V6: Chapter 8

…

I had the good fortune of working in a company where brown-nosing wasn't necessary to get to the top, where working overtime was frowned upon, and the benefits were great. Of course, getting to that position required avoiding a whole lot of relationships and fun over the years, but it was better than having to go to a company where who you knew mattered more than what you knew.

However, I was unlucky enough in this life to be born to a baggage train to a whore that sold me to slavery the moment I was able to walk.

Meaning that I knew how to brown nose just fine.

So, I went ahead and visited Agathon first, since he was the most prideful of the bunch of suicidal cats I was trying to cajole into working together.

"So, the King of Wisdom graces us with his presence. Take a seat." The Dwarves in this setting were similar to their stereotypes in most other forms of fiction. Bearded, on the short side, but stout, strong, and talented at smithing. Unlike other settings, though, these guys weren't carved from stone or were rocks with life breathed into them. These guys were the species that was constructed to maintain the works of the Ancients before they fell, and in order to keep their talents since the fall, they turned to eugenics. They did such a great job that they're actually better than their ancestors now, but they needed some retroviral treatments to really reach their full potential. "You were honest in your dealings with us during the Famine and you honor your pact of allowing us access to your flying carriages. We will hear out your words."

These guys weren't the kind of people that you could bullshit.

Their diplomacy tree is garbage and a waste of time to invest in.

However, they're always up for a good trade deal.

"I have a select series of individuals that can help in rooting out the infestation troubling your cities." Agathon raised an eyebrow at my casual reveal that I knew what was going on in his cities. Is it because I have spies in his lands or because of my intellect? It's actually both, my guy. "They'll increase the efficiency of your purging teams by at least fifty percent. I'll lend them to you for the duration of the Death Lord's existence, so that the rest of your army can come here and start killing monsters."

"Is that all you can offer? Our armies are mighty, especially against the monsters that this Death Lord calls upon. They will break upon our armies like waves against mountains." Agathon stroked his ebony beard and his advisors nodded at his back. Judging from the fact that they weren't using Citadel materials for their custom war gear, they weren't capable of using it yet. I thought about offering that knowledge to them, but Agathon gave his counter-offer before I could. "We want a division of your transports on our lands and the ability to maintain it. Simply having access is not enough. We need to be able to course our own path through the skies."

If they wanted our flying horses, then that could only mean one thing.

"Abandoning your plans to create airships? Even after your people seized all that they could from the Scholar's wreckage?"

Agathon went still at my words and glared at me.

"…Your reach is longer than I believed. You best not waste such capable spies by keeping them near my scholars, King of Wisdom." Agathon now believed that I infiltrated his research centers. I didn't. I just knew the Dwarven tech tree. Their aerial units were hybrids between machinery and magic to create durable air ships. They start with flying platforms that were basically hot air balloons lifting and descending, which could move forward and back with magic. Fragile, but good for scouting the map with its line of sight. "Yes. The project is seeing little progress and more than ever my people need to move quickly, and you have the solution to that."

"Strike team deployments into enemy creches and maybe faster retrieval of enemy corpses before they spoil… hm, done. I'll sell you the infrastructure and a breeding group. You'll have your transports and horses within a year." I wasn't about to give what they requested for free, and the Dwarves were unlikely to accept it if it was free, which was good. They have a shitty 'good' ending, with them enforcing their rules and traditions on other races at the end, so I wasn't about to give them any favors, anyway. I'm not into being NTR'd by a genetically perfect stud or NTRing as a genetically perfect stud, thank you very much. Oh, I also didn't like the idea of chemical sterilization of people who don't meet the standards of the Dwarven overlords. That's bad, too. "I'll have the contract written up and sent your way within a month. Is that enough?"

"My warriors will march upon the monsters and the Death Lord before the next moon, King of Wisdom." Agathon stood up and offered me a gauntleted hand to shake. I obliged and didn't wince as he squeezed my hand tight with his grip. Sure, technically, I was the one losing on this. I was giving him air lift capability which solved the Dwarves' issue with slow movement on the overworld map. However, I'm also sending him on a wild goose chase for spies that don't exist. "The deal is well-bargained and struck. Let my own life be stricken from the tomes of ancestry should I fail to meet your demands."

Conversely, if I don't uphold my own end of the bargain, the Forgers will forever consider me an enemy.

There's opportunity in there for the future, where I could get something for free from them before destroying them, but that'll have to wait.

Dealing with the tutorial crisis was more important.

Now, with the Forgers playing ball, it was time to handle the Merchants… and the best way to do that was simple.

Never bargain with them, always use diplomacy, and always use intimidation.

Come here you greedy, proto-corporate scumbags, I'm going to show you how a private corpo-nation exists with a dictatorial hyperpower on their doorstep.

Your entire nation-state is my personal wallet whether you like it or not.

Time to spam Intimidate, Demand, and Threaten until I get what I want!

…

Interlude: Celia

…

I had watched Jack broker a deal with the Forgers of the Mountains with efficiency and grace I couldn't hope to manage.

Thus, I expected him to do the same when he approached the Merchants' Chief Executive.

To beguile Harper with perfect, honeyed words and deals, so that their armies would march in our support.

Then, in an instant, the sound of a slap resounded through the old council chambers of the Academy and the sound of a chair tumbling along with glass breaking made everything go into action.

Executive Harper's guards moved to protect their mistress, but before they could they were all stopped and brought to the ground. The guards were of the Lion and Bull tribes of the Merchants. The strongest of their myriad peoples, yet the black-armored guards of the King of Wisdom moved with synchronicity and speed that I'd only seen before in Ayah… and the Merchants guards could do nothing as they were held down with sheer strength alone against the floor.

