Chapter 7: Chapter 6: The House of Layl

Within the Capital, the noble district like the rest of the city had begun to tense-up due to the recent killings of nobles. Thus, the streets were being patrolled by knights alongside the usual watchmen. Some of the ducal houses were even guarded by the members of the Royal Knight orders which were usually only under the command of the Crown.

Due to this situation, there was a meeting taking place in an upscale Mansion in the northeastern portion of the noble district. A group of hooded figures were kneeling in front of a mature woman seated behind a desk. The room was lit by candlelight as the woman was writing a letter while the figures waited for her to speak.

"I want them dead, non-negotiable" The woman looked up and said slowly with purpose.

(These killings are getting more and more problematic, they even managed to destroy the assassin guild I had just come to an agreement with)

"Of course, my lady" the lead hooded figure in front replies.

"Call in other experts if you have to, see if that matchstick would wake up for a sack of gold" The woman adds.

The group of hooded figures leave, the woman remains alone by the somber candlelight.

"I'm sorry my love, I am so close, I cannot live knowing that they did not all pay for what happened to you. I only pray that our Levik will not have to pay for my sins" She whispered.

The Countess of Layl stares at a painting showing a happy couple holding a baby in their arms. She begins to reminisce about all that had happened to her house.

The house of Layl was originally a merchant family at its foundation. They had immigrated from across the sea from the south-west caliphates hundreds of years ago. Bringing along with them their sharp business acumen and understanding on how to manage the risk reward ratio of goods. From chocolate, to the then illegal "Night Dust", they were able to transport and supply large amounts of goods within the Efrend kingdom. After gaining the status of nobility through large donations and political marriages to the kingdom, they began to support their underground business by investing in infrastructure and deals that centralized the "less than legal" businesses of the capital. This led to them becoming a major leader and founder of "The Dusk Bazaar", an organization which managed the criminal elements in the center of the kingdom. Since it was both powerful and willing to negotiate, the Bazaar came into an agreement with the Royal family that as long as they did not cross certain limits and did priority favors for the kingdom, their enterprises would go untouched.

Interestingly, until recently, this generation of the house of Layl made a surprising effort to focus more on legitimate endeavors. They had allowed and supported the legalization and regulation of Night Dust; as well as halted their activities in the field of human trafficking. Many in the underground were foreseeing that the family would fully retire from the shadows. Speculation and rumors were popular regarding the cause of this altruistic initiative, and most in political courts pointed to the romance of the then heiress of Layl to her knight and childhood friend, now celebrated as the heroic "Knight of Cherry blossoms".

Growing up together, Lady Layl had realized that her childhood friend who she begun to feel love for, idolized the knights of his ancestors in the east and deeply believed in their code of honor. She noticed that though he tried to keep his emotions in check, he would subtly flinch every time he witnessed or heard things related to her family's unsavory dealings.

When she had realized her feelings for him, she had made a determined effort when she had gained power to transform her family into one her beloved would not silently be conflicted in serving. Once she was successful after many years, she confessed her feelings to her beloved more than a decade ago; after he had won in her name the special tournament to celebrate the newborn princess's birth. He was at first surprised and felt unsure of his lady's feelings, however he was eventually convinced after realizing that the House of Layl's recent transformation was all for him. After finally agreeing, they had finished their story book romance with the birth of their newborn son exactly a year after Lady Layla's confession. The story of their romance became so famous and popular throughout the capital that it was the subject to plays and songs.

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Unfortunately, there were many unhappy with the developments of House Layl. The family's dealings over the generations left them with no shortage of enemies. Many felt that the main power broker of the Dusk Bazaar had gotten "soft".Which they felt was an opening for them for vengeance. Which was why, when the Lord of Layl's troops were outnumbered while holding snake tooth pass in a war with orcs a bit more than a decade ago. His supposed reinforcements from the capital, The Magic Knight Order were noticeably absent. With 100 of House Layl's fighting troops and some volunteer auxiliaries, Lord Layl had held off a horde of 2000 orcs before a messenger arrived at Countess Layl's doorstep.

