"Did you get anything?" Papa said turning his attention to Trixie, the baddies had left and the party was starting to fade out. The toys she had removed had to be returned to the ToyBox lest they started getting ideas.

  All the toys that Trixie forgot to save always did the same, they for some reason started complaining about being 'Real people' and 'Wanting to return home to their families'.

  Silly toys, they weren't real people, if they were real people then Trixie wouldn't be able to stow them into her ToyBox! Only toys could be stowed into the ToyBox, everyone knew that!

  "They are baddies," Trixie said full of confidence, only to think back on what she had seen and felt while Papa talked ot them, "Right?"

  "Sebastian." Papa called and the Knight came to his side, "Did they do anything?"

  "Not that we could find out," The Butler of white answered, bowing, "We sent all the Knights with perception-enhanced circles to check and make sure, but as far as we could find."

  Trixie nodded, that seemed what she would have expected, it was impossible that one of her toys would be able to find something that Trixie wasn't able to find.

  The world didn't work like that, what kind of place would it be if the toys were better than the owner, heh, it wouldn't do.

  "A couple claimed to feel like they were being observed from afar, but we took that under suggestions rather than anything, as these haven't been inducted quite yet." The Butler said pointing to the far end of the dance hall, where a couple of very jumpy rookies stood. Trixie didn't like those, they had arrived late at the party, but Papa was convinced getting new people was the way to go.

  She would just need to find sometime to check if they were toys or not, she had gotten a few of new toys like that, b ut not that many, and a couple of the rookies frens of them had left the next day running away and joining the greenies.

  So that was that, Papa had asked her to try her best and not play with the toys that joined this way, but if they were toys then they must be played with! That's the rule of the game!

  "Hmm.... did they elaborate?" Papa asked the Butler, "Or is it more people that can perceive Trixie's ToyBox?"

  Ah yeah, most of the time the not-toys were people like that, people that somehow knew a bout Trixie's ToyBox before she showed it to them.

  That had been weird. But it seemed to be a thing, at least it had been only a few times since they moved into the new mansion, but Trixie would get them all one of these days!

  She knew what they were, toy soldiers waiting to be put into one of Trixie's war campaigns! She was about to hit level 5 in the new campaign she was doing with Papa!

  "They didn't said, we went out of the state and check again when they left, and they all claimed the feeling ended when the greens left." The Butler added, "What are your orders sir?"

  Yeah! What was Trixie supposed to do?

  She looked around, and they were now alone; most of the toys had been removed already, and the few Knights and butlers were tidying up the room for normal use.

  "Prepare for war." Papa said in a coolz tone, "The greens got some information out as we feared, and I don't trust for a second that what they showed us was all."

  It wasn't?

  THEY LIED TO TRIXIE?!?!?!

  "Shall we strike first?" The Butler asked, was he dumb? Of course they would! They lied to Trixie!!!

  "No," Papa said shaking his head sideways, "We must prepare, if they manage to get the other major gangs into this then we may need to retreat more than we are allowed to."

  Retreat? But they were baddies! One didn't run away from baddies! That wasn't coolz!

  "Would that be... wise sir?" The Butler said moving his head as if he wanted to point to something, but the direction was wrong, silly Butler, the only thing in that direction was Trixie!

  "...Trixie, would you like your toys to be broken?" Papa asked, what did he meant?

  "Of course not," Trixie said shaking her head, "How is Trixie supposed to play if they break her toys?"

  "The baddies this time will do just that if they gang up on us." Papa said that, and standing up from his chair, he moved beside Trixie, "I don't want them to get close to you in case they try to scold you."

  Scold trixie?

  Even though she was this cute?

  "So if they try to gang up on us, we may need to relocate." Papa said, closing his eyes and kneeling beside Trixie, "Is that okay?"

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  No.

  "We can't!" Trixie said shaking, "What... What about the house?"

  The house was important! They couldn't leave it for too long! She wouldn't be able to come back if they left! All Trixie's friends wouldn't be able to come back!

  "... The house... I will miss the mansion too, but your security is more important Trixie." Papa said shaking his head once again, but he didn't get it!

  Trixie didn't care for the stupid mansion! Her house was more important! The bed that Papa used to snuggle her in was more important!

  "No!" So she refused, "PAPA IS A DUMMY!"

  And saying that Trixie stood up from the chair and jumped away, running away and outside the mansion.

  They couldn't leave their house! That was wrong!

  She wouldn't be able to find Trixie if they left! Trixie's friends couldn't come to play with her again if they left!

  Trixie had been going to their home every day just because of that, to wait and see if she would come back! To see if her friends would come back!

  The baddies had taken them away from Trixie, but she knew they would come back if she was a good girl! She had said that!

  "I don't want to leave... mama...." Trixie wouldn't leave their home, not till she came back.

  -------------------------------------------------------------

  "Sir... was that wise?" Sebastian asked as soon as Trixie left the dancing hall, all the butlers and knights bearing the white emblem on their clothes stood frozen for a few minutes after she left.

  He already knew that would happen, this always happened whenever Trixie's mental state fluctuated too much. After a moment they would start moving as usual again.

  "She needs to know it's a possibility." He answered as such, Albert White knew his daughter the most, she was a handful of a girl, but she was also way more mature than she let on, he hated that. "She will come around it."

  A hand gesture towards one of the Knights of white near the door got him a nod, and the Knight left his spot, only for it to be filled a second later.

  They would ensure Trixie was safe and sound, she already had some bodyguards as the daughter of a Colored Boss, but he couldn't be sure her bodyguards wouldn't be affected by Trixie's emotional state.

  It was a lamentable side effect of their rise to power, they wouldn't be able to keep this level of power without the help of Trixie's power. But that also meant that those under the effects of her powers were susceptible to Trixie's mood.

