When the carpet arrives at the palace, the carpet arrives in front of its main entrance. Bryzax gets off it, looking to clean up both his old and new panoplies. And he gets the palace’s tailor to repair his battle-damaged tabard.
“What’s going on here?” the palace’s tailor asks Bryzax, furrowing a brow upon seeing the tabard’s condition.
“His Lordship took me to a haunted park along with a life witch. The life witch and I both got two trips down the haunted park, while milord only had one” Bryzax keeps quiet about the haunted park trinity.
“That sounds scary, and His Lordship seems to want to get one built”
Speaking of His Lordship, he’s going to the vault to get the money to pay Saronium for the trip to the Caladon Bog and the loot from both runs that she hasn’t sold yet. That is, one set of the park’s cloth armor; it seems like the weapons were already sold to the first run’s vicar DPS.
Enno emerges from the vault with a purse containing the full amount of 7000 gold he promised to her for the set of cloth armor.
“Thank you; I learned so much about the design of haunted parks!” Enno tells his rental healer as she hands over the cloth set.
“Really, this is nothing compared to what some rich dilettantes paid to get them through raids because they collected mounts, decos or gear, like Belphegor’s solar car”
Belphegor rides the lands of the living in a solar car? What’s a car? Enno struggles to contain his astonishment of even hearing about solar cars. And he thought an enchanted dha was a worthy gift to give a servant. Or a set of clothes from the same park. It seems like Bryzax’s new panoply is a cut above the regular gear ordinary knights wear, but this is nothing like the gear that must drop from the raid Belphegor drops his car… I guess the price for such services is steep, but most of the customers are people who can’t run these things otherwise.
Saronium then leaves the palace grounds, while all 7 pieces of loot he bought from people Enno ran the haunted park with are put in the palace’s armory. With the enchanted dha in a place where it’s made clear how it differs from the other swords in the inventory.
At dinner that night, Bryzax is the guest of honor and sits on Enno’s right, while, for some reason, Concetta is sitting on Enno’s left tonight as he makes an announcement.
“Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have made some progress on the design phase of the haunted park: it will not have any trash. Additionally, it will be financed with a new thirteen percent tax on funerary goods and services, sixty percent tariffs on their import, as well as fifteen percent on repairs of high-end gear!” Enno announces a flurry of new measures aimed at financing the construction and upkeep of his new haunted park.
“Milord, how is high-end gear defined for repair tax purposes?” Concetta asks her liege lord about these new taxes.
“High-end gear is defined as gear having a gear level at the level of drops from brutal dungeons or higher!” Bryzax explains to the palace’s cook.
Yutolio told me about how Perseria used their haunted parks to fund their war effort against Pandemonium. However, the legal definition of funeral goods and services include urns, coffins, hearses, monuments, crypt and graveyard slots, funerals, corpse transportation, burials and embalmment material, Concetta is a little concerned about how her lord plans on gouging families in death.
“It appears, milord, that you’re gouging the grieving families just so that you can build a new haunted park!” Concetta voices her concerns.
“Peasants might get a rudimentary grave marker, made from inexpensive woods, and maybe an urn, or a basic coffin and burial for those with a bit more money. The ones who import monuments or coffins are the ones with money, and we may want to build monuments, hearses and coffins of our own!”
They keep talking about the projected yield of the policy, who the burden is expected to fall upon the most, and whether it would suffice to even get the haunted park built. Better have a contingency fund for unexpected snags during the park’s construction.
“But perhaps you might wish to have your own set of high-end gear! I’ll even let you choose between two weapons won during today’s trip at the haunted park: a mace and a saber!” Enno then have a guard present the two weapons to her. “You can only have one!”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Who could train me in their use?” Concetta asks the guard.
“Yeah, you don’t want to learn how to wield multiple weapons at the same time!” Bryzax tells the cook. “I could train you in swordplay if you choose the saber”
“Also, something isn’t right. Why did you wait so long to get me weapons, milord?” Concetta’s facial expression starts to change.
“I just wanted to make sure your loyalty was earned first. It’s very dangerous to give weapons to servants not involved with security unless they either earned it or needed it!”
More often than not, need came first. Like a realm is going to be under attack soon, Enno starts thinking about what could push a lord to arm servants.
“Where did these come from?” the cook asks her lord.
