“A Bronze Rank adventurer is a det rank for most, but with your strength, why have you not reached higher?” Dalia asked, sippiea slowly as the servants brought out tiny desserts. They were like cakes, but extremely thid dense. Some were covered in fkes of white, e, reen.

  “I like my positiht now,” Adam replied, simply, staring into the Duchess’ eyes.

  Dalia tio stare at Adam, w why he was trying to keep a low profile. Her eyes fell across the other Iyrmen, and she wondered if the Iyr had anything to do with it.

  “Yrace.”

  “Yes?”

  “I just fot to add the address when I replied.” Adam reached for a sweet dessert. “I could feel the gre of your knights for being so rude. I hope you uand, but I wasn’t born into nobility.”

  “Fiveable mistakes,” the Duchess replied.

  ‘Seriously,’ Adam thought. ‘I ’t believe I’m thinking so positively of the French.’ Adam stifled a shudder.

  “You seem so close with the Iyr.”

  “I’m a Nephew of the Iyr,” Adam replied.

  “You also work for a business which works hand in hand with the Iyr?” the Duchess asked.

  Adam wondered how much she knew, and how she had mao gather so muformation about him so quickly. “Yes.”

  “The business is also looking after your children?”

  “…” Adam sipped the rest of his tea, which, with the fvour of the cake, robably among the most delicious items he had eaten since he had arrived into the world. “Yes.”

  “Adventuring is dangerous work,” Dalia tinue. “It would be best for your children if you chose to settle down peacefully. They would receive a great education as the children of a Vice Captain.” The education they would receive would only be slightly below that of the greatest nobles, and greater than even minor nobles.

  “You sure know how to tug at my heartstrings,” Adam replied, almost letting slip a smile. “They will also be raised well in the Iyr.” Adam thought about the children’s nana and babo, the pair who were closest to the children, perhaps even closer than Adam. ‘No, there’s no way the old geezer be closer to them than me.’

  “Will they remain in the Iyr forever?”

  “Perhaps. I assume they’ll want to go out into the world, my precious little babies. If I love them, I should allow them to be free. Of course, I’d make sure they’d be safe out and about.”

  “A difficult task,” the Duchess said, noting the smile on Adam’s face, but also the tension against his brow. His smile was not like the other smiles he had revealed, those which were demure. This smile was far more… wild?

  “You’re right, but as someone whose sin twons already, I’m sure I’ll have some success,” Adam replied, smiling even wider, and wilder. His teeth were bare, like the fangs of a beast, his eyes narrowed to the point they were almost shut tight.

  “Vandra and Zagryn,” the Duchess stated, causing some of the knights to tense up. “Will double the sary be more acceptable for your abilities?” Such a sary ropriate for Vice Captains of greater stock, those of minor nobles and such, and would rarely be offered to those who were not of noble blood.

  “Money isn’t a huge issue for me,” Adam admitted. “I make a lot of money if I want to, so it’s pretty low in terms of priorities.” Adam also had made a ton of money betting during the tour, and even after dropping so mu Nobby and the others, he had more than enough to live like a king, or a minor noble, for some time. “I’ve already made my bed with the greatest superpower in the region.”

  The Duchess hadn’t expected Adam to be so explicit with his words. Very few had the gall to dare to suggest such things in front of nobles, and even fewer dared to do so in front of the Duchess, who was only sed to the King. “You speak of the Iyr?”

  “Yes.”

  The Duchess smiled, though didn’t show her pearly white teeth. “Have you spent much time i Port?”

  “A short while.”

  “I tell,” she said.

  These words were always spoken by those who had no idea what they were talking about, so Adam prepared himself.

  “East Port is home to almost two million residents. The Iyr is home to… fifty thousand at most?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Even if you were to double the popution of the Iyr, it would be outnumbered almost twenty to ohe Duchess tinued. “The army we could raise would be three times as much as the entire popution of an Iyr with double its popution. That does not include the rest of East Aldnd, which could raise ahree huhousand soldiers if needed.”

  “Yeah,” Adam said, nodding his head slowly. “I’ve even brought it up to Jurot before. It might have been one of the first things I spoke to him about a couple of years ago, actually. Fifty thousand Iyrmen against the ey of Aldnd, with its, what, Thirty or so million people? I suppose it’s probably twenty five or so million now…”

  “A war which will end by the end of the year,” the Duchess stated.

