A month is a long enough time for someone to change a little.
For Ki this month helped her to stabilise her excessive vitality while tempering her muscles and continuing to grasp control of her martial forms but that was not the most noticeable change.
Ki had constantly endured harsh hell training beyond what the average sect disciple would experience upon entering a sect, this helped to strengthen her willpower.
After every small goal was surpassed she set herself a new one to complete until she finally reached a point where she had no more room for self doubt, if she made a decision then she would walk down the tiresome path without looking back.
Isaac wore greyish clothes that were neat and tidy, he gave off a scholarly and intelligent aura, he had short and neat dark brown hair, black and deep eyes filled with intelligence and common facial features coupled with an average looking body.
Isaac could easily be lost within a crowd within the central lands but he did possess a certain trait which must of been inherited by his father rather than his mother, they were his black eyes which were a common trait of those from the western lands where the people of the desert live.
Every region has their own characteristics, the north are known for their pale white skin and icy blue eyes, the east are known for their red or ginger hair and their grey eyes, the south for their light brown or dirty blonde hair along with their green or brown eyes, the west for their black hair and black eyes and heavily tanned skin tone while people in the capital are mostly known for having light to dark brown hair, a ….. skin tone along with dark brown or blue and greyish eye colours.
If someone were to look more carefully at some of the specific bloodlines then Ki would possess a little northern blood which showed because of her inherited pale skin while the rest of her traits were inherited from the central lands, Evie however possessed green eyes from the south, black hair from the west and pale white skin which seemed closer to those from the north while the rest of her main facial features were more from the central lands.
Ki sat before Isaac elegantly while taking out a small set of cups attached to a hip flask and poured some wine into the cups. "Here drink. This will help you calm your nerves for the talk."
What Ki served Isaac was one of her downgraded versions of her tranquility wine, by using more common herbs she was able to create a more affordable but less effective version which helped to provide the drinker a calm and stable mood.
Isaac still began to feel doubtful on how the girl had found him but he indeed needed to settle his mind otherwise he would be stuck in his tangled thoughts throughout the talk. "Okay."
Both took a sip of their cups, Ki sipped hers in a refined and elegant manner while Isaac was a little more clumsy.
Seeing his manners were still not up to par with a noble child he felt a little embarrassed but when the wine entered his mouth and went down his throat he felt a cooling and calming sensation which helped to stabilise his cluttered thoughts.
Seeing him calm his emotions Ki spoke first. "It was quite easy to find you since you entered the village, most would not ever think someone they were looking for is hiding under their own noses but when you disappeared the options available were either you wanted to escape or you wished to investigate. I just needed to keep an eye out for new visitors into the village to see if you did come to us or to search for rumours of you in other cities since your reputation has not completely died down yet."
"Hmm.. you are right. So what did your family wish to contact me for?" Isaac began to treat the little girl as someone worth conversing with so long as she does not act like the other nobles he had encountered."
"We wish to recruit you." Ki looked at him in the eyes seriously.
"You wish to recruit a crazy pervert? Really?" Isaac had the urge to laugh but couldn't upon seeing her gaze. 'Indeed they investigated thoroughly so I gave up pretending the moment I entered the village to avoid being noticed… in the end I still got caught.'
"We both know your abilities and how to notice the truth hidden within the rumours. I'm guessing you pretended to go crazy under the pressure of the noble family to evade their schemes and then lay low until you make a comeback but there is a big problem with your plan." Ki explained patiently.
Isaac frowned. "I don't think there should be a problem."
"Your mindset is completely incompatible with the capital. Either you work to your death to change things and face countless oppositions and life and death situations or you make compromise after compromise." Ki pointed at his fatal flaw. "You came from the lower class and are capable of rising to a high position with your intellect however do you know what the people hate the most?"
"Those who challenge their power and disrupt the order they preserve?" Isaac thought for a moment after taking a sip of his wine once more.
