[[Weekly Report on Rank 1 Nobles Kina Trishen and Xian Zhi Dao]]

Mina, Head maid of Trishen Mansion

Week 9 of summer

Log 1:

Primary target, Kina Trishen aka Blood maiden, as with the previous week, has shown erratic and unpredictable behaviour through the week. She would leave the mansion with the secondary target, ZhiDao, on the pretext of completing quests outside the city borders. However, she would return within minutes of leaving, alone and return to her room.

Previous enquiry with Mason and Mempheus confirmed that there is no demonic morphling assuming the form of the primary target. As such, I can only derive 2 possible conclusions from my observations. The first and more probable being that kina Trishen has an unpredictable personality and has a certain scheme up her sleeves that ZhiDao is unaware of. The second, and more unlikely, conclusion is that someone else is disguised as Kina Trishen and parading about using her prestige and fame.

Kina would spend very little time outside the mansion, always leaving for no more than 30 minutes before returning.

Log 2:

Kina and ZhiDao seemed to have begun recruiting a small force. The purpose of the force is unclear at this point. The most likely purpose would be either a personal security detail that doubles as a personal armed force like most nobles do. They have recruited a young human blacksmith and have bought over the workshop across the street from the mansion. It is a small workshop, and it would seem that they have yet to procure enough materials to actually start production of weapons and armour. They have neither raw materials nor manpower, with their only blacksmith being the young boy.

The force is unbelievably small at the moment, consisting of only 3 swordsmen and 2 magicians. Training of the force has begun swiftly and the true capabilities of both targets have begun to show themselves. It would seem that ZhiDao has reached a pinnacle in the art of swordsmanship, coaching not only the 3 swordsmen, but also Kina Trishen. The thing though, is that every single student of his uses a different weapon. A Sabre, a long sword, a rapier, and a giant heavy sword. Even then, he seems capable of tweaking his classes to suit each and every blade type weapons.

As for the 2 magicians, from what I have heard while eavesdropping on their conversation, it would seem that they are both within the middle to peak level 10 mages, top of their respective academies from the main continent. And even then, Kina seemed unsatisfied with their abilities. Naturally, they too held a rather arrogant attitude about their own abilities, had it not been the high salaries that Kina was offering, they naturally would not have chosen to be employed a young girl. One of them, the foxgirl, specialises in offensive and illusory magic, while the other, the elf, in defensive and healing magic.

From what I have heard, Kina and ZhiDao have begun the process of recruiting archers into their force. It has yet to be finalised, but they seem to be keen on making the majority of their force out of archers, which in my opinion seem stupid. Archers are very hard to come by in the city since everybody knows how useless arrows are against the defensive abilities of the swarmlings, which are the only demons they have been up against till now. They are generally looked down on and shunned, and hence can be hired for cheap. Magic archers are a little more expensive, going for 5 to 10 silvers a week, but those are nothing compared to 1 gold per week for an ordinary warrior or 3 gold a week for a mage.

Log 3:

The hiring process for archers have begun and it would seem that Kina and ZhiDao are offering a whopping 1 gold per week for all archers, normal and magical. It would seem that there are more archers within the city than I thought, the turnout for the screening exam totalling up to 300 participants. They have left for the city borders 3 days ago and I assume they will be back within the week for the test. I am interested in seeing what Kina and ZhiDao have in mind for the archers and how they will fare against the Mirillia’s swarmlings.

I formerly request deployment of more demonic morphlings to infiltrate the force to obtain more information from within. It would be ideal to have 3 more, one per division of the personal army.

[[End of report]]

“I see…” Mempheus muttered as he read the report in his hands. Mirillia had given him the report that she received from Mina, the spy they had planted within Kina’s mansion.

“Markus! Marvin!” he yelled as he firmly folded the parchment in his hands. Within minutes, the door swung open and 2 large blobs of dirt brown gooey slime came slushing forth. They each had an indistinct humanoid form, but were constantly dripping the mud-like consistency slime.

“I’m sure you know about the 2 new nobles in Mayheir city. They are currently outside the city borders conducting a hiring session for archers. Their security detail should be with them as well, probably patrolling the area while they conduct the test. I want you to infiltrate their security detail, assume their memories and keep an eye on them. Get as much information as you can. In the meantime, I’ll get Mirillia to send in an attack to test out their strength.

“Right away Sir,” the 2 humanoid slimes nodded their featureless heads and headed back out the door in a creepy manner. They did not turn around like a normal person, but instead, merely seemed to move backwards in reverse, their head, hands and feet rotating 180 degrees to face the opposite direction before moving off.

[[Outside the city walls]]

Within a large clearing in the forest just a little distance away from the main route between the city and the mines, a large group of people were gathered, standing around with no specific order. The clearing was as large as 3 football fields. Everybody gathered within the clearing were dressed in a similar fashion. Wearing light leather armour with thin steel plates protecting vital parts of the body, they all had bows in their hands and quivers full of arrows hanging from either their waist or their back.

* Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!*

A series of loud booms rang out as everyone diverted their attention to the source of the commotion. There, at the end of the field which used to be empty, were a series of large tree trunks stuck vertically into the ground in a neat row. How they got there, no one knew for sure, but from where they were standing, the wooden pillars were at least 300m away, and walking towards them was a birdman and the blood maiden.

“Alright everyone, Shortbow users to my left, and longbow users to my right!” Rose yelled at the top of his lungs, using wind magic to amplify his voice. Immediately, the participants all separated into 2 groups, with shortbow users forming the minority of about 10%.

