Chapter 977: Chapter 977: Unknown allegiance
While Findley brought up his own version of the Dungeon menu to monitor the suspicious group of individuals Frost’s sense of foreboding grew stronger. He couldn’t focus on the paperwork littered in front of him, a sense of unease and...curiosity festering within.
"Ahhh screw this, business applications and data reports can wait. Yuna send a message to Anya; tell her I need to speak with her urgently." Eventually he couldn’t resist clearing his desk of the distasteful sheets of paper that had been plaguing his dreams recently.
"Haaaaaa fine but I’m not reorganising that later." Yuna with a frown etched permanently across her forehead replied with a deep, resigned sigh. Her master had been on edge ever since the last few caravans entered the Dungeon’s extended and voracious maw. His erratic and temperamental behaviours had left her with no small amount of headaches; this wasn’t even the first time he’d erupted in frustration knocking dozens of important documents to the floor in a disorganised mess.
’Hopefully it’s important this time otherwise that General will likely flip out.’ She shook her head, secretly wishing for Frost to be put in his place a little. Goes to show how much pressure she’d been under as his secretary.
"Don’t need to because I’m going to burn it! Burn it all to the fucking ground muahahahaha!" A demented laughter echoed throughout the manor, sending an electrifying chill down Yuna’s spine.
’Shit he’s completely lost it this time.’ Her master with all his talents and wealth of patience had met his match when it came to paperwork, a task that seemed never ending and ever growing as the city prospered and developed. They needed help, Niflheim couldn’t efficiently run with just the two of them at the helm, monitoring and overseeing close to 90% of every single managerial situation even those conducted by council members...delegation was key, something that was already in the works but unfortunately too gradual in comparison to the city’s rapid development.
"You three calm him down, restrain him if you must while you head to the Sleeping Fenrir to request an urgent meeting with General Anya." Knowing that allowing her master to let loose his repressed anger against paperwork would only incur more work in the future Yuna wasted no time calling on the four ronsos in charge of guarding the manor. Khuno would have been perfect for this situation, but he slinked away several hours ago when Frost attempted to forcibly delegate some of the work to him.....Khuno hated paperwork even more than Frost did.
"Yes ma’am." The ronso sent to the Sleeping Fenrir was all smiles while the remaining three revealed painful expressions as they barged into Frost’s office and did their best to placate his anger and frustration....they half succeeded and half failed.
Frost eventually pulled back the balls of ice fire wrapped around his hands but only after disintegrating half a stack of documents and being offered a large, generous helping of sake and a bunch of soothing promises and heartfelt sympathy.
"I should have designed you guys to be nerds, managers and merchants at heart." He bemoaned his previous naive thinking, believing back then that strength was all that mattered. The Niflheim gnomes were much better in that regard but apart from being completely swamped with the city’s construction numbered too few to be spread in other areas.
The budget for purchased monsters needed to be revised otherwise Frost would end up destroying all the progress they had worked so hard to achieve.
General Anya arrived a few minutes later while Yuna was taking stock of the damage.
"Yuna what does he want this time?" Ever since he realised he sat in a position of power and authority Frost had made it his routine to occasionally mess with her, calling her to the manor just to tease and irritate her, a vent for his frustration. But in hindsight his actions did serve to calm her taught nerves, relax and even make her laugh when she thought back on their interactions, so she always came running when called.
"You’ll have to ask him yourself; I barely managed to stop him from burning down his office." Yuna wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries, her own stress level being comparable to Frost’s.
"Urgh paperwork, you have my sympathy." General Anya hated clerical duties with a passion, refusing to touch them even with a ten foot pole whenever she could. Her heart was never more grateful towards her subordinates than when it came to handling such matters.
"I’d prefer a helping hand over empty sympathy." The beautiful maiden of ice narrowed her eyes, slightly glaring at the once powerful military general.
"I...I would but Frost is calling me." She ran away in quite a dramatic fashion, swiftly slamming the door behind her when she entered the meeting room with Frost who was lounging on the sofa with a drink in hand.
Yuna gazed at the spot Anya once stood then at Frost’s cluttered office and then back at her own. ".....Maybe I should just let everything burn after all." She muttered, weighing the risk against the satisfaction.
Thankfully in the end she chose not to follow after her master in his vendetta, choosing to purposefully ignore his office and focus on her own work until her shift was over....whether she’d be back at it tomorrow, who knows.
"Ah Anya good to see a friendly face, come sit." In the meeting room upon seeing Anya slither in Frost leaned up from the sofa, smiling at her like she was an angel.
"..." General Anya was no stranger to the expression currently on Frost’s face, complete and utter burnout so she didn’t immediately complain like she normally did instead she quietly took the seat offered and looked at him with pity.
"Did you just need an excuse for a break, or did you actually call me for a proper reason this time?" Her pity gained him a few seconds of grace and a somewhat less aggressive tone.
"Hehehehe both actually." His laugh was self-depreciating. His mind was truly at the limit, so a break was definitely needed but no the main reason he called her was because of the suspicious group camping beyond the city walls.
"Are the neutral nobles expecting any more caravans, particularly one headed by an A-rank individual?"
"...Not that I’m aware of but I doubt it. They don’t have the means to summon such high level forces in large numbers. Apart from myself who’s an added extra only Baron Glorfile should be free to lend aid to Icethorne why?" Baron Glorfile was a man in his seventies with early A-rank strength and was the defacto leader of the neutral nobles’ reinforcements, a wise and capable military strategist, half a generation older than General Anya.
"Because there’s an unknown A-rank and a plethora of B-ranks and C-ranks currently camping just over a kilometre southwest of the city." Frost didn’t sugar coat the information giving it to Anya straight.
".....We need to talk to Baron Glorfile." As she was just accompanying the neutral nobles’ forces Anya wasn’t privy to all the details thus they could only inquire from someone who was.
"Agreed." Frost had a ronso run to the Baron’s quarters, requesting him for an urgent meeting which of course irked him quite a bit. They were set to depart soon, lots of logistics to still take care of so he didn’t have time to humour the whims of a small foreign territory lord but the moment he arrived and saw General Anya sitting with a scowl on her face he recalled his barbed tongue.
".....We’re not expecting another caravan, but we do have another A-rank hidden in our company." Realising the seriousness of the situation and being a man brimming with wartime experience Baron Glorfile knew hiding things from his allies would be counterintuitive.
"I’m already aware of that guest’s presence." She may have concealed her aura and hidden herself amongst the conscripted adventurers, but her DP input couldn’t be concealed from the Dungeon menu. Frost wasn’t bothered by this level of concealment and immediately waved his hands, rebuffing any worries the Baron might have.
"...So the rumours were true." Baron Glorfile was surprised by Frost’s ability to discover their hidden card but then he remembered a rumour and a warning he had received from Viscount Furano, that an S-rank individual supported Frost from behind the scenes.
"If they’re not from your side then that leaves two possibilities, either they’re another group beholden to Prince Sedrick and his allies or..."
"They serve the crown Prince." General Anya finished Frost’s thought, a thought that sparked no small amount of fear and trepidation in Baron Glorfile.
"Bingo, so now we need to confirm with the opposition."
A task that was full of risk.
Dealing with Anya and even Baron Glorfile wasn’t all that onerous or dangerous given their alliance but the same couldn’t be said of the A-ranks under Sedrick and the old noble families. In his previous meeting with them Frost made damn sure he had Khuno, Findley and Yuna by his side as well as the old Baron for extra measure, he didn’t trust them to not take advantage of a gap in his defences when presented with an opportunity.
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