Chapter 19:

Jay landed on the ground with a thump. He watched the mini golem vacuum up his new dedicated training room. Jay’s hut was looking more and more like a proper noble’s abode every day.

Olgar was running Jay’s ass ragged. Which is to say the training was very difficult. Not… well.

Even so, Jay had plenty to do. He had to send thousands of messages before the day was out.

Oh, the woes of the aspiring noble.

…

Strasso Olf, second cousin to Baron Olf, was having a confusing day. For his entire 50 year long life, Ruso Lake City and the surrounding area had been treated as an extension to Baron Olf’s territory.

That had changed today, City Lord Strasso had woken up to find that his city crystal had been dominated by a Barony crystal!

When he had cried out for a hunt of the bastard that had betrayed the city, his guard had the audacity to tell him that there were more important matters to attend to!

More important matters had apparently been to formalise this ‘Baron Northsand’ as the new owner of Ruso Lake City!

Strasso looked at the city council, what had normally been a place for allowing the well-to-do individuals of the city to voice their concerns had become a gathering place for his enemies.

Oh, and how many people had gathered!

Long time foes, such as the head of the Tax collectors and the representative of the farmers union stepped forward and made their demands known.

Strasso would have told the whole lot of them to sod off, if not for the fact that almost everyone there treated him as if he was an underling of this Baron already.

If not for the fact that ‘everyone’ included many people that could kill him on the spot, Strasso may have still caused a ruckus.

That ruckus would have died down when several of Strasso’s supposed allies betrayed him. People like the Commerce Guildmaster, Strasso’s Leading Merchant, and the Captain of the Guard made their ‘plans for the future’ known.

Strasso cursed them as snakes in the grass in his mind.

His plans of threatening the city back into his hand were dashed when the Baron’s men introduced themselves:

A retired general commanding a force of over 10,000 men.

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A captain helming the most imposing war vessel he’d ever seen.

A godsforsaken mages guild!

With so many forces moving in, Strasso’s hopes were dashed. It wasn’t that Baron Olf wasn’t able to defeat such foes. It was that such forces are enough to make threats moot.

At every turn, another plan was scrapped.

Rile the people at the hostile takeover? The Church supports the Baron.

Hope to leverage a trading ban? No, the enemy, and now the city, has access to the crystal trading function!

Call for legal recourse? Nay, of course the crystal we have been dominated to is the rightful owner of the land Ruso is on. Why wouldn’t that be the case?

Order his followers to shut down the administration? If only, half of Strasso’s followers were already discussing their new futures. Including some of Strasso’s closest advisors.

People were positively crawling out of the woodwork to ‘congratulate’ Strasso for allowing Baron Northsand control over his lands.

In the end, Strasso could only do one thing when he was called to the podium. “Ladies and gentlemen, it is my…”

And that was to take the way out left to him by Northsand, “honor to greet you this auspicious day! We, as a people, are finally declaring our independence from the Olf Barony. If we are to prosper as a…”

Olf told the entire room what they wanted to hear. He promised to go through with the Baron’s orders to restructure the government. He went on about opportunities and fair pay. He bullshit with the best of them.

Baron Northsand hadn’t said a word to City Lord Strasso, but his intentions were clear to see. Not a single person there, neither his enemies or the vultures, had said a word about dethroning him.

It was either he admitted that the city crystal had slipped from his control and that there wasn’t a single thing he could do about a hostile takeover, or he could submit himself to Baron Northsand’s whims.

…

Jay was lounging on his couch, a superb luxury, recovering, when he noticed it was time.

Without prompt, a golem brought him another contraption.

Jay willed it on, and was quickly shown an image of City Lord Strasso sitting behind his desk, appearing as if he was a puppy that had gotten kicked.

However defeated Strasso looked to Jay, it seemed he still had some fight left in his tongue. “Oh, what a great honour it is, to be faced with crest of the man who stole my city,”

Jay watched him lift a brow, “Perhaps your valour is so all-consuming that you cannot bring yourself to show your face, even after defeating every enemy here.”

Jay was…

Jay was…

from Earth, it would take a hell of a lot more to piss him off.

It was with a clear and confident voice that Jay responded with, “My, I only wished for you to become used to seeing my crest, Strasso. After all, it does fly from your walls now.”

Jay could almost see Strasso’s forehead throb. He offhandedly thought that the city lord might pop something before he finally responded.

“...What do I owe the pleasure of this communication? Your messages were quite detailed.”

Jay let the question hang before bothering to answer.

When he finally did so, it was with his most ‘noble’ voice that he answered, “Why, City Lord Strasso, I want to hear you say it.”

Jay watched Strasso’s face shift from ‘annoyed’ to ‘annoyed and confused’.

“‘it’ milord?”

In the same voice, Jay shot back. “Certainly. ‘It’. I want you to say that Ruso Lake City is under my control, and that you are my sworn man.”

Jay must have hit a nerve, because Strasso looked genuinely affronted. Enraged even. “O-of course, my lord. Ruso L-lake City is under y-your control, and I am your sworn agent.”

Jay smiled, not because he enjoyed taunting others, but because:

+++

‘Quester’ class has leveled to 13!

Learned ‘Sidequest’ class skill!

+++

Jay would have to investigate that.

Just before Jay could close the connection, Jay heard Strasso’s wife talk from out of frame. “It’s okay honey, I know you can accomplish anything as long as we love each other!”

Jay managed to dissolve the spellwork before he broke. “Hahahah! Fuck! That’s fucked! Poor him, all that, and he has a cheating wife!?”

Jay wiped a tear from his eye. “I’m going to have to do something for that dude.”