Chapter 80 - White Heart city

As Evelyn and the other went out of the room, only Winston and Balthazar were left. Though Winston helped to convince them and helped Balthazar with the situation before, he had never really wanted to let his grandson to play detective among assassins.

Though Balthazar was 22 years old, he would be still considered a very young man. Moreover, Balthazar and Bolena were his last remaining descendants and he didn't want them to put themselves at risk. Balthazar knew about his grandfather and knew that he still had to convince Winston.

Winston was looking at Balthazar waiting for him to give him an explanation. "How about we talk about this somewhere else? I really don't trust you to be in this room until it is completely scrubbed," said Balthazar opening the door. Though the family had checked the room after Max escaped, it was best to get into another room, since Evelyn and D.i.c.k could have easily put in a device or two to spy upon them.

"Let us go to my office. I can trigger an insulation field around it which could prevent any unauthorized communication to or from the room. Even if there is a bug on our person, it won't be of use," said Winston as he got out of the room. Both of them quickly reached the Patriarch's office.

Winston quickly went to the console on his table and selected something which caused some devices to protrude out of the corners of the room and create a field along the walls of the room. "We can talk now," said Winston as he sat down signalling Balthazar to sit opposite him.

"I just supported you because I didn't want Evelyn to use you. If you joined her outfit and be trained by her, she will slowly erode your suspicions about her and get you to confide in her. It is what she does and even if you are strong enough, most elders in the family wouldn't believe you if you stayed with her for a few months," said Winston.

"Now, I want you to give me an explanation of everything you that happened during the alien attack on your base. Else, I would be the one who would imprison you right here," continued Winston in a low warning tone. Balthazar had never seen Winston talk like this. It was clear that he would do as he told.

If he had any actual proof that he could show Winston, it would have been easy to convince him. But, all his knowledge about the incident was due to something, he never could explain. He had to somehow convincing lie about the entire incident.

"Well!.. Let me start from the beginning. After I became Colonel, I noticed one of my Lt. Colonel's behavior to be a bit off. It was more than the usual resentment that someone young like me got promoted before her," said Balthazar.

"She had a bit of an erratic behavior due to which I kept an eye on her. The more I observed her the more I began to doubt her. I noticed that she had devices which were not military issued. So, I bugged her room and had followed her movements when I came to know that Jane was actually in contact with someone and was planning an attack on the citadel."

"Is this the same Jane that died in the explosion? The one that you told in your report to the military was helping you?" asked Winston in surprise. His grandson had portrayed her to be quite instrumental in investigation of her subordinates and died a hero.

"Yes, I did put in that way because I wanted them to think that everything they lost was because they had a double agent amongst them who was helping me. With her dead, neither the alliance nor our enemies would focus much on me. She has been in the armed forces a lot longer than me and everyone would consider her to be the main person who saved the day," said Balthazar.

"Fine. That was a good way to make your enemies underestimate you. Is that the reason you had her with you at the hangar?" asked Winston.

"Yes. She and the other two traitors I specified in my report were the actual traitors who were helping them. They sabotaged the detection and targeting devices of the citadel's artillery so attack by the aliens be successful and they would lose the base. I distinctly heard that they would help with her promotion after the remove me from the post. Their talks made me feel like the knights wanted someone at Colonel level working for them. This suggested that they already have someone with high influence working for them," said Balthazar.

"She was contacting Raymond Rowley and Dave. Rowley also mentioned that his family elders. Though not by names specifically. Their family is definitely involved. When it came close to the day of attack, I heard Max's name and I was a mandatory target. Once I heard that I immediately erased all records of their conversations, then called you and to just to find out how important a target I was being considered, I booked a ticket to come home the next day," said Balthazar.

"When the attack happened during the exhibition, I realized that they considered my death very important. I wanted to interrogate the members from the merchant vessel and just to be on safe side, I also took Jane to the hangar as she was helped arrange the attack. So, I thought no mass scale attacks would be done with her beside me. It is after the blast that I realized that they considered my death to be more important than an inside man in the border force and that she was already considered expendable. The rest you know as much as I do," ended Balthazar.

"Well you were careful enough, but you could have never realized how badly the knights of the old republic wanted you dead," said Winston. It was now that Winston realized that him hiding the truth about Balthazar's grandmother didn't protect him and if he knew the truth, he would have probably been a lot more careful once he realized whom he was in a fight against.

"If I knew the actual story about my grandmother, I would have probably avoided the blast and contacted you long before. My parents probably faced a similar situation," said Balthazar.

"John would have definitely been a lot more careful if he knew," groaned Winston catching his hair. No father would be able to bear the thought that his over cautious behavior cost his daughter her life. He started groaning as he slammed his head on the table pulling out hair.

"Stop it," said Balthazar as held back Winston's hands. "You did something that you thought was for the best. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, we cause our worst nightmares. You can only adapt and improve if you want to prevent further mishaps," he continued as he hugged Winston.

