284. INCORPORATED: TABITHA

The Embassy building of the empire was a solid two-story structure in the main business district jammed between a cloth trader and a bakery. The smell of freshly baked goods was too tempting, and I bit down on a crusty bun that was still warm. I cast my eye over the embassy building critically. It could do with some paint, but otherwise, it seemed to be a good building. Let's have a look at this inside. I went to the door and pushed it open, ignoring the guard standing there. The guard was mainly there to stop angry people from defacing the building. Nobody was going to deface it mid-morning on a business day. There were too many patrollers keeping the morning shopping crowd in order.

The Empire was not liked in the Free Republic, but they maintained a small embassy here in the border city of Freebourne. Their main embassy was obviously in the Captial, Free Port. The Free Republic bans foreign nations from owning land in their borders, but that doesn't mean there aren’t ‘independent’ trading houses and other sympathetic individuals who will buy property and then lease it to foreign entities like the Empire.

Two additional slaves arrived in the city today. Wiremu and Mayakku are on the verge of success. They were so close to freeing Tom. They have depleted the monster Cactus core and are using a smaller Griffon core. The problem was the Imperial spies had found out about it. Captain Lee had failed. They had tried to send a message to Janub about an enchanter experimenting with slaves via the Free Traders. It was a vague heads-up that something was going on here. However, that meant they would be watching these slaves closely and trying to work out what was happening.

I would like to kill them. The trouble is the ones we know about will only be the first layer. This is a border city with the empire, and there will be more than one set of spies. As Wiremu had said, our best bet is to move on from here. Keep ahead of the information. Keep ahead of the truth. We need time. Probably only one or two weeks. On our original timetable, we would be moving on about now. The Slave Taskmaster working for the republic is about two weeks away. If they were here to compare signatures or flavours or whatever the fuck they call it, this would be done now.

This is why I am paying the embassy a visit during business hours. I am here to do business. I was dressed in smart business attire and was holding a wad of papers, and I approached the smartly dressed man at the front desk. Noting the other trooper standing just inside the door.

“Welcome to the Nystad Empire embassy. How can I help you, Ma’am?” he said.

“I need to speak to the person in charge, please. I have a business proposal.”

“I can certainly make you an appointment, ma’am. May I see some identification, please?”

I passed over one of my IDs. I had been tempted to use my birth ID, but that would be silly as I apparently died in Hrothgar six or seven years ago. I wasn’t even present for the event, let alone the memorial service.

The man continued, “If this is about importing or exporting into the empire, here is a list of the information we require,” he said, passing over a sheet. “If it is about immigration, you will need to meet with the Personnel Secretary, and I can arrange that for you.”

I smiled at him, “You misunderstand.” I slipped a piece of paper over the counter, “I am your new landlord. I am here for a surprise property inspection as per clause 34b of the lease. If everything is not up to my standard, I will be issuing a two-week eviction notice under clause 42a.” I smiled again, although I noticed he had lost his smile.

“Secretary Jones is in charge of the property, I will summon her immediately.”

“Please do so. If I am waiting longer than ten minutes, I will consider it an inspection denial and act accordingly.”

I wandered around the room, looking at things while I waited. We needed to distract the empire. What better way than to give them property troubles? It was legal as well, mostly. Plus, the building was in a great location for Essential Traders. This inspection was not going to go well.

Their previous landlord was a property holding company that had some sudden financial difficulties and needed to offload several properties, some of which had recent damage. I picked up three, including this one. They were reluctant to let this one go as the Empire was paying significantly above market rates. I can be quite intimidating when I want to be.

I picked up my first Merchant Specialisation, completing that deal. I am now a Real Estate specialist. That gives four attributes: one in Physical Perception, one in Mental Agility, one in Mental Perception and one free. The Skill that came with it was called Detect Flaws, and I would be putting it to good use today. It basically does what it says and works with any of your available senses. The flaws I will find today are well within the capabilities of the level 1 skill as we set them up last night.

All that was not going to make today easy. I expect the empire to argue, threaten, bribe and do whatever else they need to do to stay here. They were essentially bribing the previous landlord with the high rental.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Secretary Jones came out looking cross. She was a short, plump lady who also looked like she would not stand for any nonsense. She looked like she knew what she was doing. This was going to be a long day. I smiled at her, looking forward to the challenge. Let's do this.

I met Wiremu and Ruku in the tavern that evening. I was exhausted.

“How did it go?” Wiremu asked.

