...

Five Minutes later, after meeting Thaldon Uru

'Now, this is weird.'

Four people sat at a round table, one of Alexander's ideas to show that no one was of higher status. However, Helena and Irisk were sitting too close to him, making it look like they were about to gang up on Thaldon, who sat opposite him. Worse, behind him were Sarah and Linuel, while Jorsh and Petra were hiding behind Thaldon in the shadows.

'He is a brave one.'

While Thaldon looked stoic, barely showing any emotions, he was obviously in a very precarious position. He was surrounded by enemies, full of people who had taken over his territory, and worse, he barely knew anything about them. However, Narsiz wanted to be as forthcoming as possible, not trying to pressure him.

Ultimately, while Thaldon and Irisk were a surprise and optional to their overall plan, getting an ally in the Essence Alliance was to be desired—Narsiz smiled nervously, seeing how the young ice-djinn was sitting stiffly.

"I apologize for your bizarre position, so let me skip over the pleasantries and start with the plan right away—" he took out some papers, seeing how Thaldon twitched slightly at the movement, "—Well, in short, what we plan is a clear-cut conspiracy, which involves..."

Narsiz was honest, telling him everything they did and wanted to do. Thaldon's position here meant that he had no one to back him without enslaving him, and the Uru and Whirl clans cared little about the island, which corresponded perfectly with their plan. As such, the young ice-djinn was obviously looking for another way to regain the gamble he lost.

It was also possible that he would start a massacre all alone to take it back, but it was improbable. Narsiz already demonstrated with the assassination attempt, which had no victims and deaths, showing that he could attack whenever he wanted, making Thaldon slowly bleed out.

The young ice-djinn was between a rock and a hard place, fucked over by the people who were now telling him that they orchestrated everything, first shocking him and then making him furious—the temperature fell dramatically.

However, Narsiz still smiled, now ready to tell the next part of the plan, "I understand that you are angry, but please hear me out as I want to make friends and not enemies—" He looked at Helena, who glared in hate at Thaldon, "—for this, though, we need the Eros Alliance."

Helena cleared her throat, clearly nervous, "While I dislike you—" Her upper lip curled up in disgust, "—people..."

Thaldon interrupted her stoically, "This feeling is mutual. Don't worry."

The merchant's daughter's smile cracked slightly, "I see that slavery indeed has some negative repercussions..."

Before she could continue, a dangerous aura suddenly brought the room's temperature to a hazardous low. However, Sarah and Linuel counteracted it the next moment, pushing their energy around the group and mainly around Narsiz, ready to rip Thaldon a new one should he continue.

Fortunately, a day before this meeting, Narsiz warned the girls to act carefully, as such emotional outbursts could happen after he was told they conquered his territory—a more reasonable reaction would be him trying to behead everyone in the room, which spoke to his diplomatic skills and calm demeanor.

'Hm, I will remember that.'

Narsiz also now understood that Thaldon shouldn't be teased about his status, too. While it was a compelling topic, he wanted everyone's attention—he clapped once as he needed to resume the discussion.

"Okay, that's enough, pups!"

Even though a more extended session with more time to get to know each other would help, they had barely enough time and needed to rush through many points. As such, Narsiz's clapping made everyone glare at him since everyone was on edge—one could cut the air with a knife.

"So, let me reiterate that you, Helena—" He turned toward her, smiling viciously, "—can gain something from this, and you—" He turned to Thaldon, "—are fucked, but because I follow the principles of my Mother and see that diplomacy is of high importance and that allies are invaluable, I want to find something with which everyone is satisfied—" His aura exploded, making everyone calm down, one of luck of charm, "—do we agree?"

It was silent, with Thaldon clearly thinking it through, but after some moments of deep contemplation, Thaldon smirked at Narsiz, relaxing slightly.

"At least I can see that you are as trustworthy as your Mother, but I thought Alexander was the genius, or is this a distraction? Is he maybe the diplomatic mastermind?"

