Book 3, Chapter 11

Ugliness(2)

The steward was sat at the head of the long table. With Gaton’s children not completely grown, he had complete authority on Gaton’s behalf. However, he felt incomparably isolated from the rest of the meeting despite being the host. Everyone around him was an aristocrat; even the representatives were at least titled knights. In fact, many of the minor branches had simply set their branch heads to the meeting.

The topic of this meeting was inconceivable. The branch families were asking whether they could ‘lend’ some offerings to them so they could enjoy the Eternal Dragon’s favour and develop rapidly as well.

Lending was an easy thing to do, but how would they get it back? The old steward sat perfectly upright, his gaze sweeping past everyone present. Outside of Sauron, Goliath, and Alice, which one of these branches was capable of returning even the lowest grade of offering?

It was Gaton who had made his way into Faust in an unyielding manner, carrying the Archeron name into the city of miracles. Most of these people here normally wouldn’t have the right to...