Brooker did a double take.

"You want to get in touch with Slate? Like, the Iron Chains boss Slate?"

"Yes that is correct."

"What the hell does a 16 year old need Slate for?"

"Hey don't mark my age up like that, i'm still 14 dude."

Brooker looked Kye up and down again, seemingly stunned that the well built youth in front of him hadn't even come of age yet. Kye sighed before he started giving context.

"Here's the thing. I need guns and ammunition because I plan to take one of the large cities in the Lawless Cities area. I have raw materials that Slate can use to make cheaper guns and undercut the nobles on profit and in exchange, we cut an exclusivity deal."

Brooker put his hand on his chin and stroked it as he thought about what Kye was planning.

"And why exactly do you need to take a city?"

"I was blessed when I was born, but even after the last four years of my training, I can't use my skills. The academic council has the ability to deny me entry on these grounds and will because the kingdoms they're aligned to will try to leverage this for cheaper products from my father's company, God's Wisdom."

Brooker looked at Kye in shock.

"You're heir apparent of the God's Wisdom group!?"

Kye nodded.

"So, if thats the way they want to play, I have to meet fire with fire. By seizing the arms market of the Fulgoth Kingdom by signing this exclusivity deal with Slate, I knock this kingdom off the people who can bother me."

"And the part about taking a city in the Lawless Cities?"

"A necessary step towards establishing a power base. Some random heir to a large corporation is dangerous, sure. But a govenor of a militant city with a functioning economy? Now that's a threat they'd have to take seriously."

"But couldn't they just move some kind of military force in and stop you?"

Kye gave a light chuckle.

"And violate the neutrality act signed by all of the kingdoms? They'd be mad to try. The Grothian Empire sits right next to the Lawless Cities and wouldn't allow any kind of military action so close to home. The only reason I can act with impunity like this is because the Grothian Empire relies heavily on the God's Wisdom group and agreed to support me in getting my spot in the Divinty War."

Brooker was in awe. This 14 year old kid had hatched this plan simply to get the chance to join in the Divinity War. While his own gang, the Skull Takers were rather respected in the Fulgoth Kingdom, they had a chance to gain a lot by joining up with the kid.

"Well, seems like you've got a plan. I'll get you in contact with Slate, but it's gonna take me a day or so. I've got guys who operate in the inner city and they'll be the ones who contact you once I have a meeting set up."

"Great. So, what do I owe you?"

Brooker shook his head.

"Nothing, consider this a show of good faith."

Kye frowned.

"So what do you really want from me then?"

Brooker just smiled.

"You're going to need men right? Let us be your first guys."

Kye was actually shocked. This wasn't part of his plan at all. He had intended to recruit some gangs into the fold but that wasn't for a while down the track. This would screw up his timeline but a rather sizeable gift had just fallen into his lap. Problem was, would this gift turn out to be a ticking time bomb? Kye had been taught that the best of deals usually came at the worst time and that every businessman needed to be decisive and trust their gut. Kye couldn't turn down a deal that would benefit him like this.

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"Alright Brooker, I'll take you guys in. Until i've made some more preparations there's not going to be much for you to do. I'll be giving you a few things later to help you in whatever tasks I give you in the future."

Kye held his hand out for a handshake and Brooker didn't hesitate to shake his hand.

"I look forward to working with you, boss."

Brooker smiled and winked at Kye. Kye also couldn't resist a small smile.

"Some guys will be in touch with you when I have the meeting set up boss. Take care."

"You too Brooker."

Kye left the office and closed the door behind him. As he was walking down the hallway, there was Lizzie, now fully clothed again.

"You! You used me you piece of shit!"

Kye pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"You used me too. Not to mention you put the moves on someone underaged, so if we're talking about moral bads, I think you've got me beat."

Lizzie was red with anger. Before she opened her mouth to launch forth a verbal tirade, Kye put a hand on her mouth.

"Look, I really don't have the time to deal with you, let alone the energy. If you wanna be mad at someone, be mad at yourself for cheating when you already had a pretty capable partner. Later."

