Camilla Sutton, former duchess of the kingdom, sighed.

“So let me get this right,” Camilla said. She didn’t sound angry or upset. Just resigned. “Do you believe that you should run the town? Or that we should share power with you? Actually, what is it that you want?”

For several moments, Camilla just stood there, her head tilted back slightly as if in silent prayer, and the mercenaries doing their best scary face routine. Rowan hopped off the carriage to stand beside her.

“All of them, go back to where you came from,” the mercenary barked.

“You want to do this as soon as I’ve properly stepped foot in this town?” Camilla asked, putting her hand in front of Rowan to stop him from responding.

“Oh yes. Why wouldn’t we? We finally have a nice thing going, and nobles are showing up to ruin it like usual.”

“The succession of leadership in Rest’s Remorse was arranged and approved by the king. Hero Rowan Clairfont is the leader of this town.”

“Listen lady, you’re here, we’re here, the king ain’t. He also never gave a rat’s ass about this place before, so long as everyone paid up what they owe him. So I said that it’s time for me to take charge. Now is the king going to back up his words? Because my men will back mine up.”

“Usually, when someone says something like that, there’s an ‘or else’ in there. What’s yours?”

The mercenary laughed and glanced around. Behind the mercenaries were a group of servants, obviously anxious about the whole thing. “Lady, you can either give up and leave, or else you can have a little demon-related accident like the last mayor.”

Even Rowan could see the false bravado. Whatever the mercenary liked to pretend, the mention of the king did actually rattle him. But it wasn’t like Rowan was entirely unfazed either. The suggestion that the last mayor was murdered and didn’t die in combat? That didn’t really sound all that great for Rowan’s own long-term prospects.

“I see. Now here’s my predicament. We’re not in a position to leave, since that would be directly disobeying the king’s orders,” Camilla calmly said.

“Oh?” The mercenary leaned forward, mistaking the baroness’ composure for weakness. “Heh, I guess you can stay. Haven’t had any quality entertainment in some time, and if a fine lady such as yourself wants to accompany me, who am I to say no?”

“I see I’ve utterly wasted my words on you,” Camilla snapped, her eyes blazing with rage. A pair of daggers appeared in her hands. They were wicked, curved weapons, chiseled out of some black material that swallowed up sunlight. The mercenary drew his sword on the other end. “You have exactly three seconds to prepare yourself.”

“Three seconds? Lady, I don’t need —”

From what Rowan could tell, the mercenary’s stance was rock solid and his focus on point. He might not have been the most pleasant person, but his skills seemed to back the talk up.

Unfortunately, that didn’t save him from the baroness he had managed to piss off.

One moment, Camilla Sutton was standing next to Rowan, the next, she was inches away from the mercenary leader. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion after that. She stabbed one of her daggers forward and plunged it hilt-deep into the mercenary’s chest. The man slowly tilted his head to look at the wound. Before he could do more, Camilla swiped up with her second dagger. As it made its arc from her side to the sky, the mercenary’s hand slid off his wrist and flopped onto the ground. The man’s lips opened, and he tried to gurgle something, but only blood leaked out. Almost gently, Camilla whipped her first dagger up, carving through flesh and bone and splitting the man’s chest with a deep gap.

“You needed the three seconds,” Camilla said casually. Behind the mercenary, none of the other men moved or even spoke. As the baroness looked them over, she had a hint of amusement in her forest-green eyes. “Now that he’s dealt with, am I going to have to do the same with you?”

The mercenaries all sported deathly pale faces. If Rowan was a betting man, he would have put money or cards down that none of them could last more than two rounds at the hand of the baroness. They were beat.

It was a stalemate for a few seconds before one of the mercenaries stumbled back and then broke into a sprint. It was like a signal for the rest of them to flee. A moment later, there was a stampede of mercenaries on their hands.

Rowan even saw one of them trip and then get mercilessly pounded into the ground by the feet of his own comrades. Thankfully, people in his new world were made of sterner stuff, so the man managed to stand back up and then stumble off.

All that was left from the welcoming party were the servants.

“Well, that was eventful. Will you be showing us to our rooms now, or has this fool managed to delay that as well.” Camilla stabbed her finger downwards like she might use it to skewer the mercenary again.

“No, my lady. The rooms are ready. We had them made up just this morning. The mercenaries taking over was a… recent development.” One of the older ladies spoke up, stepping forward in spite of the tremble in her voice and body.

“Excellent. Lead the way, then. Before I forget, I will not be taking the master bedroom. That would be for Hero Rowan.” Camilla reached back to grab Rowan by the wrist, and the hero noted that the daggers were gone just as suddenly as they’d appeared. “This is one of the summoned heroes and your new mayor.”

“Of course. It is a pleasure to meet you, my lord.” The main servant didn’t miss a beat.

