There was one problem. Julius caught on pretty quickly after the conversation began. Hence, he leaned up, staring right at Xavier’s eyes. He has two demands at hand that need to be mentioned before the conversation can continue.
Julius extended his right hand. “Before we continue our talk, do you want to go back?” he asked, waiting for Xavier’s response. The latter still sat on the stroller now with his head down.
Hence, Julius allowed him to take a moment to give an answer, but never removed an inch of his focus. So, he leaned closer and closer with his mouthplate back on. The desperation for an answer was imminent. Because it was almost two months, they were living within Kriegshan territory long enough to be adapted or coerced, and Julius couldn’t waste any chances. Friends, acquaintances, close ones, whoever. It doesn’t matter. They all will have to follow what he has for them.
“Ok…” Xavier said in a muttering tone before noticing Julius’s close face, spooking him out. “Yinhai! What’s wrong with you?!”
“I have no choice but to. You’re from an enemy territory that I called hell. Now, what’s your answer?”
“…I want to say no…but I’m not sure.”
Julius breathed but wasn’t getting out of Xavier’s personal space. “I don’t get all day. The fact you are here with Helda, and the other two fellow cloaked figures only made the situation tense. It’s a world war scenario here. In fact, I don’t think you have anything else for you over there. They roasted you as the worst. You’ve been training others, but I’ve heard nothing. I think me and Mother Elaine were your most recent best students to carry the legacy…Well if she’s still alive. Otherwise, I’m the only one that can spread your legacy beyond their lands. I will only do it if you say yes.”
Xavier raised his head up with eyebrows raised, expressing grimace at what he said. “Ok…ok! I won’t.”
Believable. Julius thought. He was reading his qi momentarily like a polygraph test. After he made his point, Xavier’s qi rose a little and subsequently calmed down after a couple seconds. From his response, Julius leaned back in his chair, creaking it because of his heavy mass.
“Literally, what happened to you?” Xavier asked, continuing the point of his realization of how much Julius had changed. “You have never liked this since we first met. Not even during the day everybody had to break off.”
Julius leaned up again, but not as close to disrupting Xavier’s personal space. “Like I said, I called Kriegshan hell for a reason. The more I live on this planet, the more I turn into one that doesn’t even know who it will be, but it’s getting there.”
“I don’t understand what you mean by that.”
“What I meant was I’m true to my being. This journey transformed me, and I’m only adapting to it…Living here in the West Cai Dynasty has offered me multiple viewpoints and an understanding that most of their territory doesn’t want any of this global conflict. Each state has its own reasons and purposes to fulfill. Coincidentally, ever since I arrived, a new conflict has come up. Each with its own stake that I have to force unity, or we will be screwed, and you win.” Julius briefly pointed at Xavier.
The latter felt intimidated because of the pointing gesture Julius made. “Julius. I get it, okay, but I swear you are freaking me out…Please cut to the chase. What do you want?”
Hence, Julius brought back out his right two raised fingers. “Three things actually. I thought it was two, but it changed. The first is done because you said you want no more relations with Kriegshan. Second and third is that I need a world map and geographical confirmation.”
“What do you need a world map for? Everywhere has one.”
Julius shook his head. “Not that kind of fabricated world map. I want a legitimate one, even if it needs to take an entire wall. Intel tells me that Kriegshan has one and maybe Renos, too. Alyssa lied about this world needing a hundred and fifty-six United States to fit the size of this planet when, in reality, it is much higher.”
“Look, I have no clue about this. I only know much about us and the West Cai Dynasty. That’s it.”
Hmm, interesting. Julius read Xavier’s qi again, this time with no raise or suspicion. “Ok, then. In that case, I need confirmation. Do you guys have petroleum?”
The question removed Xavier’s moment of intimidation. It faded away in a whiff, and he responded straightforwardly. “Which one? There are multiple kinds of petroleum in our territory.”
Julius leaned back; arms crossed. “The one where we interpreted it as V.E.R.2, or the Red Volcanic Erdöl Solution 2. You know which one I’m talking about?”
“I do. You mean the red oil. Why are you interested in that?” Xavier asked with a straight face.
“I’m not going to tell you why…But I will say that it's something for me and the government to work on rather than having somebody leave it there not knowing what to do with it.”
