HARMONY [LITRPG / ISEKAI / PROGRESSION / OP MC]

“...And this is everything that has occurred within Forontia these past few days, my lord.”

The older man spoke gracefully and without pause, delivering the report that he had been gathering in the city of Forontia this past week. He looked up to see a rather tanned man with wrinkles around his eyes, staring at the dozens of documents that detailed several other points that the report had summarized for this meeting.

Bruno dropped another piece of paper onto his desk, tapping his finger on it as he processed the information he had just listened to.

Bruno was the mayor and representative of the financial and economic department within the city of Palestorm, a large city with many roads that led to other counties and settlements within the Ghalea kingdom.

As such, he took it upon himself to study the foreign affairs of other cities around their vicinity, particularly the frontier city Forontia near the Ruinga Mountains that had always supported their reign as one of the powerhouses of the country. Bruno had also visited and knew many colleagues there, being the ones to let him know of any adventurers that may have caught their eye or maybe too troublesome to handle should they come to Palestorm.

After all, taking care of such a large city needs a disciplined and iron-clad leadership in order for it not to fall into the hands of chaos just like Forontia. While Bruno wouldn’t say that every part of the city was safe, it was better than letting it have its own autonomy within its own sector, claiming to rule the city in the shadows.

Apparently, in the end, it didn’t matter at all.

“A demon attacked Forontia, and every notorious gang was taken out along with it, eh?”

Red Riot, Chainlords, and the Stained Brotherhood had made themselves known not just in Forontia, but in every other settlement where they could get their filthy hands on. Red Riot especially was boisterous enough to send as many of their members out to get their hands on every valuable magic item they could have, regardless of their danger to society.

He could only imagine that the reason why Forontia went through such a thing was due to one of them having their hands on some relic that could have been more dangerous than anyone has any right to own. His heart ached for the innocents that had no idea why such a thing occurred, but greed was always the most powerful emotion among the masses–lives would only be simple statistics in comparison to greed.

That’s why one had to have a steel mind and heart when facing such evils. But more importantly, one needed to acquire opportunities to ensure that not only Palestorm would succeed, but to make sure that what happened in Forontia would not repeat in his city.

“There are some reports stating that some of the members survived, but they are a mere shadow of their former self,” the servant replied, adding on to the last tidbit Bruno said. He nodded, figuring that was the case.

“More importantly, that demon–was it really just one single man who defeated it?”

“According to the rumors our spies have picked up while living there,” The servant replied. “A powerful mage with supposedly a very strong talent has personally taken on the demon by himself. According to most reports, his level was around 40.”

“A level 40 mage taking a demon down by himself?” Bruno scoffed. “Are they taking any drugs from the gangs out of boredom or something? Sounds like something only one who’s completely high out of their mind would act.”

“It wasn’t just one, but multiple people, including the citizens who lived in Forontia, that said as much,” the servant tried to reiterate, though his face also showed that he too couldn’t believe such a thing despite reading about it earlier. “That’s why it was surmised that he had to have a powerful talent.”

“And who exactly is this man? Who does he belong to?”

If there was someone powerful like that living in Forontia, Bruno should’ve heard about it at some point. He did hear that a party known as the Wise Guys did take on the half-point of Crystalfang Dungeon and defeated the guardian there, so he had his eye on their progress since then, but he never heard of anyone single-handedly taking on such a powerful demon.

He did hear that there was one young man with a powerful talent that could control lightning, but according to the witness reports, there was no sign of lightning being used against the battle with the demon. In other words, it was someone else entirely who had taken the demon down. It was also possible that this same man was also the one who was with the Wise Guys when they defeated the half-way guardian.

“Well, this is where it gets tricky,” the servant replied, this time sounding hesitant.

“Well, what is it? Spit it out, man.”

“Supposedly, everyone, and I mean everyone, says that the man who has taken the demon down is working under the one named Nina Alcatrox.”

Bruno paused then and there, his eyes widening at the mention of that name. Particularly the last name.

“Alcatrox, you say?” Bruno asked, leaving the man to nod.

