The Fredirin Kingdom had a history dating back over four hundred and fifty years, and the one thing that stood out amongst its neighbors was the competence of its rulers. Thanks to the method in which the new king or queen was selected, the Fredirin Kingdom had no useless rulers, no puppet leaders, no idiots, no fools, and no incompetents. Some ruled for decades, King Leon ruled during an uneventful era that lasted for fifty-three years, while others ruled for only short periods of time, Queen Elisa took over after her father was slain in battle, and she too fell only a few days later. But even then, each king and queen continued an unbroken chain of strong leaders that existed for thirty-four generations.

Which isn’t to say that every leader was a perfect specimen of mankind, talented in every field, in fact, the Kingdom’s rulers generally fell into three main categories. One group consisted of those whose claim to fame was their own personal power. Those who were strong warriors and knights, or who were mages capable of bringing down devastating magical effects. These men and women usually lead from the front, however, there were always outliers. Queen Liddy disdained a direct fight, instead preferring to slip a dagger into the opponent's back, preferably in the dark, and King Jacob was a deadly archer, able to hit targets almost a mile away. Despite their differing talents, these kings and queens often served the nation well when it was in a precarious situation.

The second type of ruler were those who lacked personal power, but were able administrators, strategists, economists, diplomats, and bureaucrats. Able to wield the might of the Kingdom’s armies, of the Kingdom’s finances, of the Kingdom’s allies, of the Kingdom’s people, of the Kingdom’s laws, this group served the nation better when it was at peace, able to focus on internal issues and build the kingdom up.

And the final group, the rarest of the three, were those who had neither personal power or skills that could control the kingdom. These rulers, Like Queen Ophelia, who was a master blacksmith, or King Hadrik, who was a savant in the arts, oversaw the kingdom in some of its oddest moments. When the nation was at peace and stable, they helped advance the nation in the long run, but when the kingdom was threatened, they were poor rulers who often resigned to allow one of their more able children to take over.

As for the current ruler, King Erwin, he oddly enough, fell into neither of the three categories. He of course, as a benefit from being the highest ranking nobility in the kingdom, was an able warrior and mage, but he was only at around rank 4 or 5. He was a competent ruler, but he could only be considered competent, not excellent. He embarked on no great reforms, he did not come up with new ideas, he did not revolutionize anything within the Kingdom. And as for other talents, despite being somewhat talented with the piano, and enjoying gardening, there was nothing noteworthy about him.

However, the Fredirin Kingdom has never had a useless leader, and King Erwin’s brothers and sisters who he competed with for the throne were not fools either. In fact, they were all very powerful competitors in their own right. And yet, they did not win, it was King Erwin who emerged victorious, and as such, no one doubted his victory in the slightest.

King Erwin’s power wasn’t his own, but it stemmed from the loyalty he earned from others, specifically, the loyalty of seven of the kingdom’s most important people, who all swore their allegiance to the young Erwin.

The Kingdom’s most valuable strategist and the first ranked general, Jaz Portlo.

The only mage to reach rank 9 as an Elementalist, Arcanist, and as one of the rarer magical disciplines, a Summoner, the Elven mage Ilvisar Caranith.

The genius administrator who served as the prime minister, Roy Gonds.

The woman said to know everything everywhere, and the leader of the kingdom’s intelligence service, Tina Wanev.

The man reputed as being the strongest mercenary of all time, Xavier.

The famed enchanter, able to mass produce magic items of shocking quality, the halfling Betty Begonia.

And the mysterious and beautiful queen of the kingdom, Lynn Fredirin.

Each of these men and women possessed talents and skills that would allow them to compare to the greatest of the past rulers of the Kingdom, and King Erwin held the loyalty of all seven of them.

Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:39

Olivia’s Warehouse, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

Olivia Pine Fredirin.

As I had said to my sister earlier tonight, the cold did not bother me. In fact, as the reforging of my body progressed, I was quickly reaching the point where even the coldest reaches of the planet would have no effect on me.

That fact allowed me to consider jumping into the icy water as a viable way to sneak away. It did work, the cold was not a problem, and I was able to slip away without anyone noticing.

