A final deal was hashed out with the Crystal Ball. The Ball demanded mana but Jack convinced the ball that magic scrolls would suffice.

The issue was that those magic scrolls couldn’t be made of paper. The amount of mana the ball wanted necessitated a higher tiered magic scroll. And those scrolls could only be made of parchment.

The breeding program had yet to take off. Jack however was hopeful that success was around the corner and the livestock would produce lots of meat and parchment for them.

“I need mana now!” the Ball screamed at him.

Jack stared at it. He and the ball were in a tent alone, hashing out the finer details of the agreement.

“You’ll have to be patient,” Jack told the ball.

“But you expect me to trust that you’ll keep your end of the deal? I’m not going to give away my stone and wood freely.”

“What choice do you have? You can reject our offer and we’ll take those resources anyway. Even if it means you’ll sink to the bottom of the ocean. And when you do, we’ll find another island to get stone and wood.”

“You’re a piece of shit, Zodark.”

“Lord Zodark,” Jack corrected the ball. “You’ll address me with respect.”

The ball went silent.

“It was good doing business with you,” Jack stood up. “You’ll get your magic scrolls. You just need to trust us.”

Jack left the tent and informed Isoldea and Leofric that the extraction should begin as soon as possible.

The plan was simple. The 15 tributes that they received from the village will no longer take on palace tasks. They were going to extract resources from this island.

His other plan was to conscript palace staff to join in also, at least temporarily. But this suggestion was shut down by Isoldea.

“I’m afraid the staff will take that poorly, my lord. The palace staff aren’t used to hard labour.”

Jack nodded. Even though he wanted to extract as many resources as possible, he couldn’t use any tactic to achieve his goals.

There is a concept Jack heard in a podcast once, it was referred to as the ‘Overton Window’. The theory states that there is a finite range of policies that leaders and governments can enact that their population considers ‘reasonable’ or acceptable.

Hearing Isoldea’s response, Jack knew that his plan to conscript palace staff was outside this acceptable range.

He had to find more hands that were willing to do hard labour. For now, he would stick with the 15 tributes.

Jack and Isoldea returned to the palace. Leofric stayed behind with the expedition force. They were going to expand the campsite to accommodate the tributes.

They used the teleportation spell [Gate] to get back to the palace. There was no invalid message.

When they got teleported, Jack found the palace suspiciously quiet.

Jack was curious where everyone was.

Isoldea took out her lance. She wasn’t going to take any chances.

They walked around the empty hallways. The silence was deafening. It took about ten minutes before they heard hushed voices talking in unison.

The Demon Palace was a complex that had many other buildings. The voices they heard were coming from the temple building at the left side of the palace complex.

So they went there and found everyone there.

The palace guards, staff and consorts were in a temple and were reciting some vows or verses with a [Blood Priestess] guiding them through it all.

“What’s the meaning of all this?” he asked.

The [Red Matron] approached him, “We’re here to give offerings to the gods. Ever since we’ve arrived in this New World, we’ve focused too much on ourselves. Since you’ve given me control over the palace whilst you were away, I saw it best to bring the staff closer to the gods.”

“But there’s no guard in their stations. What if an enemy decided to attack while everyone was here doing recitings?”

“The gods will protect us. Besides, we’ve not encountered a serious threat in this world yet.”

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“That doesn’t matter. If we lower our guards, we’re inviting chaos here.”

“Chaos? Do you think giving offerings to the gods is inviting chaos? My lord, such blasphemy is unbecoming of a liege who’s supposed to represent the will of the gods.”

“I never said that.”

“Your voice does sound like you’re annoyed that we’re here to worship and give thanks to the gods,” the [Red Matron] accused him.

Jack shook his head, “I don’t have time for this. [Guards], to your stations immediately. The 15 tributes must report to Isoldea for their new tasks. And the rest of you, go back to work.”

The [Red Matron] shook her head.

Jack left without saying anything else to the matron of the priestesses.

He went to his study room to think over the plans.

He had yet to fix the labour shortage. He had to find some way to get the Yellow Moon tribe to be attacked.

