The royal letter remained important.
But life inside Atlas did not stop because kings wanted meetings.
Work continued.
Contracts continued.
And more importantly—
Problems continued.
Three days after accepting King Aldric's invitation, Marcus sat inside the operations room reviewing deployment schedules when Elaina entered carrying a thick folder.
The moment he saw the size of it, he already knew it wasn't good news.
"Please tell me that's not another noble."
Elaina shook her head.
"Better."
Marcus raised an eyebrow.
"Better?"
"An actual mission."
Now that got his attention.
Across the room, Tomas immediately looked up from the training reports he had been reviewing.
Even Rolf, who had been pretending to organize equipment manifests, suddenly became interested.
Elaina placed the folder onto the table.
"A merchant consortium from Berm."
Marcus opened it.
Several documents immediately slid into view.
Trade manifests.
Witness statements.
Route maps.
Guild reports.
