Friday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 16:30

Olivia’s Bedroom, 3rd Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

Olivia Pine Fredirin.

Dr. Minkle prescribed rest, and Pamela concurred with his prescription. While there were things I wanted to do away from the estate, originally I had planned to devote the day to school, so staying home and resting wasn’t an issue. As such, I spent the day cycling my mana internally, reforging my body, and further infusing my mana into my cousin’s soul.

If I had to find something to complain about, it was the fact that skipping school a day after Michael was killed and someone raided a bunch of combat schools would be somewhat suspicious. Granted, there were many excuses that could be made, and it was not that vital of an issue, but it was still a weakness. More importantly, even if it was only a minor weakness, it was one that should have been easily avoided.

I only stopped my reforging process twice, once to eat dinner with my siblings, and once to again discuss with Pamela how we would handle my trauma.

Unfortunately, we did not come up with anything despite spending more than an hour on it. The only real option seemed to be to muscle through it, facing the source of my trauma head-on. We did decide that I would skip school again tomorrow, and then I would go with Pamela after the school had closed for the day. The hope was that I would be able to handle the school building without the people inside of it being around. Divide and conquer.

I had wanted to go that night, but Pamela told me to rest, so rest I did.

In fact, I took her words to heart and even stopped cycling my mana after dinner, and instead focused on looking through the great deal of documents I had requested.

Steward Clarace had sent more detailed information on the Spectres he had lent me, these documents had arrived along with the carriage I had entered the capital on two days prior, but I was too busy to read through it. Until now that is, and the information was both interesting, and informative, if not particularly important. It was important to know the exact capabilities of my subordinate, but the original dossiers I had read covered nearly all of the important points.

I also looked over the documents pertaining to our holdings in Arvas, but those were rather light. The Pine Family’s entire set of businesses, stores, and schools was just slightly more than what Michael Canyon had under his name. We hadn’t invested much outside of our own domain, and of what little we did control, my aunt and uncles had suppressed heavily. Most went bankrupt, or were barely holding on. Whatever was left behind was operating at a loss, or was something so inconsequential that no one bothered to do anything to it. In regards to the first category, the Pine Family owned one of the three major trash collection businesses in the capital. We charged a small fee to removed trash and garbage from various businesses, but the fee came nowhere close to paying for the service, the rest was supposed to be made up from donations from other nobles, but that amount was even less than the collected fees, leaving our accountants to fill in the gap. As for the second category, we controlled a semi-guild like organization that employed water carriers, people who carried buckets and tubs of water from the canals to various businesses. The water wasn’t clean, so it couldn’t be used for consumption, but it was fine for cleaning and other similar uses. Water carriers were a step above beggars, making just enough money to survive on, and they only paid us a minor tax, and even that was only paid if they made over a certain amount of money each day. Most of the time, they did not manage that. Granted, our expenses for this business were non-existent, but so were our profits.

I had wanted to look over our intelligence on the other families, but we had none. Literally, none. It was decided that any attempt to gather information could be seen as provocative, so we just did not do that.

So I made a mental note to meet with the thieves guild again and buy that information.

Before going to sleep, I spent the last few hours researching the various topics that I knew I was lacking in.

Unbeknownst to me, after dinner, it had begun to snow.

Outside of the higher elevations, it rarely snowed within the Fredirin Kingdom, and when it did, it tended to be light flurries or the occasional winter storm. This was the rare snow that was neither, just a gentle dusting that continued throughout the night and into the morning.

When I woke up the next day, the snow continued, and there was already half a foot of light fluff on the ground.

Snow was… a strange concept to me. Olivia did not seem to enjoy it much, it was cold, and she had once gotten sick after playing in it for too long. And in my previous life, light snow like this didn’t exist, it was either no snow, or a frigid wasteland. Still, none of that mattered to me, the snow wasn’t thick enough to hinder any of my plans, so it was irrelevant.

Or, so it should have been.

At breakfast, my siblings informed me that they were both skipping school to keep me company.

I had, strongly, objected at first, but they did not seem to be budging. And furthermore, once we missed school yesterday, the damage had already been done, missing a second day would make little difference.

So instead of school, my siblings bundled me up in coats and gloves and then drug me out into the snow to “play.”

“Play,” consisted of a snowball fight, something that I was particularly bad at, and making snowmen, which were men only in name.

A snowball fight, despite the word, “fight,” being in the name, is not actually a fight, not even a spar, even calling it a mock fight would be going too far. All it is, is throwing clumped up masses of snow at each other. There is no rules, no scoring, and no one really wins, the only goal is to hit others with snow, and to not get hit yourself.