But, my lack of familiarity with clothing seemingly reared its head. I was not prepared for my leather armor to begin freezing once I left the water, and it made my second trip to the warehouse where my Spectres were staying at largely uncomfortable.

“Is everything going according to plan?” I asked Captain Nev who had just entered the room.

“Yes My Lady,” He said, while avoiding my gaze, “Everyone has begun moving out. Sergeant Penk, along with Lin and Wen will be staying behind to defend this location along with the soldiers you lent us.”

My understanding of human body language and mannerisms were rapidly advancing, but I still considered myself a novice at best. Even then, I understood that refusing to meet another person’s gaze tended to indicate guilt or dishonesty, which is what I would have assumed Captain Nev was feeling, if not for the other more obvious reason.

Captain Nev wouldn’t look at me because of my attire, or mostly due to my lack thereof. My leather armor was drying as close to the fire as possible without it risking igniting itself, and I was simply wrapped up in a blanket.

“So, everyone is on their way?”

“Sergeant Lars just left with Ivan, the rest of his team, Oz and Bahn had already left. Of my team, Naya and Jeb already went towards their targets, and Ula will leave with me…”

“What is it Captain?” I asked having sensed his hesitation.

“I… I want to ask about our targets. We are avoiding the Canyon and Lakeside Families, and I wanted to ask why.”

“Hmmm…” I looked at the captain, and I could tell he had something else on his mind, but I decided to answer this first. “Simple, the thing I want to avoid the most is causing one of the family’s standing to fall too far.”

“I do not understand. If the other five households stand in our way, do we not need to defeat each of them?”

“And when facing multiple enemies, it is best to focus on one and remove them entirely, that is what you mean?”

“Yes,” He nodded his agreement, “We’ve already hurt the Canyons pretty badly, should we not continue the attack?”

“If I felt we could decisively defeat the Canyon Family, I would have considered it. But, my Aunt and Uncles are not easily defeated. Right now, the Canyon Family must be locked down tight, preparing to dig in and defend until they can figure out what happened. Make no mistake, we did hurt them badly, but we also caught them off guard and hit them in their soft underbelly. Now that they are aware, it won't be as easy. And as we slice off more and more of their flesh, what remains will only become harder and harder to damage.”

“I… I see, I am sorry for doubting you.”

“It is fine.”

Not everyone can excel in every category, in fact, almost no one can. Captain Nev ran his squad well, extremely well, to the point where I had nothing to complain about. But the bigger picture, understanding how all of the moves being made on the micro level affected the macro level, he did not understand at all.

And that was perfectly fine because he was a captain and not a general.

“If we could completely suppress the Canyon Family, and devour their power base, then I would consider such a move, but we cannot do so. And in that case, if we weaken them too much, they will become prey for the other families, who are all more able to take advantage of a weakened Canyon Family than we are.” I added.

“So… we do not want to harm the Canyons anymore?”

“That is the idea.” I responded, before adding on, “Captain, what do you know of the current situation between the six ducal families?”

“The situation?” He asked as he thought about it.

“Yes, explain what you know.”

“Well then… forgive me if I am wrong. The Steam-burst Family holds a dominating lead. They heavily expanded the kingdom’s borders and reclaimed the marshes of their domain, even fending off invasions from the Empire and the Theocracy. Behind the Steam-bursts is a three-way tie, with our Pine Family tied with the Canyons and Lakesides, and then the Quarry Family and the Goldfield Family are tied in last place. The Goldfield family has always been in last, but the Quarry Family fell from their old position of being a top contender when they failed to invade the Barbarian Lands to the north.”

“Is that all?”

“I know of the basic situation surrounding each family, but I…” He trailed off looking almost ashamed that he couldn’t answer the question properly.

“Our Pine is in a similar situation with two of the families, can you tell me which ones?” I asked.

“Um… The Canyon and Lakeside Family’s?”

“No, although those two are similar to each other.” I denied him.

“Then…” He trailed off again.

“The Goldfields and the Steam-bursts,” I said plainly.

For a second Captain Nev seemed lost in thought as he tried to figure out what I mean, but he eventually gave up and looked at me expectantly.

