The Cursefit family’s business chiefly involved the second order, which would most likely be disbanded in the near future. The possibility of it being kept was so far removed from common sense that it wasn’t even worth considering. The Cursefit family’s business would be coming to a complete end. Once their savings ran out, it was possible they’d all be out on the street along with their associates.
“Can’t we create a private army?” Vivila Marmoset suggested. “We might be able to employ a few of the soldiers.”
The second order was responsible for security in the Witches’ Forest and for maintaining order throughout the royal capital. It looked as though hired soldiers would be needed to replace them.
“I think it’ll be more accurate to call them mercenaries. I suppose everyone can expect their job to change to some—”
“Who cares about any of that?!” Sharun Charleville cut Vivila’s sentence off with a shrill cry and a slam of the table.
The others had seen enough that this outburst didn’t shock them—though the group’s youngest member, Jula Lacramanus, did wince a little.
“Ugh.” Sharun Charleville was in the process of rising to her feet when, as a result of her advanced age, she suddenly found it difficult to breathe and had to sit back down.
She’d turned one hundred twenty that year. Ninety years prior, she’d been considered a genius by those familiar with conspiracies in the royal capital, but now she struggled to breathe.
“Haaah, haaah. Has Yuri Ho learned of our deal with the Papal State, or has he not? That’s what we need to discuss. Too many people know already. The six of us, as well as Bof and Noza...” Sharun Charleville frowned. “I said it then, and I’ll say it now—we shouldn’t have gotten them involved.”
“What good does it do to say it now?” Ghulah Temper shot back. “Even you reluctantly agreed at the time, did you not? You knew we needed some way to face the Ho and Rube families after the assassination.”
At seventy years old, Ghulah Temper was still young. She struggled with Ancient Shanish and tended to finish every sentence in the same way.
The Temper family held a powerful authority over the royal capital’s ports. Ghulah Temper had been the one who’d suggested including the Bof and Noza heads in the plan.
“I should’ve ignored you. We’ve no use for cowards who’ll never come to our aid anyway,” Sharun Charleville retorted.
“We agreed that we’d have no other chance of victory if we found ourselves attacked from either side by the Ho and Rube families, did we not? Without a contract, the Bof family would let the Rube army through. We’d be done for then, would we not?”
It had been Ghulah Temper’s opinion that wiping out the Ho family with a single strike would still leave another tenacious chieftain to deal with in the form of the Rube family. Since it wasn’t possible to assassinate the key members of both families at the same time, the next best thing was to leave the Rube family unable to intervene.
Fortunately, the Bof family’s province ran across the land like a barrier, separating Rube Province from the royal territory. If the witches had the Bof family on their side, the Rubes wouldn’t be able to march their army this far south.
However, they’d made their deals under the assumption that all the targets of the assassination would be successfully killed. Ghulah Temper’s efforts were backfiring now that the Ho family had conquered the royal capital.
“Sharun, don’t complain about what’s already done. We were all in agreement when we discussed it at an earlier sabbath,” Vivila Marmoset said.
Vivila Marmoset was sitting at the head of the table and held considerable power at this sabbath.
Though she claimed that everyone had been in agreement, there’d been no one there to represent the Gudinveil family. The women here considered it taboo to violate the Seven Witch Promise for any reason, but their customs also said that witches could be purged after betraying their own kind. A broad interpretation of the rules said it was acceptable to leave the Gudinveils out of their planning.
Queen Shimoné had welcomed Yuri Ho to the political stage with open arms. Even if the Ho family had a way to defeat the crusaders, there would’ve been no future for witches. The only family likely to survive was the one whose daughter had become one of Yuri Ho’s close associates—the Gudinveil family. The heads of the other six families had agreed that their conspiracy could only succeed if the Gudinveils were kept out of it.
“I agree that our deal with crusaders must never be exposed,” Vivila said while looking at Keagul Cursefit. “The second order is gone. There’s no one standing between us and Yuri Ho now.”
It had been Keagul Cursefit’s own idea to risk her life by going to Yuri Ho in one final attempt to assassinate him, but Vivila had hardly believed she’d go through with it.
“Noza and Bof will share our predicament if all this comes to light, will they not?” Ghulah Temper reassured her. “Lord-supremes rank above everyone, and information doesn’t leak downward. Our situation is less precarious than you’re making it out to be, is it not?”
“Quite right,” Vivila agreed. “We’d be wise to assume that the others will keep their mouths shut. They’re smart enough to do that.”
“Wh-What about running away...?” It was the first time Jula Lacramanus—the youngest witch in attendance—had spoken.
Jula Lacramanus had only recently graduated from the Cultural Academy, and she’d lived only half as long as the second-youngest attendee, Ghulah Temper. Her face bore a scar that appeared to have been made by a sharp blade.