Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 72: Next move II

The owl-eyed admin was left shivering after Atrox left. The heat that had suddenly filled the room turned lukewarm, and he shuddered. "This has never happened to me before! That kind of disrespect!"

His first reaction was to call the guards, report the incident, and have them arrested or something. But on the other hand, when that green-eyed glare flashed in his mind again, he could only shake his head and firm his lips.

"And that horrible pressure. Fine, then. I’ll do as they want and send the letter to the Ten! I will!" He straightened his thin frame, adjusted his glasses, and stood up. He picked up the letter, placed it into an envelope, and wrote on it before leaving his section.

Crossing the hall, he entered another room where there were five boxes with different flag colors on them. Each box contained envelopes and packages belonging to the team leaders of the highest-ranked teams under each flag—essentially the leaders of all their flag’s teams.

He looked at the Steelclaw box and placed the envelope on it without hesitation. He sneered. "Too bad you’ll be directly told off, and your letter torn! Maybe you’ll get summoned and questioned..."

He muttered this as he left.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆,

Three days later, the box with the Steelclaw Alliance mark on it found its way into a large room. The room was covered in lush red curtains and carpet. A big, dark wooden table stood at its center, already piled with papers and a plate of half-eaten food.

Dlodus sat behind the table, his eyes narrowing as his second-in-command placed a box on the floor, the box was marked with the red of Steelclaw. "Who’s all that for?" He asked with a deadpan expression.

Liam, the second-in-command of the Rank 2 team, replied dutifully. "It’s for the team leader of Rank 2."

Dlodus was a man in his late thirties. His eyes resembled a thunderstorm wrapped in clouds, giving him a gentle appearance with a promise of sudden violence. "That’s me, all right. But seriously, why do we have to handle all the requests just because we’re the Rank 2 team?"

"Because we have the most powerful team... second only to Rank 1. And you’re the leader of all the teams in Steelclaw’s second layer," Liam said as if it was something he’d explained many times before but knew won’t pass through anyway.

Dlodus smiled. "But it’s too tedious."

"You don’t complain about the taxes you skim from the teams or the fact that you get to boss them around. You’re probably as rich as some low nobility back in the city." As Liam said this, he began sorting through the pile of envelopes and boxes. He removed letters from envelopes, carefully arranging them in order of importance.

Any matter affecting the whole alliance first passed through the table of the highest team of a flag before it was presented at their Ten meetings. Liam carefully examined each complaint quickly reading the first part to know what’s about.

"You only have one disposable complaint this time—someone’s demanding to create a team."

Dlodus grunted. "They never stop, those outlaws. Here, let me amuse myself with this before I get into those shitty complaints."

Liam handed the letter over, and Dlodus settled into his chair to read it. Idly, he wondered what excuse this outlaw would bring up this time. But to his surprise, there was no excuse, infact it seems this person wasn’t an outlaw. The person directly demanded to create a new team, arguing that it would benefit the second layer.

Dlodus grinned as he crumpled the paper and tossed it away. "Well, that’s new. At least he has a catchy name—Atrox. He’s not even an outlaw. He’ll join a team when he’s ready."

---

Two weeks had passed since Atrox wrote the letter to the Ten, and he had yet to see any results. He had sent Tiber to the admin building at the end of the previous week, but still, no response came.

During that time, they hadn’t been idle. Xan had taken them to a merchant organization that processed and sold monster leathers, specializing in the lizard monsters known as the twice-skinned lizards, prized for their multicolored hides.

The organization maintained a ruin where these monsters were abundant. Carefully, they hunted them while ensuring the lizards could still reproduce.

Atrox and the others had been working as cheap labor, killing the monsters for two gold coins a day each. But today, Atrox, Tiber, and Xan were not at work.

Instead, they stood in front of the small ruin building they had rented for their stay. Atrox was dressed in black leather with a red slash across the chest. His hair was tied back, and his face was hard and smooth as he leaned against the rough brown ruin, looking down the road toward the admin building.

At his side were a dagger and a sword.

The others were similarly dressed in newly bought leather armor—cheap but functional. Tiber’s hands were in his pockets, his deep eyes focused on the same direction as Atrox’s.

Xan wore no leather armor, but his robe was clean and new. A small dagger hung at his side.

Then they saw her—Slya. She was dressed like them, but instead of swords, small throwing knives were arranged around her waist.

As she approached, they could tell what she was going to say before she opened her mouth. "They didn’t reply yet. I... doubt they will."

Atrox nodded. ’I was expecting this. Really, the only reason I lasted this long killing random leather monsters was to give the Ten a warning. And to learn all I could about the second layer. Now I know that Rank 2 team leader probably didn’t bring my letter to the Ten’

"I see. Then I will do things my way now." Atrox grinned, feeling oddly relieved. "Xan, lead the way to the Veilwood. It’s finally time to do what I’ve wanted since the beginning—make a noise that will ripple through the whole second layer!"