Blood and Greed

Keizwell relaxed on the largest piece of furniture of the parlour while he left his two feet atop his personal golden footstool. While he continued to lounge about, his entire focus was on the object that he played around with in his hands.

It was a musket, more specifically it was a pistol musket.

He was mesmerised by it's beauty as he continued to spin it around.

Out of all the precious things that he owned, which included his large vast collections of different jewellery and antiques he still deemed this musket to be the most valuable. The reason why?

It was because there was virtually nothing else like it.

It was because this specific musket was a breechloading musket.

A revolutionary new weapon that was conceived by Maxwell and designed and produced by Keizwell's artisans.

Unlike its front-loading counterparts, a breechloading musket can be reloaded from the back of the barrel making it a lot more convenient to handle, thereby increasing its firing rate by a large margin.

However, there was still one glaring problem that made breechloading weapons inferior to front-loading weapons in large open warfare, at least for now anyway. It was the breechloading musket's production cost and rate.

For now, the amount of time, money and effort needed to produce even a single breechloading musket could not compare with the streamlined, easily mass produced front-loading muskets.

During a meeting with Sicilia and Maxwell, the three siblings concluded that the production rate of the weapon would not be able to match the needs of the army. They decided that it was best to leave it as an experimental project headed by Keizwell's best artisans to be refined until there were enough improvements to precision engineering to put the weapon into mass production.

In the end, only five working copies were ever produced and distributed among five select individuals.

Although there were another four working five prototypes currently in existence, Keizwell's one was still 'special' due to one difference.

Sure you could say that the 'difference' practically doesn't actually change anything about the musket, but he still liked it nonetheless.

This difference was how Keizwell's breechloading pistol was also plated with gold.

It could be called a waste of money but Keizwell had so much to spend that it basically did not matter. He spun the gold plated pistol in his hand as he continued to admire its craftsmanship.

"Still admiring that damn golden gun?"

Keizwell stopped spinning the musket the moment he heard Cromwell's voice. Although he heard the latter's pompous footsteps long before Cromwell was even near the parlour's doors Keizwell chose to pretend that Cromwell wasn't even in a 10km radius around him.

"I know and understand the value of gold and it's use to satisfy any noble's greed. In fact, I'm not excluded from this. But you... you're something else entirely."

Keizwell scoffed the moment Cromwell finished his sentence. He returned his musket back into the inner pocket of his coat before turning to face Cromwell who just entered the parlour.

"It's because people hold different things with different values. For someone who can easily tell what a woman wants I'm surprised that you still haven't learnt this."

Cromwell burst into sarcastic laughter the moment Keizwell finished speaking.

"Didn't learn? How stupid do you think I am? I've learned alright... I just feel the need to remind you of that from time to time."

"If that's all you need to say then why are you still here?"

Cromwell shrugged as he took a seat opposite Keizwell.

"I don't know. I just feel that we spent a lot more time together in the past month recently. A bit weird don't you think?"

Keizwell's eyebrows raised the moment he heard what Cromwell had to say.

"To think that out of everyone we know, the one who would bring us together would actually be-"

"Maxwell."

The room turned silent the moment another voice interrupted Crowell. Both Cromwell and Keizwell turned to the owner of the new voice who just entered the parlour. It was Sicilia. Neither of them were too surprised by Sicilia's sudden appearance without any warning. In fact, the two of them were almost expecting it.

It was because they both knew about Sicilia's unique talent.

The talent that allowed her to manipulate her arcane magic in a way that can silence her own footsteps.

It was a natural in-born talent that could barely be replicated by anyone else.

With her still silent footsteps, Sicilia moved deeper into the parlour but she didn't take a seat. Instead she moved to one of the windows with her hands behind her back. As if she was basking in the sunlight coming through the glass.

Keizwell was only slightly annoyed by the two intruders. In truth, he missed this banter that they often had when they were younger. Nevertheless, it would seem that Keizwell would have to be the one to break the silence.

"So are you two gonna keep silently intruding on my leisure time or are you actually going to do something?"

"Interesting isn't it?"

The first one to respond out of the two was Sicilia, who continued to gaze out the window with her hands still behind her back. Keizwell chose to stay silent and allow Sicilia to continue on her own accord, but it appeared that Cromwell had other plans.

"What's so interesting?"

Keizwell saw Sicilia shrug in response to Cromwell before she continued.

