The Rise of the Black Plain

After they finished studying the basics about the local powers and the Vogel family, Minos and his wives were chatting in the same library as before.

"It seems that soon the Vogel family will give a celebratory banquet for the kingdom's independence..." Minos commented as he closed one of the books before him and looked at the three women in front of him.

Like any other state in this world, Vogel had its national holidays, moments of celebration for the population. However, these were also times to remind everyone of the most important events in local history.

The population needed moments of rest and celebration to function without too many problems during the year. Some people could only give meaning to their lives if they had moments like these and could even lose the will or become rebellious without it.

So, to keep the psychology of the most ordinary and numerous people in the state in check, the local leaders used these occasions to cheer up these parts of the population on days like these.

On the other hand, a state without memory was doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Thus, these were also times to think about history and the mistakes and successes of their predecessors while using this to stimulate the patriotic sense of their population.

A population proud of its history was less likely to rebel and more likely to defend the state in case of need!

Therefore, even though Vogel had existed for hundreds of thousands of years, the royal family still celebrated the date of the state's independence.

By coincidence of fate, such a festive occasion was to take place in the next few weeks, precisely during this passage of Minos and his wives through this state.

"Do you want to act against them during this occasion?" Abby asked her husband.

"Yes. There will be many visitors that day, and this state's important figures must show themselves." He said in a low voice while moving his fingers through a brush. "It will be interesting if we act at that time."

"Don't you think it will be more dangerous?" Ruth asked.

"We don't need to act immediately that day..." Minos looked at her and smiled from under his mask. "We can work out a way to participate in this event, choose some targets, and act against them after the festive occasion."

"Oh?" Gloria opened her mouth, "So when you said you want to act on this occasion, is it just to get in touch with people who can help us get closer to individuals who can talk?"

"Yes. There will be many important people and their most loyal subordinates at that event." He said, so no one but them could hear. "We will use that moment to mark them. Then we will act against those weaker people and make them talk."

"If necessary, we will make them help us contact their leaders."

"But how will we participate in this event? I imagine that only authorized people can get close to the places where important people will be." Abby commented.

As they looked at each other, trying to find a solution to this question, one of the subordinate Spiritual Emperors of those Spiritual Saints from before approached them.

"Your Excellencies, are you in need of anything? There are many things we can help you get." That man respectfully said, drawing the attention of those four people.

'What's that? What a change in behavior!' Ruth watched that man, curious to know what was going on.

While Gloria and Abby were thinking similar things, Minos already had it in his mind that someone powerful was making things easy for him. 'Well, I'll just use the opportunity...'

'I'm already here to make contacts anyway. Then it won't be bad to associate with the people in this place.' So he thought before asking that Spiritual Emperor. "How do we participate in the Vogel family celebrations in the coming weeks?"

That man then smiled and said. "That will be easy to do. The Church will send members to attend this event. Then you will be able to access the celebrations with ease."

"Won't there be problems because we are not part of the local branch?" Minos questioned.

"No, as long as you don't try to get directly involved with the leading members of the royalty, there won't be any problems." That man replied, curious as to what they wanted to find.

"Oh? Then it will be fine. We have no interest in getting too close to these people..."

"Is that so? And what exactly is Your Excellency looking for? Perhaps we can help you solve that more easily."

Minos replied. "Nothing much. We're just after someone capable of identifying something strange..."

"Something strange?"

"Hmm, we are seeking information from a fugitive. I believe he has made contact with some high-ranking member of the Vogel family." Minos made such a thing up. "But since we don't know if this family was 'forced' to help him, we don't want to ask them directly."

"We just want to probe such trouble from the shadows..."

'A fugitive? Well, things like that are not strange, but why would someone like that contact the Vogel family? And how would he be able to force them to do anything?' This fellow did not quite understand how that was possible.

But as a good subordinate, he knew not to question his superiors' wishes too much. "All right. I'll see if I can get some information regarding strange people approaching the Vogel family without alerting them to it."

"Hmm, thanks." Minos smiled from beneath his mask, wondering if this lie he had used would serve any purpose other than to prevent the people of this temple from knowing his real motives.

'I have no history with the Vogel family, so if their leadership decided to act against me, it must have come from others...' He looked silently at that man walking away. 'Sending a Spiritual Saint to the northern region was too big a risk...'

'That means they judged it worth the risk, or their grudge against me was too great. In either case, someone other than the Vogel family, in case they are guilty, needs to be connected to it.'

Minos had invented a situation to get the previous man away from them, but while avoiding letting this branch of the Church know his plans, he set them to research something that could be useful to him.

He had not simply invented a lie out of thin air. Instead, that was based on his conjecture, suspicions of the involvement of more organizations, and his confidence in the Vogel family's guilt.

If he were wrong, it would not negatively affect him and his women. However, it would confirm his suspicions and uncover something else if he were right.

So, after making his move and getting a method to enter the VIP area of the occasion the Vogel family would host in weeks, Minos stood up and prepared to leave that library with his wives.

"Come on, let's get to know some of this city, escape routes, etc." He said as he waved one of his hands. "Let's pretend to do some tourism while we find the weaknesses and strengths of this place."

"Pretend, eh?" Ruth asked as she took one of her man's hands. "Will we have to use those alternatives?"

"Maybe..." He commented without being too sure. "It depends on how guilty the Vogel family is, whether they will discover our actions, etc. In any case, we'd better prepare while we wait for that occasion and the action of that woman we met earlier."

"OK!" The three replied, already walking with him out of that temple.