Hugo had only left the house once to pick up his earnings from volunteering on the wall. His mother was still nervous. She kept innocently checking on him every hour, or sending servants in to clean the room he was in. Apparently, Florin was allergic to work and she was genuinely scared that he would leave. Her extra vigilance didn’t bother him. It would play into their plan.

It was time to enact operation Don’t Let Florin Lead. That was a terrible name. Maybe operation Milana is a Better Candidate would be better. Either way, Hugo ate his breakfast in bed and went back to sleep.

An hour later, his mother was knocking at the door, “Florin, come on, get up. You better not have snuck out.”

“I am here, mother,” Hugo said blearily.

“Thank the gods. Get dressed, we are leaving immediately,” she said and walked off.

Hugo got dressed and intentionally adjusted his brigandine incorrectly. He strapped on the sword provided and walked down to the front door. Milana was already armored up and had her bags waiting by her side.

“Milana, dear. You don’t need to come. Florin’s the only one that has to go,” Ana-Marie said.

“I know I don’t have to go, I would like to anyway. I have been doing the books for the family for years now, I figured it was time to put some practical knowledge behind those rows of numbers,” Milana said sweetly, “I won’t be a burden, I promise. I can help kill monsters, and I packed my own bag with provisions.” She gestured to her bag near the door.

Ana-Marie looked like she wanted to argue, but couldn’t come up with anything. She cast around, and then said, “Florin, where is your bag?”

“You didn’t tell me I needed a bag,” Hugo said.

“By Demeter’s tits. Of course you need a bag, we are going to be gone for a week,” Ana-Marie said. She snapped her fingers and said, “Martin, work with Florin’s maid, get him a bag packed. We need to get to the train on time.”

Martin nodded and hustled up the stairs. Hugo did his best not to look guilty. He was trying to play the part of the wastrel here. He needed to be unconcerned about the consequences of his actions. A short while later, they were speeding along Tallinn’s roads in the mana cart. Hugo briefly regretted making them late. He really didn’t want to get in an accident.

The train was already there by the time they arrived, and they hopped out and hustled inside. The front car was reserved for their party and there were already a few people waiting there for them. Shortly after the train started going, Ana-Marie stood up and made introductions.

“Florin, this distinguished gentleman here is Mage Danik. He is our ritualist. The gruff gentleman over there is Aleks. He is a barrier mage and leads our guard detail.”

“I’m not gruff,” Aleks said in a way that could only be described as gruff.

“Hello to you both. I’m Florin,” Hugo said nonchalantly.

“And I am Milana,” his sister said brightly, “It’s good to meet you again Mage Danik. Charmed to make your acquaintance, Aleks.”

“The four of us are the only soulmarked going on this trip. We shouldn’t meet many monsters, but we are responsible for killing any that get near our group,” Ana-Marie said.

“Five, mother,” Milana said.

Ana-Marie just nodded. Hugo felt bad for his sister. No wonder she hated Florin, everyone just forgot that she was there. It must have been rough for her to be ignored in favor of her idiot brother.

They weren’t on the train for very long before it stopped. The high speed train saved them hours over any other method, but the foothills weren’t that far away. The four of them got off, along with twenty four others. They quickly worked to unload an additional sixteen handcarts full of rice shoots. There were two workers to a cart.

As the train sped away, Aleks took the lead and they all walked along a dirt path. Hugo noticed that it was wide and well maintained. They must use this path often. There was dry brush on either side of the path, about six feet high on both sides. Hugo used his mana sight to scan the brush around them to make sure they weren’t about to get interrupted.

“Mother, what does it feel like to be mana starved?” Hugo said.

“Huh?”

“Well, when you were talking with father, you said it was your turn to leave the wheel. Is it really that bad to be without mana? Or are you not really bothered?”

She frowned and said, “I am bothered. It didn’t really hit me until I got above rank forty or so, but it hurts to be in a mana poor environment now. Your father might be a higher rank than me, but I still feel it. It’s like my soul is parched.”

Milana walked closer and said, “What business does dad have anyway?”

“He has an audience with the Grain Daimyo. If he is successful in the negotiations, we will be given permission to grow golden rice,” Ana-Marie said.

“What’s golden rice?” Hugo said.

Milana spoke up and said, “It’s very expensive rice. It is supposed to taste divine and help extend the lifespan of soulmarked. But it can only be grown in mana rich environments. Right, mom?”

“Yes. If we are successful, we would grow the rice back in our country estate on mount Lian. It would be wonderful to be back with friends after so long,” Ana-Marie said wistfully.

“Would we sell our farms here then?” Hugo said, already knowing the answer.

“No, we would need the profits from these patties while we got those ones up and producing again. We would have to have someone running both farms for several years before we could consider selling this one,” Ana-Marie said.

“Huh. That’s too bad for you,” Hugo said.

“What? Why?” she replied.

“Well, I don’t know the first thing about the business. You will have to run it. That means no more trips away from the wheel for the next several years,” Hugo said.

Ana-Marie scowled and the conversation stopped there. Hugo shivered. Partly because of the look on his mother's face, partly because it was cold. He wasn't dressed appropriately for the weather. He hoped his maid had included something warm in his bag. Otherwise he was in for a miserable week just because of his plan to convince his mother he wasn't fit to lead the company.

An hour later, they were close to the base of the mountain. That is when their group was attacked.

A dozen gray shapes ran through brush and converged on the back of their line. The workers ducked underneath their handcarts as the monsters leapt out of the brush and onto the road. The soulmarked of the group raced towards the back of the line as they got their first glimpse of what they were fighting.

