Nathan double-checked the Strategy View.

68:09:37

He noted that his Authority had shot straight back up to 100%.

“Have you guys managed to figure out what Authority does?” Nathan said.

“Unfortunately not, my lord,” Gius said. “As I’ve explained, much research has already been conducted on the topic, but its effect has been non-existent.”

I’m not sure if I believe you, Gius.

…but he’d been a good subordinate so far. Nathan barely spent time in town, yet the whole place had sprung up under Gius’s stewardship.

I’ll have to keep a close eye on him.

Before long, they reached the town. Gius led them through the districts up to a slightly more elevated part of the city with nicer houses.

There was a huge villa in the center—a building with marble white walls and flowerbeds in the front. It reminded Nathan of pictures of Renaissance Italy.

“Here we are.” Gius sighed. “A warning: all the people inside have… quirks. Be careful. And please, for the love of the Seed, don’t listen to a thing Casc says.”

Before Nathan could say anything, Gius pulled the door open.

Inside, three men were having a stare-down. One was fat and chubby, sweat dripping down his forehead in great big droplets. The second was someone dressed in the builder’s clothes—hardhat, overalls, the whole works. In addition to that, he had a belt with a hammer, a screwdriver, and a few other assorted tools.

The third one was someone Nathan knew well.

Burrau.

His eyes flickered toward Nathan. “My lord.”

“What’s going on here?” Gius said.

“Look, I just want to make a few modifications to my home,” the fat one said. “Is that so much to ask—?“

The one with the tools elbowed him and pointed at Nathan. The fat one turned his head, and, upon spotting Nathan, threw himself to the ground.

“My lord!”

“Sir,” the man with the tools said. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to meet all of you,” Nathan said. “Could I get some introductions?”

Gius opened his mouth to speak when the fat one sprang up.

“I am Casc, my lord! Your very humble servant.”

Nathan took an instinctive step back. “Okay, Casc. What do you do?”

“Take up space, mostly,” Burrau said.

“This, coming from the government bureaucrat!?” Casc said.

Gius coughed, catching Nathan’s attention.

“Casc is one of the wealthiest landowners in the town. As such, he was… given… a seat at the council.”

Casc spread his arms out, blubber jiggling.

“I own most of the houses you’ve seen thus far, my lord. Not only that, but the shops and the businesses, too!”

This guy’s bragging about having a monopoly.

“The name’s Bricks, my lord.” The man with the tools stepped forward and held out his hand. “It’s a pleasure.”

Nathan hesitantly reached out and then shook his hand.

Thank god, there’s finally another normal person.

“You know,” Nathan said. “You remind me of another guy I’ve met—“

“Sticks, right? He’s my brother.”

Nathan squinted his eyes. They did look kind of similar, actually. Same sort of solid build and friendly features

Their parents must have had a sick sense of humor.

“And both of you are on the council?” Nathan asked.

Bricks shrugged. “Yeah. Not sure how that happened, but it did.”

Gius leaned in. “It’s well known that Sticks manipulated the Builder’s Union into electing Bricks. This way they have a bigger voice on the council—“

“My brother didn’t do that. I’m only here because no one else wanted the job.”

“Except you?” Nathan said.

“No, I got conscripted. One of my buddies signed me up and I was forced on by default.”

Okay, twice in a row? Maybe the conspiracy theories might have some merit.

Burrau frowned.

“We only have three days to prepare, and you want to waste time doing a meet-and-greet?”

I don’t think he likes me.

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“I just want half an hour of your time,” Nathan said. “And then you’ll be free to discuss repainting the walls.”

Burrau tilted his head up.

“You already know who I am,” he said. “I represent the homeowners and HOA organizations scattered across the town. It’s my job to ensure that the legal processes are followed and not run over by a speeding wagon.”

The last few words were said deliberately, his eyes pointed at Nathan like daggers.

I REALLY don’t think he likes me.

“What were you all discussing?” Nathan asked.

“It’s a small change,” Casc said. “I just wanted to make some modifications to my home, and I asked Burrau to come here to discuss it.”

“First, it wasn’t a minor modification,” Burrau said. “He wants to build a ten-story mansion in the shape of his face. This violates at least three HOA regulations.”

“Why his face?” Nathan muttered.

“Second,” Burrau said. “It wasn’t a mere discussion. He asked me here so that he could bribe me.”

Nathan tweaked an eyebrow. “Did you accept?”

“Of course not!” Burrau’s hair seemed to stand on end. “I would never do such a thing!”

Casc extended his arms, a smile on his face. “Come on, Burrau. It wasn’t a bribe. I was simply asking you to expedite the process a little. There’s nothing illegal about that.”

“You offered me a new house.”

“A gift! Totally unrelated. And anyway, I was merely floating it as a possibility.”

Bricks laughed. “I don’t think it’s happening, Moneybags. Best give up on it.”

“What’s your stake in this?” Nathan looked at Bricks. “Why are you here?”

“I would’ve had to sign off on whatever contract they agreed to since it would’ve been my boys doing the work,” Bricks said.

“Is Burrau right?” Nathan asked. “Was Casc trying to bribe him?”

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Bricks. Burrau had his eyes narrowed while Casc was looking at him with a thin smile.

“I wouldn’t say bribe,” Bricks finally said. “More, uh, transactional gifting.”

“That’s literally the definition of a bribe,” Nathan said.

“Actually,” Burrau said. “Under Article X, section 37, the formal definition of bribery is—“

“We don’t need to hear it!” Gius shouted. “Please!”

Burrau adjusted his glasses. “What a shame. Much about life can be illuminated from the study of contract law.”

“You have a problem, Burrau,” Gius said.

