My name is Albert White, some know me as the undefeated King of White, some know me as the most renowned information broker on this side of Manhattan.

  And the people who are more in the know, the people that matter, the movers and the powers to be know me as someone else, something... more.

  I am a Fifth Circle Knight, people who know about this level of prowess know to turn away whenever I am nearby, lest they incur my wrath. And even those who don't know fully what it means to be a Knight that managed to arrive to the Fifth Circle. Know better than to get in my path.

  For a Knight that has achieved the fifth circle means that I am a powerhouse in my own merit. More so because this was achieved by stacking only one type of power to myself, in a nutshell, this makes me something akin to a glass cannon. But even so, a cannon pointed at your face is still something very dangerous if not taken adequate precautions.

  A knight differs greatly from the Mages. And not in the fact that a knight is a warrior wearing armor and a mage is a scholar wearing robes. We do not live in ancient times. The distinction is more of what way we use to move our Mana and not as much as what we do with it.

  A mage gets their circle and builds it up upon a spell type or a spell elemental manipulation. Nowadays, mages instruct their acolytes to make their first circle mana sense or mana perception.

  While most Knights tell their squires to pick Strength Up or Amp. That is because our methodology is that different.

  I more than anyone am vastly different from my peers in this case too, for you see, I didn't pick up the easy path to power. While the other kids that were training to be knights picked up Strength up or amp, I picked Speed up.

  A mage can build their first circle wherever they want it, for it will not affect them greatly. The mages of old sometimes built up their first circle in the palm of their hands as to cast their spell faster and get some help with the aiming. Nowadays, mages build them in their heart or head.

  I personally suspect that creating a Mana Core and Mana Circle in your head can't be healthy, but that is the opinion of a Knight, and most mages would disregard me as an uneducated brute at best. So who I am to call them out for making chunks of crystal inside their brain?

  Nonetheless, most laughed at my decision of picking the Spell 'Speed up' for my first circle. Why?

  Simple, a Knight and a Mage at the first circle are basically the same, we both just got our first spell and we cast it the same, a Mage acolyte would raise the palm in which they engraved 'Fireball' and cast it from there.

  So where would I engrave 'Speed up' to make the most out of it?

  My right leg.

  My first circle spell 'Speed up' was engraved in my left foot to be precise. They all laughed all right, the dumb kid who engraved a speed boost who wouldn't be able to aim or control.

  And they were right, the boost of Speed up is too much for a normal human brain to control, there was no way in hell I would be able to run with it, most of the time mages used this as a way to escape, and they more often than not used it with 'Fly' so they could aim the boost of Speed upwards and away from whatever they were running away.

  Unlike them I had no access to such spell, and jumping up really didn't work that well with only one leg, that is unless you weren't intending to jump far. Short distance jumps it worked like a charm, and so, that is what I did.

  Used the spell, jump forward at ungodly speeds and bash whatever was in my way, that was how I got a fame for being fast and people couldn't really understand how I was doing it. And no one was mad enough to try and do it like me.

  Who would want to risk their path to power like this?

  The second circle was a repetition of the first, letting me do a second jump mid-jump to change direction.

  The third and fourth were more normal, 'Agility' that let me move my arms fast enough to somewhat stabilize my running and attack at speeds faster than what most of my enemies could react to.

  Finally the fifth circle being Haste synergized the other four letting me react and move as I wish at great speeds.

  One would think that this would make me a powerhouse by itself, that very few others could match my prowess. And that would be true, most Mages aren't fast enough to react to my attacks, and while the average knight is able to outstrip me in physical might.

  They can't kill what they can't hit, and I sure as hell can bleed them to death.

  Even so, I would never claim to be the most powerful person, not even by a long shot. Why? Because I have seen the true peak of power, the might of someone who could take human lives and mold them as putty.

  You would think I speak of one of the other capos, or perhaps I speak about one of those ancient monsters that are still sleeping in their ancient towers in the old continent.

  Was it the head of the Greenvale family? Jack Greenvale? Nay.

