The city lord’s office was an exercise in self-delusion.
Like a prince making to disguise himself as one of the unwashed masses, who simultaneously couldn’t fathom the idea of shedding the creature comforts of home, the room exclaimed it was one thing, but very clearly was another.
It was no secret that the man had been relegated to his current position from one on high—in the esteemed employ of some duke or another from the kingdom’s capital.
Something Jun knew simply didn’t happen unless you royally messed up.
And so, it was almost in spite of that fact that the man in front of him insisted on flaunting his wealth, well, basically every chance he got. What meager wealth he still owned, that was, cut off from his family’s coffers as he was.
Though, instead of refined antiquity, like what might’ve been seen nearer the capital, his office decor fell more in line with the frontier aristocracy. Attempting to claim status through a showing of strength.
An effort that’d been met with… limited success so far.
Many of the sealed exhibits lining the walls displayed delicately engraved weapons—made in a facsimile of the frontier style—taxidermied spirit beast heads, and armor made from beast parts. Though, even to inexperienced eyes, they didn’t come off as all that impressive.
The swords appeared thin and brittle, the armor was clearly meant solely for decoration, and the beast heads mounted proudly on the walls were so large as to make the thought that the city lord had any part, whatsoever, in their retrieval, ludicrous to the point of outright absurdity.
Jun doubted the man had ever even held a bladed weapon, let alone took any part in slaying the beast whose singular tusk was larger than his entire body was long. A man after his own heart in that way, he supposed, though Jun never claimed to be anything more than what he was: a merchant. Whereas this man was rather adamant the world see him in a very particular light.
“Ah, there you are. So nice of you to grace us with your presence. I’m sure you must’ve been awfully busy with… whatever it is you do. My apologies if this scheduled appointment with your city lord proved too much of an inconvenience for you.”
The city lord—a plump, round faced man with an unfortunately large nose and a voice reedy enough to be mistaken for a young boy’s—did not rise to greet Jun as he entered his office. Instead choosing to maintain his rigid, straight-backed posture—pudgy fingers, sheathed in gaudy rings, steepled before him.
As if he were a headmaster reprimanding a troublesome student.
The lord smiled thinly, though Jun could clearly see the flickers of outrage barely held in check. The man, petty to a fault, pointedly refrained from inviting Jun to sit. That said, he didn’t let something so trivial as propriety stop him. At that moment, he was in no mood for games. He was obligated to attend the city lord, not go along with his every whim.
Plopping himself into the vacant chair across from the lord, he responded.
“Apology accepted, city lord. Is there a specific reason you’ve called for me?”
For the briefest of moments, a look of unrestrained fury consumed the city lord's features, before it vanished just as quickly as it’d come—leading Jun to almost believe he’d imagined it. In hindsight that was probably the moment when he should’ve bottled up his anger and let things lie.
Normally he wouldn’t have dared to act out so brazenly.
He acknowledged that there were a great many things this man could do to make his life more difficult after all. In all of their previous encounters he’d applied the appropriate amount of tact, and, generally, brown-nosed with the best of them.
Now though?
He had far more pressing concerns on his mind than the injured pride of one arrogant man. When the city lord replied it was with a voice strained by tension, as if he was actively forcing himself not to shout.
“Yes. As it so happens, I do have cause. It’s regarding the matter of the elysian crystal mines. I really do believe it prudent we revisit the topic of further compensation-“
“Is that all?” Jun scoffed. “Please, we’ve already been over this. Unless something’s changed in the week since I last saw you, I believe it’s safe to say my father still owns the land. Seeing as it was my father who bought the land. From you, as it so happens, unless I’ve somehow misremembered things. Something no amount of negotiation after the fact will ever change.”
Truthfully, it was Jun’s land, bought and payed for. But, for a young boy with no real backing, the advent of a powerful man of “mysterious means” had helped to give many of his negotiation's credibility. It was an irritating reality that, without that buffer between him and the powerful, he would not have risen nearly as high, nor as fast, as he had—regardless of how competent his business sense was.