"I guess, I have truly gotten old, if my grandson is giving me life advice," said Winston as tears continued to roll down his cheeks.

"Haha. Of course, you are old. Get ready to give your post to Bolena or Robert as soon as possible," said Balthazar trying to cheer him up. "You would have a hard time keeping up or understanding with the technological advancements."

"Stop your nonsense and get lost," said Winston waving his hands. He deactivated the field so that Balthazar could get out. As Balthazar got to the door, Winston finally clarified himself. "If your are really interested in investigating them, I can help you. You just need to ask."

"I would surely like that. I hope you can keep everything that I told you to yourself. Maybe Walter, but I leave that to your discretion," said Balthazar as he walked out and went to his room. First, he needed to help Robert in two days. His plans would require money. Money which couldn't be traced back to him. If Robert becomes an elder, he would be able to support him.

But he also required other sources of money. The best source he could find right now is vita-nova. He went to join the game again. The further he progresses in the game the better.

With the meeting done, he didn't have any other things to attend to. With the gaming pod, he could also skip meals and depend on nutrient fluids for two days. So, he decided to use it as best as he could for the first day at least. It would become harder for the coming days.

As he joined the game, he realized that was in White Hear City now and he had a lot of messages. Most of them were from Blue Dart and other acquaintances that he made in the game. They were all asking him regarding the method to finish the quest to reach the city.

Merlin, Rudra and the rest have been busy trying to take quests and level up. They have a clear advantage over the rest of the players, and they intended to keep it as such. Yet, they have also advised him to provide some kind of method to get through the quest.

Balthazar knew that they were right, and it was best to provide answers to the players in the forum. He had intended to be a part of a guild and have a leadership position in it. One of the important qualities required by a leader is to be magnanimity. A leader needs to teach his followers what he knows so that it would allow him to develop. No one would follow a person who they perceive to be stingy, voluntarily.

He quickly made a post in the forums that he managed to cross level 10 by finishing quests other than the one to reach the city and by forging of armaments to gain experience and with a higher level, he was able to help his team clear the monsters in the main quest.

It wasn't a very specific answer, but his answer never needed to be specific and accurate. Most players just wanted a response from him acknowledging their questions. It didn't need to be something that they even thought was achievable. In fact, if it wasn't something that was hard to believe most wouldn't accept it as that would make other players look like fools. It had to be something that made him looked like an expert.

When the players saw that he managed to gain experience to cross level 10 just by a trade profession, it caused a surge among them to work on their trade professions. Most would soon realize that it isn't very easy to do so. It made most player who saw the post that Shadow had successfully managed to find a loophole, but as they tried it they would realize that not all could actually use the loophole successfully.

Even trade profession would stop giving experience if they products are far below their own level. So, most would need to find appropriate recipes and materials to progress using trade professions. Vita-nova is a game in which everything resembled real-life and required actions similar to what one would do in real-life.

Most players had to change their styles, main occupations and trade professions in vita-nova as they realized that in such a realistic game, the techniques and methods they followed in other games would be a waste.

Players who could gain high experience using trade professions were low in number and most of them wouldn't be adept at fighting. So, this wasn't a feasible method for almost all players. In such a game, players who were extremely good at both trade professions and their main occupation and realized what they were good at would be extremely rare.

Thus, Shadow's explanation while hiding the truth also made him a lot more popular among the general player base. He was already known to have defeated the dungeons and the players of Sirius Imperials due to which most considered him a fighting expert. Now, he also came to be known for his forging skills.

With his reply in the forum, he went back to the game. Having reached the city, he had a lot options. The White Heart city was the capital of the kingdom. It had one of the most beautiful structure one could see. Players watching it for the first time would be mesmerized by the sheer size of it. The royal place at the centre was made completely of White marble and had beautiful structure. It served as a great tourist attraction.

The developers used the game to create some of the most aesthetically beautiful structures that could be seen in the world that they would serve as a tourist attraction. In later stages of the game, player who managed to get enough reputation to be considered royalty brought others to such structures just for enjoying them.

Many rich people paid a lot for such services. But the palace was not the only place that would serve as a tourist attraction in the city. The temple of the twelve would also be developed into such a beautiful structure.

The central most part of the city was occupied by the royalty and the armed forces of the kingdom. This area is considered the core region and even with reputation and title of first citizen, he wouldn't be allowed to enter the core area. Most of the core region consisted of the royal palace. A very small number of shops were present in this area, but they would be considered the best in the kingdom. One need to be a noble to be able to get into this region. The services were also royalty exclusive.

After that is the inner region which contained a lot of merchant shops, the market, restaurants and lots of other buildings. One needs to be a citizen of the city to be able to enter the inner region or at least be above level 50 humans.

Then comes the outer region which is accessible to all who come to the city. There aren't much differences between inner and outer regions except for the quality of the goods and services available. The inner region obviously has better goods and services. Some products were exclusive to the inner and core regions.