Yachit was up as early as she saw as appropriate the next morning as she waited outside the private quarters of their master.

  To the young Troll’s surprise, her arrival had been anticipated by the new squad leader, and he gave a terse but friendly greeting as they waited before his chamber doors.

  It wasn’t long after that that they were ushered in and performed the customary greetings.

  “I’m led to believe that you failed.”

  Sedate in his manners, the third young master of the Dari clan (one of the nine great clans of the Lion) was the perfect embodiment of a scion of the celebrated Jan Zaki. Despite his young age of 14, he had already taken up many clan matters with determination and poise. It was such affairs that cluttered his desk and barely allowed him to look up as he addressed his two servants.

  Lacking words, the pair could merely nod in agreement.

  “That’s disappointing,” he said absentmindedly, making a note of something on the parchment next to him and ticking something else in a separate document.

  “We would have been able to apprehend him if we had full information, sir.”

  “It’s my fault now, is it?” Busa was thoroughly unimpressed by the accusation and instead continued with his affairs.

  “Not at all, master.”

  Julnan felt the need to interfere, glaring at his teammate before continuing.

  “It’s just that the strange abilities of the Lycans made our reactions rather sluggish… two of ours have been seriously wounded.”

  The young master was far more receptive to his younger servant’s tact and inquired about the conditions of the two.

  “Iya’s condition has stabilised; the claws of the osu were quite… tricky to deal with. They left dangerous shrapnel inside the wound, so it was far more serious than we originally supposed. That, in addition to him staying in the fight even after receiving that blow… if not for him, Atu might be dead now.”

  “Atu’s condition is far more serious,” he said gravely, “he crushed her hands thoroughly. It’ll take months for her to heal at least, and even then –”

  “She’ll be useless.”

  In the art of sorcery, one's hands were only secondary to one's faculties of language. It helped the caster to more accurately entwine the “threads” of mana, especially with higher-level spells. This was one of the reasons sorcerers were also called spell weavers.

  A good comparison would be riding a bicycle. Using your feet to pedal was obviously the most important thing, but without steady hands to steer, you were liable to crash. Of course, skilled cyclists could manoeuvre almost unaffected even without hands, but the need became more obvious the more complicated or trying the terrain was. It was exactly this way with crafting spells.

  Someone who had suffered such severe damage to her hands would never achieve her full potential, be it in spellcraft proper, array formations or potion making.

  “I wouldn’t go that far, master,” Julnan said firmly but respectfully, “her talent in healing has been indispensable thus far and training someone else would be… tricky.”

  “You’re willing to put your life in shaky hands?” Busa’s question was asked with a rather amused smirk.

  “Atu’s nothing if she’s not trustworthy, master.”

  “Fair enough,” he said with a shrug, not intent on pursuing the matter apparently. “I do need your full report, though.”

  Julnan said that he had already prepared it and placed it before the already swamped desk of his master tersely. The youth observed it swiftly and considered the contents for a while.

  “The power of a Lycan is truly mysterious,” he said, “I’ve read accounts, but being so close to it is quite exciting… I imagine it wasn’t exactly pleasant for you guys, though.”

  Busa was generally as strict as a line but let his cavalier attitude slip in private with his servants.

  “I can’t say it was, young master.”

  “What do you think of inviting him over?”

  The question shocked even the balanced Julnan, and he was lost for words.

  “What do you mean, master?”

  “I’m curious to test the limits of his abilities,” he answered Yachit’s question easily before turning his face back to the captain of his servant squad. “What do you think?”

  “He has the Chukwudifu heiress as a sort of benefactor,” Julnan said delicately, “it would be best to avoid any sort of conflict with her.”

  “You think I can’t stand up to her in terms of influence, right?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Julnan couldn’t answer his master’s smiling inquiry.

  “It’s fine, we won’t harm him or anything. I’m just trying to whet my curiosity. Hardly anything manages to pique my interest these days.”

  “One would think the life of your servants would.”

  The tense declaration from Yachit, whose brooding in the corner had been largely ignored by the pair, drew their gazes; one worried, the other amused.

  “You could have told us all the details of the mission!”

  Ignoring her once more, he turned to his captain and inquired if he was of the same mind.

  “I don’t presume to question you or your motives, master. Still, knowing all that we could would have prevented unnecessary mishaps, but it’s our own responsibility to do our best and not bring disgrace to the Lion.”

  Without saying a word, he tossed a piece of paper to Julnan, who caught it and began reading its contents, understanding his master’s intentions.

  “Young master Danjuma’s…”

  Catching the trail of the young Troll’s unfinished sentence, the noble scion confirmed the contents of the letter.

