Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

As the mood in the room changed, the event turned from a welcoming party for Wolfe and into a business strategy meeting involving every influential family in Sylvan City.

"I guess I should have brought some people from home with me. A lot of these plans are going to need transport companies, and they will need the locals to form a relationship with the other villages of the Frozen Wastes, unless they're planning to give us a cut of everything to become the intermediary." Wolfe whispered to Priya as he watched the nobles discuss their ideas.

"They will all realize that tomorrow. But I am sure that some enterprising businessman will already be here by then, likely with a truck and an offer to do the brokerage on their behalf so that the towns don't need to know everyone, they just need to know the merchants." Priya replied.

Wolfe realized that was the most likely outcome. While he thought of the issue on a city leader's level, most villages had always done business through merchants who took orders and found ways to fulfill them for their customers.

That would also add a level of anonymity and remove personal grudges from most of the interactions, unless there was an obvious link between the request and the person that they had a grievance with.

With the long history of hatred between the Covens and the locals in the Frozen Wastes, it would be better if the buyer wasn't specified. Even though most of the population of the villages was now mutants, nobody would forget in such a short time that they were considered prey by the Witches for as long as anyone could remember.

"So, we can let them just do their thing? Because I have plans for the evening, and there are no old women or foreign politics involved." Wolfe whispered to Priya.

Priya cast a glance at his demonic bodyguard, who was laughing at his pickup line, unconcerned with the details of his love life after this long. She had seen far more concerning ideas than flirting with one Witch that he already had a relationship with.

Tian and Tammi, her Succubus Familiar, made their way to Wolfe as he came down from the stage to mingle with the others, intent on evading their inevitable return to the children's area, where everyone was so boring.

Compared to that, all the fun to be had was out here, and the pure excitement that was filling the room was putting the Succubus in a great mood. But these events always had at least a few people sneak away for intimate moments in bathrooms and closets, and that energy was also helpful, as there were no other Succubi around to take it away from her.

"Mister Wolfe, would you like to dance?" The tiny witch asked formally, holding her hand up for Wolfe to take.

"But of course."

The walked out to the dance floor, and the witches made way for what they took as his indulgence of a child's whim, while the band changed to a more upbeat tune. That brought a lot more people to the dance floor, some to dance, others for the natural partner swaps that went with the dance floor, where they would move one partner to the left and have a chance to pass messages to political rivals that it would be suspicious to openly approach.

Everything in Coven politics had an under layer of rivalry that Wolfe could sense, but it looked like they were finally beginning to move past the worst of it and at least work together for their mutual benefit instead of trying to hoard power.

Wolfe switched partners and found himself with one of the heirs of the Sylvan Council families, another young teen Witch with blushing cheeks and a determined look.

He was being set up, he was absolutely certain. But he was happy to dance with her, and when the song was coming to a close he 'conveniently' found that no matter which way he happened to be facing, there was another young successor in waiting there.

[Do you think this is some sort of dating service? Or are they looking for a scholarship to come to Forest Grove to gain power?] Wolfe mentally asked Priya.

[I would say a bit of both. You know how arranged marriages are. But the Coven wants to keep their positions, and that isn't going to happen if there isn't someone at least as powerful as I am in their Families within the next few years.]ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ɴo(v)elFɪre.ɴet

She had a good point. With the Fae and the Demons taking over the Guardianship of almost everywhere, there simply weren't many roles of power that were still being done by the Witches.

Wolfe assumed that there were at least some overseas, as there were nearly a hundred Rank Five witches between the other continents, unless something had happened to their powers after the Mana Beast broke free. But they shouldn't have lost all their powers, and only a dozen or so of them died in the offensive against this continent by his count, so there should be enough to control a few regions.

The dances continued, with each one bringing a new partner to Wolfe, all from different families, except for the dances where Tian managed to sneak back to the best spot and get another dance.

It was funny to watch because nobody was willing to reprimand a preteen for sneaking a dance with the Magi while they were trying to give him a good impression of their family and daughters, so she just came over every third or fourth dance and stole the next spot.

The event ran late into the evening without Wolfe being able to sneak away, but around three in the morning, the crowd began to disperse, and Wolfe went to find Priya, who was carrying a sleeping Tian to avoid being bothered by random people. She was more than ready to go home, and had been for hours, but as long as the event was still going strong, it would be impolite for a Family Head to leave.