POV Omar

I stopped listening to my cousin’s explanation halfway through. This petty kingdom was nothing special and would probably fall in the next year or two. I spotted something interesting happening before the new group could go and try to set up their area of command. The Queen’s lapdog approached them and didn’t let them leave.

I used my ability to listen in. "The queen of the Salarian Kingdom requires you to agree to this agreement so we can fight this dragon side by side without having to worry about someone backstabbing us," the Queen’s lapdog said. I watched as the petty king sneered at him, but the power emanating from the Queen’s lapdog was something no first-rank person wanted to mess with.

He brought out a greyish contract book. I involuntarily smirked. A brilliant move. If the petty king actually signs it, at best, he would not be able to attack the queen, or at worst, they would actually be supporting them. Will he actually read it? And the answer is no, they just signed it. "Cousin, you see that greyish contract book. For the love of water, never sign something like that." How did they even get ahold of something like that?

A little bit more time went by and my amusement slowly disappeared. If they get too many petty kings to sign that, everyone who hasn't will probably be quickly overrun by the others and she will have her kingdom back. I should probably get my cousin to do something, but what?

The portal opened once again and I knew I needed to think about a way to stop this fast. I started to drink another sip of wine to steady my mind, but my action was halted when I saw the towering man step through the portal.

My mind went into overdrive and I started to use different abilities one after another to figure out who that person was that I was seeing. I snapped my fingers to get my servant's attention. "Who is that and who are the people with him?" I asked.

The man must have been 8 feet tall and he was wearing full armour with heraldry looking like a knight, but he wasn’t wearing normal armour a knight would wear. Behind him were more fighters and when all twenty were through the portal, there were 19 fighters and the large man himself, making the number exactly 20.

This just got so much more interesting. It was hard to get his name which was weird. My other abilities indicated that he was first-rank but something was wrong. It didn’t take me long to figure out that he must be using some sort of camouflaging. He must be in the second rank for me to have a hard time to figure him out. My eyes glanced back to my cousin as I was quite annoyed by him not giving me any information. They panicked more when they saw me looking at them. "I’m sorry cousin, but we are not certain who they are."

My eyes started to twitch. How could my cousin not know? They had almost the same-sized force as the queen had. How could they not be known? The Guild representative also seemed to be quite respectful which meant he was someone known. I pushed my abilities further and finally got his name. Rich Dirt. What a stupid name, but the man himself didn't seem stupid at all. "The name is Rich Dirt," I said to my cousin and finally, I could see understanding in their eyes.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Oh yes, he was one of the reasons the Thorn Rose Company was able to clear the raid dungeon as many times as they did. From our understanding, he is also a general of the United Freeholds, but we know little else." At least that was something to start with. From me listening in, I knew that they brought only long-range fighters and of course, Rich, who seemed to be a close-range tank fighter. His fighters were disciplined and they seemed to be decently equipped.

Once again, the Queen’s lapdog approached when the Guild representative was done. I might need to get involved. I did not want the queen to get so much more power. He used the same line as previously and Rich took the contract book into his hand.

Was he actually going to sign it? But then he did something I didn’t expect. Rich ripped the contract book apart, something that was really hard to do, and then just threw the pieces back. With a hand signal, he started to move away with his fighters following.

The Queen’s lapdog was so taken aback that it took him a few moments before he yelled and released his power. "You fucking bastard, you will die for your insolence." But before he could attack, Rich released his own power.

While he wasn’t stronger than the Queen’s lapdog, he was close, and that silenced everyone. None of them knew that he was second rank besides me and that changed everything. Oh yes, this was going to be a lot more interesting. I should go to the Guild and try to find out more about him.

A fight didn’t happen, which I expected, and I watched Rich and his fighters walk away and then start to set up their own camp. A few of the fighters had already left, trying to scout out the area. I suspected they were trained and a whole lot better than my cousin could ever achieve in such a short time.

When finally a map was put in front of me, I was able to see exactly where the United Freeholds was. It was good news that they were so far from the queen and probably one of the reasons he antagonized them so much.

He was a lot closer to us but there was still one petty kingdom to the north of us and a fractured land to our west with another stronger petty kingdom after that. While I wasn't worried about the west or the south, the north was troublesome as that petty kingdom was quite secretive and no one knew exactly what was going on inside there. Obviously, offending the United Freeholds, especially if that man was their general, was a bad idea. We must at least be neutral or if possible, try to get some sort of a deal.

I finished my glass of wine and stood up. It was time to start gathering information. There was much to do and I needed to know everything before the first meeting happened so I could help my cousin maneuver into the best position possible and hopefully identify our future enemies and allies. And of course, find out everything I can about Rich Dirt. Still a stupid name.

POV Salazar Dragontooth

I was annoyed and my head hurt from all the bureaucracy. Trying to get a rank 3 extermination squad was stupidly complicated if the emergency hadn’t gotten serious yet. I was not confident enough that the fighters that the petty kingdoms would send to fight would be strong enough to take down this dragon. I should have known that it will be a waste time to come here as I almost achieved nothing and wasted an entire day. At least I did what I could and no one could blame me afterward if things didn’t work out.

At least I will be able to leave now from this massive building that's our headquarters. While I had some good times with my party members here, now it was just a place that I didn’t want to stay as I knew it would mean endless meetings and paperwork. Stepping through the portal, I saw that the next portal I needed to go through was opened and I didn’t waste any time and quickly went through it. Three more portals and I finally made it to the temporary portal that we set up near the dragon.

There were eight different tent areas besides the Guilds. That means that we are still missing four local petty kingdoms and the petty kingdom closest to the Queen's land from the other fallen kingdom to the south.

Technically, they fell into the danger area of the dragon, so they will have a chance to fight it as well and claim the spoils. If they show up, that's a different question, but they would want to come if nothing else, to show their might to the queen.

After surveying the area, I quickly started to move towards the Guild tents and my assistant soon joined me, starting to relay information. I had expected the numbers and the kingdoms that were already here, except for the United Freeholds who seemed to have brought a bigger force than I expected.

When I heard that Rich was already second rank, my steps faltered for a moment and I stopped moving altogether when I heard that he was 8 feet tall. What kind of a trait did he get? I wonder how it affected his fighting. He should be a lot slower now but a lot stronger.