“These were obtained from a haunted park. Don’t worry: they are not haunted, nor cursed”
“Yeah, I got the same saber from the haunted park I went to with His Lordship, this haunted park had no complaints about that sort of things” Bryzax adds to the comments.
Now I know haunted parks are real. It sure sounds dangerous to run if milord wishes to raise taxes specifically on funerary goods and services to get one built, Concetta sighs.
“You’re lucky that servants might have some involvement in policymaking here. More so in matters that directly impact them” Enno tells his cook.
“Milord, why did you suddenly get an interest in haunted parks? Just a few days ago, I never heard you mention one, much less organizing a tournament whose prize is getting one’s community the realm’s haunted park! Or even attend one!” Concetta asks him, while she has yet to pick her weapon.
“Right now, it seems like haunted park factions are not trading with factions without haunted parks. We have no brokerage services, and brokers are reluctant to open offices where there is no visibility! A haunted park is the most cost-effective method at our disposal”
The real benefit of the haunted park for Kaeshana doesn’t have much to do with the haunted park itself. However, a brokerage will probably mean building warehouses, and collect brokerage taxes, with which to fund all kinds of things for the faction… Enno realizes also that not all haunted parks are made equal.
“That’s something at least, but why gift me a weapon from a haunted park? Wouldn’t a knight who’s likely to see battle with it be a better choice?” Concetta asks him.
“At some point, there might be some jealous people who could covet your position and might even fight you for it. Or even to fend off thieves trying to steal from the palace’s pantry!”
“All right, I’ll take the saber, but promise me that I will receive appropriate training in swordplay!”
“If you accept, Bryzax, you could arrange for Concetta to receive saber training!”
Bryzax then takes Concetta to the training area for fencing. They practice in a dimly lit room, where the cook starts her fencing training from the very beginning, while another kitchen servant washes the dishes used for the meal.
During a little break, Bryzax can’t help but comment on how Concetta handled herself.
“It’s a little rough, but that’s normal for everyone when they start training on a sword” Bryzax comments on her swordplay.
“All right…”
“If fencing doesn’t work out for you, you seem to be smart enough for magic to be worth trying your hand at”
It seems like women with intellect are pushed towards magic. And some lowborn families, like mine, prayed that their daughters could get mercenary contracts as witches and hence feel like they are their families’ salvation, Concetta spaces out after hearing about her intellect.
“It seems like His Lordship believed in me enough to make a saber worth using. Now you go around saying that I should…” Concetta gets interrupted by the herald.
“Magic would be a supplement in your case. You’re a little raw, there’s no telling which one you’ll be better suited for just yet. I am not able to train you in magic, but if you want to learn it, my recommendations would be either fire or alcohol magic” Bryzax comments on her potential in both fencing and magic.
“Right, it would be of help to me in the kitchen! I can always return the saber, and maybe get a mace if it turns out that I am better as a witch than as a fencer...”
“But really, intellect doesn’t make you a more powerful witch, at least not directly. Keep that in mind if you want to learn magic”
Meanwhile, Enno puts the set of cloth armor from the Caladon Bog into Yutolio’s room shortly after the palace’s resident healer falls asleep. Hehe: Yutolio will only realize tomorrow morning what I gave him!
The following morning, Yutolio awakens, looking at some set of clothing he deems exotic, considering what’s typically worn by magic-users in the area. He jostles, and rushes to Enno, asking for explanations about who, or why, left clothes lying in his room.
“Milord, who left their clothes in my room? Someone who’s sleep-deprived?” Yutolio’s face turns red as the healer shows his lord the set of clothes.
“No, sir. Bryzax and I both went to a haunted park yesterday, there was so much we needed to do once back here, and we got this set of enchanted clothes for you from the park!”
“I’ll take it, but you ought to expose the loot you obtained from the park on the day of the tournament! The public should know about that, and so many in the realm never saw haunted park loot in their lives!” Yutolio imposes his condition. “Haunted parks are new to so many people here, maybe some vagrants might be tempted to go quest, or even hit the haunted park!”
“I will need to ask Bryzax and Concetta because they both got pieces of loot from that trip, too...”
And this means this tournament should be a festive occasion for the city’s residents, a celebration of combat prowess, of adventure, to make haunted parks more palatable to the public, whom I can feel is still struggling to open up to the idea of hosting a haunted park! Enno starts thinking about whether there will be outside adventurers even visiting the city when the tournament is underway.