-----

  Heracles and Gofumina got to the point pretty quickly, expining almost everything they knew about the Silver Moon Duchy and everything they went through with their previous patron/master.

  “The new ruler is named Ausberth Silver Moon, he is the previous ruler’s younger brother, a pure-blooded vampire like her with a rather simir appearance as well,” expined Heracles. “He’s tall and slender and has an intimidating aura but is very talkative and calm at the same time and very sociable. I’ve rarely seen vampires with his weird attitude before. He seemed mrounded, but also even more ing.”

  “Her brother?! I had no idea Helena had a brother! I’ve never seen him before…” Teressa said. “What in the world? Where was he hiding him this eime?”

  “It seems he might’ve been hiding in the shadows until the moment his sister died…” Vd said. “Mother, do you think…?”

  “It’s probably he maniputed her into doing what she did, just to e die against us… Or, well, either result would’ve been beneficial to him, I suppose,” Teressa said. “If they won, it was good, a new city for their territory, more resources, and so on; if she died with her son, still good for him as he got to take over it quickly.”

  “Iing…” Ia said. “Was the city of Silver Moon grao Helena by the Emperor?”

  “Yes, it was. Every one of his wives is given a city to ma has been this way for a long time,” Teressa said. “He has four other wives. Of course, the Empire is rge. The other cities are managed by older sons, his cousins, uncles, or brothers. The Emperor’s family is vast, and so is our power and authority over the entire region.”

  “Iside it feels like you’re all a cozy and unified family, but it seems there’s a lot of internal politid flicts, huh?” Chris wondered. “Like trying to kill each other to gain more cities and resources… Is this normal with the rest?”

  “Yes, it is…” Teressa sighed. “I dislike it, of course. But it might be the natural course of a we must take with the Silver Moon Duchy. If we defeated Helena and her son, the most we do is take over what we earned from their defeat: their city, people, and resources.”

  “Heracles, tell us more about this man and the city,” Vd said. “What exactly is he pnning?”

  “Yes, sure, boss,” Heracles nodded after taking a sip of wine. “Lord Ausberth is an etri, but he’s not alohere’s a dark anization behind him, which was the ohat granted him, his sister, and her son the power they used against you, most likely. We’ve only seen them a few times, but they don’t cooperate with us, and we work separately. We don’t know their name or anything, but they’re posed of most races. There are Orcs, Werewolves, Imps, and Blood and Moon Elves. But no goblins, seems like they don’t like our kind that much.”

  “The Desecrated Shadow King’s Temprs?” Vd asked. “So that’s where they’re hiding now?”

  “It seems we’ve found their sed hideout! And that bastard of Ausberth is directly cooperating with those snakes? Is he stupid or something?” Teressa wondered.

  “It seems he is receiving direct help from them in exge for allowing them to work in his city. He also provides them with funds,” said Heracles. “But I don’t know for how long he’ll be able to keep doing that. He wants to take over Elderbridge because of your Dungeons, he sees them as great resource points for his city so he also keep fueling the funds for those bastards. I have no idea what their big pn is, though, other than just quering the nd... But that’s vague, I suppose.”

  “It is good enough to guess most things…” Said Vd with a nod. “Now, what else is he doing?”

  “Well, he got three roups, but they aren’t honorable meraries like us; they’re all Orc or Werewolf Barbarians he somehow got to work with him,” said Heracles. “Those Temprs or whatever they’re called, most likely brainwashed their chiefs using dark magic. They hand over all kinds of trio them freely, but they didn’t give us a damn thing. How they trust bandits over us?! Goblin discrimination at its fi!”

  “So they have three Barbarian Groups on standby packed with dark and cursed ons…” Vd nodded as he saw Teressa writing things down on a floating grimoire with her own blood-covered nails. “Uood. Any other threats we should watch out for?”

  “They got some strange Underworld Beasts trapped in the sewers,” said Heracles. “Nasty stuff; they’re feeding them civilians to keep them from rampaging! I think they’re mohe Temprs tamed or something…”

  “Like Argentia?” Wondered Chris. “They don’t tame them; they’re being brainwashed and ensved using curse magic…! Fug pricks.”

  Chris got angry out of nowhere; it seemed he pitied creatures like Argentia a lot, and if there were more dragons among them, he fully inteo save them.

  “What else, Heracles?” Asked Vd.

  “Ummm… well, I ’t remember any more than that? Ah well! He’s arming his army really well, with dark cursed armor and nasty-looking ons! He got arouhousand soldiers.”

  “T-Ten thousand?!” Asked Teressa. “Where did he… get so many?! I thought that duchy oorer than ours? Was I wrong?”

  “He might be into shady stuff, Mother; he’s probably getting soldiers from somewhere else entirely,” Vd said. “Anything else?”

  “No, that’s all,” Heracles said fidently.

  “Actually…”

  However, Gofumina finally talked for the first time, scratg her head.

  “I do know something… Ausberth, that guy. He has got some strange friends,” said Gofumina.

  “Strange friend?” Vd asked.

  “Yeah, I saw him talking with him… or her, some time ago,” said Gofumina. “I think they didn’t see me, but… Well, that person looked like they were straight out of a sci-fi game or movie.”

  “What?” Vd wondered.

  “Yeah, I mean it was definitely fug weird, but if you want to know, I tell you; it was certainly not someone from this Realm… or any other Realm that is out for the public, I think,” Gofumina said.

  -----

  Pach