The emperor is as arrogant as ever, sitting on a golden throne on a raised dais so he’s looking down at Lexi, the Tridentias, and Ray.
At the foot of the stairs leading up to the pompous imperial stands the grand duke and Jordan on either side.
This guy’s on a permanent power-trip.
Once again, Lexi exercises her right as a player and refuses to bow or curtsy, which makes two pairs of golden eyes glint while another glows warmly.
“How kind of the duke to bring his firstborn to greet me at last.”
One day, I’m gonna smack that look off your stupid face.
It’s obvious the emperor has been holding a grudge about the Tridentias attending his party one short.
The Dawn Duke takes it in stride, simply mouthing niceties, then Marquess Alaric steps up.
“Forgive me for not making it to the 30th anniversary celebrations, your majesty. Unfortunately, we were facing a concerted attack by sea monsters, and I did not dare abandon my duty to country.”
Nice! Take that, you twat.
Eric’s older brother had effectively stated that attending the ball wasn’t part of his responsibilities, and therefore his absence at the time isn’t something anyone can hold against him.
“We are fortunate for the Tridentias’ loyalty to the crown.”
Trying to call them your dogs? Asshole.
“What else would a Tridentia be if not devoted to the empire, your majesty?” Oooh, I like this guy. He’s good.
Marquess Alaric - just like his younger brother - hates politics, but he’s every inch his father’s son when he has to engage in verbal battles. While the emperor had tried to imply the Dawn Family serves him, the red haired magus had smoothly moved the scope to the nation as a whole, and reminded the emperor that he’s just one man - no matter the epithets used.
“What else, indeed.” The smile is almost sinister, and Lexi wishes once more that the palace wasn’t so full of player suppression devices.
Especially when cold eyes focus on her.
“You appear to be quite a remarkable player, Hargreaves.” Alright, that’s it. I’m sick of this piece of shit. I’m putting Jordan on the throne no matter what.
“Is that what it seems like, your majesty?” She forces a smile, keeping her tone airy. “You’re far too generous.”
> Translation: you’re an idiot with no self-control.
“When one is blessed with so much, it is one’s duty to be benevolent.” Lexi really hates that condescending tone.
> Translation 1: I’m better than you - I’m the emperor, the Sun of the Empire of the Sun, and that makes me infinitely more powerful than you’ll ever be.
>
> Translation 2: Whatever I give you is charity you should be grateful for, since I’m of a different stock compared to a plebeian like you
“I couldn’t agree more.” This time she makes sure to smile brightly. “After all, that’s what players do.”
> Translation 1: You wouldn’t be here - the empire wouldn’t even exist - if not for the sacrifices of players since that time your ancestor was getting his ass kicked by demons.
>
> Translation 2: I’m in a class of my own, since I have powers you can only extract in diluted form for yourself. Don’t even think of comparing us.
>
> Translation 3: If not for me, you would have falsely charged an innocent woman while letting the real perpetrator get away with murder at your party. I didn’t need to intervene - it involved your nobles atyour party in your palace - but I did because I’m just that much of a better person than you.
“I see you understand your purpose well.” Stay calm, don’t lose your temper here. “In that case, it would be good to reward you.”
> Translation: Let me throw you some treats, since you’ve been a good bitch.
I’m gonna kill you myself, one day.
She has to think quickly though, because acting too humble and generous can be used against her in future.
Quick, what did those conniving wretches always use to say in situations like this?
Oh, wait. Mother’s a pro at these things. Her favorite response was always...
“Just as those with more have more to give, so should actions be judged for their intent.”
> Translation 1: I don’t want anything you have to give, especially when I know the real reason you’re offering.
>
> Translation 2: As much as you try to act generous, you’re a selfish asswipe who spends taxpayers’ money extravagantly on fancy shit and grand gestures for the sole purpose of being praised by sycophants, and on nefarious nonsense to further your twisted agendas.
>
> Translation 3: I didn’t do any of it for you, so don’t flatter yourself.
>
> Translation 4: If you’re going to give me anything after everything we’ve said, it’ll have to be grand so you don’t lose face.
The silence that greets her words makes her want to smirk, but Lexi forces her face to remain congenial and sincere.
Weren’t prepared for that, were you? My mother is a master of putting people down with pretty words. I should know, since I’ve been her favorite target the moment I was born.