Even though it was a compliment and a small snide against Narsiz, that could've started another discussion about something nonsensical. Instead, everyone in the room looked at each other only to laugh aloud, which confused Thaldon and de-escalated the situation.

"You mean the judge who calms every court down by threatening to kill them? Diplomatic mastermind?! Haha!"

"Yeah, Alex, sure! Why not paint on pig-kin some wings and call them avians, haha!"

"Oh shit, hehe—" Linuel wiped a tear away, "—the one who threatened the Silver-Tail Lord multiple times a day, calling him a retard and moron? Yeah, sounds about right."

Narsiz chuckled, trying to hold back his laughter. Sure, he could talk to crowds of commoners, but that was an exception since his little brother had prewritten and planned it out in all detail.

"I don't think you were deceived, but my brother, whom we all follow, has many strengths, but diplomacy is not one of them."

Something about Alexander made everyone around him much more honest. However, it was a natural gift rather than intentional, with him just winging it. Everyone accepted him as an oddball—it was a ridiculous notion, for anyone who knew him, that he had diplomatic skills.

People didn't follow him because he was like that but despite his odd and rough personality. Alexander had talent and shared all his secrets openly while making it no secret what his goal was.

'I remember Barth ranting and punching walls after every meeting.'

For any stranger to like Alexander was only possible because he put a tremendous amount of blood and sweat into his charity, training, and research—again, he was loved and adored despite his crude manners, not because of them.

After everyone calmed down, Narsiz smiled at Thaldon, putting one leg over the other and gesturing to him casually while talking.

"However, despite Alex not being here, he gave me full authority to do what needs to be done and—" He pointed at Thaldon, "—we want to help you so everyone is happy, and you see us as your friends, because—" He shrugged, "—we want allies and making your gamble look like chump change is an easy one if it is all to make you trust us—"

Narsiz looked behind him toward the entrance, snapping once, so a night elvish maid entered. He looked back at Thaldon questioningly.

"—where are my manners? Do you like some tea and sweets? We have a great variety of sorts!"

Thaldon looked at everyone in the room, sighing, "If you have anything to relax—" He leaned back, sighing, "—I'll take it, and let's see how you want to win me over, but I really doubt it."

Narsiz smiled, as it was as he expected. However, what he and Alexander thought through would make Thaldon immediately agree—it was a great plan.

...

Place: Azure (City), Main Land of the Essence Alliance

Time: ~A Week Later

The larger cities of the Essence Alliance were very different from the teeth cities in Moorgrel. First, they were far smaller because they had a much stricter class system.

For example, the mixing and bustling of Wolfsteeth, with millions of residents, would look insane in Azure, which had not more than a hundred thousand because of the less liberal way of acquiring houses and other domiciles, while taxes were relatively high.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

However, only a fifth lived in the enormous center, which had many shops, restaurants, and hotels. It was a beautiful, clean, and tranquil part of the city, with numerous plants to make it aesthetically pleasant to the residents and many guards to protect them—even a simple entrance was only allowed after a comprehensive check.

As such, it was the place for most clans' main residences, headquarters for banks and trading organizations, and the Main Chapel of the Church in the Essence Alliance—a literal center of power and authority.

Sadly for many, though, the city also needed the dirty populace to function correctly so that all of higher standing could live comfortably. As such, clans of lower standing were still allowed to live in their districts, further away from the actual rulers and the center. However, many other places weren't part of the population calculation even though many of those residents did all the dirty work.

'Yeah, seems about right—' A young girl walked outside the city walls, in the slums where all clanless lived, '—it looks and smells like shit again, what a surprise.'

Irisk wandered through dirty streets between tiny houses made of thrown-away moldy wood and other trash that even the local vermin populace tried to avoid as it could give them diseases. It looked disgusting, with all the people being criminals, sick, or otherwise unable to live normally for whatever reasons, but deep down, she knew the real problem.

'Being in a clan means freedom, my ass.'

The system with the clans emerged because their past societies collapsed when they had kings, queens, and nobles. They oppressed everyone, which led to them forming larger families that would act as a unit and work with other clans.

