Lock couldn’t help but wonder why his new subordinates had acquiesced to his orders that easily. He was certainly glad that it was so, but he still couldn't help but ask himself since when older teens were so subservient. While he had certainly given his best to give off the so called aura of command, and he was by no means an amateur at it... Well, how to phrase it... He looked like a semi-homeless sixteen-year old, which just wasn’t very conducive to the task at hand.

Maybe they'd acted like they were going to follow orders and then just returned to the Underground to demand another assignment? But no, Happy Time was valuable, they probably knew what was at stake here. The amount of money that could be earned with the drug was worth following someone's orders for a few months, no matter how much distaste one held for that person.

There was also the human propensity to let oneself be influenced by the roles assigned to one to consider. They had been given the role ‘subordinate’ by some high ranking Underground member, and he himself had reaffirmed it with his actions and words the second he'd met them.

It reminded him of the Stanford prison experiment. An experiment, wherein a group of students had been divided into two roles. Guard and prisoner, and put into a prison environment. The experiment had been halted after one day, due to the ‘guards’ having started to dole out physical violence onto the ‘prisoners’. Which really exemplified how big the paradigm of role assignment was for humans.

Hopefully this was indeed the case with the twins, because if it were so, Lock would simply have to endeavour to be as good a boss as possible. So the twins would never have to doubt their role as subordinates.

He determined after several more minutes of thought that the entire issue was receiving more of his attention than it really deserved.

The most probable reason of why he was so hung up about the twins not following his orders was due to the trauma he'd experienced upon being reborn into this world. He'd only really regained full control of his faculties when he had been three years old or so, but that still had been at least ten years of childhood.

The traumatic experience here being that he'd reverted from an adult in an obvious position of authority, who knew exactly what he wanted from life and how to make people want to help him achieve that, into just another child. Who, he shuddered, got his cheeks pinched by old ladies, and who nobody took seriously.

Lock had tried his best, really, and he'd definitely accomplished being treated as more mature than all other children, but he'd still been seen as just that, a child. He even had the suspicion that he'd reverted slightly into a more childish behaviour due to his treatment. It was after all, also a sort of role assignment. And while one might squabble about who was whose subordinate, the entirety of the human race would all gather together to assign the role of child to anyone who was below the age of ten.

He almost wished that the way his manner of reincarnation worked was that he'd simply take over the body of an adult, or at least older teen. But the simple fact of the matter was that if it were to occur like that, he would lose most of the advantages that reincarnation brought.

Children represented limitless potential, limitless energy, their brains were malleable to the extreme, they had a cuteness and innocence about them that made the world around them a treasure chest. Everyone was willing to give them some of their time. Time, that was what children had the most of, and coincidentally, what they were the worst at using. An adult however, with proper time management skills, dropped into the body of a child...

The advantage was almost unfair to the point of sheer hilarity. The only way Lock could have received better prerequisites for greatness would have been if he'd been born into one of the noble families, where he would have had access to the best tutors, the best knowledge, and the best support.

Knowing into which body to reincarnate was also a skill, one that he hoped to master someday. Just to make sure he could have some variety in family situations really.

Or maybe so he could choose to be an orphan? That would make some things much easier, and with his knowledge, skills, and experience he would have been able to dig himself out of the that particular pit of poverty fairly quickly.

Not that he was unhappy with the family that he'd gotten. The opposite really. His grandfather had already retired by the time he'd been born so he'd spent a lot of time with the man. Who unknowingly had a grandson older than him. His father had been mostly absent due to his fanatical love for alchemy, but when he was there, he projected his own mental maturity onto Lock. Which had worked grand due to his circumstances. He'd spent his childhood learning alchemy from Father, adventuring from Grandfather, general knowledge from the library, and avoiding anyone who would treat him his age.

Which he had sadly failed due to the community he lived in being fairly tight knit, something he was glad he'd almost fully extradited himself from by now.

It sounded callous, but he was sort of glad his mother was a non-issue, she would have probably been the one most likely to coddle him into either running away from home, or committing suicide hoping to be born an orphan in his next life. Lock paused a bit in his steps at the thought he'd just had.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Would he really do something that extreme just because he didn't like the family he was born into?

He had considered the question before and determined that he had a certain duty to the family that he reincarnated in. He was after all, with his intervention, taking away their chance of having a normal child. But was that duty something he would uphold even in the face of unhappiness for himself?

Lock couldn't help but grin.

Of course he wouldn't.

The duty of an individual was first and foremost to himself. Altruism in the animal kingdom was a lie, it only existed because it was beneficial to the individual. This was why one could measure the amount of help one animal would give another by their relatedness.

The prime imperative of an organism being the propagation of its genes.

And while Lock wasn't an animal, and the issue of gene propagation was a complex one to consider when one was technically immortal. He was still perfectly capable of determining the one simple truth that even children were able to grasp, but that was distorted by their parents, who acted as agents of the collective.

One simple truth. The grin on his face turned into a feral smirk.

“Me first.”

