Chapter 5:

…

After six months, I've managed to make a dozen close confidants, gained blackmail on three officers, and weapons for myself without Khanrow noticing.

Hah.

Yeah. Fucking. Right.

"Excellent work, Jack. You're a prodigy!" I haven't even had a chance to shit without telling someone I needed to use the bathroom. Gaining any ground towards escaping was practically impossible. The third turn of the game was starting, Khanrow was getting stronger and building up, and I was basically trapped in learning hell. I turned nine to little fanfare, while tutors were thrown at me without ceasing. "Impeccable work with arithmetic as always!"

"T-thank you very much!" I gave my widest, most practiced smile and made my tutor smile in return. I got a hair tussle, but a cough from one of my minders made the elderly scholar step back quickly. He wiped a bead of sweat from his head. Yep. I'm not allowed to form parental fingers. If I wasn't already mentally traumatized, I sure as hell would've been now. "What's next, sir?"

"A-ah, well. That's the end of my lessons for today. I'll call your next tutor, prince." Prince. Human shield was more appropriate. While the bastard, Khanrow, was skulking about in safety in the Citadel's innards, I was out getting all the heat. The guards talked about killing assassins regularly when they thought I wasn't paying attention, and I noticed that a few of them never came back one shift or another. Constant assassination attempts on my life that are being stopped, but only need to succeed once. Fun. "I will see you in a five days time. Farewell."

"Okay, I'll see you then!" I was getting worried about how easy it was to turn my brain off and act just like a bright, cheerful kid. When I had a second of privacy, I tried making a face that actually reflected how I felt: absolutely pissed. I almost failed. The grimace was almost a smile. Psychotic was a good word for it. Nothing reached my eyes, either. Yep, I'm breaking under the stress. Six more months, until I try to summon a Demon and get myself killed."Next tutor, please! Thank you, guards!"

Another day, another set of tutors, and another mountain of books to try and read while the back of my brain was screaming at me to run away.

Ah, almost like being back home and going to high school and university in America.

A few moments of swallowing my fear of death later, my magic tutor arrived.

That's right.

I had magic.

Most people did, and those that didn't tended to die young in this hellpit of a world.

"Greetings, prince. I see that you're concentrating and expanding your energies as I instructed. Very good." I didn't bother with names. These guys came and went. If someone better came, they were replaced, and set to teach everyone else. Khanrow and Riegert were both focused on training me up to be the best, or look the best. "If only I had the discipline you did when I was a child, perhaps I could have attended the Academy."

"Don't say that! You're a great teacher, sir!" I made sure to smile, schmooze, and do my best to be the amicable kid. That was my best and only defense. Smile and wave. Attract attention. Do your job. Try not to die. "I can feel myself getting stronger every day!"

"That's good. Many neglect to train as children. However, even with normal reserves such as ours, with enough training and time we can reach the strength of those blessed from birth!" That was wrong. We're lacking understanding, reagents, and facilities that can awaken our bodies. In the end game, super soldiers are the norm for every faction as the Citadels sped up research and understanding of our own bodies. We're all just working with bodies that are stuck in the first gear. All we can do is work out and train with what we've got. "Now, how much progress have you made since we last met?"

I gave my report to him, while categorizing myself in my head.

It would be useful to have a stat screen, but pop-ups were disabled and everything was in immersive mode, so I just had to deal with it.

To preface: I'm not weak, but I'm sure as hell not strong.

After six months of physical training, all the food I could eat, the best tutors, and constant training, I'm definitely better physically than I was in my previous life at nine years old. Muscle was building, endurance was getting better, and there's barely any fat forming on my body. I'll either be a musclebound tank when I get older, or have enough tone to make a gymnast blush, depending on whether I can hit hard or fast in combat.

As for magic, in this world it was all about visualization, willpower, and repetition. Chanting, movements, and reciting from tomes were all meant to guide the energy within through cultivated channels and practiced imagery to affect the world. Long-lived races obviously had an advantage in magic, because their mages could be older, but experience won over everything and nearly all mages had the same upper limit.

Champions were the exception to the rule.

And, by all means, I was looking to be one of the replacement, generic Champions you could buy to bolster your forces or attempt to fix your fuckup. The additional army leader that you give a meta build and form a doomstack around. Some non-special, special unit that you assign to an army to make it win auto-resolves better through raw stats and certain skills. The absolute lowest tier of the Champion tier, that'll never get special equipment, because it's better on the real heroes.

I hoped that was the case.

Khanrow, Riegert, and Ilych can fuck around and find out all they want, while I stay and lead a death stack.

Anyway, I finished telling my latest teacher what was going on, then we moved forward with the lesson.

The days were melding together and flowing quickly.

It was just going to be a matter of time.

Two more turns, until the fifth turn.

Six more months, until the first enemy appears on the map, introduces themselves, and engages us in diplomacy... and the race to pillage the continent begins.

I had to make sure Riegert and Khanrow, even if they were forcing me to be a meatshield, get everything that they needed.

Until I could escape, my life was in their hands as a shield, and I seriously preferred less attacks coming my way to block for their sakes.

God, if you're listening, please let my shitty plan to do this work.

And, if you're not, fuck off.

…

Reigert and Khanrow were naturally busy. While the Citadel propped everything up nicely, it didn't build the rest of the city. Much like the game, forest tiles needed to be cleared out, sections paved, and the initial districts built needed to be chosen carefully. If you didn't choose the right ones for your playstyle, your early game is fucked, which means your mid-game is fucked, and so you're going to lose before hitting late-game, let alone endgame.

Man, game doesn't even sound real anymore in my head.

But, because those two were busy, I had little to worry about on the infrastructure front.

