Gathering

Between the two siblings that were born together, it was always Milo that received the most love and attention.

One was neglected and was only shown attention when it was for the sake of the other.

One was given everything with great hopes and goals placed on their shoulders while being told of their twins role in their life.

It caused one to grow up under the careful guidance of their mother making them ambitious and willing to sacrifice their own twin for the sake of those ambitions.

Milo grew up with that kind of mentality so he was prepared to abandon his twin just like he would to a useless pawn.

If his sister was going to become a hinderance then either he himself or his mother had to take action themselves to correct Cleo back onto the correct path.

If that did not work then it was their right to suppress and even have her harmed if the situation called for it.

The mother's reasoning was that she had gone through so much effort to birth both children so they should live up to her expectations.

Her son should carry out his duties as she wishes since she had given so much effort to birth and raise him.

Her daughter was expected to pay back her mother for the same by becoming useful to her plans and brother's success even if her daughter was going to suffer greatly to accomplish such things.

Cleo may have continued to live as their puppet if she had not been given the freedom and opportunities she gained years ago.

Everything had resulted in the complete collapse of any kind of bond they shared as twins as they both went down on their own path.

There was one thing in Milo's mind and that was establishing his control over the family without gaining any unexpected interferences.

The least of his worries was from Maximillion who was captured already and was being sold off for a high price along with the others Minks.

Milo deeply desired for the remaining siblings of his to be hunted down so they could no longer get in his way.

All of the Vivre Cards showed that each of them were still together but were not on the island so they needed to be found at sea or on an island they had stopped by.

While he was trying to gather those allied with him to seize power, he was in contact with the newly appointed head of the Glutt family to begin their first official meeting between families.

The two families would be making their first public declaration in a peaceful setting for all to see to show off their cooperation to the other families as they would begin to work on restoring what reputation had been lost.

Any relationships they had been needing to mend would be done in that setting and there would especially be a need to placate some upset families.

Among the families of a higher ranking that had voiced their protests the most was Micah's family which was just one noble ranking below the three dukes.

The loss of their son who never returned was a very big problem for them and they would not accept simple explanations and apologies.

The two families needed to get most families to understand their situation or to put them under enough control so that it looked like most would be forgiving for the losses of the many Minks.

If the majority were able to forgive the two families for something that was out of their control then the family of Micah would have to do the same otherwise they could be seen as being unreasonable and as holding onto a grudge.

Even a family of their status had to conform to certain social pressures and conform with others even if they did not like how things were.

It was to be expected that if many families joined together to create such an environment then even a family like them would have to swallow their pride and anger.

More days passed as the two families joined together to spread the word to all the families to hold an emergency meeting of nobles.

Each family would be witnesses to the new alliance of families that would act as the primary source of supplies coming in from the outside of Zou.

It was a meeting to mourn the losses from the recent tragedy and to reignite the hopes of many as the two families would start a new beginning that promised great things for the future of Zou.

The time was coming closer until the families finally gathered enjoying toasts together and sharing in their grief or expectations for the future.

There were some small voices among the crowd which was trying to gather support to search for and save those that were still salvageable.

There were those who were very concerned about how the situation was going to be dealt with and if there would be any action taken to save anyone that could be found.

If the Vivre Cards could still detect some of them then there was still some hope to track those who went missing down so some were still hopeful in seeing their loved ones again.

More nobles of higher status entered a little later followed by those of the Marquis and Duke noble statuses.

Upon seeing them arrive, many quietened down and awaited what was about to take place.