Rowan sent a confused, pleading look Olivia’s way. His total experience dealing with maids was his time in the baron’s household and getting trampled by the [Battle Maid]. He was much stronger now, but some memories died hard. Olivia realized the same thing as she giggled and strolled forward.

“The hero would like to see his room because he’s tired,” Olivia said with authority, and the servants complied immediately. It probably helped that she looked a lot like the noble they just saw butcher a man right in front of them.

“How did your mom do that?” Rowan whispered as he followed behind Olivia and the maid to his new accommodations. After giving it a bit more thought, he realized that Camilla could probably hear him with her stats.

“You know, my mother used to be a duchess. Do you know what a noble needs to do to hold onto that title long-term?” Olivia asked back.

“No?”

“You need to produce at least one Epic ranked individual every two generations, and you would preferably have another marry into the family at the same frequency too. Of course, my parents are overachievers. Both of them are epic, it’s just that most people focus on my father.”

“And why’s that?” Rowan couldn’t help but ask, curiosity overcoming any fear he might have felt.

“Because my mom’s whole thing is not being noticed. She’s a [Spirit-borne Assassin]. Very rare class, elf-lineage exclusive. Amazing right?” Olivia said that in a chipper way, but Rowan felt all kinds of unpleasant shivers down his spine.

That was a fact that he could have known earlier. The same [Spirit-borne Assassin] had been teasing him about his relationship with Olivia. He was suddenly glad that he had mostly borne the words without much of a response. It really didn’t seem like a good idea to get on the bad side of someone who could vanish a person as easily as Camilla just did.

“Yes, amazing. Very interesting, that.” Rowan suddenly needed a couple glasses of water. His mouth was as parched as a desert and strolling arm in arm with the daughter of an extremely lethal assassin was definitely not helping.

I thought the danger would come from Kayden. At least the physical kind. Who knew that Camilla would be lethal in both her words and her actions.

It didn’t take long for Olivia to realize how stiff Rowan was. Nor did she have any qualms against milking his sudden realization for all it was worth. She leaned into him, hugged his arm, and whispered nonsense words into his ear. With each motion, Rowan would tilt his head back slightly and see the baroness trailing behind them with a smug grin. It wasn’t long before beads of sweat began forming on Rowan’s forehead.

Why did I ever accept that sponsorship offer from Kayden?

Then again, it wasn’t like Rowan regretted that decision, considering the fact that it had led him to his party with Marcus and Milena. And to one green-haired girl in particular.

—

Rowan realized that there was at least one benefit to being suddenly sent to the very edge of the frontier against the demons. An extremely comfortable bed.

The master bedroom that Camilla had directed the maid toward housed an absolute monstrosity of a bed. It was larger than a king and probably even bigger than the fabled california-king beds that only appeared in mattress stores. And it was like a cloud. When Rowan collapsed down, it practically swallowed him with its boundless softness.

He sighed in contentment. All of his stress rolled off his shoulder. He was now alone, safe, and —

“Sleeping already?” Another person plopped down next to Rowan, breaking his relaxation. He glared at the intruder but it seemed that nothing could stop the grin on Olivia Sutton’s face.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“You aren’t real,” Rowan muttered as he closed his eyes back again. “I’m hallucinating.”

“Can a hallucination do this?” Olivia poked Rowan’s cheek. When he didn’t respond, she started pinching it.

“See, this is the problem. I was trying to rest. But now I have this annoying alchemist, well, annoying me,” Rowan grumbled.

“Tough luck, never had that issue.” Olivia grinned wider, rolling over so that she landed right in the crook of his arm and stared right up at him with her big, adorable eyes.

Rowan slipped to the side. “You do realize where we are right? And that your mother is just down the hall? Your scary assassin mother?”

“That’s tough, is that really an issue?” Olivia stuck her tongue out at him.

Rowan’s brow twitched. Enough was enough. It was time to go on the offensive. He half-tackled Olivia down and found himself looming over the petite alchemist.

“Tough luck?” Rowan whispered. Olivia’s eyes started to widen with some emotion he couldn’t recognize. But that only emboldened him. “Do you know what happens when you play with fire?”

Before Rowan could relish in his victory, the sound of someone knocking on his door rang out. It was accompanied a moment later by a voice full of dry amusement. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

Camilla. Just my luck.

Rowan’s body was a second slower than his mind and Olivia made sure to take advantage of that. Her hands sneaked out and locked around his neck before Rowan could get away.

“No mom, you can come in,” Olivia called out.

Rowan tried to buckle himself away but the alchemist apparently invested in more physical stats than he realized. So when Lady Sutton walked into Rowan’s new bedroom, the first sight she saw was her daughter hugging the hero’s neck in a rather suggestive position.

At least it was a semi-good day to die.

