Will didn’t know how the rest of the team was going to react to the refugees taking up residence in the town, and it was really a mixed bag. The two followers with him were more annoyed at killing a noble than at giving shelter to the refugees. As for everyone else, Emerys was the most annoyed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want them around, in fact he admitted that their being there made the place feel less oppressive. He simply swore off any responsibility for them, and what a responsibility it was.
It turned out that a score of people had more needs than just food. Many of those were handled by giving them appropriate accommodations in the small town section within the outer walls. With a little cleanup, the houses were made livable, and even inviting. But that wasn’t all. They needed fabric of a dozen varieties, leather and metal goods, and to be honest, more food than just horse and bear meat. Being so far from another town made this quite difficult.
There were some solutions to these problems. More than half the men were farmers, and had managed to keep a stock of seeds with which to get re-established. Most of those were useless given how late they were in the season, but some could still be planted. They would get a harvest before winter, but that was months away, and they needed food now. Moreover they had a general leatherworker and his apprentice as well as a chandler. They could make some of the necessary goods, but far from all.
This meant that despite these men being perfectly useful under normal circumstances, they were nearly useless in this situation. Will didn’t have a town for a chandler to be useful in, and while a general leatherworker was great, he didn’t need the apprentice. Aside from that, the leatherworker couldn’t make shoes, which was one of the greatest needs of both the adventurers and the refugees.
It left Will with only one option that he could see, and he didn’t like it. The worst part was that the men had already resigned themselves to banditry, and was ready for the say so from Will. But even that posed problems. The men could hold spears and swords, and Will had plenty of those to go around. But they were still mortals. They were not cultivators, and they certainly were not gods. It meant that any bandit group made up of these men would be ragtag at best. If any of this was going to work, he needed them to be more.
Will didn’t know much about cultivation, but he knew one thing. A concept was the start of the path. Without a concept, there was no magic, though he supposed they could approximate real magic through rituals and inscriptions. But since they would have no boosts to their natural abilities, they would quickly plateau in their abilities. He would need to figure out how to help them gain concepts, that was the start.
As Will was pondering, Amalise sat down next to him. Will was sitting in one of the embrasures atop the outer wall, feet hanging down as he pondered how he was going to deal with these problems.
“He won’t say it, but Emerys is worried that he made you mad by refusing to take responsibility over the refugees.” Amalise said. “He has been practicing his macework for hours. That is more dedicated than I have seen him in years.”
Will turned to her with an odd look.
“I’m not mad at all.”
“You certainly didn’t give the impression of someone happy when you just walked away brooding.” Amalise gave him a pointed look that made it easy to see the scarred flesh beneath her mask.
“I didn’t realize just how hard looking after these people would be. It didn’t hit me until I realized I was now responsible for them.” Will sighed. “I suppose that I just got overly caught up in my thoughts.”
“So, what are you going to do?” Amalise asked.
“Don’t know. Not yet anyway. Banditry seems to be the best choice available.” Will failed to notice when Amalise turned toward him sharply, but she quickly relaxed.
“Didn’t expect to hear that..” She said, but then she shrugged. “Do what you need to.”
Will gave her an odd look.
“Ever since I came here, you and Emerys, and Lord Atherton for that matter, have been so ready to excuse my mistakes. Now you just accept that I might go bandit, even though there are three contracts to hunt bandits in the guild hall last I checked. I mean, I appreciate the confidence, but…” Will fell silent. This had been on his mind for a while, and he sincerely didn’t know how she was going to react. For her part she looked at him with her head cocked slightly.
“I mean, sure, what happened to those villagers was tragic, but that was simply the aftermath of a rightful punishment. Remember, they were all in on the plot for us to die. They may not have known the alchemist would turn us into curseforged, but they knew we were being sent to our doom. You think you did something horrible? I think you were overly compassionate. Now, people are invading Brythorne with the help of an enemy country, and you want to help them out. Admirable, sure, and if you decide to kill some lowlifes to keep others alive, who am I to judge?” Will looked at her half in horror and half in curiosity.
“What do you mean invading?”
“What I mean is that Galespire, they are a country that is always in conflict with Brythorn over water trade rights. Galespire has been running their merchant vessels free of charge to bring more refugees to Brythorne, even though Brythorne has closed their borders to more refugees.”
“Why won’t Brythorne let in the refugees? Would they leave them to die?” Will asked.
“Please, Will, I know you aren’t stupid. There is a food crisis going on right now, and that is partly due to there being too many refugees.”
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“You say partly, what else is going on?” Will asked.
“Well, Galespire has enacted a trade embargo with Brythorne, and threatened to cut off trade with anyone who trades with Brythorne. But then the nobles of Brythorne are also complete assholes. They are fine with letting people starve because when things are all over, enough will survive to get things back up and running, just with the people poorer and them richer, at least by comparison.”
“So if I go after nobility, there shouldn’t be any problems, right?” Amalise snorted.
“Sure, you will get better hauls too. But nobles don’t like when one of theirs gets attacked. You will have knights sent after you, contracts put out, bounties increased. If you think you can deal with that, go right ahead. Just make sure to kill or bring back any witnesses. A forest where nobles disappear is far more terrifying than a forest with bandits.”
