As always, Soral was all too eager to follow Ruena’s commands, but it would be difficult to meet a suspicious stranger in the Alodan mansion. After some consideration, they decided to host the meeting at the fortress of the Alodan Warriors. If nothing else, the Forest of Traniva and the countless watchful eyes of the cats should make him nervous enough to second guess any foolish scams. Other than the fact that this genius was a man, Soral was oddly reluctant to reveal anything about him. All Ruena really wanted to know was what crime he was locked up for in the first place.

  The day of the meeting came quickly, with both Rosalie and Taiga present. The two women had hit it off surprisingly quickly while Ruena was busy fretting about Soral's new potential business partner. She wasn't quite sure what to expect, but she was ashamed to admit that she had not expected an old man. Despite his clear age he appeared healthy enough, with tanned skin that did not match with his history of being locked in a dungeon.

  "Ruena, this is Grant. He was the master architect that built the castle and the very dungeon in which he was imprisoned," Soral introduced.

  "Are you willing to tell me why?" Ruena asked, looking between the oddly proud Soral and the elderly architect, "I am not naive enough to believe in you without any information to go on."

  Grant nodded. "I understand perfectly, but I don't know the reason myself," he admitted, "The day I oversaw the completion of the new dungeon, the royal guard locked me inside. My only guess is that it was to prevent me from leaking any information as the concept of this dungeon was something the king himself created. Royalty are often overprotective of ideas they believe to be unique to their imagination."

  "In other words, you did not find his dungeon design to be worth that precaution," Ruena guessed, "I still find it hard to believe that is the only reason you were locked away."

  This time Soral spoke up instead of Grant. "The king believed he sabotaged the dungeon," he explained, "So he locked him inside to force him to take advantage of his sabotage and escape."

  "Sabotage? I did no such thing!" Grant denied in frustration, "Is that what those smug pep talks were all about?"

  Ruena recalled Soral's story of how he had suddenly become the ruler of Vista. It made sense that a king who made such senseless decisions would be delusional enough to apprehend his own architect based on wild suspicion. "Then your new business idea has something to do with architecture?" Ruena asked instead, "Is it really that big of a plan?"

  Soral chuckled with his same smug expression. "It is the perfect business to revitalize Vista. Vista is a kingdom that values beauty in both nature and architecture. That is why we should also provide our beauty and charm to everyone else, at a cost. I have already created a vacation resort just outside the City of Altea with Grant's help."

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "All I did was direct you," Grant muttered, looking a bit worn all of the sudden, "You did everything else. I have never seen anyone else, no matter how powerful, use magic like that before."

  “Soral is a very special case,” Ruena agreed, “His incredible power aside, the way he uses magic is far outside the norm.”

  It was hard to imagine what kind of resort Soral would consider worthy of a kingdom known for its pride in beauty, but with his magic under the direction of a royal architect she could look forward to it. It must be something truly impressive if he was willing to stake his businesses, as well as his future support, on this one venture.

  “See? I told you I had a plan,” Soral proclaimed proudly, “Now all we have to do is support each other. Alodan will support Vista’s new venture, and Vista will support the heir’s claim and help oust the current duchess. It sounds like a perfectly legitimate deal any noble would buy.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” Ruena agreed, “What do you need me to do?”

  “We will host a party at the new resort under both of our names,” Soral explained, “I will invite my business acquaintances, and you will invite whatever nobles you need to. People will speculate the rest on their own.”

  Her role was to invite the nobles? Of course that made sense, but she still didn’t have the connections expected of her noble title. She could ask for advice from Crystal, but relying on others too much would give them too much power over Alodan once she did become duchess. More than anything, she did not want to become the same type of scheming noblewoman as Velcorna.

  “Tell me the time and place and I will make sure to do my part,” Ruena promised.

  If she couldn’t figure out which nobles to invite, she should just invite all of them. It wasn’t delicate, and people were sure to consider her clumsy, but she didn’t need to be remembered as a politician. Ruena’s goal was to become the Weaponsmaster, nothing more.

  “Can I come too?” Rosalie asked, “With an event that joins forces like this, I think you should hire us Alodan Warriors for security.”

  “Sure, why not?” Ruena agreed, “If I am going to show my hand, I might as well show it with full power. I cannot afford to be underestimated on this kind of battlefield.”

  “Can I ask something?” Grant suddenly broke in, “Does the cat theme of the new resort have anything to do with the cats here in this fortress?”

  “Of course it does!” Soral answered before Ruena could. He scooped up the ever familiar chubby fluffy white cat and presented him to Grant, “This is Jazz. He is our mascot and head of espionage here at the Alodan Warriors. We need cats to be able to roam freely in all of our major gathering places.”

  The first hint was out. So the resort was cat themed. Ruena had an even harder time picturing what it could possibly look like now. Still, Soral would never drag her into something she would regret.