Silence pooled in the little room until Kharnek broke it. He stared at the table as if reading names in the grain, then looked up with that same flat, weathered voice.

“We got the potions,” he said. No flourish. No accusation. Just a fact that tasted like ash. “From men who wear the south’s colors. Not their names—words on scraps, sealed by hands that didn’t sign them. Promises: take back what’s yours, we’ll back you. You’ll have lands again.”

The words landed harder than any sword. Ludger’s fingers tightened on the stone rim of his chair. Arslan’s jaw moved; Viola’s eyes flared; even Darnell—standing in the doorway—shifted his weight, the muscle at his temple twitching.

Arslan’s voice cut through the stillness, clipped and direct. “Why didn’t you use it in the fight?” he asked. “If it makes a man stronger—if it turns men into monsters—you’d have had the edge.”

Kharnek made a face as if someone had offered him sour meat. He shrugged, almost lazily, but the shrug carried a soldier’s tired discipline. “Could have,” he admitted. “Could have been stronger than I am.” He spat the word out like a joke gone wrong. “But I didn’t like it. Not for me. Saw what it did to my brothers.”

He leaned forward, fingers steepled. “At first it feels like wind. You sprint farther, hit harder. But the second time… the third time—they’re not the same. The draught eats at you. After three cups, a man’s hunger isn’t for victory. It’s for more draught. He’ll steal. He’ll butcher his own kin to get it. Leadership dies quick when the leader is chasing a bottle. I forbade anyone from using it more than once.”

A low murmur went round the room; the statement needed no proof. Faces hardened at the image.

“We found messages,” Kharnek continued, voice rougher now. “Promises and maps and a courier who left the bottles at a hidden path. Whoever handed them out wanted an army of mad dogs on a leash. Not a people rising. Dogs to be cut loose, then disposed of.”

Ludger let the words settle like dust. It confirmed his worst suspicions—that the violence had patrons, that those patrons were willing to trade stability for leverage. He thought of the nobles in silks, the merchants who smiled at funerals. His jaw tightened.

Viola’s hand balled into a fist on the table. “So they used you,” she said bluntly. “They turned your people into tools.”

Kharnek’s laugh was hollow. “We were tools already. They just tried to make us better at breaking things.” He looked at Arslan then, a shadow of respect in the gaze. “And I wouldn’t let my people become addled dogs. Not my clan’s sons. Not my name. I refused it for myself because I can’t lead a tribe of addicts.”

Arslan didn’t press. He absorbed the answer like a man cataloguing damage and advantage. “You made a hard choice,” he said quietly. “That… takes more courage than a blade.”

Kharnek only nodded once, tired and brutal as a winter road. “I fought sober. I wanted my men to fight with heads clear enough to live after the slaughter. If the Empire wants pawns, let them buy them with coin. I’d rather die with my people’s eyes open.”

Ludger watched him, feeling the gears in his head start to turn. This changed things — not just tactically, but morally. The enemy wasn’t just a horde of hungry men; it was a network that fed madness into war for profit. That made the stakes bigger, and the need for careful, hidden work more urgent.

Ludger leaned forward again, elbows on the rough earthen table. The negotiations had turned more honest after talk of the draughts and betrayal; now was the moment to shape something solid from it.

“All right,” he said. “Let’s cut to something practical. What do you and your people actually need right now? Not speeches—tools, land, supplies. What keeps the northerners from falling apart before this alliance even starts?”

Kharnek’s brow furrowed. “You talk like we’ll just ask, and you’ll hand it over.”

Ludger shrugged, tone flat but pragmatic. “I don’t have the time to let this crawl along with both sides dragging their feet. If it moves slow, it dies. We need results fast enough for everyone to believe it’s worth the trouble.”

For a long moment Kharnek just studied him, then gave a grudging nod. “Fine. Shelter, first,” he said, his deep voice low but steady. “Our tents rot by the second storm. The winters here will kill the children before any Imperial swords do. We’ll need roofs—stone or timber.”

He glanced toward the walls visible through the open gap in the earthen structure. “Better land too. These hills are thin and dry. We can’t plant here. Give us valleys or the riverside plains for crops. And cattle. We’ll need pasture and space to raise herds again. Hunters can’t feed so many clans forever.”

Ludger listened without interrupting, his mind already sketching routes, irrigation, construction in the dirt between his fingers.