“Our Pine Family has very little interaction with the other families. We have little offensive power in the competition for the throne, but we are still tied for second place,” I lectured while checking to see that my armor was still damp. “Our strength comes from our powerful foundation and base. We have few weaknesses, although that is due to the fact that the other’s have already chipped away at whatever weaknesses we did have.”

“I understand that.” He said.

I did not doubt that he understood that, he was a Spectre, one of the finest forces that could be found within the kingdom. His job specifically, was to patrol and secure the Pine Family Domain, so he knew exactly how strong our defenses were, how powerful our domain was.

“The Steam-bursts are the same, they interact little with the other houses, and their strength comes from their powerful domain. They might have come to that point differently than us, where we built up what we had, they expanded and claimed more, but the net result is the same. The Steam-bursts have a powerful foundation.”

“And the Goldfields?” Captain Nev asked.

“My uncle, Duke Goldfield, might not be a great leader, but the Goldfield Domain is by far the wealthiest and most populous domain within the kingdom. Because the Duke soured relations with the other’s, they too have little interaction, but they have a powerful foundation, possibly even better than ours.”

“I see,” he said, understanding having dawned on him. “But then, why is the Goldfield Family in last place?”

“The competition only looks at what we managed to do for the kingdom, the actual final numbers are not relevant,” I explained. “If we started with a score of 100, then we built that up to 200. The Steam-bursts started with 100 too, and they conquered their way to 500. But the Goldfields started with a score of 1000, and did nothing with it. They might have a very powerful foundation, but the competition looks at the difference between what we started with, and what we ended with. We had a gain of 100, the Steam-bursts 400, and the Goldfields 0. That is why they are losing.”

“This… does everyone know that?” He asked, shocked.

“I doubt it. That was, after all, a very simplified version of how the next king or queen will be selected. The actual process is described in a book that is four hundred and twelve pages long. It is likely that most people only know the specifics, and it really isn’t in anyone’s interests to spread the more exact information around.”

“So everyone has been wrong about how this works the entire time?” Captain Nev seemed heavily shocked by this realization, but then he seemed to come out of it. “And you read the book?”

“It’s that one over there,” I said as I pointed towards a thick, leather-bound book on the shelves in the room, “And you speak as if the general idea is wrong, but it is not. Only some details are off. And even if most people did not understand exactly why, the end result was still correct, everyone still understood the ranking of each family.”

“I… I see…”

“I did, however, bring this up for a reason,” I said, bringing the discussion back on track. “Should the Canyon Family be destroyed, the majority of their assets will still exist, and the remaining families will be able to claim them as their own. The ideal scenario would be that each family takes an even portion, and the status quo would get maintained.”

“Would it not be better for our family to take the majority of the Canyon’s assets?”

“No, not at all. And even before that, we likely couldn’t. Our focus on defense and building up our internals serves us well, but it leaves us wholly unable to consume that much of the Canyon Family that quickly. But let us assume that we could.”

“Okay.”

“We acquire more than half of the Canyon Family’s assets, that would put us in a comparable position to the Steam-bursts, at least rank wise. However, we would not be able to maintain that at all. Our defenses are sufficient to protect ourselves right now, but those defenses are located within the Pine Domain, whatever we acquire from the Canyons would not be protected, and we would quickly lose control of them. We’d even run the risk of overextending and leaving openings elsewhere. But that is not the biggest problem we would face”

“What is?” he asked.

“Once we make a big move like that, we transform from the easily ignored Pine Family to the now an actual threat Pine Family. Our defenses, as I said already, are sufficient right now, but no one is really, seriously, attacking us. And you can be assured, that if we suddenly rise to prominence like that, we would come under much stronger attacks.”

“Then… What are we to do?”

“That is simple. At the current rate, we can not win. The Steam-bursts have too heavy of a lead, it is just too difficult for us to build up our own score fast enough to overtake them. We also lack the means to effectively weaken any party in an effort to lower their score. But, by sowing discord and chaos, we can let the other’s fight each other earnestly. They will weaken each other, and we can use that time to build up the capacities to attack the others.”

“So…” Finally, it seemed as if Captain Nev understood my intentions, “We attack the other houses, and then they will assume it was each other, and then start fighting amongst themselves. With their attention diverted, we’ll have free reign to do what we want.”

