"So, how does it look?"
"Not good, My lord." Baiter shook his head.
After setting camps throughout the city to host the soldiers and themselves, Ashton had sent his team on a special mission. Their task was to check the number of mines that had been completely excavated around Livan. Sadly, the result wasn't what he had expected.
"All mines within 5 kilotres radius have been thoroughly mined." Virgil hopped on the bad news train, "Not a single gram of Effium was found inside those caves. Whoever was behind it, most have received help from a talented Mineralist or an Alchemist."
"Thoroughly cleaned huh... well that makes it easier to find who was behind this shit. As there aren't na people with such talent."
Although Ashton was smiling, in his head he had already thought of a hundred ways to kill the person responsible for this shit. Deep down he knew the situation of Livan sounded too good to be true.
A well-developed city, sitting on the pile of Effium also known as firestone was sothing straight out of fantasy. Soone or the other had to use the area and its untouched rich resources sooner or later.
The fact that soone exploited the people and the resources didn't bother Ashton. But the extent to which it had been done was the thing that annoyed him the most.
"Sheera should already be on her way with information about the nobles who might be responsible for this shitshow. In the anti, you can rest for the night. Tomorrow's going to be a long day for all of us."
"That it will be. Also, My Lord-"
"Baiter, how many tis do I have to tell you to stop addressing like that." Ashton sighed, "Virgil, Renee and fae don't do it after I told them not to but you always ignore my request. Would you like it if I start addressing you with your full na in front of everyone?"
"I don't think it'll be wise to do so." Virgil sniggered, "Although I'm sure Baiter would love it, we should also consider the presence of everyone around us. We wouldn't want to be branded as... fappers. If you know what I an."
"Oi! Stop ssing around with my grand na you muscle-headed freak!" Baiter imdiately went off to defend his na while the rest of them shared a fit of laughs.
"Alright, enough joking around. Go and rest, we'll talk tomorrow."
"If you don't mind my suggestion, you need the most sleep out of all of us. After all, you have been overworking yourself day in and day out ever since you returned from Transylvania." Fae expressed her concerns before walking out, leaving Ashton alone with his thoughts.
"I have been overworking... that's the first ti I've heard about it." Ashton smiled wanly, however, as soon as he recalled what happened between him and Avalina, his smile disappeared.
It hadn't been too long since he returned to Lycania and he was already regretting his actions back then. The way he behaved was inexcusable and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to kill himself. Figuratively of course.
He looked around and saw the previously sad and malnourished residents of Livan happily dancing around a huge bonfire while eating to their limits. It was a good thing he had brought enough food to feed about a thousand people for two weeks, excluding his soldiers and teammates.
The longer he looked at their happy faces the weirder he felt. When he had arrived there in the morning, these people were nothing but invaluable extra mouths to feed. But after seeing them happy and lively, Ashton began to feel like he had found a place where he 'belonged'.
For him it was a strange feeling, considering it hadn't even been a day since he arrived there and yet these people felt like they were sowhat important enough to him to actually give a shit about them for once.
"And what is our dearest baron doing sulking all alone huh?" Verina appeared behind him out of nowhere.
Rather than answering her, Ashton imdiately raised his hand in front of his face and caught a small throwing knife. It was blunt enough that it wouldn't have done any lasting damage to the target, but getting hit in the nose by it would have hurt like bitch.
"I thought other competitors would try to kill , and not the princesses?" Ashton murmured and tossed the knife aside.
"I was simply testing you." Irina replied before appearing in front of them, "Can't have you getting soft all of a sudden, can we? Also, why did you block the knife? You could have easily dodged it."
"Hm... letting the knife hit your sister would have been funny, wouldn't it? Maybe I'll pull sothing like that the next ti. All that aside, how was your first day in my humble and useless-for-now territory?"
"You want honest answers?" Verina inquired, to which Ashton nodded, "Well, it's obvious the city has seen better days. Apart from the kind-hearted citizens, everything else is a ss. In fact, I would say the city is a complete replica of one of those old cities that humans once ruled over during the great war."
"I couldn't agree more." Irina chid in, "We'll have to do a lot of work to restore this place to its forr glory."
"We? You're not leaving?" Ashton sounded surprised.
He had thought after seeing the condition the city was in, they would leave after a few days. After all, their living conditions weren't suitable enough for royalty to live in. No electricity, no regular supply of clean water and food were just re starters in terms of issues.
There were a plethora of other reasons why no one in their right mind would want to live in a dump like Livan.
"Who do you think we are?" The sister smiled at him confidently, "We are proud vampires. We never go back on our word. When we said we'll help you, it ant we'll help you to the end."
"Ahem, My Lord, I have what you asked for." Sheera's voice interrupted the throuple, "It would appear a total of three noble households have been responsible for the state of Livan."
"The Morgans, it's the first ti I've heard of them. Then... these Grunta bastards never learn, do they? I'm not even surprised they were involved with this crap... What the hell?"
Ashton took the list Sheera and went through it, but when he saw the na of the third family involved, he couldn't believe it, "Mistress ra... what a displeasure it is to read your na here."
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