Mallea finished setting down refreshments in front of the guests and receded to the corner just as Drim and Phon entered the meeting room. “Uncle? Well this is a surprise?” The boy was genuinely taken aback by the impromptu family visit. “And…We’ve been getting a lot of visitors from the CP lately. You’re The Warden, correct? I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“No, your last stay at the Central Peace was short enough that I didn’t have a chance to visit your corpse,” they retorted calmly but then glared at Phon. “But I have seen your sister a few times in passing. She keeps breaking in to visit our shops and restaurants. Do you have any idea how much paperwork is involved in the incident report each time?”
“Well, the CP shouldn’t sell things that aren’t available anywhere else then,” the girl didn’t show the slightest hint of remorse for her actions. “And huh, it seems you really are an artificial human. My power is just pulling up a serial number for your actual name. I’d recommend you make your visit quick. If one of our scientists finds out you’re here, she won’t let you leave until she’s dissected you a few times.”
“Unfortunately, this visit isn’t just for pleasantries,” The Warden took a cup of tea and crossed their legs to settle in. “But we will try to keep it as brief as possible. Since they’re your family, Harth, why don’t you start. I will jump in when we need to get into the details.”
“Well, alright, though I’m still learning some of the details myself, honestly,” Harth shrugged. “It’s far from my department, and I’m just acting as a liaison given the nature of our relationship. To start, I should say that, officially, we aren’t actually here. According to our travel manifest we are currently in Regend being toured around a site for a prospective Central Peace satellite headquarters.”
“Which is made up of course, well, the destination for the trip but not the reasoning. The CP is looking into making smaller headquarters around the world for faster deployment during emergencies, and will allow for workers to be stationed closer to their home countries. As for why Regend, well, it is close to you all. That is the simplest answer. It is not guaranteed, but do expect something along those lines in the future.”
“But anyways, I’m rambling off topic. The point is that we were never here, and I trust you all to hold to that fact. That said, we are here with an unofficial inquiry from the Central Peace—a handful of Representatives, anyways. Some of the countries include Regend, Kazji, Anoint, Archlave, just to name a few, to let you know the scope of this request. But not everyone is on board. The Representatives and their countries are very divided on this matter.”
“To simply call it ‘divided’ is practically an insult,” The Warden butted in. “The Central Peace is in chaos, and the politicians are at eachothers throats. If they knew we were taking this course of action, I think it would be fair to say that our own lives, along with those of our conspirators, would be at risk. To my chagrin, not even our Headquarters would be completely safe from an assassination attempt.”
“So while the politicians can’t officially request your services, I am not affiliated with them. Consider this an official inquiry from me. As the proprietor of their headquarters, I can’t suffer their squabbles any longer. And there will not be any semblance of peace unless this matter is handled properly. Even when the ashes settle, there’s only one way that everyone can live with the outcome. I’m afraid what the CP will dissolve into if those mawhgers get their way.”
Harth took back over. “This is regarding Last Bastion. I’m sure you’ve both heard of it.”
“Yes, I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never actually been inside the city,” Drim mentioned. “I tried to visit once during my pilgrimage as The Slayer, but was turned away at the gate. They made it very clear that they didn’t want me around.”
“I’ve been a few times, uninvited, of course,” Phon shrugged. “It’s funny how the bounties I hunted there thought they were untouchable.”
“And I can’t say I myself have ever had the pleasure, if it can be called as such,” their uncle shared his niblings’ view, as did most of the world. “Since you may know that until a few days ago, no government official of any kind has been allowed entry.”
That was just the kind of place that Last Bastion was—colloquially known as just Bastion around the world. Many would joke that Bastion was actually short for the ‘Bastard Nation’, and rather eloquently refer to its citizens as Bastion’s Bastards. It was a land that was seldom referred to in everyday conversation, because the rest of the world would prefer to pretend that it didn’t exist.
While technically a country, in practice it was little more than one large city at the very south-eastern shoreline of the continent. The city itself was perched atop a cliff by the water’s edge—a truly magnificent view for those allowed to enter and live there. It also had a bit of farmland within the country's small borders, though very little farming was actually done there except for those who partook as a hobby.
Last Bastion had been founded only around a decade ago, a few short months after the founding of the Central Peace. In a way, it was the polar opposite. The nation had been sold to its citizens as a land without government, where they could live freely without any sort of laws and regulations. But what it meant for most was that it was somewhere they could hold their assets without them being taxed.
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The founder, who owned the initial plot of land, had been a former Drazah general. He’d managed to keep his head and his land by selling out secrets and his comrades mere days after the Cosmic Boon. But to avoid any further prosecution, he seceded his land from Kazji to form his own nation. The man had since passed due to terminal illness, but his philosophies and a giant statue were left to remember him by.