“You understand,” I said with a smile, “The worst thing that could happen to us, however, would be for one side to suffer too heavily, so we need to act as mediators, to never allow one side to fall, or another to grow too strong. The Steam-bursts are already a problem, we can not handle two dominant players like that. Since we already hurt the Canyons, and since someone took advantage of our moves already and had Sebastian Lakeside assassinated, we won't go after those two. They’ve probably already heavily raised their guards too.”

“I see… but…”

“What is it?” I prompted him to continue as I stood and checked on my armor again, this time finding it mostly dry.

“Most of the moves we are making tonight are focused on the Goldfields and the Quarrys. I understand why you want to avoid the Lakesides and Canyons, but why did you only send two people after the Steam-bursts?”

“That too, is simple,” I responded as I took my armor back to the chair I had been using. “The Canyon’s and Lakesides needed to be knocked down a bit, but nothing more, and we’ve already accomplished that goal. The Steam-bursts are powerful enough that these little moves will not make much of a difference. But as for the other two, the Goldfields and Quarries are actually the biggest threats.”

“They are?”

“The other families need to be cautious because they stand to lose if they make a bad move. Not so with the other two, they are already at rock bottom, so nothing is holding them back.”

“Is that the case? Even if they do something, it can’t make that much of a difference.”

“And that is where you are wrong. Both of them have different situations, but let us look at the Goldfields first. As I mentioned, they have an incredibly powerful foundation. Using that vast amount of wealth, my uncle can simply try over and over again. Even if he fails ten times, twenty times, fifty times, a hundred times, he can always try again. And all he needs is to get lucky one of those times. And in fact, most of my uncle’s moves, have been attacks that have been mutually destructive. I am pretty sure his motivation stems more from wanting to crush the other houses, than any real desire to be the king, which is why he finds it acceptable to bleed out both sides. Even though he hurts himself more with each attempt, he can recover quickly due to his foundation.”

“And then the Quarrys?”

“They are, in a way, even worse. My Aunt does not have a good reputation at the moment, her stunning loss, when she invaded the north, is still fresh in everyone’s mind, but if you look through her history, she has always favored risky gambits that had massive payoffs when they worked. She has come dangerously close to complete ruin several times, but she always rebuilds, and then does something no one thought was possible. If we let her, the Quarry Family will recover, and then try something drastic again. She could easily reverse the entire situation in one move. Or she could fail spectacularly again, and in that even more weakened state, the Quarry Family could be devoured by someone else. We face the same problem as before.”

“So we need to keep the Canyon’s and Lakesides weakened, prevent the risky moves from the Goldfields and Quarrys, and also drag down the Steam-bursts? That seems…” He said, dejected.

“Difficult? Yes. But we do not need to do it ourselves, the other five families will help us along.” I said with a grin, “Now all that being said, I need to put my armor back on.”

I would have put it on in front of him, but I knew that that bothered him. And most people, come to think of it. The human obsession with clothing and nudity still baffled me.

“Yes My Lady,” He turned and quickly left, before stopping at the door. “One thing My Lady.”

“What is it?”

“You assigned Ula to vandalize two stores belonging to the Steam-bursts.”

“Yes?” I asked, bewildered.

“Those shops aren’t particularly important, and you just mentioned that focusing on the Steam-burst Family is not important right now.”

“Just speak your mind Captain,” I said exasperatedly.

I had gotten more familiar with Human social customs, but sometimes their refusal to just speak their intentions still got on my nerves.

“Not only are those shops low priority targets, but they are near where my team is going to be operating, so if I took over her responsibilities, Ula could be reassigned somewhere else.”

“And where would that be?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“I think… It would be best if you had an escort. Ula should follow you. I would do it myself, but I need to keep my team together.”

Frankly speaking, while I did enjoy Ula’s company, having her follow me around would be nothing but a hindrance. Ula was a tracker, her Sharkfolk blood gave her an oddly specific sense of smell, which allowed her to easily follow animals or people through the mountains of the Pine Domain. But in a city, she wasn’t of much use. She was an acceptable fighter, but she focused more on ambushing than straight up fighting, which would not really help me.

