Eternal Night

"What the f..." He almost finished the curse before realizing exactly who almost knocked him down. Ian was astonished. Master Gerto, although very relaxed, didn't usually run aimlessly as if his life depended on it.

"Master Gerto, are you okay?" Etri asked, helping the dazed Gnome up from the ground.

"Ouch, I just hurt my tail a bit, little girl." Gerto grumbled, massaging his rear.

"More importantly, what happened?" Ian asked, concerned.

"I was looking for you! I went to the headquarters... and couldn't find you... they said you went to visit the warehouse... so I came running... the damned old man was caught." Gerto spoke, still slightly out of breath.

"Who? Caught by whom?" Ian and Etri spoke simultaneously, alarmed.

"My father-in-law! By the Night Eternal country... those... damn pointy-eared folks. - Gerto seemed quite disturbed, even a bit pale. The "old bastard" clearly had a special place in his heart, different from what his words indicated.

The nation of the Night Eternal was one of the two factions of the Dark Elves. In recent years, with the ascension to the throne of Queen Aja'ah the Bloodthirsty, a title she earned by purging the royal family. She spared none, even some of her own children, leaving only herself and one of her daughters. With no other known surviving branch, there were a total of 623 murders. Despite the ensuing management crisis, as each noble had a certain position of prominence in the state's chain of command, the Bloodthirsty Queen made intelligent moves, promptly replacing any questionable pieces and placing direct subordinates in all sectors, eliminating potential revolts, spies, and disorganization. However, the common people were not happy with such ruthless actions, but the new ruler silenced public opinion with results. She lowered taxes and made improvements in all areas. The new employees and policies were several times more effective than the previous administration. Even the millennia-old balance between the two elven factions was now threatened by the Night Eternal's prosperous trend.

"What?! Come, let's go after Shortyty and report to the Royalty."

"Don't waste your time. Do you think the Madman lives in the Wastelands because he loves poverty and loneliness? The truth is, he was exiled. My late mother-in-law was a princess and the eldest daughter of the current Never-Dying King. Despite everything and everyone, the two of them ran away and got married. But a few years later, they were captured. If the princess hadn't threatened to take her own life, that old man wouldn't have escaped losing his head. Even so, he went into exile with my wife, and my mother-in-law was imprisoned in the palace for the rest of her life, which didn't last long due to sorrow. Their noble titles were revoked, leading my wife to a plebeian life. Do you really think the King will do anything? He's more likely to pour oil on the fire." Master Gerto vented with a somewhat choked voice, as this topic was a taboo in his family. One of the reasons why his father-in-law was still alive, despite his bad mood, undoubtedly had to do with his grandchildren and daughter. Otherwise, he would have met the same fate as his beloved.

"Etri, I want half of the force to monitor Master Gerto's family, from now on they will not leave the headquarters and only authorized personnel will be allowed in. I doubt that the Eternal Night will get what it wants with the Grandmaster in normal ways, but everyone has a weak point and his is undoubtedly this one." Gerto has become twice as pale, almost like a paper and has even become a little dizzy again, he didn't think about this point.

"All right, I'm going to meet them." Replied Loli.

"Master Gerto, how do you know it was the Eternal Night? They are probably one of the worst powers to deal with..." Sighed Ian, he firmly believed that his kidnapping was orchestrated by that one and not the other kingdom. Named agents by numbers and audacious actions...

"The Wastelands are not as unpopulated as you think, there are all sorts of people living in seclusion in every region. As it happens, one of the old gnome's friends alerted me by mental message."

"Any chance the Glory of Darkness Kingdom is involved and framing the other?"

"No chance. The message was sent via mental matrice. It records not only the message but also the emotional state, parallel thoughts, and other details. It's practically impossible to hide, lie, or manipulate. Besides, it was encrypted with my aura. Only I can read the message."

