Horse hooves collided with the ground as Armand made his way towards his newest stronghold. He had parted ways with Eris a while ago, likely to not meet again until their wedding, and moved towards the lands he was given. However, Armand still planned on sending plenty of letters to his fiance.

"It's a shame that I can't keep a closer eye on her," he thought. "But dividing the lands between us is an unfortunate necessity until our wedding."

Most of Armand's mercenaries were in various parts of the countryside, making sure that the population didn't try anything. Armand suspected that they wouldn't, especially considering what he intended. But it did not hurt to make sure.

The boy looked ahead, seeing the banners of House Concord flying over a grand star fort. Just in case, Armand had sent a small force of mercenary cavalry ahead. They had returned and confirmed that the fort was his. But the boy was still armed to the teeth, along with wearing a cuirass and helmet.

Armand stopped his horse in front of the star fort. He dismounted, expecting an ambush at any time. None came, and Armand moved inside. The boy inspected the fortress, looking through it from the brickwork on the outside of the walls to the garrison beds.

"This star fort is nowhere near as good as Marshal Staufer's star fort. That is no surprise, but I'm still worried about its defensive value. It'll be better than a castle. However, it's not top quality," Armand pondered. "I will need to increase its defenses during my time here. But first, there is business I must attend to."

Armand made his way to the fortress' office. There, he pulled out records, pieces of paper, quills, candles, and ink bottles. The boy sat down at a desk after that. Then, Armand started writing a decree freeing all the serfs in the lands he held. He made sure to include the details of the peasants' new social status and how things would work now that they were no longer bound to the land.

After that, the boy wrote several copies of his letter. Armand walked over to one of the fort's messengers when he finished.

"You there," he said. "Take these proclamations and spread them across the land. Make sure everyone knows that serfdom is no longer in existence within the lands of Armand Concord."

The messenger nodded.

"Yes, my lord," he said.

Then, the courier took the papers and left. Armand went right back to his study. He started writing letters and instructions for the further fortification of the star fort. The boy kept a concentrated expression when a knock came at the room's door.

"What is it?" Armand asked, the candlelight waving over his face.

"Lord Armand, there is a letter for you," one of his men answered.

Suspicion flowed through the boy.

"Why would someone send a letter to me so soon? And more importantly, how would they know which fortress I was staying at? As far as I know, there are only two people who could have predicted that: Eris and Marshal Staufer," Armand thought before speaking. "Slide it under the door."

A letter slid under the door. Armand waited a few moments before taking it. And when the boy did, he moved with incredible caution.

"I must remember that Marshal Staufer isn't here. I'm no longer under his protection," the boy thought as he stretched his arm out as far as it could go to pick up the letter.

After that, Armand returned to his desk and looked at the paper in his hands. He recognized the seal on it as that of the Hapsburg family.

"So, Eris sent it. But why would she send me a letter so soon? Did something come up?" Armand thought.

Then, he opened the letter and started reading.

"Dear Armand,

I hope this letter reaches you in a timely matter. I understand that it is soon. However, there is something we must discuss. It is a matter of moderate importance to our political careers.

Should we petition the king to get noble titles now? We have enough lands. But getting noble titles before our parents die or abdicate, new ones at that, could make others more wary of us. So, it might be best to wait.

From your beloved fiance,

Eris Hapsburg."

Armand shook his head.

"Of course, Eris would ask about something like that," he said. "I'll tell her that we should wait. I wouldn't want His Majesty's administrators to suffer too much from figuring out the new county or barony structure."

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With that, the boy started writing his letter back to Eris. Armand finished with swiftness, his letter reading:

"Dear Eris,

Getting noble titles now would make us too much of a target. We should wait for our old titles to pass to us naturally. Besides, we still have the lands and the power that goes with it. That should be enough for quite some time.

From,

Armand Concord."

The boy's mind turned to other matters as he gave the letter to a messenger. Soon enough, he would have several members of the Order of Hermes at this castle. They'd be there with a dead monster ready for dissection.

