Bryson sat inside one of the many office rooms inside their mansion, bored out of his mind. He was currently with his mother and going through a long line of potential servants all day. Every single one of the potential servants were all highly qualified, Bryson had to admit. More than qualified to be honest.

Bryson found it rather confusing that almost all the servants hired all had either adventuring, army, or hunter experience. The people with hunter experience were the strangest out them all. From what Bryson recalled that hunters were, well hunters. They are specifically tasked to deal with hunting down highly dangerous monsters and demons. It was very dangerous and very profitable, so why on earth were they so many of them applying to be a servant?

Bryson then recalled that all the personal servants that the family employed all had these types of backgrounds. Phillip was… very capable. Bryson honestly had no idea what Phillip used to do, just through hearsay and what he’s managed to pick up he knew that Phillip had great combat experience. In fact, he may still be just as dangerous.

Gareth’s servant was actually also his personal combat trainer. Viola used to have a servant part of a specialized unit in the military who had to rejoin the army for some important mission. Bryson wasn’t sure what to make of this type of pattern.

Bryson was zoned out as the last servant candidate gave a polite bow and left the room. His mother Duchess Coldwater turned to Bryson and spoke, “Alright, that will be all for the next few days.”

“Really?” Bryson said surprised. Thank the gods. He thought, he couldn’t wait to leave, until his mother continued to speak.

“After your father’s birthday celebration, we will interview the other eighty-six candidates.” She said, handing over a small pile of papers over to a servant.

“Eighty-six?” He asked bleakly.

“Yes. I narrowed down the number of candidates to one hundred. Now we must check all of them to find the best suited.” She lectured.

“That sounds great.” Bryson said feigning excitement.

“Well, go enjoy yourself. Make sure to be ready for the celebration.” She said giving him a wave of goodbye.

With a nod, Bryson quickly left and went into his own room. He collapsed onto his bed and had only one thought running through his head. I have to deal with eighty-six more of these? Gaahhh!

***

“I’m sorry miss, but no tickets will be available for the next week.”

Lila Frost was currently at the front of the reception desk inside of Darlington’s airport. The building was large, pristine white with large blue tinted windows around that allowed one to get a view of the Airships coming in and out of the station. The airport was currently filled with people, mainly of new arrivals who had just arrived at the city.

Though that wasn’t important to Lila right now. What was important was the news that the receptionist just hit her with.

“What do you mean no tickets?” She asked baffled.

“I’m sorry, but with the duke’s birthday celebration coming up, all our flights have been booked by tourists.” The receptionist apologised, “We’ll have flights available again after this, would you like to book one?” He asked.

Lila heaved a sigh and asked, “When’s the next available flight for two?”

“Ten days is the earliest I can book you.” They replied.

I have to stay here for another ten days? She thought glumly, “Alright then.”

The receptionist then handed her two tickets, both dated two days from now. Taking them, she left the airport. She looked at the tickets with a twinge of disappointment, she would have to stay in the city for a few days longer than she wanted to. Still, it wasn’t going to be that long, but she had hoped to avoid the celebration.

At least money wasn’t any issue, and she did get two tickets for Lottie and herself, she couldn’t complain. She decided that she may as well buy some dinner to bring back home. She wasn’t in the mood for making dinner.

***

As Lila headed back home with her bag of take out the sun was setting when something in her peripheral attracted her attention. Across an alley she saw two figures standing next to one another and conversing, one of them she recognized.

The person was a butler of the Coldwater estate. He was roughly the same age as her, but hide been working for the Coldwaters for a few months longer than she did. She couldn’t quite recall his name, Petr.

He hadn’t noticed her yet and she was about to approach them when she heard what they were saying.

“That Coldwater brat took the bait?” The other person, wearing mask that covered half his face said to Petr.

Lila paused at that, what did the man mean when he said bait? She hid herself behind a closed food stall and listened in on their conversation.

“Hook, line and sinker.” Petr replied with a confident grin, “Idiot ate everything I said up.”

“Good, don’t forget the location and time.” The masked figure reminded him.

“The warehouse while everyone is busy, I remember.” Petr assured him.

“You have the scapegoat?” He asked Petr.

“Yeah, yeah, a prime one showed up recently.” Petr said with a laugh.

“What do you mean showed up?” The masked figure asked.

“I’ll explain later, let’s go meet up with the boss.” Petr said, and they disappeared into the darkness of the alley.