The glue that held them together was honor, merit, and pride—a practice that initially worked since they were one family. However, it changed back to what it was after hundreds of years—corruption and oppression.

'What was it again? Up to the fourth cousin, who would still be considered family, and if attacked, I would need to seek retribution—What a load of bullshit.'

There was a highly complex clan structure, with laws applied to those who dishonored the family. Regardless, because many clans got absorbed into others, the structure changed, as they wouldn't be seen as actual relatives—freedom became highly restrictive.

Because the wars continued and some clans became overwhelmingly powerful, their perspective also changed. They didn't want to rule only themselves but also others, showing that only their way was genuine.

The strongest clans teamed up to create a council of influential people called elders, selected a grand leader, and the most important thing was that they took protection fees. They put rules and regulations in place, saying it was to keep the peace they enjoyed because of them—bullshit.

At one point, it became so bad that only the most prominent clans could maintain. To have one, one would need to pay more taxes to the council, which consisted of elders who were only from large clans who also took those taxes for themselves—smaller clans were basically all subordinate to the larger ones.

However, for Irisk, this wasn't important anymore since she was now part of the Moorgrelian society. While it sounded bizarre, Narsiz even introduced her openly as a guard, and nobody cared. For some reason, even the Lady allowed it. She mentioned in a letter that she wanted to see her when Narsiz wouldn't need her.

'So bizarre—' Irisk took a straight turn, kicking a massive cockroach to the side and jumping into an old well made unusable after the canalization was built underneath it. Now, it acted as an entrance to the underworld.

Jumping over and down, she slid slowly on the walls until she saw the dirt water. However, when she landed on it, she used her skill [Water Walk] to tap the dirt water slightly and jump to a dryer path on the side.

Irisk was in a hurry, 'Damn it! I know it's not possible to have some hotel room inside the city, but—' She clicked her tongue, '—fuck it! It's still better than before!'

She and some of her team for the current mission lived in the slums, as they all had no clan name to themselves besides Irisk, who was thought to be in an asylum.

Also, entering and living in the city would draw a lot of attention to them, especially since the hotels and restaurants were all run by the Sad Grape clan, which specialized in pleasure and partying.

However, they were also a well-regarded information network that would sell her out immediately. They were large but not large enough to take on any council clans—even bribing wouldn't help, as the consequences would be too harsh if this were found out.

She stopped, looked up, and frowned, seeing only pure darkness. Jumping toward the wall using [Gecko Climb], she could, for a moment, gain some friction, push herself off, jump again, and so on until she broke through the darkness and hopped out of a hole, arriving in an old house—an old entrance build by a gang which didn't exist anymore.

'Urgh, can't they buy some candle or something?!'

Irritated, Irisk always had problems orienting herself in the basement as it was too dark. She needed a minute or two to go upstairs, seeing, like always, the other part of her old subordinates who were still eating and grooming themselves.

They all lived here since they took odd jobs here and there, so they could blend in much better. With a nod, she greeted them, which they reciprocated. They were still nervous about their tasks even though they were pretty good at them.

'Hm, they really are doing their best, huh.'

Not only was she recruited, but many others jumped at the opportunity, hearing about the pay and benefits, which were also secured by mana contracts. Most had no clan or came from a smaller one who would've abused them either way if they went back. As such, they were more or less free to do what they wanted.

Lowly soldiers stationed on some islands in nowhere were usually the ones who had no ambitions regarding their careers and only tried to survive, as they came from dirt. There was no loyalty to the Essence's Alliance.

'Well, hope the others are doing well, too—' She smirked, '—can't believe they are meeting Alexander.'

Irisk quickly shook herself awake, trying to focus on her mission, which was to help facilitate a specific event, something she thought would be impossible with the methods they used, but it worked too well for some reason.

Clank

Exiting the house, she started walking to the center while trying to listen to what other folks in the outer parts of the city were talking about—there were a lot of rumors.

"Did you hear 'bout dose fire-djinns? How dare dey!"

"I know, y'all? I can't believe it myself! Even the Church is outraged!"

