"Oh she's the owner of the brothel we went to yesterday."
'Oh god not again' was Kyle's thought to this proud statement Dylan had said. Looking around he could see several different reactions. A lot of the men had a proud look on their faces while nodding towards Kyle. His father was included in this while his face said 'look my boys already a man'.
A lot of the women were looking at Dylan with disbelieving faces, how could a child enjoy the services provided at a brothel and would they serve them. They were confused however as Lady Sparrow was here and she didn't deny anything adding to the general confusion and chaos.
The final group was much smaller than the others and included Shauna, Miranda, Clara and Maria while Faye was just trying to make herself as small as possible.
"My dear son do you have anything you want to tell us?" Maria asked with a smile which wasn't a smile. While she may be innocent in regards to some relationships she did know about brothels and what they catered for.
"Yes mother I will explain but first, DYLAN CAN YOU NOT SAY THINGS LIKE THAT TO MY MOTHER."
Dylan was surprised that he got shouted at and looked at everyone else who was now staring at him. He began to replay what he'd said in his head and couldn't find anything false in what he said.
"What's wrong Kyle we did visit there yesterday?"
"Yes for a specific purpose not to use the services."
With a dawning look of horror on his face Dylan realised why he was now on the spot and began to panic.
"NONONONONO I didn't mean it like that I mean we did go to the slave sale but only after we did our business."
This was going from bad to worse. As Dylan was panicking he was digging a worse hole than he had already done. Dylan was a good and honest man but his straightforward and literal thinking had caused him problems before but no one could hate him it, he was just a little nice but dim sometimes.
"Dylan stop I will explain what we were doing there once everyone has dispersed is that okay mom, dad?"
They both nodded as they could see Kyle was serious this time. It probably had something to do with his plans so he didn't want to say too much as not everyone had a seal to prevent the spread of sensitive information.
Seeing Kyle clam up a few people wanted to tease him as this wasn't a chance they had every day but they were stopped by Zak who cleared his throat. He stood up and everyone became quiet as he was now the manager everyone went to him with issues which had led to a joint decision last night after Kyle had left them.
"Excuse me Lord Kyle but I have been delegated as the representative of your production and household crew is that okay with you."
As they really weren't allowed to form a guild or union as they were just helpers who were taken in by the Powell family this was something new. Landon wanted to know what was going to happen so he sat back and wanted to see how this would play out.
Kyle nodded to Zak and indicated he should carry on. There had to be a reason they needed a representative and as Zak had given him his oath Kyle felt he could trust him.
"Well sir we were speaking last night as to why you had placed a servant seal on the guards and how it works. We then got onto why you hadn't placed a seal on everyone and I explained it was due to the fact that it wasn't needed and you would give techniques and resources as required."
"Yes correct so far, also if everyone knows you have limited access to my techniques and those who have higher access are sealed there will be no reason to attack you. It isn't perfect but it will give you all a certain amount of protection."
"Well that's the thing sir, nobody wants protection so last night everyone unanimously voted to take a servant seal so we can properly follow and support you."
When Zak said this all the unsealed members including the children stood up and gave the new salute Kyle had shown them by placing their right fist above their heart.
Kyle was shocked by this looking around he saw Maria and Landon were both amazed. These people were voluntarily submitting themselves to have a seal placed on them. The ones who were the most surprised were the new additions however.
Who wanted to be sealed it was a sign of ownership but here everyone wanted it. What was with their new owner? The 'shadow hand' was also hoping for a chance now as they saw these people, maybe they could be more than they had been before.
Kyle couldn't help but smile at his people, they would go this far for him. He still didn't realise this trust and faith was aided by a passive energy his soul exuded. It gave people he saw as friends and family a sense of belonging. It was still to be seen if the reverse was also true as Kyle hadn't been truly angry yet.
He didn't hang around so as soon as everyone was finished he cast a seal on those present, so the only one who was unsealed was Chad. Kyle told him he should wait until his sister recovered before he decided.
Once everything was settled everyone trooped out to the training areas and began their daily training. As before the guards would train most of the day while the non-combatants would only train for 2 hours. Included with the guards were the new arrivals and the 'shadow hand'.
As the training was progressing Kyle also began selecting people to use the new training facilities. The pressure room was very good for physical training while the sparring ring with its protection and healing arrays was a big hit.
Kyle had a whale of a time demonstrating its abilities and the fact you wouldn't be truly hurt and would just feel a certain amount of pain. Of course his training partner was Dylan who learned a lesson that day 'don't tell Kyle's mom stuff'.
On one of their breaks Kyle took his parents aside to discuss with them his reason for visiting the brothel and why the madam and her assistant were now his servants.
"Well simply put I made a deal, currently we are in an unknown situation with unknown enemies due to lack of information. However you may dislike prostitutes can get a lot of information from their clients. So Lady Sparrow is going to head up my intelligence division with backup from the former bandits, they've been named 'shadow hand' and will take control of the criminal underworld in our city."
Kyle wanted his team to be the best but he also knew people needed to specialise so his guards would be similar to infantry while the 'shadow hand' would be more like the CIA in that they would operate covertly appearing as another gang until they had fully seized control.
Finally Kyle had the new additions. The ladies were to be his final defence and also he wanted them to operate in the shadows. They would be his spies and assassins as the need arose. This would take time to establish but now one group would be stronger than the other they would just deal with different operations.
Landon and Maria could see the utility of this operation so didn't make it difficult for Kyle except when his mother leaned down and spoke quietly in his ear.
"Well dear when the time comes you shouldn't need to visit such an establishment as there seems to be a few young ladies willing to fill that spot for you."
She looked pointedly to Clara and Miranda who were watching them from the distance. Kyle began to blush furiously before he almost ran from his mother while he tried to find Dylan to train with him a little more.
Once the training was over everyone dispersed to do their duties. While the new girls would be maids on paper, there really wasn't a need for them as the mansion largely cleaned itself. The only real jobs were washing clothes and preparing food. Everyone was expected to maintain their rooms to a certain degree. So instead they carried on training with the new technique they were shown earlier.
Kyle went to the burned girl and wanted to check how well the technique could deal with her injuries.
"Do you mind if I inspect your injuries?"
The girl looked towards him but didn't respond so Kyle took this as permission and lifted her hand. The skin was cracked and hard but the out scarring was beginning to loosen. Kyle checked where the scar tissue returned to normal skin and could see new skin was beginning to appear underneath as the scarring was starting to lift at the edges.
"Excellent if you have any questions or if you notice anything strange just let me know."
Kyle didn't want to say anything about the healing properties of his technique just in case she couldn't be fully healed. Kyle had also checked on the one armed guard. Within his spirit realm the phantom landscape was gaining more definition and looked like glass rather than mist and it seemed to be filling in faster now.
Again Kyle didn't say anything because he didn't know how far the healing would go but he did have hope for these poor people.
Finished with his rounds Kyle finally got to Miranda. She was sitting with Clara and Bruno who wanted to see this breakthrough as Kyle had been on about it for a while now. Bruno was the first to speak.
"Well it's about damn time."
Anyone got any ideas for the assassin maid group name?