“What manner of insanity is this?” screamed Lucas latest target as he and his party swiftly cut down every man or woman who didn’t laid down their weapon and tried to protect one member of the Families. As Lucas learned, the name was a little bit misleading, Families being a loose alliance of various seats of power, lead by the Chancellor. The Families name on one hand was remnant of the past when only five families ruled over still developing New Flame which raced with Camp Hearth trying to achieve settlement status. On the other hand, those five families still held majority of position, only handful of individuals who didn’t had some blood or marital ties to them getting the position of power and even then, Chancellor remained steadily in their hands. Lucas could definitely see why Prince thinks only way to consolidate power was to kill them all, but he certainly wasn’t a brute tool to be used by others.

“Lord Accountant, I’m sent here to kill you and all the other of the Families and I will do it if you don’t listen to me carefully. Drop your weapon, escape with your life and either run from the city or pledge allegiance when the time comes” Lucas offered, hoping his current target will have more wisdom than his last and equal to the first one he hunted. The man in front of him waged an internal battle and Lucas decided to help him a little bit, releasing his aura. The raw power it carried proved enough to persuade the man to run for it and he quickly acted, storming past Lucas and his party.

“Come, let us deal with the Chancellor. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we will be out of this den of snakes” Lucas said, his party nodding. Any objection to this course of action were hopefully squashed after hearing Duck speaking at length about the crimes of the more prominent members of the Families and their personal entourages, but Lucas could see this still wasn’t sitting right with them. He shared their uneasiness, feeling like a sell sword, but unfortunately there wasn’t a clean way to resolve this, the alternative being killing these same people a week from now after some unsuccessful attempts at negotiations.

“I trust you, Lucas and you know that, but I think this wasn’t the solution. We should call Bruce for aid or you could flex the authority of the Camp Hearth.” Chen said.

“And how would we deal with the riots?” Lucas asked.

“Maybe the intel is at fault, maybe the riots would never come” Chen retorted.

“But hypothetically, what would we do if they come?” Lucas insisted, leaving Chen silenced for a moment, formulating a response.

“It’s always the same with this unsanctioned settlements, Chen” Ted said darkly, Maggie nodding behind him “it’s always some pricks holding the rest hostages, exploiting everyone below him. Hell, I would say at least a quarter of the sanctioned settlements are the same.” he finished.

“But still, there must be a better way than to mindlessly butcher in service of a guy that is probably as moral as the people he sent us to kill” Chen argued.

“Maybe, but luckily for us, we aren’t mindlessly butchering” Lucas said.

“But we do butcher” Chen said, his tone carrying a note of finality, signaling he was tired of this argument.

Lucas sighed, starting his movement toward the last target. Chancellor’s mansion was standing in upper part of the city, in the opposite direction of the mansion of Prince, in part of the New Flame that held almost all of the holdings that belonged to old blood of this town. The Chancellor position was held by the member of the oldest of them and as such, her mansion was somewhat of the fortress, as much as it could afford to be without sacrificing luxury for security. From the information he got from both Prince and Duck, the Chancellor was highly unusual, as she foregone taking some kind of class from the Noble or Administration families, instead having a class that was geared for combat. Nobody knew for sure what exactly her class was, but Duck speculated it was some kind of mind magic or something similar, seeing as she inspired undying loyalty in her followers and even in enemies as betrayal was a commonplace in the ranks of her enemies.

“Are you sure about this?” Maggie asked, concern obvious on her place as Lucas shared a plan he concocted while they were moving.

“I’m immune to effect of mind magic, so that means I’m the safest one here. If we play our cards right, your distraction will draw most of the forces out. Remember, we cannot say for certain if the Chancellor’s troops are her of their own volition or she mindfucked them, so try to avoid casualties if you can” Lucas repeated once again, his stomach churning at the fact of killing enthralled people. He was to enter the mansion himself, Chen backing him by creating illusions of him entering from other points of entry in a bid to keep the defenders off balance. The rest of the party was to be as far away as possible, to avoid any mind domination and even Chen is to retreat after Lucas enters the mansion.

Their plan was set in motion as Maggie stepped out and immediately fired at the guards posted at the gate, trying her hardest not to inflict mortal wounds. Both of her arrows found flesh of the thigh, the unlucky guard collapsing on the floor in pain. Ted was next, charging forward and smashing the other guard. Both of immediate threat neutralized, Ted focused on smashing down gate, continually smacking it with his club while Maggie provided covering fire from any retaliatory ranged strikes.

In the confusion, Lucas started moving, trying his hardest to take advantage of the distraction siblings provided. Margaret moved slowly towards Ted and Maggie, prepared to use her healing skills if necessary. Building up his speed, Lucas prepared to jump, main point of failure of their plan coming up. He was fairly confident he would be able jump over the thin wall that separated inner courtyard from the streets, but if he finds any resistance or additional defenses, he would probably fail, forcing a retreat and losing the element of surprise. He leaped into the air and flew through the air for a few painfully long seconds, before passing the wall and landing on the other side of the courtyard. He immediately spotted illusions of him, moving towards entrances that were in the Chen line of sight.

