Luan forced a polite smile as the alchemist echoed out yet another terrible joke about the markets while chuckling boisterously. The butler kept his eyes on the road and his thoughts to himself. The terrible wordplay Elric spat out between fits of laughter made his eye twitch, and through a mountain of valiant effort, he managed to keep his composure. He flicked the reins once more, driving the carriage down a twist in the road towards the Sinfreed estate.

  One of the horses kicked up a speck of mud, and Luan scowled fiercely as a small stain appeared on the white fabrics that made up his formerly flawless uniform. He shifted the reins into one hand, keeping his eyes locked on the traffic of the street while using a napkin to swiftly wipe away the filth before the stain could get too bad. Appearances were everything to the upper classes, and a stain, even a small one, was an insult upon one's station. The butler hoped he managed to clean the spot in time, as trying to remove the stains from this material always took such a pain to clean, and he didn't trust any of the other lowborn members of the staff of the House to do it for him. He let out a bone-weary sigh.

  The sharply dressed man watched each mansion pass by as they traveled down the road, admiring each estate while reminiscing about better days. Luan's role in society wasn't always so meager. Once upon a time, he had a surname that something. Afforded to him by birthright, Luan was a noble of a respectable minor House. It was a role he took very seriously, slowly raising his family's name ever onward towards greatness. Every delwin counted, every jewel polished, every servant's outfit trim and sharp.

  Yet keeping a House title was not a free affair. In Saltbrook, the city's tax system was based on titles. The seven major Houses were taxed a certain amount of coin each year to maintain their positions on the council. All of the city's districts, save for the Studloi District, were divided up among the seven seats, who would then rent out these districts to successful merchants to oversee and maintain, elevating their business to that of a minor House. As nearly all businesses in the city were family-owned due to the culture of Saltbrook, the effect was often synonymous with raising one's family to one of noble birth.

  These minor Houses would then invest in local merchants to raise them up, extracting a tax that the nobles could use to maintain their pricey station. Merchants operated every aspect of the city, from food to healthcare to maintaining the roads to renting out living arrangements. Everything was a business. This gave nobles power over the city, as they had a choice in who to invest in and thus directed the free market to fit their own image.

  So when Luan's investments fell through, dragging his House into bankruptcy, the man was forced into the role of a common servant to get by. That was many years ago, but the thought of his current lot in life still sickened him. He was supposed to be above the commoners, leading them and being respected by them, not .

  Elric tried to crack another joke, seeming intent on making the stoic butler laugh. Luan only clenched the reins tighter and put on another polite smile with a small nod of false appreciation.

  It was the highest insult that he was forced to be stuck with this House in particular. Hiring a former noble of a fallen House was generally frowned upon. They usually held questionable allegiances and ulterior motives. Though he refused to stoop to the level of a peasant, the very idea was mortifying; working for House Sinfreed was more an act of desperation than anything else. And yet, not a single one of them took their station seriously, save for perhaps the old woman. Where was their pride?

  What twisted mockery was this that his family should be cast to the wayside, but the Sinfreeds, who only operate at the bare minimum, managed to scrape by for generations. Disgusting.

  As the Sinfreed manor approached, Luan slowed the horses and pulled up in front of the gates smoothly. He nodded to one of the gate guards. After confirming his identity, the gates opened, and a messaging artifact was used to signal for the stable hand to put away the horses. Luan stepped down from the carriage, straightened his outfit, and made sure his short, neatly trimmed blonde hair was slicked back without a strand out of place. When he was satisfied with his attire, validated by a pocket mirror, he opened the door for Elric.

  "I'll get you one of these days, Luan." Elric slapped the butler on the back with a hearty laughed. After a quick stretch, he threw on his coat and made for the entrance.

  Luan grimaced at the man's lack of decorum. Couldn't he understand Luan was trying to help him honor his role in society?

  "I'm sure you will, sir." Luan quickly gathered the bag of reagents from the vehicle and hurried to catch up to the man. "Master Elric, please allow me to get the door for you."

  "No, no, it's fine. I can get it, don't worry."

  "It is not proper for a noble to dirty his hands in such a way."

  "Your hands are full. It's fine."

  "I must insist, sir."

  Elric rolled his eyes at the over-dutiful servant and gestured for him to do what he wanted. The heavy wooden doors were pulled open, and Luan bowed as the alchemist walked past.

  "Elric, I was unaware you had left," said the woman whom Luan considered the only true acting noble in the estate.

  Luan followed a moment later and closed the estate doors. He noticed a small figure in the corner of his eye and turned. He managed to keep a straight face as he internally grimaced. Had the Sinfreed estate stooped so low as to bring one of from the lower districts onto their property? Luan didn't consider himself a speciesist, but this was a human city. Can't they just stay in their own districts? Why bring trouble to the north side? Well, it wasn't his decision in the matter, so he moved on. As long as the child didn't cause any problems, there was probably nothing worth worrying about.

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  "Yes, well, I was running low on supplies." Elric turned to the butler. "Thank you, Luan. Please take the bag to my lab. I'll sort through it later." The alchemist turned back to Elara. "You know I don't trust anyone else with picking out my reagents."

  Luan sneered at the slight to his capabilities, but kept his expression hidden from the two. The alchemist had been ordering the exact same reagents for the last five years. Luan had stood with him each and every time, helping him pick out the freshest ingredients and haggling down the prices. Luan was more than capable of this simple duty, and yet his reliability was doubted each and every time. He wasn't sure which he found more insulting, the implication that he was too dumb to pick out leaves, or the ignorance of a noble not taking the time to understand their underlings, nor trusting them enough to act independently. What was a noble's duty if not to ? It sure as the dawning sun wasn't playing with potions all day.

  As he was stepping out of the room, he caught Elara's last comment.

