"Unlike the trio that arrived before him, Ares stuck to his original goal and ordered some tuna. Specifically the gnocchi primavera with fresh tuna. As for the others, all three of them ended up ordering the mackerel curry and were licking their lips in anticipation... Except for the bird... The bird was still sitting in his seat, with his wings tucked and its body stiffly upright as it peered over the table from a lower position, glaring at Ares who was this close to beating the thing up! Was this thing gonna be moody forever?! Ares ignored him after giving the bird the bird because he was more so interested in his rings right now as they were currently transmitting some warmth. This happened occasionally whenever Enyo or Blo Blo fiddled around with theirs and it seemed like they both happened to be doing it at the same time. It was probably a co-ordinated effort to say high and inform him they were departing from home to go to the Grecian Lands, despite the distance between them, and it made Ares smile to himself while he started cultivating. This was an extremely odd place to choose to do this, and some of the nobles even thought it extremely rude, but the delicious aroma would vie for his attention and make cultivating all the more difficult. Again, he was pursuing that passive cultivation dream at every chance he could find. It was either this or pressurising the Primordial Blade because, though he was on vacation, he refused to waste time idling about because it just didn't sit right with him. He could have talked to Aejaz but the guy was busy discretely stealing from the pockets of the nobles and so Ares kindly decided not to draw attention to his antics.

This carried on for a while until the meals arrived at which point everyone dug in and had a great time of things. Ares was seemingly distracted by something, however, but he kept assuring Aejaz the food was good and not to mind him. It looked like he was keeping an eye out on somebody suspicious again which would correlate with the fact that Ares had already sniffed out a few of the Firestarters already. Maybe they were keeping tabs on him? Maybe they wanted to check the scene of the attempted crime that other guy tried to commit in case they left any traces? As for who it was stalking them, though Aejaz couldn't be certain without overtly staring around at everyone to check, it looked like one of the middle-men hired by a noble was the one that Ares was keeping tabs on with his divine sense. Ares had hidden the divine sense well from the guy he was looking at but Ares made no effort to hide it from Aejaz so that was how he figured out who the culprit here was, by following Ares line of sight.

Aejaz wasn't sure how Ares knew this time around that the guy was a Firestarter, though, because the guy wasn't doing anything whatsoever. Sure he stared at Ares every now and then but, given his job, that made sense no? He was supposed to be taking in information and relaying things so this was all supposed to be completely natural... Although, now that Aejaz thought about it, wasn't that a particularly convenient excuse? 'I'm not a Firestarter, I'm a middle-man! That's why I'm staring at you!' Much like how some Firestarters invaded the official spots near the border to gain information, maybe some were posing as middle-men to boot? If that were the case, maybe this guy didn't even have a master and was simply pretending...

Now that Aejaz was stealing glances in his direction every so often, it was becoming more and more apparent this guy was dodgy! He was supposed to be looking for gossip about the other nobles but he never paid them any attention! He wasn't the employee of anyone here, if his lack of interactions with them was any indicator, so the idea of him taking a break while he wasn't needed was ruled out; and he wasn't doing his job for a master that wasn't present either! He was just standing there... Given how many nobles there were, and thus how many middle-men had been hired by them as a result, it was only natural they wouldn't recognise every single middle-man out there, even if a few long-term ones were recognisable at a glance. This was actually a genius disguise as it got you into places you really weren't supposed to be in. Restaurants like this had a sort of unwritten obligation to let middle-men in or, at the very least, permit them to stand outside. Sure there had been some fakes in the past but they were actively looking to rob the place or cause trouble with a customer inside without being held up at the entrance.