Kye took his hand off her face and ran to the stairs. He stopped to grab his card at the bar and then legged it out of the establishment before anything else could happen. Kye was really tired and wanted to go back to the villa and sleep, even if his 'sleep' was really just an hour meditating. Kye called Sebastian and asked for him to come pick him up at The Bolier Room. Sebastian said it would take him about 20 minutes to reach Kye and that dinner would be waiting for him when they got home. Kye decided that the curb was good enough for him to rest his weary bones on and took a very ungraceful seat on the gutter.

"Heavens, this is gonna be a huge pain in the ass to organise. I've got men but now i've not got anywhere to put them."

Kye mused on this for a few moments before pulling out his phone and looking over some of the land details he was given about the Lawless Cities. Looking through them he found that several smaller towns were selling land to be developed for cheap. No large business would ever invest in the Lawless Cities as the place was an active warzone half the time. It was also classified as a demilitarised zone so no foreign forces could move through the territory or take part in any conflict. Doing this meant that 7 nations had effectively washed their hands of all happenings within the territory and so long as a force wasn't working for any of them directly, mercenary licences could be obatined from Agartha and would allow any group of individuals to act freely within the territory. Many of the larger and developed cities were given de facto control to several private militaires that worked within the territories. These PMC's fought one another for terrirotial control against one another and sometimes teamed up against some of the gang led cities. The PMC's rarely devoted enough resources to any operation though, and it caused a lot of military grade equipment to fall into the hands of gangs. Kye wasn't planning to make a gang, but making a PMC would bind him to several treaties that would hinder his plans. For this reason, Kye had hired several spies to look into the underhanded dealings of some of the larger PMC's in the territories to see what he could get away with if this was the route he wanted to take. Depending on what he could get away with, Kye would make his choice about the direction he took.

There was one city that had his attention the most. It was a large urban city that currently had no name as it was recently abandoned by the ruling gang after a civil uprising. This had brought the attention of every major player in the territory as this now unoccupied city was only defended by some very angry locals with guns. Kye planned to take this city and turn it into the HQ of his further operations. He had originally planned to wait for a few more months before taking it but now that he had men who he needed to train, having the city just shot up on his priority list. This meant that his next few months would be busy gathering large gangs from the Kingdom of Speria, the Solaria Kingdom and the Democratic Rebublic of Colondia. This would secure food, medicine and commerce with the addition of industry with his acquisition of both the Skull Takers and the Iron Chains. Kye would have to waylay the plans for The Golden Comfort to branch out to other cities and focus on governance. So the problem now becomes financial, as one club wouldn't be enough to financially support a growing city or pay the wages of a mercenary group as large as Kye's would be.

The way Kye saw it was that there were two viable ways to go about setting up his power base now that his plans had gone awry. One was simply letting his gangs reside in their current cities and continue operations as normal while stockpiling resources for later use. The problems the became logistical and time based, with moving large stockpiles and men half way across the continent would take a long time, and time wasn't something Kye had an abundance of. The second option was to try and combine the two factors into one. Instead of making a city that would be used as some kind of military HQ, make the city into a tourist hub and have it branded under the name of The Golden Comfort. This would take time as well, but it would allow Kye to formally train his men under the guise of a security force and would fix the financial issue. Hiring the local population and building dorms and communal housing to live in would get them onside and knock out the need for him to source workers from elsewhere. Attracting people to the Lawless Cities was a big problem, as not many would even consider going there when destitute, let alone on a vacation. This was much easier to fix than the former option however and would provide the best results long term.

As Kye had made his mind up, a car stopped in front of him and Sebastian got out of the back seat to open the door for Kye.

"Hello young master, did things go well?"

"You have no idea how loaded that question is Sebastian."

Sebastian sighed and gestrued for Kye to get into the car. After buckling in and the car taking off, Kye began to detail the events of what had happened. As he went on, Sebastian's face grew more and more taught with worry.

"What does this mean for now young master?"

"It means that we've got some long days ahead of us Sebastian. And even longer nights."