The first two free district zones were being used to make a Residential District and an Industrial District. The former was going to alleviate citizen unhappiness for living in slums, which will put happiness into positive, and increase population growth. The industrial district will increase gold income, lower the turns required to produce units, and unlock the research district.

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They were already planning on making the research district after these two, and talking about building a commercial district after that, which was the best opening for a human faction.

The problem lay in their military affairs.

They were only securing the region.

Now, on paper, that was a great idea.

Clear out or subjugate the native people of the land you're conquering was a basic, safe move. Historically speaking, and in-game, it worked out for a lot people. It got you population, access to your region's units, and increased happiness and regional defense. The plan was good for establishing a second town quickly and really pushing towards a powerhouse economy.

But it wasn't the best competitive move.

And, things were definitely going to get competitive.

The first thing you should be doing in the first five turns and separating your army, putting your skills to the test, and absolutely grabbing the Ancient Ruins that spawn in your neighboring areas. You'll have to contend against warbands, because they won't be put down until all the Citadels are taken, and the neutral armies guarding the enemy. However, with your starting Champions, those problems should be easy enough to surmount. They can kill their way through those mobs and creeps with ease, roll the dice, and whether the Artifact is good or not... it's an Artifact the enemy's not going to get.

However, the best part was that I had a great alibi for it.

The places where my former Warband intended to go after all of this, and where they went before, were perfect for my plan.

…

Riegert looked over the map I'd made, while I fretted behind my desk.

"Your cartography has improved. You say that these are the places your warband went to, before you were freed? And, the places they were going to go?"

"Yes, sir!" I beamed at him. A part of me was worried that he wouldn't connect the dots, so I let the mask loose a little bit. Just a little. Conspiratorially, I whispered to him. "I think these are places where artifacts are. We always looked for things like that."

"A reasonable guess. Your leader had to acquire the key to the Citadel somehow… these are places that merit investigation." Riegert didn't ask. He took the map I'd been working on. It was a power play, but I didn't mind. He acknowledged that he took something from me. He was a bastard who set me up to be a meatshield, but he wasn't a complete asshole. "I'll take a look at these things. If we find anything, you'll get your fair share, Jack."

Jack.

Not prince.

I was almost enthused by the acknowledgement that I was getting fucked over.

Not.

I swallowed by anticipation and fear, so that I could make use of the little bargaining power that I had.

"W-wait, I don't want those things! Ummm… I want to go outside, just a little! I don't want to stay here forever!" I hoped that my little lie nine months ago weighed on Riegert's mind. I'd told them I wanted to travel. Right now, I hoped he knew that he was crushing my dreams. I pinched my thigh hard and let the waterworks build up. Crocodile tears were beyond me. Tearing up? That was within my ability, though. "At least, let me see what the town is like!"

"Nice try, kid. That's not happening, especially with the locals getting more restless. I know that you can tell that we're stopping a lot of assassination attempts on you. You'll lose your life the moment you step out of this place." Fuck. It didn't work. This guy didn't have any problem not caring about what I thought. Still, though, he was addressing me and acknowledging me as a person, which I could use. "How about this: if I find anything that can keep you from getting murdered by walking outside, we'll see about arranging some trips for you."

"That's… that's… fine." I let out a breath, while Riegert gave a nod and left me to my massive office. The guards at the door gave him salutes, before scanning the area and beginning their routes again. No stone unturned. No shadow avoided. No privacy. Even in the bath or in my room, there was a guard ready at the door. I couldn't even curse. "Okay."

Thankfully, I've been infuriated more times that I cared to count in this life and the last.

After a moment, I took a look at the bright side of things.

Riegert and everyone else was going to strengthen themselves up, keep guarding my life, and gimp the early-game of our neighboring regions. Sure, I made the prison holding me as a meatshield a bit stronger, but if the prison went down, I'd die too. It cost me, but it was a better move than doing nothing, and letting priceless, powerful Artifacts get equipped by freaks of nature that head entire armies.

It was a decent result, which was all that I could ask for.

…

The fourth turn ended, winter began to wane, and spring began.

Ghor Khanrow walked out of the wall of the Citadel in a casual display of his mastery of the place, while I looked into the town below.

"Tell me all the sites you recall." As I thought, Riegert found artifacts in each and every location I set on the map. The game devs didn't have much of a budget, so they had to make the same competitive and campaign map. It wasn't until the third expansion that you can randomize landmasses and switch up artifact contention areas. "Now."

"O-okay." I reached for my cartography lessons, but Ghor gestured at my table and the surface came alive to become a three-dimensional map of the whole region. "This is—

"You're keeping the ones in this region secret, because you want them as leverage." Ghor stated. No, I omitted that information to make sure you took the ones from potential enemies first. But, I wasn't going to correct him. "Tell me where they are and you will be rewarded."

Bargaining crossed my mind, but the fleshy guards of my room leaving and being replaced by pure-white, thin-limbed puppets that I recognized as Citadel Guardians, I knew I couldn't.

Those were the anti-rush, T3, undeployable guard units for the Citadels.

I'll be dead before I could do a thing against them or Ghor.

There was only one option for me.

As always.

"Here, here, here, and here." I touched the specific areas with knowledge I could only have from thousands of hours of using the same map. I did my best to look frustrated at losing a bargaining chip as I did. "A-and, maybe here and here. I don't know anywhere else."

"Hm. Fine. It's good enough." Khanrow eyed me down, but soon nodded, and moved to leave the room. The spindly, freaky units that were his guards didn't complain in the slightest as they moved to leave just moments after arriving. "You asked for the right to enter the town, correct? Your request is granted. I'll get it done, even if I have to kill all the threats to your life."

With the promise of genocide hanging in the air, Khanrow left as quickly as he arrived.

And, so, the fifth turn of the game began.

Another Citadel will rise soon and everything was going to change.