But as it turned out, the part about there not being rules was false. For instance, using magic to guide the snowball, was against the rules. Using magic to accelerate the snowball, was also, against the rules. Using magic to create a barrier to block incoming snowballs, was likewise, against the rules. Even using magic to dodge the snowballs, turned out to be, against the rules.

Except for the times, I was, “cheating,” I almost never managed to hit one of my siblings. I probably could have hit Pamela a few times, but every time I got a chance, she hid behind Timothy, and he had the reflexes to dodge and block.

Making snowmen was another nonsensical event. We took snow and rolled it through more snow, which made it get larger as it went. We made two or three of these, and then stacked them up on each other. They had neither legs or arms, but we used stones and sticks to make faces on them. I suggested that since limbs seemed to not matter, then based on the body shape, the snowmen made of three parts would be insects, and the two-part ones would be arachnids, but both of my siblings rejected that.

There was one positive point, when Timothy mentioned that sometimes carrots were used as a nose on a snowman. Pamela and I quickly raided the estate’s kitchens for all of the carrots and used them for the noses. We even made more snowmen so we could get rid of more of the carrots. It took a while for Timothy to realize our motives were not pure, but based on our dislike of the orange vegetable.

Lunch was a warm and hearty stew lacking in carrots that we enjoyed around a fireplace in one of the estate’s many lounges, but afterward, we were forced to split up.

Missing two days of school in a row was somewhat problematic, earlier they had sent someone to the school to pick up yesterday’s assignments, and they had also picked up mine along with their own. I was able to piggyback a letter and delivery to Varsin’s House of Plush, the painting of a more humanoid Gimmy was included along with a request to create a stuffed animal in its image.

As for my school assignments, on one hand, the vast majority of it was shockingly easy. At my age, the work was not complicated, it was largely memorization of various facts, and as an outsider, I was literally incapable of forgetting something. Even Olivia’s memories from before I took over, were perfectly clear within my mind. While that Olivia wasn’t the best student, she did pay attention in class, so I had all of the knowledge I needed to easily breeze through the assignments.

On the other hand, While Timothy and Pamela had both only missed one day, I had missed more than a week at this point. The work I needed to make up was rather large.

On Fridays school would let out early, the idea was to allow the students who might need to travel long distances to go home for the weekend some extra time to travel before night.

Originally, Pamela and I were planning on trying to approach the school after an early dinner, but by late afternoon the snow had picked up, what had started as a half foot of light fluff had now become a foot of heavy slush. When it was lighter the public cleaners were able to keep most of the streets cleared, but now only the major roads were kept open, and they were wet and slippery.

Arvas was effectively shut down until the snow stopped.

With the Royal Capital being shut down, any plans I might have had for tonight were also effectively shut down. I could still go out if need be, even if I had to forgo a carriage and travel on foot, but anywhere I would want to go would be shut down, any people I wanted to see would be inaccessible.

With nothing else to do, I had intended to spend my night reforging my body. However, that was not to be.

“My Lady,” Ava’s voice resounded from beyond my door.

“What is it?” I asked while stopping my mana flow, the process was much slower now that Michael was in my heart, being interrupted was now an annoyance.

“You… you have a visitor,” she replied.

“A visitor?” I asked, bewildered. Who would be visiting me, in this weather no less? “Who is it?”

“She did not provide a name, but she said brought a message from someone named Larry”

“Ah, take me to her,” I said as I stood up and went to the door.

As expected, Ava was standing there along with Lisa. Lisa had been assigned to wait on me during this time, but it was Ava who delivered the message.

“My Lady… should you not get… changed?” Lisa asked while Ava nodded in agreement.

“Hmm?” I looked down, but I didn’t see anything wrong with my clothes.

I had on a pair of skin-tight shorts and a tank top, and before I opened the door, I had stuck my bare feet into a pair of warm, fluffy slippers. My room was sufficiently warm that I didn’t need heavy clothing, and even if it were not warm, I could easily withstand this level of cold with just my body, I didn’t even need to use mana.

Furthermore, it was slightly easier to cycle mana when wearing less restrictive clothing.

“You should really change,” Ava added.

“It does not really matter, and I should make haste, this might be important.” I rejected.

“... At least, a coat?” Lisa tried to reason.

“Haah… Fine,” I said as I returned to the room and grabbed my school jacket and threw it on. “Let us go.”

I followed Ava, while Lisa followed me, throughout the estate. Normally, if someone whose identity could not be confirmed showed up at the estate, they would be kept at the gatehouse, not fully allowed to enter the main building. However, there were no connecting pathways from the main building to the gatehouse, a security measure in the event that the outer wall was breached. But now, with the snow, it was unreasonable to ask me to travel through the cold night to meet with someone, so my visitor was brought into the estate and was under guard in one of the waiting rooms usually used for the guards and attendants of visiting dignitaries.