Lila tried to process what she just heard. What in the world were they talking about? Why did it have to do with the Coldwaters again? What did they mean by scapegoat?

All these questions and Lila had no clue what to do about it. Maybe she’ll just ignore this and pretend nothing happened. But then her mind falls back to the scapegoat part and she becomes concerned once more.

Evidently, it seemed that these two had something malicious planned for a Coldwater, who she did not know. They seemed to trick one of the Coldwaters and were going to do something at a warehouse in the near future.

She thought about it for a moment. They mentioned everyone was busy… the parade? They’re planning to do something at the parade? That would cause the family to go berserk! She was not happy that she was now aware of this. She was tempted to go and warn the Coldwaters about the ploy, but then she hesitated.

The Coldwaters are not good people, maybe, just maybe not warning them and letting this plot playout may be the right thing to do. Still, it didn’t seem right. Also, what did Petr mean by scapegoat?

Lila thought for a moment longer. Who would be a good scapegoat? Apparently, it’s someone recent, who would that be? Likely a worker or someone who had been with the Coldwaters. Lila suddenly froze suddenly realizing something. Just a few days ago she was fired by the Coldwaters.

Surely not. She tried to assure herself, but she wasn’t able to shake of this uneasy feeling. I need to get home anyways, Lottie’s waiting. She thought as she hurriedly headed back home, choosing to push away the thought for now.

Bryson Coldwater was currently practicing his magic in his room. He was currently practicing his magic with his deck of Great Six Gods playing cards. He was learning how to control and manipulate mana.

Moving around the deck of cards with his magic, each individual card began to separate from the deck. All fifty-four cards began to float around his room, around his closet and drawers, hovering over his desk and bed.

Looking around his room at all the cards levitating around him, he raised a finger and pointed at one of them. With a flick of his finger the card began to move clockwise along with seven other cards tailing behind. Bryson then picked another card and with a flick of the finger, it along with seven other cards began to move counterclockwise around the room. He then pointed at two other sets, and they began to rotate around the room accordingly.

He pointed at twelve more cards, and they began to spin around the ceiling fan. For the remaining cards he had them form two strings and twirl around his room. Bryson sat on his bed watching this for a few moments before he raised on of his hands up.

Everything stopped, as if they were frozen in time. He then closed his hand and the all the cards all shot into the middle of the room after a moment of whirling cards it formed into a model of a castle.

Bryson stared at the castle structure; he couldn’t help but display a smile on his face. Okay. This is pretty cool. Suddenly Bryson heard footsteps approach his door. Instinctively he snapped his fingers and the cards fluttered into a neat pile and floated onto his desk undisturbed.

Just as the cards returned to normal his door opened. In came Gilles, sporting a large grin on his face and greeted Bryson.

“Hey Bryson!” He called to him cheerfully.

“Hi Gilles. What is it?” Bryson asked.

“I have a great plan for what to do at father’s birthday!” Gilles announced.

“What do you mean? Aren’t we supposed to attend the parade?”

“Parades are boring.” Gilles said rolling his eyes, “I have something far better planned.”

“What?”

“You know that one butler with the bushy eyebrows called Petr?”

Bryson pondered for a second, “No, not really.”

“Yeah, I barely remember him either. But I have talked to him a few times and apparently, he knows a really cool place we can sneak out to.” Gilles said proudly.

“Why?”

“Because the place is a warehouse storing a bunch of old adventuring equipment.” Gilles explained.

“Why would we head there?” Bryson asked.

“Because those items are going to auction soon, meaning that the stuff still work.”

“Wait so you want to steal from there?”

“Why not it’s in a hidden area, everybody will be too busy to notice and it’s better than standing around in a parade.” Gilles said.

“Why would you steal some old junk when you can just go buy better stuff?” Bryson asked.

“Because it kills time, you in?”

Bryson didn’t find the idea uninteresting, but he didn’t want to go sneak around in a dingy warehouse in the middle of the day. He was sure that there were other things he could do, at least he thinks so.

“No, thanks I’m not interested.” Bryson refused.

“Oh come on it will be fun. Don’t be boring.” Gilles said.

“I just don’t want to.” Bryson said adamantly.

“Too bad. I guess I’ll go ask Sable then.” Gilles said with a shrug. “Don’t tell our parents, Gareth or Viola.” Gilles warned.

“Don’t worry I won’t.” Bryson replied. As he watched Gilles leave his room, he thought to himself. What am I going to do at the parade?