The Countess still remembered the woman had brought news from the front. The woman who was around her own age was originally a retired knight that had volunteered to be an auxiliary troop in-place of her son who was not allowed to join due to being injured. The woman had reported that she had been ambushed and wounded by mercenaries while on her way back. Immediately after receiving information on situation, the Countess organized reinforcements herself and rushed to her husband. Unfortunately, when they had arrived, it was already too late, Lord Layl's encampment had just been breached.

Earlier that day, the Wild Orc Horde that tried to invade the kingdom had sent troops to attack an isolated village that could not evacuate in time while in sight of the encampment of Lord Layl. When he had seen their movements, he had immediately guessed their intention and led a group of volunteer soldiers to slow down the Orcs to help the villagers evacuate. Though they were successful in buying time for the village, Lord Layl and his volunteers were all severely injured. During the next waves of attacks, Lord Layl's troops could no longer hold their fortifications. When the reinforcements had arrived, they had found that House Layl's camp was in chaos. Despite the Lady Layl's reinforcements being able to arrive in time to turn the battle, when she had found Lord Layl, he was already on his last breath laying against a cherry blossom tree.

The Lady was distraught after her beloved's death, when she returned to their manor, she did not leave her room for several weeks. Though her husband was praised as hero and awarded with the title of "Knight of the Cherry Blossoms" for his sacrifice, she did not attend the awarding ceremony for him and his troops.

Eventually, she left her room to see the messenger that had given her the report on her husband's situation to ask about the mercenaries that had attacked her. To her surprise, when she had arrived at the infirmary, she found a young boy, barely a teenager who shared the same golden brown complexion and black hair as the messenger, kneeling beside the said woman's bed with tears falling from his eyes. When the boy looked up and saw the countess in the doorway, the countess saw the boy's despair, guilt, and feelings of helplessness similar to her own. After a few moments of silence, the countess nodded in understanding and walked away to give the boy peace. While doing so, anger started to well up in her heart.

A few years after the Knight of Cherry Blossoms death, a small number of noble and merchant house became extinct. Sometimes royal investigators would barge into their manors flanked by the knight orders with evidence of corruption, embezzlement of Royal funds, and illegal smuggling. Other times, the capital would hear that there was an armed peasant uprising in a certain noble's territory leading to that noble and their family being stoned to death. Funnily enough, there was also a noted increase of "hunting accidents" during this time. All throughout, the courts and taverns were filled with damning rumors of said houses' hidden family secrets. There was never a day were there was no new song sang by a bard talking about a shrouded affair, forgotten bastard, or secret incestuous relationship.

Though a majority of the people were stumped by the events during this time period; some, especially those in the royal family found it interesting that the originally sleeping House of Layl had re-exerted control on the Dusk Bazaar. When some noble houses began to seek help from the Royal family, the Countess of Layl was secretly called to speak with the King and prime minister. After a few days, the noble families who sought help from the Royal Family were all executed alongside a few political enemies of the crown. This was done after evidence was found of them all committing high treason by colluding to create a conspiracy to start a revolution and creating chaos in capital by orchestrating the deaths of several important nobles. This came a shock to the unaware masses, but to those with confidential knowledge, this was tacit approval from the crown of everything that occurred to the now fallen houses.

Currently, the Countess felt that the only Magic Knights who failed to reinforce her husband were left unpunished. She had been originally planning to fully annihilate the knight order and its reputation. However, the crown did not approve of this being done to one of its own knight orders during their heated negotiation. In addition to this, the knight-captain seemed to have realized his perilous position and had raised the alert level of his order while refusing to leave their main encampment.

The combat this, the Countess had come to an agreement with the Crown to simply have the criminal elements of city attack the main encampment of the knight order and assassinate the knight-captain to limit damage to the order. She originally, thought this would be the easiest part of her vengeance as compared to the dealing with the noble houses. Unfortunately, the assassin guild she had hired to do the job had been the latest victims of the vigilante killings within the Capital.

The Countess after reminiscing, closes her eyes.

"I believe you can be better than your mother, my son"

The Countess looks through her desk and then holds up her son's acceptance letter into the Royal Academy.

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