Alice leaned back in the chair behind her desk. She rested her cheek on her hand with her right elbow on the arm. She was quietly in thinking.

Robert was an acquaintance of hers. When she was 16 years old, she went to pacify an uprising by farmers as Edward VIII’s representative. She almost died on that trip, but luckily the lower-level and intermediate-level leaders did not really want to fight against the empire. Under their protection, Alice was not only safe, but also stopped the riot. Robert was one of the intermediate-level leaders. 

After that trip, Alice started to worry about her future because her father, Edward VIII, went against his own promise. After the peasant army was dismissed, Edward VIII killed most of the leaders who had agreed to work for the empire. Only a few of them escaped after they heard the bad news that their peers had been killed. By the time Alice found out, she was not able to help them. When others needed her, she could be a leader with great power. However, when others did not need her, she was just a weak girl without any power. How could she protect others if she could not even protect herself?

Anfey had said that a person was stupid if he kept doing the same thing over and over and expected a different result. Alice believed it. Because of her previous lessons, she secretly trained dwarves and gnomes after she joined the League of Mercenaries, even though Anfey did not think they were any good. She did not want to burn her bridges even after she decided to join the league.

Alice was very careful to train the dwarves and gnomes in secret. Anfey had not been informed that the dwarves and gnomes had formed an organization in Moramatch. If dwarves and gnomes were brought above ground, they would be weak compared to regular army. However, they could secretly and skillfully move around underground. Without their permission, no one could go into the underground city. The underground city was also the last secret place Alice kept for herself.

She did not plan on betraying Anfey. She did it only for her own safety. If she had to betray Anfey, it would be based on premise that Anfey betrayed and dumped her first. She knew the secret underground city would not keep her safe for more than a few days if Anfey wanted to attack her with his strong power. However, she would rather die in the underground city than be controlled by others. Working for Anfey was her only and last option. If she worked for him with all her heart but in return was betrayed and deserted, she would be totally disappointed with this world and would not care if she died.

Now, with the rapid development of the League of Mercenaries, her power was getting stronger and stronger. She managed more and more people in the league. Therefore, she seemed to be more involved in the league.

Maybe because the League of Mercenaries was such a new organization, it was quite different than the gloomy countries that had existed there for many years. Many things that were disdained by so-called politicians touched Alice. She had never seen those things before in her country.

What stood out the most was sincerity. All the leaders of the League of Mercenaries treated each other with sincerity. They rarely had any office politics. Anfey with Christian, Ozzic with Ye, and Hui Wei were Hagan were like brothers. However, in Alice’s country, she only saw brothers fighting for power.

Christian sometimes fought with Alice because they held different opinions on things, but he never tried to ruin her reputation. He only wanted to find the best solution to the problem. Chief of Staff Hui Wei always tracked her and reported it to Anfey. He did not mean to spy on her. Every time when she struggled with a case or dealing with a person, Anfey always appeared in time to support her. Suzanna came to talk to her a lot. Suzanna never posed as the wife of Anfey in order to preach to her, but rather chatted with her as a friend. Suzanna always felt bad coming to bother her, so she always asked Alice if she was bothering her or distracting Alice from the work.

Anfey had talked to Alice a few times to ask her to only pay attention to big issues and delegate power to other people to handle little things. He told her that everyone only had so much time to manage every day. If she kept being too detail-oriented, she would be exhausted to death. He also told her a great man in history died from exhaustion. Alice did not know which dynasty the man Anfey talked about was from, nor where he was. Anfey had always appeared to be aloof when they were alone, but she knew he cared about her, which already made her quite happy.

Another reason she got involved more with the league was the crush she had. There was an old saying that all young men had crushes for girls, while all girls secretly craved love. Young girls usually paid attention to the best guys around their age. Even though a girl knew it was just a secret and bitter crush, she would rather be alone than date any boy. Alice had better taste than regular girls. She could not fall for just any ordinary guys. Unfortunately, Anfey had already found his love.

Alice saw Robert. Even though Robert did not hide his history, she was still scared, because the few peasant leaders who ran away and survived definitely hated her very much. They even planned to a.s.sa.s.sinate her. They believed in Alice’s promises and chose to work for the empire. Edward VIII’s crime was unfairly put on Alice. In those peasant leaders’ eyes, they must have thought she was a mean and vicious woman.

