We went straight to Wuxia headquarters, then down to Hatta's office. He was already waiting, sitting alone behind his desk. Every olive lamp and candle in the room was lit up, making it very bright.

- I was waiting - he said with a dead serious face.

- We met with Blue. He stoled the wolves hunting spot. What happened here? - asked Will.

I moved slightly to the side, while others surrounded Hatta.

- They mobilized at night. I was sleeping. Probably there was something in my food. Some of my men tried to stop them, but only ended beaten up. It was well thought thru, well prepared, and perfectly executed. More than a half of my men were traitors.historical

- You probably still have at least a dozen that didn't go - I responded to his words, grabbing the attention of the rest.

- He is right - Will quickly agreed.

- You two should also mention that you knew about the traitors - said Nobuo.

Hatta snorted.

- I also knew about traitors. Anybody who knows Blue even a little bit would tell you that he had his spies among Wuxia. Probably among your ranks as well. My problem was that I had no idea how deep it went. Can you believe that after Blue escaped I actually tasked Williams with looking for traitors? He even brought me few names...

- I'm confident about my men - Adachi replied without showing any emotions.

- I'm, on the other hand, not so sure - said Boris. - I need to look into that.

- We knew about Williams - said Will with a dead serious face. - We didn't tell you anything because we actually were going to kill Blue behind your back. Peter and I just needed a little bit more time, so we had to avoid anything that could alert Blue in any way.

I observed Hattas reaction to those words, ad to my surprise he wasn't angry at all. He just nodded slowly.

- Maybe we should go with that from the very beginning. Well... I confronted Aisha first thing in the morning since you all were gone. It seems like we can't do shit if we don't want to start a second war. And that's something she was aiming at from the very beginning. To put him and us in an equal position, with her as a balancing weight.

Boris raised his eyebrows. Nobuo didn't react at all.

- So what do we do now? - asked Will.

- We can't do anything with Blue. We have to accept him as a part of the city now. Later today we all will have a meeting about splitting the hunting grounds. We all have been declared hegemons - he laughed. - And our tyranny will be put to a stop.

- We might have lost the battle, but there is still a war to win - said Nobuo.

- Yes - Hatta sighed heavly. - I'm just tired of it all, but yes. We still have a war to win. Unfortunately, there is nothing better we can do than making sure we are as strong as possible and prepared for Blue's moves. He has the initiative now.

- So we just have to secure as many hunting grounds as possible? I believe we could do more. We need more control over our people, so we can spot the spies easier. I have a proposition - said Boris.

- Speak then - was Will's response.

- We should secure a part of the city for ourselves, like a district. Put walls around it, and set up guards, to look for anything suspicious. This way we can observe movements among our ranks better, and spot spies easier. On top of that, we should organize our own entertainment facilities, just like Velvet Lotus, to limit the information leak. I believe we could do it with the power of the device.

- It's not a bad idea - said Nobuo. - I actually like it. We could organize ourselves better this way.

- Can we even afford such a thing? - Asked Will. - A big enough piece of land will cost a lot of crystals, not to mention we would have to rebuild that part of the city, rise walls and at least one gate.

- Sadly, I don't think we can - said Hatta. - But the idea itself is pretty good. We should definitely come back to this if we have enough income.

- How about we raid the canyon? - I finally joined the conversation. - There is enough crystals there, we just need to take them. Orcs have a big camp with potentially hundreds of them. Few days and we would have enough crystals.

- But we would have to leave the city, which means Blue could do whatever he would want to. We could have nothing to come back to - was Hatta's reply.

- We can take just a few strong people, and leave one of us in charge here - I argued. - If we want to win, we have to take a gamble. Without making a bold move we won't gain an upper hand anyway.

- I agree with Peter-san on this - said Nobuo. - We need bold moves, but it's still too early for them. We should decide after the meeting.

- Definitely - Boris agreed. - My guess is we will end up having some kind of rotation of hunting grounds, so every group will end with something for both strong and weak, but nobody will go for orcs. They are too far away.

- Not only too far, but also he probably has only a few people who could keep up there - I joined on his line of thinking. - If he moves all of his forces the numbers won't add up, and he is taking a large risk. We could easily take over the remaining closer spots, and just farm class points. It's better for him to stay closer to the city.

- I still don't like it. We are inviting him to finish us off while we are split apart - Hatta kept his opinion.

- How strong is the wolf boss? - Nobuo suddenly asked, turning around to face me. - Can Blue kill him?

- Probably yes, but that won't be easy. He will end up with injured, or even dead on his side. Werewolf is one tough beast.

- Werewolf, huh? - Boris peaked at me.

I nodded.

- This is an opportunity for us - Nobuo continued. - I believe he made the decision to take this spot based on his knowledge that Aisha is gonna side with him to keep the balance of forces. This is the closest spot to the city with the biggest price on crystals. On top of that, only him or us have the resources to kill that boss. The rest will prefer the rats or goblins and are gonna argue about them the most. Based on the recent events nobody will side with us, and Blue with ease can occupy wolves for himself for a long period of time. Even if he has to share as we did, he still is gonna keep the den and the boss, which is great for him

- Nobuo is right - Boris agreed. - We will have everybody against us, and probably will end with just scraps, at least at the beginning, so there is no reason for us, to not send people where nobody else can go.

- Yes. A small group of strong people, with Peter and me, can definitely get a lot from the canyon. We have been doing it for a long time now. The camp is the next logical step.

Hatta sighed.

- Let's talk about it after the meeting with the rest. We will decide our moves then, and only then. You need to remember that Blue is the guy, who outsmarted us all a few times already.

- That's because we were not honest with each other. We need to work as one from now on - said Nobuo.

- On this, I agree. We should have the talk after the meeting, but no more bullshit. We all agree on something and we stick to it. No more trying to be a better human being. No more lies. No more saving those who already betrayed us. We have to be ruthless. Reap out the weed - Will stated. - Then we can go back to our lives.

- I agree with being ruthless with him, and I also agree with Hatta. If we thought about something, he probably also did it. Let's continue the discussion later when we know where we stand with other groups - I said.

Everybody nodded, and the conversation came to an end. I left the room, while others stayed behind. Will words about saving those who betrayed us brought me unexpected pain. I didn't want to just turn my back at Nadia. I didn't want to turn my back at Aisha either. What I wanted was to fix our relationship, or what was left of it.

I grabbed some food and found myself a spot on the piece of rubble. I needed to think about what my real goals were, and also what I was willing to sacrifice to get rid of Blue, or at least to stop him.. I knew that tough decisions are coming, and I will have to make them or lose.