"One person who can rise up and claim a position within the capital and have enough influence to be able to change the course of history in a direction they do not want. That is a threat to their status and power, if you are seen like that others may be encouraged to rise up and challenge the current powers who hold that power too and to avoid that they will try to remove you or make you serve under them." Ki sipped her wine again and answered calmly.
"So what is the difference between your family and them?" Isaac accepted that there was some truth in her words. 'She is right, I am not strong in strength and if my views clash with the interests of those in power I would either have to bend or break under their influence. I could not even handle that noble family and they weren't even that influential.'
"My family have always been merchants, even during the time our family possessed a noble title and status within the capital we still stuck to our roots and eventually abandoned our high status to move further north closer to the borders. While the government can help enforce laws, make changes to people's livelihoods and help to provide aid to disaster regions they do not prioritise these below them first. If a disaster happens then all that it is in their eyes is an opportunity to gain a form of achievement to boost their status rather than actually solving the crisis to the best of their abilities. Some would cut corners, others with more greed may use the incident to embezzle and collect private funds for their own goals." Ki sighed because she knew that it happened often and it was rare that anyone ever really got punished for their selfish behaviour. "The capital is full of snakes and tigers, the moment you leap into that pit you will be bitten to death in one strike or slowly poisoned to death. My family are merchants who can provide work opportunities to people, help them pick up new skills and build a more stable environment for those under us. If you work for us I would like to offer you a position as a head strategist or manager."
"Is this a position for the business or the family?" Isaacs eyes flickered doubtfully. 'Even if I decline her family now it is doubtful I will try to step into the capital again after her words… then where would I go? I guess I really have no choice to consider since I came all this way.'
"We need someone who can strategise for different roles like environmentally, military strategy and politically. As a noble family located by the northern borders we may make contact with other cities and nobles in the future as we further expand our businesses so we need someone who can make plans to make strategies to counter any problems. We also are in the process of building up defences within the mansion walls and the outer parts of the village to better protect ourselves from outside forces so could use your help with that." Ki thought for a moment. "We also need your viewpoint on whether to open up certain businesses within different places because in some places we may encounter more frequent attacks on our carriages carrying goods or disrupted business within the city. If that place is more problematic that we have no influence over then we needs plans on how to solve the problem or to completely abandon the plan and think up a new one."
"I see so you need a problem solver. Can you give me a trial run? In the end what is your final goal?" Isaac looked like he had given in and decided to give it a try.
Ki mouthed a few words quietly then got up and left.
Seeing her leave her flask behind he poured himself another glass. 'This is some really good wine, this shows the family has some skilled people working for them. They are managing their land and people fairly, do not make heavy demands and even their young miss is an unreadable person who seems to be have been brought up very well by her family. Judging from her words she needs people to fill certain roles to keep everything running smoothly while the family further develops and expands their power in the northern parts of the central lands. Her final words spoke in depth of her final goals, for a young child to have such a goal others would laugh upon hearing it but if I am being honest… if I waited another 10 years for this young miss to grow up and if she entered the capital One day I am sure she would greatly catch a great deal of attention from those complacent fools and even cause them to become vigilant so I guess I can see why she needs my help so I cannot wait to see how she will grow…. Fine I will stay a bit longer than I had intended.'
Although Isaac had indeed experienced the capitals power struggles and achieved an enviable amount of achievements for a man in his early 20's he was not yet the old strategist that Ki had heard rumours about, that person had grown up after encountering many hardships and eventually was able to work his way up to being a strategist for the emperor until the day of his death.
The current him had only encountered one setback in his life and was still waiting out his time to recover his position but Ki who was an old and experienced soul had taken advantage of his low position and his ideals by offering him a more realistic direction to take with his knowledge.
If he could not survive in the capital then he would have to find another place to use his brain and push his own ideals.
Ki seemed to be willing to listen to his opinion since she directly offered him a high position despite him being from a common background and the family did have a long family history and some potential so he couldn't help but be tempted.
The next day he reported to the Bombyx mansion to meet with Agnes and began to make some suggestions on how to best improve the defences within the village to best make use of the forest terrain and best places to install traps around the mansion walls.