The Jamani had switched plans very quickly, and rather than taking just twenty percent of the kingdom, they decided that they were going to make this kingdom into their own personal sanctuary! The Jamani would integrate with the people of L’horm, and they would become the ’personal bodyguards’ of Makin so that he could act as their puppet king as they ran this world from the shadows!
Things had been going very smoothly for them, and they were slowly starting to funnel massive amounts of gold and silver out of L’horm, but things had changed drastically when Calypso heard rumors of a secret experiment happening inside the Northern Solstice Alliance Academy.
That Academy had always been a thorn in Calypso’s side. As one of the only independent organisations in L’horm, the Northern Alliance Academy had no obligation to listen to the words of their new king, so they simply refused to open their gates to the Jamani. Calypso had actually given up on entering the Northern Alliance Academy a long time ago because she thought it was just a stupid academy with some research that didn’t matter! But after hearing about the secret experiment and what the experiment might be able to do for her, Calypso just couldn’t overlook it anymore!
That academy became more important than all the gold and silver of this world, and if not for that fucking headmaster who refused to allow them to enter the academy no matter what, they would have already gotten what they needed from this world, and it would’ve been easy for them to escape before the Overlord even arrived!
"We need to get into the academy as soon as possible. We can’t let the overlord find out what’s inside there."
Calypso grumbled in annoyance as she paced while thinking about what to do, but her second in command spoke up with a grunt.
"Madam, we don’t even know if the rumors are true or not. What if our efforts are wasted on a meaningless experiment?"
SLAP!
Calypso turned around sharply and slapped the second in command with enough force to send him to one knee! The large troll grunted as blood flowed freely from his nose, and Calypso glared down at him!
"Don’t you ever question my order again! Do you understand!?"
The troll nodded respectfully while trying to stop the bleeding, and Calypso turned away with a frown. Calypso couldn’t allow anyone in this group to begin questioning her even for a moment. Mercenaries were all greedy bastards who only cared about themselves, and the moment they think it is okay to question her, it won’t be long before Calypso starts facing opposition inside her own group!
Calypso considered the troll’s question internally, and she wondered if he was right. They had not even confirmed if the experiment was really what the rumors said they were, or if people had just exaggerated things. Were they risking all the riches they had gathered just for the sake of some myth?
No, Calypso knew that it was real. The amount of resistance that they were facing from Jaen Trush and the fact that Jaen refused to reveal any of the experiments being done inside the Academy to them meant that there was something inside there that they definitely didn’t want them to know about! Just the possibility of this rumor being true was already more than enough reason for them to get into that Academy building, no matter what! The only thing stopping them from forcing their way into the Academy now was Jason Marc!
Bzzt! Bzzt!
A vibration came from Calypso’s pocket, and she reached behind her and brought out a small round stone artefact that had various holes poked in it. This was a [Sonar Stone] artefact that could be obtained from the body of the Bluetail Sky Whale in a world known as Vret, more than one hundred dimensional jumps away. The Bluetail Sky Whales had evolved to use various sound waves to communicate, so the stones that were obtained from their bodies also had the property of transmitting sound over very long distances! So long as two people held the Sonar Stone, then they would both be able to communicate like they were in the same room.
But the reason why this stone wasn’t widely used by most of the Primordial Expanse was because of how insecure it was. Since the Bluetail Sky Whales all transmitted sound across the same wavelength, anyone who had the Sonar Stone would be able to listen in on the conversation of any other Sonar Stone user that was nearby, so it was very easy for people to spy on your conversation!
But since the Jamani mercenaries moved around a lot, they didn’t have to worry about people spying on them, and they only used the Sonar Stone for short, immediate communication that couldn’t wait!
The person on the other end of the Sonar Stone was one of Calypso’s subordinates, and Calypso spoke quickly.
"What is it?"
[Ma’am, there’s a problem.]
Calypso felt her heart skip a beat when she heard this, and a sense of dread immediately started to settle over her body as she shouted!
"Tell me what it is already! Don’t waste my time!"
[One of the humans from the overlord’s world stumbled into the storage room, and he was ambushed by one of our men. I think he’s been killed.]
For a moment, there was nothing but silence over the Sonar Stone, and the man who had been speaking wondered if Calypso had heard him, but then a loud scream unlike anything the man had ever heard resounded across the entire castle!
"WHAT!?"
....
[A Few Minutes Earlier]
[With Jason]
After his conversation with Jaen at the Northern Solstice Alliance Academy, Jason returned to the room that had been prepared for him, and he sat on the edge of his bed and let out a calm sigh as he allowed his mind to wander through everything that happened today. The case between Makin and Vanix was a complicated one, especially for someone like Jason who had to find a way to pick between his personal feelings and his duty as an overlord.
Jason obviously didn’t support Vanix for what he had done! Vanix was a twisted, cruel person, and Jason would be more than happy to kill him and forget about him once and for all, but at the same time, Jason knew that things were not so simple! It would have been easy to deal with this if Vanix was a bad king, but the fact that Vanix had actually ruled this world properly and paid all the taxes he needed to meant that Jason couldn’t punish him as an overlord.
If Jason was going to get rid of Vanix, then he would have to do it in a way that wouldn’t raise the suspicion of the other worlds around the Primordial Expanse. Because if people thought that Jason was getting involved in the politics of another world and killing kings even though they had done everything they needed to do economically, then it would be more difficult to handle most of the other worlds in his domain.
The world wasn’t a pretty place, and no matter how badly Jason wanted to make it better, there were still limits to what he could do.
Jason fell back in bed, and he allowed his vision to travel to one of his subordinates who was watching over Gina. Jason saw Gina sleeping in bed with Riyala and Hesbeath on either side of her. Hesbeath was curled in on herself while facing Gina’s back, and Gina was holding Riyala in a soft hug. It looked like the three women had been talking late into the night, and they fell asleep together, and Jason felt a smile growing on his face as he watched them. Jason felt a desperate urge to abandon this case and go be with his girls, but Jason had to fight to resist that urge, and Jason decided he would go see them once he was finished with this!
....
A/N: Please vote with Golden Tickets!