Xavier was about to respond when he was interrupted by the same medical cultivator who came with news. “Sir.”
“What is it?” Julius asked, turning his head toward him.
“The other two cloaked patients have awoken from their wounds.”
“Can they talk?”
The medical cultivator nodded. “Yes. They are coherent. Once we get them stable further, where do you want me to send them?”
“Keep them there. I’ll come over to talk to them,” Julius said, turning back to Xavier. “Thank you for your time and get rested.” He then steered his attention to Helda. “You need to get some rest, too. I’ll have a conversation with you at a later time alone."
Empress Cai stood up first and gave a head gesture to the medical cultivator, signaling her to leave. The two leave the tent first. Julius stood from his seat and glared at Xavier, heading out. He closed the tent flaps after stepping outside. Afterward, many soldiers were outside gathered around in a scattered fashion. Small group clusters are within his vicinity. They all focused on him after he closed the flap of the tent. He quickly interpreted why they were doing this. Hence, Julius raised his palm and hovered it along the lines of the tent, releasing a fragment of his qi. As a result, the tent was locked. Being a polyglot was a delicate skill because earlier he was speaking to Xavier and Helda in Kriegyu and English. With a vast crowd outside waiting for his answer, Julius quickly switched back to Yue, a Mandarin equivalent.
“We are clear,” Julius announced. “I got the confirmation about the oil, so we got something out of it.” He walked up to the crowd with Empress Cai, asking him for one thing.
“When did you become so confrontational?” she asked.
“After I got punched. What do I have to lose doing with such gestures? Especially if that’s the quickest way to get information out of an enemy. In that case, I won’t hesitate.”
“You take no mercy…good,” Empress Cai said.
Around two to four cultivators asked Julius a question as he followed the medical cultivator, heading down the hill to a flat area where another medical site was stationed. They all asked the same question, prompting him to gesture that only one of them would verbally say it. The question was specifically about the next steps, and they needed a break. Hence, Julius stopped right in the center of the main dirt road, looking back at the view of the village. In response, he asked them.
“How much damage have your commanding officers told you?”
“About twenty,” the cultivator said.
“Have a break now and wait for my commands afterward,” Julius ordered, dismissing them. He and Empress Cai resumed following the medical cultivator and arrived at the second site of medical tents. Solomon was there, waiting for them. He had a clipboard in his right hand, reading a paper before the three arrived. There were four tents with the medical symbol on the roof encircled by a center tent, which had none of it and was much bigger in comparison. A black flag raised high in the sky adjacent to the center tent, revealing a seal that has the face of a half eagle on the left side and a dragon on the right side.
Solomon walked up to Julius, lowering his clipboard.
“The Tang Family is inside,” he said, pointing to the center tent. “They’re waiting for you.”
Julius nodded, and the medical cultivator departed the scene, not to forget to mention. “If you’re looking for the two cloaked individuals, they are in this tent,” he said while pointing to the first tent on the left, numbering in clockwise. Left to right.
“Thank you,” Julius said, thanking him. He then turned back to Solomon. “So, who’s here?”
“Tang Yifei, Míngyuè, and your two cousins,” Solomon said and went to the center tent, opening the flap.
Míngyuè. Julius mentally said her name before taking a deep breath. He half turned to Empress Cai, who held firmly on his shoulder. She signaled to him to go, which he did without showing hesitance. The two walked in, and Solomon followed in from behind. Julius entered to find all four had sat down in their chairs. He gave them a greeting gesture, nodding to each of them, but Míngyuè was the last. Afterward, he sat down on his chair that was furthest inside. Empress Cai took the center seat to his left while Solomon sat down on the outermost chair.
Unfortunately, Míngyuè sat directly in front of him, making him mentally uncomfortable. The one who gave him that punch, and he deported her to the Tang state, now sitting in front of him close. He turned to Tang Yifei, who was attentive to him. “I saw the note. You wanted to help with this?”
Tang Yifei nodded, expressing her reasons. “Thanks to Míngyuè, she created an income statement and many of the financial reports after going through the…what was it?” she looked at Míngyuè.
“General Ledger—” Míngyuè and Julius responded simultaneously.
“Oh, you know how to manage financial numbers?” Tang Yifei asked Julius in surprise.
“I also have years of experience…Sorry, continue.”
