White Flower, Black Feather

Interlude 1 – Yesterday’s Report

Lord Maxwell walked at a brisk pace being followed by his young looking assistant, the blond man had no trouble following him at that speed and did so in an almost silent way, revealing a long martial training even at his apparent age

The retired adventurer was sure that, in a straight, clean fight, he could win against his assistant, but if he was part of… a particular group, like he suspected… he was, less certain…

Even after entering his second century of age, the high level human, maintained his black hair, even if some white hairs appeared in the last decade, or so. No, he wasn't worried about his physical condition, he only needed to pay attention at the maids that he allowed to work for his family and the lust in their eyes, was confirmation enough that his training time was still enough

And yet…

‘More and more of my time is being devoured by this… “symbol of power” if only things could calm down for a few months…’ he sighed, a habit that was becoming more and more prevalent with time

“Is something wrong, my lord?” his aide asked in a soft voice, quickly walking before him, as they reached his office and he opened the door for his superior

“Nothing…” his deep voice answered “Just wondering, what kind of jobs the noble born kindly left for me” he entered and took his seat behind his desk, glancing at the tall stack of open and flattened scrolls to one side

“Nothing big this time, my lord” Ken replied as he closed the door and placed the, also thick, book that he had been carrying, on the opposite end of the desk from the pile “As I was asked to: I already gave instructions for the minor issues, the report of them will be ready by dinner” he walked in front of the desk before continuing “However there are some… odd situations that you should be aware of”

“So, mostly reading today” Maxwell answered, he was confident that even if his intuition was correct, the man in front of him wouldn't do anything wrong, or accept a single mistake, while he was working under his name… he hated perfectionists and this boy was one. That is why he had allowed him to take care of some of the work “What are those issues?” he asked, dreading the idea of having to read the enormous book to find out

“First, One of the Paired Guards in the south wall, had to put down their assigned bird” The blond started “They, apparently, saw a snake in the roof of a house in the poor zone, instead of firing with their bows and risk hitting a civilian they unleashed the bird, as it came back it started to evolve into a Shrieker”

Max gave a patient sigh of the eternally damned and took a deep breath, he was in the middle west zone of the city, that was his area of work. Not working in the wall assigned to Lord Shine. He also was a link between the nobles and the adventurers, a position given to him thanks to his strength, but that wasn't relevant to the current issue

“If Lord Shine, as seen fitting to give me this job, then have them retrained, birds, especially of prey are only to be used as an emergency against other fliers” he spoke with gritted teeth

“I agree my lord, the anomaly though, is that they were assigned to the wall three days ago, with the bird”

An evolution in three days… something unheard of, even for new recruits, in any city forming the Shield Against the Forest, he raised an eyebrow at that

“Then… if, Ms. Storm vouches for their ability, perhaps we are dealing with a breeder that is about to evolve, send a warning to the appropriate individuals, make sure they follow the paperwork to remove the issue, and only the issue” he stressed that word, mostly to make sure that the fallout, if any, wasn't going to reach him

Ken nodded before continuing

“That wasn't the only evolution reported yesterday” he glanced to the pile and so did his lord, that grabbed the first item there “Near the Adventurers Guild, a little girl became scared of something and the dog of the family evolved into a Wild Hunter, chasing whatever scared her, sadly due to the evolution nausea, it loss the trail around a nearby alchemical workshop” Maxwell raised a finger and he stopped

“We got a War Cow?” he waved the paper in his hand and his aide nodded “Change of plans then, do the search of the breeder and confirm with Ms. Storm before sending those guards to the field patrols, if they are good enough. A cow evolving means they are fighting something, have those two go there as a ‘punishment’ and on my next ‘talk’ with the nobles I’ll mention adding more people out there, surely, another noble born already has plans to move more guards there” he glanced one more time over the paper on his hands before adding his seal and signature “The dog?” he asked giving the report to Ken

“Is already being moved with its family to help with the northern efforts, its female, so there are hopes of it birthing more Wild Hunters”

“Send the family this” he opened a cabinet and took a small bag filled with green Turtle coins before giving it to his aide “Plus some extra clothes at my name, they might need them depending on how that damn glacier moves. And if the guild got involved in the chase, use that, so they send me at least one of the puppies, Wild Hunters are great and the family has been asking for a pet” his aide smiled at that

“The guild was in fact involved, my lord” he folded the parchment and pocketed it together with the bag in his coat “After losing the trail, it went south were it was attracted to a woman that… remember yesterday’s execution?”