Plus, I hadn’t told Captain Nev exactly what my target was, and I didn’t intend for him to find out, but having Ula along with me would mean he would find out once we got back. And… having Ula would prevent me from using some degree of my power. I had no intention of going all out, but just in case things did go poorly, I wanted to keep my options open, and needing to avoid using all of my magic would be an extra obstacle.

On the other hand, fighting the Captain over this seemed like it would waste time, and it wasn’t really all that important. Captain Nev would likely discover what I had done eventually, it would just be sooner in this case. And in the worst case scenario, if I really did need to reveal a portion of my power, as much as I wouldn’t want to, I could always kill and silence Ula.

“Fine, do as you want. Ula can escort me,” I said with a sigh.

“Thank you, My Lady.”

“Tell her to be ready, once I get my armor on, we will be leaving. And get to your own mission too,” I ordered.

“Yes!”

Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:47

Temporary Command Center, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

General Merrick Miller.

Word of the Pine Family’s reinforcements had already spread, and it had brought mostly positive effects to the army. For one, morale had increased greatly.

Rank 6 and below were considered the Realm of Mortals. The name had two meanings, one being that mere mortals were generally limited to rank 6. Only with nearly divine talent, divine luck, and divine levels of effort, could one break through into rank 7. When a warrior strives for the peak, if they are looking at it realistically, they are aiming for rank 6. The second meaning was that once someone broke through and became a rank 7, they were something beyond a normal mortal.

Their lifespan would increase greatly, their tolerance to pain, to poison, to illness, to hot and cold, would all drastically increase. Under rank 7, a warrior's strength still existed within the bounds of common sense. A rank 6 knight might be able to withstand a catapult’s shot, a rank 6 warrior might be able to uproot a tree and use it as a club, but the knight cannot deflect the fired boulder with their hand, and the warrior cannot lift up a house.

Neither are due to lacking strength or resilience, but due to simple physics. The knight might have the power to deflect the rock, but unless the knight is anchored to the ground, the momentum of the flying stone will knock them away. The warrior might be able to lift something that weighed the same as a house, but houses are designed to rest entirely upon the ground. If someone was to lift one, all of the pressure would fall on the area where they were holding it, and the house would crumble.

But, a rank 7 could deflect a thrown boulder and could lift a house. The power wielded by a rank 7 wasn’t the same as a rank 6, it was something completely different. A rank five could give a decent fight to a rank 6, the lower rank would only rarely win, but they could hurt the higher rank before they fell, and they could delay them for quite some time if that were the goal. But a rank 6 could do almost nothing to a rank 7, they were in different dimensions.

Obviously, due to the great power that ranks 7 and above held, they were also incredibly rare, and also valuable. The entire Capital Defense Force only had six rank 7s within it, and with the Pine Family sending out three, let alone the fact that almost no one even knew the Pine Family had that many high ranking warriors, it was a huge boon to the defenders.

Morale increasing was only to be expected.

The other great benefit was that the Pine Family’s absurdly generous move had galvanized some other noble families to send out additional forces. Since many families, not only the other ducal houses, looked down upon the Pines, they couldn’t stand being one-upped that badly by someone they viewed as their lessers.

However, the one negative to all of this, was that the additional soldiers being sent were making the mustering of the forces take longer, and they were now missing several of their timelines.

“General, the Smith’s Guild has sent additional men.”

“House Weey has sent some extra mages.”

“The Temple of the Sky has deployed additional acolytes.”

“Both the Carpenter’s Guild and the Shipbuilder’s Guild sent another group of foot soldiers.”

“The Crushing Hammer School has sent out their leader along with their grandmaster, both are rank 5 warriors.”

“The Canyon Family deployed another squad of ten knights.

“Good,” General Merrick nodded at the reports, “Are the various merchants still balking at lending us supplies?”

“No, not at all.”

“Their ilk are good at seeing which way the wind blows, with the noble families now providing more earnest support, they know that even if we were to fail if they held back anything, they wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed”

“Hmph, Merchants may be scummy opportunists, but they have their own code,” The general spoke, “We are soldiers, and we have our own code, but we should not look down on anyone else's, otherwise we will suffer for it. Always know to respect your enemy, and if you do that, you can learn from them, make their strengths your own, and you can utilize their weaknesses.”