Not only had carrying Lexi caused the elegant and slender woman to gain a considerable amount of weight that had required surgical intervention to remove, but the health issues sparked by Lexi while in the womb continue to plague her mother to this day.
It doesn’t help that the birthing process - from labor to delivery - had been long, painful, and dangerous, despite the family’s wealth and access to the best doctors.
Post-natal depression probably played a part too, and she’s carried whatever negativity she had since, focusing it on me and then layering on and spiraling deeper with every breath I’ve taken.
When the emperor finally speaks again, Lexi has to bite her tongue to keep from showing how smug she’s feeling.
Got you.
----------------------------------------
As soon as she alights the carriage back at the manor, Eric seizes her arm and drags her off.
Oh no, here we go.
Bracing herself as soon as the redhead slams the door to her room shut, she wonders how long the scolding will last this time.
“Lexi.” Huh? Usually when he’s mad at me he uses my full name or some sort of insult. “Tell me the truth.”
Peeking up at him, she wonders why she’d bothered when he’s wearing that closed off mask.
“What truth?” What the hell is he talking about?
Brown eyes are piercing, before Eric sighs. This is bad. What’s going on?
“You’re actually completely insane, aren’t you?” HA?!
“WHAT?! Eric, what the FU-“ Lexi wonders if she’d hit her head when he bursts into laughter, then she wants to hit him as hard as she can.
“Eric you ass! What the hell is your problem?!”
He can’t answer, doubled over and clutching his midsection as he continues laughing uproariously, and she has no choice but to huff and glare at the madman while waiting for him to calm down.
It takes a few minutes, and by the time he’s wheezing and wiping tears from his eyes, Lexi has debated seventeen different ways of making him bald.
“Th...the emperor.” This isn’t fair - even when he’s red-faced and snorting, he still looks good. “I’ve never seen the emperor look as dumbfounded as he did back then.” The memory makes him chuckle while wincing at the pain to his sore abs. Serves you right. “That was BRILLIANT, Lexi. You put that murderous lunatic in his place AND got him to grant you tax exemption for life.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Gaping, Lexi can’t believe what she’s hearing.
“Eric! You shouldn’t say such things about the emperor, especially when you’re the Hawk Commander.” Looking around frantically, Lexi calms slightly when she realizes the redhead had come prepared with a sound barrier. “Alright, fine, yes - I’m brilliant, I know. Did you only just realize?”
Smirking at him makes him roll his eyes, then he deactivates the barrier and opens the door.
“The kid’s insufferable.”
Hello pot, I’m kettle.
Ray just smiles.
----------------------------------------
Lexi is heartily congratulated by the servants, with the head chef even making a sumptuous lunch that has her feeling drowsy afterwards.
I ate too much, but the food was too good not to have seconds and thirds.
Lounging in the library, she tries to focus on the newest book she’d received from Elise - Sage Icarian’s personal journal.
Why did he give it to her, and not leave it at home or with his lover? He was with Oracle Kass for 13 years after all.
I know they were close, but surely not THIS close. Unless Sage Icarian suspected something at home?
Elise said she’d recently pored over it several times looking for clues as to the late sage’s death, but it’d told her nothing.
If Elise says so, then it must be true. But why did that sage give his diary to her in the first place?
The journal is thick - leather cover worn with age, the bindings holding sets of pages fraying despite no doubt being regularly replaced as the late sage had added more and more sheets over the years.
There’s so much private information in here, as well as his thoughts and feelings from different points of his 150 years in Terra.
Sage Icarian had been a humble farmer back in his world, doing his best on the small plot of land he’d inherited while reading as much as he could at the local library to assuage his thirst for knowledge.
When he’d been killed by a truck - ah ha, hello truck-kun - saving a child, he’d appeared in Terra as a normal rank herbalist, and had determinedly set out on a path of peace and service to others.
What’s most surprising is the fact that he’d never killed a higher ranked player, and even did his best not to hurt any other player who went after him.
...he’s the complete opposite of me.
It’s clear her predecessor had been a pacifist - a gentle-natured man who loved gardening, reading, and helping others - while Lexi is a selfish, hot-tempered, aggressive brat.
Flipping through, because the late sage spends too much time talking about plants for her liking, she pauses at an entry.