People doing this to scout for information might have been a very new problem that hadn't been accounted for because it just wasn't ever relevant. Doing espionage aboard the Federation was highly unnecessary for most and even if the nobles wanted to do it they could just bloody well hire an actual middle man! They didn't need to hide their intentions because everyone already knew them! It's not like this was overlooked, per se, just that nobody ever thought it could have consequences this dire because anyone who walked into a restaurant, stood around to gather publicly available information for an hour or two, and then left peacefully without so much as a fuss was expected to not be a big deal. It was a big deal! Actually, now that Aejaz thought about it, this middle-man wasn't even here when he came in! He must have arrived while the four people here were distracted with the menu or something... Damn, Ares had spotted him this quickly?! Aejaz couldn't help but be impressed. Ares figured out the middle-man system and noticed an oddity with this person claiming to be one in such short notice! Even the other nobles, who frequently relied on this process, hadn't seen a damn thing! He knew Ares' moronic personality was just a pretence, for the most part anyway, but there was a rather clever person hiding away in that brain of his and, when it came out to play, Aejaz was reminded just how glad he was to be on side. Having Ares as an ally was a God-sent gift and he was really truly glad to have met him back in Red Sun all those years ago. Obviously not just for protection, though that had been a massive part of it at the time, but also because he was a good brother. He didn't always do the most pleasant things to Aejaz but he always had his best interest at the forefront of his actions; and his intelligence was high enough that most of his ideas always worked out in the way he expected them to even if no one else saw it coming.

Damn... Now Aejaz wasn't paying much attention to his food either! What a waste of a fantastic meal! It was so scrumptiously delicious and buttery smooth... And yet that random guy staring at the back of Ares' head was ruining it! The guy had gone from inconspicuous in Aejaz' eyes to unavoidable and really quite obnoxious in the span of under a minute! As for why he was here... This must have been Ares reaping what he sowed as he'd caused the most issues for the Firestarters of anybody else aboard the ship. He completely outed them and their goal, screwed over all the fake officials, spotted one of their members earlier... He was like a wrecking ball demolishing their plans and approaches one by one, relegating them deeper and deeper into the shadows in a bid to get even a small win past him. Plus Ares was pretty powerful and had to be acknowledged, not ignored, because he would creep up on them and blow them to kingdom come if they weren't careful around him.

To spy, to evade, or to fight head on. Those were the three options the Firestarters had for dealing with Ares and spying was probably a method to facilitate evading later on. On the off chance Ares happened to speak any of his plans for the future aloud here then the Firestarters would immediately shift their operations to elsewhere on the boat so as not catch sight of him, or more importantly vice versa, while they were working. Unfortunately, they'd really underestimated Ares' observational prowess big time and so he was free to mislead them by carelessly speaking falsities into the wind as though he were musing to himself and / or brother. Not only was he going to be able to catch a large chunk of Firestarters during that upcoming meeting, but he would be able to lock down another group of them via this method as well. opportunities to deal with these people were falling into his lap one by one... Though rarely Ares had manufactured each of these scenarios to his liking pretty well. Chances are, he spoke openly about the Firestarters when he arrived at the Federation in order to make himself a target. His Omniscience would make it impossible for anyone to stalk him without his notice and then he could stalk them back to their hideout with the Prowler and Serpent... Had he planned this from before he even boarded the Federation? Who knows what was going on in that head of his... Either way, he'd reeled in another big fish and so it was time to lay the ground work for filleting it.

"Man, this food's really something else. Not the best I've had but it's certainly up there..." Though Ares was just casually musing to himself about the quality of the dish, and it really wasn't an important detail, the middle-man was hooked on every word which meant this was likely going to succeed in a big way for Ares. Also, the other nobles, who overheard Ares, had qualms with what he was saying! Not the best he's ever had?! Where the hell was this random kid eating that he could taste better?! They almost didn't believe it! They thought he was just showing off and speaking with a clear voice to rub in his own status to everyone else here! Of course, that was their mistaken assumption as they were now trying to lug Ares' habits in with their own. They didn't know any better as everyone who was in Ares' position had always done it for that exact reason, to spread the tales of their vast wealth, and so those who weren't familiar with Ares were led by their own nose to this conclusion that was way off the mark.