That said, since the Pine Estate rarely had guests, these rooms were largely unused.

“My Lady, the guest is inside,” It wasn’t Ava or Lisa who spoke, but Carla who had been waiting in front of the room.

“Carla…” I started while lightly shaking my head, “You shouldn’t have bothered yourself with this.”

“I am sorry, My Lady, but it is my duty to protect you. Even if you are aware of who these people are, you can never be too careful.”

“Very well,” I said as I opened the door and walked in.

Lin turned out to be my guest, she was sitting on a cushioned chair near the fireplace, one of her hands was held out towards the fire while the other was holding a warm cup of tea.

“My Lady,” However, when she saw me, she swiftly placed the tea down, stood, and saluted me.

“What is it?”

“Umm…” She glanced at the three other people in the room, Lisa, Ava, and Carla.

“Do not worry, they are my subordinates. They are trustworthy,” Having guessed her concern I reassured her.

“Then... “ She gave them one last glance before continuing. “We’ve discovered signs that someone has been scouting our position. We haven’t been able to identify them, but we know we are being watched.”

“Oh…” I said, lost in thought.

“It is only a small group, but they seem to be skilled, we can pick up traces of them, but they always pull back well before we arrive, Captain thinks they are trying to bait us into moving further out since they are letting themselves be detected.”

What a headache.

We should have been discreet enough when we set up that base, but apparently, that wasn’t the case. Or perhaps we were followed on Wednesday after I finished my raids. Well, too late now. Now the question was, who discovered us.

The best case scenario would be that it was an unrelated 3rd party, maybe even the thieves guild. It could also be someone related to one of the schools I raided, in fact, while this was still pretty bad, it wasn’t that awful of an outcome. It was also the most probable option. And then the worst case scenario, that it was someone from the Canyon Family.

With no information, trying to guess who it was was a waste of time. So then, the next question is, what to do about it.

The safest option would be to abandon the warehouse entirely, but at this early stage, that could be a waste. I could do nothing, just let the situation develop, but that would be giving the other side the initiative, and that was less than ideal.

“Lin, is the escape route finished yet?” I asked having come to a preliminary decision.

“I am sorry, but no, not yet. We had to pause our work to deal with this situation, But, we are almost finished.”

“Then… that is fine,” I finalized my choice now. “Lisa, please go call Commander Tale and Steward Hart.”

“Yes, My Lady,” Lisa said, doing her best to conceal her surprise.

Ava managed to do it perfectly, that or she simply wasn't surprised, but Carla was even less successful than Lisa.

While we waiting, Ava poured me a cup of tea, and also offered one to Carla, but she rejected it. The tea wasn’t great in the first place, it wasn’t the high-quality tea I normally drank with my family, but something less expensive given to questionable guests. And it was a far cry from the Tesk tea that I really enjoyed.

Apparently both Old Man Hard and Commander Tale had heard about Lin’s visit, and both were on standby in case they were needed, so both of them arrived together in under five minutes.

“My Lady.”

“My Lady”

Both of them greeted me as they entered.

Old Man Hart was a mixed breed, half human, a quarter dwarf, and a quarter elf. His father was a half human, half moon-elf, and his mother was half human and half mountain dwarf. Despite his name, he was actually only in his mid-thirties, his dwarven blood gave him a weathered appearance that made him look older than he really was, and it also left him with a thick and bushy beard, not to mention it left him shorter than an average human, he was only five foot five.

On the other hand, the moon-elf blood made him thin and lanky, and also gave him the well-known silver-gray hair that all moon-elves had. The end result was that he had weathered skin, a short and lanky build, and a head of gray hair and a bushy gray beard. The fact that he has suffered a foot injury that never healed properly as a child, and thus used a cane to get around, made him look as if he was in his seventies or eighties.

Commander Tale, on the other hand, was three-quarters elf and one-quarter human. He was raised by his human grandfather, and besides behaving like a human, he also had a human’s ear shape, not an elf's, which was rather rare, most half-elves, even quarter elves, developed the elves’ pointed ears.

Despite looking like a human, the Commander of the Estate’s forces was actually well over two hundred years old.

“Thank you for coming, introductions are in order I guess?” I looked expectantly at everyone in the room.

“Right you are. Hart Cedar, steward of the estate here.”

“Commander Eslan Tale, all Pine Family forces in the capital are under my supervision.”

“Guardian Knight Carla Redwood, Lady Olivia is my charge.”