  Was it the head of the Striker Family? Mathew Striker? Nay.

  It was not one of the Colored capos, such a silly nomenclature for hardened mafiosos, but it made them more palatable to the populace and harder for the police to paint them in a bad image, it was harder to take seriously someone if your name was linked to a color such as pink after all.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  No, the true danger that I had seen came from a place no person ever would think to see, a place so unexpected at first that I had almost thought it was but a dream... or a nightmare as it was.

  You see, besides being the most renowned King of White, leader of The White Family, commonly known as The White Concord, the other identity I hold is perhaps the most important. I am... a father.

  A widowed father.

  My wife died and left me with our sole daughter, and I have struggled to raise her the best possible way that I can. Some may interpret that as me struggling to take care of a young child who wished to spend time with her mother. And while Trixie (My daughter) may be like that, the issues that I need to deal with are so far removed from what a normal parent should have, that it isn't even funny anymore. Why you ask?

  I will not pretend to say that my daughter is smarter than other children, I know what kind of daughter I have, that is not the issue, even if she were dumb as a rock, I would still care for her, no, the issue is more primal than that.

  My daughter is special, very special. Not because she is my daughter, nor because I have some false belief that she is smart, again, that is not the issue.

  The issue here is that my daughter is... We don't know if she was born like this or developed at a later date because of some mystical alignment of the stars in the sky. But Trixie has a Circle within her body, one that she didn't carve.

  Was it from birth or not? It matters not, what is important here is that Trixie has powers that no child should have. And that is coming from someone whose first circle spell was something only Third or Fourth Circle mages dared to use.

  She called it 'The ToyBox'; we don't know if that is the name of the spell or what, but what we know is that it lets her expand her imagination into reality and twist the rules and fabric of our reality to align with what she perceives.

  We aren't aware if she achieves this by twisting our perception and merely making us believe what she is doing or did is reality, making this a very powerful (But ultimately an illusion) mind control spell...

  Or if she is really twisting reality to her whims, most of the mages I came to ask about if this was possible disregarded it as an impossibility, there is no way a normal human could wield these kind of powers they said.

  That is the realm of the mythical Thirteen Circle, they said.

  Of course, Trixie is no normal circle mage or knight, she is one of those that wield the special circle we call Origin.

  A Zeroth Circle user.

  I could not reveal this however, for two simple reasons. The first was that doing so would make Trixie a target, they would try to take her from me, my daughter, my family. I would not risk her to undue harm. The second reason was, because it would make them want to study her.

  And... that never ended well, we attempted it once, got her teachers and the works, Trixie made them into their playthings, not playmates, not playfriends, she literally made them into her playthings.

  The first teacher I became aware that she had turned into a toy was saved as soon as I could convince Trixie to return her to normal, a sweet woman called Margareth... Only Margareth.

  She was too nervous to say anything else, to work anywhere else, she is now one of our maids working in the kitchen, the happiest woman I ever seen. She sneaks Trixie pastries and juice every now and then.

  But you see, that was the first we became aware, that is important. We became aware, Trixie always had toys in her room, plushies, toy cars, soldiers, tea sets... Her room and playroom always was furnished, and yet.

  We can't be sure which one is a toy we bought her, and which one is... a toy she made.

  Asking her to make all the toys into humans does not work, because she will literally make that, turn a toy that wasn't human into a human. From where cames the mind and soul of that toy?

  That is something we wish to not know.

  But we managed to find some rules to it, basically, anything that Trixie thought was a rule affected how her power worked, if we told her she couldn't affect someone, that person would become immune to the effects. The first thing we did when finding that was making myself and some advisors fully immune to the effects of Trixie's ToyBox. What we found was that she used her powers on the daily, whenever we were eating something she didn't like the food would change.

  Whenever Trixie saw someone she didn't like? That person would suddenly vanish and be replaced by someone else. All the knights of our family slowly changed and soon they all followed the same aesthetics.

