Over the next few days the Northwind family tested Nervin. To Kaden nothing was unexpected and he had prepared everything for it. They did not care about Nervin's past as a criminal and it seemed they even prefered to have someone who would and could perform questionable work.

Considering the event with 7RU-MC, it seemed the nobles were creating problems for each other in bid for power during the unstable time the empires were facing. Backstabbing was entirely normal thing.

Speaking of 7RU-MC. It left soon after the deal was completed as was its creation. As much Kaden hoped to never see it again, it was likely not the case.

Nervin was taken for couple minor jobs which he completed very well. Apparent loyalty was also simple matter. Nervin was under orders to do everything he could to appear good and loyal minion.

Not only that, Nervin was getting paid for all of it. All or most of it would go to Kaden eventually. Perhaps some of it would be used to show Nervin was using his pay on something. It would seem weird otherwise.

Kaden's plans progressed. He even captured a few more hunters near his hideout. Most of his minions, whether they were new or old, Kaden sent to Corand.

Each and every one of them were carrying formations he had made for them. Most of which were bombs. As for the rest, there were other useful contraptions.

Kaden's minions would litter bombs around Corand. A little extra chaos would make many things easier. Not that it would cause more than local damage. Being capital city, Corand had heavy defenses. What Kaden wanted was terror and mistrust.

It had worked well before. Why not again, but in larger scale. A single bomb at Erral's family and a bit distrust sown by the demon was enough to cause widespread chaos in the past. Kaden remembered it fondly.

What would a few more bombs. Perhaps some fabricated lies his minions would spout just before detonating themselves. There was enough distrust sown by the churches and military. Kaden knew he only needed to light fire and all would burn.

All he needed was to plan the perfect locations.

While that, a lot of things could be done. The nobles, including Northwind's who were eagerly using Nervin, would surely get involved. Things could happen that one could benefit from.

Besides, by now Nervin had been able to produce detailed information of Northwind territory. During the chaos, there would be far fewer eyes looking into nearby forests where Kaden planned to make a new temporary base to start his way through human lands. From there once Northwinds were handled, Kaden could make his discreet move unnoticed towards the No Man's Land.

Additionally, Kaden had discovered that nobles knew something big, that is Ciner, had taken over certain portion of the Centralean Forest, but had not made moves yet. Kaden knew this to be her old territory. There were also some other known stronger Cari being around, but there were fewer details on them. They were unlikely to be a problem.

At any rate, Kaden expected Ciner to not cause problems since she had moved away. Humans would hunt her down soon enough.

The most important thing was that Nervin had not been able to get any information that someone would have noticed people acting oddly or anything pointing to Kaden.

Nobles usually kept eye on things like what kind of beasts or Cari were accessible. They prefered to eat mana rich food, including meat. While the nobles rarely themselves were exceptionally powerful, they might have advanced pretty far regardles. Just because they could afford all the expensive materials.

"It is best to leave", Kaden muttered to himself as he started to remove any signs of who might have been hiding there, but he was keeping the old base around and route his communcations through it. The extra distance wasn't a significant expenditure. If someone were to follow the communcations back somehow, they would find an empty base with alarms. "Besides, now that I have taken more of the local hunters and sent them to Corand, someone will wonder why they suddenly left. Someone will come looking for sure once they bomb Corand."

Kaden still trusted his defenses. There were too few around who were at Condensation stage. The defenses and concealments Kaden had built would last for a long time, if he left enough fuel for them. No normal hunter would run into it. If someone did find it, Kaden knew instantly something was up.

Kaden left the base behind. He only took with him a communicator to contact his slaves.

As usual, Kaden continued being careful. He took a longer route deeper in Centralean Forest. He made sure to avoid Ciner's old territory along the way as he made his way towards north. He was far further than he had been to before, but he didn't yet approach No Man's Land. What was important was that he was at the edges of the land owned by Northwinds.

Instead of cave used by some High Beast, Kaden picked a place where rocks surrounded a what seemed to be a circular depression. It was likely remains of some attack that had left a crater at some point in the past.

Some new formations could easily be built upon the stones that concealed the area. This base was now at better location.

Kaden's slaves had smuggled in the formations through the slums. Despite all the security, there were always holes one could exploit. Such as the sewer. This specific exploit was what certain group of people also used to smugle illegal things in and out. Even if time had passed, many of the faults Kaden had known already back many years ago still existed.

"Fools", Kaden scoffed. "They haven't bothered keep up the city defenses. Someone is likely taking the funds for themselves and maintaining the things only on surface level. Such a failure, but this is useful."

At any rate, this corruption benefited Kaden. His slaves had now many separate hideouts and stashes. None of the slaves acted together so, even if one of them was caught, there was nothing tying them to the rest. The slaves themselves would self destruct and if any of their items remained afterwards, Kaden himself could order one of the others continue the work.