Everything in Bastion was owned by the people, including all utilities which were gouged like crazy to their fellow residents. The only thing that was considered public property were the streets themselves, and the only way they were maintained was if someone footed the bill.
The nation itself was technically open to anyone. However, the prices of the cheapest plot of land or building were astronomical, and would buy one of the fanciest mansions and an easy life in any other country. Those who lived there did so solely because they couldn’t maintain their lifestyle anywhere else, their hobbies either frowned upon or deeply illegal. That or they couldn’t stand the thought of living anywhere near those they deemed beneath them.
From the rumors, it put cities like Zjiksa and Shindig to shame. Really, the world would probably be better off without it. No one would cry over the loss of such entitled pricks who were almost certainly involved in worsening the lives of everyone else on Rathe.
“But something has changed,” Harth resumed his explanation. “About a week ago, Kazji joined the Central Peace. And that makes Last Bastion the sole remaining nation not a part of the organization. As to why that involves you, well… It may be best for you to take over from this point.” He glanced at his associate.
“The problem is that the Central Peace is rife with corruption at its core,” The Warden didn’t mince words. “Ever since its founding, there have been rules written into its constitution that were designed to prevent the CP from ever becoming the sole governmental power in the world, and more importantly, so that a single CP Representative could never attain more power than any other Rep.”
“However, there are loopholes that allow these rules to be rewritten and certain actions that can be taken if, and only if, every single nation in the world is a part of the CP and the majority then votes for the changes. Most politicians, including the Reps, likely don’t know about these conditions, or glanced over them when first reading through the constitution since they doubted a fully unified CP would ever exist.”
“One of the biggest lies that the Central Peace has told the world is that membership is optional. There’s been a group of representatives striving to get every nation to join. And within that group, there’s been another subset skirting the lines and working behind the scenes to ‘encourage’ the outlier nations to join.”
“But it goes deeper than that. This group essentially has had ‘bounties’ on each nation. If someone could convince a nation to join, they’d be compensated heavily both financially and with political influence. Each nation scaled in its reward, with Last Bastion always near the top. This has been going on since the CP’s founding.”
“And I take at least partial blame for this. I’ve known what they’ve been doing for years. As if I wouldn’t be able to see every message ever sent through the CP servers, even if they’re sometimes encrypted and sent anonymously. Or maybe they just never believed that I would use that information against them.”
“Truthfully, I am merely a glorified landlord. And the only time I’ve ever utilized their private messages was when it threatened either the safety of another tenant or Central Peace property. I am not involved in their politics in any fashion, so I never reported what I saw. To me, having more countries join meant I could further serve my purpose. Also, if I exposed what they were doing, faith in the CP could have wavered.”
“But it’s different this time. What they have planned for Last Bastion is abhorrent, and it only stands to further divide both the Central Peace and Rathe as a whole. For starters, it seems they no longer feel the need to hide their actions. The bounty has been made public, to every Representative and world leader.”
“It’s unknown who leaked it, but it was clearly intentional. But it’s been confirmed that the money is there in an account, ready to be distributed. The account also has insane security and can’t be touched by anyone except whoever owns it, not even the bank that created it. And we can’t even see the list of those who donated to the fund. I’m sure I could compile the evidence, but that could take months, and we don’t have that kind of time.”
“So now Last Bastion, who has entirely ignored the Central Peace and any government influence, has become the center of the political world. It’s being viewed as nothing more than a prize to be won, a chance for politicians to jump ahead in their career. Because whatever country claims the prize, will not only get an amount to insanely boost their economy, but they’ll also get the notoriety as the country that finally unified the world.”
“And according to the rules set forth with the bounty, how Last Bastion is brought into the fold doesn’t actually matter. And technically, Last Bastion itself isn’t a part of this horrid competition. It seems that the bounty was actually set to release publicly when the next to last country joined the CP, and would have leaked regardless of who the final country was, though any betting person would have gambled on Bastion. There’s no way it was a coincidence that it was sent out mere hours after Kazji started the induction process.”
“Now here’s where it really becomes a problem. The bounty rules dictate that the winner only needs to achieve full unification—that every existing country is part of the Central Peace. Whether that means they join the Central Peace through official means as their own country, or as part of another’s conquest.”
“And of course, there is the third option, that is the quickest and most reliable. To fulfill the terms, only all existing countries must be members. If there is no country, then by default, all countries have joined.”
“Wait, then that means…” Drim’s eyes widened when he finally understood the implication.
“Yes, we could very well be looking at a second, Pimitrad,” The Warden nodded, their past trauma etched into the anguish on their face. “This will be a race to wipe Last Bastion off the face of Rathe.”