She loved observing the city while walking and listening to gossip, trying to see if their plan worked. Houses were made of bricks and wood, glued together with bluish mortar, which was even used for the plastered streets—a fitting aesthetic for the city and its name.

All the people had much more clothes on, which simultaneously made Irisk happy and somewhat sad—it was one of the few things she genuinely liked about Wolfsteeth.

Azure City was much less open than what Beast-kin did, where it wasn't that unnormal to do stuff half naked for the whole day as it was overwhelmingly hot. Here, it was even punishable, depending on who was offended.

"I reckon the council gonna do somethin'?"

"Them old goods-for-nothings? Pah!"

"Psh! If they heard..."

"What then? They can't and won't even defend our land from them cooked bastards!"

Trees stood in rows and bore luminescent fruits on the sidewalk, giving light at night and shadow during the day. It was beautiful but also sterilized since there was no hustle or bustle. It was designed and segregated, something Irisk found boring after witnessing many other cities that were far more chaotic.

"Daddy! Patrick told me about the war and..."

"Silent junior, don't listen to him and don't talk!"

Hues of blue emerged from the plants and trees as they became darker. It was about to rain—the aura of all of her kin made it almost a daily occurrence.

"Hey, did you hear?"

"Who hasn't, honestly."

As the droplets fell, almost every one of her kin became much more energetic and ready to burst with energy. Children ran faster, and elderly people suddenly smiled through their wrinkled faces—a beautiful sight.

"Haha! Let's join a fucking mercenary as they..."

"No fucking way will I join into a war under someone who can't even defend!"

"Oh, yeah. They didn't give anything to the boy from the Uru Clan, that's right."

"Yep, and I am not hot on hunting for food while knowing that I need to kill those fuckers the next day."

"Fucking useless goons."

"Yup!"

Seeing all those people brought her thoughts back to the very confusing last days she had experienced. First, she got beaten up, kidnapped, and given a deal that was too good, even though she thought it was a stupid idea—she was wrong.

So, why did she think it was stupid? Usually, those in high positions would only care about themselves. However, who knew that the inside of the council became rowdier by the day as egos were attacked and the fault given to the Uru and Whirl Clans as they were barely supporting the border.

"Hm, wasn't this Thaldon or whatever some genius? How come he didn't get the support he needs?"

"Because... never mind."

"No, say it! Come on!"

"Well, they don't like him because he is too good, and many fear him."

"What a bunch of morons!"

"Yeah, he even got almost assassinated because nobody gives a fuck about him. Can you believe it? I support those assholes, and they can't even get the good some decent life? Fuck them!"

Thaldon was given a heroic status as the rumor mill went on, and all the blame shifted away from him toward the council and the leaders of the Uru and Whirl Clans. Every day, they went out and talked, lying and repeating it continuously without any evidence—it worked.

"Why would we even support them?"

"I don't know, dear, but may you ask your uncle? I want to know what is going on."

"Of course, dear, but I think it was these dastardly coal sect."

"Hm, of course."

The blame was fully shifted away from the Camp and the beast-kin to some weird, highly aggressive fire-djinn clan. They hated trade and wanted to isolate themselves from anyone else, thinking the truth would be found if they lived only from the fruits of their own labor.

"How would we even want to fight them if our council is this useless?"

"I know, right? I would rather have the boy who even got some territory before getting cowardly ambushed!"

They lived isolated on an island and constantly disrupted the operations of the Eros Alliance. They made certain diplomatic relations more challenging to maintain as they always tried to destroy them. They were a thorn in the Eros Alliance's eyes, but they were still tolerated since they had a family of ancient descendants—shamans.

"Isn't the Church doing nothing against those dirt worshippers?"

"Really, why even need them if they don't care."

It was not part of the Temple but was nonetheless seen as an orthodox small religious sect.

'Hm? What's this?'

As Irisk walked to the more central part, needing to do some errands. It wasn't too bad, and some vendors were still allowed to sell here after a lot of bribery.

"Argh! Stop! I beg you!"

Irisk smiled mischievously, 'Oh, that's interesting!'