“What else can be found in the Library?” Gilgamesh asked a Puppet Servant, but it gave no response so he changed his approach. “Bring me something other than the fable of the palace.”

  The Puppet Servant turned to the shelf behind and pulled out a red letter that was not there before, and handed it to Gilgamesh.

  [ Letter ]

  ‘Allows you to send messages to Nobles you have come in contact with.’

  “Is it similar to the messages the gods send?” Gilgamesh wondered.

  [ Is it similar? ]

  He wrote a message to Sereth with a thought, asking her as much. Her sight turned downwards for a moment, and she smiled back at him in a way Gilgamesh took as confirmation. Sereth could have naturally just read his mind without receiving the message as intended, but she would not do so. She was not yet his, but she wouldn’t sabotage him either. That was not in line with what she wanted.

  Next, Gilgamesh tried to send a message to Heroine, but it failed to be delivered.

  [ Message cannot be delivered to the intended recipient. ]

  “No communication with those imprisoned.” Gilgamesh surmised.

  He then turned his attention back to the Puppet Servant as there was something else he wanted to test.

  “Shake my hand.” The Puppet Servant did as asked, and Gilgamesh willed something to happen, but it did not occur.

  “Hold my Dagger.” He gave the order directly, and the Puppet Servant took the weapon from him.

  Gilgamesh’s eyes flickered with the success of the first step, and he gave his second order. “Give the Dagger to her.”

  Without hesitation, the Puppet Servant walked forward, and bumped into Sereth as she passed.

  “Oh?” Sereth seemed amused by the novelty of the scheme in Gilgamesh’s mind.

  “Was it passed to you?” Gilgamesh asked.

  “Yes.” Sereth smiled. “And I didn’t know until I looked for it.”

  Boldness swelled within Gilgamesh, and he held out his hand towards Sereth. Sereth gracefully accepted his gesture and returned the Dagger to him. Gilgamesh then led them back towards the Lounge without a word as he contemplated his next course of action.

  “How should I approach this…? The easiest way would be to assassinate another Count, although that would be difficult. I cannot leave my Prestige with Sereth as I did before. She isn’t on my side yet. And it would be foolish to try anyway. I’d never reach another Count. At best, I would just get challenged by a Crown. At worst, I’d be killed by another Assassin.”

  “I have to build a Faction.” Gilgamesh made up his mind. “It’s still too early, but it’s worth the risk. I need her as my pawn.”

  “I have a Dagger, so I need a Scepter… Which is why I should keep something else.” Gilgamesh paid 50 Prestige to trade his Crown for a Ring. He strongly suspected Sereth to have a Scepter, and even if she didn’t, he still needed to observe the Prestige of others for himself.

  “A revised version of that duo Counts’ strategy is best.” Gilgamesh thought. “I’ll arrange a wall of Viscount Guards in sufficient numbers to prevent enemies from reaching me with brute force. 30 will be enough to start with.”

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  “Baron Hunters will gather Prestige and give it to the Guards who will then give it to me. If I hand-pick Guards from the start and never let them wander off on their own, it will be difficult for them to acquire a Dagger and conspire against me.”

  A pause held in Gilgamesh’s mind the moment he thought that. “No. I should never assume compliance. Anyone can obtain a Letter and a Dagger, and there is no shortage of pawns who can be tricked. Nor hapless schemers controlled by greed.”

  “I must improve my strategy further. Another layer of transaction to start. I should elevate a few pawns to a higher position to receive Prestige from the Guards. Stewards. They should all have Crowns so that they are no threat to me, nor can they easily escape if they do betray me.”

  “Naturally, there is still the risk of assassination. But it will be much more difficult to conspire with three people among different layers of status than just two. First and foremost, a Guard is heavily incentivised to assassinate the Steward since they gain nothing from just delivering the Dagger. I’ll just need to vet my Stewards more heavily than the others.”

  “As for the Hunters, I should put them in pairs. It is harder for someone to collude with an outside conspirator when they have a partner they cannot fully trust.”

  “There won’t be many independent Nobles soon, only Vassals of other Lieges. Most will have Scepters, so one of mine should have a Crown to hunt lone Scepters and the other a Ring to hunt the Crowns that target Scepters.”

  “This will also make them hesitant to carry Daggers since they will be unable to make use of it themselves without a means to escape.”

  “I’ll need at least 50 Hunters to start. Enough to test the waters and confirm the current state of the game. A hunting strategy will bring in a steady stream of Prestige, but it is a dead end in the long term.”

  “I’ll use this time to assess other Factions and attack rival Lieges. Expanding my Faction is the main priority, above even Prestige. I need an army to win this game.”

  “Are you Magi?” In the midst of his deliberation, another Count suddenly approached and asked a blunt question.

  [ 7,281 Prestige ]

  Gilgamesh looked back at the stranger in silence for a brief moment. “Who wants to know?” He chose his words carefully to reveal that he was aware of the existence of Magi without hinting at what he was.

  “Someone who might share a common goal.” The Count answered, without giving away much information himself.

  “...is he testing me?” Gilgamesh thought. Naturally, a ‘test’ meant there was a certain answer the stranger wanted.

  “If you’re still playing this game, isn’t it obvious that we all have the same goal?” Gilgamesh asked with a knowing confidence.

  The Count stared back at him. “If you want any chance of excelling in this Trial, you should join us to talk.” He said, then walked away without any further explanation.

  Gilgamesh lingered in thought for a moment, then followed. There was no risk in interacting with others in the Lounge. While he was confident that he could become a Marquis on his own, he would not let an opportunity simply pass him by when it presented itself.

  As they walked, Sereth looked at him with her smiling mask but said nothing.

  After a few silent minutes, the Count led the two of them to a gathering of 13 others. Though even at a glance, it was clear they were six separate groups. Some were pairs, others a trio. One even crouched by himself. But all of them were Counts, and some had higher Prestige than himself.

  The man who led him here walked to the pair of Noblewomen and stood in front to face the rest of the gathering, as though it were his natural position.

  “This Trial will soon be dominated by the Magi clans.” He spoke to the small crowd. “Only they have the relations and structure to form large organizations of trust in a game like this. If we let things continue like this, we will be outcompeted.”

  “Did you invite us here just to explain what we already know?” One of the Counts asked derisively.

  Gilgamesh noted his tone to be impatient, entitled, and held within it a subtle, gruff slowness common among those getting on in years. ‘Old Man’, Gilgamesh designated his name to be. Being that the two Noblemen stood quietly behind him, it was likely that he was the leader of that group.

  “He’s obviously leading up to a proposal. Can’t you read the room?” The lone crouching Noble Boy chided back. Both his demeanor and tone were filled with brash arrogance that crossed the line into reckless overconfidence.

  “Children should be quiet when adults are talking.” Old Man snapped back.

  “I’m just trying to do you a favor, old man. Be a shame to waste time when you don’t have much of it left.” Conceited Boy mocked.

  Indignation nearly overcame the old count. “Arrogant Brat…”

  “You are both wasting my time.” A Noblewoman spoke up, with a haughty tone. Her group was one of the pairs, her partner being a Nobleman. She glanced over at the herald of this gathering with an air of entitlement. “Show some benefit for my being here, or I won’t waste any more.”

  “I propose an alliance of our Factions.” He calmly and boldly revealed, and Gilgamesh named him Ambitious Man.

  Patreon is 20 chapters ahead! We're already several chapters into the next arc if you want to get back to golems, fighting, and progression. The Masquerade arc also has some huge moments coming up and an intense finale if you wanna binge it all now.