House Rohm’s seat was more of a castle than any other noble residence Nick had seen, except for the one in Alluria. It had fortified walls and watchtowers, and every entrance required passage through corridors lined with murder holes.

  It wasn’t particularly large, but scaling its walls would mean facing everything from hails of magic arrows and spells to more traditional boiling oil or sand. The protections woven into the stone also made it much sturdier than it should have been, making a breach almost impossible.

  Any invading army that couldn’t fly would have a tough time taking it. Nick didn’t know how the werewolves would have fared against the town’s defenders, but it was clear that capturing the castle in the course of the night would have been impossible, given how disorganized the pack was.

  Yet, such a highly defensive position was also inconsistent with its location. Long Reach was now relatively close to danger, with the dungeon’s appearance, but before that, it had been far from any enemy, and the castle was old.

  Old enough that it might predate the westward expansion into the grasslands. This could be a relic of whichever petty kingdom had feuded with the beastmen long before Berea turned its attention to them.

  That would also explain why it appeared specifically designed to repel a highly mobile but grounded army.

  What it didn’t explain was why the townsfolk hadn't been evacuated inside its walls when he first raised the alarm about the enemy attack.

  Nick let his senses expand throughout the castle, glad he could take it all in, and began tracking the troops' movements.

  It was surprising that so many soldiers were kept in reserve even as their militia brothers and sisters fought bravely against the werewolves. At least sixty men were inside the castle, a number far greater than what was necessary for its defense.

  The more he looked into the matter, the less he liked it, and while he was hiding it from his face, Monte gave him a worried look, clearly able to tell that he wasn’t pleased with something.

  Given that he’d been a chatterbox even while they were burying the half-eaten remains of several humans who had fallen to the Grumblers, his current silence had to be unsettling.

  Terence led them through the castle walls, where they faced suspicious stares from several soldiers, until they finally spilled into the courtyard, where an older gentleman in a butler’s suit greeted them with a bow.

  His presence wasn't exactly hidden, but somewhat ambiguous, making it seem feeble. Nick wasn't fooled for a second, but he carefully concealed any signs that he recognized this man as the most formidable figure in town, rather than the lord concealed within his castle.

  “Welcome to Rohm Manor, my lords. I am Samuel, House Rohm’s steward.”

  Nick eyed the defensive structures all around them, which really didn’t belong to a place called a manor, but decided there were more pressing matters at hand than a bad naming sense.

  “Where is uncle?” Terence asked in a surprised tone.

  Nick could sense a fairly strong presence above them—if not quite on Samuel's level—in a room that provided a clear view of the courtyard without anyone down there being able to see who was watching. He was pretty sure that was the lord, but his presence there, along with the suspicion he seemed to be feeling, only added to the confusion.

  He’d known that Lord Rohm was involved with the Hones in some way, although he still lacked the specifics, but he’d assumed that the werewolf attack hadn’t been part of their offensive.

  The death and destruction it would have caused would have meant the end of House Rohm. Long Reach would have disappeared from the map, at least until another minor noble was promoted and given the chance to prove themselves by resettling it.

  No lord would have stood for the destruction of their legacy.

  And yet, Rohm was acting extremely suspicious. There was something happening that Nick didn't know about, and despite how thoroughly he scoured the grounds, even pushing his senses deep into the earth to find another hidden basement, he couldn't find anything to explain the current situation.

  “The Lord has been coordinating the efforts, Lord Terence,” Samuel reprimanded lightly, and it would have made perfect sense if Nick couldn’t tell that the man wasn’t doing anything of the sort.

  Samuel turned around and entered the main building, evidently expecting that he would be followed. After a moment, Terence complied, and they went after him.

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  The look Monte gave Nick was enough to show that he was getting strange vibes from all of this, too.

  The night wasn’t even over, and distant howls of chained werewolves could be heard. Every so often, they stopped abruptly, likely because they were struck down if they tried to break free.

  In such a tense situation, everyone should have been working together, but instead, they were walking into a true fortress guarded by dozens of soldiers that would have been much better served out there.

  He sent just enough to avoid being accused of abandoning the town, but anyone with a sense of how many soldiers he can muster would know he didn’t contribute nearly as much as he could have. That’s probably why the Captain was so twitchy. Well, that, and the werewolves.

  They were led through a confusing series of corridors, then upstairs, and through several more rooms, some of which were armories, while others were likely meant for entertaining guests.

  If Nick hadn’t gotten the lay of the land from [Empyrean Intuition], he would have simply thought this was a confusing path meant to slow down any invader from reaching the lord’s solar, but he knew for a fact there were easier routes they could have taken.

  His suspicion gradually turned into annoyance and eventually into wariness because there was more than just something off about the whole situation.

  Finally, they reached a heavy wooden door guarded by two soldiers in full plate, whose mana levels appeared much higher than the average he sensed in the castle.

