It is a wonderful morning, the sun is shining, people are waking up and preparing for work, wives are cooking breakfast, children are preparing to go to education centers, scholars are writing down curriculums so they can teach children more efficiently, and overall, everyone is happy.

  Save for one person.

  "Oh god, out of all the times this could have happened? Really? Now?" Rontress was suspicious of all this, and she very much had the right to do so. Someone was trying to take Flotol for themselves.

  "Since the crown is involved, wouldn't this mean we'll get to meet the heir?" Ifira wasn't worried for some reason, actually, she rarely panics about anything so this isn't that strange. "Have you seen him before Rontress? I promise you you'll fall for him the moment you lay your eyes on him."

  "Whoa there, slow down." The way Ifira acted just now was entirely different from how she usually is. "Can we not focus on the prince and instead worry about the fact that he came here to punish us?"

  Rontress didn't get the appeal, well, she did, the crown prince is someone with status, wealth, and had a good looking face— presumably. — on top of that, it'd be harder to find someone who hasn't fallen in love with him than those who did.

  "He still hasn't arrived yet so isn't it technically that he's coming here to punish us?" Why is this girl being snarky and arguing with her over semantics instead of worrying?

  "Your general lack of worry is scaring me, you do realize that I am possibly gonna get removed from my current position right?" Which isn't a bad thing now that Rontress put some thought into it.

  "Please, if someone ever does that, I'll just kill them." Ifira casually declared, it was like she was talking about the weather.

  "Even the prince?"

  "Yes, even him. You think he's more important than you?" The resolution in Ifira's voice almost made Rontress feel flattered. "I'll kill the king himself if it means protecting you, that's obvious."

  "Right, thank you, I don't know what else to say to that though?" Rontress chuckled lightly, this girl, seriously. Ifira is an absolute psycho but at least she's glad the girl isn't an enemy. "But you shouldn't do that for my sake, I'll see what I can do to fix this on my own."

  "Like you always do." Ifira says with a roll of her eyes, her previous resolution disappearing and replaced by general apathy once more. "There's no point in worrying about you when in the end, you'll only push me away while saying that you're capable of handling it all on your own."

  "Sorry." Rontress looked away, not out of guilt, but of shame. She does say that often doesn't she? And the way she acted just now must have been weird to Ifira, "I was just worried about the crown suddenly deciding they wanted to play politics here, it's why I asked you why you aren't worried instead of finding a solution."

  "That's not what I was trying to say you idiot—" A heavy exhale cut off Ifira's rant, strangely enough, it came from her personally. Did she do that on purpose? "Whatever, if you need help just ask me, I know you won't so just know that I'll be there when things get bad enough."

  "You say that all the time." And she really does. "I never once saw you help me?"

  "That's because you solve your problems well before it gets to the point where I need to step in, and let's be honest here, you're strong enough that you don't even need me to fight your battles most of the time."

  They both reached the gates of the Gilded District and passed through without interruption, the guards standing to the side bowed to them as they went through.

  "That is true, yeah." Obviously Ifira was the exception when it comes to overwhelming strength in this world, but that doesn't mean Rontress herself is weak. "I can kill people several times my level if I really wanted to."

  "Yes, but you prefer to talk anyway."

  "We've been through this how many times now?" Rontress moved to the side when a kid ran towards her, avoiding collision smoothly. "I've told you so many times already that talking is more efficient than, say, killing everyone that annoys you."

  "And I have listened, have I not? I haven't killed anyone for months now." Which to someone like Ifira, is amazing progress. No really. "I just find it inefficient. Even if I see the point of keeping people alive, them being useful in the future doesn't feel like a good reason to let them live."

  "Killing them isn't the right choice either." Rontress thought that maybe Ifira would see it as beneficial, and she sort of does! But in the end, the girl probably still thinks she can just continue assigning new people to the position of the person she just killed.

  "Let's not argue about this anymore, I already held off on killing okay? I don't want to argue with you, so can we please stop?"

  "Fine, you know I can't say no to you when your voice is on the verge of breaking."

