I spent the rest of the day recruiting and it was hectic, but at least the other factions with headmaster candidates were doing the same. No one wanted to take the chance of being left without a territory. That night I slept hard, wondering if I could even last through the rest of the week. Who knows what surprises were going to come up.

After that I was able to do some research on the territories and found out that there were various types to choose from. Out of the ten territories there were four that were trading. Three had specialties and one was a trading hub by the border. Three were farming territories, and three were mining territories. Both mining and farming relied on the land, but trading relied on wits and charisma. 

“I wouldn’t mind a farming territory,” Keane spoke up, when I brought it into another meeting, “I grew up on a farm.”

“I don’t know too much about farming but I am from a supposedly prestigious merchant family,” Alois offered. 

“Supposedly?” Rena asked.

Alois gave a wry smile. “I don’t really get along with them well.”

“Is there anyone who knows mining?” I asked.

“My family traded with miners sometimes?” Autumn said.

As the meeting went on it became clear that the majority of our faction leaders specialized in trading. I could probably manage farming, but trading would probably be the best bet for me as well. 

“I will aim for a trading territory then. Which one should I go for?” I asked.

“Let’s try to avoid the dye territory,” Alois said, “Dye is expensive to produce and I doubt we could do much there. Same with ceramics. The woodwork and cloth territory would be better but they likely have to do a lot of trading with the dye territory.”

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“Then that leaves the border trading hub,” Caleb muttered, “It is going to be ridiculously impossible to keep track of the traffic and revenue.”

“Exactly, we can’t play it too safe and we have trading experts here,” Alois explained, “We might not get a choice in trading territories, though. If you look, there are a couple farming territories that are experiencing major issues, and one of the mines is almost dried up.”

“The silver mine, huh,” Caleb commented, “At first glance it seems like the most profitable, but if we just dry up the silver there is no way we will pass.”

“What about the coal mine? It is new and coal is a basic resource,” Rena asked.

“That is risky too. With new mines no one knows how sturdy the tunnels are, and it is a huge investment to make those tunnels in the first place,” Autumn told her. 

He looked surprisingly serious. I could barely connect him to the panicking boy who was terrified of the capture targets before. It was even stranger that Keane was supposed to be the ‘bad boy’ capture target. He looked more serious than Caleb sometimes.

Then again, researchers in fantasy worlds always tended to have a hidden scary aspect to them. I had run across Keane when he was recruiting earlier and he just casually dipped into a conversation about how he was researching a deadly parasite poison. I have no idea what sparked the conversation, but I started to notice people wearing little red pepper earrings or other jewelry around school, including that student.

Autumn had also become scary. He would innocently smile while talking about things that made most people shiver. Medical research was hardcore… Not that I hadn’t changed myself. My training as queen required me to keep calm and focused even in shocking and life threatening situations.

“Cassandra?” Alois called, waving a hand in front of my face.

I caught it out of habit. “As usual you have no concept of personal space.”

“I thought you were in Royal Statue Mode, so I had to bring you back before you started plotting our murders,”

“Royal statue mode?” I asked incredulously.

“He caught me meditating once and I got mad and stabbed at him with one of my spines,” Rena confessed, “But he is ridiculously fast.”

“Hey, you guys are off-topic,” Caleb complained, “I have things to do so wrap this up so I can leave.”

Keane got up. “I also have things to do. This meeting is basically over, right? Avoid the mining territories, aim for the trading territories, and grab a farming territory if all the trading ones are taken right?”

There was a moment of silence as we all looked around to confirm.

“Yes,” I said, after seeing expressions of agreement, “Thank you for participating.”