"I will have to arrange things so that people think the bombings are fault of someone else than outside party", Kaden thought to himself as he started planning the attacks.

Kaden requested detailed information from Nervin about the current relations with the nobles. Clearly there were problems if the dumb kid had been arranged to cause a scene.

Nervin had been informed about these matters. It was, after all, large part of his job was to protect the Northwind family.

As usual, the relationships were complex. In many cases it even mattered which of the people inside each of the families interacted with others. Yet, in general, there were indeed some usual factions and powerplay between each going on.

"Perhaps assaulting several of the competing families of the currently leading one could trigger something", Kaden pondered. "A lot of weapons and materials are being sold. At this time a lot of funds and power are tied to who sells most weapons."

Nobles usually prefered more discreet methods. A few bombs were not discreet. Yet, such an open action would demand open actions from the nobles, if they believed it was fault of the others doing a big move.

"If I'm able to cause a reaction, I can try to make it seem the others reacted more strongly", the plan was forming in Kaden's mind. "I'll have to make it seem the faction, which involves Northwinds are the main instigator. While they are fighting back, it will be far easier to pass through their territory to the No Man's Land." Kaden pondered quietly for a while longer. "Shadow Pact sells weapons too. Perhaps I can involve the criminal organization too by ... accident. They won't take kindly having their business disrupted too."

It didn't matter to Kaden, if someone discovered there was indeed some outer party. Kaden expected to be unreachable by then and that is if anyone could even tell whose fault everythin was. That Kaden also doubted. His arrangement keeping his slaves separate cells with no obvious connections was major protection. One of the benefits of having slaves do his bidding.

Kaden put together in many ways an obvious plot. Obvious in a sense that, it would be easy to come into the conclusion Kaden was hoping to achieve. Someone might notice it, but since there was no obvious external culprit they would look back the specific nobles. One of which had to be the Northwinds. Its not like the nobles were always subtle.

Major strikes at the noble factions of opposing sides and then very minor, near useless, attacks that would seem like a show on the side that Northwinds were on. It would seem like an obvious power grab with a minor excuse to hide their culprit. In fact, it would likely go the way of power grab regardless what Kaden himself did afterwards. What mattered was that reactions would be intense against Northwinds.

"Nervin is inside and can act, if needed", Kaden thought. "Northwinds must look elsewhere the entire time and move troops under their control out of my way."

All pieces were almost in place. Kaden's terror cells inside Corand only needed to move to right spots, but without mishaps, that should occur well enough. Kaden had prepared them for it. They would spout some select lies and accusations before triggering the bombs. Then just happen to die during retaliation or mess up and die with their own bombs or something else.

Evidence destroyed. No one left to interrogate. Even in case of capture there was nothing to reveal. They were also completely incapable of doing so.

"Lets see how Corand reacts this time", Kaden muttered to himself as he made last checks that his slaves were in position. Once he was satisfied he gave the command. "Proceed with your commands!"

Kaden then started his own side of the plan and started moving carefully towards the human lands. He was carrying communications formation and a portable concealment formation so he felt he had high chance to pass by all detection while everyone were concerned what was happening in Corand.

---------------

"Fools of the Olean family! Die in the name of Trevins!" A man suddenly shouted at smithy owned by Oleans. Trevins were aligned with same faction as Nortwinds.

*KABOOM*KABOOM*KABOOM*

Series of explosions occured with some extra spreading fire. Not quite Devouring Flames, but weakened version so that it wouldn't point to Kaden's specialty. Some information crystals were scattered everywhere detailing crimes of Oleans. Truths and lies mixed in. This implicated Shadow Pact too.

---------------

*KABOOM*BOOOOM*

"Haha, Northwinds sends you a present!" Another man shouted elsewhere. This time a warehouse.

More incriminating 'evidence' was scattered.

--------------

*boom*

A small bomb exploded in store owned by Northwinds. Despite small, it still killed everyone inside and started a fire.

--------------

A few more exploded in places owned by the Northwinds faction. Many more exploded with devastating power at the opposing sides.

Kaden even had a few of his slaves detonate their bombs inside places owned by Shadow Pact. Specially the places that nobles were involved with. That way it didn't seem a direct attack at the criminal organization and was just a collateral damage as they happened to be involved with the noble factions that were killing each other.

Uproar ensued near immediately. Guards quickly spread out. Kaden's slaves fought to the death and some even killed themselves in 'despair' as their 'escape attempt' failed. These all these bodies carried more evidence pointing to certain nobles.

Some slaves did survive. Kaden made them lay low. They could perhaps be used again.

There was chaos where everyone was pointing at everyone. The nobles soon noted the effects of each attack and that some were very minor and were only among certain faction. While at this the greedy nobles in each faction saw chance to shake the status quo and indeed started a power grab.

Kaden rushed towards the edge of Centralean Forest under concealment as he observed everything proceeding well.

"So predictable", Kaden thought to himself.