...

Letter from Ori L. Nine-Fire to Marisia S. Leonandra

Dear Mari, I am writing you back in regret of what you and your family experienced. I know no words could calm you down, especially since the threat came from us.

The last thing I or my household want is to endanger your puppies in any way. With this said, as your first cousin once removed, I swear that I will wash away the dishonor with the blood of any traitor I get my hands on and send their heads as an apology to you. For Fiorello, though, I want to skin this unthankful bastard myself! What is left of him, I will naturally send to you so you can put it as a trophy anywhere it fits.

You don't need to worry about anything since the moment I read your letter, I immediately started sending out my girls with our army and the command to get anyone who even spoke with Fiorello in the last years.

Of course, the Foxteeth underworld, who took the hit to assassinate your and mine puppies, will be in shambles the next time you visit me. I will fill the sewers with the blood and guts of those who associated with him so the rats can have their fill! There will be no guild left that dared to associate with anyone even accused of being in contact with Fiorello. I promise this to you!

Also, I want to thank you, and especially Alexander, for risking his life to protect my little Patricia. A thank-you would never be enough to show my gratefulness, so please ask Alexander what he wants, and I will get it! Even if it is the Dean of the Moorgrelian Cathedral branch, I will kidnap him personally so he will teach Alexander. Just say the word.

Peter is also incredibly thankful and can't believe what happened. He already set out his people to contact every underworld on Moorgrel to put a hit on Fiorello. With his connections, it would be impossible to flee for the little rat.

He also said that it should be natural that our daughter, Linuel, saved your son, Narsiz. I am grateful for your thank-you and gratefulness. We would like to have the great parchment you acquired as a present. Peter was especially very fond of it as the letters you used it for looked beautiful. You know how he is, full of vigor when it comes to his art.

While I am on the point of our puppies, how is the bonding going on? From what I understood in the last letter, Narsiz, and Linuel are in love, which is great! Since Narsiz is the one who will administer the fief, he can and should obviously stay at your territory while, hopefully, Linuel can help him with his ambitions. However, I would want to have the wedding at my estate since Peter is always too lazy to travel.

Regardless, I hope for a more conclusive answer in your next letter on Narsiz and Linuel. I also understand that because of Alexander's well-being, writing about the bonding between puppies is a bit tasteless. However, if possible, please keep me informed on how they are doing.

You also mentioned that night-elves attacked them, but sadly, I have no idea, less Peter, who it could be. But please be sure that when we find someone in the underworld, we will question them and then write a letter with their blood on their skin about all the information they gave us.

I will excuse myself for the very sloppily written letter since Peter usually does it, but since he is out hunting down vermin, I was forced to write it, and you know how untalented I am in that aspect.

With Greeting and a lot of love,

Ori L. Nine-Fire

...

Days later (weeks after the assassination), Marisia's office

"So this is what he said, my lord and lady."

Sarusos was standing before Kairoso, Marisia, and Scarlett. He recounted everything he could get out of the assassin, which wasn't much, even after weeks of torture. It was a lower Tier 2 assassin bound by a robust mana contract, so Sarusos's information gathering was slow, and the results were cryptic.

Marisia knew his method for such cases: For every question he asked, he was given an answer that didn't say much, but in the end, they could puzzle every answer together and get at least something abstract. It was the only way to bypass contracts besides unique skills or spells that they didn't have, and hiring someone with such abilities would take too long.

The first answer she wanted to have answered was how they bypassed their skills and senses since the prisoner wasn't particularly powerful. The answer was relatively trivial: They had special skills in changing into others if they drank their blood. It was a weird skill that only worked when they did this ritual at specific intervals. Otherwise, they would turn back. With this, they could copy other's bodies and thus trick their close ones with their smell, looks, etc.

'So they were pressed on time because they had little blood left. Otherwise, the abrupt attack made little to no sense.'

While it sounded like an exciting topic while having cake, it was mostly useless. Such skills weren't scarce, and the underworld brokers would probably not know anything specific about them. At most, they could get hundreds of pages with rough descriptions of individuals with similar skills.

Marisia walked around the office while thinking aloud, "So... the skills are a dead end. What about the pay? Can we get something out of that? It is a given that it was probably an enormous sum, but was it cash or a banknote?"

Sarusos frowned, "Cash, and they used multiple brokers for smaller sums who dabble in vastly different areas, so it was surprising to hear some particular names..." Sarusos suddenly smiled at her, "...don't worry, my lady, I will visit them and get some answers. However, I know that some are only the middlemen for hits or jobs given out from Foxteeth."