"... Still, now that I've tried this place once I don't think I'll come back. Might as well take the time to check out other restaurants on the Federation. It's a shame though, the food here is noteworthy." Though Ares was speaking at his brother, he was really nudging the middle-man into action. In fact, the guy was so eager to share the news that he left before Ares even did. Though it had happened in a rather roundabout way, Ares had given the Firestarters their first major target and it was a pretty good one for them. This restaurant was gonna burn! Or they were going to try to at least. They knew Ares wouldn't come here anymore, some of their members had a grudge with this place (even if it was completely misplaced), and it was favoured by the higher ups of the Federation so it would leave a lasting impression if they were successful here. All around a fantastic target and Ares knew that which was why he intentionally led them to this conclusion. Finding out about that one employee of the other restaurant, the one who became a Firestarter and tried to kick things off early, gave Ares a ticket to bait even more people in. He felt somewhat bad for the owner here, though, as not only did Ares just loudly and boldly proclaim he wasn't coming back, which was rude as all hell, but he was leading a bunch of arsonists here so he could round them up for his own personal gain... Ares was going to have to apologise to the owner the next time he saw him but an explanation ought to make things right. Just based on what Ares saw of the guy cooking near the back, he didn't seem too fussed about Ares impolite declaration' and might not even mind being used to lure out the Firestarters had Ares just asked. Still, the situation changed before Ares could even get a word out so things were happening without his knowledge for now. Ares could inform him after it was all said and done and maybe try reimburse him though, really, he shouldn't suffer any losses here as Ares would be keeping an eye out. It would take the Firestarters a couple days to mobilise but it would almost definitely be before the meeting took place as that would be to discuss a larger scale attack. This place would be a warm up, pun intended. Anyway, point being, the window of time for these people to act wasn't particularly large and, thus, Ares would just stakeout the place from tomorrow onwards and that should be sufficient for catching the Firestarters off guard sometime over the next day or two.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ares' job here was done for now and so he finished the rest of his meal in peace, paid for it while packing up Rox and the bird (the latter of whom seemed to be in a better mood now that he wasn't feeling hungry....), and set off feeling content with what had happened here so far. Also, as an aside, knowing now that the damn bird would throw a hissy fit and get mad at everyone if Ares didn't feed it for long periods of time was something... Technically it made sense but the damn thing was also made of magic! It shouldn't get peckish! Ah whatever, one more mouth to feed wasn't the end of the world and if it would keep him from getting so damn moody all the time then it was worth it, Thankfully it seemed like the strike was over and they would go back to work from now on without raising a fuss so he tucked Roc back into the Primordial Blade and dismissed the bird who was somewhat affectionately nuzzling his leg. The one eighty was insane! This bird was seriously a one-minded creature and could only ever be pleased if it got what it wanted! Look at the damn thing, sucking up to Ares! He almost couldn't believe his eyes and just sighed to himself before moving on. At least what the bird wanted wasn't exactly hard to find as Ares almost always had food on him to placate the bird brain should the need arise.

Ares was getting ever closer to hunter's place, supposedly according to the directions Onno had given him way back when he left him at the shack he was lending him, but there was one more small 'stop' to make. Ares wasn't entirely sure he'd be interested in the business sector he was passing through but if anything caught his interest he would be sure to at least check things out. Plus, he'd heard rumours that there was something a little unique about the direction Ares was headed in compared to the rest of the Federation as it was a place wherein a lot more was legal than really should have been... Ares turned to Aejaz with a wry smile and warned him to be on the look out... To be fair, Aejaz was always rather good at dodging attacks so he wouldn't struggle too hard here but it was better to be aware and alert than to get smacked around by an art randomly flying by. Why? Was there some kind of turf war going on? In a way, yes, but it wasn't being conducted between two gangs, or anything other rabble rousers of the sort, rather two major conglomerates with substantial financial backing and status.

Ares and Aejaz arrived at the location and why people were warned about this place was readily apparent the second they laid eyes on it. Put simply, it was a warzone and anyone not decently strong enough would perish even simply trying to walk on by. Put simply, there were two massive ships on a branching path to either the right or the left with one route leading straight down the middle between them for uninterested passer-by who didn't want to go shopping. These two massive ships were constantly firing at one another with cannonballs, arts, muskets, paint to smear the other ship, etc... Thankfully, for the shoppers headed to either store, there were safety barriers that had never failed them before and, besides, the brunt of the attacks were concentrated at the headquarters built a couple floors up on the ships and were high enough not to affect the ground floors all too often.