“Of the rapist? The one that I ordered flayed alive and then whipped to death?” his wife Agatha would have words

with him, if he arranged anything lesser, or faster, than that, then he would sleep in the couch, alone, for a few days “Small world” his assistant nodded

“A nest of Berserk Rats, was also found near the harlot house near by lord Justice mansion” Maxwell gaze became similar to molten steel at the mention of that “noble” and stood up, knowing that whatever was after this trivial announcement, was going to make him angry “A pack of Hunter Lizards as already been released in the area” he removed his coat

‘A shame that we can’t use cats for that, because… they are problematic…’ he sighed, but didn’t say anything

“Lord Justice’s maid also, gave birth around lunch yesterday” is aide continued and he also removed his shirt before speaking

“Was any of the children, she was supposed to give birth, a boy?” he moved towards a pillar of steel that was in the room, the pillar was one meter in diameter and had a tower shield hanging on it, in fact the whole building was torn down and remade just to have that kind of pillar in his office

“The eldest”

Lord Maxwell, human of level two hundred and thirty-five, punched the steel shield, shattering it in two, and making the whole house tremble, as the impact of his fist, using half his strength, against the pillar was sent to the ground

Everyone outside the building that heard the impact and wasn't waiting for it, screamed, fainted, or ran away, because not matter how many times, you heard that explosion in the middle of the city, you never got used to it

Maxwell looked at the pillar and calculated that, it was going to survive a couple more hits… as long the enchantment of the new recruit lasted, of course. He started dressing again

“Is that…” ‘Asshole, waste, stain, criminal, rapist’ “Is he expecting… some kind of… anything?” ‘Other than death?’

“I only mentioned her, because the doctor that analyzed her condition, has never made a mistake before, my lord” Ken pointed to the book

Maxwell didn't sit, he finally read the cover of the book and saw that it was the information of a single winter day, last winter in fact and was made by someone he knew

“Fall? This is the same healer, that helped my wives to give birth not long ago”

“Correct, he is a proud inheritor of his master’s teachings” the ex adventurer saw a bookmark in the ledger, but still opened it on the first page and was stunned by the fact that he, had to make an effort to read the minuscule writings, that whole side of the parchment page was used, he moved to the other side of the page and saw many extremely detailed drawings, of what was written previously, he was afraid that anyone using magic near it, could make the drawings on it move. He moved to the bookmarked page “Yesterday she gave birth to three babies”

Maxwell quickly found the information about her pregnancy in the page, ignoring the rest of the words

“She was supposed to give birth to one more?” his aide nodded and he keep reading, the healer was also a priest of Aufiea and she had whispered to the healer, that multiple gods had their eyes on the birth, it also mentioned that the firstborn was supposed to be born with a path from Mordauntless himself “So he either made one mistake, or one of the babies didn't make it” he looked up to his aide

“The old woman that helped the maid, swore to Aufiea, that only three babies were born and since healer Fall is one of Her priests, he can’t lie” the lord exchanged a stare with his aide “If lord Justice finds out this discrepancy he, or worse, his wife might do… something unwise” Maxwell sighed and he looked into the next page

He forgot to remove his coat, and it, together with his shirt, were torn to shreds as his muscles increased in size as he punched the pillar four more times, until the enchantment on it failed and the pillar broke in half with a horrifying screech, his hands were still shaking as he turned towards the other man

“Give the new guy a reward and an order for… another two of these. I also want two puppies now” Ken nodded, having closed the book, so the lord didn't saw the extremely detailed drawings of the bruises, broken bones and more, again “Have Fall… come here and…” Maxwell took a deep breath, his wives were going to get angry at him for destroying more of his clothes, but after what just happened, he was going to repaid them that night, by using their favorites skills multiple times

He also needed to forget the things he just saw, or else, the paperwork that he was going to deal with, after killing that bastard, was going to be massive

“This book stays here, if my wives see it…” both he and Ken shivered at that thought “Have the healer come here, I…” he placed the book in one of the secure cabinets and locked it inside “Has he talked with the healer yet?

”

“No, I just remembered having read that report before and I… believe, that something is to be done”

“Alright have the healer come here, I will talk to him and offer a token of my protection and if…” ‘Death meat’ “Those two try to dig information from him, since I’ll be his protector, they will need to come here” ‘If either of them are that stupid’

“Understood. That would be all, I will go and talk to healer Fall, first” he turned to the door, but his shirtless master called for him

“Do you… think… that if… a ‘lord’… were to call a group of assassins… to kill that boy; in exchange for a… favor from me… could they be… redirected?”

Maxwell saw the glimmer in the eyes of his aide and at that moment he knew, everything he needed to know

“The favor of a lord is extremely important” was the answer that Ken gave “And the idea of giving it to a group of assassins… just… because of the bastard of a lord…” he shook his head “I am sorry my lord, but that was a terrible joke, I would not repeat it to the other lords or your wives, if you would accept my opinion”

“I have nothing to punch!” he showed his still shaking hands “Saying a joke to calm down, sounded like a good idea in my mind!”

A few moments later after the assistant left, Maxwell sat again, annoyed about being right about the blond and feeling bittersweet knowing the fact, that he was probably going to kill is aide in the future

‘He is going to be hard to replace after all… but those babies… they would be safer with a snake, rather than with those monsters of a… family’

He looked at the stack of papers

“Mordauntless please, give those three and their mother a safe path” his prayer, like many, was answered by the silence in the room