Marisia wanted to continue, but the moment she heard that there was a possibility that a hit came from Foxteeth, she frowned, "Foxteeth, you say?"

Sarusos nodded and understood, "I understand what you are thinking about, my lady, but it could also be that since they sent their hit through multiple brokers, Foxteeth could be just one city in a series of many major hubs to obfuscate their traces more thoroughly..." He stopped and sighed, "...and we don't even know if there are smaller towns involved."

Kairoso interrupted him, "Give me the name list. I will see if there is a name I know. I know some shady brokers who dabble in Jackteeth, Dogteeth, and some smaller towns."

Sarusos nodded and gave him the list. All the while, Marisia wasn't too happy about the outcome. If the hit came from Foxteeth, it meant that Ori, the lady of the territory, was obliterating the whole underworld and, with this, their evidence.

Fortune wasn't on her side when her husband, after a quick glance, strengthened her worst assumptions, "I only recognize the ones from Foxteeth. This means..."

Marisia continued for him, "Let's hope that Peter stops Ori. Otherwise, it would be hard to interrogate dead brokers."

Scarlett tried to relax her, "Don't worry, she is not that crazy."

Marisia turned to her and raised an eyebrow, "Didn't I show you the letter from before?..." She turned to her husband, "...Ah, right, you didn't read it. She also asks for paper for her husband's novel. So please ask Alex if he could give her a couple of samples when you visit him today, and also, please ask him what he wants since she wants to reward him for saving Patricia, okay?"

Kairoso was confused, "Is she crazy? Her daughters were attacked, and she asks for paper?"

Both women answered him confidently and nonchalantly.

"Yes."

"Very much so."

He tilted his head in bewilderment till Scarlett explained, "It is for her husband, who also wrote the novel everyone read in the estate. He is not only a good commander on the battlefield but, for some reason, likes to write trash for commoners."

Marisia waved her hand in dismissal, wanting to continue, "I will give you the letter later to read..." She turned to Sarusos, "...Let's hurry up. I need to write a letter before Ori burns down her city. Tell me the name of the assassin. Maybe we can conclude something from it."

Sarusos shook his head, "They are blanks."

She rubbed between her eyebrows and felt that a migraine was coming. Being a blank meant that they forgot their names through various means, and nobody knew them, too, so their system deleted them as there was nobody who knew what they were named.

It was a highly illegal practice used by nobles for the information networks they built in the past. For this, they would try to find impoverished pregnant women, catch them, and wait till they gave birth, only to kill them afterward so the newborn was as clear as possible from anyone or anything. Other than that, there were other methods, but they were usually more expensive to turn someone blank.

A blank was a perfect agent since the blank name of their system indicates that they had nobody who knew them or didn't even know who they were. So, they had no past and, with it, no baggage. They would and could change their names multiple times without any problems, depending on whatever they were doing, even going so far as impersonating nobles.

She didn't know much about it as they had never practiced such a thing, only that they were great agents and some minor details.

'I can't believe that they had actually such expensive but weak assassins... what is going on?'

Usually, one would try and train their blanks as much as possible since they were an expensive resource. However, the one Sarusos interrogated was far from what the usual higher nobility had.

She looked at Sarusos and asked, expecting not much, "Territory?"

He suddenly smiled, "Well, by their smell alone, they are part of the East of Moorgrel, and since birth."

She nodded since it was a good beginning. If someone's sense of smell was strong enough, and this was especially for canine-kin the case, they could, through various means, determine where they lived since birth. It was sometimes rather vague, but with Moorgrelians, it was easy since the stench of the wild-demonic aura was strong in the east and easy to determine since it would also depose inside the body and would increase depending on where one lived and for how long. Again, it was a rough estimate, but better than nothing.

However, this made the situation even weirder. The assassins were night elves, so she predicted the worst, 'Is some noble actually stealing them from the refugee camp?'

If her assumption was true, the noble was dead meat. The camp was not to be attacked under any circumstances. Whoever did this would get killed, no matter under whom they were, 'This is impossible to determine.'

She looked at Sarusos, "Can you determine if they got stolen from the refuge camp?"

Scarlett interrupted her, clearly surprised, "They are still alive? How surprising. I thought that they all died already."

Marisia shook her head, "No, they are alive but barely, and there could be a possibility that someone bought or stole them and turned them into blanks."

