Manfred didn't like corpses that he hadn't arranged to have made. It was worse when they were delivered, as if you'd signed up for a book-of-the-week program. He personally knew how annoying they could be, as he was still receiving She Who Fights Bugs books, which were on volume twelve, and he tried to cancel after book six.
The bodies might as well be novels about pain, considering the condition they came in, with additional flavor text written in threats on the bodies, they'll hit you here, anticipation infestation imagination, and such were perplexing. It took time to source that they were all Naewauld gang members. Locusts, Moles, Death Shrooms, and Threshers. New arrivals to Hazeldown who had joined the increasing crowds coming from the capital.
Gang wars happened. Manfred had arranged and cleaned up a few. This was more complicated, and he’d already used up much of the human resources he gained during his life of fixing problems in transitioning to House White. The reliable people were folded into the staff. The influx of extra people for the Ascendant Games complicated gathering information from the unreliable or skittish options. Something was coming. Two days ago, the crime lord cashed in some pay to have Stiriling take Viv to the countryside to teach her the fiddle. Now he had enough to speak up. It was time to bring this to the boss. Manfred Walker knocked.
“Come in.” Bates' pleasantly calm voice called through the door.
Always busy yet always calm, as he was the perfect simulacrum of servitude. Lady Harmony's right-hand man, as much as Ambrosia was her voice. Bates made sure everything ran smoothly while he blended in with those beneath him. He looked both average and extraordinary as he sat in front of a pile of paperwork.
As unassuming as the master butler could be. Manfred's stat of caution sent sparks down his spine. It was the key stat he’d gained when they awakened that had saved his life many times when he was both a small bone in a large corpse and the skull that grinned down on everyone else.
Having long ago become the person others used to cause nightmares, having the warning here was both troubling and reassuring. Bates was a man who could get things done. Manfred knew People liked to think of him as that kind of man, but he was but a bit player to what he suspected Bates could do.
“Sir, we have a bigger problem than I thought.”
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