The power structure of Nulis City is occupied by many forces. The adventurers, mercenaries and their respective groups occupy control over the moving forces of the city, therefore occupying a strategic and decision-making position.

Another force is the merchants. As it is a city based on the trade of resources acquired from the Zeru forest, the role played by the merchants is very crucial. But not just any merchant could establish a firm footing in such a chaotic place.

That's where the merchant families entered the picture. There are five major merchant families inside Nulis City, with the Safaira and Handler families being the most prosperous.

All the merchant families form a group and invite individual merchants to work for them, instead of operating separately, creating a wide network of merchants allowing them to control the whole trade structure of the city. Sometimes their combined force might even affect the decisions of the Kingdom.

This allows the merchants to have a considerable vote in matters of the city.

The last but also the most powerful force belongs to the lord of the city himself. The City Lord is appointed by the decree of the King. So his authority is non-questionable.

Coming back to the topic of merchants. With two families having similar power and authority inside their circle, it was only natural for conflicts to emerge. But the heads of both families were wise leaders. They knew that a peaceful and healthy competition would be more beneficial for everyone. So they continued to deal with all the problems, using their authority and wisdom to control any event from escalating out of control.

This continued till twenty years ago.

A large force from outside of the city proposed a trade offer to the merchants union. The offer was very tempting as it would enable them to increase their scale and extend their operations directly to the capital.

But the conditions provided by this force were a bit too strange. They only wanted to work with a single family instead of allowing the whole union to work together. The reason they provided was that the trade they were going to conduct was a confidential matter and it would be difficult to ensure secrecy if multiple forces were involved.

Although they gave an excuse, the heads of both major merchant families realized the intention of these outsiders. They wanted to destroy the unity between merchants and gain more profits by allowing the weakened force to do trade on their behalf.

But that force was too powerful and had various connections inside the capital. It was not a wise decision to oppose them directly.

It was the old head, the biological grandfather of Crystal, who came up with a good idea to solve this predicament.

He proposed to tie the two families together by marriage. This will strengthen their bonds and will make all the members of one mind, thus allowing them to have more negotiating power against that outside force.

As the union between the two families needed to be durable, the candidates also had to be of importance.

So the candidates chosen for this event were Bolance, the eldest son of the Safaira family head, and the only daughter of the Handler family head.

The two of them were the perfect candidates as they were already familiar with each other and had the ability to manage the balance of power of the two families in the years to come.

But before the marriage could take place, both families received an invitation from that outside force. The messenger acted very politely and even hinted that this meeting might prove to be a turning point in their cooperation.

And that's what happened. It was really the turning point for both families.

The heads of the Safaira and Handler families decided to appoint new heads before they left, so as to avoid any internal conflict in case any accident happened during their trip.

The Handler family head chose his eldest son, while the Safaira family head decided against choosing his son Bolance as he wanted him to enjoy his newly married life for a few more years before allowing him to handle any major responsibilities.

So, he transferred his position to the next best candidate. And that was how Crystal's second grandfather, as well as Bolance's second uncle, Gamas, became the head of the family.

Both heads left the city along with their groups while their families started to get busy with the wedding preparations.

It was not long before the two groups returned, but the condition in which they returned made it more appropriate to call them the remnants of the previous groups.

Not a single servant that went with them returned. Only a few direct members of both families were left.

But the most shocking thing was that the head of the Handler family was missing, even the Safaira family head had returned with fatal injuries.

"What happened to them?" Anom couldn’t help but ask while trying his best to hide his curiosity as it was not appropriate at the moment.

"My big brother returned while dragging his injured body. But he didn't allow us to waste any time healing him and summoned me and some other members along with his sons to his chamber… I thought maybe he was going to give an explanation to us about what had happened. But he only stated that he was going to die soon and made everyone besides me leave." His expression was gloomy as he still resented his powerlessness for not being able to save his elder brother.

Anom remained silent to let the old man calm his emotions.

Gamas sighed before continuing, "He asked me to act as the head for a few more years before passing the position to Bolance at an appropriate time. But I was too worried about my brother and the future of our family to care about these things… My brother knew my nature so he decided to reveal some things to calm my restlessness."

"…He didn’t tell me about the place where the messenger took them. Only that the members belonging to that force were doing something dangerous… something that the king of this Kingdom was not going to like. They needed the merchants to provide resources for whatever they were doing there.

Only he and the head of the Handler family were taken to that place… Some kind of conflict emerged between them, which he didn’t tell me about clearly, that resulted in the death of the Handler family head while my big brother was injured." His voice quivered whenever he thought about the weak and injured state his elder brother was in before he finally died.

"Even after all that, both families had to provide compensation that they had demanded for the 'loss' they suffered due to the delay in reaching an agreement…My family was forced to sign an agreement to provide a fixed amount of resources such as herbs and other precious materials… The compensation the Handler family had to provide was something similar. But then the Handler family bribed the messenger and approached a young member of that force and offered him something that allowed them to skip signing that contract…

They offered the only daughter of their old head, who was also the sister of the current head, to him as a concubine. She was the same girl who was going to marry Bolance. The relations between the two families only worsened after that. They blamed us for the death of their head even though our head died not long after his return…

*sigh*… The only good thing was that those people from that force seemed to have given up on trying to force us to sign an agreement. They only send someone to collect the resources every year… But they seem to be planning to get their plan back into action while using the Handler family as their puppet, while not even trying to hide it, making everyone know of their intentions. But they still can't be too daring, as the authority of the City Lord is something even they can't go against because it is something provided by the Royal family."

Anom received a lot of useful information from what Gamus said and he also got a glimpse at the authority that the royal family of the Kingdom possessd.

"So what are you going to do now?" asked Anom.

"You tell me." Gamus smiled as he wanted to know what Anom would come up with.

"What are they coming here to demand tomorrow morning?" Anom remembered his speculation about them using Crystal's absence as a bait to make her family agree to some of their demands.

"…They want us to form a new marriage agreement with them, hence completing the old one which was never fulfilled. The Handlers proposed the marriage of Crystal and the eldest son of their head. But we refused as we knew their intentions… After that, they tried to abduct Crystal while she was outside the family. They would have forced her to marry their heir while we would be unable to do anything as the deed would already be done… But thankfully you saved her." Gamus smiled.

'Dude, you should at least be mindful when talking about your own granddaughter. What do you mean by "the deed would already be done…"?' Anom scoffed inwardly while keeping a smiling face.

"So they are coming tomorrow to talk about the marriage?" Seeing Gamus nod, Anom speculated. "Then they must have wanted to poison Crystal and force you to marry her to their heir as only they could provide the antidote."

Gamus nodded grimly as he also reached the same conclusion.

They both fell silent as Anom glued together all the information before finally deciding on a plan of action. He discussed it with Gamus, who refused it instantly as Anom lacked the strength to undertake such a task. But after some fine-tuning, a practical plan was prepared.

……

Anom came out of the house with Gamus following beside him.

He saw Crystal and Luna sitting on a flat stone while whispering and giggling.

Loreana was standing at the side as she looked into the distance.

Anom hadn’t paid attention to it before, but Loreana always seemed to suppress her emotions. Seeing her like this made him feel bad as he couldn’t help but want to comfort her.

*Ahem* "It's been too long since I last met those kids. I will go and have a talk with them." Gamus coughed as he excused himself and made his way towards the girls.

'What a weird old man.' Anom could only shake his head as he walked to where Loreana was standing.