Cassarae sat at her desk with furrowed brows. It indeed wasn't a coincidence that Casstle Main had plummeted out of the rankings. She could feel that she was being targeted, but it was hard to tell if it was by coincidence or not.

The System City had appeared too close by, and on the one hand, that made it easy to pay adventurers to help them deal with some of their trouble. But on the other, it loosened the control they had over the resources in the region. Whether it was herself or her militiamen, their leveling speed had plummeted off a cliff… not that it was very fast to begin with.

As though that wasn't bad enough, the influx of salt water was making it impossible to grow anything, so she had to rely on the Nexus to buy food, further pressuring their coffers. Then, just today, she got a report that the well water was becoming too salinated to drink. Now, even water had to be purchased through the Nexus. Everything felt like one step forward for ten back.

"Rae, dear?"

A familiar voice caused Cassarae to lift her head. The bags under her eyes told their own story, and hearing her mother should have made her feel a little better. But instead, she felt another wave of fatigue hit her.

"Yes, mom. You can come in."

A spry middle-aged woman walked in. She was quite short, only reaching her daughter's shoulders, so it was clear that Cassarae didn't receive her dominant genes from her mother. That credit was given to her father, who was almost seven feet tall.

Geraldene sighed when she saw her daughter's state. She was about to say something when Cassarae put a hand to her forehead.

"Please, no more apologies. It's killing me slowly. I would have cussed you out already if you weren't my mother."

An amused chuckle came from Geraldene. She was used to her daughter's ways and had enough teenage angst memories in the bank to know that this was actually considered to be a more mature Cassarae.

"Rae, you need to let your father and I help you."

Cassarae sighed. "What can you help with?"

Geraldene paused, not quite sure how to answer this immediately.

"You're a marine biologist, mom. There are no oceans here. At best I can show you to a little river, but what good would it do if even the smallest fish could rip your throat out?"

"Your father's a businessman, dear. At least let him manage the assets of the city. You know him. Sitting back and watching his daughter do all the work for him is killing him."

Cassarae shook her head. "There's no money to manage."

"You already know your father has several ideas, dear. Don't be like this."

BANG!

Cassarae suddenly stood up, her palms nearly flattening the desk. Her frustration boiled over in her eyes as she practically seethed.

"You're not getting it! Everything takes strength! Strength! And more strength! I'm not letting my parents go out to die, do you understand!?"

Cassarae's chest heaved before a wooziness hit her. She had stood up too fast, and the fatigue of the last several days hit her in waves.

Her mother was a marine biologist, but what good was it when she couldn't study creatures without risking her life?

Her father was a businessman, but how would he do business without interacting with those vicious men and women who called themselves adventurers? The System City was close, but that was only relatively speaking. It would still take an hour on foot at least to get there.

This wasn't Earth, there were no paved roads, and any creature that was even still in this region at all had far too much power for a normal man to deal with.

Geraldene sighed and helped her daughter find a seat on the couch.

"Rae," Geraldene hesitated, but she eventually spoke even though she knew that it would make her daughter uncomfortable, "do you know what other creatures could kill me? How many times do you think I've been in a shark cage? How many times have I held jellyfish? How many times have I swum with whales and dolphins?"

Geraldene chuckled and gave her daughter's hand a squeeze.

"You've grown so much that you've forgotten that you're the child in this situation, little girl."

Cassarae rolled her eyes. "I'm twenty—"

"You'll always be my little girl. Don't think we haven't noticed. You're slowly losing control of this city of yours, and things are becoming unmanageable.

"Your father and I are proud of what you've accomplished, but your friends have yet to manage to gather here once again, and if you insist on doing things on your own, it will only slip further and further out of your control."

Cassarae grit her teeth. Sylas had told her to be wary of Gregory, her Steward spawn, and she had been. But it still felt like everything was slipping out of her control.

Cassarae didn't believe herself to be intelligent, certainly not as intelligent as Sylas, but she had always had an elite nose… she called it her Bullshit Detector.

Gregory had done nothing untoward, but it somehow felt like everything ran through him before being filtered to her.

Technically speaking, this made perfect sense. After all, he was her steward. But something smelt off about it, and Cassarae couldn't put her finger on what exactly that was.

The funniest part about all of this was the fact that Maya, her Armored Seamstress, had actually mellowed out considerably as well, giving her less to worry about.

Even with all the chaos, the village had been very peaceful. It could only be said that Gregory was excellent at his job. Too excellent… especially considering he was only a Common summon.

The fact her parents had picked up on it told Cassarae everything she needed to know. Her parents, whether her mother with academic politics or her father with business politics, had their own elite Bullshit Detectors.

After all… that was what landed them in this situation.

Cassarae took a breath and pressed down her anxiety.

"Okay, mom. I'll do it. I'll help you and dad Level up. When dad is at Level 9, I'll let him go to the System City."