> ”25th day of the 8th month of the year 571L.”
That’s...the day I was born. The 25th of August, thirty years ago.
The days and months of this year match those of her world, as well as of all the other worlds players come from.
Wait. How did I not realize this before? Chris was taken more than fifteen years ago, and the game updated after his death. Elise told me her world was somewhat similar to mine, even though she’s been here almost 400 years.
Even if I think of it as Elise’s world being a more advanced version of my home world, what about Chris? The update can’t have happened in the past fifteen years, because Elise has been here 381 years.
...I should’ve read more on the many-worlds interpretation, instead of just taking it at face value when films did the multiverse thing. Maybe I’ll reread Sage Icarian’s other book with its theories on timelines and worlds again.
Her drowsiness is forgotten as she focuses on the entry.
> ”Something called on me to use Advance today. Perhaps some sort of instinct or intuition, though I confess I know little of such things.”
’Intuition’?
> ”It was quite a future I saw, I must say. I wonder what will happen to that child.”
’Child’? What child?
> ”Such thoughts I have, when I know that time and tide wait for no man.”
What do you mean? You’re a SAGE, for crying out loud! You have power over TIME.
> ”I shall be planting trees in the park at sunrise, so I’m afraid I must end this entry here. May each dawn renew all hope, my friend.”
’Friend’? Did he ever call the journal a friend before this?
She flips pages hastily, scanning entries dating back decades before moving on to later entries leading up to the sage’s death.
No, he never did - not before that entry or after.
’My friend’ - it almost seems as though he’s talking to the reader. Was there a special meaning to it? Maybe part of the reason why he gave the journal to Elise?
What the HELL did you see, you bloody tree hugger?!
Lexi doesn’t have time to fume or read more, when Mia knocks and informs her that she needs to start getting ready for Marquess Huxleigh’s gathering. As frustrated as Lexi is, she knows it’s not fair to take her anger out on the innocent servants, so she follows her maid upstairs and does everything Deidre and the others ask, though her mind is elsewhere.
Elise must have realized the significance of that entry, since she knows my date of birth and age.
Is that why she gave me this? She said it was a congratulatory gift for setting new records, but I don’t remember her carrying it that day when we first arrived back at the manor. Though she could’ve been in such a rush she forgot to bring it, Elise came over many times after that - yet she only gave this to me the day after she spoke to Oracle Sita.
Why didn’t she say anything about the entry? Unless...she wasn’t sure if it even meant anything at all? Makes sense - could just be a coincidence.
Lexi’s own instincts seem to be telling her that’s not the case, and she wonders if it’s because she’s grasping at straws in order to avoid the same fate as Chris.
This...I can’t tell anyone about this. I don’t want us getting tunnel vision. We have to explore every possible angle, and if I mention this then it might cause unconscious bias.
“You’re ready, my lady.” Once again, the maids have done a masterful job, and Lexi thanks them sincerely.
Forget about the journal for now. The duke told me that I should win all the nobles present tonight over to my side, since they’re all influential individuals with common sense.
...I like how that old man stressed the ‘common sense’ part.
----------------------------------------
Marquess Huxleigh must have the same expensive suppressor as the Tridentias - the one that allows them to target specific player classes - since no noble who can afford a suppression device would ever turn it off completely and leave themselves vulnerable to attack.
His manor in the capital is large and elegant, though nowhere near as magnificent as the Tridentias’.
Duh. Eric’s from the wealthiest noble family in the country. They’re second only to the imperial family in terms of money.
She knows this because the redhead had snapped it at her the first and only time she’d broached the topic of paying for her expenses at the manor.
Lexi appreciates the fact that the marquess is allowing her to use her skills here when she sees the crowd.
He said ‘gathering’ so I thought it’d be like a cozy dinner party. Why did no one in the manor prep me?
Oh, Count Chermneugh. Thanks for the dungeon raiding fee.
There’s some talk about her new records when she greets the portly count, before Count Arnet swerves the conversation towards the impact on populations in areas of dungeon breaks.
Ah ha. Was it that Heracle place?
While the head of the radical faction believes that the people must be protected by imperial funds if necessary, he’s met with pushback by the imperial party which promptly drags in the noble faction for failure to control one of their own.
