Chapter 303: Trust

Chapter 303: Trust



Cassarae sat at her desk with furrowed brows. It indeed wasn't a coincidence that Casstle Main had plummeted out of the rankings. She could feel that she was being targeted, but it was hard to tell if it was by coincidence or not.

The System City had appeared too close by, and on the one hand, that made it easy to pay adventurers to help them deal with some of their trouble. But on the other, it loosened the control they had over the resources in the region. Whether it was herself or her militiamen, their leveling speed had plummeted off a cliff... not that it was very fast to begin with.

As though that wasn't bad enough, the influx of salt water was making it impossible to grow anything, so she had to rely on the Nexus to buy food, further pressuring their coffers. Then, just today, she got a report that the well water was becoming too salinated to drink. Now, even water had to be purchased through the Nexus. Everything felt like one step forward for ten back.

"Rae, dear?"

A familiar voice caused Cassarae to lift her head. The bags under her eyes told their own story, and hearing her mother should have made her feel a little better. But instead, she felt another wave of fatigue hit her.

"Yes, mom. You can come in."

A spry middle-aged woman walked in. She was quite short, only reaching her daughter's shoulders, so it was clear that Cassarae didn't receive her dominant genes from her mother. That credit was given to her father, who was almost seven feet tall.

Geraldene sighed when she saw her daughter's state. She was about to say something when Cassarae put a hand to her forehead.

"Please, no more apologies. It's killing me slowly. I would have cussed you out already if you weren't my mother."

An amused chuckle came from Geraldene. She was used to her daughter's ways and had enough teenage angst memories in the bank to know that this was actually considered to be a more mature Cassarae.

"Rae, you need to let your father and I help you."

Cassarae sighed. "What can you help with?"

Geraldene paused, not quite sure how to answer this immediately.

Cassarae rolled her eyes. "I'm twenty-"

"You'll always be my little girl. Don't think we haven't noticed. You're slowly losing control of this city of yours, and things are becoming unmanageable.

"Your father and I are proud of what you've accomplished, but your friends have yet to manage to gather here once again, and if you insist on doing things on your own, it will only slip further and further out of your control."

Cassarae grit her teeth. Sylas had told her to be wary of Gregory, her Steward spawn, and she had been. But it still felt like everything was slipping out of her control.

Cassarae didn't believe herself to be intelligent, certainly not as intelligent as Sylas, but she had always had an elite nose... she called it her Bullshit Detector.

Gregory had done nothing untoward, but it somehow felt like everything ran through him before being filtered to her.

Technically speaking, this made perfect sense. After all, he was her steward. But something smelt off about it, and Cassarae couldn't put her finger on what exactly that was.

The funniest part about all of this was the fact that Maya, her Armored Seamstress, had actually mellowed out considerably as well, giving her less to worry about.

Even with all the chaos, the village had been very peaceful. It could only be said that Gregory was excellent at his job. Too excellent... especially considering he was only a Common

summon.

The fact her parents had picked up on it told Cassarae everything she needed to know. Her parents, whether her mother with academic politics or her father with business politics, had their own elite Bullshit Detectors.

After all... that was what landed them in this situation.

Cassarae took a breath and pressed down her anxiety.

"Okay, mom. I'll do it. I'll help you and dad Level up. When dad is at Level 9, I'll let him go to the System City."