All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 290: Seliza’s Price

Uriel returned to Vella’s clinic before the hour ended, leaving Hans to carry her standard divisions across every command copy.

The southern gate sounded Seliza’s contract pattern while Marrick sanded the final board, bringing everyone around the registry table upright.

A Serpent factor entered beneath a white road pennant, accompanied by two road escorts newly arrived from the southern camp.

He carried a narrow silver case instead of supplies, with Seliza’s personal serpent pressed across three separate wax seals.

"House Seliza delivers formal notice under the eastern gold agreement," the factor said, presenting the case to Hajin, "a witnessed receipt is required before I depart."

Taren remained near the equipment-room door without his silver clasp, making no effort to hide from the people who once served beside him.

The factor acknowledged him with one measured glance, then returned his attention to the contract table without speaking his former title.

Marrick retrieved the original agreement from the protected ledger chest while Hajin broke the first seal upon the notice.

The first paragraph preserved every obligation Seliza had signed before the Flint siege reached the region’s roads.

{House Seliza confirms continued transport, road protection, smelting access, stamped trade passage, and external market placement for all contracted gold.}

Seliza’s second paragraph removed everything her wagons had carried beyond those five obligations, beginning with the next scheduled southern departure.

{Discretionary grain, medicine, coal, replacement teams, emergency credit, and guards assigned beyond contracted cargo protection are suspended until open-road security is restored.}

Her final clause kept Seliza’s people responsible for the loaded gold wagons, their teams, and the route carrying them toward her refineries.

Nothing promised protection for a returning wagon after its contracted cargo had been delivered, or required that wagon to return carrying relief.

"Authentic?" Hajin asked, passing the open page toward Taren, "you know which marks her factors cannot reproduce."

"The left seal is personal, the lower cut belongs to her contract office," Taren said, examining both without touching them, "she authorized every line."

Marrick placed the signed agreement beside the notice and followed each preserved term with a narrow strip of black thread.

The threads ended beside transport, road protection, smelting, passage, plus market placement without crossing into the withdrawn supplies.

"She breached nothing," Marrick said, pressing one tired finger against the second paragraph, "she kept every promise and removed everything she never sold us."

"Including the people who unload her wagons?" Juna asked, reading the list from Hajin’s side, "Toma nearly died protecting cargo she still owns."

"Regional labor was never written into her protection clause," Marrick said, pulling the worker receipts beside the contract, "our hiring pages protected wages, not recovery priority."

That omission had become Seliza’s order beside the convoy road, where Taren chose wounded workers over the gold entrusted to him.

"Does the notice name him?" Hajin asked, looking toward the former champion, "or demand compensation for the service he ended?"

"It does neither," Marrick said, checking the attached schedules, "the clasp receipt records his separation, while this action concerns discretionary trade support."

Taren accepted the distinction without gratitude, studying the notice with an opponent’s preferred distance fixed in his attention.

"She will not confuse ownership with punishment," Taren said, folding his arms, "she is showing which benefits existed because their dependence served her."

The Serpent factor neither defended the decision nor reacted to Taren’s judgment while Lana entered the delivery time beside his seal.

"When does the next relief rotation fail?" Hajin asked, turning toward Marrick, "not the legal date, the first practical loss."

Marrick opened the shelter, clinic, forge, and road inventories that Hans had assembled after the eastern-wing breach.

The latest convoy had delivered its grain and medicine before the attack, leaving the Sixth supplied for its current wounded population.

Its empty cradles still waited for outgoing gold, but their expected returns would have carried the planned replacement stock.

"Shelter grain holds nine days at present issue," Marrick said, marking the first column, "that becomes six if the field companies remain mobilized."

"The clinic?" Hajin asked, following the smaller red figures, "Vella is treating fifty-nine serious wounds before the next battle adds anyone."

"Four days of current dressings and fever powder," Marrick said, moving to the treatment ledger, "another assault could consume half within one night."

The cold forge no longer needed immediate coal for production, although every remaining reserve cart depended upon teams Seliza had withdrawn.

Hans placed the original counter-offensive schedule beside those figures, showing two mornings reserved for route preparation and militia rehearsal.

Waiting for both preserved no useful supply margin after the opening, especially if the pocket produced wounded prisoners alongside Sixth casualties.

"I planned the western opening for the second dawn," Hans said, removing one preparation marker, "we launch tomorrow before first bell instead."

"That leaves one full rehearsal," Juna said, studying the three withdrawal routes, "and the claimant marks Uriel identified are not painted."

"They can be painted before midnight," Hans said, assigning two carpentry crews, "the militia rehearse with plain boards while the ink dries."

Hajin examined the shortened plan without finding a safer delay hidden between its red lines.

The counter-offensive had been chosen before Seliza’s notice arrived because remaining inside allowed Dreth to choose every target.

Her withdrawal changed the time available to execute that decision, not the reason everyone around the table had made it.

"Do we cut shelter rations instead?" Marrick asked, leaving the alternative unmarked, "one smaller issue buys another preparation day."

"No," Hajin said, pushing the grain column away from the battle schedule, "the shelters do not purchase our confidence with their meals."

Hans fixed the launch at tomorrow’s first bell, then reassigned the omitted preparation work across crews already repairing mobile barriers.

Juna took the night route inspection, while Taren accepted the final standard-recognition drill for guards protecting the registry withdrawal lane.

The Serpent factor placed a blank receipt beside Seliza’s notice and waited while Lana prepared a witnessed copy.

"Will you answer the Matriarch?" the factor asked, setting down his travel pen, "the receipt permits one statement concerning continued performance."

Hajin wrote beneath the delivery line without accusing Seliza of breaking terms she had obeyed with exacting care.

{Notice received. Contracted obligations remain active. Discretionary support is acknowledged withdrawn, and grants no claim over the lives it previously sustained.}

"Enter that on both copies," Hajin said, returning the pen to the factor, "she should receive the same wording we keep."

Lana witnessed both pages before the factor sealed Seliza’s copy inside the silver case.

He departed with his two guards, passing the convoy yard where twelve Serpent soldiers still protected the damaged gold wagons.

They had not abandoned their contract, and none turned toward the clinic whose next medicine wagon would arrive empty.

Hans sounded the militia rehearsal bell before the southern gate closed behind Seliza’s messenger.

Across the registry yard, workers began painting false claimant marks while every route board changed from second dawn to first.