  "Elric, this is Rythica, Randell's recently adopted daughter."

  Luan missed a step in his shock, only just managing to avoid crashing to the floor. So that thing from the southern districts was now a noble, but , a man born of pure noble blood, was a mere servant? What kind of sick joke was this?

  It wasn't just that this 'Rythica' was a non-human, which was already bad enough, crime rates spoke for themselves among those types, but she was an insectoid on top of that. It didn't take a genius to see that insectoids were among the highest when it came to homicide rates. From arachne, to driders, to mantids, and more. Need he mention the elephant in the room, a certain hive expedition still fresh in the population's memory? Oh sure, most people chant and preach, "they aren't all bad." Yeah, keep believing that. He knew he wasn't keen on waking up to a mantid chewing his face off. He didn't recognize her species, but it didn't matter; all those chitinous sorts were just as bad. He wasn't speciesist; it was just common sense.

  And she was a noble now, and he wasn't. In a few years, that child would be giving him orders. He shivered. He might have to look into relocating as soon as possible.

  As Luan reached Elric's lab, he plopped the bag down on a random table. He didn't bother sorting through it; the alchemist always complained when he did, so he just left it as is.

  In addition to having difficulty finding other work, there was another reason he had stayed at this sorry excuse of a House for so long. He pulled out a small notebook from his pocket and began to note down the ingredients and tools within the room, appending them to the supplies from the excursion into the market. He wasn't so depraved as to sneak around and dig through desks like some common street thug, but a bit of overheard gossip among the servants sold for a nice bit of delwin if one knew the right markets. And this House was laughably terrible at keeping their notes hidden. House Lintmark, a younger House full of ambitious newbloods, paid especially well for this kind of insider trading.

  Luan slipped the book back into his pocket and filled a tray with dirty alchemical supplies scattered throughout the lab. Then, he set off down the hall towards the scullery. As the dutiful servant passed through the foyer, he paused, his face going pale. The tray of bottles and utensils clattered to the floor, one or two pieces of glassware shattering.

  Elara stood in the same spot as before, but was now covered in what his panicking mind exaggerated to what must have been liters of blood. The carpet was stained crimson below her feet, and her once-white outfit was now drenched in scarlet. Upon noticing him, the old woman quickly wiped her chin, as if swabbing something away and leaving a smear of blood running down from her lips.

  Luan knew that insectoid types were all psychos! He knew it!

  The man calmed somewhat as he noticed the empty potion bottle in Elric's hand. Neither of the two adults seemed to care about the presence of the non-human, nearby. Wait, was this not an attack? If anything, the child seemed more disturbed than the humans did. The servant took a cautious step forward.

  "I-is everything alright, Mistress Elara?"

  "Yes, Mr. Luan, everything is fine." Her face was contrite. "It was an accident. You see, I... I have some medical issues due to my old age. I asked my dear cousin to brew something up for me to help, but there were some... adverse effects." She grimaced.

  Elric approached as well, nodding along, but making constant side-eyes towards Elara as she spoke. "The potion punctured her stomach," he agreed. "Resulted in her vomiting blood. I gave her a healing potion, which helped."

  Luan listened to the story, not buying a single word of it. Something seemed off. They were hiding something. Luan kept his eye on the bug creature in the background, watching out of his peripheral vision. He watched as the bug approached the bloodstain and picked something up, eating it. Goosebumps broke out across his flesh. He had no idea what she had just eaten, but he had an ominous foreboding.

  "I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, Mr. Luan. I should have tested the potion in a proper location. I hope you don't mind cleaning this up."

  "Of course not, Mistress Elara, Master Elric. I will have everything sorted out promptly."

  As a former noble, he was more than familiar with the type of games they played. He had been the same. The woman's skills were decent for her middling Affinity, but nothing phenomenal. Luan had played this dance with the real experts among the upper class.

  Luan resisted the urge to scratch his ear.

  Lead was a wonderful metal when it came to cheaply dissipating Mana. It didn't need any expensive enchantments, merely removing all Mana that touched it. It was why lead was purchased so commonly among higher-level individuals; it worked wonders for stemming one's Aura. Lead, when coated in some kind of resin, was also a popular choice of jewelry among wealthier individuals, as it added some minor defense against offensive Mana as well. For example, a handful of lead hairpins could reduce the effectiveness of mental magics, both incoming and outgoing.

  As Mana tended to expand like a gas, the dissipation of Mana that touched lead created a vacuum, pulling more Mana towards it. When lead was gilded in a metal that actively absorbed Mana, such as orichalcum, this vacuum increased by an order of magnitude. When that golden metal was then inscribed with a minor vibration enchantment, fueled by the very Mana it just absorbed, the effect was quite straightforward.

  All that was to say, when the gilded upper-helix earrings Luan wore began to buzz like an angry beehive, he was more than aware of the failed persuasion skill Elara had just used on him. His suspicions ticked up even further, and he tried to puzzle out what was really going on here, but came up empty. He kept his face neutral and didn't let anything slip. Luan gave a curt bow before hurrying off to gather some cleaning supplies.

  As the butler was walking towards the nearest supply closet, passing by a few other servants to whom Elara would no doubt regurgitate the same potion accident pretense, the man subtly watched as Rythica said something to Elara in a voice that was nearly sobbing before Elric patted the girl's head and pulled her into an embrace.

  Luan found himself even more confused than a moment ago. This whole situation was beyond suspect. Elara's story was clearly false, but what had actually happened? He knew that he wouldn't be so quick to embrace a creature mere minutes after it spilled fresh blood, so maybe the insect didn't do it? Nonetheless, he wasn't satisfied. He'd keep his guard up for the time being.

  He pulled out his notebook, already counting imaginary coins for this bit of juicy gossip.

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