While Odracir was leisurely making his way towards a bigger city, several people were deeply distressed. In a large hall, There were 13 people sitting at a round table, the only difference between the chairs was that one was slightly bigger than the rest. The bigger chair was occupied by a middle-aged man with graying hair, a shiny gold crown on his head, The King of the Ashrine Kingdom.
He looked around at the men and women seated at the table around him, the respective heads of their noble houses. The King looked towards an older woman, “Madame Shriker, as you may be aware already, this hasty meeting was convened because of a large purchase of land that borders three kingdoms, ours included. What is the information on the buyer that we have?”
The older woman, Madame Shriker responded, “Sadly, the information we have is too little. We have the name of the buy as Odracir Hilers, and that was what we received from the system information. We looked at the reports of the major organizations in the three kingdoms territories, as well as the foreign noble houses themselves, and no movement either.”
She shook her head, “We sent spies to track the buyer, but he will probably disappear before we can find anything useful. As for the funds that were spent, we do not believe any nearby organization has such spending power.” The king sighed and waved towards a younger noble who was eager to speak.
“Your majesty, why do we not just attack them, and reclaim that land? By the opulent spending of this organization, they seem rather rich!” the young noble had a gleam of greed in his eyes. The King, and several other more knowledgeable nobles groaned.
Finally the King spoke, “Not only is that against the laws of the kingdom, risking losing your noble class, as a frontier province of the three kingdoms, they have a certain diplomatic immunity, and all nobles are forced to protect them against the threat of attacking enemy kingdoms… lest we invoke penalties among ourselves.”
The [Noble] class has many variations, they are generally powerful when it comes to commanding and boosting those under them, but it also comes with strict penalties. They can not easily break the laws of their kingdoms, they can not be harsh towards loyal subordinates, and they have to promote a general wellbeing.
There are some [Noble] classes that are less than savory, but those people tend to silently die during their sleep. In this world, citizens are generally protected by the laws rather well, with the corrupt being few and far between. The corrupt kingdoms lost most of their citizens, which are needed for certain classes to gain experience. No citizens equals no experience.
The king sighed and looked towards Madame Shriker, “Well, inform me if the spies do find anything.” He then looked towards another Older male noble and said, “Sir Drazo, Send a diplomatic envoy to the Earth Spike Mountains in 30 days, they should have established a city by then.” Sir Drazo nodded and said nothing. The King sighed again and said, “Meeting adjourned.” and walked away.
----------------------------------------
In a rustic throne room, a Minister kneels and speaks to the King of Hroving, “Your Majesty, there has been a major land purchase, the Earth Spike Mountains, they bought it through the system at base price, no negotiators were sent.” The King speaks to the minister, “Were any laws broken?” the Minister shakes his head.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The [Law-Abiding King] then speaks, “Then we shall do nothing except monitor the mountains.” The minister hurriedly nods and leaves the throne room. The king speaks to himself, “I wonder who would pit three kingdoms against each other, to guarantee his own protection, a dangerous game.”
----------------------------------------
In an office of the Defer Kingdom, a Redheaded young girl burst in, “Father, you said you would buy the Earth Spike Mountains as my personal hunting grounds! Now someone else already bought it ahead of you!” A middle-aged man with a full head of bright red hair, rubbed his temples as he explains, “I was ready to send negotiators to the other two kingdoms, but who thought someone would beat me to the punch.”
The young girl whined, “Father! You must buy them back, I already promised my friends I would rename the mountains in my name!” The king then said in a melancholy voice, “Dear Daughter, he paid each kingdom the base land cost in direct payment of gold coins, that is over three billion gold total, much more than that mountain is worth.”
The young girl had a fright at that amount of money, she only gets a monthly allowance of a few thousand gold each month, even if her father negotiated with the neighboring kingdoms for the land, he would at most have to pay a few million, never reaching the billions. Although the Earth Spike Mountains are huge in size, they are barren.
Very few minerals were discovered by various prospecting teams, and along with the various monsters, makes it an almost unlivable place, except for hunting. She only wanted the mountains so she could rename them in her name, never would she force her father to pay so much on one of her small whims.
She then looked dejected, “I guess they won’t be called Alara Mountains…” She then looked at her father with burning eyes, “I want to meet the buyer… while I may not own them, I could probably pay them to change the name!” The King laments having such a narcissistic daughter, exactly like her mother.
----------------------------------------
While two kings were lamenting their fates, and one not caring, the carefree odracir just arrived at a much larger city. The main tell was the inflated gate fees. As it was still early in the day, he made his way towards the beast pet shops, already fantasies of them becoming fierce dungeon monsters.
He came to a street that had a particularly horrendous smell, the street was filled with shops that sold everything from mounts to vanity pets. Without a care in the world, he entered the first shop on the street, coincidentally, one selling mounts. He looked towards the shopkeeper and said, “How much for every animal you have for sale.”
The shopkeepers look went from one of friendliness, to one of annoyance, “Haha, you type of people think this is a funny joke! I’ll have you know, everything cost 8 platinum, 86 gold, and 87 silver! Exactly! No negotiations!” And, while the shopkeeper was feeling smug, a bag of 887 gold coins was dropped on the counter, “Your sign there says complimentary beast holding bags?”
The shopkeeper was floored, before he scrambled to pack away every single mount in the store, he also made calls to the ranch that own the business to pack every mount except the breeders. The shopkeeper was incredibly respectful. This was one of the lower end shops, but a similar scene repeated itself in nearly every shop on the street.
One particular shop was very interesting, ‘Dave’s Doppelganger Eggs!’ Doppelgangers are weird monsters, they lay eggs, which all look identical, but any monster can hatch from them, even dragons. Another noteworthy feature is that they all recognize parents on first sight. But Doppelgangers are almost impossible to capture or tame.
The owner of this shop was lucky, he once acquired a doppelganger egg, that contained a doppelganger, he then had his pet create a large pack, and he harvest the eggs every breeding season, he then made a killing making a shop, the only thing preventing him from going to bigger cities was a lack of funds, which he now had!
After cleaning out the beast street, Odracir continued his mad buying spree with the book and plant streets next, before they could raise the prices! Rumors started floating around about a mysterious mad rich man who would buy just about anything.