Legend of Ransera

"Mm, yes, yes, all right..." His thoughts continued as he sipped upon his doppelbock. "I will speak to both your superior officers this week and schedule the tour of the riverland forts before summer has passed. You and Kämpfer can enjoy the flights, and then schmooze with the soldiers in the forts and let me know what their higher ups aren't telling me. I should introduce you to Commander Benedikt Reichart. He's our man manning the eastern border at the moment. Started ZDC, then transferred to ZADC and that's when I met him. Good man, and knows how it is as a ground-pounder and a flyboy or whatever you all call us when we piss you off."

He laughed. Reichart too was one of his hidden eyes and ears, a sort of internal affairs with regard to the military. Eitan may have ceded the highest seat to a more veteran officer of the ZDC for political reasons, but he wasn't about to give away all the power.

There was a knock at the door. The servants were in the habit of not coming in without affirmative consent whenever the master of the house was ensconced with another officer or member of the Order lest they be discussing state secrets. When Eitan called out, the door opened and the bloodborn Lysanrin boy came in with a hopeful little smile. This house had previously belonged to a man with a strange fetish for Lysanrin slaves. While Eitan was not particularly fond of Lysanrin, slavery was illegal. When he brought the man to justice, the Order had acquired the estate and sold it to him so he could maintain the lifestyle that would allow him to spy upon his fellow bluebloods.

Most of the Lysanrin had remained, considering him their savior. He laughed it off still, uncomfortable, but didn't have the heart to send them away.

"Yes, Devil, what is it?"

"Miss Luca says it's time for supper," he said quietly, more shy because Reiner was there than anything else.

"Yes, all right. Tell her we'll finish our beers and come straight away."

"Yes, sir." He disappeared. The door closed behind him.

"Didn't mean to inherit a passel of horn-heads, but... they didn't have anything." He sighed, very noblesse oblige "Anyway, the heat's easier with the wind in your hair, so we'll fly south and I'll introduce you to Benno next time he's in the city..."

"Fotzen," he repeated, and barked a laugh. "Aren't we just?"

As for Devil and his ilk, he nodded graciously. Not learning the lad's name was, perhaps, an unnecessary power move given their disparate social standing, but the lad seemed to receive it like a golden retriever puppy.

"Despite the failures of the Florian Albrecht project... did I ever tell you about that one?" He grimaced, but mostly because his hard work had gone for naught and he still didn't understand why Brenner had trusted him with a government position. "Anyway, these are the good ones. They know they are lucky to be here, to have work, and all that. They can be trained, if not to be full citizens, then at least to contribute to the whole."

But perhaps that tale would come at another time. He downed his beer as well, standing. There was food to be had, more to be drunk, conversations to be had, and then tickling the cheeks of the little ones before they were put to bed. Then, likely, there would be more drinking and something to smoke, and hopefully a Stefan sighting.