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For one thing, just knowing that his kin were still stuck in Miro was kind of a downer. It was tough to relax even for a moment when he knew that he could've been working, instead. Time was precious, after all.

And for another thing, the city itself seemed to have changed. It had become significantly tenser, Raul thought. At first, he thought that the battle at Miro might somehow be responsible for this shift, but he soon learned otherwise.

It was the RPMP. The Ridgemark Private Military Police. They had begun openly clashing with the VMP near the city limits. And as a result, the RPMP's presence within the city had increased dramatically.

They were worried about spies and saboteurs.

Plus, there were both Vanguardian and Abolish forces in the city, too. They weren't fighting, but that was only because of the RPMP. If that grip loosened, then Ridgemark would almost certainly turn into a battleground, too.

All things considered, it was a nutty situation, Raul knew. Four different armies, all in such close proximity. Five, including the Rainlords. How the RPMP had managed to keep the peace this long, Raul had no idea. It was certainly impressive, though.

And to top it off, the city was still accepting tourists like everything was fine. Every casino Raul visited was packed with people, even more than he remembered.

It was not, however, merely due to his own skill as an intelligence gatherer that he was able to learn so much about the difficult situation in Ridgemark, at the moment. That had been part of it, of course, but he couldn't rightly ignore the more obvious reason.

The RPMP had made contact with him directly.

He didn't actually get complete confirmation that it was them, but it was the only thing that made any sense. Of the other three factions in the city, only Abolish might have been able to identify him at all, and even that was unlikely. He had almost never removed Invisibility during the fighting.