  It was a nightmare, it was hard to know for sure at what point the changes had begun and what was actually part of our family. Trixie herself didn't know the answer to that question, for her everything was normal after all.

  It took some time, but we managed to redefine Trixie's Toybox. The first step was to convince her it would look 'Cooler' if there were visual effects whenever she used her magic.

  Soon whenever she changed someone there would be a visual cue, but that was not enough, for if no one was paying attention then it would be meaningless.

  The second step was to make Trixie's Toybox something that was limited by range, we managed to convince her that it would make it even cooler if the effect couldn't leave a determined area. The size of the area then needed to be shrunk so it would make it more 'impactful'.

  And that was how we ended arriving at the point were we stand today.

  Trixie had become an usable asset for the White Family, the plan was to teach her restraint while slowly showing her what was an acceptable use of her magic, showing her restraint and such.

  Did it work? To some degree, Trixie stopped doing the more extreme things outside in the open, her magic still leaked, and she could still change and alter mundane people, but if you held a circle? Trixie needed to get close and personal, at least if it was to be made permanent.

  We at least managed to get her to not use her powers outside of the Manor of White...

  As for how we were before? That was anyone's guess. It was pointless to wonder if we weren't able to get that back, and as far as the world at large was aware, we always were the white family. So whatever change Trixie had made to us couldn't be that extreme.

  After all, Trixie was, above all. A child.

  A normal child who was spending her time playing with her new Nanny in the yard.

  "Report," A Nanny that no amount of money could hire, under normal circumstances.

  "Mary Lindon Tayer, her credentials align with what the Tower has in record." Sebastian answered promptly the results of his latest mission, "She was in the area to check on her new charge. Was checking on Eliza Greenvale when she came in contact with information about Lady Trixie."

  "Eliza is sixteen, and we already knew that. The Nanny herself told us that." The fact that the Greens wanted this woman as their Nanny, even though Eliza was in the age of looking for marriage partners was telling.

  "The Greens are filing complaints to the Tower. And some are suggesting that Miss Mary teach Lady Eliza in the afternoon while she cares for Lady Trixie the rest of the day." Sebastian passed on a folder to him, it had some contracts and a few compensations prepared by the Greens. "They are willing to offer those concessions."

  "They are willing to 'Give us' Chinatown and Tribeca?" The papers basically said they would not compete with us for Chinatown that was between their territory and ours, and would help us in securing Tribeca which was near the territory of the Reds, "They can't be serious."

  "They are willing to get it notarized by the Pink and enforce it by the black." Sebastian provided the signed paper with the emblems of both organizations.

  The Pink... Meaning we would have the bank as guarantor and the only other information organization capable of competing with us. The Greens had managed to get both money and public opinion as guarantees of their dedication.

  "And the Nanny has said anything?" That was the most important thing here, if they offered her that much...

  "She said this morning that she would not do anything that could risk Lady White's education," Sebastian had been the one that spoke with her this morning, since he had more serious things to deal with. "If... we do not show the willingness to concede on these matters, it would end up in war."

  "They attacked us first." They dared attack his daughter's birthday party and then ask for concessions? They should be paying up reparations first. "Tell the Greens that if the Nanny wishes to teach their Princess she can do so. We will not prevent the Nanny from doing whatever she wants with her free time."

  "Your will shall be done," Sebastian bowed one last time before leaving the room.

  Leaving him once more alone.

  This morning had been spent speaking with the multiple leaders of the neutral houses; he had not visited the houses of Green, Red, and Blue. Since those were the more antagonistic towards the White.

  The Black and Pink hadn't said anything when he visited them, and neither had the Purple. But he hadn't expected allies there, he just wanted to ensure these vultures wouldn't attack them if a war did break out.

  The fact that all the data they managed to get about the Nanny didn't include what circle she was... meant that at the very least she would be a fourth or fifth circle. Meaning she was the best kind of bodyguard they could get.

  Not that he would trust his daughter to an unknown factor. No, the bodyguards would still remain.

  The only question left would be if she was going to become an ally to Trixie and the house of white... or remain as a wild card.