Lisa had stayed outside, and once she had seen that everyone who wanted some tea, had a cup of it, Ava had retreated too. The three who had already known each other had introduced themselves, but Lin still hesitated, at least until I slightly nodded her way.

“Greetings your lordships,” Lin said with an awkward bow, “I am Lin… Lin Hemlock, part of Spectre Squadron 10-25”

I knew for a fact that there were other Spectres within the capital, probably several different groupings, and some of them were probably larger than a squadron. But, they acted largely independent of each other, and while Old Man Hart and Commander Tale likely knew about all of the squads that were normally deployed here, they also probably did not have much interaction with the majority of them.

Still, they knew about them.

And they also knew Squadron 10-25 was not one of the ones deployed here.

That would probably be shocking enough, Spectres do not move about lightly, but the fact that one of them had come to meet me in person was highly unusual.

As such, three sets of eyes quickly shifted to focus on me.

“Before I left the Citadel, I borrowed Squadron 10-25,” I answered their unspoken question. “They are under my command.”

“What is their mission?” Commander Tale asked, his voice sharp.

“Secret,” I answered with a smile.

“... As commander of all Pine forces in Arvas, I at the very least need to be aware of any independent units operating within my zone of control. At the very least, to make sure we don’t come into conflict with ourselves,” he said sourly.

“I understand that, but they are fully under my command.”

Truth be told, I was not really against telling everyone in the room what I brought the Spectres for, at least the basic concept, I would not give them specifics, not yet.

But, how long had it been since I last argued about who had more authority with someone? Years, decades, longer? Human years meant little to me back then, but I knew it was a long time. This feeling, of not being on the top, of not being unquestionably obeyed, was nostalgic.

“I really need to know.” He said firmly.

I was really only opposing Commander Tale for my own amusement. Since that was the case, and since he was correct, I decided to let him off easy.

“Interdiction, sabotage, intelligence gathering,” I said slowly and plainly, “And assassination.”

“...”

“What!?”

“...hmm…”

Commander Tale and Old Man Hart took that in stride, the raising of their eyebrows the only real indication they were caught off guard. Carla however, abruptly stood up in her seat before becoming embarrassed at her actions and sitting down with her face bright red.

“The target of this mission is?” Commander Tale asked.

“Now that, that is a secret.”

The quarter elf man looked annoyed at that, but he didn’t say anything more.

“Well then, with introductions out of the way, I have a request.” Seeing that there were no further comments, I moved onto the main topic. “My Spectres need additional support and manpower, I was hoping to borrow some extra forces.”

“How many do you need?” Commander Tale said professionally, but I could tell he wasn’t exactly happy with how things were going.

“Hmm…” I thought about it for a second, “If pure infantry, I need thirty to forty men, but a mixed unit is a better option, in which case I need twenty to thirty.”

“When do you need them, and for how long? I also need to know what they are being used for.”

“Also, they can not be used for anything else, do not forget that Eslan,” Old Man Hart added.

“Of course.”

“I need them now, and I will need to keep them for at least a week, probably more, but we can rotate them out if needed. And they will be used for defensive purposes. They won't do anything questionable.” I explained.

“Hmm…” Commander Tale was thinking to himself.

“Gorig’s platoon is free, you said you were going to send him back to the Citadel at the end of the month too, so it won't affect our status here regardless.” The steward mentioned.

“That could work…”

“Who is Gorig?” I asked, not recognizing that name at all.

“Lieutenant Gorig is a platoon leader, it’s a mixed group of elites,” Commander Tale began explaining, “But, the lieutenant is a half-orc, and all of the members are either half-orcs, hobgoblins, or beast-folk.”

“...And?” I asked confused.

“Arvas has its fair share of non-humans, but they stay in the outer circles, it is somewhat rare to see them in the inner circles, so some people were surprised to see them, is what we will say it was.” Old Man Hart answered in the Commander’s stead.

“The Lieutenant is a valuable soldier, his platoon only has 21 members, but they are all elites.

“I understand.”

Most likely, people who were looking to pick a fight with our family set their sights on the non-human platoon lead by this Gorig. I've been learning about how a lot of people discriminate against non-humans to some extent, so I could imagine what had happened.

“Lieutenant Gorig’s platoon will suffice.” I said to Commander Tale before turning back to Lin, “Lin, return to the base and figure out how Captain Nev wants to handle this. I will defer to his decisions.”

“Yes My Lady,” She said as she saluted.

“Then, Commander Tale, I will leave the reinforcements to you, I need to return to my room for now, but Carla, be prepared to go out tonight.”

“Tonight?” Carla looked surprised.

“Yes, I'll lead Lieutenant Gorig’s platoon out, and you will need to come with me. So get some rest while you can.” I said.

“Yes My Lady.”