The Alcatrox family were notorious for being a noble family that would make even the vicious gangs in Forontia look like saints. They would do anything in their power to take everything they could get their hands on, to the point where even the royal family had to intervene. Even then, the members of the noble family had made themselves known across the country, with one particular name being uttered the most as the one they were searching for.

Nina Alcatrox, the one that can supposedly pierce through all and get everything she could desire. He also heard many ruthless rumors about her conduct within Forontia, and he had half a mind to believe that she was somewhat responsible for everything that had occurred.

Yet hearing that the man who had taken down the demon worked for her, it didn’t make any sense. Why would she bother saving the city with such a heavy risk of a demon attack? The more he thought about it, the more he felt as though Nina had more plans in mind rather than just trying to keep herself in that single city.

“...Make sure to keep handing me reports about Forontia, and keep your sights on Nina Alcatrox no matter what. Make sure that when dealing with Forontia, you don’t pick up her attention on the way. Are we clear?”

“Yes, sir,” The servant replied earnestly, taking it as a cue to leave his office to begin his work.

Bruno let out a heavy breath now that he was alone, picking himself up from his plush chair and turning back around to face the window where his personal garden resided. It always relaxed him, seeing his labor on the other side as proof that every single action he had taken would always bore fruit.

“Seriously, what the hell is she planning?” Bruno remarked, rubbing the old skin between his eyes. “Those damn Alcatrox give me a headache every time they’re mentioned.”

…..

Within Forontia, things have been hectic ever since the horror attack was over and done with. Several days passed with every citizen working in tandem to deal with the destroyed property on the surface of the city.

Trading was paused, and many resources were used up to build back what was lost. Of course, a funeral service was established to deal with the hundreds of people that have been lost from this attack. During this time, many had sought to blame someone for all of this, even after the giant demonic threat had already passed.

After all, why the hell would such a demon attack their city in the first place? Many conspiracies had been established, with most of them steering towards the gangs being somehow responsible, and they would be right.

If Nina hadn’t found Aidan at that time, just casually murdering guards in the middle of the forest, she would have found herself completely flummoxed when the demon suddenly attacked. Actually, scratch that–she would’ve died without even knowing the reason why all thanks to the very relic that would destroy the city afterwards.

This only taught Nina that unexpected situations will occur regardless of how much you prepare for them. Even after getting notified of it sooner than everyone else, there were still extreme losses that would take months, if not more than a year to recover what Forontia had lost. That was also putting aside the reputation of the city being somehow cursed for having a demon attack it, making it so that traveling merchants and other prospects of travelers and adventurers steer away from the frontier city, which was already running on thin ice due to its many gangs that made it their home.

But surprisingly enough, it only became extremely malleable for someone like Nina to knead and shape to her wishes. For the next three days while Aidan, the hero who had saved everyone from the horrific threat, recovered from his injuries, Nina had been making the rounds to scrounge up every single piece of destroyed property using her finances she had acquired from the destruction of the Grim Corner.

While the Red Riot did indeed mess everything up in the Raining Treasures and stole her valuables, it wasn’t enough to deter Nina as she never placed anything valuable in the first place within the building. Her wealth was spread across the entire city, hidden away just for this very occasion. Even if some were stolen, she would always squirrel away some more at some other location for this very purpose. But this time, she pulled out all the stops to use all of her wealth to buy out the important locations of the city under her name.

She also made the city aware of this fact, using her name liberally so that anyone would know who it was that bought the damaged locations and was currently spending resources to restore them back to how they once were. Everything from the residential districts to the commercial ones, everyone knew far and wide that Nina Alcatrox had been helping and developing the city to be restored to its rightful place sometime soon.

She was able to do all this due to one simple fact–the hero who had saved their city and everyone who managed to live through the ordeal belonged to none other than Nina Alcatrox herself. Once rumors spread that the hero was under her employ, her personal guardian and trusted confidant, the citizens didn’t just accept it, but wholeheartedly joined in under her authority. Her reputation and her connections only increased further as the days passed, and when Aidan was eventually revealed to the public to have recovered slightly, her saintly demeanor only spread further.