  Ifira didn't say a word, merely continuing to walk. Flotol's Gilded District did not have much activity this early in the morning and the silence can often become deafening, Inns are still dead, with the only staff working being chefs and cooks preparing meals for their tenants, the theatre is silent because no one practices this early on, and very few people go to the hot spring at this time.

  The awkward feeling that comes after arguing like they did just now only became worse in Rontress' mind and she silently scolded herself for going too far. She understood that she's stressed from the possibility of someone scheming against her but that didn't mean she had to take it out on Ifira of all people.

  "Sorry."

  "For what?"

  "Arguing with you." Rontress held herself back from fiddling with the hems of her dress, it wouldn't look good if she ruined her clothes shortly before meeting the prince. "I didn't really mean it, I was just looking for a way to punish you for being so uncaring."

  "It's okay, I forgive you." Ifira replied without hesitation. "Your words didn't hurt me that much anyway, and I meant it when I said that I'll protect you if things get bad."

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Thanks."

  Realistically speaking, Ifira wouldn't be able to fight the entire kingdom all by herself, even with her strength, she'll only be able to wipe out half the population at most. And that's assuming she levels up from all the killing.

  Adult Ifira would be a different story of course, but they're not adults right now.

  The two of them stop in front of their ice cream shop, Rontress reaching deep in her pockets to fish for her keys all while Ifira watches their surroundings. Once she unlocked the door, they both came in and Rontress collapsed shortly after finding a seat.

  "Who do you think it is that's responsible for this?" Most people would assume that Ifira is asking this question because she wanted to avenge Rontress, in reality, she knows her best friend well enough that she needed some kind of stimulant to kickstart her brain.

  A question is the perfect way to do it, that and caffeinated ice cream, which Ifira is making exactly right now. She'll also brew coffee for Rontress, just to make it even easier for her best friend to come up with a plan.

  Like a Treant rising from a tree struck by lightning, an invigorated Rontress lifts herself off of the table and begins pondering out loud, "hm, that's an interesting question, and I have a few ideas as to who might be responsible."

  "Go on." Scooping up ice cream so early in the morning is always weird to Ifira, she doesn't feel the biting cold coming off of the food but the sensation that replaced it is rather ticklish so she often hesitates when doing it.

  "Oberlon has four duchies ruling it alongside the king, no?" Out of all the four, Rontress has only allied with one— that being the Haromago, or Ifira's family. — while the other three, the Malcott, Dizzeria, and Icvan, are either neutral or hostile towards her.

  "Flotol has been amassing a lot of money lately, and there's only one family that's obsessed with it right?"

  "Rontress, while I think you may have a point, the Malcotts are most likely sitting far from conflict, as they always have." Ifira denied quickly, while it is true the Malcotts are a family whose power is strictly focused on finance, it does not mean that they will attack anyone with rising wealth.

  "Okay, but what if—"

  "What if we need an ally? They are the most likely to help since they like investing in those with high potential, we might have to sell some of our land to them or worse, give them years worth of rent in some areas within the Gilded District but it will be worth it if we have their army by our side." Was Ifira being practical? Also, she's not even considering her personal power in that hypothetical but instead focused on others' military might.

  "We don't need military might though?"

  "Yes, but assuming we fight the entire kingdom, it's better to remove some of their numbers and have them on our side instead."

  "Right. You're right." Rontress conceded with a nod, Ifira did have a point. "Which brings me to the next thing, what if it's the Dizzerias?"

  "If it's anyone, it would be them... Assuming they aren't currently busy fighting skirmishes." Ifira paused for just a second, considering. "Hm, they might be using that as a reason to sway the king as well, but why would they even attack us? Their main territory is on the opposite side of Oberlon so it doesn't make sense for their ambition to reach this far."

  "Well, I'm not considering the possibility of the Icvans attacking us so it's probably not them, they prefer to be neutral most of the time and aren't really aggressive when it comes to taking over other territories." Rontress said out loud, removing any future questions about why she didn't point out the remaining duchy within the kingdom.

  "Yes, so, the chances of Dizzeria attacking us is fairly high, they also have enough influence currently to sway the king to do anything they want because they are fighting for the kingdom, if Aordan says no to their request, it might as well be treason."