"At least, I hope it's dead. Some monsters can make themselves appear dead while they're still living," he thought. "I will need to be ready for that. The defenses I'm setting up in the fortress won't be enough alone. I'll need a fortified dissection room, filled with guards in case something goes wrong. I'll also need a way to destroy it if the worst happens. I could set up something with gunpowder, but that could get complicated and dangerous. Maybe I could..."

That's when a new idea flashed into Armand's mind. He looked at the ground below him. A slow smile crossed the boy's face.

"Of course, I could build it under this fortress! Or at least somewhere underground. Then, if anything goes wrong, I can just crush the monster under the weight of the world."

Then, his expression turned into a grimace.

"This won't be easy. I'll have to start planning it out soon. At least I have a good way of getting a supply of animal blood now that I have lands. I won't have to worry about sneaking out in the middle of the night to drink the blood of goats or keeping a chicken in my room."

Elsewhere, Eris was sitting at a desk inside of a different star fort. She was looking through a set of documents while thinking through her next course of action.

"There are a few things I need to do. One of the primary things is that I need to put my new lands' bandits under my power. When I'm married to Armand, there'll be nothing I can do to stop him from wiping them out. I need to take advantage of them while I still can. This will take a while, so I can set my mind to other tasks in the meantime."

She pulled out a piece of paper and started writing on it.

"I'm not sure if Armand will agree with my idea of getting titles soon, but I can do something that will make him happy. And considering how I already aligned myself with his political agenda, as a good fiance should, I might as well free the serfs in my new territory."

Eris started writing her own serf-freeing decree. When the girl was finished, a smile crossed her face.

"There. Now, for the next bit of business..."

Eris' eyes narrowed. Contempt crossed her face.

"I have some future potential enemies that I need to be assassinated. Now that I have lands of my own, I can hire better assassins than before. I'll start with that bitch in the royal palace."

The girl grabbed a paper and some writing implements. She started writing.

"I'll make sure she dies before even meeting me. After all, one less obstacle means..."

A memory flashed through Eris' mind. She saw when Armand was shot after the duel. Pain flashed through the girl as she remembered how horrible she felt when that happened.

"...dammit! Why am I remembering that now? Yes, that royal bitch has a family, but I don't care if they love her as much as I love Armand! As long as they don't know I'm the one behind her death, I should be fine. Yes, I can just..."

Eris tried to keep writing. She couldn't do it. Putting even a single word down sent flashes of trauma through her. The girl stopped and let out a deep groan, shaking her head.

"This isn't like you, Eris. You should be able to easily kill that bitch. She was a political rival the last time around, and she could be again. But..that isn't enough. I don't know why, but it isn't," the girl thought. "What would Armand do if he was hesitating to kill someone?"

She thought a moment before grinning.

"That's right! He'd find an excuse. Let's see...Countess Theresa Lorraine tried to dominate the royal court. She was a power-monger, plain and simple. So, I can just kill her without feeling any hesitation whatsoever! Yes, that's..."

Before Eris could start writing, she hesitated.

"But was she really? Or was I just assuming she was because that's what I am like? Armand never seemed to have trouble with her, but he did with most of the nobles who were like me. I'll have to send a letter asking Armand about her, but maybe he'll give me an excuse to kill her?"

Eris shook her head.

"What am I thinking? If I ask Armand about her, that'll just make him suspicious. No, I'll just need to find someone else to kill until I can come up with an excuse or find out more about Lorraine."

The girl contemplated for a few moments. Then, she nodded.

"Diomedes Robespierre. I should have killed him a long time ago, and now, I have the full opportunity to do so. I will start a hunting party to find him, kill him, and make an example of that pathetic subhuman rebel."

Eris grimaced, pondering her situation and everything she had in it.

"I don't think he was in my current lands at this point, but I can always have bandits track him down. After all, they care very little about attacking other lands, so long as I can shelter them. This means I have until my wedding with Armand to track down and kill Robespierre. After that, things will get more difficult because I'll have to worry about the territories of other lords."

The girl then entered deep contemplation.

"Here's the situation: a dangerous rebel hiding in another lord's territory, the only forces I have are bandits, no supply lines, no certain knowledge on his exact location. A lesser lady would become Robespierre's victim here."

A sadistic smile came over Eris' face.

"I'll have his head by Solstice."