"How did the ambush go?" Karl asked Lilly as she reported the results to him in his office. He leaned back in his chair, waiting for the answer while Lilly went through the information they had received from the field. There had been considerable concern about how the recruits would react once they were forced to kill actual human beings. For many of them, this had been the first time their training had stopped being theoretical.
"They did great," Lilly replied with a smile. "There were no wounded, and the reports we received from Arin's command were sound and well thought out." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Currently, we have a psychiatrist helping the recruits through their first session, because quite a few of them are shaken now that the reality of what they have done has finally set in. These people are really dead, and that is a very different thing from training against targets."
Karl nodded slowly. He understood why the recruits might be struggling with what had happened, even if he personally had little sympathy for the people they had killed. The bandits had willingly chosen to attack them, knowing that they were carrying valuable goods and that violence was likely to follow. Still, understanding something intellectually and accepting that you had personally killed another human being were two very different things.
"I don't know if it will help the recruits with the trauma," Karl said, "but tell the psychiatrist to remind them that, if it helps, these people were the very definition of human garbage." His expression hardened as he spoke. "They willingly walked into crime, and all the usual excuses no longer worked in the world we live in." He could barely understand why anyone would choose that path now.
There were jobs everywhere. The sudden changes brought by mana had created an enormous demand for workers, and even people without particularly impressive skills could find employment if they were willing to work. Many employers were desperately searching for anyone capable of filling a position, while housing was available alongside many of those jobs. From Karl's perspective, willingly choosing a life of crime under those circumstances was about as low as a person could go.
The situation was even more complicated for people trapped inside criminal gangs. Some criminals could not simply walk away because their organizations would hunt them down or threaten their families. Even so, the government was currently willing to make deals with people who provided useful information. In some cases, they could even be relocated to a completely different city with no internet access, making it practically impossible for the criminal organization to track them down.
"That is a good point," Lilly said. "I will talk to the psychiatrist about it." She made a mental note to bring up the matter during their next discussion. There was no point pretending that killing someone would never affect the recruits simply because their enemies had deserved what happened. "Anyhow, what is the state of the secret realm at the moment?"
Lilly's expression became slightly more impatient. "I would expect it to burst right about now." She had been hearing the same predictions for days, yet nothing had happened. Meanwhile, three hundred recruits were still standing guard around the secret realm, waiting for the corrupted creatures to emerge. Keeping that many people stationed there was beginning to feel increasingly wasteful.
"You are not the first person to ask me that," Karl replied. "Unfortunately, I have no idea when it will burst." He shrugged helplessly. "The portal is the right color, but so far, nothing has happened." There was no obvious sign that the situation was about to change, despite everyone expecting it to.
"Bennie is there right now, actually," Karl added with a laugh. "He has been cursing at the portal and telling it to spit out the corrupted creatures already." He shook his head, amused by the thought. "He wants the money." Fortunately, their family was not exactly short on money at the moment, so Bennie's impatience was more amusing than desperate.
Most of the trade families were in a similar position. They had their crafts to rely on, meaning that they could continue producing goods even while the rest of the economy struggled to recover. The Sonnenbergs were even luckier because they had access to the magic circle tome, which had allowed them to earn a considerable amount of money. Their position was therefore much stronger than that of most ordinary families.
Even so, they were still carrying a considerable amount of debt. Almost everything they earned had been poured back into their town to get the entire settlement up and running. Buildings had to be constructed, infrastructure had to be established, workers had to be paid, and countless other expenses continued to appear. They were now making a lot of money, but they were not yet making enough to completely offset the enormous debt they had taken on.
"That sounds like him, all right," Lilly said with a small smile. "But I was thinking about something else. We need a new name for our recruits." She looked toward Karl thoughtfully. "They have finished their training. At this point, the only thing they need to do is master their techniques before they are truly finished."
Karl considered her words. "That is a good point." He tapped a finger against the desk as he thought. "Calling them recruits is becoming a bit demeaning, especially when they are already capable of fighting." He frowned slightly. "But what would be a good name for them?"