Sarusos frowned, and his tone became a little strained, "It's impossible to determine if nobles are at play who could, in the first place, do what they did. However, since they got paid, it..." He stopped and scratched his head out of stress, a rare sight, before continuing, "...it makes no sense why they took even a hit or placed one in the first place. This whole attack makes no sense."

Kairoso said, with barely a care in the world, "Well, you know our little friends, and they know what it means to go against us, so..."

Marisia immediately interrupted her husband, "No purges! The last thing I need is for the vacuum we created to get even bigger. They are careful and try to control themselves. The last thing I need is the underworld going against us."

Kairoso sighed, "Fine..." He looked back at Sarusos, "...be careful then, and do nothing outrageous."

Sarusos became a little discouraged but nodded, "Of course, master..." He turned to Marisia, "...anything else? If not, I have written everything down."

Marisia shook her head, "No, wait. First, I want you to tell me everything you know, and then you can run around like a maniac in the underworld."

Sarusos put his hand over his heart and looked playfully shocked, "I would nev..."

Marisia quickly interrupted him, "Enough. What about the explosions? I heard of suicide assassins attacking after death, but exploding is new."

Sarusos stopped his act and opened his arms, sounding excited, "This was the most fascinating thing I found out! It was not a skill but a magic potion!"

She raised an eyebrow, "A potion?"

He nodded expectingly, "Yes! The prisoner had a potion inside his stomach, from which the contents were non-magical, but the flask itself was enchanted. However, I think the enchantment of our prisoner was damaged. Thus, she couldn't explode."

Marisia nodded, "Give this to..." She shook her head as she wanted to give it to Alexander to inspect, but that would be impossible now, "...store it somewhere secure till Alex recovers."

Sarusos nodded, "Anything else?"

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She ignored his conduct that he wanted to leave and bring mayhem to the underworld and just continued, "Is the prisoner still alive?"

The fox-kin frowned slightly, "Barely... she is trying to kill herself at every possibility, so I give her a week till the poisonings of the healing potions get too strong."

"What about healing, or do they activate a contract clause?"

He nodded, "Sadly, yes. They get overly jittery, and their body gets destroyed the moment they feel like they are getting healed. It seems to be a contract on a very high level."

Marisia truly disliked the information they got since they were all, if taken by themselves, inside the norm but, put together, contradicted themselves heavily. Nothing made sense.

Comparably weak blanks with exploding potions inside of them who also had suicide skills weren't something anyone could afford. It was bizarre, especially after she heard about the potions. They weren't cheap either, putting them inside someone who could become a great assassin after some decades, especially with such strong appearance-changing skills. It made no sense to her.

It didn't stop there. Why attack them? The only ones who would be vulnerable against them would have been the puppies, but trying to assassinate someone so young, like Patricia, while putting so much out there was insane. Nobody in their right mind would do it since they would become the enemy of the Count and all his Knightages once found out.

Even worse, the only one who could do something like this in Moorgrel would be a Viscount, but there were only three, and they would never put so many resources into a useless suicide attack for a pup to die.

There was another point she couldn't understand. It could be possible to point a finger at them if they attacked Alexander, who had tremendous potential, and if they somehow found this out. But they tried to kill Patricia almost maniacally, who was talented but not to such a degree that propagated assassination attempts. It was mind-boggling to her. Nothing made sense.

'Did Ori do something to them to get such hate?'

The only possibility to her was that Ori somehow angered a Viscount, but that wasn't hard. The guard households weren't exactly on good terms with the other nobilities since they extorted gold from them to protect the border.

Marisia and some others were exceptions for rather boring reasons. She could've done the same and just got the gold for the demon run, but such practices usually led to a long-term economic slump for everyone.

She visibly sighed and decided to ask her this in a letter, 'Did she really blackmail a Viscount?'

She noted it down inwardly and went to the next problem, which was much more glooming and practical in nature. They needed to find the brokers quickly and get them before Ori killed them, 'I can't believe that the hit came from Foxteeth... if it is true, that means they somehow are insane enough to... but again... damn it!'

Marisia was angry since they needed the information from everyone they could get their hands on, and if everything came from Foxteeth, she would be lucky if she could find some half-dead information brokers.