The technology in this world constantly surprised Ian. What seemed backward in many aspects, as he lived and learned, convinced him that, overall, it surpassed Earth's technology. People with the cultivation system, even without talent, lived several years longer than their species would allow in relative comparison to humans (considering that each species has a natural propensity to live more or less). They had virtually unbreakable legal contracts, a Medicine Dao that covered almost all occurrences without the need for interventions like surgery (a term unknown and possibly barbaric to the people of Sombreal), alternative and practical means of transportation, including teleportation (imagine traveling hundreds of kilometers in less than a second?), among other extremely positive aspects without the shadow of pollution and global warming.

"So let's go back to headquarters and think of a plan of approach."

When the group returned, they learned that Master Gerto family's apartment had previously lived in been broken into and ransacked. Luckily they had moved to the clan's headquarters, otherwise the situation would be worse.

"These Elves from Eternal Night are getting bolder... Acting like this near our domain and targeting a Gnome..." Shortyty thought out loud.

"Anyway, they knew about the troubled relationship between my Master and the Gnome Royalty. Otherwise, even if the Bloodthirsty Queen were 100 times more tyrannical, she wouldn't have done something like this." Master Gerto spoke with a slightly defeated tone.

"A Grandmaster in matrices, a Gnome, with no affiliation or protection, is undoubtedly a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered. I'm surprised no one did something earlier." Ian pondered. After all, Grandmasters were national treasures, and Matrice Grandmasters, especially if they were Gnomes, even more so.

"It's not that they never tried. It's not easy to capture a matrice scholar of the Old Devil's level. Layers of concealment, protection, alarms, and escape matrices through teleportation. It's practically impossible."

"Unless he was betrayed by someone close."

"Unless he was betrayed by someone close..." Gerto repeated Ian's statement thoughtfully, as if trying to help him reason, but in vain. He soon snapped out of his state.

"What are we going to do, Clan Master?" Master Gerto was unusually respectful and clueless, there was a lot at stake and he had not yet cooled his mind. He well knew, as the scholar, with a hot head, better to delegate the rational functions.

"Shortyty, ask for an audience with the ambassador of Glory of Darkness. If the Eternal Night want to play a blackmail game, we will enter their Cold War and still profit. - Ian ordered in a confident and calm manner.

"Sir, the Gnomish Royalty despises species with more than one state and forces them to create their embassies in the same building... Bloody occurrences between the offices are not uncommon. Besides, it's a territory outside Gnomish jurisdiction. They probably have some forces on standby waiting for us. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" everyone knows that, so the enemy too."

"I'll go along with half of our forces. Etri, you'll command the other half to fortify the headquarters. Send a message to the Red Faction to support our residence. Also hire twice as many guards as we have for tomorrow."

"I won't stay here while you put yourself at risk!" Etri spoke as she pulled Ian towards her side with a displeased and protective expression.

"My Loli, believe me. I have a few cards up my sleeve, enough to protect myself at least. While I rested in the seclusion of martial training, I wasn't really idle." Ian freed himself with a wink to his wife, who was far from convinced. But what could she do? Having lived in a Great Clan her whole life, knew that she couldn't undermine the family's leader in front of everyone.

"But if something goes wrong..." Etri raised her little hand and punched the wall, shockingly reducing it to dust. The material of that structure was extremely resistant, showing that the bodily techniques of that seemingly harmless and cute little girl had reached a high level.

"Oh no, my wife, breaking our house again!" Ian exclaimed with an air of amusement. Etri's mouth hung half open, she looked down at her fist and at the room forced expanded by the absence of the partition, and finally realized what had just done, and reddened like a red bell pepper. The comical event breaking the heavy atmosphere partially.

But deep down, they were all anxious.

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F11 Financial Summary:

Debts: Total of 5,280,000 C to be paid starting in 1 year and 11 months (22,000 C monthly installment for 240 months); One-time payment of 25,000 C for 1 year.

Transactions Chapter:

14 New Security Guards (-2,100 C)

Cash: 170 620 C.