I sent someone to get Hayla for us, and when there was a knock on the door shortly after, I assumed it was her. Asking them inside, I was surprised to be greeted by a furious Grym instead.

“Tomar!” he yelled as he came into the office and threw the door shut behind him.

Unperturbed by the beast in his path, he stomped around Hati, walked right up to the desk, and threateningly slammed his hands onto it.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” he asked.

“Could you be a bit more precise?” I asked, looking up at him without concern.

“Boy! Don’t play with me! You told the citizens about category ten beasts? And you want to open the gates? What is Lilly thinking!?”

It had taken him a little while to get here, so he had presumably not been present for the announcement. As per usual, it didn’t take long for others to hear these news, however.

“We think it was about time the people learned what this world is like. They don’t need to be coddled. And you know beasts aren’t much of an issue anymore. Tell me, why shouldn’t we grant them this knowledge and the permission to go out if they want to?”

“We have barely enough Fighters to monitor the town!” he shouted. “How are we supposed to guard citizens randomly wandering outside?”

“You aren’t,” I said.

“What?” he asked, perplexed.

A Fighter’s primary job was to protect people from the beasts at all times, both inside and outside the walls. To tell him that he wasn’t supposed to do that was evidently difficult for him to comprehend. If he thought about people wandering in and out of town, he apparently figured that every one of those would need a guard.

“For the event I announced for the end of the week we will need a few guards, though this will be mainly because people might be a little apprehensive without them. But after that, Alarna will essentially operate like Cerus. Everybody's free to come and go as they please, at their own risk.”

“Really?” he asked with wide eyes.

Either I hadn’t explained this very well to the people, or the information had gotten mangled before it reached him. In any case, he looked torn on whether he thought that this was good or bad.

“That’s the plan, yes. And with the road to Cerus being safe as well now, this will open up opportunities for trading and inviting new blood to the town in the future.”

“Are you truly that confident that strong beasts won’t become an issue?” he asked, sounding more mellow than before. “Lilly understands why these laws exist, right? The less activity we have outside town, the less likely it is that we’ll attract beasts.”

At least that’s one theory for why these laws exist, I thought.

Alarna had always seemed safe, and so did Cerus, even if to a slightly lesser degree. The mining town had much more traffic though, making some people believe that Alarna was safer because humans weren’t walking around outside all the time. If you knew about Arax, however, a better potential explanation was that less beasts would dare to go hunt so close to where she lived. Weak wild ones might not be such an issue, but I could imagine that she wouldn’t look kindly on stronger beasts coming here, especially if they were to poach her humans. Cerus was over one hundred and fifty kilometers away from where Hati had seen her live though, and she probably wouldn’t be able to control every part of her territory at all times. You had to wonder how large these territories were exactly, and what the rules are. Unfortunately, Hati hadn’t been able to tell us much about this. As a former category three and newbie moderator, he apparently hadn’t really had to deal with anyone on that level yet.

For Grym, who didn’t seem to know about this secret deal yet, letting people in and out meant a potential for more beast activity. But we had the mana wall, and if we could deal with Arax, I was indeed confident that we would be fine.

“Yes,” I said. “We will be able to deal with these threats.”

Or we will die trying I guess...

“It sounds a bit as if we Fighters would lose our jobs in that future you’re envisioning,” he said with a sad chuckle.

“Oh, far from it. Don’t worry, there will still be fighting to do.”

“Is that so... Alright, in that case, I will take my leave for now... However, I would very much appreciate it if you could inform me about such changes ahead of time,” he said, scolding me.

“You don’t like surprises?” I asked innocently.

“I do not,” he said with his usual grimm expression.

“Very well, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Hmph,” he grunted, saluted, and turned on his heel to leave the room. When he opened the door, he almost collided with Hayla, who had just arrived.

“Come right in,” I said, looking at her through the open door, while Grym walked off.

We should’ve started summoning people sooner. I didn’t want to act too high and mighty, but this is actually pretty nice. And I can keep working while I’m waiting for them to get here. Then again... I would be spending even more time in this office...

The chains on her hands and legs rattled as she started moving. “Oh, wait. Bren, do you have the keys? Could you unlock her cuffs?”

“Certainly,” he said, and removed her binds.

She started moving once more, rubbing her wrists as she entered the office, and the door was closed behind her. She was focused on me at first, but stopped in her tracks when her eyes fell on Hati.

“The beast... it’s just sitting here...?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Indeed, he is just sitting here. Please, take a seat as well,” I said.

She pried her eyes away from him and looked around the room while walking up to the desk and sitting down on one of the chairs. She had definitely noticed her cousin, Berla, but she didn’t even greet her.

“Won’t Lilly be joining us?” she asked with a scrutinizing look.

“No, she is currently working on something else, so I’m taking care of business.”

“A commoner at the top...” she said quietly.

“Is that a problem?”

“Not necessarily,” she said. “But it won’t go over well with everyone.”

“I suppose we’ll see. So, first of all, I’d like to thank you for telling us about Arax. That information alone might have saved a lot of people.”

“Does that mean... it’s dead?” she asked.

“Not yet, but it won’t be long.”

“I see. But you must have met with it, right? And Lilly and you are still alive, that is impressive.”

“Well, for it to stay that way, and to protect the town, we could use some help, which is the reason I asked you to come here. I was wondering, as the primary candidate to become the next ruler of Alarna, you were presumably familiar with the processes in town, am I right?”

