NOVPUBFor a while before the war, they—the spies— had wondered how to maximize their stay here.
The best case was really removing the current lord. Even if the next one wasn't particularly friendly, it was better than one with an actual grudge against them—which was inevitable once they lost to Alterra and considering the fact that they killed Patte.
However, how easy could that be? The Lord himself was strong—nearly twice their levels—and he was surrounded by guards not much weaker than he was.
They also couldn't risk connecting directly with the potential forces to go against the lord. After all, Lords were usually powerful in their territory, and they could have allies even in households that seemed against them.
Planning something outright would also reduce their loyalties, but fortunately it was normal for a large town with tens of thousands of population to have a good amount of people with low loyalties. So, even if the Lord could see their low loyalty points, he wouldn't have done much, especially since they were preparing for a big war. 𝘯𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
However, here they were, actually managing to get two of the most powerful families against the Lord.
The best part about this arrangement was that the two old rivals would definitely not completely trust each other. Rather, they'd serve as a check-and-balance for them.
Speaking of the two old men, what they said were actually true—their children were having relations, and the daughter was even pregnant with a son.
Finding out about the forbidden relationship of the younger generation of the two families was a good part due to luck.
It was actually Tambay, in his beggar attire, who found out about this.
The young people were passionately in love, but it was clearly the forbidden kind. They were sneaking outside and choosing a hidden inn at the edge of town for a rendezvous place.
Tambay, who was 'sleeping' by the door of said hotel (one could get a surprising amount of gossip there) happened to have overheard the lovebirds' whispers.
At first, he thought it was just a random affair, but the more he heard the more his ears twitched in curiosity.
"What will dad say? Will they force the baby out?" the woman said, voice shaky. "I'm so scared…I don't want... I don't want to get rid of him."
"No, if they can't, we'll run away…" the man said. "I… I already got a lot of information from the caravans… I can find us a way out—"
"Our parents… and the Lord… what if he—"
Tambay's ears perked up at the mention of the Lord.
"Why are we born in our families... it would've been easier if we were commoners..." she cried. "I love you..."
"I love you, too..." the man said. "I'll... I'll figure out a way... don't worry too much," he paused. "It is not good for the child for you to be so sad."
Tambay really wanted to eat popcorn at the time, but fortunately he managed to stop the itch. Anyway, he was no longer able to hear more details as they had already entered the inn.
He waited for them to come out again hours later. During the waiting time, he called his brother to assist, and each one of them followed one-half of the couple home.
There, they found the best news yet!
They found out that the girl—Yaliya—was from the Ine Family, the daughter of the patriarch himself! Then they found out that the man, Umko, was the heir of the Ort family, the richest family next to the lord.
There were special tools to determine the sex of the baby, and they found out it was a boy, making the alliance even more probable.
Their love story was the paragon of forbidden love and the romantic in them wanted to know how those two even met and fell in love, but this was not the time.
Now, it was time for the rest of the war. Eagle heaved a deep breath. "Even now that the Lord's settled, the war is still ongoing," he said, "We can still do things with the regulations null." The one who had the token was still a member of the Basset Town, rather than an Alterran, so the war was not cut short even when the Lord died and his token was taken.
Time to find where the heck Chris was!
…
While Eagle made sure the Token plan was as smooth as it could, he had sent Tambay and Tanod to find out where Chris was. It had been a few hours and, fortunately, they did manage to get something.
Using the connections among beggars that they had created (in exchange for some crackers and some jerky), they found that Chris… was taken by someone associated with the Lord!
Fortunately, the Lord was now gone and a lot of his guards were in the war. The two new rulers wouldn't be in a rush to head to the Lord's Palace either, as they'd have a lot more things to worry about.
For instance, if they lost this war, how would the territory cope? For instance, retaining as many forces as they could.
Anyway, while there was a possibility of the two families also sending their remaining forces to war, it was unlikely.
Their term was far from stable and anything could happen—one of which was the fact that if other forces found out about the Token, it could still be taken away from them—and they could be justified with it, too.
For now, these two families would be forming their own fortress just in case, protecting family members and token. They would have no time or excess resources to join in the war.
And so… the group went to study the Lord's House. They had been renting one of the Hotel's room since before to monitor it, and now they had to study its current state.
The Grand Hotel stood across it from the plaza. It was not too close, but with their scopes they could see a lot of things.
The Lord's house in Basset was a small palace and (what they'd assume to be) and also one of the gaudiest choices in the System Residencies.
It was still similar to medieval-like architecture that they were used to after coming here, but this one had actual towers. It wasn't that tall, just about 5 storeys high, but it definitely towered compared to the other buildings surrounding it.
It was also massive with large halls, and probably large rooms too. They mused the loo was probably several rooms away and it was horrifying to walk in at night, but to each his own.
It basically had what was attractive about palaces, which was its massiveness and the feel of power, to add prestige to the Lord when he himself had limited amounts of it.
It also had a lot of unnecessary decorations, like a mishmash of 'exotic' things that the generations of Lords and their families decided to show off with.
As for security, it was surrounded by the highest level wall they had (level 6) and relatively dense sentries. There were also several guards still going around and making rounds, completely unaware their Lord had perished. Obviously, the system didn't seem to bother alert their residents their leadership had changed, but good for them.
So, now… Chris… where exactly are you?