Jack checked his [Inventory].

He pulled out the dagger that the village chief gave him.

Maybe there was a way to motivate the other tribes to attack them. Jack went around the palace to find Kinni, the [Scout]. He had a mission for her. But needed more intel on the two biggest tribes in the North.

She seemed like the perfect person to collect information.

…

…

It was night and Jack was relaxing in his room. He was doing anything. From his window, he stared at the beautiful night sky.

Jack heard a furious bang on his door. It got him to stand up. He had never heard anyone bang his door so strongly. Could there be an emergency?

Before he could ask who it was, the door flung itself open.

Jack saw Noella furiously storm into his chambers. Her eyes were red with anger.

“How dare you!” she shouted.

Jack raised his brows, “Come again?”

“You want me to go somewhere far away and smash rocks?”

“Smash rocks? What are you on about?”

“I’ve heard that you’re sending me and the others to a snowy island.”

“Right. You’re not smashing rocks. You’re going to farm stone that will be used in building–”

She pulled out a knife, “I’d rather kill myself than do such a demeaning thing. Is it not enough for you to humiliate me and make me into a common [Maid]? Now you want me to be a [Miner]?”

“Put that knife away, you’ll hurt yourself.”

Guards entered Jack’s chambers with swords in hand.

“My lord, we’ve heard a commotion,” the guards looked at him. When one of them noticed that Noella was holding a knife, things went downhill.

“She’s planning on stabbing our lord. Kill her!” one of the [Guards] shouted.

Jack raised his hand, “Stand down. She’s harmless.”

Tears were rolling down Noella’s cheeks, “Harmless? I’ll stab myself right now and you’ll be scared forever.”

“I’ll just [Revive] you,” he shrugged.

“W-What?”

“Yeah. I’ve got a revival scroll on me. So if you stab yourself, I’ll revive you and immediately send you off to mine rocks.”

Noella was breathing heavily. “I don’t want to go.”

“So your strategy of convincing me is to threaten to kill yourself after barging into my chambers and you expect me to do you a favour?”

“I’ve given you information about this world. Now you wish to discard.”

“It’s nothing personal, Noella. Somebody has to do the job. And we only have 15 tributes, we need everyone contributing their worth in the palace.”

She fell to her knees and placed the knife next to her, “When my father hears of this…”

“He’ll come and save you? With what army, Noella? Your father is a wise man. He values the village more than his spoiled, loud-mouthed daughter.”

There was silence in the room.

The [Guards] looked awkwardly at the walls of the room. They clearly weren’t sure if they had to be here. Listening to everything that was going on.

“I’m more valuable here. I have more information about this world you’ll find interesting,” she pleaded.

At least now she was making arguments that were at least trying to appeal to Jack’s self-interest.

“Yes, you did help me. But I don’t see how you’re going to be useful to me in the future.”

“I-I…” she stuttered

“Yes?”

She kept her mouth closed, her whole demeanour felt as though had given up.

“Shall we take her away, my lord?” a [Guard] asked him, breaking the silence.

Jack turned to Noella. “If I gave you a choice to either choose yourself or your brother to stay in the palace and do menial tasks, who would you choose?”

She didn’t respond. Her eyes stared at the floor, no longer pouring tears down her cheeks.

“I guess you’re both going to the island then. Guard–”

“I’ll choose to stay here. He can go mine. I beg of you, Lord Zodark. I wish to stay.”

“Even if it means condemning your brother to hard labour?”

She nodded.

Jack chuckled. This is a dog eat dog world after all.

“Fine. You’ll be my personal [Maid] from now on. You won’t take any orders from anyone else beside me. And you won’t serve anyone else in the palace. Finally, drop the attitude you’ve shown me since you’ve arrived here. Understand?”

She nodded.

“Good. Wash your face, you look like a mess. Then bring me some fresh tea.”

She quickly got up. Her movements were filled with haste.

He could have sent her to the island to break rocks for the rest of her life. But he showed her mercy.

Maybe he’s not that heartless after all.