"I'm sorry, even after I became the Chosen of Hestia, I couldn't protect our external assets."

Mary's first action when he finally arrived was not to scold him but to apologize to him Jane beside her didn't look much better. He had expected this to be a joyous return. After all, most of the troops he had taken along had reached their level cap or level 90.

With that, they had a sizable force with roughly 500 high-level people that were all at least the equivalent to a boss or more thanks to their equipment, stats, or classes. Yet, the situation in Delta was direr than expected.

"let's have a meeting and you explain what happened," Seth said with a sigh.

Although they were all tired, Seth thought it was best if they all quickly got an idea of the current situation, before taking a break. The Lords of Minas Mar and some of the executive members like Karina all assembled in the meeting room, where Mary explained their situation.

Over the past month, Ichabod Longbottom had somehow gained unexpected support in the political circle. With the departure of Al, the people she had previously controlled became free elements. Originally, they were still influenced by Mary and her partners, but they had quickly jumped ship over the past month.

With their help and the absence of Leana, Longbottom was easily able to push through with his changes. His first step was the enactment of Martial Law, which gave the government more freedom in its decision-making.

They drafted most of the free adventurers as government soldiers and used the gained personnel to forcefully disband the local guilds. Since the most powerful ones had sent their elites to the Holy Land, this was really the easiest part.

"To protect the citizens and fight the plague" they proceeded to seize the assets of the guilds and confiscated the merchandise of many local shops to equip their new government forces. They promptly used them to enact a curfew and control the populace.

During her battle of domestics, Mary had even gained the support of Hestia as she tried to defend Minas Mar's interests. Yet, since her influence had drastically declined, Minas Mar was one of the guilds that were officially disbanded. The people that had supported Minas Mar had been hit especially hard.

Mary had managed to save most of their funds and investments as well as their people by gathering everything inside the true Minas Mar, but she had lost their "external assets". This meant she was unable to protect their shops and the merchandise inside the shops from being seized.

With the interference of the Hero, they couldn't even defend their office building on the surface from being taken over.

"Longbottom has thoroughly dismantled most local powers. Whoever didn't follow him was imprisoned. Many of the fledgling Oathguards have been stripped of their equipment and put into jail.

On the surface, he gains a lot of support from foreign powers through the Pathworks, but I'm certain there is someone else that backs him from the shadows. Otherwise, there is no explanation for his rapid growth in influence. I..."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Mary came to a halt. She had been obsessed about this matter for weeks. With the chance to finally vent and let it all out, she had fallen into a lengthy monologue, At some point, it was accompanied by an energetic drumming of fingers on the table. Mary suddenly stopped when she saw Seth's expression after looking for the drumming.

It was a deep scowl, that covered the abyss anger silently bubbling under the surface. The finger drumming on the table had left deep dents at this point. It wasn't like the blacksmith didn't expect that he would at some point clash with the authorities. That was why subconsciously, he was glad Cade had left with Leana.

He wasn't a hero, nor was he someone seeking power. He would have never called himself someone who had a problem with authority, either. Even a dystopian society was not necessarily a reason for him to move.

He preferred if the place he lived in had civilized order since it made life easier if there were reasonable customs for everyone to follow. He would never think of disturbing public order and thrusting people's lives in peril for his own selfish gains.

However... they touched his stuff. Not only did they have the gall to simply take control of his shops and steal the items he and his dwarven boys made, they even had the gall to evict his own people by force from the building built themselves.

They even imprisoned his subordinates. To top it off, all that while seizing a time when he wasn't home, like the bunch of cowards they were. Had he been playing too nice?

"Errm, Seth?"

"Well, done Mary. I knew it was the right decision to leave you in charge, but I think we need simpler methods to deal with this situation."

He spoke in a controlled and concise manner, but everyone was clear about the thirst for violence swinging along in his voice.

"Don't look at me like that, it's no like I would overturn a government out of anger."

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"The government will still be there, even after I burned the parliament building to the ground," he joked a joke nobody could help but take seriously.

"Let's get some rest for tonight."

…

At noon of the next day, Seth was sitting on a big desk inside Minas Mar's business building. Wearing the sleek dark Scorpion Armor was slightly dissonant with the air of his high-quality office, but Seth didn't intend to change it for a suit.

Things had moved quickly. The blacksmith had already decided on a course of action, which saw no opposition during the meeting earlier in the morning. What happened right after the meeting was that a horde of Faer, led by Seth, stormed the office building through the hidden escalator. In one fell swoop they regained their control. They captured all occupants that had made themselves at home in their place and locked them up on a single floor.

In the meantime, Evee, Alison, and the other magicians started strengthening their defenses. With the tower system's support, the office building was an almost impregnable fortress. The reason Mary had to give up control was the Hero. Without anybody that could stop the walking talking war machine, their shield would have broken anyway, That was why she chose to retreat.

"So, I'm currently speaking with the former Tower Master of Minas Mar?"

Now, Seth was sitting inside his almost unused office with a beautiful lady on the opposite side of the wide desk. In contrast to her very pale white skin, she had fiery dark red hair and a pair of piercing green eyes. Her gray business suit could cover her great figure and only further accentuated it.

Despite having everything it took to be a honey trap, her sharp eyes and nonchalant demeanor in the current situation meant she meant business. She was in the middle of enemy territory right now but acted almost playfully. As if she was sure that nothing could happen to her with her backing.

She was a negotiator sent in to bargain with them as the outside treated the current situation as a hostage situation. Despite that, the Hero was quite prominently standing on the street outside like a warning. Maybe he was the reason she felt so confident. Well, it didn't matter.

"Right. I am the Tower Master of Minas Mar. These are our terms."