Guarding Food

"You probably didn't invite me here today just for a meal."

The Deya Lineage had sent a man with a head of large, glossy, oil-slick waves to attend the meeting.

He wore a brightly colored, fitted cotton outfit. A white collar spilled out along the edges of his red outer vest, making him look like a peacock spreading its tail.

"Of course not.

People knew someone had died on my side. I was furious.

The previous fighting had dragged on far too long, as though we had fallen into a mire.

Armor slipped there. Even grabbing the person beside you by the arm made it hard to get back on your feet."

"So?"

Seated beneath the candlelight, the Deya Lineage's representative pinned the steak before him with a fork, then gently cut into it with a silver knife lined with two rows of fine serrations.

"I plan to use daggers, bypass that damned armor, and directly take out the troublesome bastards in the rear."

The hands beneath the candlelight paused. The man raised his head slightly from within the peacock-like cluster of white collar, revealing a chin covered in a thin layer of beard.

"You should understand the rules set by the five great Lineages together.

What counted as friction, what counted as an invasion, and what counted as war.

Once you were classified as waging war or invading, then no matter how capable the Black Mountain Merchants' fighters were, you would be facing the private forces of every Lineage in Seapeak Port.

And that level-six Attendant."

When he mentioned that title, the man's voice carried an irrepressible air of fawning flattery, as though that status alone had thoroughly tamed him.

"You've reached level three, haven't you.

Do you need me to tell you how terrifying a level-six adventurer's combat power is?

You should count yourself fortunate that he only served the contract signed with the five great Lineages."

Listening to the unabashed praise, Riel did not argue. He merely tapped the table once with his thick knuckles.

"You don't need to remind me of that. I came from the Duchy Guard of the Black Mountain Duchy.

I've seen those monsters with my own eyes. They could crumple and smash fully armored soldiers like paper boxes.

We won't start a war. At the very least, not above ground.

Cross your warehouses off the list. I also need two ships, and fifty laborers who could keep their mouths shut."

Riel pressed a map onto the table.

Though the lighting was dim, as the Deya Lineage's fully authorized representative sent to meet an important ally, the man still recognized what it was.

A map. A map of Seapeak Port.

More precisely, an extraordinarily accurate map of Seapeak Port.

If it had not lacked the details within each district, and if its sewer entrance markings had not been incomplete, he might have thought it was a copy stolen from his own family's map.

Of course, the important thing was clearly not this excessively accurate map, but the several red circles marked upon it.

When he saw where those red circles were, the man's heart gave a slight jolt.

He saw a location that should not have appeared there—a warehouse whose corresponding location above ground was known to only a small number of people within the Lineage.

The man rose to his feet, and the chair legs scraped out a clumsy symphony across the floor.

Only after they had been completely shoved into the darkness by his thighs did they finally stop playing.

To demonstrate sufficient importance, Riel had arranged the meeting at the long table in the reception hall.

The servants had already left the room. Only the two of them remained, seated across from one another at opposite ends of the long table.

The man stepped past the flickering candles and finally arrived before Riel.

He tapped the map lightly with his fingernail, then indicated three circles.

"You can touch these three."

"I didn't expect your family's reach to be so broad. Then what about this one?"

Having already seized the initiative, Riel smiled and tapped the best ambush point Heka had found for him.

"It seems you know more than I imagined."

The standing man looked down at Riel, who sat beneath the candlelight.

Yet he was cowed by the other man's body, which had nearly merged with the darkness. Only after a moment did he suddenly realize that he had unknowingly retreated half a step.

"In truth, everyone has some guesses about the locations of one another's underground warehouses, but preserving peace is an unwritten rule.

What you're doing puts me in a difficult position."

Riel smiled. He knew what the other man was worried about. The five great Lineages had fought without breaking one another for centuries, an understanding that made it difficult for any outsider to enter their circle.

"It doesn't matter. We're outsiders.

We truly cannot kill all those street thugs, as numerous as the hairs on an ox, which is why you old foxes dragged us into this endless war of attrition.

But we still have the ability to raid a few warehouses and recover some blood. We don't need your help."

In the darkness, Riel hid the sharp angles of his face within the shadows. Like a viper before the hunt, he curled up and gathered his strength, poised to strike.

"Thirty percent. I want thirty percent. You won't be able to transport their goods away, and without me as the middleman, no one would dare take on such a scalding hot potato."

"Twenty percent. Aren't you afraid of being implicated? Taking that much makes it look as though you're the mastermind."

Riel straightened, his gaze falling upon the other man's neck, stuffed full by fluffy fabric.

"I can't stop you lunatics, nor can I convince those people who are about to have their nests emptied that I'm innocent.

Rather than get cursed out and gain nothing, I might as well take something to make up for my losses.

If you're willing, then say I'm the mastermind. We'll split it thirty-seventy—you take three, I take seven.

At worst, I'll leave Seapeak Port tomorrow and never come back."

This hurdle had probably been cleared.

When Heka heard the door beside the lounge slowly open, then saw Riel enter with a faint smile on his face, the great stone in his heart finally fell to the ground.

"You really are a treasure trove of a boy. If I hadn't planned to push you out today, when were you going to tell me all these little secrets of yours?"

Riel came over to Heka, who had already sat up. He pulled over a chair and sat down opposite him, then placed the pastries he carried onto the table before them.

Heka looked up at him, reached out, picked the pastry that looked the most delicious, and stuffed it into his mouth.

"I only barely finished it after working overtime. I want five days off afterward, and I want a swordsmanship instructor."

"If you were from Black Mountain, I would hire you a swordsmanship instructor. But not now.

We can discuss the leave, though. Five days is too long. How about three?"