Chapter 11: Tax-Exempt!
All eyes were on the morphling, waiting for DM to choose his next words. His choices were to identify himself as someone capable of defeating the king from outside the castle, come up with some other actor who was capable of the feat, or feign ignorance entirely. He chose his response.
“…A king.”
“A king?” The king dabbed at some more sweat.
“A king has near-endless resources at his disposal. He could muster someone who was up to the task, potentially.”
His Majesty leaned back in his chair. “As I recall, you said a king leads people, whereas you control dungeons. We’ve all heard some fantastical stories about what your monsters have accomplished recently under your leadership. Are you not a king, at least to the monsters?”
With every question, DM could feel all eyes on him, eagerly anticipating his answers. “…A tricky question. My monsters are not intelligent enough to think on their own, so I wouldn’t consider myself a king in the sense that Your Majesty is. …To the monsters, I may seem like a king of sorts, though.”
“There.” The king pointed at the morphling. “That brings me to my other question, actually.” He paused, likely for dramatic effect. “What is your relationship to the dragon in the Upper Gordu Forest?”
All eyes snapped to the morphling again.
“…I believe I’ve already explained this to a few people who asked, but we communicated once and have agreed to non-aggression. I will not get in the dragon’s way, and he will allow me to continue living in the Lower Gordu Dungeon.”
“That’s great news, DM. I’m happy to hear you and the dragon just over the border in the Union do not have an antagonistic relationship. I wouldn’t want the Twin Cities or even the Holy State itself getting dragged into a war between dungeons.”
“…I completely understand.”
“Still, you’ve been so helpful when it comes to recent conflicts that I can grant you a bit of leeway… Tell me, where did the dragon come from? The Guild has informed me that the dragon’s dungeon is identified as being one of yours.”
The king’s questions were getting more difficult to evade. “…I do not know where dragons come from, although they seem connected to the dungeon system. I exerted control over the Upper Gordu Dungeon prior to the dragon taking over it, which is likely why the Guild is seeing me as the owner of the dungeon. …I have no desire to battle the dragon who currently resides in its deepest floor.”
“Hm, I see. Do take care not to enrage it. I’ve also heard that other dragons have become more active, recently. Let’s all exercise due caution.”
“…I will do just that.”
The game resumed. This time, DM did not make any blunders, thanks in no small part to his homemade chess computer. In contrast, the king was slowly falling behind. DM found it remarkable that the king had become such an expert so soon after the game was introduced to the world. Some of the tips DM provided to Daphne’s party way back when must have seeded exceptional growth of chess strategy, even if en passant had been overlooked until now.
DM could see it on the king’s face that he was getting a bit frustrated. Given his considerable skill, he likely wasn’t used to playing from behind in chess. DM hoped the king would behave himself, or at least take out his anger on the furniture in the back room rather than DM or his allies.
“I see what you mean.” The king pointed at the chess board. “It wasn’t obvious in the early game, but you’re playing much more effectively now. I doubt I can win this unless you make some significant error. How does the game seem to you, DM?”
“…I have a mate in fifteen.”
“Mate in fifteen? What does that mean?”
“…It means, if you play optimally, I will win in fifteen more moves.”
The room erupted in more shouting and confused arguing.
The king’s eyes were wide. “You can calculate our moves to that extent?”
“…Yes. I determined the guaranteed win one turn ago.”
“Wow, that’s incredible,” said the king. “No wonder I couldn’t win. I dare say it’s hardly possible to win when you play like this!”
“…As I said before, this match was not played in a fair manner, which is the only reason why I was so favored to win.”
“I’m curious to see this mate in fifteen. Let’s finish the game.”
The game continued, but after thirteen more moves, DM declared checkmate.
“How many moves was that?” the king asked, turning to a scribe who was recording every move.
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“Thirteen, Sire.”
The king turned back to DM. “DM, why did it only take thirteen moves?”
“…As I explained before, fifteen moves would mean you played optimally. I would need to review the move list again, but I think you missed a chance to fork two of my pieces on the second or third move since we last spoke.”
“Fascinating. Everyone, put the pieces back to the starting position and walk through the moves one-at-a-time!”
The crew frantically moved pieces around, resetting the board.
“Oh, DM, I believe I’ve taken up enough of your time. As promised, I’ll have the Prime Minister grant you tax exempt status similar to the church. Although I said it was a reward for defeating me in chess, you can also think of it as a reward for aiding the kingdom from behind the scenes during the battle against the Union, as well as for fostering improved relations with the Empire.”
“…Thank you.”
“Please keep the Twin Cities informed of the nature of your dungeon business in other nations as well. The Holy State has no intention of limiting you beyond our borders so long as you don’t bring consequences down on our people. We will support you, but we must be kept up to date.”
“…I understand.”
“I’ll have someone contact you regarding your thoughtful gift once we have the chance to try it out. Thank you on behalf of the kingdom. Oh, I do have one request.”