“My only problem is the world’s need for more contract law.”

Gius looked back at Nathan. “So? What’s your decision, my lord?”

“What do you mean?”

“I assume you’d like to offer your thoughts on the matter,” Gius said.

Nathan bit his lips. Burrau was looking at the ground with a resigned expression. Casc had a smug, self-satisfied smile. Bricks was merely curious. Gius was neutral—though there was a flash of something in his eyes.

“I guess I side with Burrau on this one,” Nathan said.

Burrau’s head shot up. “What?”

Casc’s smile cracked. Bricks raised a single eyebrow.

“M-my lord, surely we can talk about this,” Casc said. “Aren’t you being a bit hasty? Besides, I thought you were against Contractism.”

“What’s that?”

Gius leaned in. “A political faction, my lord. They believe that the Contract is the center of civilization and is to be preserved above all else.”

“Why would I be against Contractism?”

“Because of how you ignored Mister Contract himself,” Bricks said. “Everyone just took it for granted after that.”

“Well, I don’t know much about this Contractism,” Nathan said. “But in this case, Burrau seems to be in the right. The reason why I ignored the rules last time was due to the pressing need for walls, not because I’m against Burrau politically.”

Burrau seemed to be looking at Nathan with something approaching respect. Casc glared for a split second before the look went away.

“Very well, I’ll wait my turn,” Casc said.

Nathan turned to Burrau. “I was hoping that you could take the time to explain to me some of the essential things I need to know about the legal system here.”

The room froze.

“W-what have you done!?” Gius shouted. “You fool, you’ve doomed us all!”

Bricks jumped through the window. Glass shattered and he disappeared.

“No, I won’t cower, damn it!” Casc said. “This is my house—“

Burrau seemed to teleport directly in front of Nathan.

“You wish to learn the intricacies of Contract Law?” Burrau said.

“Y-yes?”

Burrau’s eyes gleamed with an ethereal light. Books materialized from the inside of his jacket, each one thicker and larger than the last.

Where is he getting those from!?

“I would be—“ Burrau breathed deeply. “—pleased… to teach you, my lord.”

It was in that moment that Nathan knew he’d screwed up.

----------------------------------------

Five hours.

Five entire hours went by before Burrau had finished his explanation—and that was just the ‘streamlined version.’ Nathan had learned more about fungi contract law than any one man was ever meant to know. Page after page of minutiae to account for edge cases. Bullshit statements and rulings, all seemingly designed to make Nathan’s head spin.

Eventually, they managed to get him to stop by reminding him that there would be an invasion in about sixty hours or so. Burrau hesitantly stopped, but offered to continue teaching Nathan at some point in the future. They were walking back to the Meeting Hall when Nathan broke the silence.

“You guys have rules on curtain color,” Nathan said. “Freaking curtain color. Who does that?”

“Mushroom people, my lord.”

“Every single agreement has to be signed in triplicate. Why would you do this to yourselves?”

“I question this on the daily, my lord.”

“You punish people by forcing them to write out the breached contract by hand, too.”

“It’s actually quite an effective punishment because many of these contracts extend for upwards of five hundred pages.”

“Where do you even get the paper from!?”

Gius’s eyes twinkled. “You know, Burrau is considered a moderate amongst Contractists.”

“HE’S CONSIDERED MODERATE!?”

“The more extreme ones will demand a contract even for such things as ‘deciding who should go to pick up groceries.’ It takes a while for them to get things done.”

“That’s insane.”

Gius folded his hands behind his back

“Perhaps. But it is our tradition, my lord. All of us consider contracts to be of the utmost importance, even the apolitical and anti-Contractists. If you wish to effectively rule us, you must first understand us.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand that.”

Gius didn’t respond. They came to the Meeting Hall.

“I must finish my work, my lord, and I think you need to meet with your party before they start panicking.”

Nathan nodded. “I’ll be back with Mara. She’ll set up some more mines. With the extra time, I bet she’ll be able to make some weapons for Fuge to utilize.”

“Very well, my lord. Best of luck.”

Nathan nodded back. “Best of luck to you as well, Gius.”

Gius’s fingers twitched. He turned around and walked into the meeting hall.

----------------------------------------

When Nathan came back, there was obviously a great deal of shock and confusion from his allies. Bjorn was clearly irritated that Nathan had run off without a word. Emi had been concerned. Chad laughed it off, while Mara was irritated that she didn’t get to come along.

Nathan explained everything he’d done and the situation.

“Yeah, chief, there’s a little issue with your plan,” Chad said.

“What is it?” Nathan said.

“We’re running out of time, remember? We’re only a few days from the Pandora, and so is that Harrowed Hand group.”

Shit.

Chad was right.

“But what about my town?” Nathan said. “We can’t just leave them alone.”

“I’m not saying we should ignore them. I’m saying we should prioritize. We’ll come in for the final fight, but we shouldn’t spend three days preparing.”

“But—“

“Trust your people,” Bjorn said, speaking up for the first time. “They’re competent. Let them take care of it.”

Nathan sighed.

They have a point…

“Fine. I guess we should get going to make up the lost time, right?”

They set off after Nathan went back to his town to explain the situation. In the back of his mind, Nathan noted that he hadn’t slept in a while.

Constitution is a pretty handy stat.

Hours passed. They continued walking. The whole time, Nathan’s thoughts were on his town. He wished he was there so he could see how the preparations were going. He’d actually ended up asking Mara to make some bombs for an emergency.

“Nothing crazy,” Nathan said. “Maybe some mines.”

She’d seemed disappointed but accepted the deal.

Time ticked away. A day passed. Nothing important happened.

One more day passed.

Then…

Message from Gius:

It’s time. Please come.