I wish I had popcorn.
It’s a fascinating three-way fight, with the neutrals staying out of it and just observing until Arnet finally pulls them in with a dig about their sense of honor.
What truly impresses Lexi right then is how Eric manages to remain on the sidelines despite being the crown prince’s best friend, youngest child of the head of the imperial party, and Commander of the Hawk Legion of Imperial Knights.
Is this some sort of special aura skill?
“What do you think, Lady Lexi?”
Dammit, I was enjoying the wine and show.
“Perhaps the Parliament may consider imposing significant penalties on nobles who shirk their duties to the peoples placed in their care, if such irresponsible behavior is not the cause of things beyond their control?”
At the silence that greets her words, and the small smirk on Eric’s face when she turns a little to look at him in panic, Lexi wonders if she can assume why no one in the manor brought her dossiers to prep for tonight.
“What a novel idea!” Viscount Fenworth, a member of the neutral faction, is the first to react audibly. Lexi recalls reading about him in the dossiers for the emperor’s ball, notes by the duchy’s secretaries indicating he’s exceptionally diplomatic.
Seriously? ‘Novel’? I thought you lot have common sense. Why did no one bring this up before now?
...oh.
Her father had told her once, before she’d started at her first job, that there is only one real reason why companies hire consultants.
> ”They need an outsider to raise the topic, push for it, and work on it - so that that outsider can become the scapegoat if necessary. All that stuff about ‘industry expertise’ is nonsense unless you’re talking veterans who’ve spent decades working on something from the ground up, and gotten to the point where they can just listen to the hum of a machine and know exactly where to knock. But then again, all they really ever know is that machine and the ones it links directly to.
>
> No one knows everything, my darling, but you need to act like you do when you talk to clients. Remember: the most important thing is knowing where and how to get what you need when you need it. Everything else will fall into place.”
Though the hiring of ‘brand name’ consultants can also be a market signal - that the company is committed to transformation in order to deliver increased value to stakeholders while fulfilling corporate and/or community commitments - Lexi knows firsthand that it’s all a show.
Everyone likes to throw around words like ‘transformation’, ‘digitalization’, ‘XX industrial revolution’, ‘future ready’, ‘sustainability’, or other similar fluffy terminology. No one really wants change until they’re on fire - not their house, but them. That’s the only time they actually give a shit.
“As Lady Lexi has so wisely noted,” Count Arnet’s dark eyes are gleaming, and Lexi wonders if she should start charging per hour. “It is the duty of nobles to care for the empire’s citizens that the imperial family has placed in their care, a responsibility that comes with peerage. To desire only glory without duty is most ignoble.”
Though several attendees bristle at that last statement, no one can refute it.
Marquess Dromhuigh - the first son of the duke whose lands Lexi had wandered through on her way to the capital months ago, and whose younger brother she’d met at the emperor’s 30th anniversary celebrations - chimes in. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Lady Lexi, but would you perhaps also be suggesting the cost of paying players to clear dungeons in danger of breaking - when the lord of such a territory is justifiably unable to make such payment - would then come from the penalties imposed?”
I know what you’re getting at.
“Yes, marquess. And,” she knows what’s coming next, and preempts it. “Should there not be a need to utilize the penalties immediately, then the funds should be held in escrow until such time as they are required. The purpose of the penalty is two-fold, after all.”
And now you’re all going to lobby for your own party members to get into the team responsible for imposing penalties, managing the funds, and deciding on payouts.
“‘Two-fold’. I see.” Marquess Huxleigh looks pleased. “Both deterrent and protection, for the sake of the nation.”
This guy doesn’t lean towards the commoners, nobles, or imperial family - he only steps in when it comes to the country as a whole. Though even if the neutrals take control of the funds, it won’t exactly be smooth sailing since they too have their own agenda.
Looks like my job here is done anyway. I’d really rather not get entangled in these political plays. Marquess Huxleigh got what he truly wanted out of me tonight, and the other nobles seem satisfied as well since the positions are up for grabs, so time for another drink.
Before she can relax, the topic of her reward from the emperor comes up, and Lexi is having to exercise all her charm and eloquence to escape censure and divert the conversation elsewhere.
Still better than dealing with three rambunctious children.
----------------------------------------
CHAPTER 29 END