“I see. Looks like I am interrupting after all,” Camilla said in a neutral voice. “Regardless, you need to follow me, Rowan. You can come along as well, daughter.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Rowan said meekly. He tried to get up one more time and half-dragged the alchemist into a sitting position. The stubborn girl just refused to let go. She was firmly affixed to his chest, looking as content as a person could be.

Of course, she is. It’s not like her mother is going to kill her. She’s going to kill me.

“We need to see the chamberlain of this estate about the transfer of authority. You have the royal edict putting you in charge of this town. But you need to officially have it acknowledged and notarized that you’re here as you were ordered,” Camilla said. Rowan could have sworn that he heard a hint of impatience in her voice.

“Yeah, coming.” Rowan tried to stand and Olivia did her best impression of a monkey by clinging to his chest.

“Whether my daughter wants to be difficult or not, we need to get this handled as soon as possible,” Camilla coughed. “If we delay and the deadline passes, then it will count as your refusal to cooperate. It doesn’t matter what has happened, all that matters is what is officially acknowledged.”

“Yup.” Rowan looked at Olivia, who turned her head the other way. Somehow, she seemed ready to fully embarrass him in front of her parents. None of these hijinks were going on back when they were at the village and just enjoying each other's presence. In an attempt to stall for time, he tried to some different conversation. “You mentioned a royal edict?”

“This.” Camilla was suddenly holding the scroll that had started that whole mess. “This is an official missive and edict of the king. It has his crest and seal, denoting it as an official document of the state.”

“So, we just need to show the… chamberlain that?”

“Correct, then we’ll need to stick around for the reading of the will and the transfer of duties, and you’ll be free to rest for the day.”

That, at least, sounded good. Better than good, really. They didn’t do anything physically demanding, but Rowan couldn’t properly put into words how utterly exhausted he felt. The nearly three-week long carriage ride had taken a real toll on him. He really wasn’t the traveling type.

Rowan brute forced his way forward. And to her credit, Olivia released him the second they crossed the room’s threshold. It was like there were two different Olivias, one for private time and the other for public areas.

One was a force of nature and also an absolute nuisance. The other was still a force of nature, but much more ‘proper’ and noble-like. That wasn’t much of a shock, considering she was a real noble.

—

It took a few minutes before Camilla stopped in front of a massive oak door.

“Here we are, I had a chat with the man myself earlier. He’s quite pleasant and dutiful, so just follow his directions.” It wasn’t exactly a glowing review, but upon second thought, that was one of the nicest things Rowan had heard Camilla Sutton say about anyone not directly related to her.

Rowan pushed the door open, strolling into a well-furnished study full of comfortable furniture. But the real feature of the room was the copious amount of documents, scrolls, and more stacked on top of each other.

“Ah, Lord Rowan, it is a pleasure to finally meet you,” the elderly chamberlain said, standing up without ruining his perfectly pressed suit.

“Likewise, sir…?”

“My apologies, my lord, I am a rather well-known face around here and forgot my manners. Henry. My name is Henry, and I am your chamberlain from today onwards,” the chamberlain said.

“I hope this doesn’t sound rude, but why do I need a chamberlain?” Rowan asked.

Thankfully, the man didn’t take offense to that and instead offered one of the chairs to Rowan. Both of them sunk down into the embrace of the chairs.

“No offense taken. Feel free to ask me anything that comes to mind. But for your question, the frontier towns are under the control of the nobility. They pay for upkeep and in return, receive most of the taxes and other profits they might generate. A small portion of that goes to the royal treasury,” the chamberlain said.

“Can’t say that I really approve of things, making money like that,” Rowan grumbled.

“It’s the way of life. The noble houses take a risk in building a town like this and the mercenaries would never have been able to hunt demons on the frontier without having secured towns nearby. But I digress. What I wanted to say is that the royal family needs these towns to continue running and for them to be run well. This way, the kingdom’s best interests are maintained. And for that, capable servants and town managers are required.”

“I see. And that’s your role? Someone who serves the king and here to look after the town?”

“In a manner of speaking, all of us are pledged to serve the king. But I suppose you are correct, Hero Rowan. A long time ago, one of my ancestors was the chamberlain of this town. Since then, it’s been a tradition and requirement for our family to take up a post as chamberlain or similar so we can assist the lord of Rest’s Remorse. I’ve known most of the people who serve in this town since I was a boy.”

“And now you’re stuck with me, someone who doesn’t know the first thing about town management.” Rowan could see the man’s predicament.

The chamberlain laughed. “You’d be surprised how many people don’t know the intricacies of town management. I’m sure you’ll see that most of us are quite happy with a change of leadership and happy to help make sure this town runs smoothly. We just don’t have much appreciation for unreasonable demands.”