“Yes Sir,”

“Yes Sir,”

“Yes Sir,”

Merrick Miller looked up from another document to see all of his adjutants offering him salutes and he realized that he had misspoken somewhat just then.

“At ease,” He said slowly, “It isn’t as if I do not understand your opinion, after all, both of my parents are still merchants, and I did get to see first hand how wicked they could be. But from my position as their child, I was able to see both their strengths, and what was wrong with how they did everything. And as you know, I must have done something right, otherwise, I would be a simple clerk somewhere, probably fleeing to the north like everyone else tonight. Instead, I am standing here, with the word, ‘General,’ in front of my name.”

His men all looked thoughtful before nodding their agreement. The fact that his parents were simple merchants was somewhat well known.

“That being said, I would probably be a lot safer, and warmer, if I had been running north instead of standing in this tent.” He said, reducing some of the tension with his joke. “Now then, once we know who our commanding officer will be, we can get this show started. The castle did say that…”

As he trailed off mid-sentence, his men looked at him confused, but he barely noticed.

This army was a hodgepodge of various forces, mercenaries, simple guards, martial practitioners from the various schools, and household forces from the different noble families made up more than half of their numbers. They were a group lacking cohesion and any kind of uniform structure. In the last several minutes, worn down mercenaries that looked like little more than bandits, priests and paladins wearing shimmering golden robes and armor, gaudily dressed nobles, and plain looking practitioners had all arrived to announce that they would join their forces.

The man approaching now, looked as if he was a slightly better mercenary. His armor was a dark gray and made of mismatched parts lacking any kind of symmetry. His helmet that hid his face entirely, was adorned with a single chipped horn in the center, his left pauldron was spiked, his right had double layers and was shaped like a box, part of his arm was bare under that one and ended in a simple metal gauntlet, while his left was completely covered in heavy metal and ended in an evil spiked gauntlet that seemed darker than the rest of his armor. His breastplate was scuffed and scratched, lacking any insignia or crest, his leg armor was a mix of metal and leather. His whole outfit looked as if it was made piecemeal as he picked it up from various battlefields, not from merchants, because every piece appeared worn and tattered.

At a glance, he was a competent, if irrelevant, mercenary.

But Merrick Miller had an item that he considered to be his prized possession, the glasses he currently wore. They were made of several smaller lenses, giving his eye’s the appearance of a bug’s, but each individual lens had a different magical effect enchanted upon it. The one on the bottom left of his right lens was particularly noteworthy, because while it did not actually detect magic, that was the domain of a different one, it could instead see the ambient effect created from magic. Unlike the other lens that could see actual magic, this one had a much more limited scope, it could see if a powerful magic was used in an area previously, or, and largely more importantly, it could still spot the effects of some spells, even if those spells were intentionally being obscured in some way.

This particular effect was somewhat rare, and also rather difficult to utilize correctly, even his prized glasses could only show such an effect as something like a vortex, similar to when water flows down a drain.

And around the approaching mercenary was a vortex-like nothing Merrick had ever seen before. It hugged his armor like a second skin, the effect would have been nearly impossible to spot, if not for the fact that the vortex was the most powerful he had ever seen. It was so strong that he feared it would have a tangible effect in the real world, that if he were to touch it, it would rip his hand apart.

Of course, Merrick Miller was a smart man, and he not only knew to not do that, but he also was able to guess the identity of the man before him.

“My Lord!” he said, offering a formal military salute, “General Merrick Miller cedes all authority to Lord Xavier. If your lordship wills it, I will serve you as your second in command.”

The armored man casually walked all the way into the tent while ignoring everyone in it.

“...Yes…” a grave voice hissed from under his helmet.

Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 00:58

Ruby Pawnbrokers’ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

Olivia Pine Fredirin.

Ruby Pawnbrokers was a business under the umbrella of the Quarry Family. Despite the name, they did not deal in gemstones or precious metals, but in weapons and armor. While they did buy and sell used equipment, their main business was in loans, with said equipment serving as collateral.