These two bickering companies had been long at each other's throats and were effectively at war with one another while maintaining their business uptime in a way that was rather bizarre. They kept launching explosive attacks at one another while cultivators had to scurry about below in a bid to not get hit or affected by their feud. The worst of it, specifically, was the middle route between them. The safety barriers did not extend to this particular route so you had to actively fight off any wayward attacks launched in the wrong direction! Mortals literally never used this route and even cultivators had to be cautious when passing through it. It was better to just head towards one of the shops... But you had to buy something before you were allowed to leave them! Robbery! They were taking advantage of the war they started in order to force people to cough up money for safety! It was almost like some kind of Yakuza protection racket but infinitely more scummy! And they were allowed to do this too because both businesses had backing from one of the higher ups in the Federation. Or, rather, these two businesses had originally been founded by those two higher ups but were left in the care of others. The name of the higher ups was still there, though, and they occasionally took part in board meetings, so who was going to stop this madness?! The other higherups really didn't care so this no-man's shopping land was here to stay and had been for quite some time.

When the Federation originally set sail, these two businesses pit themselves against one another in a bid to try to get the other one to fail. Thy wanted to compete but the problem was that, after a certain point, businesses could really be too big to fail. Sure both ships ended up losing some customers to the store opposite, and the nature of their feud which turned away the precautious types, but the hundreds of millions of stardust they raked in monthly had but a mere dent in it after all was said and done. They were screwing each other over but it made no difference and, so, eventually, they resorted to this. It started off with a few light assassination attempts, a sniper rifle from across the way here, an artillery shot there, but then it just kept devolving at the speed of light and now it was constant barrages. Funnily enough though, the wariness surrounding shopping at these places, from the perspective of the public, had decreased because no civilian had ever even been injured as a result of this spat they were having. The businesses wanted to show off so they hired some of the best runemancers around to ensure the safety of their customers and then it became a contest between the two ships to see who could forge a better defence system. In this way, the one-upmanship was actually useful for something and people could buy their groceries, amongst other things, without worrying too too much. The only real issue was what happened if you didn't have any money on you and wanted to get by. You either had to go the long way round, which could take upwards of an hour on busy days, or you would have to brave that infernal middle path with no safety nets... To make matters even worse, the middle path was just a rickety bridge that was battered and worn from all the attacks that had fallen down onto it over the years and so it wasn't even a steady thing you could sprint across; you had to take your time with it and be careful. It was due for upgrading, and that would probably happen in a few months, but until then it was precarious and not worth risking your life on for weaker cultivators.

As for Ares, the only decision to be made here was... Which ship should he go and give his patronage to? He wasn't too caught up on the differences between them so, as far as he knew, they were both just extraordinarily sized general convenience stores with just about every product you could ever want under the sun for sale. Ares was thinking about picking up some souvenirs and gifts for the people who hadn't come along but which ship shop would be better for that? It was a complete toss up so Ares just decided to go to both one by one but, little did he know, that was a fast tracked to getting held up by security... These businesses did frequently send spies out to the other shop and so both sides were fully invested in watching who went in and out of each shop so that they could, in turn, detain and question these people. Due to this, basically nobody ever went to both shops one after the other because it was a recipe for disaster. Plus the wares in both shops were pretty damn similar and it was mostly a matter of variations of an existing product rather than finding something in one place that you couldn't get in the other. There was actually rather fierce brand loyalty with these two ships but that was mostly because, A; they never stocked up on the brand the other ship was using and, B; you couldn't stop shopping at one ship and start at the other without being interrogated! Again, scummy business tactics out the wazoo even though it was mostly an unintentional result of their infighting. As for Aejaz, he was perfectly content with not going anywhere near the shops that were getting bombarded 24/7! He was starting to think this Federation country was fucked from top to bottom as it was always one thing after another with this damn place! Why was any of this normal to the people living here?!... Despite this, however, he raised no complaints about visiting these shops because they looked to be a fantastic source of 'earnings' in the days to come... The dangers this coward would brave for thieving purposes was truly astounding... He turned to Ares, and was about to ask which shop was first, but that was when he realised his brother had resorted to eeny meeny miny moe and that asking him to come up with some detailed reasoning for his choices in life was about as fruitful as asking a sloth to run a cross country marathon. In the end, through various means of 'rigorous deduction', Ares made the wisest choice he was capable of making and pointed at the store on the right. With that decision made, it was time to go shopping!