No wonder Merit left.

“Don’t you try to stop me, Vim! I’m holding my ground this time, really!” Brandy said, a little loudly, as she poured some hard liquor into the glasses.

I held back a sigh as I nodded. “You know me better than that, Brandy. If you wish to wage your own war, feel free,” I said. Especially since Light and the rest had, as far as I understood, attacked first.

“That’s right! I’m glad you understand!” Brandy happily said as she finished pouring us drinks. She put the large, dark, bottle down onto her desk and went to hand me one of the glasses. I accepted it, calmly, but not too happily.

I was in no mood to drink. But I also wasn’t going to turn it down. Or rather, I likely wasn’t going to be given a choice either way so there was no point in even debating it.

We were alone in her office, and had been for a short time. We’d arrived in Lumen this morning, about five or so hours ago, and to be honest I wasn’t sure which issue I wanted to tackle first… or which one I felt was most annoying, for that matter.

“Want to a build a church? Sure! Go ahead! I’ll even file the permits and forms for you! Want to build homes? Take your pick of lots and buildings, at your leisure! Underground safe rooms? Why don’t even ask, I got aplenty! Want more money? Here’s the key to my vaults!” Brandy started to ramble as I studied the glass in my hand. I’d not been able to take a drink yet since she had yet to raise her own in toast or clink mine. She was too busy with her monologue it seemed.

The otter shook her head in anger as she, nearly slammed, her own glass down onto her desk. I noted she did so carefully, enough to not spill more than a single drop, but the fact she had spilled a drop at all told me she wasn’t just acting… she was genuinely upset.

“But to try and slither your way into my markets? Ones I built with my own hands? And to try to do so not blatantly but behind my back? Do you have any idea how insulting that is, Vim? I’m basically an open pantry! Take what you want! What’s mine is yours… but this isn’t just thieving rats, but shameless false prophets! To come not for my spoils, but my history!? My duty!? Who do they think they are!?” Brandy continued ranting, and I wondered what Renn was doing. She wasn’t in the guild anymore, though had only left a short time ago.

I had almost not allowed her to leave, what with Renka’s warning about Fincy, but I figured Renka wouldn’t allow anything too drastic to happen. She obviously wanted me to accomplish some task for her… and that relied on Renn not only being kept alive, but her existence a secret as well. She’d not allow Fincy to find out about Renn, let alone harm her… at least so I believed.

Plus I was hoping to use Renn’s absence as an excuse in a moment… as to escape.

If I could.

“And the most insulting part of it all, Vim? They think I can’t actually put up a fight! They think I’m just going to roll over and let them take it all! Ha!” Brandy scoffed as she picked her glass back up. She raised it to her lips, and I for a moment wondered if that meant I was allowed to drink too… but she paused and hesitated a moment before she actually took a drink.

Brandy then turned around and lifted her glass to me, finally. “Going to just sit there and let me vent, or are you going to tell me you thoughts?” she asked as I raised my own glass in return.

“Figured I’d let you get it all out first,” I said as she took the first drink.

I waited until she was done before taking my own. “I don’t need to vent anymore… how long do you think I’ve been dealing with this, Vim? For months now! I’m already half way through it all for crying out loud!”

“Through it all?” I asked. She didn’t mean her little rants but instead her actions.

“Yep, I’m losing. Just as they said I would,” Brandy admitted with a smile.

Huh… she actually looked proud to say so. “Well, it is hard to play the market against people who can genuinely foresee the future,” I said.

“Nah… regrettably I can’t blame that this time…” Brandy sighed as she went ahead and placed her glass back down onto her desk. I noted as she did she also wiped her hand along the surface of the desk as to clean up some of the liquor she had spilled earlier. “I genuinely got outplayed. My deal with Light was to win over the council members. To get their vote in my favor over hers, or rather her representative, over the upcoming vote on the new currency. It’s a trifling vote, one that has no real impact to any of our functions or income… but it was a good way to prove our influence over each other…” Brandy explained.

Sheesh. Light was already getting involved in the politics of this city to that extent…? That was almost scary to know, but expected. Her mother had been the kind to use politics not just as a tool but a weapon. A real one, that usually ended lives more than it saved.

