The Balta's house secrets (Part 1)

The Balta Family owned many lands on the border of the Melkor Empire, even though they were a noble family not very important, the money collected as taxes on their land was still enough for them to live a life of luxury, the City of Balta, created by their ancestor had a small castle that shone on the horizon, giving an atmosphere of order, the white stones gleamed with the watercolor that dusk painted the sky.

Inside the main rooms of the Balta Family, Augusto could be found standing in a room talking to his grandfather. After that auction, his family had terrible losses, animosity with the Six Rings Academy and the Mercenary Guild made them lose several trade routes and investors in their lands.

The lands bordering the forest were empty of mercenaries and they stopped to accept their missions. As well the commercial blockages, they prevented them from acquiring good equipment or selling easily. Most other markets have turned their backs on them after the auction events.

Augusto's grandfather was the head of the family, his position lost in power only to the ancestor who was still fighting on the front lines of the war and was estranged from the family. "The ancestor would feel humiliated if he found out that we lost a switch to a half demon, like the ones that he fights every day in the trenches of war."

"Grandfather, I was informed that the worm left the Six Rings Academy two days ago. He is no longer part of that place. We should use this opportunity and once for all, to get rid of this stain on our reputation." Augusto said as he fiddled with his clothes.

"You were stupid for not have killed him when you found him in the forest, now he is very strong and maybe can even compete with me in strength. But I will not let a dirty demon tarnish our family's honor, we have to act in a planned manner." The old man spoke as he got up from his chair and approached the fireplace.

A slight manifestation of the aura caused the fire in the fireplace to extinguish and throw the room into the darkness again, the heat brought on by the fire turned to coldness very quickly. Augusto's grandfather approached a statue of a half-naked woman and stuck his finger inside her stone eye. Like a hidden mechanism, her eye sank and triggered the movement of the fireplace that opened to show a ladder.

"We are not going to do anything for now, we are going to observe what he is going to do, and then we will decide the best way to kill him and whoever is with him will follow the same path. Send a team of spies and keep me informed daily." He said as he came down the stairs.

The family's ancestor was Count Balta, an experienced warrior who gained renown in war against demons and was still on the front line defending the Empire. He was a good man and hated dirty tricks or petty actions that his family usually took, if he were here now, he would have already eliminated half the family and taken over the control.

The Balta Family chief's footsteps echoed on the smooth stone until they suddenly stopped, a secret hall was kept inside the castle, where only the people trusted by the chief had access to it. Demonic symbols were marked on the stone floor, some appeared to have been carved by claws, and the ink used to fill in these markings was blood. Several bodies were placed in the center of a magic circle. They were vagabonds, bandits and orphans from the Balta Family territories, people that no one would miss or care to look for their missing.