Nonetheless, the underworld over there made the same mistake theirs did in Wolfteeth. They attacked their ruler, and Marisia knew that Ori wasn't as forgiving as her. Ultimately, she killed around 20 to 30% of their underworld guilds, which specialized in assassinations, protection, and more, to not create a power vacuum inside her territory. Still, she knew that Ori would do the opposite and probably purge the whole underworld. Soon, there would be nothing left if she didn't start already out of rage.

'I hope Peter can stop her somehow. The last thing I need is having their underworld flee to ours.'

There was a possibility that news was traveling fast enough and that many would just flee before a purge would start, and the closest places would be either Jackteeth or Wolfsteeth, 'I can't believe they did this actually in Foxteeth.'

The underworlds were actually very well controlled inwardly, and they would quickly kill their own delinquents who didn't follow their rules. It was especially the case in Foxteeth since their nobles were always on the extreme side in how they reacted to aggression.

The most urgent information she needed was why there was a hit in the first place. Putting a hit out there for blanks to accept made no sense and would go against her theory of a Viscount being behind the whole ordeal. Nothing made sense to her, and the brokers would at least have some idea of who could be behind it.

Yet, she had one more thing she needed to know. The whereabouts and involvement of a certain individual, "What about Fiorello? How were the assassins connected to him?"

Sarusos shook his head, "Barely. They only knew that they should follow him and act according to their roles around him, but he was not a target, that's it."

She nodded, "Fine. That was enough."

They had already sent dozens of people into their underworld to look for him, but there were no traces. She speculated that he somehow could flee through magical means since they also could purchase explosives. It wasn't far off for him to have a teleportation scroll.

As the name suggested, a teleportation scroll was a magical item that teleported the user kilometers away. The distance could easily increase to a dozen kilometers or much more, depending on the strength. However, the side effects were that his attributes, stamina, and strength in general would decrease drastically for some time, which relied again on how far he teleported. It was a gamble if he even survived and didn't land in some forest where wild animals or monsters would rip him apart.

Marisia became stressed as the situation wasn't something she could even see through. Everything contradicted each other, and she had no way of understanding what was happening while the Nine-Fire household acted like a hornet's nest being poked with a stick, 'What a mess.'

Sarusos bowed and left her office quickly. On the other hand, she promptly sat down and needed to get her message over to Ori quickly, 'I need to make at least sure that she doesn't torch the whole city.'

Marisia quickly pulled out some paper and started to write everything down. She commanded one of the servants to get one of their specially bred falcons so she could deliver it as quickly as possible after she was done.

Kairoso asked as he looked at Marisia in confusion, "Why the haste? One hour, more or less, doesn't really matter. As long as we get a hit on him, he will not be safe in Moorgrel."

Without looking up, Marisia answered him, "It's not about Fiorello. It's because of Ori that I need to be quick. You don't know her as well as I do and didn't read the letter..." She opened another drawer and gave her husband the letter, "...you will see."

Kairoso raised an eyebrow after quickly reading it, "She is really crazy... first the nonsense with the paper and then stuff with the blood. Does she have mood swings?"

Scarlett nodded at this, "Sounds about right. She was always a little on the extreme side."

Marisia ignored the chat her mother and husband had. Now, she needed to hurry and quickly write everything necessary down, and later on, she would send a more thorough response regarding all the other things she asked about. She also noted down to remember the paper for her. Otherwise, Ori would annoy her.

She came suddenly out of her thoughts when Kairoso said something she thought about but didn't want to ask, "Since Ori is having a go at the underworld, I will ask Green to contact the oracle."

Marisia looked at him suddenly, "The oracle? Are you sure?"

He nodded solemnly, "It's fine. Worst case, she doesn't find anything, but the debt she owes me would barely make a dent."

Marisia nodded and suddenly remembered the other part of the letter, "By the way, she wants to know how the girls bond with Narsi and Alex. I will include it in the next letter, but from what I see, Narsi and that bitc..." She quickly corrected herself, "...Linuel are bonding well while Patricia and Alex are coming closer, but I don't see anything that tells me he is in love with her. Do you know more, Mother?"

Scarlett tilted her head in confusion, "I agree mostly, but did something happen with Linuel?"

Marisia answered her stoically, "I would rather skin this vixen, but I will let it go for now. Bonding is one thing, but kissing? She is lucky that Kairo was lenient and convinced me not to sterilize her."

Kairoso shrugged, "Where I come from, kissing is not a big deal. Premature commoners do it all the time, so who cares?"

Scarlett nodded as a thank you at Kairoso, "Thanks..." She then turned to Marisia, "...I recommend that you send him away after his first mating season for his practice as administrator together with Linuel. Since he has no personal guard, having her by his side would be perfect. So I would say she should stay here."

