms, they didn't even need to show their privilege card to rent the horses. Dropping a few silvers on the counter, they didn't litter around for long before taking the horses on the road and trotting towards their destination.

Even on the horseback, covering the necessary distance took them half an hour to reach their destination. For the comfort of the various travellers, another horse station was located right outside the military district gate. After getting rid of their mounts, they were finally able to enter the district.

Compared to the royal palace, the security here could be considered lax. Only a few guards were patrolling the streets, with some more placed at the doorstep of some more important offices. As the name of the district stated, almost every worker on inhabitant here had a long past in the army, making any kinds of brawls or aggression - impossible.

Strolling through the streets, Victor nodded to several people he was acquaintances with, refraining from any proper greeting. Knowing the habits and boring nature of this work, simple hello could turn into a long talk with an invitation to drinks at the end. Since they didn't know if the king wouldn't change his mind in the last moment before their departure, the officer didn't want to risk talking with anyone just to hear about his mission being cancelled!

In a few short moments, they arrived at the doors leading to the Perran headquarter. The building looked like a small-sized castle, with some newly added touches here and there. It wasn't anything strange since the Perra faction was a part of the old Commonwealth Empire even before the unification movement began. As one of the oldest buildings in the entire city, visitors had to cut some slack for the old design!

Despite the old look in the outside, the interior that Victor's party saw after entering was completly different. Instead of stone walls, there was a layer of jungle wood, the floor was covered by maps of different regions with intricate details added on them… Even if there was no gold or silver for people to see, the entire building gave off a majestic and expensive feeling.

After following the corridor to a specific door, Victor knocked on them and after hearing the invitation, he pushed the door open. There was only a single person sitting behind a massive desk inside. Busy with sorting the stacks of papers lying everywhere around him, it took a while before the person raised his sight to look at the visitors.

"How can I help you, Hesman?"