It was honestly becoming something like a dream come true for Nina, who had been tirelessly working behind the scenes to make everything work under her favor, constantly tiptoeing in the shadows to avoid being targeted by those that ruled over her. Since the attack, her control over the common going ons within the city only expanded far beyond what she had predicted. She had expected to take full control of the city in a matter of years, but now it had been shortened to that of a few weeks, perhaps lesser if she took some risks here and there.

But Nina had never been such a reckless risk-taker. The reason for that was simple–she was lucky. Luck had never been her favorite thing, but it was always constant according to her experiences. The fact was that she was indeed lucky to have found Aidan, and lucky to have him under her control from the very beginning. His quick rise to power and expanding abilities was something completely unexpected, only falling into her favor by sheer luck.

That was why she decided that, after doing her usual rounds of scouring the city to take any chances she could to fully have Forontia within her grip, she visited an old acquaintance to have something re-evaluated.

“I’m surprised you didn’t do this sooner, “ Randal said, shaking his head in mock exasperation. “Having someone like that under your belt and not ensuring it feels like an oversight.”

“An oversight I fully plan to correct,” Nina said, her arms crossed while her fingers tapped against her elbow. “The papers?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.”

Randal ignored her hurried words, ramping up the cleaning that he had to do within his office off in the Grim Corner. The Corner was left entirely destroyed thanks to the rising numbers of Horrors that had occurred here. Due to that, plenty of important locations for particular folks like Randal have been ravaged and destroyed.

Despite that, there were still important documents that had been left around, which caused Randal to be working around the clock to restore his business back to where it was. And with Nina’s help, he was further in the palm of her hands than before. Not that Nina would drive him like a slave, but she had no reason to hold back anymore now that Randal was purely planted within her business as her underling.

Randal, wise enough to understand his place, eagerly followed her orders to search for the documents she left with him regarding any contracts she had made throughout her time within Forontia. The contracts that she had bound her servants into following her demands. Randal wasn’t the only one who she had pursued to get these valuable but expensive binding contracts, but he was trustworthy enough to have them stored around for safekeeping alongside his business of handling fake documentation for citizens with undesirable titles under their status page.

“Ah, here it is,” Randal said, finally finding what he was searching for. A set of papers clipped together to make a pile was held in his hands, but unlike regular pieces of paper, these were enchanted to reveal private information only to the one who owned it. As such, while it only appeared to have basic information on the surface to Randal’s eyes, Nina would see a whole lot more if she were to read it herself. “Aidan Munez, the hero of Forontia. Hah, you’re so damn lucky.”

It honestly irked Nina to hear that, considering that it was nothing but the truth. “Give it here.”

Randal did as she asked, handing over the papers which Nina thoroughly searched. As soon as her eyes laid on it, a series of notifications showed in front of her vision, the system taking over as it told her the contract’s details, as well as everything else she was allowed to view as the owner.

One such example was seeing the current state of the binding contract. She is only able to know that the contract is still working from how she ordered Aidan to do her bidding. Most mages with high magical senses could potentially see the bindings done to them through the contracts, but Nina had to rely on using the contract itself to see the state.

She could see Aidan’s status whenever she wanted through her talent, but as it kept expanding and growing at a rapid pace, it was becoming a chore for her to read every time. One thing she did notice, however, was that Aidan hadn’t yet picked up any strange ability that would allow him to get away from the contract without receiving the Contract Breaker, an assured title that would be instantly notified by the contract binding the target and tell the owner that the contracted person was someone untrustworthy, or stupid enough, to incur penalties for.

She was just trying to see whether or not the binding contract needed to be reforged and renewed in case the contract was too weak to handle Aidan’s rising power. Considering that his powers could be so variable, it was possible that the contract might be dissolved the stronger he got.

When doing a binding contract, it was suggested that the contracted person needed to be someone as low in level as possible below the owner’s. If they were closer in level, that was fine, but if the contracted person’s level exceeds the owner, the contract would be terminated due to the power imbalance. So normally the owners would often renew the contracts with better, more expensive contract papers made with powerful materials in order to keep the contracted person under wraps no matter how high the level was.