That was about as plain of a negotiation as Rowan had ever heard. The staff would pledge their support to him as long as he didn’t ask too much of them. Honestly? That was exactly what he wanted.

“Agreed. I’ll hold up my end of the bargain,” Rowan said.

“Great, and the town of Rest’s Remorse welcomes you, Lord Rowan.” The chamberlain tilted his head away from Rowan. “Lady Sutton, could I receive the official missive?”

Camilla smiled and passed the scroll over. The man received it with both hands and brought only mere inches from his face as he scanned over the contents. It took a couple long minutes before he was satisfied but no one rushed him. Even Olivia remained quiet and respectful in her corner of the room.

“Everything is in order,” the chamberlain said as he dipped behind his work desk, pulling out two sheets of heavy paper and a something that looked like a stamp. “Lord Rowan, May I please have your signature here and here?”

He signed both sheets.

“Excellent, now, if I could just have a single drop of your blood?” the chamberlain said in a polite tone as if that was an entirely normal request.

Enough time around Milena had taught him of the importance of blood. Rowan paused. He glanced to Camilla for confirmation and she gave a slight nod. Seeing no other choice, Rowan picked up his spear where it was resting by his thigh and nicked his finger on it.

“Where do you want it?” Seeing that Rowan was willing to bleed seemed to put the old man in a much better mood, and he quickly motioned to three circles on yet another three contracts, before tilting the seal upside down and indicating one final place that needed his blood.

When Rowan put his lightly bleeding finger against that, electricity zipped out of the seal and burrowed directly into his chest.

Authority over Rest’s Remorse obtained. Do you wish to exercise your power?

Y/N

“What was that?” Rowan asked, feeling the spot on his chest which had been impacted by the electricity.

“You now possess a direct connection to the city’s ward network, as well as the prison controls.”

“Ward network? Prison?”

“Correct. One of the main duties of the mayor is to ensure the safety of the town, both from outside and from within. Wards will tell you if some threat is coming and give time for defense preparation. Prisons are… well, a bit more self-explanatory. You could throw the rebellious mercenaries in them. But while both of these things are important, they pale in comparison to your other duties.”

“Okay, hit me.”

“Hit you?” The chamberlain hesitated as he tried to make sense of the words. And then the older man nodded as if the hero had said something perfectly reasonable. Rowan hoped that the translation function of the system had kicked in. “The first two weeks are some of the most important for a new mayor. You’ll need to find your footing and establish yourself in the town such that everyone defers to your authority. But once that’s done, you are expected to lead an expedition into the demonic wastes every two months.”

“Every two months? That… doesn’t sound too bad,” Rowan said.

“Two months includes the amount of time of the expedition. This isn’t a one or two day trip. Even if everything goes well, you’ll need at least a month for a round trip,” Camilla cut in.

“Lady Sutton is correct. The primary goal of these expeditions is to clear out the buildup of demons that might threaten the kingdom. Many of these hordes are deep within the demonic wastes. But as a hero, you have a second goal. When you grow strong enough, you’ll need to locate and eventually slay each of the legendary demons that have made the wastes their home in anticipation of their master’s arrival.”

“Legendary?” Rowan repeated. “How am I supposed to do that? We only just won against a rare tier demon. And barely survived from an epic tier demon. But legendary? Pray that it starts attacking itself?”

Camilla burst into laughter, and even the old chamberlain let out a few chuckles. “Don’t worry, Rowan. I promise it’s not as bad as it sounds. You’ll have support from the armies, and legendary demons have only ever fallen to the unified assault by the heroes.”

“You mean to say we’ll be fighting them together?” Rowan asked.

“Correct. As a lone hero, your mission will just be to locate them. A hunt for a legendary demon will then be organized, and the heroes brought together to face the threat. That might change if one of you managed to rise to legendary tier, but that’s far in the future,” Camilla said.

“Lady Sutton is right. Lord Rowan, heroes are one of the most important resources for our kingdom. Your safety is a high priority. Now, there are a couple other minor duties for a mayor to think about right now.”

“Sure, anything that doesn’t involve fighting a legendary demon.”

The chamberlain laughed, his eyes twinkling. “Of course, Lord Rowan. First, the people are going to be looking to you to enforce the laws and rules of this place. And second, the town’s economy is still recovering after the last demon siege. Trade is the lifeblood of frontier towns. The more trade, the more people, and the safer the town. And you also get more profits.”

Seeing Rowan’s expression, Camilla stepped forward. “Rowan, until you grow enough to protect yourself and my daughter, I will stay here. That’s why I chose to join you to begin with. You need both advice and protection, and our family can offer both this time.”

Rowan was quickly realizing how important both of those things were. Felton’s Mill would have fallen in the first wave without Bron. If there was even the slightest chance that things could proceed smoothly and normally this time around, Rowan needed every bit of help he could get.

“Deal.”