Free Game

"Who are these people?"

Within the Arundo family, a young man with a dark expression sat, staring out toward the 'heart warming' meeting between Elthor and the other geniuses of Earth. Of course, in the perspective of others, this was anything but a wholesome moment. He would have liked nothing more than to put an arrow between their brows.

Osron wasn't a person he knew personally. In fact, on a normal day, Osron wouldn't even be worthy of carrying his shoes. However, in this sort of situation, things were very different.

Every action made by a member of the Arundo family, especially when the person was as high profile as Osron to begin with, was a potential boon or blight on their reputation.

To a high level family, reputation was very important. Though it wasn't exaggerated as a saying like 'Perception was Reality', it wasn't very far off.

When a family grew as large as the Arundo, they actually entered quite a precarious state. They had so much territory to govern, rule and, most importantly, protect. In such a situation, their soft skills became far more important than how large their fists were. Even the Luxnix family experienced such a thing, or else they wouldn't have gone into such a state of hibernation for three generations.

To make a complicated matter simple, the stronger your front as a family, the more battles you could avoid because those far weaker than you would know not to waste your time.

As an example, take the Arundo's territory. They might very well have dozens of much smaller families surrounding them. Under normal circumstances, due to the prestige the Arundo family had built up, these lesser families would never deign to attack them.

The reality was that even if these families did all attack at once, the Arundo would still be able to deal with them. But, such a thing would result in the Arundo stalling their growth phase and wasting resources.

The sturdier front a family put up, the less they would have to deal with such things. It was in the same way a chess grandmaster would know to resign when a game reached a certain point because they had trust that their opponent would be able to close out the game properly.

If the prestige of the Arundo family took a hit, though, and people began to believe they lacked the skill to 'close out the game', it would begin to breed trouble.

The operative word was: Deterrence. Only with strong enough Deterrence could a family occupy large amounts of territory while withstanding the least amount of pressure.

Of course, the youth who spoke was one of the Arundo family's two candidates for their Crown Heir position, Isac. Much like the others of the Arundo, he too was a bowman, and, unsurprisingly, he felt that his performance in these Selections would decide whether he became the Crown Heir or not.

"We don't know who they are, but there are some rumors…"

Another youth of the Arundo family rubbed his nose. He had quite a mischievous streak between his eyes as he seemed amused that Isac wasn't as well informed as he was. Of course, the only person who dared to do this was Isac's rival for Crown Heir, Ysac.

"Stop beating around the bush, this matter involves us both. I don't know about you, but I have no intention of inheriting a laughing stock of a family."

Ysac snorted, clearly not enjoying his distant cousin's lack of a sense of humor.

It had always been this way. Ysac was the more social of the two and though he was slightly less powerful, his he had the far better social network. On the other hand, Isac was the stronger one, something Ysac accepted, but he lacked the skills a Patriarch should have. He didn't know how to speak to people or manage people, he didn't even know about something so important happening.

This said, the relationship between the two wasn't so bad. Not every Crown Heir duo or trio was at each other's throats like Rychard and Gradeyr had been. Though, that was also because Ysac was quite easy going while Isac was quite simple minded.

Still, Isac was right on this one. They were indeed a united front on this matter.

"There was news that came a few days ago that there was a huge commotion that went down at the Luxnix estate. There were even reports that a pillar of light was viewable from outer space. There's been a muddying of the details, but it seems to all revolve around one name: Leonel Morales."Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

"Huh?" Isac didn't seem to understand.

Ysac rolled his eyes. "Leonel Morales, the name of the boy the Luxnix had stricken from their family records. There were even rumors resurfacing about him in the last few months. I thought it was just some political scheme to deal with the Luxnix, but it seems there were rumors because he's back."

Isac's gaze narrowed. "What is that supposed to mean? We can't get revenge because he's a Luxnix?"

Ysac was at a loss for words. "What is in that head of yours? Sand/ Didn't I just say his name was stricken from the records and that there was a huge commotion caused at the family? And, didn't you see that the Luxnix arrived but he wasn't among them?

"I'm thinking that they only got such good seating arrangements because of that granny over there. It seems his grandmother was one of the Luxnix family elders before they broke off from the family. So, he's free game. In fact, they're all free game."

The light in both potential Heirs' eyes lit up, murderous intent pervading from them. They might have been two opposing individuals, but they stood on the same side when it came to what they wanted for their Arundo family.

At that moment, the billboard of motes of light had already shifted once more. Those that had failed had their names completely erased while a new set of individuals was highlighted.

"Ah, it seems like its my turn."

Aulina nervously stood, walking toward the arena under the encouragement of the other people of the Moon.