Epic Of The Demonic Sage

A week had passed since the incident with Keith Drew and Bethany Harrels. 

Baron Harrels and Count Gabriel finished their negotiations and the terms of the exchange were decided from that. Most of what Lucius had asked for was agreed upon except for the part about the Aether Crystals.

Baron Harrels straightaway declared that he had no extra fortune to spend on Aether Crystals, and after all the compensations that he would have to give in the form of the tax reduction, he would not be able to afford it.

Lucius had expected something like this and was fine with it. It was not like the Aether Crystals were absolutely necessary for him. Once their plan was set up and the brewery was running at full force, they would be able to make a large profit rather early on.

Once the negotiations done though, Bethany Harrels was released from the custody of the Inanis family back to the Baron. The Baron was quite worried for his daughter and checked her for any injuries or harm.

Finding that she was completely fine and in good condition, he took a breath of relief. He quickly left the territory of the Inanis family once Bethany was released and returned to his own land.

The condition of the negotiations had already come in force, and the Count had also dispatched his men to the Barony of Harrels. They would be going there before the Baron even reached and would be ensuring that all was according to the agreement.

Plus, since Lucius had asked the Count to set up their men beforehand at the borders, they had been able to act quickly as the soldiers at the borders directly went to the Harrels Barony and new ones replaced them.

This way even if the Baron had any ideas of resisting, they were snuffed out in advance. The more the Baron thought, the more he understood the power of the Inanis Family. The Count had systematically taken away most of the power that he held, and had also suppressed him in his own territory.

But with all this, another thing came to light. With the two nobles such as the Baron and Count being involved, someone had alerted the capital about this. Such kind of a takeover could be termed as hostile and may even be on the borders of being criminal. 

The kingdom liked to prevent large scale internal conflicts from happening as much as they could. And thus to oversee this, they actually sent a few people to investigate all that had happened.

Both the Count and the Baron got official letters from the capital asking them to state their situation. They especially wanted to know what happened from both the sides while also making their own assumption.

Currently though, they had just asked for the statement but it was highly likely, they would be sending an adjudicator. 

When Lucius heard of this, he was sure that someone had specifically alerted the capital about this and wanted the Inanis family to lose their reputation. With the help of a few of the Count's informers at the capital, they learned that the notice that was sent to the capital was quite negative.

It was sent by a 'concerned' noble that the Count had let the power reach his head and had gone blind with ambition. It stated that he had started from one of the Barons of his territory and that the son of the baron had slaughtered the baron's men in broad daylight before kidnapping his daughter.

On paper, it looked quite bad, but when the people from the capital did a preliminary investigation of the rumors, they realized that the notice held some level of truth. Especially once they heard the gossips of the nobles who had attended the party of Bethany Harrels.

Of course the people of the Capital or one must say the royal court, were not naïve enough to fully believe their words. Thus, taking it with a hint of salt, they decided to do a full investigation.

"The one who sent the notice must be close to the Baron." Kiana who had brought the entire report to Lucius spoke.

They were currently sitting in his lab, and Lucius had been working on something. He had paused to take the report from Kiana and learned of everything. 

"Hmm… the most likely person seems to be Viscount Drew, but… it may just be what the sender wants us to think," Lucius spoke.

"Someone else? I think it's Viscount Drew as well, it makes sense since they think you injured Keith too." Kiana replied.

"No," Lucius shook his head. "Doing so would only be bringing a target on his head as well. If he mentioned about his own son, not only would it lead to the Kingdom investigating his transformation but they would also pay attention to the 'bandits', the trade changes and the taxes. 

Currently, the kingdom can't be bothered to keep an eye on every noble and thus lets them operate on their own as long as it does not cause too much of disturbance or if it affects their interests.

But once a scandal like this is brought to their attention, they will try to suppress it as fast as possible. They may even force Viscount Drew to stop his separation from the Inanis territory and the Land of Etara if it was too damaging to their reputation.

From what I've read till now, the Kingdom of Grantz has a staunch and upright reputation among the other nearby kingdoms. I doubt the Kingdom would want this to spread as rumors outside and let them know about our internal conflicts.

Especially in a sensitive time as now when the Armistice is still being negotiated. If the Kingdom Of Gisir learns of this, I'm pretty sure they will try to levy it to their advantage. They may even employ more of their spies to sow discord.

Viscount Keith would be opening a rather large can of worms by doing that. Plus the border of the Kingdom of Gisir is close by and even the battlefield is middle of our and Viscount Drew's territory. If Gisir wants to let people infiltrate the Grantz kingdom, this could very well be a good spot for it." Lucius explained.

Kiana was quite astounded by the level of thinking Lucius had just shown. He had thought so far that she had a hard time comprehending. While she would not say she was a genius she was definitely not dumb when it came to cleverness.

But even for her, this level of politics was a bit hard to handle. All Kiana could think of now was that Asher was truly gaining the makings of a great noble. 

'When he truly becomes the Lord Of the Land of Etara, what kind of future would that be?' Kiana thought to herself.

"Continue what I said to do before and it should be fine," Lucius said before passing the report back to Kiana.

"Alright, I'll keep on gathering information," Kiana replied.

She turned around to leave and was just about to step out the door when Lucius called out.

"Wait!" He spoke.

"Is there anything else?" Kiana asked.

"About Keith… did they manage to get any more intel? Or is he still hidden?" Lucius asked.

"He's still hidden. I tried to get more people to check it, but the Viscount has taken him to an unknown location. We did manage to get a couple of spies into his mansion by turning a few of his servants, but no information could be leaked." Kiana replied.

Lucius furrowed his brows as he thought about it. This was one of the things that had gone out of his expectations and he had been unable to find a solution for it currently. 

According to the little conformity they had managed to get about Keith, it was said that after Lucius saw him the last time, he was taken away by the Viscount. The strange thing was the Viscount took him away, despite the risk of him dying.

The people who had seen the Viscount's expression upon witnessing Keith had said that he was eerily calm. He did not listen to any of the healers, or even Head Healer Berk. He forced the hospital to hand over Keith and directly left Dowland city.

The last anyone noticed them was when they were leaving the borders of the Dowland city and after that, it was as if they had disappeared into thin air. It was only three days later that the Viscount reappeared in his territory.

The strange thing was he was acting normally and did not show, as if anything had happened to Keith at all. And if any of his people asked him questions about where Keith was, he simply stated that Keith had gotten bored and went out for a vacation.

He even denied the fact that he was injured and had transformed into a different form than normal.