"Aren't you aware of how much we matter to Maxwell's plans."

"You don't need say it out loud for me to know."

Cromwell exchanged looks at the other two figures in the room as he said this.

"But I still don't understand what that has to do with anything."

Sicilia sighed before she responded. Although Keizwell couldn't see her face, he knew that she was already calling Cromwell an idiot in her head.

"Isn't it quite convenient for Maxwell that the people he needs to achieve his goals would be closely related to him by blood? If we weren't part of the same great family, I doubt Maxwell would have been able to convince someone else to work with him, even with his... military talent."

"So what?"

Keizwell decided that now would be the best time to jump into the conversation. Although there was really nothing at stake, a small bit of his pride demanded that he take some charge of the conversation.

"All of us already know that we aren't working with him out of the goodness of our heart... at least not completely."

Keizwell made sure to emphasise each and every one of his words as he said this.

"We all have something of value to gain from this... 'business venture.' Or are you implying that you would still help Maxwell even if you had nothing to gain?"

The other two Dunnwals stayed silent as Keizwell continued.

"I will admit it. We are some of the worst piece of shit, bastards to ever walk this earth and I'm not ashamed to say it. We lie. We cheat. We kill for our own personal benefits."

Keizwell saw a look of mixed feelings appear on Cromwell's face as he seemingly struggled to say something. On the other hand, Sicilia continued to stare out the window so Keizwell was unfortunately unable to read her facial expression.

Apart from Maxwell, Sicilia was the most enigmatic Dunnwal. It was often very hard to know what was going on inside her mind even when you can see her facial expression.

However, this didn't change the fact that the parlour was still drowned by absolute silence.

Soon, someone eventually broke the silence.

This time it was Sicilia.

"So what if we're bastards? Only bastards are allowed to thrive in this world."

Sicilia continued to stare out the window as she said this.

"Those who foolishly allowed themselves to be deluded with things like 'morals' will only end up as a body at the bottom of some river."

She talked in a matter of fact way, as if what she said was obvious. Truth be told, it was obvious and everyone in the room was already aware of this fact. It's just that everyone thought of it as more of an 'unspoken saying' that didn't need to be said out loud.

After a brief moment of silence, Sicilia continued speaking again.

"Although we've all seen Maxwell's ingenious plans and stratagems that doesn't change how our lives depend on his success."

Sicilia turned around slowly as she said this. She moved to position herself in-between both Cromwell and Keizwell so that the three Dunnwals would form a triangle. Sicilia straightened her back before she continued talking.

"This is an all or nothing... either Maxwell will succeed in his plans and the Dunnwal family, our family will become the most prominent family in all of Drussia..."

Sicilia paused for a short moment to let what she said sink in before she continued.

"Or he will sink this ship... and us along with it."

The air seemed to freeze once Sicilia stopped speaking.

The only sounds in the parlour was the sound of wind blowing and mouths breathing. The only movements to be seen were the periodic shifting of eyes, when the three Dunnwals exchanged glances amongst each other.

Although each of them already knew about the dangers of Maxwell's plan, it wasn't until now that one of them spoke up about it. Perhaps it was because everyone thought that it was better to keep these thoughts in their mind.

Whatever it was, the parlour was once again filled with silence once Sicilia finished her short monologue.

Once again this silence would be broken, but it was not Cromwell nor Keizwell nor Sicilia who would brake it.

This time, it was someone new who only just arrived.

A loud repetitive but slow clapping echoed through the room as the new arrival entered through the doors.

Everyone already knew who this was before he even showed his face.

Accompanied by his grey haired first lieutenant; Erika, Maxwell slowly entered the room while he continued to clap sarcastically.

"Congratulations, that was a wonderful, wonderful bonding moment you three just had there. I can feel you lot pulling at my heart strings."

Maxwell's voice and mannerisms were completely casual despite the actual seriousness of the subject matter. This wasn't a surprise to anyone, even at a young age Maxwell would always respond with sarcasm unless the one he was speaking to was his parents.

Maxwell stopped clapping and took a glance around the room before he continued.

"Times like this make me glad that we are tied together by blood..."

Maxwell paused for a short moment as he seemingly pondered about something. Apart from Maxwell himself, no one knew what was actually going on inside his mind. He made a causal shrug before he continued.

"Well... blood and greed."