Marisia nodded but warned her mother, "I trust your judgment and hope you won't try to trick me again. If she does anything more to my son, I will have her head, so you know."

Scarlett frowned, clearly not caring about Linuel, "I thought we closed this chapter?"

Marisia looked at her mother sternly, "We close it when my sister is healthy again," and went back to writing.

Scarlett didn't say anything but became visibly angry. Marisia cared little for her emotional well-being and was ready for another fight. She even wished for one to let her frustrations out. She was under a lot of pressure at the moment as everything was out of her control, and she hated it.

First, it was because she decided against her initial judgment, immediately returning Linuel back to Foxteeth. The vixen would stay here like the parasite she was. Still, with Kairoso and her Mother seeing no problem in what she did, Marisia decided to listen to them. Ultimately, even though she disliked the fox girl whore, if her son was happy, her thoughts should matter little.

Second, it was because Ori was about to slaughter the Foxteeth underworld, and they wouldn't get any information.

Third, it was because Alexander was in constant pain, and through Sarah, she found out a couple of days ago how bad it was actually. All she could do was watch him and try to be a good Mother. She hated it. She would rather have a healthy but fearful son and a dead Patricia, but what was done was done.

Because of everything, she wished for nothing more than a punching bag now, 'First, I will spar later with some guards, and later, I will need Kairo...' She rubbed her head as the pain got to her, "...the damn migraine is getting stronger.'

Kairoso saw how both acted and tried to change the topic, "What about Alex? Patricia should love him, right? She sleeps every night with him since we allowed her to visit him, and I think Alex is starting to like her, too. I mean, he protested strongly for her not to sign a contract."

Scarlett nodded like nothing happened, saying, "I think so too, but Patricia will have some training to do, so don't worry about her. She will not stay at the estate for too long."

Marisia smirked, "You don't know what Alex thinks. Just talk to him, and you will find out why he sees her just as a friend..."

She looked at her husband and smiled, showing anger, "While we are discussing Alex. My dear husband, I would prefer if you don't tell our son, who is not older than my leather armor, about your adventures with those whores and trash you called subordinates..."

Kairoso smiled back and held his hands up in peace, "Got it, no more whores, but my subordinates were great people."

Marisia frowned and ignored that her husband was making it look like it was fun living in a giant tent with a bunch of barbarians who only drank, had intercourse, or did both simultaneously. Still, she hoped he would make his stories more appropriate, 'I will talk to him later again about this topic... after I get rid of the migraine.'

She looked toward her mother, "By the way, what do you mean with training?"

Scarlett waved her hand in dismissal, "Nothing, she wants me to train her."

The room became suddenly silent, and Marisia stopped writing, looking at her mother like she was crazy. Her training was Outer Circle, and even though she went through it after her first campaign at 19 and gained incredible strength, it was nonetheless barely doable.

Marisia shivered as she remembered how she was on the brink of suicide. Eventually, her mind became empty, and she just mindlessly trained till she dropped unconscious every night. She could clearly remember how it felt: Her body broke down and was reconstructed multiple times a day for years, only to become what she was now—a living weapon.

'I can't believe she is doing with Patricia the same she did with Lisa, even at an earlier age at that.'

She looked at her mother and asked her seriously, "You really want to start a war?"

Scarlett was very casual in her response, "Don't worry about that. Patricia came to me and almost begged me to train her..." She smiled joyfully, "...so she could be a fitting spouse for Alex. With such ambitions, she should be perfect, right?"

Marisia ignored the comment about becoming a spouse since it wasn't essential and asked, "Does she even know what it means to go through your training? If I remember correctly, the last time you took some disciples in, only Bartholomew from the Silver-Tail household could do it without quitting, and he was at that point around 15."

Scarlett put one leg over the other and looked proud, "Who doesn't know it? The Iron-Claw training method is for the mediocre ones, but if you want true strength, you need me, and as you can see, it worked perfectly..." She looked proudly at Marisia, not like she was a living being, but like a sword she forged, "...you are the strongest at your age bracket, even if they are one or two Tiers above you."

The training was well known by the guard households but only used for the most talented or, rather, most resilient ones. It only mattered little if one was a genius regarding her mother's training. One needed a will made of iron to endure it.

The training regime would involve sleeplessness, pain, poisonings, curses, over-extensions, and much more while simultaneously training in combat and strength. At the same time, the body was healed and reconstructed through either one of her personal healers or potions.