At least, that is how it appeared on the surface. It was a well-known secret that Ruby Pawnbrokers were a form of recruitment for the Quarry Family. The Pawnbrokers would offer loans to aspiring adventurers and mercenaries so that they could buy equipment, but the terms of the loan would stipulate where they were allowed to spend the money, the Pawnbrokers would direct them to a few merchant houses and craftsman that were themselves, under the umbrella of the Quarry Family. Because the Quarry Domain was the kingdom’s biggest producer of both raw ores and finished metal products, they were able to produce enormous amounts of equipment at a low price.

With their loans, the hopeful youth would then be able to buy equipment at very reasonable prices, all of which built up some loyalty. The Pawnbroker would follow their clients as they progressed through their career, offering better loans, and sometimes referrals to mercenary companies or combat schools that were also under the Quarry Family.

Despite essentially being a system to recruit for the family, the Ruby Pawnbrokers still managed to turn a small profit. One of the benefits of controlling the entire supply line, from the mines, to the forges, to the caravans, to the shops, to the loan company, to the mercenary companies that hired the clients.

Ruby Pawnbrokers had several offices through the kingdom, and even had three separate buildings that served as pawnshops and loan offices within the capital. They also owned one massive warehouse where they kept the items used for collateral when they weren’t being showcased in one of the three stores.

Two of those stores were being damaged tonight, the third was located too close to a large guard garrison which made attacking it too risky. The warehouse would have been a nice target, but it would be guarded to some degree by private mercenaries, and there was also a logistical problem. Breaking into the warehouse would do little, I would need to either destroy the items stored within, or steal them. Stealing them was impossible for two people, and burning down the warehouse was a degree of escalation I was not willing to make.

At least this soon.

However, in addition to the three stores and the warehouse, there was also a central office that stored all of their important documents, including all of their records on their clients.

Because that building had nothing of value to steal, and because they very well couldn’t leave guards in a visible location during the current crisis, there were only two mercenary guards within the building. Both of which were now dead.

“Too bad we can’t just burn the building down,” Ula said as she continued throwing scrolls and books into the fireplace.

“It is too close to the adjacent buildings, we can not risk a major fire, especially right now.”

“I know… but…”

I did not need to try hard to understand the Spectre’s annoyance, the Ruby Pawnbrokers had two entire floors devoted to storing documents, and only had two fireplaces, two small fireplaces.

We had already begun using some unorthodox methods to destroy their records. We opened all of the windows, allowing snow to begin entering the rooms, where it melted on the floor. Single documents and scrolls could be thrown into the water where the ink would run, that freed up the fireplaces for the larger books. But there were a lot of books, and the fire was already flooding the room with smoke. Further, the floor had already been layered with pages, and the water was not building up fast enough.

“Can’t you use magic or something?” She asked me while she was using her teeth to tear apart a thicker book, her shark teeth easily slicing through the parchment.

“Blood magic is not really applicable in this situation.”

I could make blades of blood and hack apart the shelves, or even spears of blood and punch through them, but the actual destruction to the documents would not be all that great. We could also do something similar with our actual weapons, so there was no need to waste my magic on it.

If I were able to call on all of my magic, I could encase the shelves entirely in blood, and then rip it apart, but that would require a degree of blood and magic that I couldn’t expend right now, not as long as my cousin’s soul was still being nourished within my heart. As long as he was there, I was severely limited in what kind of large, sweeping effects I could create.

“Hey… My Lady…” Ula said suddenly as she went over to the window to get a few breaths of smoke-free air.

“What is it?”

“There are three people standing in the road watching the building.”

“Guards?” I asked sharply as I dropped the book I was tearing apart and drew my machete.

“Not sure. They aren’t guards, but two of them are armed. The third is a kid? Maybe a halfling?” She said as she drew her own weapon, a short bow she kept on her back.

“Let me see,” I said and then went towards a different window.

Considering the smoke coming out of this building, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable to assume someone would come to investigate, but it seemed a bit too soon for armed soldiers to show up.

But Ula was right, two armed soldiers, both of which held themselves with a degree of poise that clearly showed they weren’t rank and file guards, stood there in the street. Between the two of them, stood a small child.

And I recognized two of them, one of the guards, and also the child.

The same child who walked out in front of my cart as I was returning to the warehouse on Wednesday. The one who had a strange air about her.