Kharnek exhaled through his nose, frustration flickering in his tone. “Some clans don’t like what I agreed to. They call this alliance a leash. But if they see roofs, green fields, and bellies full again… they’ll listen. They’ll remember why I fight.”

Ludger nodded once, eyes narrowing in thought. “Then we start with that,” he said simply. “Shelter, farmland, food. Something that proves this alliance works before words lose their meaning. You provide labor and security; I’ll handle the shaping and supply channels.”

He leaned back with a half-smile—dry, calculating, but not unkind. “If they see their warlord building homes instead of burning them, the rest will fall in line faster than a commander barking orders.”

Kharnek grunted in acknowledgment, but there was something new in his eyes—a guarded spark of respect. The boy wasn’t just a talker. He thought in terms of structures, of permanence. And that was something the North had been denied for far too long.

Ludger turned his attention toward Aronia, who had been quietly taking notes on a scrap of parchment the whole time. Her calm face made her look like she was already three steps ahead of everyone.

“Aronia,” he said, resting his chin on one hand, “you think you can improve the land around here? Make it usable for crops?”

She looked up, her eyes thoughtful. “It’s possible,” she said after a pause. “The soil near the old riverbeds is weak but not dead. With enough mana, I could purify the ground, restore the nutrients, and accelerate regrowth. But…”

She hesitated, her gaze shifting toward him with the faintest smirk. “…not on a large scale. Not quickly, at least. My magic is good for healing people, not whole landscapes. To restore wide fields, you’d need massive earth manipulation—and more raw mana than I could safely channel in a month.”

Viola immediately caught on. “In other words,” she said, turning toward Ludger, “you mean him.”

Aronia nodded politely, almost amused. “Considering what Ludger did with the fortress walls and how he shaped this entire building in minutes, I’d say he has the capacity. If anyone can reforge the land in bulk, it’s him.”

Kharnek crossed his arms and grunted his agreement. “If he can build a fortress from rubble, he can raise fields from dust. Seems fair.”

Luna gave one of her faint, knowing smiles. “Your mana output dwarfs most full-fledged mages already. It’s practical.”

Even Captain Darnell gave a small shrug of reluctant approval.

Ludger let out a long sigh, tilting his head back with a half-exasperated groan. “Of course. I should’ve seen that coming.”

Viola smirked. “You did come up with the idea for the alliance.”

“Yeah,” Ludger muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “And now I get to do the heavy lifting for it too. Fantastic.”

Despite the sarcasm, his lips twitched into the faintest smirk as he glanced toward the others. “Alright then,” he said finally. “If I’m the one building this little miracle, you’d all better be ready to work twice as hard to make sure it doesn’t go to waste.”

Kharnek gave a curt nod, the ghost of a grin touching his scarred face. “Good. Then it begins.”

Ludger looked out toward the plains beyond the walls—barren, cracked, waiting to be reborn. He sighed again. “Guess I’m building more than walls this time.”

For a man built like a mountain, Kharnek had a surprisingly sharp mind. Ludger could see it in the way his gaze lingered—not on the walls or the tools—but on the open plains, the river bends, the veins of land that could become something greater. Despite the deep scars and the weight of command in his shoulders, the northerner warlord had vision.

He was already picturing it, Ludger could tell. Villages. Herds. Smoke curling from rooftops that weren’t tents. A land worth defending rather than a battlefield worth dying on.

And for someone like Kharnek, that hope was almost dangerous—because he looked like he was enjoying the idea a bit too much. The glint in his eye wasn’t just relief; it was ambition, the hunger of a man who could already see his people thriving.

Ludger noticed, of course, but didn’t say a word. He wasn’t about to ruin the rare moment of optimism. Let the man dream for a bit.

Still, his own thoughts drifted elsewhere—back to the labyrinth beneath Meira. The deep, winding network of stone and danger that had started all of this. He’d seen what lay down there—resources, territory, and threats all tangled together in a place the Empire barely understood.

If we built a base there for the northerners… he thought, eyes narrowing in quiet calculation. They’d have a home and a purpose. They’d guard the labyrinth, defend the region, and stay close enough for us to keep an eye on them.

It made sense. They knew how to survive in harsh places. They were natural fighters. And if something crawled out of the depths again, they’d be the first to deal with it.

He crossed his arms and smirked faintly to himself. “Yeah,” he murmured under his breath. “That could work.”

Viola glanced his way. “What?”