  “Jurot said the same thing,” Adam added, slowly nodding his head. “In this tour our party faced against many who would be sidered the best of Aldnd, not just those from East Aldnd. Still, the best of Aldnd faced against the Iyrmen, and, from what I recall, lost every time. If I be more blunt, even a man, or a half man if you prefer, dropped the two best of tral Aldnd befifting them the win.”

  The Duchess smiled, wrinkles f around her eyes. There was something about Adam’s audacity, the way he flew too close to the sun, that was rather endearing. He was a young man brainwashed by the Iyr, having not seerue might of the Aldishment.

  “Even if it was my brother instead, their magics would have dohing against his rage,” Adam stated firmly. “You could raise five million fishermen, but I’d bet oy five thousand Iyrmeime.”

  Jurot nodded his head at his brother’s words. He had many things to say oter too, but he kept his mouth shut. It was ohing for an Iyrman to speak of the might of the Iyr, but ahing for someone who wasn’t an Iyrman to speak of it.

  The guards nearby tensed up, ready t into a, but the Duchess raised a hand, and a servant came to refresh their tea. She sipped it gently, thinking about what to do with Adam. His words were quite brutal, and uhe ws of the Aldishmen, teically he could be tried for something, and with a word from the Duchess, he’d be buried in an unmarked grave within the hour.

  “Everyone has a price,” the Duchess said, motioning a hand for the cakes which had been offered, and the Iyrmen had refrained from eating. “What is yours?”

  “I was offered, what, a thousand gold each month?” Adam asked, looking to Jurot. “I think they offered me a few thousand as a bonus ever so often too, something like multiple times a month, or once every few months, depending ouation.”

  Jurot nodded, recalling the sario within his mind. It had been before the triplets put some distaween their father and mother. It wasn’t the most ridiculous thing to happen to Adam yet, even though it was something already unbelievably ridiculous.

  The Duchess was struck by Adam’s words. She was certain he wasn’t so stupid that he’d lie to her to get her to pay him more, but to see Jurot nod to firm the words, she wondered what they were talking about. “Who offered such a deal?”

  Adam paused to think, gng around to the nearby guards, to see if they were casting any spells or such. Then he go Jurot. “Am I even allowed to say?”

  “No,” his brother replied.

  “Well, I probably say they were at least the rank of a Duchess?” Adam said, before eyeing up Jurot to see if he had made a mistake, but his brother’s face was like stone. ‘Damn, sometimes I fet how handsome you are, Jurot. It makes sense, since you’re my brother.’

  “You refused?” the Duchess asked, uhe assumption he was telling the truth.

  “I refused for Lanababy.”

  The Duchess tried to recall the phrase, before remembering who it was. “Lanababy?”

  “Our sister.”

  The Duchess bowed her head slowly. “You are no Iyrman, a have an Iyrman for a brother?”

  “It’s a long story, but it means that my children will grow well in the Iyr.” Adam shrugged his shoulders. “If you somehow get the Rot family to move out of the Iyr, then I’d be willing to leave them, but otherwise it’ll be extremely difficult to e away.” ‘That being said, should I really raise my children in the Iyr for long? It feels weird taking advantage of them so much…’

  “You believe the Iyr is better than my capital, where gold flows freely like its rivers?”

  “Gold is gold, but wise men i in security, otherwise a fool and his gold are sooed,” Adam replied, simply.

  The knights tensed up once more, with those closest to the Duchess reag for their bdes. The teen Iyrmen straightened up, but hat the trio of Iyrmen made no move to act as of yet.

  The Duchess motioned with a hand and the knights slowly rexed. “You did not mean me, did you?”

  “I was talking about myself, Yrace, since I don’t have one of the greatest navies of the region, nor three huhousand soldiers,” Adam said, chug.

  ‘He was so nervous when he arrived, but now he is ughing so easily…’ “I do not believe you are a fool, though I ot uand why your respect of the Iyr runs so deep, to the point that you do not hold Aldnd in such high regards? They have many great warriors, that is well known, and has been so for hundreds, thousands, of years, but they ot hope to match the might of Aldnd.”

  “We agree to disagree, Yrace,” Adam replied, smiling wider. ‘Oh, my sweet summer child.’

  When Adam thinks positively of the French you know things are going bad.