Politics

Raymond looked pale, his forehead beaded with cold sweat. The arteries on his neck were still pulsating; he spent a while coughing intensely before he could finally calm his breath.

A tall, dignified old man walked into the teleportation hall. Seeing the state Raymond was in, he immediately quickened his footsteps and went over, “Do you need a priest?”

The youth feebly shook his head, “No need. The spatial ripples were a little strong is all, I’ll be fine after some rest. A divine spell… I can’t use them too much. Don’t worry about me, Father. Time is limited, let’s go to the command centre, I’ll tell you about the developments in the campaign.”

The Joseph Family’s command centre was tall and spacious, the table in the middle a high-ranked artifact that could store up to nine complete three-dimensional maps. Outside of the map of Norland, the Josephs had five personal planes. Their dream was to someday use the table to its fullest.

The servants had already moved a tall chair over that was meant especially for Raymond. It would allow him to save his strength, looking through the maps from a seated position. Raymond hadn’t always needed it, but it had been used more and more frequently as of late.

Two of...