312.4.75.

Back in Ambolt, James was standing in front of the Drage house's entrance.

After the collapse of the Fireflies, life seemed to become a lot more peaceful. This was, however, only temporary. There was a certain tension in the air and he wanted to find out why.

James had visited the police station to hopefully find out what might happen next. To his annoyance, nothing meaningful could be gained from them. The entire place was seemingly ready for the apocalypse with no one knowing why and the chief could generously be described as hysterical.

With few other options, James reluctantly chose to speak with Helen. She would have information one way or another, even if she was going to be cryptic about it.

He eventually took the courage to press the doorbell. However, just before his hand reached the button, the door was opened and behind it stood a severely under-dressed Helen.

"Come on in. I'll make us some coffee."

James sheepishly accepted the invitation and made very careful observations about the floor until he found a place to sit. A few minutes later Helen sat down opposite of him with the promised coffee.

A minute of awkward silence passed as James failed to figure out a polite way of voicing his thoughts. After a while the silence became too unbearable.

"Could you please put on something less revealing?"

"I only have suits for that and I'm not going to wear any of them for this."

Helen's choice of clothing was something one might see in a brothel, which was a probable source considering she owned several of them. She actually used to frequently wear similar outfits before adopting Manda, at which point she had to consider how she's perceived.

Even now she only picked up an old costume because she was planning to be alone and everything else was either torn or in the laundry.

"Then I'd like to get to the point please. Something's up and everyone is acting weird, could you tell me what is happening?"

"Oh right, you don't know."

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"Don't know what?"

"Everyone is preparing for war. It's nothing major and I intend to win, but it certainly is annoying."

James managed to finally connect the dots. He wasn't really informed about the criminal side of recent events but he did hear about the late firefly leader's vague threats and Alexander's panicked reaction.

Turns out, whoever supported the fireflies considered them important enough to go to war over and the higher ups in the police considered them strong enough to not even bother sending reinforcements.

"What are we going to do?! There's no way any of us can stop them!"

"Calm down, will you? WE are not going to stop them."

While clearly understanding the suggestive tone, James didn't feel calmed by the gangster's words at all.

"I don't think Leon will help us out. Especially after what happened the last time you two met."

"Of course he won't. You're surprisingly naïve considering who your brother is.

I have more than enough people owing me favours to take over a moderate sized country. Some of them are bound to take the risk just to get me out of their lives."

While not entirely convinced, the young man calmed down enough to think rationally. His rational thoughts told him to get away before he was dragged any further into the upcoming gang war.

"Looks like you have everything under control. I guess I better get back to studying instead of worrying unnecessarily."

He almost reached the door when a slender but firm hand was placed on his shoulder, stopping him in place.

"Oh no you don't! I'll be needing all the help I can get. We need to get this over with before the kids get home."

312.4.79

In the span of four short days Veitset, the largest crime syndicate in the alliance, lost around half of its fighting power and they were desperately trying to find out why.

Getting rid of a small time gang shouldn't have been this hard. But they couldn't even get close to their small town before everything fell apart. A number of groups with various legality attacked them. Soon after a lot of their strongest fighters deserted without any reason and all of their financial relationships fell apart overnight.

If nothing changed they would be forced to disband within a week.

Meanwhile, the soothsayer who single handedly caused all of their problems was being unreasonable.

Helen was sitting in her office with a traumatised James next to her. He didn't have to fight anyone but he was present for all of Helen's shady dealings in the past few days including some interrogations he wished he could unsee.

The boss lady on the other hand was in her element and was calmly musing to herself about the situation.

"I should have put more of my people on the ground, this is going way too slowly! I think I'll have to call that newshound to stay out of the country for a few more days. Maybe a week."