  “His convoy was attacked by a beast horde following his hunt, two members of his squad died.”

  “Is he okay?” Yachit’s question was softened by a tinge of worry.

  “The second young master can obviously take care of himself,” he said unemotionally.

  “What’s your motive in showing this to us, master?”

  Yachit was curious too.

  “You’re not aware of this,” he said carelessly, “but it wasn’t a regular hunt; in fact, it wasn’t a hunt at all.”

  “You’re speaking in riddles, master.”

  “Instead, they were scouting the habitat for their next kill. I have reason to believe that their target was an infant Emele-Ntouka.”

  The careless statement of the young master was like thunder to the ears of his two servants. They were used to this style of their master; to speak of weighty matters lightly, but this was one of the few genuine shocks they’d received from him in years.

  “Why in the world would he be preparing to hunt that?”

  Reigina was a land of myriad beasts and monsters, with one hardly resembling another, but with all being terrifying.

  The Emele-Ntouka was also known as the elephant-gorer or the murder unicorn.

  It was a rhinoceros-like creature with the youngest growing up to two storeys.

  The beast earned its name from its primary hunting behaviour – murdering elephants.

  It was called murder because it did not eat its prey.

  It was neither herbivorous nor carnivorous and seemed to glut itself simply on the blood of its titanic victims running down its terrible horn.

  No one spoke of such creatures without some level of awe and revulsion. What on earth could the young master want with such a thing?

  That was the question both servants had in their eyes as they regarded their master eagerly.

  “Fragments of the horn of that beast are an essential ingredient in the brew used to ascend to trigger the first dantian ignition.”[1]

  “Dantian ignition!”

  Yachit’s reaction was beyond surprised.

  “That means…”

  “I know quite well what it means.”

  “If they were just there for scouting,” Julnan supplemented, not quite as shocked by the declaration due to his ignorance of the particulars of cultivation, “it’s quite unfortunate that they ran into such a ferocious herd of beasts randomly.”

  “Misfortune has nothing to do with it. It was sabotage.”

  Julnan was surprised, but not much. That was certainly more plausible than just accidentally stumbling into such a dangerous predicament. Such things certainly did happen, but would the Dari clan be qualified as one of the major members of Jan Zaki if they could not even do this much planning to avoid a highly valued member from encountering an accident?

  “How are you certain it was sabotage, master?”

  “Those who are able to do such things are obviously far above me,” he said, whipping out his handheld fan and obscuring part of his face behind its well-treated material, “but few things happen in this mansion without my knowing. I saw that certain resources and routes were changed through an irregular means before the journey commenced (it’s easy to spot if you pay attention), and this development confirms my hunch at the time.”

  The Dari manor in the Lowlands wasn’t their headquarters but rather an important resource node outside their usual main sphere of influence. Due to its position just at the edge of beast-dominant territory and then further in to the south dominated by the Goblins and Dwarves, it served almost as a depot for those of the clan and even outside so that they could organise their affairs, receive resources, rest after stress-filled missions and other such things. Danjuma had naturally also stopped here before progressing on for his hunt.

  The details of it were obviously kept a secret, but Busa due to his position as the third son of the clan lord and his unusual talent for dealing with clan affairs, was quite up to date with the affairs of this highly important depot and just by observing the things they requested (even secretly through his own superiors) he was able to make certain conjectures.

  “If you guessed, why didn’t you warn young master Danjuma?”

  No longer in that same amused mood, he levelled a look at the girl who had asked the question and asked her to guess a reason why.

  Yachit had many specialties, but conspiracy was not one of them. She didn’t see a plausible reason for his neglecting to warn his own brother, especially considering their closeness.

  Busa wasn’t disappointed but instead directed the same question to his younger servant.

  “There aren’t many people who outrank both you and the second young master in terms of authority in this manor,” he started, continuing as he saw encouragement from his master, “and when we consider who could possibly have motive to sabotage him, then one name stands out firmly.”

  “The first young master,” Yachit completed, catching the drift as Julnan explained.

  “Exactly,” Busa said, “if I can sniff out Garo’s influence behind the scenes, then he would certainly be able to do the same if I alert Danjuma to his actions. In fact, he most likely let his actions be so easily discovered to gauge my attitude towards both of them.”

  “If you alerted the second young master, it would be the equivalent of siding with him and burning bridges with master Garo… What a thorny situation.”

  “I’m not nearly out of the woods yet,” was his rueful expression. “The fact that Danjuma is already preparing for an advancement means that this sabotage can only buy a few months to a year, which would coincide with his third growth phase and adulthood. I’ve basically been given a few months to pick a side… when two elephants fight, the grass suffers.”