  It was how they managed to get this many Knights, but also meant that all the power of the White Concord was under Trixie's command, if it wasn't for the fact that he trusted Trixie implicitly... He could imagine how that would have looked otherwise.

  "She ran once again to the shed." Sebastian suddenly said, bringing him out of his reverie, for some reason Trixie always ran to play at that shed at least once every day. There was nothing special about that shed, but for some reason Trixie always ran there.

  Some of the servants even found her sleeping in a rugged and dirty blanket in one of the drawers in the shed, barely big enough for Trixie to fit in.

  She was weird like that in some aspects of her life, but that was how it was with kids, sometimes they didn't want to wear dresses because they didn't have enough gems, and sometimes they wanted to sleep in a drawer of a wardrobe.

  "Keep her under surveillance, make sure at least half the guard detail are people who weren't affected by Trixie's power." He gave the order as usual, he didn't mind it if the people serving him had been affected by Trixie's power. It was harder to find someone who hadn't been touched by it like him.

  But if they all were under her power and someone managed to block it (Something that they didn't think was possible till today), Trixie would need someone who could still fight even if her power was blocked.

  A countermeasure that he hadn't thought would ever be needed, thanks to the Greens he now knew that it was a good countermeasure.

  "What do you think about the information we got out of Darian?" Albert asked Sebastian, one of the few that could be said that hadn't been affected by Trixie's power.

  "We need more verification, but I think it is safe to assume he didn't lie to us." Sebastian answered as such.

  Albert thought the same; he didn't have any reason to lie to them, and that would explain how the few who weren't affected by Trixie's power had remained so.

  Sebastian (Like himself) hadn't allowed Trixie to help them with the making of new Circles. Most of the people under their care had accepted the gift when Trixie offered it.

  And as such, they were under Trixie's control, whether they knew it or not.

  He himself had been tempted by the sweet allure of an easy way to power after all, it was only his pride that had prevented him from accepting it.

  "What should we do then?" Albert asked sighing, if their knowledge about Circles was this incomplete... they were at a very stark disadvantage after all, they had barely arrived to this place a year ago.

  "We could seek alliances." Sebastian pointed out, "Surely not all will align themselves with the Greens."

  Albert thought about that, who could be their ally?

  The Red and Blue could be dismissed, they had aligned themselves with the Greens once. They had helped the Greens kill all the Yellow family, and exiled the survivors.

  That left Pink, Purple and Black.

  "Do you think the Purple or Pink will want to make an alliance?" Albert asked his most loyal Knight.

  "The Purple may want to align his bets and information before deciding, we would need to showcase our worth first." Sebastian answered as thus after thinking for a few seconds, "The Pink will want guarantees first, be it in deeds or money, the black will not move."

  "That sounds about right," Albert also thought as much, "The Black will probably continue looking from afar, the thing is... to whom do we expose ourselves first? The Pink or the Purple..."

  If they chose wrong, it would spill disaster, more so because it would showcase their hand ahead of time before the war started, and if they picked one who had been aligned himself with the Greens... They would kickstart the war before being ready.

  "Who do you think is more likely to align themselves with the Greens?" Albert asked yet again, Sebastian was more than a Butler or a knight, he was his advisor, he deserved this much respect after all.

  "Probably the Pinks," Sebastian pointed to a newspaper in other of the tables, "The Purple is a gambler by nature, he may just as well have already made his bet, and since he didn't came to us... Chances are, they bet against us."

  That... was something Albert hadn't thought about, "Alliances could already be made." He was a new face in Manhattan after all, and the other six had lived here most of their lives.

  The fact that they could already have a standing alliance was something he hadn't thought of before, but it was obvious once one thought about it, hindsight truly was 20/20.

  "So the pinks don't do alliances?" Albert asked with some mirth in his voice.

  "They make contracts, and those expire unless you pay extra." Sebastian said laughing a little too loud, "So if we make a new contract with them, at the very least they will tell us straight if it conflicts with their contract, we just need to ensure that they don't leak the fact that we made a contract with them, then from there we can decide our next movement, be it making an alliance with the purples too, or seeing if the blue or red are open for negotiations."

  "I doubt the Blue will accept," Albert sighed at that. The son of the Blue head was one of the reasons the Yellow fell after all, so they were more aligned with the greens than ever, as they had reaped the rewards from that war. "The reds.... I am not very sure about it."

  They knew how that war had gone about and the results of course, it was relevant to them who had taken in the former territory of the Yellow Gang. But even so, they didn't clearly understand why the Reds had joined into the war as they did.

  They had scoured with more hatred than anyone else the former Family of Yellow.

  "Probably not," Sebastian also seemed to share his thoughts on this, "But we lose nothing by asking the Pink to check on it for us, they would do so even if we didn't ask anyway."

  They lost nothing except the surprise factor, but Sebastian was right, they only needed to ask via intermediary.

  "Do you think we can use Trixie's ToyBox to ensure their stance?" Albert knew that was a dream that had no hope of achieving success, not after Darian managed to stop Trixie's ToyBox.

  There was no way ahead wouldn't be able to do the same.

  "You know the answer, if they perceive Trixie as hostile or someone that isn't to be trusted, chances are the ToyBox will not work." Sebastian said sighing, "We finally found the way to prevent people from being affected and we can't use it."

  They had been trying to find a way to tame in the power, it was part of why they had set those rules for Trixie's ToyBox in the first place. At least they now knew they didn't work because Trixie wanted, but because the nature of the circle magic was like that.

  "Check once again with the Tower," Albert said after thinking about the issue, "Check if they can send a tutor for Trixie."

  It was time for Trixie to learn more about her Circle, if they went to war, Albert White wanted his daughter to be as ready as possible. So it was time for Trixie to learn about Magic, actual Magic.