“Anyway, thanks…you two…Back to where I was. After the entire process, we could find out we have some of the available annual budget to be used. I remembered it was seven hundred-fifty thousand Tang coins.”
They haven’t switched. I gave them the currency rate after they accepted the alliance with the capital. “I thought you guys have switched currency to Thalers,” Julius said, a little annoyed by it. He then turned to Míngyuè, asking her a different question. “Did she or anyone there not give you the currencies’ exchange rate?”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I didn’t, but I tried making estimates in my notes.”
“And what did you come up with?”
“Around four hundred twenty-eight thousand and nine hundred fifty-six,” she said right through her head.
Julius summoned his notebook, opening the currencies’ exchange page. “Pretty good. You are only off at least 2500. The exchange rate is 1.76 Thalers for one Tang coin, basically around 426,136.36 Thalers. That’s a lot for federal government standards. I don’t know about y’all’s standards of how much you spent a year, but I’ve heard stories of massive abuse in spending before Míngyuè came.”
“That’s a lot?” Tang Yifei asked. “That’s barely weeks’ worth of spending.”
“You were literally there when the senate passed the first budget bill. One of them was an entire override of the dynasty’s market and monetary value. It was a reset and applied to all states and territories that were willing to be allies with us. Tang State was the first one. But then Míngyuè didn’t receive the exchange rate when she did the general ledgers and financial reports, so, unfortunately, delays happen.”
“Look, I’m sorry,” Tang Yifei said, being apologetic.
“I don’t know what’s going on over there before she came in, but the entire state needs to fix their organization. This messy bullshit won’t cut it forever.” Julius warned. He doesn’t want any chaos within domestic ends because of preventable negligence as the world heads closer and closer to total global conflict.
Tang Li-Mei entered into the conversation. She insisted it will be dealt with as she revealed to be recently appointed to a position a few days ago to handle such mess. Her duty co-aligned with Míngyuè’s handling of the economy. More specifically, she specialized in the state’s trade, exports, and imports. There was another thing about it, which was efficiency. Since Tang Yifei’s constant show of her lack of financial literacy was dangerously obvious, Julius was kind of glad that at least she had two well-experienced people in that field. Hopefully, they will guide her.
The conversation would switch to deals and such between the West Cai Dynasty and the State of Tang. Julius wanted the South Cai Fishing Village to be rebuilt quickly and was originally the Senate’s first budget bill. The small portion of the funding for the Moon Reform was going to be redirected to the reconstruction process. However, since Tang Yifei insisted on helping, Empress Cai suggested cutting it in half on his end.
Hence, the reallocation of the funding turned into three hundred thousand Thalers. This includes at least half of the village’s housing, education, welfare, food, and a recruitment list of nine hundred interested potential residents. While the Tang State will cover the last half, their remaining budget will provide construction for a sturdy pavement that will bring the village more interconnected with the rest of the dynasty. One straight line to Longyue and a detour to the Tang State. This first deal was agreed on with no catch. After the first deal, it felt like a power competition. Both Empress Cai and Julius expected this to happen because the Tang state’s distance was much closer to the village. After all, it was in the southern region. Their cuisine loved the fish at near obsession compared to residents in Longyue, where the latter was more towards fulfilling health rather than the former’s reasonings.
Julius, not wanting to lose the authority of these fish after getting a victory against Renos’ naval fleet, set to only let the Tang State have twenty percent of the fish received. In his opinion, twenty percent of fish received after going through the docking process are plentiful. Especially, the gulf has multiple species that swam under the ocean’s depths.
Tang Yifei didn’t take that deal well, insisting on rethinking it. Julius and Empress Cai glanced at each other, already knowing their numbers. She got to be joking, right? He processed it while expecting it to go through this route. The two blinked simultaneously as a sign of acknowledgment. This time, they weren’t being fooled.
Julius then turned back to Tang Yifei, grimacing. “If you think it was really not enough, how much did your citizens waste their food? What about those reports of the consistent partying at the palace?” He asked while noticing her fingers fidgeting.
“I don’t have many parties—”
“Ok? I’ll make this question easier for you. If you didn’t do it, but the reports said it's from there, who else could it be?” Julius’s eyebrows raised. He even summoned a four-page report, handwritten.