“You WILL NOT, speak to me in such a manner, boy! I do not care who your father is. So long as he is not here, I will be spoken to with the proper respect I am owed!”
The plump man punctuated each explosive statement with a thump of his fist on the table—each successive blow causing the desk to groan and splinter. Jun promptly checked himself.
It was hard to remember sometimes that this man was a cultivator.
That he was also a haughty, petty, and vain fool should’ve only served to make Jun more cautious, not less. Besides, it wasn’t as if it were his fault Jun was in such a dour mood. The looming threat of his mother’s possible abduction hung over his head like a guillotine blade.
In that way, could he really be blamed for feeling stressed?
That said, it would be foolish to take all that out on this man of no insignificant influence.
Jun made to bow his head in feigned apology.
Only to find himself momentarily taken aback by just how much that simple act rankled. Thankfully his hair covered his face with the motion—hiding the ugly grimace that twisted his features. Normally biting his tongue and swallowing his pride came as naturally to him as breathing—it was often the most politic thing to do.
Prudent.
Wise.
After all, what was a little pride in the face of progress? Even a single step towards his goals was worth any amount of kowtowing. Or so he’d believed.
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Now though…? He wasn’t so sure. Suddenly, there was this icy pit at the center of his chest which rejected this reality with a fervor he couldn’t place. A cold hand which shoved back against what he could only see as pragmatic. A necessary action made inimical to his very existence by some strange instinct he didn’t fully understand.
“Apologies, city lord,” Jun managed through gritted teeth. “It has been quite the ordeal of a day, and my nerves are a bit frayed. I hope you can find it in you to forgive my impertinence.”
The man looked somewhat mollified at this obeisance. Jun had to strain to hold back a snarl.
“Yes, well,” the man cleared his throat. “I suppose a young man such as yourself must have all sorts of things that weigh down your mind at times. Gods know, running an entire city single-handedly is no small feat, let me tell you. I believe I can understand where you’re coming from. Though I would watch your tongue when speaking to your elders, boy. Not all of those you meet will be as forgiving as I.”
“Of course not, city lord,” Jun said—bowing his head again.
He didn’t know how the man failed to hear the grinding of his teeth.
“Now, back to the mention of further compensation. I truly do feel as though I’m owed a sizable portion of any of the profits made on this mining operation of yours. They were my lands to begin with after all, granted to me by his Royal Majesty King Alphonse the second, in all his unknowable wisdom.
“I would be remiss in my duties as city lord not to take full advantage of this new stream of revenue, don’t you think? Especially seeing as it represents a great opportunity for the elevation of Fort Mathis as a whole. Surely you must understand that the city’s needs must come first in these matters, no?”
And by city, he of course referred to his own personal coffers. Jun tried his best to maintain a civil tone.
“Excuse my forwardness, lord, but I must decline your generous request. I see no reason that the city cannot prosper as things stand. I’ve already spoken to the heads of the merchant's guild, the explorer's guild, and the laborer's guild respectively. And I can assure you that, not only does the status quo provide higher paying wages for the people of the city, but trade agreements are even now being drafted on our merchants’ end.
“By this time next year, our small outpost might very well become the single largest elysian crystal supplier this side of the Boundless Empire. I cannot see how such a precedent would be in any way detrimental to the city.”
The man smiled condescendingly, as though he were speaking to an ignorant child.
“Ah, but you see, that’s where you’re wrong. While, yes, it’s possible that the populous might stuff their pockets with a bit more coin in the coming weeks, that speaks nothing of the higher priorities. Infrastructure, upkeep, expansion for the gods sakes! These things are not cheap, I’ll have you know. And if we’re not careful, this “burgeoning industry” you’re creating could be preemptively crippled by poor city management.”
Jun bristled, his ire rising.
From inside his jacket, Ivory trembled. Perhaps it was only his black mood that read the cause of her agitation as coming from a reciprocal anger.
“Is that a threat, city lord?”
“No! No. Of course not! Let’s just call it a… friendly warning. Too much focus placed on the wrong priorities can weaken the foundations of any endeavor. As a young man of business, you should already be well aware of that much, no?”