  The men looked at them with suspicion, but opened the door as Samuel stopped in front of it.

  “Just a moment,” the steward said, then vanished inside.

  Monte immediately turned to Terence, who appeared genuinely confused by the man’s strange behavior and the hostile reception they were receiving.

  Whatever was going on, they had kept him in the dark and used him as an innocent pawn to lure them away.

  That, however, implied a level of understanding of Nick’s sensory abilities he was really uncomfortable with, but it also clarified a few things.

  It’s from when I delivered that psychic blow through the necklace. They must have been able to study the effects of the attack enough to conclude that I possess a high level of empathic ability.

  A moment later, the door opened again, and they were let into the solar.

  It didn’t look any different from the other solars Nick had been. A few historically valuable pieces of armor and swords were hung on the walls, a tapestry showed the House’s origin, and some valuable trinkets were on display.

  Yet the atmosphere was far more tense than any solar he’d been in before.

  Behind a sturdy wooden desk, Lord Rohm sat with his fingers intertwined just under his nose, hiding the bitter twist of his mouth.

  Samuel took his place behind the man, almost fading into the background, as one of the guards closed the door behind them.

  Nick deliberately made an effort to keep track of him. He wouldn't be caught off guard twice in one night, especially since he was sure the other would have to reveal his identity before too long. Rohm was just too antagonistic for some reason; there would be no friendly debriefing here.

  There were no chairs for them to sit on, despite that being the expected courtesy any noble should extend to a guest, much less to someone who had ostensibly been the major contributor to the town’s defense.

  “Uncle, what's going on?” Terence was the first to break the silence.

  Lord Rohm showed no concern for the distress he was causing his nephew. “Silence, Terence. You have done your duty, now keep your mouth shut.”

  The tone was harsh enough to seal Terence’s lips, but it was obvious from his eyes that he wasn’t satisfied with just that.

  The lord’s eyes then shifted to Nick and Monte, and he fixed them with a stern look. “The saviors of Long Reach, I presume?”

  “We are,” Monte cut in before Nick could answer. He seemed fairly confident, so Nick decided to let him take the lead and just observe, this once.

  There is a reason why Tholm gave him to me, and it’s not just to get rid of the obvious spy.

  “Nick here was the one to send the alert about the attack, and to hold the monsters back until reinforcements finally arrived.” The emphasis he put on the last two words made it clear he didn’t think much of the town’s defenders, which made Rohm’s face twitch.

  “We are very lucky, then, to have him with us, right at this moment of need,” the lord replied.

  Nick really didn’t like the subtle insinuation but stayed quiet, letting Monte handle it for now. He, on the other hand, made sure he had the beacon Tholm had given him ready, in case it was needed.

  Samuel was just too hard to get a pin on, and while Nick wanted to believe he could handle him, his instincts told him it wouldn’t be that easy.

  “You were. If he hadn’t been here, there would have been a slaughter of a scale that could never be recovered from,” Monte shot back.

  The two exchanged sharp words for a while, discussing the facts of the attack while making subtle insinuations that the other was to blame for how it occurred and how close they had come to disaster.

  Through it all, Nick kept observing. The more the lord spoke, the more he believed that his initial assessment was right—that he wasn’t aware of the werewolves but was hiding something nonetheless.

  Seeing that they weren’t making progress and that he really wanted to get back to the field to question a couple of werewolves, maybe with a bit of metaphysical probing to understand what made them tick, he decided he had given diplomacy enough of a chance and flipped the metaphorical table.

  “You are trying to determine whether we are behind the attack because its timing is suspicious, happening just before the reinforcements you promised the citizens arrived. We, on the other hand, are trying to find out whether you are responsible, as now that you have proof of a serious threat, you might be able to enforce stricter conditions in Long Reach, aligning yourself with the more powerful faction without seeming to break old alliances or incite rebellion.”

  There was a long silence as everyone realized he had just said the quiet part out loud without an ounce of tact. Monte sighed loudly, but the twist of his lips suggested he wasn’t that angry.

  They had been going nowhere anyway, and although Nick would have preferred to keep things low-key, spying on secret meetings and then slipping away into the night to report back to the base camp, it was becoming increasingly clear to him that something very dangerous was happening here.

  Werewolves don’t appear out of nowhere, especially not in those numbers or with that level of coordination. There wasn’t any alpha among them either, since the most powerful was level fifty. No, I do not believe for a moment that their presence here is a coincidence, but this isn’t something any single minor noble house could have arranged. It’s either a major player or, more likely, the dungeon has finally started expanding again after Bluetear eradicated its presence outside its boundaries.

  Lord Rohm's face went white. He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly before clenching his fists in anger. “You little—”

  “Enough!” another voice interrupted, and all eyes turned to the steward, Samuel, who suddenly lost his friendly demeanor.

  He stepped forward, revealing his presence and showing that he was not just a skilled stealth class but actually a Prestige one.

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