Even without sharing Celine’s blood, she sure did end up growing up just like her in the end hadn’t she…?

“I take it you lost the vote, then,” I said as I took another drink. Even if Brandy wasn’t going to finish hers, I didn’t plan follow suit.

“By a large margin, to boot,” Brandy said.

Huh. “Why? Light, like her mother, is willing to abuse her powers and whatnot but you have been manipulating and running this city for so long that you should have been…”

“I pushed too hard, I think. I panicked and tried to exert power and called in favors too heavily for something too insignificant. A few who had voted against me, during the vote, had joked at how they thought I had been messing around. I think they didn’t realize how serious I had been, and because of that hadn’t voted in my favor since they thought I had not been genuine in my requests,” Brandy said.

Ah. So she had fell on her own sword. Fitting. In a way. “Well… if you lost then, why do you talk as if you’re going to continue fighting?”

“Because I am! I may have lost the war, but I can still win the little battles!” she said as she stepped back around her desk, as to sit back down in her chair.

“How so, Brandy…?” I asked as I took another drink.

“I’m going to have to relinquish most of my authority here… per my bet with Light. But that doesn’t mean I have to completely surrender! I’m still free to run and operate my own company; I just can’t interfere in the politics of the city anymore. At least, not without going through Light. So I plan to fight with what I know best, gold and silver!”

I see. So she was going to accept defeat, but was going to retain her pride and place by just focusing on making money for the Society. “So you’ll keep the company,” I said simply.

“Ah… no. I lost that too, sadly,” Brandy then said.

“Wait really…? You even bet this place…?” I asked, a tad shocked to hear so. The Animalia Guild was her pride and joy, and she lost it? Really?

Brandy sighed as she nodded. “Yep. I can still operate out of it; use its name and whatnot… I just am no longer in possession of the stamp. Gerald has it now,” she said.

Gerald did…? “He sided against you?” I asked. I was a little surprised to hear that. Last time I had been here Gerald had been worried about Light and the rest taking over. He had even expressed concern over it, so I had figured he’d have fought against such a thing as Brandy had.

“Oh, no. In fact he’s become even more outspokenly against Light and the rest. No, he’s just good at playing along with their whims so they let him be. Odds are he’ll get removed in a few years too, like myself, once they’re more settled. I just hastened my own downfall by throwing a fit,” Brandy said.

A fit she says… “Well… at least you stood up for your own principles,” I said.

She scoffed at me and grabbed her glass again. “Some principles, Vim,” she mumbled as she took a drink.

“So, you’ve admitted defeat. At least in the grand scale. And now will… just focus on your own little corner from now on, yes?” I asked.

She nodded as she swallowed and flinched, as if it burned her throat as it went down. I doubted it actually did though, odds are she had simply flinched over my statement and the real meaning of it. “Yes, Vim… I’ve lost. If I kept fighting over control it’d just result in me either causing damage to the Society or outright losing my life. I’m not willing to go that far just to keep control,” she said.

Then why go on that earlier rant as if you were going to anyway? “Have you not considered just… expanding elsewhere? I know you built this town, Brandy, and as such are very attached to it… but towns, locations, are like houses. They’re rebuilt, all the time, it’s not as big a deal as it feels,” I said.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

She frowned at me. “And go where, Vim…? The south is in complete disarray, thanks to the wars and plague. The west is all but settled, the north is barren and the east is massive but empty. Even if I overlooked, or fixed, the issues of slavery and crime in that region it’d still not be enough to justify a full blown company. Not to mention the distance between the Society and there would be so great that I may as well not even be a part of it anymore if I went there, too,” she said.

I noted that her answers made it clear she had already long thought of it, and had done so thoroughly. “They’re all moving here, right…? Wouldn’t that open up the west?” I asked. As far as I was aware, eventually the whole of the Society would be focused and centered here and not in Telmik. I wasn’t entirely sure when that change was planned, or to what length it would actually go, but I’d overheard such plans.

“I mean… in theory, but…” she then hesitated, and sighed as she shook her head. “Wouldn’t work Vim. For a reason I can’t say yet, at least, but it’s a good reason,” she then added after a moment of thought.

