When she exited the building the late evening air had a crisp, refreshing feel.

There was no turning back home, she knew that since long days past. But from now on Livia was going full throttle and enough with the hesitating… There was plenty of time to learn and make corrections, she needed to trust that her very best would still get them quite far, even if mistakes along the way were inevitable. Most importantly; I’m not alone.

She let Mr Beard know along the way how she had come to a decision, and that it was time to make use of his reaccumulated ability once more, he happily obliged:

[Skill Upgrade: Pitch Perfect -> Sway the Lot]

Her ability to talk to crowds could come in handy at the most crucial junctions, so it served to be prepared, and despite the Skill expanding to crowds, Livia was bound to get even better use out of it one on one.

But most important was what she had learned about [Officer Corps]. It was a management Skill, and it enabled the head of an organisation to distribute empowering titles acknowledged by the System. This was not an unknown type of Skill, but it was most usually available as the rare high level Skill of an administrative nature granted to traditional military Classes that could strictly bestow it on Soldiers, and this was in every recorded case they could get their hands out, although Margaret would keep looking.

Livia was becoming acutely aware how unexplored high level civic Classes remained. Shouldn't this town have a mayor or something?

A thread to follow up on, on a different day.

Civic leadership, it was not a common type of Class at all; in fact Livia had still not encountered any others like her so far, unless you stretched the definition to include a couple of rare cases–where people served an entire community with their crafting Class, just on account of their far-reaching Skills, but that still had nothing to do with authority. Most of them had no inclination to serve others with anything but wares, like in the case of the Salcret [Arborists]. Not until they were higher level and got something like Brunner’s [Tribal Garden] would the abilities benefit from being wielded as part of a larger community.

But Livia was not inclined to include those Classes at all. Even if Brunner did happen to consider his Class non-combat, it still had plenty such applications; even stuff such as the different builder-Classes and even [Blacksmith]s; in all but a few cases their practical applications in this world remained deeply military.

Even when you built a city with enough security and room for offices and warehouses to allow for proper industry; most important was still sturdiness in every weapon and shelter, to face all of this world’s myriad dangers.

Livia was on a different path altogether. One that had been neglected far too long by the System’s users.

Her upgraded Skill [Sway the Lot] was a stronger version of the old one, now able to read and help her sway more than one target and potentially with even greater room to grow further.

But it was in the case of her entirely new Skill that it seemed she’d gotten lucky indeed.

Mr Beard knew of such Skills that granted titles, such as [Designate Officer]. Even Redd was likely to have heard of such Skills.

But this Skill was not strictly military; and maybe it was weaker than those high level military Skills too… But it seemed more versatile as well, and having gained it this early meant Livia would be able to grow it to suit her needs.

According to the hints Margaret dug up from the strange stone tablets, they deduced how this Skill was rather designed to empower any professional Class into a leadership role with an added on militarized rank structure; and it would work despite the target Classes not being military in nature.

Then once they had the System-title, it was something they could keep practicing and challenging, like a Skill with levels almost, or a 2nd Class with no Skills of its own. How it actually made you stronger in practice was the remaining vague point.

Plenty of questions remained unanswered; if somebody knew more then they were keeping a tight lid on the information, and it was hard to imagine high level families not having learned the ins and outs of such Skills. Livia would just have to figure the rest out from scratch on her own. Maybe I can build my own shortcut and start to designate my own press corps officers soon, to dig into their hidden knowledge troves? Hah. Doubt I'm to first to have thought of it.

Her meeting with Margaret had really gotten her mind churning again with thoughts of home. Knowing she had some real back up now, and a second set of eyes and ears parked right here in the capital; even if Margaret’s goal would not strictly aiding Livia in her [Guild]’s ambition, it was still such a Spirit-send having someone like minded around–like the boys said at times. Especially someone experienced, even if they were in a situation impossible to prepare for.

Livia was walking light on her feet, an unfelt tension having left her body. For once she sighed in actual pleasure.

