The Rise of the Black Plain

Quickly a week passed.

After this period, Minos had finally returned to Dry City after solving that short mission against the Silva family.

On that day that he and the members of House Miller had acted, about 500 Spiritual Generals of the Silva family had fallen, alongside 6 Spiritual Kings, 4 of them high-level regional individuals.

With this, the Silva family had decreased even further in power, finally reaching a number of experts similar to that of regional mid-sized organizations!

But even with such a loss, that organization would not be disrespected by the local organizations just because their numbers were no longer so impressive. After all, despite the enormous losses, this family still had influential experts above level 55, which still allowed them to sit at the table of the most influential organizations in this region.

In any case, the Silva family's image had been further tarnished. When the news about these losses spread throughout the state, many experts were shocked, fearful, happy.

In short, the reception to what was happening to these enemies of Minos had been very varied.

Powers more comparable to the Miller family than House Silva saw this as their great opportunity to rise against their allied rivals from Otis' family. But, on the other hand, these old allies of the noble house currently located in the Red Valley couldn't help but feel the bitterness of being allied with a decaying organization.

But there wasn't much they could do. Soul Contracts could not be reversed, and they could only swallow their misfortunes and move on, hoping that there would be a tomorrow.

In any case, the Silva family's losses demonstrated the regional future showed how dangerous the next few years could be. And with tensions rising to the skies throughout the northern region of the Central Continent, the experts of the Brown Kingdom couldn't help but prepare for the tumultuous times of war!

That way, the week had passed since Minos had acted, since the moment he mentally tortured one of his sworn and eliminated those enemies.

After resolving this and collecting everything that belonged to him, he quickly returned to his city, where he was by now in his office, performing his duties as ruler!

...

After dispatching many orders to Mia and local officials, Minos had finally found a moment to relax in his armchair, waiting for his next visit.

Earlier in the day, he had already reviewed the recent army numbers, such as the spiritual artifacts produced by his soldiers from the three central spiritual professions. But even after receiving this data, things related to Alina's performance, yet another army visit was scheduled to take place in the next few minutes.

Therefore, this young sovereign was ready to deal with more of his army's business, something that had been happening more and more frequently.

At first, the things Minos usually did in his job as sovereign were related to decisions concerning the development of Dry City, such as agriculture, services, and so on. But with each passing day, these matters began to lose space to the problems faced by the army.

As time went on, things like foreign missions, special training, future selections, incidents around the Black Plain, and border bases issues took up more of his time. Hence, he had been dealing more with military matters in recent weeks than with the actual running of his city.

'I guess that's the normal thing for periods of war...' He pondered this as he relaxed for a moment, looking at the view of the central part of Dry City.

This place was not being neglected because of the war issues. No, the city had been developing well and was growing more each day with immigrants from Maritime City. But Dry City had already reached a certain level in its services that Minos did not need to interfere with all the time.

Because of this, even though he was paying more attention to his army, his city was doing well, following the plans he had made earlier!

Pa! Pa!

While he was thinking about this, suddenly, someone knocked on his office door twice, bringing young Stuart out of his previous thoughts. 

Hearing that sound, he turned toward the direction of his office door, finally seeing a young woman dressed in the local army uniform entering that place. "Oh? Abby, I didn't guess it would be you coming here!" 

"Hehe, some of the administrative soldiers are negotiating with the royal forces, so I came instead." She commented this simultaneously, in which she had a friendly smile on her face and approached where her boyfriend was.

After that, she kissed Minos on his left cheek and then sat down on his lap before starting to talk about serious matters.

She then looked into Minos' eyes and said. "Well, I am here because the army has already received the information that the Hayes family found in Persephone."

Minos' eyes then flashed in interest while an expression of satisfaction formed on his face. "Is that right? What did they find out?"

Abby then answered without delay. "From what was left behind at that Chambers family headquarters, we can't be sure of the location of the Scourge of the Devil headquarters. But we already know that such an organization is somewhere in the Endless Snow Mountain Range, between the Snow Kingdom and the Kingdom of the End."

"In the Endless Snow Mountain Range, huh? That truly isn't a surprise..." He commented in a low voice, remembering that this was a region full of reclusive organizations, where even the prominent regional families didn't have that much information.

And given that it was the most dangerous terrain in the region, home to the region's strongest spiritual beast species, it was unsurprising that this organization had hidden in such a location.

With that, Minos was not shocked to discover that the Scourges of the Devil resided in those areas. He then questioned. "But that area you quoted is quite large. Wasn't there anything more specific in that headquarters?"

Abby then nodded at him before finally explaining the situation. "About the Scourge of the Devil headquarters, no. There was information regarding small outposts around our region, places where normally the services of that organization could be hired."

"But there was nothing specific about such a place."

"I see..."

"Well, that makes sense. After all, that's not the kind of information you can keep in a vault or something!"

"That can probably only be achieved by capturing some high-level nobles of the Chambers family or those assassins that can be found in these outposts around our region."

"Yes, I had thought the same thing..." Abby commented as she smiled at him. "So, I have already sent a letter to the Hayes family to try to capture some high-level nobleman from this Chambers family and bring them to us." 

"As long as we have someone who knows that, I can interrogate such a person and get that information."

"Oh?" Hearing this, Minos could not help but smile back at Abby as he hugged her waist and brought her closer to him. "You're truly reliable, huh?"

"Haha, I do what I can."

"Mmmmm~" The two then kissed for a few moments, still in that armchair of the young sovereign, but without going too deep into their actions.

And then, after feeling the taste of each other and the temperature of their bodies increase, they both separated their faces, which already were slightly reddened.

"But besides this situation encountered by the Hayes family in that city, we have some problems coming from the Kingdom of the Waves..." She said in one of Minos' ears as she sat sideways to the young sovereign on his lap.

"The Collins family?"

"Hmmm, indeed. That family that attacked our naval base a few weeks ago seems to have found a way to retaliate."

"From the information passed on by the Cohen family, the Collins recently sent experts to Stone Island, as well as some members of the Allen family, visited them in that state...."