  "And it's not like it's impossible for them to do this while lacking manpower, they don't necessarily need an army when all they're doing is asking the king to see if my family's claim over Flotol is legitimate." Rontress agreed with Ifira's ideas so she supplied some of her own. "Or in other words, they're attacking us politically, which doesn't require a physical war, but instead influence."

  "They have other nobles backing them." Ifira concluded.

  "And there's a good chance that their deal involves some sort of shared territory amongst them, assuming they succeed and remove my family from our current position, that is."

  "Most likely." Ifira says in agreement, she walks over to Rontress and places a tray with several plates on top: Waffles with cheese ice cream, coffee flavored ice cream, and a pair of lattes. She takes one cup for herself, saying, "I don't see what's wrong with this development however, you have always said that you hated managing Flotol no? Selling the town to them doesn't sound so bad."

  "I would love to leave Flotol to the hands of someone capable but it's clear that this wouldn't just be a simple deal, I have a feeling that the Aldalamas are involved in this."

  "Nogjaf's family?" A pause lulled their conversation as Ifira began to think and Rontress ate to fuel herself. "Saying it as impossible would probably only lower our guard, just because they haven't come here for four years does not mean they have given up."

  "Yep." Rontress took a sip of her coffee. "This is unrelated but Ifira, your skills in making coffee are getting better and better every day, did you get a class for doing this or something?"

  "No? I don't want a sub class related to coffee making, I want ones that allow me to fight."

  Ah, so that means it's basically impossible for her to get it. That's the perfect vessel for you, she's so favored by the system that even sub classes she doesn't want don't pop up in her interface.

  "Guess that makes sense." Well, maybe she has a skill related to it now, Rontress has a few herself and despite having them, never got a [Coffee Brewer] sub class or something like that.

  "Let's go back to the problem." Putting the conversation back on track, Ifira went on with another speculation. "If the merchants from Kapatyan are supporting Dizzeria, I think we may need the help of the Malcotts to beat them."

  "We have the military to fight Dizzeria—" and by military, Rontress meant the two of them. "— but not the influence to fix our reputation or fight inside of the king's court."

  "Which would be our downfall, they know this so they are attacking us politically instead of invading and taking revenge."

  And yet even as their topics turned worrisome, the two of them are still casually eating. After filling her stomach, Rontress realized that there was nothing to worry about at all, she's powerful, Flotol will be defended, and there's no way that the king isn't worried that one of the higher nobles are looking for a piece of land, which means the crown is against Dizzeria and whatever faction they have managed to scrape together.

  Ifira on the other hand has never really cared, she knew that she can just fight the kingdom if things get bad so what's the point of caring? There's no way the Oberlon would want her as an enemy as well, she's well aware of that.

  "We'll beat them at their own game then." The smile Ifira wore was one of excitement, she's felt dull whenever she fought someone because they lost to her even if she held herself back.

  But in a battlefield like this one? Her personal strength doesn't matter, she has to actually try to solve her problems and for some reason, that excites her.

  "Yeah, pretty much, I'm not even worried anymore, just slightly pissed off that they decided to attack us so suddenly. You think it's a bad idea to ban Dizzeria from coming here?" Rontress asked.

  "No, not at all." Ifira shook her head, then she gave it more thought and nodded. "Actually, yes, it is bad, the four higher noble families are supposed to be friendly with one another, not daring to step out of line and always tolerating the other's presence."

  Rontress listened carefully, all while she kept eating her meal. Outside, several streets from their store, someone moves hastily, Uknave is back with more news, and this time it is urgent, the royal family is here.

  "Making an enemy out of one so publicly means that the other three might just treat the Haromago with hostility." Ifira finishes her explanation and the door opens.

  "Mistresses." Uknave is breathing heavily, his face dripping with sweat. "The crown just arrived."

  "How?" Rontress asked, then the answer immediately came to her. "Griffon Carriages."

  "It seems this truly is urgent." Ifira stood up. "Butler, clean up our table, we'll handle this ourselves."

  "Yes, Mistresses."

  "Ah, god. Guess we're dealing with this sooner than expected." Rontress grumbled as she stood up and followed after her best friend.