-/-

Lock was unsurprised to find his room empty upon his return, he'd only been gone for maybe two hours after all.

From the looks of it today would be the first time the twins actually went and bought clothes with the purpose of hiding who they were, so it made perfect sense for them to require some time.

People with combat Classes had the bad habit of only ever owning one combination of clothes, having several sets of the same. It all stemmed from the bygone era when humans were a species always on the brink of extinction, and there were no adventurers, but rather heroes. Heroes who were urged by society to sacrifice everything for the greater good, even their identity. Always wearing the same distinguishable and stereotypical clothes so people knew who to turn too, be it peace or war, always the same, for monsters knew no curfew.

Naturally that particular model had grown unsustainable with time, making way for the more result-oriented capitalistic model of adventurers.

The change had only been recent however, which was why some people, especially those stemming from older families, still held fast on obsolete traditions of the past. The problem here naturally being that newer adventurers, when entering the world of compensated monster slaying, took these families -who had made a generational human resources investment into the adoration of the masses over the years- as role models.

Which had eventually turned into an almost perpetual cycle, but that was just how society worked.

Not that wearing clothing that let everyone recognize you was bad per say, but as previously mentioned, there was one subset of Classes that definitely did not benefit from this tradition. What was the point of a rogue when everyone could discern with nigh but a look that they were a rogue? The answer was simple, none, there was no point. There was not a single sub-Class under the rogue category that benefited from being recognizable, Thief, Assassin, Murderer, Melder. They all thrived in darkness and anonymity.

He sighed. It was a moot topic, something that he’d had been complaining about for several years.

At least he could try to convert his two subordinates to the rational thinking that demanded one try to blend in with the masses to achieve a new form of stealth...

Normal literal convention would have demanded that this be the moment when the twins knocked on the door clad in new clothes, but as it were, life was no novel. Lock spent almost another hour alone, turning the ingredients he'd bought on the market into non-perishable goods with the help of his portable alchemist set and keeping an eye on the mirror that let him look out onto the street. The upper part of the mirror showed the entrance to the dungeon, and that was the part that he'd trained himself to look at every few seconds, but it was easy to adjust and switch his attention to the middle part, which showed the entrance to the alley.

Thus he was able to see the sisters coming when they did indeed arrive. Looking at the clock, with exactly two hours to spare before the ritual finished.

One impressive thing was that if he hadn't known of the arrival of the two beforehand, he would not have recognized them to be anything but slightly awkward young women.

The problem being that while they were dressed like the average civilian, they still walked like rogues, but, Lock would give them a pass. He was simply glad that they had managed to disguise themselves with some modicum of success. Had they not, he would have needed to run out there, past Dog Breath who was still standing guard and usher the sisters away, before they knocked on the door of the house and gave away that Lock the NPC(Non-Professional-Combatant) had anything to do with adventurers.

But as they were, he simply let them come to him, and when ms. Richards knocked on his door to let him know he had two young lasses here to see him, he let her know that they were friends of his.

Once the older woman left, the two entered silently, closed the door, and stood before him with hands clasped behind their back, letting him evaluate their disguise.

The first noticeable thing was that one was taller than the other, the second that they had different hairstyles. The shorter one had her hair open, falling down gently upon her shoulders, while the other wore the typical crown braid of the working class. Lock couldn't help but nod approvingly. They also wore different clothes. The taller one wore a simple brown one-piece dress, to hide her higher than normal heels presumably. While the shorter one wore pants allowing one to see her ragged boots, and a simple worker's vest over a doublet

“So how was it?” Lock asked, a smile unbiddenly coming onto his face. He received two blank, exhausted looks, which caused him to elaborate. “How was it walking through the streets dressed as you are?”

To which they nodded, looked at each other, seemingly unsure how to answer, before the one on the right simply said, “effective.” Not reluctantly or anything, more… resigned. Was it because they enjoyed strutting around with everyone's eyes on them, but now that they knew dressing like an NPC was a perfectly acceptable stealth method, they couldn't justify it anymore?

Not letting the thoughts show on his face Lock simply nodded. “Indeed, I must however say that you exceeded my expectations.” Mostly because he’d had none. “I imagine that it wasn't easy consciously trying to blend into the masses for what I imagine was the first time, but you've both done a good job. I will give you some suggestions on what more could be done when you both leave. For now however, take pride in your achievement.” He said.

The implication that their pride was something that could manifest only with his permission was intentional. Taking the place on the top of the pyramid not only depended on mere outward shows of power, but also on insidious manipulation. Be it in the form of language, behaviour or action.

The praise?

Well, It was important to be considerate. Encouraging subordinates and appreciating their work a little can make a big difference in the field. The most basic rule of personnel management was to make sure that subordinates know the high-ranking people can see their hard work.

When there isn't enough effort put into the essential principle of rewards and punishments, nothing but utter collapse awaits.

Lock spread out his arms in a welcoming gesture, gleefully watching as the two sisters relaxed, “now, let me welcome you into the fold.”