“Baldwin,” He called, voice filled with a deep power unbefitting of him. “You may leave.”

His butler sat in silence for a few moments. He stared at Luther before stepping a few steps forward and bowing to him. “As you wish, My Lord.” He walked out and closed the doors behind him.

Luther was alone again. But that was the plan. Luther had been caught for one reason only. The man had an obsession with writing everything he had done in great detail. An urgent desire he felt now, but fought for the time being. There was a journal in this very room, an item that was well hidden and required that you worked with the assassins and thieves guilds within the Marquis’s city to find.

It was so well locked, only Luther’s essence could open it. Or you can brute force it with the certain items you had to go through the entire city piecing together. It was in this desk of his, waiting to be pulled out.

Luther pulled a white glove off his hand. Then grabbed a metal quill that reeked of too much money to prick the tip of his index finger. A small amount of blood sat there until he pressed it onto one of the drawers of his desk. With a click the mechanism began to turn and slowly the drawer opened a bit.

He pulled it open and grabbed a black journal with nothing on the cover. Just a white wrap to hold it all closed. This was it, the very source of his demise. He could feel the amount of danger he would be put in if anyone ever got a hold of it.

Placing it on the table, he unwound the white string and opened it. On it were detailed dates, times, items received, amounts of money made in every transaction to the last Cooper coin. Every single iota of information from his first criminal transaction.

In the beginning, it was more innocent stuff, robbing a few people. Money laundering. Maybe a ‘protection agency’ or two, but the further he looked, the worse it became. Knowing that Luther Morgan Bellham was a villain was one thing, but seeing the in-depth breakdown had him terrified of what one person would be capable of.

The amount of kidnapping, assassinations, murders, drugs by what he assumed where the metrics of this world, the ships and caravans they raided and who they belonged to, every single thing he had done.

Even witnessing it all, the most he could do was scream in his mind. His heart was cold. His breathing never sped up. This was just another day in the life of Luther Morgan Bellham. Nothing more and nothing less. Not mentioning the traits he saw on his system. Each one only made his heartless reaction even more pressed.

After simply skipping the majority of the journal, in hopes that it would not get worse, he flipped to the very last thing documented. It was a page solely dedicated to what was called the Boar’s Retinue latest planned raid. They seem to have waylaid one of the neighboring Baron’s merchant caravans. Killed twelve soldiers, seventeen noncombatants, and a mage. They had thirty-nine deaths on their end with one of their higher tier fighters losing three fingers. Fifteen more were non-fatally injured, but would cost roughly seven silver coins to heal up and recover if they planned to use them in the next planned raid seven weeks from today.

All nobles ‘escaped’ as planned previously. It would never do well to have the kingdoms elite knights and mages out hunting for them. They wouldn’t survive long enough to disassociate himself from them if that ever happened. But this time was different. There was a star on the ‘task’. It was circled and a check next to it. That had him wondering what it had been.

In return for all the bodies, Luther acquired nearly two hundred gold coins, sellable merchandise worth roughly seven hundred gold coins including a mages staff, and the prize of the entire raid a ‘Greater Mana Stone’ worth more than everything combined. That was not counting the miscellaneous items including horses, a few carriages and wagons, basic weapons, and whatever clothes and personal items that remained.

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Those were either too burdensome to sell—the horses would simply be a red flag pointing in his direction—or were not worth the process at all. Those items were left for the Boar’s Retinue to use and bolster themselves and maybe entice others to join them.

He let out a sigh. This was journaled on the 14th of April 283. Roughly nine months from the apocalypse and eight from his execution. There was time. More than enough to change his fate. Or so he hoped. Too many moving parts were already in transition. Who knows how many people already know his current affiliations. Have they begun to plan his demise? Or does he have time to prepare?

Luther held his head, reclining on the arm of his chair. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to take them out. He had been taken down because of his affiliation with the Sisterhood of Envy. A gang within the Marquis’s city. A simple group affiliated with him for protection as they ran the ‘Eastern Slums’. Murders, public executions led by their ‘Priestesses’, low level drugs and major theft. They were a basic gang that never had ambitions more than holding onto their small amount of territory in a prized piece of real estate.

Compared to the other organizations in this book, it was all child’s play. How do you compare a rundown on a simple merchant to raiding a trade naval force with galleons in tow. Or beating a small baron army with a mage throwing around serious magic. Or even an Assassin Organization he had in tow working on hit jobs requested by major players in the kingdom.

You couldn’t, but it still took quite the force to root out and finally kill or capture the Sisterhood. Their Empress was a high level villain that took an entire party to beat with the aid of fully trained knights. It was true that the terrain and battle within the slums was like enemy territory, but it had no right to be that hard. It was like she was the final boss before the game shifted to a masochist's wet dream.

That made no sense to him when he had encountered it in the game. What would someone that powerful be doing leading a no name gang that were supposedly ‘content’ with their territory. All the hints they got about them was they were looking for a gem called the ‘Fire Amethyst’. An item they encounter much later in the game which he never actually got to but watch many videos on the boss fight that gave them the item.

If Luther wanted to survive fighting endless battles of monster waves and the freeze, he would require aid. Real help that could survive and defeat monstrous forces that vastly outnumber them. People like the Empress and her priestesses—sub-bosses in their own right—that were notoriously hard to take out. No group of mobs would stand a chance, and he had plans for stronger forces.

But how would he possibly get these extremely vicious people to obey him? To believe he had their best interests? They answered right now because it was too profitable to leave, but their loyalty only goes that far. The second he couldn’t provide that medium they would disappear or find someone to fill his role.

He had two options, one, to somehow eliminate them to cover for himself and gain the loyalty of the good-aligned forces. The Knights and guilds were a force to be reckoned with and could easily throw out forces to battle anything that comes their way. Full of S classed guild members and knights that could tank a missile and kill thousands alone.

But that was not a real option. Not considering the fact that he was without a doubt a villain, they wouldn’t be there to join him at Bellham Fortress. A week before D-Day and the world as they knew it ended, all major guild members and knights were called on an emergency request by the King himself. None could remain.

They would also quickly find hints and clues of his affiliations if he moved in their direction any time soon, working together would require months of preparation and cleaning his name of any crimes. He could not wait or delay his progress. It had to start now if he hoped to survive in any meaningful way.

The other option had him frowning. Alex in his chest would vehemently disagree with it, but the truth remained. The only forces that couldn’t be taken to the capital in an emergency maneuver to protect the royal family were those liable to kill them. The low of the low. The worst of people, killers, murderers, slavers, all of those that were shunned for good purpose.

He would need to ride a wave of the demented and fight fire with fire. This would require that he could keep them in line and forget about their current trades. Forcing them to follow his command and plan for the future. Without sounding like a raving maniac in the making.

It would require power. Strength enough to shake their unrelenting and gargantuan egos. Crushing anyone who would dare oppose him. He would do what must be done…

Luther sagged. Maybe fusing a full on villain with the ambitions and ego of a modern man was not the best idea after all.