“Ok here are the rules. If you want to be hired, you have to hit the targets on the other end of the field without using any magic to assist your shots. On the wooden pillars, I’ve hung a piece of parchment,” Rose announced, holding up a square pale yellow parchment. “You have to hit each parchment on each pillar exactly once. If you can hit 10 of the targets in under 12 arrows, you are hired. We have cast a spell so that there is zero wind within this field to make it easier. Long bow users will go first. Shortbow users will have a different test in the afternoon. That is all. Everyone form a line and you can start shooting.”

“What? That small parchment from all this distance? Is that even possible? And we can barely even see the yellow parchment against the light brown wood of the pillar!” one of the archers complained as he squinted his eyes to see if he could discern the target from the pillars.

“You fail. You can go home now,” Kina abruptly spoke.

“Wha? I haven’t even shot yet!” he complained once again, voicing out so everyone could hear.

“I don’t like your attitude. If you aren’t confident in shooting, then you can just leave. I don’t need any wimps in my army.” Kina explained mercilessly, slamming her blood sword down into the soft dirt ground. “Are you going to leave on your own or should I make you?” The archer hung his head dejectedly, turning around and heading back towards the main road. It was already hard enough to find a job as an archer, and he had just thrown away a golden opportunity at a high paying job.

Within moments, the shooting commenced. Even when equipped the best bow, and the arm strength to match, an elite archer would only be able to get a range of 400m. Given the ordinary nature of most of the bows in existence in Mayheir, just reaching 300m range was not an easy feat, much less hitting a target the size of your palm. As volley after volley of arrows flew through the air and the field rang out with the ‘thwangs’ of bowstrings drawn and released, archer after archer became dejected after failing to hit the target.

Kina and Rose carefully observed the archers. Over half of them were of the elven race. Humans, demihumans and draconians made up the remainder. Out of the lot, very few made it to the pillar. Even amongst those that did, none could hit all 10 targets under 12 shots. With the morning quickly passing by, all the longbow users all dejectedly sat down on the grass, exhausted by the morning’s test. Despite having gone several rounds, not a single one of them managed to hit the required number of targets.

The afternoon came around and it was time for the shortbow users’ test. The main difference between shortbow and longbow would be the firing speed and arrow range. Shortbows can be fired at a much faster rate due to the short draw length, but they have less range compared to longbows. Herefore, the test for shortbow users were a little different. They fired from 100m away from the targets, but they had to hit the targets 10 for 10 under 30 seconds.

The day passed by and by the time the sun began setting, everybody awaited nervously for the results. Most of the longbow archers had already left in the afternoon, with only a few of them who did considerably better than others stayed behind in hopes of convincing their would-be employers for another chance to prove their worth. Of the 30 or so shortbow archers, 10 of them passed the test easily.

“OK. Now, I will call out your applicant numbers. Those that I call out, step forwards. The rest, you may leave,” Rose yelled out, before proceeding to call out a series of numbers.

By the end, only 6 people remained. 2 longbow users, 1 was an elf, the other a tiger-halfgiant. Of the 4 shortbow users, there was 1 draconian, 1 elf, and 2 humans. They looked at each other with intrigue. It was quite a line-up, with a wide variety of races.

The tiger-halfgiant was almost 3m tall, his arms thicker than Rose’s thighs. He looked ferocious and had a domineering aura, but spoke in an unexpectedly soft tone. He polished his bow gently as he smiled, revealing his sharp fangs. The elves looked no different from the humans, except for their elongated ears, platinum blonde hair and smooth flawless skin. The dragonian had scales covering half of his face, starting from behind his scaly ears and stopping just before they reached the eyes and cheeks. He had a human face, but stood at almost 2m tall, with a pair of wings on his back. There were 2 small blunt horns extending from above his ears, peeking out from underneath his tussled black hair.

“Well then, if you would all hand me your bows and arrows, that would be great,” Kina ordered as she stretched out her hand. The archers looked at each other in confusion, before shrugging and handing their equipment over to Kina. Then, what Kina did next infuriated and shocked them. With a single snap, she broke all their bows and arrows, then tossed the broken equipment on the ground, before grinding them further beyond repair with her sword.

“What did you do that for!? It cost me a fortune to get that heavy longbow to match my strength!” the tigerman asked, almost to the point of crying.

“You won’t be needing your bows or arrows when you work for me. You are recruited for your skills and abilities, not your equipment. I will naturally provide you with special equipment you will not find anywhere in this world,” Kina reassured him.

“Come forward to collect your advanced salary. Use it to settle whatever unfinished business you have, because you will be living in the mansion with us,” Rose announced, stepping up and handing out 4 gold coins per person. Having received their salary in advance, they archers seemed to have forgotten having their equipment broken a few moments ago, and a smile grew on each of their faces.

“Boss, are we done here?” a group of warriors and mages came out from the woods, having finished their patrol. It was the original punitive force that Kina had hired. Kina looked at him and frowned, as if something seemed off, but she could not pinpoint the odd sensation, so she just let it go.

“Yes we are done. Head back to the mansion first. We will meet you there,” Rose replied swiftly, giving them a fierce glance to shoo them away. He naturally knew that there was some tension between warriors and archers, with the warriors often looking down on and making fun of the archers. He did not want to turn away any potential archers should the warriors act unkindly towards them.

The archers had a slightly ugly face, knowing that they would be working with the warriors. Little did they know, they would soon become the main force of the private army, with the warriors and mages playing the role of support and bait.