This was the mild part of the training since skills could be developed, and the trainee would become more powerful and develop the needed resistance. However, all her trainees would be cursed with a unique slave tattoo, which inhibited their ability to increase their skill levels. Through this, only the body would be trained, and the system wouldn't try to compensate with more level-ups. The degree to which the body alone was strengthened was absurd, like the amount of skills that were obtained.

However, Marisia wasn't too happy about it, "I think Patricia is too young."

Scarlett nodded, "That is true. I will train her slowly over the three years..." She sighed, "...I also think the time frame is too short but enough to give her some good foundations."

Marisia glared at her mother, "I know."

Scarlett glared back but suddenly got an insight, "Okay, how about this? I want to change, so let me ask you, what would you do? She really wants to do it, and I already said I would begin slowly and only go into the harsher regime after her legacy, like the breaking and rebuilding."

Marisia was confused but smirked afterward, "You want me to deny her this chance? I don't care much about her as a person, but I care about our dear neighbor. So, please ask Ori and Peter first. If they give their okay, do whatever you want. If you want, you can even put her through 20 years of torture like you did with me."

Scarlett shrugged and smiled happily at her daughter, "Then it is settled. My dear cousin will agree, and I need some good arguments for Peter, but he will too, after I talk about how ideal Alex as a husband would be."

Marisia stopped her writing entirely and needed to clarify something important with her mother, "Mother, I think you underestimate Alex. He sees in Patricia, only a friend."

She remembered her talk with him a day ago, and it was bizarre, in her opinion. He showed slight distress and unsureness about how Patricia acted around him. She tried to understand him but couldn't since she found it cute and innocent how the little fox-girl was toward him, from all his retellings.

So she needed to comfort and tell him that the constant bonding was nothing serious. Even the licking of his tears was a rather cute gesture since puppies usually didn't know how to act toward each other when they loved the other one.

Yet, she didn't tell him that she loved him since he would probably get even more distressed at the thought of someone else, besides family, being fond of him, 'He was adorable, though how he couldn't believe that someone so young was this weird.'

She also had no problems with Patricia since she was a puppy and acted only a little inappropriately. Still, if Marisia considered all circumstances, it was innocent love, not like the whore. So she told him a white lie so he could bond with her further and maybe also develop something like love. If she told him the truth, he would probably only distance himself immediately for no reason.

She didn't see any negatives in this, especially since she became quite fond of her. She was hot-headed but was ready to sign anything, only to be closer to Alexander. She liked this mindset.

Through this, she understood that Alexander was too young to understand love and that he would need much more time and socializing to catch up to someone more mature. It was worse in the case of Patricia since she was three years older, and canine-kin girls usually matured faster than boys. It was best seen how Janina already talked about marriage and her perfect husband, while Alexander had problems even considering love.

Scarlett frowned at that statement but insisted, "Mari, I know you are very protective towards your puppies, but think about their future. Giving them much more time and pushing them a little will work out perfectly and..."

Marisia interrupted her mother, "No pushing, but I am giving them the space and the time they need. I want it to happen naturally, especially for the sake of Alexander."

Scarlett became confused but nodded joyfully. However, Kairoso injected himself into the talk, derailing it somewhat, "His future? Alex will probably be richer than all the guard dogs put together, and the thing with the mana skills alone will catapult him to the top, even if he did nothing else anymore, which I highly doubt."

Marisia nodded, "I agree with my husband. Alex has a great future ahead of him and will probably be the heir if he decides to take up the title."

Scarlett looked at her much more sternly, "You want to make him an heir if he wants to? Please tell me you are not this stupid..." She suddenly stood up, "...we need to have a serious talk, Mari."

Marisia stopped and looked at her mother, perplexed, but frowned at the end, "Not now. I need to write the letter and send it as quickly as possible to Ori and Peter. Can we talk about it in some hours?"

Scarlett wanted to argue, but Kairoso stood up and clapped his hands, "Good choice! Concentrate on the letter while I try to get Green..." He turned to his mother-in-law and roughly bowed, obviously trying to provoke her and pull her attention from her to him, "...if it is okay, Madame Scarlett?

It worked as she stared at her husband angrily, "Nobody says Sire or Madame in Moorgrel, you treehugger..." Her mother looked at her and nodded, "...I will be back in two hours..." She turned around and left, mumbling, "...I need scotch."