Inside an estate, a hooded person was following a servant as they walked through the hallway of a noble estate, 'Rosé's Estate is so much smaller… and dirtier.'

As he walked, the person beside him, a cat-kin maid and his contact asked him, showing off her pride in where she worked, "What do you think?"

With a smile covered by the hood, he answered, "How beautiful this estate is. I am in awe."

Klepto was walking through the estate of the Rosé family. His guide was one of the servants, and he needed to lie through his teeth to not insult them.

Even lowly servants like the maid, who guided him, had a lot of pride in washing clothes, as long as it was in a beautiful mansion, and for a brat who was lucky to be born in his circumstances.

He needed to bribe many people to even arrange the upcoming meeting. But this wasn't even the worst, as the information guild at the black market was expensive, as he needed information about the family he wanted to have dealings with.

At least he didn't need to pay since it was all settled by the one he loved, and he was more than thankful, as the spider-kin wouldn't have the funds and ideas to do what he did right now, not in hundred years.

He trained and learned as much as he could in his free time, even going as far as buying skill corpses, which had significant side effects, but to him, it will be all worth it with time.

His family threw him away like a pair of old shoes, expecting him to live like a sewer rat. Even his locksmith master threw him out.

He had nothing, and only one person could understand him. It was as if he was touched by his partner's soul, and he could feel it. The rage and the revenge he wanted. It all showed.

The eyes of the spider-kin became purple and red for a short moment as pure rage went through him, but it quickly subsided. He had a job to do, not only for himself but also for his savior.

He trusted him as he was the only one there for him in his moment of need, and Klepto also wanted to be trusted. Hence, as they talked, it came out what he did, and the youth wished nothing more than to help him in every way possible. Even though it was hard and he needed to humiliate himself, he did it either way and would keep doing it.

So, he pushed everything back and concentrated on the task at hand as he tried to memorize everything as he went through the estate. If it came to the worst-case scenario, he needed to run away.

He came prepared and could run away. The Rosé family, or rather this part of their estate, wasn't well guarded... or even well-off as everything felt cheap. Their family's names sake was decorated with gold and silver and integrated into many objects. There was no elegance, only opulence.

He felt secure.

This family was well-off but far from what he saw from the Leonandras. They were also different in that they treated their children depending on birth and talent, typical for nobles.

The one with the most promise lived in better parts of the estate, while those who lived here had little chance of getting the title.

They were a Baron family with an administration background, thus the feather and ink title. The full title was: "Baron of feather and ink (II)," and it was very low in the hierarchy of noble society.

Klepto needed to learn all those useless and pompously stupid titles, ranks, etc., which was very complicated.

First, you had royalty, usually the king, queen, princes, and princesses. Who was part of the royalty was decided if they were part of the direct family of the ruler, the king/queen.

Then came the archduke, which could be a purely honorary title or have a lot of power behind it. This title was given only once while the ruler ascended to the crown and was usually given to the most loyal retainer.

It meant little since one could be granted territory or not. It was an arbitrary title but showed the importance of the crown to his retainer, who usually was another child of the previous crown.

Then came the high nobles: dukes, and marquis, who had enormous territories and were given the right to provide part of their territory to lower nobles, which they could also appoint.

The beast-kin were in the past very tribalistic, and there was no actual absolute reign like in human societies. Thus it was brought with them to the current rule after the liberation.

Commoners called high nobles: mini-crowns, which was derogatory, but they had a vital role to play. They needed to build up local power to hold everything together.

But this was even for them too big of a territory to reign. Thus, a clusterfuck of lower nobles emerged: Knights, barons, viscounts, and counts who could be appointed by higher nobles and the crown. Depending on who appointed them, it could make a big difference which was usually the size or worth of the territory.

Then came the achievements that were only given by the crown and signaled the contribution to the empire. Nobles without any achievements under them were seen as pests. It was like with humans and merits, but more formalized.

Depending on the contribution that had many forms, you could have one for war: "Blood and Iron," for donations and opening trading routes: "Gold," for administration, like bringing a territory out of debt through policies: "Ink and Feather."

There were apparent overlaps, but this was another topic Klepto wanted to avoid touching.

Behind it, you had a number set on the importance of the achievement: Mono (I), Di (II), Tri (III), Tetra (IV), Penta (V), up to Deca (X), and for exceptional contributions Undeca (XI). They couldn't be inherited, only the title in itself.

Depending on how well the noble contributed, it could lead to more land by the crown or forcing higher nobles to give up theirs, depending on the geographical location. Luckily, the higher nobles gave up territory on their own.

Forcing someone to give up their territory rarely happened since nobody wanted to start an internal war while they were in constant danger from outsiders.