Jun breathed deeply, trying desperately to keep himself in check. It was irritating. It was infuriating. But perhaps he could stomach the cost. The sooner he could be done with this greedy lord, the sooner he could refocus on the things that truly mattered.
“And how much of a percent would this upkeep require, would you say?”
Jun could feel himself losing out to the storm of emotions raging within him. He hated to bow to this man’s demands. To anyone’s. This man was the same. They were all the same. He built and they took. He climbed and they shoved the ladder out from under him. If only because they could.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’d say… thirty percent sounds reasonable. A city can’t run on hopes and dreams after all,” he chuckled.
THIRTY PERCENT!
Thirty percent on top of the rather generous tax he was already paying? Jun had to restrain himself from screaming. To understand just how criminal that was, one first had to understand how valuable of a resource elysian crystals were. And to understand that, one needed something of a grasp on how the frontier’s economy worked.
When one thinks of the frontier, it’s likely many things come to mind. Untamed wilderness, unparalleled dangers, but the most prominent of all had to be the near limitless opportunity. It was a place where lesser resources, labeled scarce by the greater cities of the empire, were no rarer than weeds in an unkempt garden. Beast parts and natural treasures abounded, while beast cores remained the very life blood of frontier society.
A highly valued commodity across the entirety of the boundless empire, they were the frontier kingdoms’ most lucrative export by far. The total accumulation of spiritual energies a spirit beast has amassed over the course of their often-prodigious lifespan, was it any wonder at all they were so highly sought after? For practical purposes, a beast core could be described as a very small, easily transportable battery which holds a great deal of potential energy.
Primarily bought and sold for their ability to power rune and inscription-based technologies, many convenient household appliances therefore rely almost entirely upon beast cores.
The inscriptions which make up the circuitry for said devices—from spirit lanterns to your everyday baking ovens—only functional through the use of a special ink which incorporates powdered beast cores as a reagent. So universally versatile that they’ve long since become intrinsic to the idea of human comfort worldwide.
Which, of course, led him back to the matter of elysian crystals.
The only resource known to man that, when ground down to a fine powder, is able to properly process the wild energies of raw beast cores. Essentially leading to a relationship where, without the beast cores, there is no power. But without elysian crystals, that power is nigh unusable.
“With all due respect, city lord, I feel I must decline.”
The man’s eyes widened, and the look of catlike satisfaction immediately slipped from his features. To be replaced by that flicker of incandescent fury he’d noticed earlier. Only this time, it didn’t appear to be going anywhere, anytime soon. The lord spoke in a sharp, clipped tone.
“I don’t think you know what you’re saying.”
“Oh, I believe I know very well what I’m saying.”
No, you may not have my money. No, you may not have my land. And no, you may not have thirty percent of my yearly profits you greedy oaf.
“Now if you’ll excuse me,” Jun continued. “I have other, more pressing business to attend to,” he said before he got to his feet and turned to leave.
“BUT IT’S MY GODS DAMNED MINE! YOU LIED TO ME YOU LITTLE BRAT!” the man exploded, no longer able to contain himself. “IF I HAD KNOWN ITS TRUE VALUE-!”
Jun turned sharply and cut him off there.
“Then you no doubt would have chosen differently! Yes! We’ve been over this! But what you still can’t seem to wrap your head around, is the fact that you didn’t, and now it’s too late! Hells, you didn’t even try to check! You were so blindly confident in your own stupidity that you just sold it to me, no questions asked. And, given how blatantly you overinflated the base price, I bet you even thought you were getting the better of the deal.
“I’m not sure about you, but I personally can’t help but think that’s—oh I don’t know—entirely your own fault? But hey, perhaps you can use this as a valuable learning opportunity. Maybe next time you’ll underestimate your own intelligence, and overestimate everyone else’s. You might find that things proceed far more smoothly that way.”
And with that, Jun left the room—slamming the door behind him, and leaving a slack jawed city lord to gape in his wake. The man far too stunned to even think of a response.