Anfey did not tell Alice what he and Robert had been talking about, but Alice could tell Robert posed as if he had less power than Anfey. She was afraid Robert might say something bad about her to Anfey and ruin the happiness and trust she enjoyed now. Anfey had a sophisticated mind, but Alice did not even consider whether Anfey would believe Robert because she panicked.

Her door was pushed open. A middle-aged mage was brought in by mercenaries. Alice looked up and smiled. "Mr. Hesier, what is going on?" Anthony trusted Hesier a lot. Hesier was also a commander of a squad under Anthony’s mercenary group. She had seen Hesier a few times before.

"Master Alice, how are you?" Hesier bowed. "Commander asked me to bring a few people in. It’s urgent. Is Master Anfey here?"

"Don’t you know Anfey had an appointment to fight Manstuly? He has already headed off." Alice smiled. In fact, Anfey needed to go to the headquarters of Death Roaring Legion soon after he received an urgent mail from Baery. Anfey was going to leave tonight. Alice could not let anyone see Anfey at that moment.

"Master Anthony told me to speak with you if Master Anfey were not here," Hesier said quietly. "Master, they are outside. Should I let them in?"

"Yes." Alice nodded at the mercenaries.

After a while, two men in swordsman uniforms were brought in by mercenaries. They smiled and acted very humble.

Alice did not feel like anything was wrong. She was the CEO with a lot of power, so many people were nervous in front her. "What is going on?"

Hesier looked around first and seemed to be hesitant to talk with mercenaries around.

"You guys can leave for now." Alice waved her hands. Hesier was Anthony’s henchman, so she believed she could trust him as well. White Mountain City was a safe place. Alice never worried about her safety.

The mercenaries left the room. Hesier said slowly, "Take the letter out and show it to the Master."

One of the swordsmen walked to Alice. He took out a letter and carefully put it on the table. Alice picked up the letter. As she was ready to open it, the swordsman suddenly threw himself at Alice. He covered Alice’s mouth with one hand and squeezed her neck with his arm. 

Alice was shocked and scared. She immediately tried to kick the desk to make some noise, but a magic screen appeared and covered the four of them underneath it.

In the blink of an eye, Alice’s arms were tied tightly behind her back. She laid on her stomach on the floor. Her kicks looked weak.

"Master Hesier, the general said this woman was the trouble. We have to kill her." A swordsman talked to Hesier with a sinister smile. Alice’s heart dropped after she heard their conversation. Alice wondered what general they were talking about.

Hesier shook his head. "Don’t forget, your army is still in the Blackwater City and your supply chain has been cut off. Our madam has the say on this issue now."

The swordsman prepared to reply, but the other swordsman gave him a look. The facts supported Hesier. At that moment, the army with several hundred thousand people needed supplies from Ellisen Empire. No one knew whether Princess Nis.h.i.+eva represented Ellisen Empire’s royalty. They did not want to take the risk.

"You guys wait outside first." Hesier signaled them by pursing his lips.

The two swordsmen smiled bitterly. They glanced at Alice and unwillingly moved outside of the magic screen. One of them turned around before he walked out and said, "Master Hesier, please make it quick."

Hesier walked around Alice, again with a sinister smile on his face. A magic crystal appeared in his hand. "My princess, I believe you have seen this before. What a luxury."

Alice was not in the mood to talk with Hesier. She struggled to move her arms to try to break herself free. She kept knocking the floor with her feet, hoping the mercenaries outside the room could hear her. Unfortunately, all the sounds were absorbed by the magic screen.

As Hesier chanted in a deep pitch, the magic crystal lit up. "This memory magic crystal will record what is going to happen between us. Hehehe, wow! Your pubic hair looks so clean. You look like a virgin. I am so lucky." Hesier touched Alice smooth cheek as he talked.

After hearing what Hesier said, Alice got so angry that her eyes seemed to pop out. She almost pa.s.sed out from the rage. When intelligence fought with force, intelligence seemed so weak. Right now Alice could only struggle. She tried harder to make noise with her feet to the floor. She even tried to knock the floor with her head.

"Don’t be like this. It hurts me too when I see you hurting yourself." Hesier laughed exaggeratedly. He bent down and grabbed Alice’s hair. A bottle of potion appeared in the other hand. He poured it into Alice’s nostrils. Alice choked and trembled from it. Hesier talked to her in a nicer way this time though. "Be good. Suck it all in. It will make the movie more entertaining. If others could tell you are forced, it would lose the fun of it."