54th of Season of Fire, 59th year of the 32nd cycle

"This is so unfair." Newt grumbled as he went over the food manifest yet again. Before taking the first realm knights out hunting saurians, Stronggrow had set up a tent for Newt in front of the clan's main food store. The presence of a peak third realm mageknight guaranteed the food's safety while Newt also had an out of the way spot to handle paperwork.

"Is someone stealing food, then returning it at random?" Newt spread out the daily sheets with additional lists of acquisitions and food consumed by the thousands of people inhabiting the castle. The complex web of acquisitions, expenditures, and reserves, growing more tangled with each transaction, taunted Newt.

Numbers swam through his mind like shoals of vicious piranhas when something caught his eye.

"Huh?" He burst into laughter. "Someone placed five sacks of gooders with rice, and the next person counted them as rice, but when they moved them to the proper heap, five sacks of rice disappeared…"

Hours passed as Newt explored the complex trails of mistakes and negligence, and he didn't like it one bit. Wherever innocent mistakes stood, the Blood Cult's plots could have been hiding in their shadows. Or were they indeed hiding in plain sight? Only the cults could be behind something as evil as paperwork.

Are we testing the food for poison? What would happen if cultists infiltrated our ranks? If they started slaughtering non-awakened, building up their techniques from their blood… No, based on what I've seen during the battle, non-awakened blood lacks the mana they need, and we have too few awakened—

"Newstar," Stronggrow said as he entered Newt's tent. "The first and second quadrants are clear. No injuries, but no cores either. Hardly any awakened saurians, mostly they are normal beasts, temporarily displaced by the onslaught, but even the awakened ones were just first realm beasts, nothing worth mentioning or harvesting."

The old man smiled at Newt. "How's your battle going?"

"Do you know that if someone makes a mistake, they just correct it later without reporting it?" Newt stated the gravest sin in the world. "The whole tangle of confusing reports exists because people just don't bother to report minor mistakes, which could resolve the problems in a matter of minutes."

Stronggrow nodded sagely. "It seems you have things under control here. I'm here to relieve you for two hours, so you can go and sort out anything you think needs sorting, but I expect you back here in two hours because I have to take over Marrow's post, so he can take the patrol out for another sweep."

"I could handle the remaining quadrants alone in half the time," Newt said.

"And that's exactly why you shouldn't. Men need training, and the saurians pose a challenge enough to temper them. Those monsters are nothing more than a chore in your eyes. And before you say I was having fun with them, I was merely supervising, making sure nothing bad happens to our boys."

Newt frowned, but remained silent.

"What? You want to say something." Stronggrow thought he minded the word boys, since Newt was younger than all of them, but that wasn't the case.

"Nothing," Newt said thoughtfully. "It's just that the order operates differently. They send you on missions they deem appropriate for your realm, and if you die, you die. They don't send nannies along with the squads."

"Yes, Newstar, I know, but that's unsustainable for a small family like ours. We don't have hundreds or thousands volunteering to join, nor the luxury of rejecting the ones we don't like. And if anyone, heaven forbid, died on a mission, we lost family, not eager strangers." Stronggrow held his tongue before he said more. Even he had heard about the horrible losses Explorer's Gate had suffered during the cultist attack.

Instead, he coughed and changed his approach. "I dearly hope our clan grows to such heights under your leadership. Few things would make me happier than us reaching the point of having enough awakened retainers and clansmen that we can risk them like that."

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Newt wanted to keep arguing, but his teacher's sudden change of pace embarrassed him while at the same time throwing all the responsibility on his back.

Would I be able to just let people head into danger like that? What if another Rose happens? Does she blame the order for her loss?

That was something he never dared to ask. Instead of continuing the conversation, Newt stood from his seat. "I've sorted the ledger, so there's not much to do."

Stronggrow assumed the post with a thank you, and Newt tried to think of something to keep himself busy. After thinking about what he could do, he went to pick up some tools he could use for carving and scribing runes.

Common talismans drawn in ink wouldn't work, since normal ink was inert, but he could grind some first realm manarium into it. The work would be crude, but even so, he should be able to make a dozen or so explosive seals for their patrols to use in a pinch.

But where do I get the paper? Normal paper would just burn away once I inscribed the fire rune. The hide of first realm manabeasts should be strong enough to contain it for a few days. No, offensive runes won't work without specialized supplies, but maybe I could make the defensive ones?

Unfortunately, the more he considered the matter, the more problems he found, his attempt to make himself busy quickly failing. Instead of crafting without supplies, he took a stroll outside the walls, examining them and checking whether there was any way to reinforce them.

Outside, he found the remains of decayed runic formations, too expensive for the clan to maintain, and quite possibly unnecessary given their advanced level. Still, Newt smiled when he saw them.

If I'm reading these right, the founding ancestor expected attacks from ninth realm manabeasts. And these runes are for aura concealment. Newt followed the history lesson on runic seals, and after a while stopped, staring at the wall with a frown.

These weren't scribed to defend against saurians. I mean, you can use them to defend against them, and someone who hasn't studied scribing would believe it, but these were made to defend against human attackers.

Newt swallowed. Why would his ancestor prepare for an attack by fellow humans?

Did he expect the cultists to attack?

Newt recalled everything his family had taught him about their ancestor, but nothing indicated that he had been hunted by the cultists or anyone else. The only hint was that he had moved from the empire's heartlands all the way out to the border.

Perhaps I can find some information at the library? I don't believe he would have left no clues about why he was wary of human attackers. If it were me, I'd warn my descendants.

Curious, Newt went to the library, checking the oldest books he could find, but hours passed without him finding any hints regarding the mystery.

"Patriarch," Plowson said respectfully from the library's door. "Sir Stronggrow sent me to find you. He said you are running late."

"Yes, right." Newt nodded, looking up from the books, then smiled. "It's good to see you, Plowson. I'm glad things are looking up for you. Keep up the good work, and you will soar under Teacher's guidance."

"Thank you, both for the kind words and the core you delivered specifically for me. Now, granduncle Stronggrow is calling for you, and he gets cranky if you leave him waiting for too long."

"Right." Newt smiled mischievously and rushed over to resume his post.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said as his teacher shot him a piercing glare. "I stumbled across something interesting and tried to find hints about it in the library."

Stronggrow glanced up to check the time and decided he had some before he had to go relieve Marrow of his watch.

"What did you find?"

Newt summarized his discovery, and Stronggrow listened, showing no emotion.

"Perhaps Ancestor or the scribe he hired only knew such seals?" Stronggrow said.

"That's the thing; some of those seals are useless against saurians."

"Maybe he expected to find the dragon's core and feared someone would take it from him?"

Newt didn't buy it. Had his ancestor found Magmin's core, and the word got out, exalts would have attacked their clanhold, and the defensive seals around the castle would have shattered after receiving a single strike.

"I don't think so. My knowledge might not be at the level of scribing such seals, but I'm fairly certain I read them well." Dandelion's booklet covered higher realm defenses to mask the defensive seals for Newt's realm.

Stronggrow gave his pupil a long look before turning more serious. "If you're so certain about what you've found, I'll check the library when I have the time. But I wouldn't leave such information lying around in the library where anyone could stumble across it."

Newt thought about it, and Stronggrow was right. Such information was too sensitive to share openly in a library where any clansman was welcome. He reached the conclusion at the same time Stronggrow voiced it.

"I would keep that information restricted, perhaps along with the spellbooks."

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