“It wasn’t me…I’ve never attended most of the parties for the past couple of years. Most were held and hosted by the lower officials who worked with me. And it was open to the public—”
Julius held his left hand up, cutting her off. “Wait…wait. Open to the public? At your palace, and you didn’t organize it? Oh, come on now. No wonder you want higher fish percentages than the twenty percent,” he said, switching the first paper to the last page. “So, most of these demands were for them, not really for the people. Am I correct?”
“I think we can move on and take this part into consideration,” Tang Li-Mei said, leaning into where she was almost in between him and Tang Yifei.
“Nope, we are not,” Julius said, standing in his position. “I want to know. Is it true that all these are only for the parties?”
No answer and Li-Mei, along with Cheung, tried to dissuade Julius out of it as the silence from Yifei grew more awkward. That gave him a straightforward answer. It was all he needed. Hence, he leaned back in the back of his chair, away from her and Li-Mei. Man, this nation is toasted with all these shenanigans. Good call. He silently praised Feng for her suggestion of sending assassin cultivators for espionage missions.
Míngyuè saved the silence’s awkwardness by pitching into a conversation. “How’s your face?” she asked, sounding heartedly, much to Julius’s surprise. Oh? That was suddenly of her asking me this. It felt innately better than an ordinary astonishment.
Hence, he talked. “Not that great still. I still feel the creaking from my damn bones between the jaws. It makes me uncomfortable.”
She looked down momentarily, turning a page before looking back at him. “Look…I haven’t gotten the chance to say sorry about that day. I didn’t realize how bad these people were…They treated me so well.”
“Took you a bit, but I accept it. You’re lucky that they treat you well. What they hid from you was probably their big mistake. Have you heard about Father Kang going insane because of them? They let it all out at him and died in vain from his blade. Many can’t believe that when the story came out. Especially the illegal alcohol smuggling.”
“They never told me anything after the interrogation. I was empty as a shell until you kicked me out to The Tang State, and I started to heal. But I hope you understand my reasons…Again…I’m sorry for that jaw.”
Julius put his 4 papers back into his virtual inventory. “How’s the office there?”
Míngyuè’s eyes turned to Tang Yifei only to find everybody else gathered in almost like a circle saying something, not paying attention to her or Julius. Her eyes jerked back right at him, locking right back to his eyes. “It’s rough and old that it reminded me of the raid.”
“Darn, the raid? In what way?”
“It’s an earthquake. Everyone is dancing, jumping, cheering in loud parties only walls away as I’m doing these audits,” Míngyuè said with her face cringing. “Luckily, the level one and level two experience helped out as I could deter these concerns away. If you have seen the office, it’s pretty much white all around. Ice cold.”
Julius took that into a different interpretation. “Sounds like an infrastructure problem arises…I would’ve thought all of those parties would’ve decimated the floors and the structure itself, making it more of an obvious problem…You only delayed it…Welp that proved your training went well despite our troubles then.”
“We can all agree how much crap that Renos and Kriegshan did. That’s for sure,” Míngyuè concluded.
The two turned again, and they were still conversing. Quickly, Julius summoned a blank piece of paper and told Míngyuè to write everything down on the issues and complaints within the Tang State. He kept his eyes on them and her writing, causing his qi to rise unintentionally. Hurry…hurry. His mind went on the clock, and he had to call telepathically Licht to suppress his qi from emitting before everyone else noticed it.
< How long do you want me to keep it? > Licht asked.
<< Until I get out of this tent. >> Julius said.
When his attention was on Míngyuè, the blank paper he gave her was all filled with a pen’s ink. Did she really write all of that? Julius’ mind flowed abruptly. He exerted his hand and his palm opened. The group finished conversing, began to turn, and reconvened. In the exact second, a tiny whiff blew right into Julius’ body. He then looked at his hand with the paper in his grip, and it was already folded neatly underneath his fingers. Míngyuè gave him a nod.
“I have a proposal—”
Julius turned to Tang Li-Mei and Solomon, not saying anything. He went on with the folded paper, unfolding it to reveal many written characters from top to bottom. Míngyuè left no wide white spaces anywhere on the paper. Even the back page was written from top to bottom. “What is it?” Julius asked while his eyes were on the loaded paper.
“We accept twenty percent of the fish deliveries imported in. On the condition that we have free trade on other products,” Tang Li Mei said.
By the end of her sentence, Julius had already finished reading the tenth line. Everything she said was more detailed on the paper. “I already got that,” he said, asking her if there was anything else.
“What do you mean you already got that?” Tang Yifei wondered, appearing a little stingy and tense.
Fifteen lines. Almost halfway through the front page.
“Well, not only would you accept the fish percentage as long as we recruit some from Tang State for the cultivation army, but you also demanded immediate seats in the Moon Senate…I have a problem with that. I will say no on the latter because the word immediate isn’t going to cut it. However, I’ll only agree if you let your people vote quickly for the first come first serve seats.”
“Then why did you get Tang Cheng in immediately?”
Julius’ head jerked up as if that was questionable. “Hang on, don’t twist those words on your son. Cheung did come in through with the votes and that was before the session for the budget bill that has included certain rules being set.” He grew irritated and would rather talk with the other two cloaked individuals than waste time. Eventually, Skoltor took over the page, scanning the whole paper front and back in a second. The information was transferred through him. Hence, Julius folded the paper and put it away. Time to go. Clearly not interested anymore.
“I actually got every deal down on a note. Everything on demands, requests, and miscellaneous points. I’ll accept half of it at this point. Thank you for your time.” Julius’ row stood from their seats, and Solomon led them out of the tent.
As they were about to exit, Solomon realized the flaps of the tent were sealed.
“You’re not going anywhere until you set a deal here,” Tang Yifei said.
--
Warning!
Cold Temperatures
41°F ↓ (5°C)
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The Skoltor system flashed red and blue, and Julius jerked his head back at Tang Yifei. From looking at her, this won’t go well. His body tensed up after looking at her, feeling loaded inside. Hence, he sent a danger alert through the system to his party and everyone nearby who had a system. Followed up with a one-sentence request.
Boom!
A loud bang can be heard outside. Subsequently, an echoing roar only gets louder and louder as each second passes. Julius knew this tense feeling was a risk factor because his dark qi could leak out. It only became more apparent that when stressed, the chances are higher. Already his fists felt the tingly caused by it.
“What? You were going to reject and detour away from it. In fact, we could have done all of this without you and Tang State,” Julius said bluntly. “The older Cai generations are dead. There’s no easier way out for you to make your own demands against the federal government. Every state and territory will be given the same preposition.” He made it clear that nobody was free from these situations.
Hence, she looked up directly at him. “Don’t think that I’m fazed by that,” Tang Yifei said, then stood up from her seat and confronted Julius. When that moment happened, the latter could see from his peripherals where Tang Cheng and Tang Li Mei silently reacted to this in a negative light. Hands up, each covered their faces with swirls of dismay. Everyone that was in the tent had seen what Julius had done. Well, they should be, because there was plenty of evidence of moments where his insanity had gone out of control.
Now, the uncontrollable part was not his mind awareness, but the instability of the qi accumulated that was about to discharge from his body. It could get violent if things don’t ease down.
“Mother! What the hell are you doing?!” Tang Li-Mei stood from her seat, grabbing her mother’s shoulder.
Tang Yifei angrily knocked her hand off of her and exerted her shockwaves that put the former to sleep. Tang Cheng grabbed his younger sister from behind, lifting her straight up and saving her inches from crashing headfirst to the floor.
That same shockwave struck Julius’ abdomen that it punched inside of him, barely anything to knock him out to sleep. He gripped Empress Cai’s arm, whispering to her. “Take everybody out and command everyone to spread out.” Afterward, he blasted a wide opening of the tent, letting her go, and she teleported in a blink of an eye, everyone was gone. That left him and Tang Yifei alone in the tent. The former locked in at her, realizing that line he heard from Tang Cheng when they first met. ‘Oh my, imagine mother being cured from wrath.’ I see what you mean by her wrath. Is this it?
Julius’ eyes stared viciously as her aura grew heavier and gusts blew her hair upwards. He sighed at this moment, telepathically telling Licht to open the lock. Immediately, a surge unleashed throughout his entire body, forcing his eyes to shut. When he let go of his tensed fists, it opened, triggering a release. The whole vision brightened, and he could feel a huge push, leaving his body.
Unfortunately, the first fight against the family begins.