In the early hours of the following day, the Fuller family's group of seven vehicles made their way through the nearly deserted streets of Millfall, arriving in this town after hours of travel.
Unlike the trip to Martell Village, they had not been ambushed by any magical creatures and had arrived in relative peace.
Nina was already asleep when they entered the first local street. Still, the rest of the group was awake, especially Vicente's men, who would be moving here with his family.
As Vicente sighed that they had reached this place without anything worse happening, he looked at Rory and asked, "Have you seen your mother? How was she?"
"Yes, one of our men went to see her, and she saw me while you were out. Anyway, she's fine. She said she'd visit us occasionally, but she also told us to be careful what we do.
According to her, we're only Apprentices and too far away from the minimum to not be in danger in anything we do."
"Hmm, she is not wrong. We can't go head-to-head with some local powers with our current strength. At best, we can act in secret and try to grow in the meantime." Vicente muttered.
At the moment, his plans were not to take on known criminal groups nor to act openly against anyone, be it nobles or bandits.
Their goal was to begin integrating into the local underworld, get closer to the people relevant to their operations, and earn coins from the robberies and services they would soon be offering.
With these coins, they planned to support the group's development with new weapons and magically grown items.
With the right resources, growing wouldn't be so hard!
"What do we do now?" Eve asked.
"First, let's rest." Vicente smiled as he looked at Eve. "Tomorrow afternoon, we will begin our plans. We have to take over the business of the merchant killed by Baron Irwin's son, so I want you to take care of that with our men, Eve.
In the meantime, Rory and I will take care of the plans of action against House Irwin and our local businesses. With part of our group in Millfall, we'll be able to offer protection to anyone willing to pay."
"Won't that attract attention?" She asked.
"No, because we'll only be offering it to a few stores. Small shops, by the way." Rory answered her doubt.
Vicente told her. "In Millfall, as in many areas of the kingdom, powerful and evil people do as they please.
The royal law does not apply to them as it does to ordinary people. Not only do they have the power to flee and escape punishment, but royalty and nobility themselves benefit from these organizations operating in the underworld."
Vicente gestured to her. "On the one hand, the state could try to act against these forces, wasting a lot of time chasing countless people, using not only resources but also talents, as royal guards would surely die. Meanwhile, they would not focus their time on what is more relevant, such as the official business of the kingdom.
On the other hand, the powers can turn a blind eye to some attitudes, have time to concentrate on what is most important, and still receive "incentives" not to persecute certain people.
For the powerful, the second option is much more interesting as long as their interests are not affected. So, Millfall society has important loopholes for us to act on.
But it's not going to be a group of a few low-level magicians that's going to get attention, Eve. We'd have to take over all of Millfall to cause the kind of upheaval you're worried about. Yet, we're only going to be offering our services to less than 0.05% of this society in the short term."
They were small, weak, so weak that they had the advantage that no one was watching them.
Even if they acted, what would be the first thought of anyone who noticed them? These are just a few weak young people trying to survive.
Who would think they would plan more?
Vice and Rory wanted to use the arrogance of others and the fact that they would be underestimated to grow where hardly anyone was looking.
No one in this society cared about making cities safer places to live and work. For the institutions in power, allowing this world to be chaotic was more convenient and more advantageous!
With that in mind, Eve no longer questioned them and remained silent until they arrived at the house where she would live with Nina and Vicente.
Once there, Vicente's men would quickly drop off the family's boxes and bags before everyone went to rest for the start of their plans.
...
Late afternoon of the next day...
After resting for hours and having a great lunch next to Eve, Nina, and Rory, Vicente and the young red-haired man left the two girls to take care of their local business.
In the following days, they would go to where their group would be operating in this town to make the necessary adjustments regarding their plan against the Irwin family. Still, for now, the two moved to a local store.
Vicente's men had been to this place before and had talked to the owner about a few things. But nothing deep had been decided or discussed.
Arriving at a tavern, the two dodged the people in their way and went to the area where men were drinking or eating.
"What will it be, young men?" An overweight man with a protruding belly and a lot of hair asked as he draped a dishcloth over his shoulders.
Vicente looked at the Orange Magic Gem of this person before saying, "Nothing for now. I'm looking for someone named Zander Bell."
"Zander? What do you want with my brother?"
The middle-aged, black-haired man asked in surprise, not expecting such young men to come looking for Zander.
"We're here to talk business. Some of my men helped the senior with some troublemakers earlier. Since I have been busy, I could not come here to discuss our proposal." Vicente got right to the point, talking about what he had asked his men to do.
This was a violent society, and in a tavern like this, trouble that caused losses to the owners was not uncommon.
Vicente had had his men keep an eye on a few places around Millfall, and it was in one of those places that a fight had broken out in the presence of those men.
In that situation, one of Vicente's men helped the establishment owner take care of the troublemakers and prevent damage to the tavern.
His men had not charged anything for the help but had opened a dialogue for a future partnership, as they would soon be available after "finishing a job" and could help protect the tavern.
The tavern owner had been interested, as he was not a talented magician, and magicians did not usually offer this kind of simple service.
Guards and mercenaries preferred to sell their protection on journeys and the like, which usually had better rewards. Being a guard for such an establishment didn't pay much. Thus, there was an extreme shortage of people willing to provide such a service locally.
Not only that but of those who were willing, most were very weak and ill-equipped, meaning it was not worth the cost of hiring them.
But things were different for Vicente's men, who had been trained in his techniques and had weapons on their side!
The man smiled and said, "So it's you! Please come this way. I will call my brother to speak with you.