Will looked at Amalise oddly, but then just turned back to the view. The fortress was high enough being on top of a hill that he could just barely see over the tops of the sea of trees. When the wind blew, it made it look like a green sea. He stood up, having made his decision.
“I suppose it is time to get to work then. I need those men, but they are useless as they are. I am going to try to help them gain concepts of their own.”
“And how do you intend to do that?”
“Not entirely sure, but I know that there is a certain resonance between people and concepts. Koma has the same cold concept as I, but he gained it before we had any sort of bond. I think I can do something like that here.” Will said.
“Well good luck. Oh, and one more thing. You have a royal aura, right?” Will nodded, a bit confused as he had never released it around her. When she spoke again her voice had amusement in it.
“You don’t keep it restrained nearly as well as what you think.” Amalise said. “Have you heard of a noble aura? No? It is like the royal aura, but far more accessible. It is also the difference between a stagnant pond and the great ocean. You don’t let out your royal aura, but even the bits of it that escape your control are enough to get people’s respect, even when they don’t know why. Seriously, even my divine aura isn’t as potent, though that may be due to your ridiculous aura potency and control.”
Will stopped to think about what she said. People had been so willing to accept him as a god, despite the fact that he had no divine aura. Was this the reason? Part of his royal aura leaking out? Could that aura be so powerful? He felt inside of himself to where he felt the royal aura emanate. It couldn’t be felt from his body, or even located on his spirit map. But he had just enough sense of his soul to know that the royal aura came from there. With his greater understanding of concepts, he could feel a similarity. It wasn’t a concept itself, more a pseudo concept. He did feel that he could expand it into a concept, and that it would be a soul concept when he did. If he did. But that would have to wait for later.
For now, he could feel a faint trace of the aura slipping past his control and leaking into his normal aura, coloring it slightly. With little problem, he constricted his control, and cut off the flow. He saw Amalise’s body language change almost instantly.
“Wow, that was more impactful than I thought.” She said, “It felt like you got smaller, less important, more forgettable. Just a few seconds ago, you looked regal, but now you just seem normal.”
Will was stunned. The aura that had been leaking was maybe one percent of its total power, maybe only half a percent. As an experiment, he let his control loosen, letting out five percent of the total power. The change in Amalise was nearly instant.
“Woah!” Her eyes were wide, and she leaned back slightly. “You seem bigger. I know you haven’t changed in size, when I compare you to anything you are just as tall as before, but if I just look at you, you seem like a giant.”
“Is that all?” Will asked with a smirk. “Do you not feel compelled to serve?”
Amalise cocked her head as her eyes went unfocused. But then she shook her head.
“No, but I do get the sense that you would be worth serving. That it would be honorable. That it would be right. By the holy mountain. I don’t feel compelled, but I do feel that the best place for me would be serving you. The full power of your aura is…”
“That isn’t the full power.” Will stared at Amalise as she took that in.
“It has to be close, right?”
“Nope.”
“How much is it?”
“About five percent.” Amalise just stared at him, her eyes wide. Then she started muttering to herself, and cast a spell. Will felt no different, but he saw her back straighten and her shoulders square.
“Ok, I’m ready.” She said.
“Ready for what?” Will asked.
“Turn your aura to its max. I need to feel what it’s like.” Will hesitated for a minute, but eventually obliged. He released his control of his royal aura and felt it billow out from his soul. He then felt it hit the restriction of his bracelet, and stop. Partly. It felt like around sixty percent made it through. But he could feel the change. Like his concepts it changed his mindset. He felt a sense of ownership over, well, everything. But not just ownership, but a sense of protectiveness. Everything, and everyone for that matter, was his, and he would see that everything was safe and able to thrive in peace and prosperity.”
He turned to Amalise who had fallen to her knees, eyes wider than ever. Will cut off his aura, returning it to the bare trickle from before, and it looked like Amalise was released from a spell. She slowly got to her feet.
“I should have paid more attention to mind protection spells.” Amalise said. “There is a spell dedicated to specifically repulsing royal and noble auras, but I never learned it.”
“What was it like?” Will asked.
“Like everything I said earlier, but way more potent. It felt like you were the only person in existence, or the only thing that mattered? It was hard to focus on anything else. Likewise, I never felt any force trying to compel me to serve, but that everything was wrong unless I knelt and pledged my undying loyalty. That sense of wrongness was what affected me the most. I wanted nothing more than to make the world right.” Amalise put her hand to her chest and breathed slowly. “That was certainly an experience. Your full power is no joke.”
“Yeah, the bracelet stopped me from showing full power.” Will had to hold back a grin as Amalise buried her head in her hands.
“How much?”
“I was at around sixty percent power.” Will said. Amalise groaned.
“Well, the legends of heroes aren’t for nothing.” She said. “Please try not to use this in camp.”
“What if I want to take over the world though?” Will grinned. Amalise gave him a deadpan stare, which turned to a look of horror.
“You could probably do it with that kind of aura.” She buried her head in her hands again. Her voice then came out muffled. “I don’t know if I am talking to the next great king, or the next great dark lord. I don’t know if I like either.”
“I have zero intention of taking on any more responsibility than I have already.” Will said. “Besides, the royal aura makes me want to protect, not just take over stuff.”