Ah. “The volcano then?” I asked.

Brandy frowned as she tilted her head at me. “You knew already…? Then yes. When it erupts the west coast will be inhabitable for an extended period. Hard to do business without ports or food,” she said.

I shouldn’t have asked.

“Well… if it’s any consolation you’re not the only one, Brandy. Heck even I’m experiencing a form of it,” I said.

“You actually want to step down, Vim, that’s not the same!”

Well, that was true. “True…”

“Plus like I said, I’m not giving up yet… I actually have a plan!”

“Oh…?” I took the last drink, emptying my glass.

She nodded as she pointed at herself with her own glass, which still had a few gulps left in it. “I plan to take over the others!”

Others…? “What do you mean?”

“The outcasts! Or well, the ones who don’t conform! You know, the ones that aren’t church-goers, or the ones Light and the rest ignore! Basically I plan to group up everyone who won’t join their little groups. My plan is if I gather enough of us, we can be a big enough of a conglomerate that Light will have no choice but hear me out or let us be concerning certain details!”

Sounded a lot like what Berri and the others used to do, or planned to do. Or what Merit had done with her oasis.

Those little plans had worked until they hadn’t.

“Kind of feels like you already had that, what with those here and all,” I said gently, hoping to point that out. Merit wasn’t the only one who had been here because she had not wanted to go Telmik or any of the other religious locations. Several of those here, or who had been here, throughout the years had been similar. And Brandy had been overseeing them all this whole time. She had already been doing what she planned to start doing, basically.

“I know, but I meant something a little more legitimate. I plan to convert this company into an actual location, one for those Light’s church won’t welcome… or for those who wouldn’t feel comfortable amongst them, at least.”

Still sounded like the same old same old… but who was I to rain on her parade? “Just let me know how to help, or when, or whatever,” I said.

She chuckled at me. “Actually, I do have an idea… but it’s not your help I want,” she said.

Hm…? “Renn’s then?”

She nodded. “I know she’s been getting close to Light and the rest, so I won’t expect her to take a stand with me. And I know she’s busy with her home or whatever up north… but I was hoping she’d do me a favor,” Brandy said.

I shrugged. “She’d likely help you with anything, Brandy. Just need to ask her,” I said.

“Yes, but I wanted to ask you for permission first… since it might cause you trouble,” she said.

Trouble for me…? Everything anyone in the Society did, ever, always caused me trouble. So I wasn’t sure why that mattered now all of a sudden. “What is it?” I asked calmly.

“I want her to tell me about a certain prophecy. One I think she knows, but no one else does,” Brandy said.

I suddenly wished my glass was full again, and I was able to actually get drunk. “Talk to her about such things, Brandy, not me,” I said with a sigh.

“I plan to,” she said with a chuckle. “But I wanted to ask you for permission first… since it might, or will, cause problems.”

“Yes you said that already. Go ahead, I want nothing to do with it.”

“Ah, but you will… I’ll have her explain it once I tell her, then,” she said simply as she took another drink.

I shook my head as I stood from my seat, deciding the conversation was done. I was now annoyed. “Anything else then, Brandy…? I don’t plan to be here long, or at least I hadn’t planned to be, but that depends on how much work I have. We’ll have more chances to talk before I leave, I’m sure,” I said, hoping to escape.

She nodded. “For now it’s fine. I suggest going to Gerald next, he has a few requests and one of them is rather serious.”

Great. I nodded as I stepped over to her and handed her my empty glass. “Do as you wish, Brandy. I’ll help you out anyway, as you know. As I’m sure Renn will, too,” I said to her.

Brandy gave me a gentle smile as she nodded. “Thanks, Vim. I’ll hold you to that.”

Great.

Leaving Brandy’s office, I sighed as I headed for Gerald’s.

So far I’d gotten a handful of requests… most just from when I passed by those I encountered in the hallways. I’d gotten one from Liina, Wynn, and even Sofia already… which was odd. Her request wasn’t odd, but the fact she of all people had one for me was what I found odd instead. I couldn’t even remember the last time she’d asked me for something, which was saying something. She was old, and had been around for a long time…

Rounding a corner, I spent a small moment to feel for Renn. I didn’t, and couldn’t, sense her… but I did sense someone else. Another saint. I wasn’t sure who it was, but I made the intentional decision to avoid her. I couldn’t tell if it was Light, or one of the other ones, but I had no desire to find out.