"If we compare them with our children, then none of them are sixteen yet," Karl continued. "They have completed their basic training, but they are still young in terms of their development." He paused as he considered the strange situation they had created. "That might actually be the best way to describe them."
"Yes, that is an apt description," Lilly agreed. "Even if there are people in there who are forty years old." She smiled at the absurdity of it. The age difference among the people who had joined their guild had always been considerable because they had not cared about age when they were recruiting. They had simply looked for people with the skills and potential they needed.
That decision had made teaching them considerably more difficult. A forty-year-old and a teenager did not necessarily learn in the same way, and their physical capabilities could be completely different. Nevertheless, the instructors had managed to bring everyone through the same training process. It had taken time and effort, but ultimately, it had all come together.
"I think giving them proper names is fine, and it is probably necessary," Karl said. "We just need to be careful about creating some sort of class oppression." He leaned back again. "We are not going to keep our numbers at only ten thousand forever." The number might seem enormous now, but in the long term, it was only the beginning.
"Ultimately, there are going to be more members," Karl continued. "Though, realistically, it will probably be a hundred years before we actively try to recruit more members." He knew that their current numbers were already more than enough for their immediate needs. There was no reason to constantly expand when their existing organization still had so much room to develop.
There were also no current plans for the children of their recruits to automatically join the guild. The difference in talent between their own children and everyone else was simply too significant to ignore. For some reason, the Sonnenberg family seemed to possess an innate gift for becoming rangers. They still had no idea exactly what that gift was, but after the awakening of mana, they had become certain that such inherited talents could exist.
The more they learned about mana, the more obvious certain things became. They had been informed that mana was essentially a form of dark matter that had existed in a higher dimension before the world changed. Now that humanity had been elevated to a higher level of existence, things that had previously been hidden were becoming increasingly obvious. It was possible that certain talents had always existed within humanity but had been unable to properly manifest before mana appeared.
That raised another problem. Most children might never possess the qualities necessary to become rangers, even if they were born into a family associated with them. Karl did not consider that particularly important, however. Those children would still be associated with the guild and the Sonnenberg family, which meant their opportunities would naturally be different from those of ordinary people.
Their family connections would also prevent them from joining certain organizations. Karl was not particularly bothered by that restriction. The Sonnenbergs were perfectly happy to keep their people within their own sphere of influence, especially when they already had an entire city that needed to be staffed and managed.
And besides, their guild was almost full and could not really accept more recruits before the system said that it was no longer possible. Their clan was far from full, but to be able to join that one, you needed to be born or marry into the family; otherwise, no way you were out of luck.
"No, I agree with that sentiment," Lilly said. "But that means we need to set the tone now, while we still have control over how everything develops." She folded her arms as she thought about the problem. "I propose that we redefine how we structure our faction and establish the different levels that can exist within a faction."
"That is a good one," Karl replied. He immediately understood why she considered the matter important. "I am going to need to discuss that with the great houses and the rest of the trade families." He frowned slightly. "I have not heard of any legislation covering something like this, and that could get ugly really quickly."
The lack of legislation was precisely what concerned him. Their faction had already grown beyond anything that existing institutions had been designed to handle. If they established their own hierarchy without considering how it would interact with the great houses, trade families, and government, they could accidentally create a political disaster.
"Sure," Lilly said. "Shall I call an elder meeting so we can discuss our ideas?" Karl nodded as he returned his attention to the documents on his desk. Lilly took that as her dismissal and began walking toward the door. "I will arrange it, then."
"Sure, do that," Karl replied.
Lilly waved goodbye and left the room, leaving Karl to his work. He immediately became absorbed in his duties, surrounded by documents, reports, and the growing list of problems that needed his attention. It was almost amusing when she thought about how much he had complained when he was first appointed head of the family. Back then, he had acted as though the position were some terrible punishment.
Yet despite all those complaints, Karl had proven himself to be remarkably dutiful. He took the responsibilities of the family seriously and rarely allowed his personal feelings to interfere with his work. Lilly could only wonder how they were ever going to convince Arin to take on that role when his time eventually came.