"He wounded the subordinate of the Flame Faction and seemed quite strong and young." The man who had just entered that place said this hurriedly, notifying his leader about the newcomer, someone who might be interesting for this group.
"Oh? A newcomer has arrived making noise?" The strongest man in that group looked at the one who had just arrived.
"The Flame Faction is not weak. If he acted against one of them, he's likely to be hunted down very soon." One of the men there with the leader of that group commented.
"Yes, in that case, he will either die quickly or join another group like ours... If we want him on our side, we must act quickly."
The man who brought the information then said. "I don't know if it will be easy to approach him. Right after acting against the subordinate of the Flame Faction, he fled the area very quickly...
The guy is speedy, in a way that I couldn't identify where he went."
"Is that true?" The group leader became even more interested in Lothur, considering that this subordinate was a level 17 cultivator and few were capable of moving so fast that he could not identify their movements.
"Yes, and he also commented before acting against that person, indicating his preference not to join anyone... I don't know, boss. I feel that the rookie is arrogant and hard to deal with."
The leader of this group liked to break the will of people like that, so knowing this, he was doubly interested in Lothur. "All right, Oliver, Luca, I want you two to deal with this person and get him to join my faction."
The two level 18 men in that place, enjoying the women next to their boss, stopped what they were doing after hearing that order.
After picking up their equipment from the surrounding area, they set off to investigate Lothur's whereabouts.
Meanwhile, that man was left alone with the women in that place, from where Rebecca would soon see the depravity of these people, feeling disgusted.
...
While Lothur began his journey inside the Imperial Prison, Viktoria, Elke, and Annaliese had already returned to the Ritter estate after the Secret Realm ended.
Many people had tried to approach them soon after Lothur's capture. But they had ignored everyone, and after meeting with their allies, they had tried to find ways to find out more about his situation and how to rescue him.
The Ritter Motor Company people were not optimistic about any action to rescue Lothur. But some of them had plans and were following the alternatives they had to try something.
But these were actions that could not be taken or have immediate consequences. So after talking with their partners, the three returned to Lothur's estate.
There, Viktoria and Elke updated each other on what had happened in the past week, using Annaliese's help to learn more.
They also talked a bit about their experience in the Secret Realm.
After sorting this out, they were all depressed but knew they couldn't stay in this situation forever!
Viktoria stood up from the couch in the living room and clenched her fists. "I believe Lothur will do his best to escape his enemies. But in the meantime, we can't stand still. He wanted to build a powerful force after the Secret Realm.
So let's use the Ritter family resources to form ranks of warriors and build what he wanted!"
Annaliese and Elke agreed, feeling that this could even help them rescue Lothur!
Not only that, the Ritter Motor Company business was very important to him, so building these forces would be a way to ensure that this company would continue to belong to him.
"When do we start? For that matter, where do we start?" Elke asked.
Viktoria said. "We will take a portion of the profits to which the Ritter family is entitled from the Ritter Motor Company's cash box. With those funds, I will create the Ritter family guard."
When a family was born, it depended on three ways to obtain warriors.
The first was the most obvious, though members of that lineage. But House Ritter didn't have enough people for that, so it couldn't rely on it.
The second was through allied forces, who would lend their forces for the payment of the borrowed men's wages.
Usually, families made this alternative possible to help subordinates build their own families and facilitate the domination of other territories, which could benefit them.
Finally, the third and most affordable alternative was to hire mercenaries. This option had one major downside, the lack of loyalty, but as long as one had enough coin, assembling an army could be done quickly.
Viktoria wanted to combine the second and third methods to form the Ritter family guard.
"I will talk to the partners of the Ritter Motor Company to make some men available to help us organize the Ritter family. In the meantime, I will hire 300 mercenaries around the province."
"Hmmm, that sounds good," Annaliese commented. "With our strength and situation of the Ritter Motor Company, I believe it will be easy to attract people interested in joining our family."
But while they were talking, someone suddenly knocked on their property's door.
They all looked at each other upon hearing that knock and soon turned their attention in the direction of the entrance, curious.
Viktoria took the lead and approached the entrance, where Annaliese's car was parked.
There, an elderly-looking man stared intently at her car as he waited for these people.
'This city has several units of this thing... What is it? Where did that come from?' The High Priest of the Seraphim Church looked at that red SUV strangely, putting aside his great worries momentarily as he waited for those people.
But as soon as Viktoria and Elke appeared in front of him, he put aside those vehicles that anyone visiting Peters City would see around the entire city to focus on those two.
"Misses, I hear you have just returned from the Secret Realm, no? I wanted you two to tell me about what happened there. In particular, I want to know about the young man who used an incredible ability near the end of the event." He said.
...