Despite any revelations about feelings the day proceeded normally. After breakfast Helena took us on a tour around the castle. So far we had seen very little of it. The keep itself had ten guest quarters, a section for staff, a residential wing for the family,... It seemed like a mixture of a mansion and a keep, in some ways. They also had a library, an armory, even a training room for magic.

"How many people live here?" I wondered.

"We have one head chef, one assistant chef, one head maid, 5 other maids, a butler,..."

"So many servants…" I mumbled.

"Hans is a count. Wait until you are at a duke's residence. Or at the royal palace." Cassie said.

Helena nodded. "We don't have that many servants compared to some others. We also have about 150 soldiers inside the castle. There are more around the city. But the majority of our troops are at the actual border. We are still half a day away from that."

"How does the border work?" I wondered.

"Well, the Everfrost Peaks are essentially unclaimed land. There is Thorus, but the dwarven cities do not border us directly. No one really claims ownership of the majority of the mountains. We have a larger fort along the trade route and smaller forts at the foot of the mountains. Then we send regular patrols to stop monsters wandering into our lands." Helena explained.

"Why not build a wall?" I asked.

"It has been considered but building and maintaining a wall would not be that cheap, even with magic. It still needs patrolling and won't stop flying or tunneling creatures. And because there are monsters native to Nethena we still need to patrol our lands. I think there are reasonable arguments on both sides. But any wall would have to be longer than our county, so a decision like that would need to be made by the dukes or the king."

"A wall would mean gates. That might mean taxes for adventurers who hunt in the mountains since they technically import their kills." Skadi pointed out.

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"Huh. I never thought about that." Helena admitted. "Not sure what the law is but I don't think we charge adventurers anything… Eh, that is Derrick's problem. I am not going to be the countess. I am just going to lead the troops!"

"Is your brother ok with that?" Cassie asked.

"With what?" Helena asked.

"That you are stronger. Is he going to let you lead his forces?" Cassie asked.

"Sure. He has never been that fond of combat and he accepts that my core is bigger. I think he is quite happy to leave the stabbing to me." Helena explained.

"Helena, you mentioned a butler earlier." Hatsumi said.

Helena nodded. "Yes, what about it?"

"Why haven't we seen him? Would it not be his duty to greet you?" Hatsumi wondered.

"Maybe he is actually a covert agent, an assassin, and just on a mission right now." Skadi suggested.

Helena giggled. "No. Manfred is definitely not an assassin. But he is not just the butler, he helps manage the castle. Yesterday he was out to negotiate a deal for supplies."

"That is unusual for a butler." Cassie noted.

"Eh. We are not the most usual nobles, I guess." Helena responded. "If you need anything just ask Martha. She is the head maid, you met her yesterday."

"I am using our stay to learn more about the duties of a maid." Hatsumi said.

"I… I could have also helped with that." I admitted, slightly embarrassed. I did my best to ignore that part of my past but would it really be bad to help Hatsumi learn something she wanted?

Hatsumi smiled. "I would enjoy that."

"Hatsumi is going to be a proper maid assassin." Skadi said.

"And she is going to command a squad of cat assassins! Actually, where are the cats?" Cassie wondered.

She had a point. Usually Nyx stayed very close to me. This was one of the first times where she was not around. I had been so distracted with my thoughts I had not even noticed her absence.

"She is exploring the keep with Ivy and Yoru." Hatsumi said.

"Is she exploring the kitchen?" I asked. Hopefully Hans would not mind the glutton stealing some food.

"No, the cats are currently looking for rats, or other prey. I believe it would benefit Nyx if she had more things to devour." Hatsumi said.

"Yes, we should go hunting!" Helena suggested.

"The mountains look really cold…" Cassie said.

Skadi put her arm around her. "I will keep you warm."

"We don't have to camp. We can sleep in one of the forts and take day trips. Being the daughter of the count has its privileges." Helena said. "There is also a town famous for its hot springs at the foot of the mountain. We can definitely use those to get warmed up after some hunting!" Helena suggested.

"That sounds nice…" Cassie mumbled while blushing.

"Great! I will tell Daddy. Maybe we can even go tomorrow or so. It should give us some corpses for Koyuki. The undead army shall grow! Muahahah…" Helena laughed.

"Muahahah…" Hatsumi joined the laugh, displaying her pointy teeth.

Helena's eyes gleamed with joy, finally someone was joining her evil laugh.

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