“They are appealing to the Disputes Tribunal. It is not unexpected, and they still have to be out by the two-week mark unless the Disputes Tribunal overturns the eviction notice.”

“Will they?”

“Unlikely, I have documented evidence, and nobody likes the empire around here.”

“I still think it would have been easier to burn it down,” Wiremu said.

“Easier, yes, but you are not thinking long-term. It is in a prime position. The aim was to become the landlord of the residential house the spies were in. This was an unexpected bonus. That will teach them to use the same people for both.”

“They will come looking into your background,” Ruku warned.

I nodded, “That is why I put all the properties into the Hunter Corporation.”

“Hunter Corporation?” Wiremu asked.

“Wiremu Hunter is a big deal around here. We need to cash in on the name. It is becoming quite a common thing to do. There is already Wiremu’s Eatery, Hunter Tours, Hunter Enterprises etc. That last one annoyed me as it was my first choice. We might have to stage a takeover.”

I could see Wiremu becoming uncomfortable. Good.

Wiremu changed the subject, “You will be at training tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I have nothing planned tonight, so I should be good. I want to level the Baton Skill as it works well with my Parry and Knockout Skills. The Whip is interesting, especially the short multi-prong barbed one. I have tried to replicate it with shadows, but I need it at a higher level first, so I know it better. Umreti has also promised to teach me his Disarm Skill. I am looking forward to Duel Wielding a sword and whip. It will make me very unpredictable.” I can’t believe I used to think of the whip as just a farmer's tool.

“I think it will suit your fighting style very well,” Ruku said. “I don’t think you should bother learning the Whip, Tama,” he said to Wiremu, “Stick to levelling the Blunt Weapons. Strength and power are where you need to focus.”

I nodded at that. A weapon like a whip would just melt if he did anything interesting. He had enough trouble with the Bow. “Are you going to learn the whip?” I asked him.

“Yes. I like the long whip. It is fun. I can use it to deliver poison at a distance as well.”

“How are we going on the project,” I asked. We were in public, so we had to be a bit careful.

“Good,” Wiremu answered. “We're ready for a long session tomorrow. We are hopeful of our first success.”

“And what about the ‘magic mushroom’ you found?”

“The Rock is a mystery. Nobody knows anything. They are sending samples to the Lore Society in Freeport. Puia is processing some of it. It is changing him in some way. We will have to see what happens.”

“I don't remember him doing that with the Necrodermis in the desert. Or did he?” Tabitha asked.

“That’s a good point. Hang on,” I figured he was communicating with Puia. “What a sneaky goblin thief!” he said. “He did absorb it. I had him heat the forge where I refined the ore. That ingot should have been larger.” He must have looked at the Skills list, “Far out Regeneration 3 was sitting there on his list. Has it been there ever since the desert mine? Puia can now regenerate like my skill, but he needed a compatible stone to absorb. This is big. What will he get from this stone? This is exciting.”

Well, Wiremu has made a discovery. Then I thought about Nyx. Nyx seemed to share the relevant skills with Tabitha easily enough. It must be the rock or lava elemental feature or maybe a restriction.

“You had better keep an eye on his status,” I said pointedly.

“I can’t believe it has taken me this long to find out how Puia gets more skills. He has rock and temperature but nothing else until now. My Prospecting Class led me there! I need to do more prospecting. Hey, you got any Blacksteel?” Wiremu asked.

“Only small bits why?”

“I want to see what Puia would do with it.”

I gave him a funny look because he was just going to feed it to Puia. At least he slips up like the rest of us. If he had known this earlier, he would have been buying all the enhanced rock and metal he could to see what Puia could do with it. I must admit to being curious myself. “I will find a small piece later,” I said. Then I remembered I still had the Blacksteel stiletto I looted from Crime Boss Fett in Jern. Maybe I will let Puia have that, as I don’t use it, and it is just sitting there being useless. We will see. “Tell me about the alchemist. What did you find out about the mushroom thing?”

“The poison is very similar to a drug that is known to give strange visions. A hallucinogen, she called it. She wanted more. Diluted and mixed with other components, it can help calm a mind, and Mental Healers use it. It can be addictive, and a black market for the stronger stuff is also available. The Fungi itself was looking half dead when we opened the container, and it died very quickly after that. We think there was some connection back to the main plant that was severed that I didn’t see. The alchemist still paid very well for it.”

“Are you going back for more?” Ruku asked.

“No, we don’t have time, and it is dangerous. I will wait to see what Puia does with his part once he has incorporated it into himself or whatever he is doing, but that could be a while.”