I had lucked out by not really having to deal with Chancy during our trip here, thanks to Renn distracting her so well… I really didn’t want to ruin that streak, especially since I knew Light would likely have a bunch of annoying things to say to me once I finally saw her.

Really, I’d been spoiled lately when I considered it. For so long I had not needed to worry about saints, other than those like Narli or the fake one in Telmik… now though it felt like they were everywhere. Again. Like how it used to be…

The worst part was one was even where I was supposed to call home. The place I was supposed to see as a refuge, and feel safe at. Though the young human, Liora, wasn’t that bad all things considered. Though that might change as she grows up and matures a little…

Heading down some stairs, as to get to the second floor, I slowed as I exited the stairs and frowned at the approach of a familiar face.

“Vim…!” Lamp broke out into a huge smile upon noticing me, and I both relaxed at her approach… and grew worried at the same time.

“Hey Lamp, how’ve you been?” I asked as I did my best to not notice the obvious.

She’d gotten older. And not just in the normal sense. She was a little chunkier than she had been last I remembered, which honestly wasn’t too surprising considering her circumstances, but she had a few other hints to her health and state alongside her little extra weight.

Lamp’s scars had faded a little. Her hair, especially since it was so long now, was a little faded and had gray streaks starting to appear amongst the dirty blonde. Lines in the skin that had not been there before were now not just visible but prominent.

Like all humans, she was aging… and it seemed the last year or so of comfortable living had both improved her constitution but also allowed age to take over.

“I’ve been great! It’s good to see you, Vim!” Lamp greeted me, but didn’t step forward to give me a hug… but only because she was holding something. A small box, one that had the Animalia emblem on it, and seemed full of papers. She was working, it seemed.

“Sounds like you’ve learned the language well,” I said, pointing out she spoke in this land’s language and not her own. “And better than me, probably, to boot,” I added as she grinned proudly and nodded.

“Good, yes!? I pretend to not know as well as I do, on purpose, for my job! Don’t tell anyone!” she said happily, and as she did she allowed her old accent to slip back and become thicker. In a way that told me she did it on purpose, not accidentally.

“Nothing wrong with that,” I said.

She nodded happily. “Is Renn here too? With you?” she asked as she glanced around.

“Yes, we just arrived a little while ago. She was dragged off already on important business, but we should be here for at least a handful of days. I’m sure she’ll come bug you the moment she gets a chance,” I said.

“Bug…? Please, Vim. I’d let you bother me anytime, and I love her more than I do you so never would I think that!”

At least she was honest. “How’s the family?” I asked as I turned around, as to let her get back to work. I figured I’d join her for a short time, to talk with her, before heading for Gerald’s office.

Not only was she a good distraction, I now felt like I needed to do so… since…

Well…

Glancing at the happy woman, who genuinely looked healthy and fine, I felt sad for my wife as Lamp went on to tell me about her husband and child. And how they’re trying for another, though not having much success. And although all she spoke of was happy things, and made me feel both pride and feel like all of my and Renn’s efforts for her and her people had been worth it… her continued listing of all the happenings in her life only made it all the more clear.

Life moved on. That was… what it did. But sometimes it happened without me noticing.

Lamp wasn’t so old she’d die anytime soon… but it was clear now that, at least in her case, life was already more than half over. She had, as long as no outstanding accident occurred, a few decades left at best. I hadn’t even realized back then how old she had been. For some reason I had thought her to be in her early or late twenties, at the latest. Based off her appearance now, though far healthier and happier than before, it was clear she wasn’t just a decade older than I had originally figured… maybe even twice more than that.

She was Renn’s friend. One who she only got to see occasionally… and if not careful, anytime could be her last.

As I walked and talked with Lamp… I hoped she lived a long and happy life. Not just for herself… but for my own wife’s happiness too.

It was a little selfish of me… but I figured if there was ever anything I could allow myself to be selfish about, it was that.

And I’m sure the world would forgive me for it, at least for now.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep