Harkon finished up in the tavern and started back to the tailor's shop, it had been a few hours and it was already late afternoon almost sunset. This time his trip went unmolested by neither guard nor thief, and before he knew it he was in front of the tailor's shop, he walked inside and walked over to the clerks desk. "I made order." He said.

The clerk looked up and sighed. "Ticket?"

Harkon dug in his pockets and blinked, he had thrown it away, not only that he submitted the item after she left so she wouldn't have it on record tied to a ticket number. So like any brick wall Harkon runs into he plowed through it with brute force. His face went blank and he just walked into the back room, the woman at the desk called out and tried to chase him. "Sir? Sir! you can't go back here!" Harkon walked into the back room and walked over to the tailor who seemed to be finishing up the suit jacket for the costume he was getting for Pado. the old man looked up and waved the woman away.

Harkon waited for over an hour as the old tailor sewed the jacket, he sat on the floor and watched. eventually the man looked at him still sewing perfectly. "So, my son served you know that?"

Harkon shook his head slightly.

The old man smiled. "He told me about you, you know, A large man of few words with a polar bear, best barbarian of the century he called you, my god was he an optimist."

Harkon had a feeling he knew where this was going. "I-"

The man cut him off. "He believed in you, trusted you to protect him, and he died to an arrow to the throat, they didn't bring me his body you know, I had to walk across a field of corpses, it took three days to find his body, three fucking days..."

Harkon closed his eyes and hung his head. "I am sorry, I cannot protect everyone."

The man set the finished product down. "I know, you probably didn't even know his name, just another foot soldier on the frontlines." He sighed. "Sometimes the empire feels more like some kind of wagon than a country, everyone's just a nail or board, not a person."

Harkon stood, taking the large coat and assorted accessories. "Thank you again, and I'm sorry."

The man smiled sadly. "I know."

Harkon got onto his sled, and looked at the setting sun, it seemed the right time to go to the meeting, he gave a shrill whistle and pado started toward the emperor's palace, despite belonging to the emperor lords were allowed to hold meetings there, if anything the entire building was one big office building, divided into sectors that took care of different tasks and problems. on the way there he went past the gallows, where the bodies of the five guards who had accosted him earlier swung in the wind, he felt a slight twinge of guilt but only slight, they'd probably robbed beaten and or killed many good men and used their positions to cause a good amount of suffering. imperial law was a double edged sword, any normal citizen couldn't accuse a guard of treacherous or malpractice, but a noble, that was another matter entirely, they could and the law was harsh to those who were found guilty of these practices. and though citizens couldn't accuse guards, they were able to be called as witnesses and free to list their crimes. it's often whispered in hushed tones that there's no crime in the empire because the criminals are the law. But regardless of that the law seemed to have thrown the book at these guards given how quickly they were executed. He approached the palace and the palace guard who were not dressed in the blue of the city guard but rather wore white tabbards, and their armor was more akin to half plate, allowing for good mobility while also giving good protection, the guards crossed their halberds in front of him, though one of them recognised him as formerly one of the emperor's personal adventuring team, he opened his mouth to speak but the other man spoke first. "Not another step closer, palace is closed."

Harkon produced the introduction and the guard that was going to speak closed his mouth and took the paper, and nodded. "Alright, Baron, the rest are waiting for you."

Harkon said, taking the note back. "Thank you."

When Pado started forward the other guard opened his mouth to protest nut this time he was cut off. "Don't, just... just don't, last time someone had tried to block out that bear the two of them stood there for almost two days blocking all travel into the castle... we learned the hard way that where that bear goes, he goes, and woe be to the man who tries to stop him." He didn't mention that the someone who denied him entry was him. "Man has a gift of brute forcing his way past bureaucracy." He muttered when the barbarian was gone.

Harkon approached the castle and stopped the carriage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Viscount William Grayfox sat at the head of the table, the small soulbound silver fox was laying on the table next to where he was leaning forward on the table his fingers locked as he rested his elbows on the table as if in prayer, he gave a cold look at many of the Barons who were sitting along the long table, the end seat was reserved for the newest man who would be introduced to the rest of the Barons and introduce themselves, and of course they would have a ball in a separate building, he believed Baroness Talia Rainheart would be hosting them tonight.

"When's he going to show up?" Baron Valis asked, the... 'portly' man looked like a pig stuck into a suit, he swung his jewelry encrusted sausage fingers around like a he was trying to swat a fly.

Baron Gravis Rainheart sighed. "We got here early, the meeting doesn't officially start for about fifteen minutes." He was a skinny young man with spectacles who oddly looked like he was suffering from a headache, probably because Valis had asked the same damn question six times in the last fifteen minutes.

Grayfox closed his eyes and about five minutes went by he heard Valis breath in to ask again when the door to the room opened, and a massive man who had to duck down under the door, he walked over to the open seat a battle axe in hand that he leaned against the wall with a clank that sounded... melodious, he noticed the bluish reflection of the light and his eyes widened slightly, it was made of mithril, He sat down in the seat that creaked slightly, and then a large white bear walked in after him and laid down beside him, though the fact that he walked in with a bear wasn't crazy enough no, the damn bear was dressed in a fancy coat, a vest and a tie, though it's lower half was free of garments. He saw a few of the baronesses scream and back up from the bear, and a couple of the barons reached for swords. but when it didn't do anything they slightly calmed down. The massive man looked at them all like he'd seen it all before.

Viscount Grayfox glared at the man, though he knew what the bear was, much like Fennec it was a soulbound beast, he almost burst out laughing when the nobles reached for their swords, that thing could probably have torn a small army asunder. "Would you all sit down, I won't have this meeting become some kind of circus."

The bear growled at the word and Harkon gave him an icy look with his frosty blue eyes, both causing the nobles to become very wary of them.

"SO, we're gathered here today to introduce our newest Baron." He gestured for Harkon to introduce himself.

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"Harkon Battlestar." He said in a his deep baritone, and said nothing else.

Grayfox felt a vein on his head starting to bulge. "And? what does your barony provide to the empire?"

Harkon sat there for nearly three minutes and finally said. "We provide nothing, my barony is located in farthest northern region of the empire, we have little to provide from the north, crops are hard to grow in snow, and what little we do have my people need to survive-"

Valis interrupted. "Your people? who cares if they can't eat, my Barony is the number one grain supplier for the empire, and they still need to pay the asking price of a silver for a loaf."

Harkon somehow looked down at the large noble from a sitting position. "I think I see where their food went."

the entire table looked at him with mouths agape. Valis' face turned red and then purple, he started yelling at Harkon. "You lowborn fuck, who do you think you are to talk to me like that, I should have you flogged for your insult, do you even know who I am!?"

"No" Harkon said simply before he shifted his attention to Grayfox apparently checking out of their conversation. "Do you have idea for what I can do?"

Valis turned from purple to something akin to plum as he started slamming his fists on the table and screaming like a child who was told they couldn't have the last sweet roll, this continued until Viscount left the room for a minute and came back with a pair of royal guards who dragged the short man out of the room kicking and screaming. Grayfox sat back down and looked at the other nobles who were shocked and disgusted by Valis' behavior. "To answer your question lord Battlestar I'm going to need to know what your land possesses, I'm assuming mountains right?"

Harkon nodded. "One, it has large dungeon built into the side of it, but is filled with wights, village leaders sealed the entrance because the adventurers kept getting turned into wights and the ruin started over crowding, was told they did it just in time because any more would have caused an overflow."

Baron Rainheart shuddered at the mention of dungeon overflow, when a dungeon has too many monsters they start leaving the dungeon, killing everything in the area and if they're replicative like the wights, making more monsters. Grayfox remembered the incident that destroyed many of the Rainhearts plum orchards and killed atleast a hundred until the living plants were finally dealt with when they burned down nearly half the barony.

"Well, You could start mining operations in the mountains, given the fact there's a dungeon there, the mountain must be rich in magic, and combined with the fact that it's in a cold climate, makes it really really likely that you could mine mithril and other magic ores, I believe the emperor knew this, and gave it to you for your service." Grayfox explained and looked at Harkon calmly.

At the mention of Mithril the rest of the nobles looked at him with open envy and an almost hungry like greed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harkon sat on the surprisingly sturdy chair, he listened to what the Viscount said and his mind started working. "I would need enchanted tools to mine the Mithril, where do I get those." He asked.

Grayfox nodded to a pair of nobles. "I believe these two would like to talk to you about that, we'll conclude this meeting here and give you three the room." A couple Nobles moved to protest but an icy look cut the throats of their words in the crib before they could escape their mouths and the nobility started leaving one by one until it was just the three of them.

A man in a black and red suit who had introduced himself a Velkoros smiled. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, do you happen to know of my Baronies dealings?" When Harkon just gave him a blanks stare he smiled broader. "Alright, I'll cut the shit and get to the chase, I have many mages in my Barony, in fact my Barony is rather famous for being the center of the empires mage population, we have enchanters who can make magically reinforced tools, Julio there often buys tools for his smiths. I can definitely supply your mines with tools such as pickaxes hammers and perhaps even make protective enchantments on support beams that help prevents cave ins. Though I would want at least a five percent share of the profits."

A young noble with a tan skin and a thin wispy goatee nodded. "And I'll also skip pleasantries, My Barony deals heavily with smithing and craftsmanship, we'd be willing to buy any mithril you mine, we can make many legendary and mythical level magic weapons and high level magic catalysts. I can give you a thousand gold per pound of ore."

Harkon got up and started walking toward the door. "I can't believe I traveled hundred miles for this." He knew that most nobles had high charisma and they could make suicide sound like a deal of a lifetime.

Julio stood, a desperate look in his eye. "Alright, three thousand per pound."

Harkon continued walking. "Five thousand." Harkon stopped, but only to grab his axe before continuing, he started reaching for the doorknob. "Ten Thousand! final offer."

Harkon stopped this time he actually considered the offer, before he had tried to rip him off but now he gave him the asking price, he turned. "Ten thousand, this price is inflexible, I will not increase it, you will not ask to lower it."

Julio nodded, but didn't look happy about that. "Alright."

Harkon set his axe back down and returned to his seat.

"So, I'll supply the country with mithril weapons, you supply me with mithril, Velkoros can supply your mines, it's a nice triangle of production." Julio said.

Velkoros nodded. "It'd be highly beneficial to everyone involved including the empire as a whole, imagine it, a legion of men with mithril spears and armor, the continent would be ours in two decades maximum. and who knows, maybe we can see what's beyond the sea."

Harkon leaned back back in his chair and the back rest snapped. he sighed, he'd need to make an actual chair for himself that didn't get crushed by his weight once he got home, this was getting ridiculous so he leaned forward over the desk instead. "I will think of this." He said before standing grabbing his axe and leaving, Pado pawing behind him, his long claws clacking against the stone floor.

Julio sighed, sitting back in his seat. "That man... was rather terrifying."

Velkoros chuckled, his brown eyes flashing a bright blue from the mana vision he was using on Harkon. "He definitely is, you know he's not as dumb as most barbarians I've seen, I'm not saying the class makes men stupid but the way their mana flows doesn't always go toward the brain focusing more on their bodies, either way he's going to accept our offer."

Julio looked at him. "How do you know?"

Velkoros smiled. "Because he won't have a choice. he can really only get the tools from you and me allowing him to mine in the first place, and you'd be his best buyer, he'd have to be an idiot to not take the deal, and if I'm right about him he isn't an idiot."

Julio got a small smile on his face. "Well, that's something of a comfort, we'll be getting rich off of this if we succeed, hell we might even get bumped up to Marquis before the next winter if this goes through."