While she knew Aidan was a spirit, she handled putting him under a contract the same way as she would handle someone at a low level. Considering he didn’t even have a Class at the time, she hadn’t thought she needed to use such an expensive contract. Now, however, money was of no issue to make sure that such a man is kept under her thumb for the future.

The more she read the notifications, the more she tried to understand what was happening. This couldn’t be right.

She kept rereading the notifications over and over, perhaps wondering if she had read wrong or maybe Randal had done something to have ruined it. But according to what she read, it was a solid fact.

The contract was already broken.

While Randal just waited for Nina, figuring that she was fully reading the contract, Nina was panicking as if the world around her was about to end.

How could this have happened? Aidan was already free? And from the looks of the contract’s details, it happened the very moment he signed it. She wasn’t exactly sure on the specific details, but it was definitely still before he even had his Class as a Mage.

In other words, despite already being free from his contract with her, Aidan kept following her orders, even the most unreasonable one as facing the demonic threat that he himself suggested to run from.

Her mind was at odds against herself, trying to understand this unbelievable situation. Why the hell would he willingly follow her orders if he was free to leave whenever he wanted?

Was he trying to get something from her? Did he perhaps know about her situation already and was working with her family to find and capture her? But if that was the case, he would have never bothered following her order to save the city, and would just instead kidnap her and take her to her family if he was working with them.

Does that mean he was working with a third party? Was there something going on? Did this have something to do with how he appeared in the forest all by himself, at a low level, with such a powerful talent? Now that she thought about it, she never bothered asking where he came from, only figuring that he was some refugee that had gotten away from a bad situation with nothing to his name.

Eventually her thoughts led her to believe that asking all these questions was pointless. There were too many to pin down, the only important one seemingly out of her reach. But one thing was clear.

Aidan tricked Nina into believing that he was her loyal follower. He was never bound to her will. That alone was inexcusable.

Yet, at the same time, he went out of his way to help her in a situation that only increased her control over Forontia. While that may not have given her complete authority over the land like a noble, it was enough to give her the foundation she needed to rise into noble status on her own.

Was it perhaps possible he was in agreement with her, and planned on relying on her to get control? Considering Aidan’s personality, that sounded more likely. Or perhaps there was something more to this than she initially thought?

“You good?”

Randal said, noticing the long pause Nina left herself in. Seeing her situation, Nina shook her head and placed the now useless contract papers into her spatial bag.

“I’ll be taking them with me. It’s better that I keep them around.”

“Yeah, good point,” Randal said, nodding. “Who else to protect your most important asset than with someone like Aidan?”

While he sounded like the situation practically spoke for itself, Nina felt the complete opposite on the inside. She was all on her own at this point.

Aidan was only going along with her for some reason or another. At any moment, he could just leave her or, worse yet, force her to be under his control as a complete one-eighty like she did with him. Even if she was higher level than him, they literally saw him take down a powerful demon that was close to level 100 on his own.

Once the panic settled and the confusion was gone, something else filled her from the bottom of her heart. Fury filled her veins, her mind completely focused on one thing and one thing only.

Aidan will pay for tricking her. Nobody gets the upper hand over Nina Alcatrox, not even the so-called hero of Forontia.

Though she wasn’t foolish enough to call him out on it right then and there. No, if he was planning on keeping it a secret, then she’ll continue playing this game of his as long as she could milk this.

She’ll keep finding more information on Aidan, and then use everything in her arsenal to ensure that he was fully under her control. As she went outside the building, finished with her business with Randal after speaking of other matters regarding the state of Forontia, her mind delved into ways to pay him back for what he did.

Before she realized it, a sly grin pulled her lips. If Aidan wanted to keep pretending to be under her service, then why should she not take full advantage of this to see exactly how far he would go for her?

He already went as far as risking his very life to face the demon. She also knew that he has a soft spot for the people around him. In a way, she could completely play his heart to her desires if need be.

Somehow, the idea of controlling such a person, wondering when he’ll crack and eventually reveal that he was no longer in her direct control, made her heart skip a beat.

Who would win in this internal battle of control? Nina or Aidan?

She couldn’t wait to see how far this would go.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!