Funnily enough, it was taken by the adventurer guilds for ranking their people but only outside of the beast-kin domain for reasons Klepto didn't care and didn't need to know.

However, the Rosé head had the title of "Baron of feather and ink (II)," but nobody really knew of their achievement, and this information was so expensive to buy. He just hadn't the funds for it.

Leonandra, on the other hand, was highly regarded as a prestigious "Knightage of Iron and Blood (IV)" and received an achievement through their persistent battling the east and monsters in their neighboring territories. Securing the region for commoners and other nobles.

Since they could not be given land, they were given monetary compensation. Moorgrel in itself was a weird outlier, cut out from the central empire by land. It had a count solely looking after it and given power similar to a duke.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

There were far more weird asterisks like a temple member couldn't be given titles or achievements or that immortal races, like treants and fairies, would need to give up theirs after a reincarnation.

Whatsoever, now Klepto needed to talk to some child from the Rosé family who was in the run for the inheritance but had barely any chance.

The spider-kin chose him very carefully, as he was not a full noble, as his mother was a merchant, so to say, a commoner. For some unknown reason to Klepto, she pushed him to become the new lord.

For another reason, the Rosés also hated the Leonandras. He could only find snippets of information about the cause, and it stated that the Leonandras, at some point, killed their lord. Why? He couldn't find it out, but the most crucial aspect was that he could use the young noble's hate and ambitions for his own plan.

Convincing him to do certain acts and get all his connections should be easy.

From his lover, he understood that they wanted to start to harass the Leonandras and provoke chaos between the families while they were already starting in the north to throw demons at them. He quite liked it.

Klepto didn't like that he needed to return to his camp and do something dangerous. Klepto didn't know exactly what, but it was okay for him.

The spider-kin understood that he couldn't disclose everything too privately, so he let it go, and they even had a symbol of love between them, a contract that bound them to each other.

His soul partner first spoke about it incidentally, and it could build trust, but he withdrew the idea almost immediately. Klepto wanted it in the end since he wanted to be trusted, and it was worth it.

With time he would surely trust him without a stupid contract as he could understand the situation of a wind-djinn expelled to a desolate place.

However, as he was before the door to this noble child's room, he waited and threw his thoughts to the back of his mind.

The maid went in to tell him probably that he had a guest.

It was barely possible to even meet him. He wouldn't know if it was even possible to rile them up against the Leonandras, but he had prepared more reasons. He only needed to forget his pride.

…

Inside the office

Klepto was kneeling, and he could feel the disgust of the third-born child, Louis. His mother was also the third wife of the baron.

So if he wanted to get the succession, he needed achievements. Luckily, he was weak, a little dumb but overly ambitious, probably due to his mother pestering him.

He was a leopard-kin and, like everyone in the pure-faction, had more or less prejudice against lesser races, or so they called, like himself, who was a spider-kin.

He didn't move and tried as much as possible to come off not like a country pumpkin, "Mr. Louis, thank you for the chance to meet with you."

Klepto could feel the disgust coming out of him, "Tsk, you better be lucky. Something like you can only hope to meet with me."

He was a condescending bastard, but Klepto was ready to wait and endure this humiliation. If he could pay back the Leonandras, especially his sister, he wouldn't care about anything else. In his chest burned a flame that told him that he should do everything possible to destroy them.

He gulped inwardly and barely controlled his upper eyes so they didn't change color, "Yes, Mr. Louis."

…

Some minutes later

Klepto didn't move, and it was silent. It was a typical power play by arrogant nobles who needed to prove their superiority as they didn't have any charisma, power, or connections.

Louis crossed one leg over the other as he sat down, looking down at Klepto with a smirk, "At least you have manners, so tell me exactly..."

He rubbed his chin as of thinking about something, "What do you mean in your correspondence that I could have a chance to get one over the…" his mouth changed into one of disgust, "… Leonandra's?"

Klepto tried to stay solemn as possible as he became excited, "Yes, Mr. Louis, we..." he used the plural as a way to show that he wasn't alone and could bring in power, "...have our people standing in the east from the Leonandra territory."

Louis's tail began to swing widely in annoyance, "Wait! Are you talking about the disgusting trash to which count Moorgrel gave freedom?"

The spider-kin almost clenched his fist but could control himself. He needed to show the maximum restraint; otherwise, he wouldn't give the blonde bastard in front of him the satisfaction of insulting his partner, "Yes, Mr. Louis."

The leopard-kin clicked his tongue in annoyance, probably wanting to start a fight and punish him because he even mentioned, in his opinion, such trash.