The morphling waited patiently for the king to speak his request.
“Do take care not to infect people without their permission, hostile enemies excepted of course. Monsters and humans may have different values; one we value highly is privacy from all except for our Gods when we are alone.”
“…Of course.”
The king stood up from his throne, so the morphling stood from his chair. “I enjoyed our game, DM. Have a safe trip back to the Twin Cities.” The king walked over to the chessboard. “Scribe, get a move-on.”
As the crew started re-enacting the last chess match, Rufus led the morphling out of the throne room. As they were walking through the palace’s corridors, Rufus addressed DM for the first time since before the chess matches.
“Congratulations on winning the second game, DM.”
“…Thanks, although I really don’t consider it much of an accomplishment to win when I am cheating.”
“Even so, the king seemed to handle the loss graciously. I must say, the conversation got quite… tense… at a few points.”
“…Yes. Perhaps too tense. …Rufus, what do you think the king ultimately took away from that meeting?”
“Honestly, DM, it’s hard to say. I haven’t met the king many times, but I’ve come to notice he has two faces. He either wears his emotions on his sleeve, to the detriment of whatever inanimate object is nearby, or he keeps his emotions entirely hidden. For the entirety of your meeting, it felt like he was concealing his true thoughts.”
“…I feel the same way. By the way, I don’t actually need you to escort me back to the Twin Cities.”
“But wouldn’t it be improper for me to abandon you now?”
“…What if I abandoned you?”
“What?”
The morphling poofed out of existence.
“Oh.”
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After several hours of discussing the chess game, the king retired to another room, where he sat down with the Prime Minister to discuss the documents DM had provided regarding how to expand the nation’s farming.
The Prime Minister explained that DM’s suggestions for how to manage shortages of surface water in new farming zones made a lot of sense and were worth investigating further. While they were discussing the details, retainers joined the conversation to discuss the results of initial testing using the all-metal plow DM gifted the king at a nearby farm.
“It’s incredible.” One man explained. “If we continued our current farming practices as-is but simply swapped out all plows one-for-one with these, our farmers would become bored from lack of work.”
“It’s that much better than what we’re already using?” the king asked.
“Yes, Sire. We then brought the plow to more rugged terrain, terrain that would be extremely difficult to prepare for farming, and it once again excelled. I recommend we seek out trading for more of these plows at once.”
“Thank you for the prompt report. That will be all for now.”
Everyone except for the Prime Minister departed.
The king removed a scrying orb from his pocket and held it in front of the Prime Minister, reading his status. “How long have we known each other?”
“Long enough,” the Prime Minister replied.
“Tell me what I’m thinking.”
“Sire, you’re thinking about chess.”
“No, I’m not. Try again.” He gestured with the orb, almost like a hint.
“You’re thinking about DM.”
The king nodded. “Did I let my true thoughts leak out during the meeting?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Good. If even my Prime Minister couldn’t tell how terrified I was, then likely nobody else did either.”
“Terrified, Sire?”
“Just as I was difficult to read, so too is DM difficult to read.”
“What do you mean? Because he speaks from afar through monsters?”
“That too, but no, that’s not really what I mean. I can’t figure out his intentions. Taken at face value, he seems no different from an unreasonably nice merchant with business interests in several nations—one with an unusual but effective bodyguard force.”
“DM does seem interested in remaining in your good graces, Sire.”
“On the surface, yes. But the way he can threaten me so effectively and yet make it seem like a mere innocent coincidence… The way events repeatedly fall into place as though the entire continent is dancing in the palm of his hand, er, tentacle…”
“He is impressive.”
“What scares me is that I don’t know if I should be more scared of his possible hidden malice or of the damage he may eventually deal to the Holy State despite his best intentions. His power is growing at an exceptional rate and I don’t know where he came from or what he really wants, for himself or for us.”
“Perhaps we should fall back on the fact that he has repeatedly protected this nation’s interests when events caught up with him, all while maintaining friendly relations with the Guild and the Church.”
“Perhaps if that were all? His gift—this plan to revolutionize our farming, the road design, do you know what this indicates to me?”
“It seemed like an incredible gesture of friendship.”
“Is it, though?” The king pointed to his crown. “I live for the kingdom. My reason for taking DM’s advice is to improve the lives for my citizens. What if DM’s reason for providing the advice is because the Holy State is insufficient?”
“Insufficient for what?”
“I don’t know. It’s like DM is shaping the world to suit his ultimate purpose.”
“Which is?”
“Perhaps once the Holy State becomes the powerful nation he envisions, whether in one year or one thousand years, he will seize it and put it to use for some greater purpose—one that does not prioritize the lives of the people.”
“Sire, you may be overthinking things.”
“I hope I am, but we have a bigger problem in the short term. I think I glossed over it fairly well, but DM did send a message to me in front of the entire Royal Court that he can end my reign any time he wants to. It won’t be long before we hear more about that.”