Count Hunyadi arrived at the Fairfax house. Rufus and the rest of them were having breakfast with a couple of the Gherseng guards standing watch.

“We have a problem," Hunyadi said while being out of breath.

"Is it so bad that breakfast had to be disturbed?" Edward said.

"We got word that the nation of Sparv has sent a delegation to our neighbor the, nation of Brahm. We believe they might be looking for an alliance. If they do ally with each other we might be looking at an invasion from two sides,” the count explained.

“Shit……” Doreen cursed.

The nation of Brahm was known as the underdog kingdom that always had a rivalry with the kingdom of Jacob. The reason for the rivalry had been lost to time, but most likely hasn’t ever been anything else than being neighbors and war was always inevitable. The nation of Brahm doesn’t need much to be convinced to go to war with its northern neighbor.

The people of the nation are called petty most of the time and are almost proud of their underdog status. They many times have been eager to prove their might on the battlefield, but most of the time not being successful. Their armies are smaller in comparison to their neighbors and their lands are not rich with swamps located in the southwest and rocky hills in the center. Most of their wealth comes from their long coastline which is rich from sealife and precious amber.

Instead of a king, the nation was led by a council of nobles. These nobles were elected by the most powerful people and corruption was widespread. It was common for a person to get into power by opening his gold pocket to ensure the right votes came his way.

“We should probably send our own delegation to them and convince them not to join this coalition,” Doreen explained.

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“Most likely that would do nothing. I fought against them in the last war many years ago. The hatred they have against us is immense. They would most likely just laugh at us,” count explained.

The meeting ended with nothing being done or decided.

~ ~

Haley had called Joan and Yosef to the bar where the new black rat gangster met.

“What is it you wanted to tell us. Need some enforcing again?” Joan asked.

“We are going to the nation of Brahm,” Haley said.

“Say what now? I must have heard wrong. I think I heard you say we are going to the war-hungry, our kingdom-hating country?” Yosef asked sarcastically.

“We need to go there with a small group. We will gather some gangsters to go with us and enter the nation undetected,” Haley explained.

“And exactly do what? Go and enforce some local gangsters? That doesn’t seem like an idea that would stop the nation from going to war,” Joan noted.

“Oh, we will go and enforce people alright, but not some gangsters. We will force their leaders not to join any coalition,” Haley explained her plan.

“And what. This seems like a stupid plan. How are you going to force them? Taking the councilmen's kids hostage or something?” Joan sneered at Haley’s plan.

“I don’t know….We will figure it out when we arrive there. We must do something. We already have some connections and unlike Rufus and the rest, we are basically unknown. No one will notice if we enter their nation. We will sneak in and make and force their councilman to accept our terms."

“I think I might actually have a solution here,” Yosef said.

~~

Yosef took the two of them to his room where he had all his equipment. He had all kinds of tools from drills, hammers and tonsils all hanging on the wall. Yosef was an adequate craftsman and loved to experiment and build all kinds of objects. He took out a collar from under all his trash and other useless machinery.

“I was thinking of a new weapon to equip my puppets with. Instead, I created a perfect collar to give to a dog you don’t like. It can also be put on a person and used as a threatening device,” Yosef said and gave the collar to Haley.

“How does it work?” Haley said inspecting the collar.

“Oh simple. Press this button and the head will come off,” Yosef said and thin blades came from the collar almost slicing off Haley’s finger.

“I would like to use this in the future. Seems like might come in handy,” Joan said and looked sinisterly at the device.

“Well then, I guess we are all set. Let’s head to the city of Brehmen,” Haley said.