If he did so, he could probably fullfill his sadistic tendencies, but there was a bigger picture, which his mother mentioned beforehand, and he should be more patient with such scum.

He stood up and slowly walked towards the wall where his weapons hung, "So? What's next, you crawling pest? Keep going."

Klepto stayed calm, "We plan to harass them and divert their attention from the east towards other noble houses..."

Klepto couldn't talk about how they could control wild-demons, so he only explained everything roughly, but he also thought that this feline-kin was too dumb to understand anything anyway.

Louis slowly grabbed his rapier and walked around the room, thinking, "I see…."

Klepto made a mistake by continuing talking, "If Mr. Louis…."

Suddenly a kick to his face stopped him from ending his sentence. A terrible sound rang through the room as some cracking could be heard.

Luckily Klepto didn't bleed, but he could feel his lower jaw was out of place. He grabbed it and cracked it back. It felt like someone pushed multiple nails into his jaw.

But he stayed on his knee and was still, without saying anything, thanking the circle for the corpse crystal he obtained, which granted him good etiquette skills and a strong mind.

The annoyed teen stood over him with his blade in hand, ready to punish the dirty plebian if he even attempted to move wrongly, but nothing came.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Tsk. Don't talk if I don't allow you to."

Klepto could barely speak as the pain invaded him with every word, but he stayed calm, "I am sorry, Mr. Louis."

Louis frowned slightly, waving his tail in annoyance, "Keep going."

The spider-kin continued, "If Mr. Louis would slowly pit the Leonandras and other nobles against each other by targeting and killing their children or servants..."

Before he could end his sentence, Louis ended it for him, "We would weaken them and other nobles, and since we can't get the territory of the Leonandras, we could take on the noble which were weakened!"

He swung his sword and smiled maliciously, "We could kill some of their children, and after they would take revenge on some other noble family and even found out about us, they would be too weakened..."

Louis suddenly stared at Klepto and pointed his rapier, slightly piercing his temple, "...and you say that you will invade them to the south, take part of their territory while they fight, hm."

This let the noble teen think that if they attacked the Leonandras from all sides and weakened them, the Rosé family could chime in and grab some valuable territories of other families.

Klepto was elated inwardly as he had him almost there, "Yes, Mr. Louis."

The leopard-kin frowned as he didn't trust them but had a small smile, obviously loving the idea. With this plan, and if he planned well enough, he could hire enough mercenaries with the wealth his mother's family side had and slowly but surely attack the nobles after they suffered an attack from the Leonandra family.

His thoughts suddenly went haywire, 'This achievement would surely catapult me to the top… good! Very good!'

It was not a real achievement in the sense of a title. Still, if he could enlarge their territory and take with him some land with valuable resources, he would, even without a pesky achievement, inherit everything!

Louis suddenly stepped on Klepto's head, "…who knew that a peabrain could think, actually? But you need to show me some good faith, if you know what I mean?"

Klepto thought what an idiot the noble was. He probably thought about how he would dispose of them afterward but didn't know about the parasites and how strong they were.

After the end of this whole ordeal, they would dispose of him or, if it didn't work, instigate other houses against theirs, and he knew the difference in might Leonandra had compared to the Rosé family. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that the flower would be crushed in a confrontation.

He would give up a lot if he could kill his precious little sister, and as his thoughts drifted toward it, he endured the humiliation as long as he could fulfill his goal.

There was also his lover and the promise he made to him. As long as he could be together with him, he could see the whole continent burn for all he cared.

He needed war and chaos for his tribe and family, and Klepto was sure he could instigate it with time and a lot of sacrifices. It didn't matter in any way who would be killed or not.

The next hour they discussed specific details and how Klepto's side needed to show some good faith approach first, which he would love to do.

The spider-kin also thought that such an ambitious person wouldn't take the lower goal by making friends with the Leonandras by warning them and catching their people.

The eyes of the leopard-kin told him everything he needed. He wanted this useless title and a shabby estate.

Why he didn't go for his sibling's throats like a proper noble was an open secret as they came from a proper noble household, and they would have his head instantly if he made a small mistake. It was too risky.

He was the perfect scapegoat, 'Hopefully, I can kill him if this all ends. I would give a lot to see him cover in fear.'

While Klepto had his thoughts, Louis also had his own about the possible future after Klepto left, 'After this is all over, I must make sure to burn their whole tribe down. I can't let these variables run around, it is too dangerous, but till then, I will wait and hope they are as useful as he made them out to be in his letters.'

The noble teen knew that they were in a bad situation and would probably crawl through dirt to get some bread crumbs, so he was sure that they were weak but many and could help him as disposable pawns.