Which means that she had to do it the subtle way. At least until she amasses enough power and influence that she can safely purge most of the rot that infected this nation.

The sounds of footsteps caught her attention causing her to sigh as she slowly turned to face whoever it was that was in her office.

A large hulking figure was in the room, draped in a dark, simple robe. Their face was covered by a mask that covered most of their face with one eye visible, holding a leather-bind tome in hand that was open. It wasn't hard for her to recognize who the man was.

'Index' Grimoire of the Hand.

The man took a small bow. "Madam Violet," he said, his voice, raspy and hoarse, like he haven't use it in a long, long time. "It is a pleasure meeting you, council member."

He then snapped his fingers.

“[Silence] has been casted.”

"Index," She said, her tone marking her out to be unamused. "What is it that you have for me that required you to teleport yourself into my office."

The masked man simply chuckled.. “You stressed that secrecy is something that is required when meeting with each other,” He said. “I simply uphold to our agreement, Madam Violet.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And the amount of mana that teleporting leaves behind? Which can be tracked to here by any experienced [Mages] worth their jobs,” She said.

Index waved away her concerns. “There’s no need for concerns, I teleported here from my personal quarters, after all,” He answered. “Now, as for your first question, I do have something important to inform you.”

Violet narrowed her eyes. “And what is it?”

Index’s gaze turned serious as he slammed his tome shut and in a grave tone he said, “The Golden Fists have began making his way here.”

Her eyes widen. “What?” She leaned forward, worry in his eyes. “Why? What is it that he want from here?”

Index grunted, the first sign of displeasure since he appeared here. “I don’t know. None of the other Five FIngers knows either, Pointer has been befuddled ever since. We know that may have something to do with the Eternal Desert, but we don’t know why.”

He then continue, “The rest of the council doesn’t know about this yet, but they will soon, the man hadn’t exactly been subtle.”

The Golden Fists, one of the strongest person in the world, arguably the strongest person in the world. One of the Twelve Pillars and the most active of them all. Most declared him to be a hero, a demigod, intolerance of evil, but there was one thing that made people in powers feared him.

He doesn’t give a shit about how other people think about him. He was willing to disregard any laws as he pleased and who could stop him? Not them.

Violet mused over what she had been told. “And what do you want us to do about it?” She asked. “We can’t stop him from entering here and the best we can do is accommodating him during his time here.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

And keep idiots from angering the him was left unsaid.

Index hummed. “Yes, we can’t stop him from doing as he please,” He said. “But…that doesn’t mean we can’t use him for our benefits. After all, our enemies have been know to partake in…rather ethical activities.”

“That’s far too risky,” She countered. “Who’s to say that he won’t get rid of us? We’re not exactly clean ourselves. He’s arrogant, not dumb, and he’ll see straight right toward our attempts at manipulating him.”

“But we are the best options,” Index argued back. “The rest are either bribed, corrupted, ot are fence sitters. The people are suffering and he won’t stand for it. Our previous attempts at changing things may have been blocked due to our lack of power against the combined power of the council and the nobles but…

The Golden Fists is the key to obtaining that, if we play this right.”

Index walked closer to Violet, slamming the desk as he finished talking. His eyes gleamed with hunger, hunger like a wolf eying a slab of meat that was so close and yet just out of reach. She found part of herself unnerved by it, though she try her best to not show it.

“Are you in or out?”

Violet looked at Index in the eyes, before picking up her smoking pipe from her desk. Index watches as she load tobacco into the pipes before lighting it.

Taking a puff, she asked, “What are the others in the Hands? Are they with us or not?”

“Yes,” He answered. “Yes, they are. Most of them at least, the few that aren’t have already been marked for surveillance.”

She nodded.

“Good, I’m in.”

___________

“That’s one ugly motherfucker right there if I ever see one.”

“Oh, where?” Caceris looked at the direction where Darly was point to see a camel with bulging eyes and a tongue that couldn’t fit inside its mouth. Drools pooled out of its mouth, its body was covered in sores, and its legs being so long that it led it to towered over the average man.

It looked like as if someone drew a camel from memory and purposely made to look as disgusting as possible. Many other knights and prisoners had noticed the camel and were discussing about it amongst themselves,

Caceris’ eyes narrowed. Something was off about it. He doesn’t know what was exactly off, but something was, that was what his guts was telling him. Which was confusing him as the thing didn’t look out of place in the desert but the longer he observed it the more wrong it looked to him.

For once, it was far too…docile compared to the other creatures they had encountered. Everything else were hostile, with so much bloodshot that they ignore their own injuries just to try and leave take their own pound of flesh, even the rabbits were like this.

But this camel? Just standing there and staring at them. Even other members of its kind had try and killed them.

“Something’s off with that thing,” He said to Darly. “It’s far too docile for this place.”

The man blinked before turning his head and lean forward, taking a closer look at the camel for himself. After a moment, he leaned back. “Yeah, I can see it,” Darly said. “What do you do about it?”

“I want it dead,” The knight stated, bluntly, hands already reaching for his halberd. “It is unnatural, considering where we are. It could be a threat to our safety and I cannot allow such things to exist.”

Darly hummed before replying, “Yeah, we think should just leave it.”

Caceris turned to face Darly and although his face was hidden behind his helmet, the knight’s expression of bewilderment could be seen..

“What?” He asked, astounded. “You acknowledge that it could be a potential threat, yet you’re saying that we should just leave it alone?”

“Well, it’s not doing anything, and I would rather not anger if we don’t have to,” Darly said. “If you want, we can keep surveillance on it, but I rather not take any unnecessary risk.”

This appeased the [Execution Knight], though not by much judging from the fact that he still was reaching for his weapon, but he eventually let his arm fell to his side. After a moment of silence, he nodded.

“If that is what you want. Then very well.”