“You are,” she said in confirmation, though she still looked like she didn’t quite understand what she was doing here. “Don’t you know how things work without Lilly present?”

While this sounded condescending, she did not look like she meant it in a negative way, and taking the question at face value, it wasn’t an unreasonable thing to wonder about.

“No, that’s not the problem. But we need more hands, and for that purpose, I’d like to offer you a job.”

“A... job? Me?” she said, surprise in her voice, but still doing her best to keep a straight face.

“I’ll make it short. I need someone who knows their way around the town administration, who can take care of this,” I said as I gestured at the piles of papers on the desk. “I need more time to take care of a few other things that will be vital for dealing with Arax. Do you think this might be something you could help us out with?”

Hayla had probably not expected such an offer, and she briefly seemed as if she might have wanted to ask “why me,” but I was fairly sure that she was smart enough to surmise why I was asking her specifically. After all, some of the very few other top candidates were the king and the High Priest, who we would not want anywhere near this position.

“A job... That’s hilarious...” she said.

“Heh. Yea, I know what you mean.”

“I have my doubts about that.”

“You think I don’t see the irony in asking the former future queen to take a job shuffling papers under the new leadership? But I’ll be totally honest, our options are limited, and we need some help to get things done on time. I believe you understand that, and I think that you want us to be successful as much as we do. If only in the short term. What do you say?”

She seemed to be thinking over my proposal, but I was quite certain that she would accept. The town was clearly important to her, otherwise she wouldn’t have told us about Arax. And she didn’t seem conceited enough to not accept just because she had been supposed to become queen. Not to mention that she would potentially get chances to work against us, which would be a plus in her book.

In actuality, I was already wondering whether she might make a good leader that we could pass this job on to, because Tomar and I had never wanted to do this long term. I wouldn’t tell her this just yet, but if this went well, she might yet become queen. Unexpectedly, she seemed to have her own ideas regarding reaching that goal.

“What exactly is your role in this administration in relation to Lilly?” she asked after a few seconds.

“Hm... Lilly and I are partners.”

“Does that mean you’re a couple?”

“No, we’re not. We’re just equals in this.”

“In that case, I have a demand for accepting this job.”

Don’t tell me this is going where I think it’s going...

“Marry me, and I will help you,” she said.

‘What?’ Tomar said.

“Excuse me!?” Berla blurted out from behind Hayla, still sitting on the couch with Riala.

While Hayla couldn't hear Tomar, she was clearly ignoring her cousin, not paying any attention to her outburst. They had a bad relationship because of Berla’s status as a “fallen Ruler,” but that attitude was rather annoying. Though this demand of hers was no less irritating.

Ugh. Seriously?

“You need me,” she continued. “There’s no one else who can do this job who you would want in this position at such a critical time. And I guarantee you that everything will go smoothly with me at your side. I can also keep the other Rulers in line. In return, I simply want to secure the lineage of the Varant family, as the Rulers of this town.”

Objectively speaking, this wasn’t even such a terrible idea. It would actually be quite a classical move, to marry the former “princess” to keep everything in order and legitimize your claim on the throne. However, I was sure that we wouldn’t really need this. Not to mention that my girlfriend was sitting four meters away, and it wouldn’t have been my decision who Tomar would marry.

“I think you might be overestimating your position in this negotiation,” I said. “Also, you assume that me marrying you would have any meaning in the future, but what if leaders were not decided by lineage anymore under our rule? What if we declared someone else to take over a year from now? Or if the citizens were to always choose who to follow from here on out?”

Maybe you couldn’t quite call it democracy yet what had happened here recently, but in a way, the citizens had voted for us, and I didn’t see a reason why this couldn’t become a new standard. And since we didn’t have the intention to stay in power anyway, she wouldn’t actually get what she wanted, even if I was to agree for some reason.

“That won’t be a problem,” she said. “You will always be in a position of power. And even if you and Lilly were to abdicate, that would put me in a good position to take over, no matter the method.”

A position of power? I thought. Well, she’s not wrong I guess. We’re already one of the strongest humans around, and we will surely get stronger yet... Even if we decided to only dick around in the near future, we will always be powerful.

“I suppose you have a point there, but your position is still not that strong. I don’t mind giving you a little bonus, but that’s not an option.”

“Are you sure about that? I believe you are overestimating your hold over this town. I promise you that it will be worth your while. But if you can’t agree to this, I might as well return to my cell.”

Persistent...

We were essentially pokering at this point. She wanted something, and she believed in her value. I could very much use her help, but I couldn’t really go along with her demand. We both wanted this to happen, however. The question was who would budge.

One thing that made me curious, however, was her claim that we didn’t have the town under control. There was the opposition, but they hadn’t made a move in a little while, and we were monitoring them. She also shouldn’t have a lot of information about that, since she had been in prison. Though I couldn’t really beg her for information without coming across as desperate either.

“It’s unfortunate that we won’t be able to come to an agreement, but if that’s your decision, so be it,” I said. “We will have to find someone else then.”

Her expression didn’t change a bit, as if she hadn’t played her trump card yet. But since I stood firm, she had to at least give me a peak to continue. She smirked a little, figuring that she still had a shot.

“You might be powerful, but you know too little about this town. You believe the Fighters are your primary threat inside the walls, don’t you? And it’s true that you might be able to control them. But there is someone else you should be more concerned about.”

This sounds almost as ominous as when she told us about Arax... This can’t be good...