Following the same path as Oma in a prisonner cart a few weeks ago, a convoy of luxurious carriages was approching the Alban Fortress.

This was the delegation send by the Emperor to check on the nothern territories who represented the frontier against the monsters tribes.

They could actually use the 'Gate Network' to do the whole examination in a few days, but the intention behind the inspection was also to reassure the nothern territories and their inhabitants, and for that, they needed to be seen.

The Cult wasn't too worried about the delegation as it was led by the current Prime Minister : Emile Buer, a secret friend of theirs.

 

Back when the Empire was founded, 4 families formed the highest level of nobility : the Imperial Family and 3 nobles families nicknamed : the 3 Grand Dukes families. Grand Duke had became the highest title of nobility in the Empire, right under the Emperor. Despite the various hardships they endured during the thousands of years of the Empire history's, the 3 Grand Duke families had managed to stay in power and had become even stroger. They  were now powerhouses to be reckoned with, each leading their own factions; and the Emperor used them to keep each other in check.

But when the Empire lost the Great Plains 30 years ago, the Laris family, one of the 3 Grand Duke families, suffered terrible lost as a large part of their assets where located in the North. They were still stronger then the normals nobles families of the Empire,but the balance of power had brutally shifted as they became the weakest a Grand Duke family had ever been. Even if they once prospered together, each generations had small grudges between each other and the other 2 families took the opportunity to raise even further above while the Laris family struggled to stay affloat.

The position of Prime Minister, the highest administrative position in the Empire, was generally given to the head of one of the three Grand Duke families and it was used as a tool to keep the balance of power. That's how Emile Buer got his hand on the position for almost 16 years, the longest serving Prime Minister. The Emperor had given him the position to keep the Karlan family, now the strongest of the 3 families, in check. But with 2 families instead of 3, the balance of power was more fragile then ever, and it would stay that way until the Laris family managed to climb back to their former glory, or until they were replaced.

 

The convoy entered inside the fortress walls. A luxurious cart made of black wood and gold stopped in front of Nicolas Buer and his lieutnants who were waiting for them.

From the carriage came down a man with black hairs and a nicely trimmed beard dotted with a few white hairs. Under his long overcoat, his body was covered in luxurious clothes. This man was Emile Buer. He approached his son and they hugged each others.

Even if the leader of the delegation was on their side, they had to keep the apperances for the rest of them, and the son started a visite of the fortress for his guests. For now the father and son only talked logistics, and other unimportant matters. They keeping more secrets conversations for later.

 

As the men where walking on the wall, watching the mountains to their north, the sun started setting.

Emile turned toward his son.

"The Fortresses are a key part of our inspection. We will have to stay here a few day."

"Certainly, Father, your quarters and those of your companions have already been prepared. If you could all follow me, dinner is ready and waiting for us." Said Nicolas to his guests.

The group then happily and noisily started moving toward the center of the fortress and the living quarters of the officers.

 

---

 

A glass of wine in his hand, Emile Buer was conversing with other member of the delegation. A few table away, his son was looking at him, lost in his thought when a subordinate came and wispered some words in his ear. Nicolas stood up and apologised to the guests that shared his table.

"If you will excuse me, i have a small problem do deal with."

"What could be more important then us !" joked Duke Mazel.

"It's a problem with our wine cellar." answered Nicolas with a small smile and on the same tone.

His witty remark got him a few laught. Duke Mazel was a well known drunkard.

Not offended in any way, he smiled.

"In this case, you should rush !"

With an amiable smile, Nicolas excused himself and left the room, following his subordinate.

Once they got far enought of the officers' mess that had been requisitioned for the occasion, Nicolas' smile faded away.

" Why didn't the mages intervene ?"

"I ... I don't know sir" answered the sweating guard.

 

 

---

 

As soon as they reached the Abomination's floor underneath the fortress, a panicked mage approached him. He started babbling about incomprehensibly.

"Stop." Interrupted Nicolas. "Breath and start again, i didn't get anything."

If they wanted to understand and control the abominations, they needed to understand them and it was easier if done early, during their youth. The AR Division tests had to be accelerated because of the extraordinary growth speed of the subjects, and Nicolas couldn't be present at every test anymore as he had other tasks on his hands. Today, while he was feasting with his guests, a test had been carried with 2 of the abomination's groups and during one of those test, number "74" had killed number "63".

The now calmer mage finished resuming the situation to the fuming Nicolas while he entered the AR Divison control room.

The remaining test subjects had already been sedated and brought back to their cell while the body of the deceased abomination had been laid down on an operation table. Some of the wiser mage had decided not to waste this opportunity and had started dissecting the corpse.

This didn't appease Nicolas who started throwing insults at them. Even if the dissection could still bring them something, the death of the abomination was still a serious loss. This wasn't enought to appease him or the Pope when he would hear of it.

The dead abomination look like a giant furry lizard, around 2 meter long, without tail. It's body seemed made to crawl like an alligator or a komodo dragon. Its strangest visual feature were its 6 legs and a strange elongated neck that was almost a third of it's body size.

It's neck had been ripped open by the other abomination, and now laying on it's back, the body had been opened in two revealing a strangely impressive amounts of organs, some familiar, like a heart, and others unknown to the searcher.

"I thought they weren't hostile toward each other !" roared Nicolas.

The incident would fall on him when the Pope would hear about it and he already started to have an headache. If he couldn't properly justify himself, he wouldn't be killed thanks to his father influence, but his position in the Cult would plummet. Even worst, the accident had happened during his father inspection. They relation might appear good on the surface, but Emile Buer put tremendous pressure on his sons.

In a way, he was taming his own sons like Cult handled the abomination.

"'63' and '74' weren't part of the same clan ... and '74' just seamed to play, to hunt for sport." Tried to justify a trembling mage with oversized glasses.

"We are afraid they have grown arrogant. No matter what they did, we haven't really punished any of them because Oma is defending them. They have grown bolder." defended another mage.

Nicolas turned toward Oma who frowned his eyebrows.

"Isn't punishment just as important as reward in taming !? You said it yourself."

"Yeah, in small quantities !" The tamer was now defending himself as the blame was shifted toward him. He had never seen his jailor so angry.

In the Amar tribe, the tamer didn't tame to dominate their beasts. Their goal was to integrate them in their communities, treating them almost as equal. The beast then lived with them. Like members of the tribes, they hunted and fought together with the human tribemen. It was a long and difficult process, but the bond that resulted was extremely solid and the beast would risk their lifes for their humans friends. It was more about coexistence then taming and domination.

"Taming a beast can take years, you made it clear that we don't have that much time. Oppresing them too much could impede their growth ! Plus we don't know what sort of punishment they can handle. We might kill them if we inflict reckless physicals punishments."

"I'm no expert in taming but i at least know that if they don't respect us, they won't submit to us !" Nicolas was getting even more angry, he started fearing his father reaction. He thought that Oma, was voluntarily hindering them. After all, he was an hostage acting agaisnt his will.

Turning toward the scientists, Nicolas ordered them :

"From now on, they WILL fear us !! You are allowed to punish them as you see fit as long as it doesn't leave any long terms injuries!"

The mages gulped uneasily while Nicolas took his sword and moved toward the abominations' den.

"I will take care of it today."

He didn't unsheat his sword as he didn't need to. Blunt strike would be painful enought and he didn't ignore Oma's advise on the abominations' resilience. One was already too much losses for them.

 

The living conditions of the abominations would only worsen onward...