But when she saw the Legume enter her view in the distance was when Livia knew it was time to shift focus to what remained in need of doing tonight. And this was meant to be my day off, hah.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Tonight was about Jane, and Margaret had given her some thoughts on that matter too.

She would deal with Earther stuff later when Harold was back from visiting the farms with Redd, so she could gather everyone in the know at the same time.

As she stepped in the building she saw her group in the deep corner of the bustling tavern and went to head right over, marching with determination.

Despite that she only walked up to the table and stood there to listen, waiting to be noticed… But it seemed they were all too deeply engaged.

What she learned from standing there listening was how Sten and Oscar’s day had gone, and how apparently they had their first Dormata recruit coming; even if the details seemed all over the place. Hell yeah, oh what is this feeling of me not needing to even do anything for things to fall in our lap? Wait. I hope they’re not, well, a nightmare…

With the other great news obviously being Sten’s new capstone, which he refused to let them celebrate with anything more than a nice meal tonight.

But they were only on that topic for a minute, before it went back to what it seemed like they’d been discussing all evening.

Albert was the one talking, but both Elin, Lena and Alfred were all nodding along. “I just don’t see what the reason is for you to keep arguing her case. I get it, she’s not the most eloquent, but she’s not stupid either. If she truly wanted to, then she could tell us herself, yes? I just don’t want us wasting time and energy helping someone who is not even inclined to thank us for it.”

Surprisingly Livia saw Sten not really argue back, not the way he had throughout their trip whenever someone complained about the lengths they had needed to go to for Jane's sake anyway. Oscar still gave it a half-hearted effort though, but it was clear he was too exhausted to hold a strong opinion either way.

Seems like maybe something took the wind out of their sails over at the adventurer’s [Guild].

Adding her voice to the go-around seemed futile, so Livia decided the best place to start was actually with the woman that was the current topic of debate; Jane.

Having heard yesterday how it all went down when she finally found her Johnny, Livia could sympathize. But it also sounded like Jane might have some other responsibilities to consider, like apparently Sten had heard she had some nephews. So, in the end, no matter what they decided to offer her; it would be up to the woman herself.

Just like had become her new habit–once Harry the hairy kitty was happy with the day’s exploring–had eaten his fill and gotten some water; it was time to settle in and be stroked in the corner of the tavern for a couple of hours.

And as usual, Jane just looked annoyed at someone making an approach.

“Hi Jane, I’ll cut to the chase: What do you really want to do?” Jane clearly heard her, but equally clearly no response was forthcoming. “I get it, we’re just a bunch of brats to you, you’re never going to be able to replace your sisters, we are not up for it and would not dare make a go at it.”

Jane frowned at the mention, but also considered her words, and Livia gave her a moment to process, but she was aware she’d still not said nearly enough. If Jane had an answer she’d have let them know one way or another times ago.

So Livia gave her options. “If you just want to stay here in Dormata, alone with Harry and find your own way to pay for room and board for the two of you; then we will certainly be okay respecting that,”

She did not appear to want that, at least she appeared equally apathetic to such a fate.

So Livia did what she did best, she decided how to shoot her shot. “I haven’t gotten the impression that you really love Dormata that much?” Margaret had her theories about that. “A bit too crowded, I get it.”

That finally earned her something. “Fuck Dormata, Oliviana sometimes take us to accept some mission here, but not stay here. Never make me stay here,”

“Alright, well. That actually brings me to my point. Do you want to actually leave here with us then? We’re not staying around here for very long.”

Jane still just looked at her with suspicion. “I get it, you have no reason to be fighting for our ambitions, I have a better job for you in fact,”

She seemed to at least be listening intently, even if she refused to let her eyes fix on Livia.

“How about you help us take care of the animals, since we’re planning on getting plenty more of them, and if any bad people come to hurt them, then you can help us save them and keep them safe, while we can do our best to protect each other, knowing the animals are safe with you. Deal?”

She needed only a few moments more to consider this. “Deal.”