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Before anyone else could move and question what happened, before I could even say a word, Jack's spoke with clarity… and ferocity that I never heard from him before. For the longest time, I'd seen him as that young Descendant boy in Academy uniform with all the answers in the back of his mind even as he perused the entirety of the Academy library.

As he declared his thoughts to the world now, I recognized that that boy was now a man who bore the weight of the greatest nation ever seen on the continent since the fall of the Ancients… and did so without flinching.

"Executive Harper, you do not understand your place here. You and your people are below vermin. You are parasites! Parasites that once tried to starve the whole continent for your gold and wealth." He picked up her hat and gingerly looked it over. Fine craftsmanship. Her dress was tailored well, too. Now that I thought about, I saw what he saw. The expensive wine, the well-dressed guards, the custom furniture for her rest section beyond the simple round table that Jack gathered us around. How much of that was bought by those who were starving in their lands? "The only reason why you and your people have been invited here is to be given a chance to prove that you can be tolerated… and you have spat upon that chance already!"

Executive Harper, so beautiful and regal and sinister at her chair at the table, could only stare up at Jack in mute horror as he tossed aside her hat and took his sword from his waist and threw it before her on the spilled, dark red wine that surrounded her.

"Get up and draw steel. Draw steel and use that anger in your heart. Do it so that I may see some semblance of a person instead of a parasite dressed in the fineries of mortals!" Jack thundered, and I stared at him transfixed. I'd thought I'd understood what it meant to be able to kill with words. That power had been entrusted to me by my people. By my command, I can have people march to war and have our foes killed. Now, I understood that I was wrong. What I had was authority granted to me by my people. The King of Wisdom could truly kill with his words alone. "Get up! Defend yourself. Defend your people! Lash out at the one who struck you down, Executive Harper!"

The King of Wisdom stretched out his hands. His guards were holding down the Merchant's guards. He was undefended.

He was a normal Descendant without the ability to partake in magical combat.

Against someone of the Fox Tribe, especially armed with even a ceremonial blade, he should be dead.

Yet, as I watched, as the Forgers watched, as the Wardens watched, and as her own guards and staff watched… she scrambled away and kicked the sword to his feet.

Given the chance to kill, the chosen leader of the Merchants chose to flee in terror in the eyes of the entire Council of Kings and all those who attended us.

His words gave her a death worse than any execution could give.

I was a fool to fear her.

Gone was the great and powerful leader of the Merchants, and instead I only saw a foe to be pitied.

A foe who was still at the mercy of a former slave who now held the greatest nation on the planet since the fall of the Ancients.

She tried to get up, tried to run, but her legs failed her and all she could do was try to crawl on her rear away from him.

"My people will arrive at your capital. We will expect the funds needed to support our cause against the Death Lord. If we do not find it, I will crush your nation under my boot." Jack picked up his sword and walked through the spilled wine the broken furniture. He walked past the held down guards of the Merchant's leader. They were no longer struggling. They were defeated and they pushed their faces against the floor. Their ears matted against their skulls. "You are parasites! Creatures that should burn so that something better may have a chance at living. Unless you prove otherwise, unless your vaunted mercantilism can bring some good into this continent, then you will all burn as parasites should. Do you understand, Executive Harper of the Merchants of the Marsh? Speak!"

The King of Wisdom stopped walking with his heel making a resounding crack against the marble floors of the Academy's ruined council chamber.

I almost wished to speak on Harper's behalf.

Such was my desire to defend the weak.

But I stood fast and silent as did all the others present, as her ears drooped and flattened against her skull, as she couldn't even speak, as her eyes were wide with terror so great that her mind could not think.

The illustrious, magnificent leader of the Merchants was well and truly gone.

However, the Merchants remained.

"Y-your majesty, p-please let me speak." One of the aides Executive Harper brought along spoke up. The moment he looked away; other aides rushed forward to help shadow their leader away into the dark halls of the ruin. Clad in a pure white suit and with a porcelain mask on her face, the Fox Tribe woman that spoke up only had a golden rose on her lapel to signify her authority. She was Harper's second in command… and she was barely capable of meeting the glare of disdain aimed at her by the King of Wisdom. "We shall meet your demands in full. H-however, we would like certain assurances—"

"Fund the effort against this crisis and I shall consider the scales balanced for your actions during the previous threat to all the peoples of this land." Jack's face, usually smiling, had a cool, dreadful calm. Like a wall of ice holding back a great wave, he spoke to the shivering second-in-command of the Merchants. "I will not raise armies against you. I will not free your… indentured populace gripped by debts their children will have to pay. I will not see your guilds all burn with those that had them starved to death. Those are your assurances, Merchant, and they will suffice."

The Merchant bowed from her waist as he spoke and trembled in fear as she heard his words and only nodded furiously at his assertion before fleeing.

When they were gone, Jack nodded at his guards and they let the warriors of the Merchants rise.

He addressed them… with a bit of warmth in his eyes.

"Your people are better than that. Always remember that before you become Merchants, that you were something better."

The guards stiffly nodded at his words, before turning to leave… but each one turned to look at him before following their leader back into the shadows.

Once they were gone, he turned to us all, sighed, shook his head, and a semblance of his usual smile returned.

"Well, then, everyone. Let's work to save our people. Ayah, the maps, please!"

Without missing a beat, he took hold of the Council of Kings and aimed it at the heart of our true foe.