Shouting returned him to the task at hand, a numerous mob of guards with diverse weaponry, with at least third of their numbers some kind of spellcasters.

“Get out of there” Lucas thought, worry starting to creep within him. Fortunately, him and his illusions were unnoticed by that large detachment that was prepared to charge to the nuisance that were Maggie and Ted, only a handful of guards that stayed behind trying to stop them. Lucas went towards one of the windows, crashing through it, his armor protecting him from shattering glass. Two guards that were there surprised for a brief second, allowing Lucas a window to activate his “Aura severing”, stunning one of them.

The other guard recovered and charged him, massive chain that was around his knuckles zipping towards Lucas. With a quick murmur, Lucas activated “Punch Parry”, his fist coated in mana punching the chain away. Left with the opening, Lucas instinctively activated “Guiding strike”, his hand automatically going for the throat of the man, downing him. Realizing what he had done, Lucas could feel bile rising from his stomach. He quickly clamped down on it, but the sour taste in his mouth remained as he moved further into the mansion. He found sporadic resistance, most of the guards dealing with the distraction outside. Fortunately, he managed to disable all of the guards without dealing lethal wounds.

Finding the massive wooden door that were guarded by half dozen guards told Lucas he found his target. Releasing his aura, he tried to intimidate guards in throwing their weapon, but they didn’t even flinch, probably influenced by the Chancellor’s mind magic. Sighing, Lucas went into action, “Aura severing” disabling one, while “Soul – shattering strike” downed another. Meanwhile, Lucas armor absorbed spear of one of the guards, while a quick “Dodge” saved Lucas from a particularly nasty swing of the sword covered in something corrosive. Prioritizing the woman wielding that sword, Lucas once again activated “Soul – shattering strike”, but the woman’s armor glowed blue before a thick layer of mana materialized in front of it and blocked Lucas strike.

That action forced Lucas to change priority to the guard that was left out of the melee and worked hard to enchant and support the attacks of his colleagues. Worse yet, Lucas was running out of the time on his stuns and soon, the currently downed guards will once again join the fight. Quickly weighing his options, he murmured “Infused piledriver”, in an instant his spin connecting with the flesh of the enchanter, shredding his flesh and internal organ, murdering the man. Without the enchanter to support them, other two guards were quickly downed and stunned and he opened the double door and stepped into the cabinet.

“So, Prince made his move. I’m just curious about where he dug you up. Will you be so kind to tell me?” a feminine voice greeted him. He felt a immense pressure in his head for briefest moment, before instantly clearing, a prompt from the System replacing it.

“The effect of the Pendant of Truesight activated. You are immune to mind magic”

“Well, I get around” Lucas responded, activating “Sharpsight” and looking at the woman that was his opponent.

“Nicky Bowen, Chancellor of the New Flame, Dominator level 42”

“Tell me now!” the Chancellor shouted, another spike of pressure briefly passed before his pendant blocked it once again.

“Your tricks don’t work on me. There are two options from here. You either come with me willingly or I simply kill you. Either way, you are effectively relieved of your duties as the Chancellor” Lucas spoke, letting his aura flow freely. He saw the Chancellor shivering and taking her time to review Lucas’s offer.

“And why would Prince spare my life?” the woman asked.

“Let’s just say I’m not particularly interested in Prince’s wishes, outside of him consolidating his power” Lucas responded. The Chancellor looked at him intensely before bowing her head, effectively becoming former Chancellor.

“One more thing. Release everyone who you dominated immediately” Lucas said, his tone not leaving much place for arguing, so the woman complied.

“Now, I expect you will come to bow before your new ruler and do whatever you people do when you transfer power” Lucas said and left.

The aftermath of their evening work was obvious, especially in the mansion proper. Confused grumbling and rumbling from the men and women that were awoken from a long trance suggested to Lucas that the Chancellor kept true to her word. Finding the rest of his party at the front gate brought a great deal of relief to Lucas and judging by their demeanor, the feeling was mutual.

“Prince is moving fast. He is already at the city center, declaring himself as the new Chancellor and promising brighter and better future. He didn’t mention anybody being killed, so I guess he at least suspect we didn’t murder his targets” Maggie informed him after checking he was okay.

“Let’s get there then” Lucas said and they were quickly on the move again.

Rest of the party consisted of going through motions, until one of the Prince’s man come for the teleportation stone while the man himself was in the process of making a dramatic introduction to the portal opening. The stone got to Prince’s hand and he poured some of his mana in it, making it glow once before sparkling, marking it as active. Bruce stepped out almost immediately and as soon as introduction were finished, Lucas signaled to his party that it was their time to continue their journey.