“Nothing,” Ludger said, brushing it off with his usual dry tone. “Just thinking ahead.”

And for the first time that day, the idea of building more didn’t feel like a burden—it felt like setting the foundation for something that might actually last.

Viola straightened in her chair, the air around her shifting from relaxed to formal in a heartbeat. Her eyes moved from Ludger to Kharnek, then to each person seated around the rough stone table. The faint flicker of sunlight spilling through the skylight caught the steel in her expression.

“So,” she said, her voice firm and clear, “I think we can call this an agreement, can’t we?”

Kharnek’s massive head dipped once in acknowledgment. “Aye,” he rumbled. “Your boy here makes the fields and homes, and then we fight if danger comes. That’s enough for me.”

Viola nodded, satisfied. “Good. Then let’s make this clear—no paperwork, no signatures. Just words, and trust to back them.”

Aronia blinked at that. “You’re not writing anything down?”

Viola shook her head. “Paper can be stolen. Words can’t.” She rested her hands flat on the table, leaning slightly forward. “If either side breaks this agreement, everyone in this room will know it—and so will the gods, if they’re still watching. As long as we work together, both sides will benefit. If not…” She let the sentence trail off with a faint, cold smile. “Well, we’ll deal with that when it comes.”

Kharnek grunted approvingly. “You speak well, girl. No ink needed—just strength.”

Viola smirked faintly at that. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Then her tone hardened again. “One more thing—no one outside this room hears the details of this. Not the structure, not the trade terms, not what we plan to do next. The fewer mouths that know, the fewer knives we’ll find pointed at our backs.”

Her gaze flicked toward the others—Ludger, Arslan, Luna, Aronia, Darnell, Harold, Aleia, Helene, Cor—and finally settled back on Kharnek. “The alliance will grow, but it has to grow in the dark first. Until we’re strong enough to face what’s coming, only the people here speak of it. Only we plan the next steps. Agreed?”

One by one, heads nodded around the table.

Kharnek’s voice came last, low and steady. “Agreed. My people will hold their tongues. If word spreads, it won’t be from us.”

Ludger leaned back with a faint sigh, looking between them all. “Then it’s settled,” he said. “A deal without signatures, built on trust and mutual headaches. Perfect.”

Viola shot him a dry look but couldn’t help the faint smirk tugging at her lips.

The foundation of the alliance had been set—not written in ink, but carved into memory, sealed by resolve, and heavy with the weight of what they’d just started.

Arslan broke the quiet first, his voice carrying a low, rough edge that came from too many campaigns and too few nights of rest. “So,” he said, turning toward Ludger, “what now? You’ve got more than half the town rebuilt, a bunch of northerners calling you their mason, and a baron probably losing sleep wondering what you’ll do next.”

Ludger leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, gaze drifting to the unfinished skyline beyond the crude stone walls. “Simple,” he said. “I’ll finish the guild building. Make sure it’s functional, at least enough for a meeting hall and a command room. The southern wall can wait until things settle down a little.”

He paused, rubbing the back of his neck with a tired sigh. “After that, I’ll go home. Give Mother a few days of peace—and explain what my next job actually is before she assumes I’ve joined another war.”

Viola gave him a skeptical look. “And after that?”

Ludger’s smirk returned, faint but certain. “After that, I’ll head beyond the border. The northerners will need more than promises. If this alliance is going to last, they’ll need a real base—something close enough to a town, with housing, defenses, trade routes, and easy access to the labyrinth. I’ll build it myself all if I have to.”

Across the table, Kharnek nodded approvingly, but it was Arslan’s reaction that stood out. The swordsman lips curved into a small, weary smile—half pride, half resignation.

“So you’re dragging your old man back home again, huh?” he said, his tone dry. “And here I thought I’d finally get to rest.”

Ludger chuckled softly. “You can rest when Mother stops worrying. Which means… probably never.”

That earned a quiet laugh from Arslan, one that came from deep in his chest. “Guess you’re right. We’ll go home together then—face Elaine’s wrath as a family. Might be the only way either of us survives it.”

Ludger smirked. “That’s the spirit.”

They both stood, and for the first time since the war’s end, there was a strange peace in their posture—not triumph, not exhaustion, just a mutual understanding.

They’d built walls, forged an alliance, and maybe—just maybe—given two peoples a chance to stop killing each other.

Now, it was time to go home and face something far more terrifying: Elaine in full protective-mother mode.

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