Ettercaps.

Hugo frowned. He had learned about the monsters in class years ago. They were man sized spider monsters, with only four limbs. They weren’t that tough, but they were smart. They knew not to attack blindly and would often focus on the weaker party members. And there were a lot of weak party members around here.

Drawing his sword and just standing there was hard. Hugo knew he could easily kill a few of the ettercaps nearby, but he was trying to act the part of the incompetent son. As far as they knew, he didn’t have years of experience fighting monsters.

Two of the other soulmarked more than made up for his reticence. Aleks raced forward, a blue sword forming that pasted two ettercaps in one motion. Ana-Marie gestured towards the monsters and three of them just fell apart. It looked like they had been split in half by an impossibly thin sword, but she didn’t hold anything in her hands.

The ettercaps immediately understood they were outmatched and jumped back into the brush. Aleks and Ana-Marie both killed another monster each before they disappeared into the dry grasses. Instead of running after them, the two experienced mages took up defensive positions. Hugo backed towards the middle of the caravan, pretending to be scared.

In reality, he wanted to be in position to protect the workers. Since they knew now that the back of the column was protected, they were likely to attack other sections next.

Hugo was proven right moments later. All of the remaining monsters jumped out of the brush as one. The five monsters were spread out along the line of hiding workers. Two of the monsters misjudged their distance from the back of the column. Ana-Marie and Aleks ensured that they fell to pieces before they hurt anyone. Hugo stepped forward and lopped off a leg of the ettercap attacking the middle of the column. It was enough to stop it from attacking, but not enough to kill it. Hugo glanced towards the front of the caravan, worried about the other two monsters.

Somehow he had forgotten about his sister. She sent an intense beam of light through the air, piercing the heads of both monsters, one after the other. Aleks slowed from a sprint to a walk when he saw that. He casually speared the ettercap in front of Hugo and walked forward to where Milana was standing.

“Good job. You watched our rear and took out two without a fuss. Glad to have you here,” Aleks said.

“Thanks Milana,” Ana-Marie said as she walked forward.

Milana smiled at the praise. Hugo wanted to smile as well, but scowled to play his part. “I helped too,” Hugo said.

Ana-Marie patted his shoulder and said, “Yes, Yes.” She yelled to the workers, “It’s safe now, let’s get moving again.”

Without fear, the workers got up and started walking again. It spoke to their professionalism that no one complained about how close the ettercaps had gotten. Or maybe they just didn’t want to annoy the only people that could save them in an attack.

Hugo jogged a bit and caught up with his mother, “You can’t compare me to her, mother. She has had her domain for lots longer. And life mages are never going to be as good at killing as light mages.”

She gave him a look and said, “I wasn’t comparing you two.”

Of course that was a lie now. His question put the idea into her head. After a little while, he said, “What did you do with your hands there.” He mimicked her gestures from earlier.

“That was my monofilament wire. This is a bit of unobtainium wire and this bit is inscribed with sharpness runes,” she replied and gestured to her armor. An adjusted sharpness rune glowed softly, and a bit of wire poked out of the middle of it. Ana-Marie let go of the weight she was holding and the wire wound itself back up inside the plate of armor.

“Fascinating,” Hugo said and stared at her armor. There had to be a spring incorporated in there so the wire wound itself. He said, “How do you keep the wire from cutting itself?”

“Oh now you are interested? Where was that interest when you were still picking your domain? So many times I tried to get you interested in runes,” she said, “So many times.”

Hugo shrugged and said, “You should have shown me cooler runes and maybe I would have followed in your footsteps.”

Ana-Marie threw up her hands in frustration and walked faster. Milana looked back to Hugo and smiled. Hugo gave her a small smile in return. He flicked his fingers at her. It was her turn now.

Milana turned to her mother and said, “I noticed that we have twelve handcarts worth of seed, but I estimate that we will only need a bit over nine carts to fully plant all of our rice patties. Is the extra purely for redundancies in case of monster attack, or is there another reason?”

Ana-Marie said, “It usually takes nine and a half cartloads, actually. I am impressed that you were able to guess so accurately.”

“It wasn’t a guess, I have been double checking the accounting for years, remember? I don’t think there are many parts of the business I don’t have training in. Besides the more practical things I am learning today, of course,” Milana said and gestured to the rice patties that were just coming into view.

“Well, to answer your question, yes we are bringing extras for redundancies. Sometimes we lose a few to monsters, but that is rare. More often, we lose a cart to rot or mold. Rice is hardy as long as it is stored properly, but sometimes people slack off.”

“That’s right. We fired James and Frederick for that, right?”

Ana-Marie stared at Milana and said, “That was four months ago, how did you remember that?”

Milana shrugged, “I pay attention.”

She looked back to Hugo and said, “You need to pay attention too.”

Hugo shrugged, “I can just hire someone to pay attention for me.” He turned to his sister and said, “How about you? How much would you cost?”

She just frowned and looked away.

Hugo said, “Eh, I don’t need you anyway. I have been talking to some of my friends. They said our money would be better spent on their investments. The profit margin on rice is just too low.”

“Are these the same friends that lost all of your money last year?” Milana said.

Hugo waved her down, “That was different. With all of the company's money behind the investments, we are pretty much guaranteed results. This time it’s a sure bet, they just need an infusion of capital.”

It was a bit meanspirited, but Hugo really enjoyed the look of panic on Ana-Marie’s face after he said that.