We worked on the contract for the territory well into the night. This time the whole group sat in, chiming in with suggestions or addenda. I was damned grateful for Jessie's ability, because we were definitely going to need energy boosts when we got to training. I doubted any of us were going to sleep at all. The charge should carry us through the early portions of the day, though later on it was going to be hell.

"So, all told we're talking a hundred square miles for each party total, or fifty for both of us if Prentiss doesn't take the deal." I said tiredly. "A three century alliance, including a defensive pact, offers of military training, aid for my seneschal and lessons for my chosen noble liege. In exchange you want five wishes per day for the next four months."

Camden nodded. "Six hundred wishes, with a default payment of sixty D-rank chits if I can't hold up my end within the time of your contract. I have some assets I can sell off in case of emergency, since I'd essentially be a dead man walking anyway I don't mind liquidating everything. We can start the noble training early, if you like, I'll help you make inroads with the local nobility."

"The...the ones we're going to be invading?" Callie asked incredulously. "You want, what? Go to parties and schmooze with them?"

He chuckled. "Of course. First rule of territory ownership. You have to treat everyone as both a potential ally and a potential enemy. Relationships between lords change like the wind. One day you might be attending someone's birthday gala, and the next day you might be burning down the mansion you had dinner in the previous evening. Be approachable, but not vulnerable, and affable but not trusting."

Benny groaned. "This sounds like the kind of stuff my parents used to tell me about mixing with upper class businessmen and their kids. I HATED those lessons."

Patting him on the shoulder, Celine smiled sweetly. "It's nice to know you're well informed, but I'll be doing the bulk of the interaction. If I'm to be the public face of this Barony, I'll be required to attend parties and social events when I'm on the planet, but you need not concern yourself."

"The fuck you say." Said my best friend instantly. "I'm not leaving you to be harassed by greasy nobles." He shot Camden an apologetic smile. "No offense."

The Baron shrugged. "None taken, I despise most of these people. Hate the players not the game, and trust me, I do. That said, as the actual owner of the territory Solomon will need to have an understanding of how everything works. Celine's name might be on the roles, but she doesn't have the backing to remain unaccosted, especially not if she won't even be present."

Nat laughed at that. "So you're saying that Solomon will own the territory, but it'll officially belong to Celine, probably through contract or geas, and that she in turn will need to pick someone to manage it. Not only that, but all three of them will need to know all this political nonsense so we pretty much all have to learn to schmooze with high society since we have no idea who that will be?"

"Essentially." He said with a shrug. "If it helps, you won't only be interacting with our targets or potential allies. Some of these events will be with more distant neighbors who won't affect our day to day, but could come in handy as trading partners down the line. Not to mention we'll need to pick a Viscount to affiliate ourselves with."

I groaned. "I thought we didn't need to do that. We're Robber Barons right?" Half the point of that was not having to deal with higher ranking nobles and their nonsense.

"We still have to obey the Viscounts." Said Camden in irritation. "It's a less involved relationship, but they run the planet. Same way they all have to pay lip service to the Earl, despite not actually being on his side. Different Viscounts have different levels of involvement though. It's something of a tradeoff, increased freedom means little to no protection. We could go with the Viscount who governs this section of the planet, which is why we can even do this much in terms of invasion planning, but we could also sign up with someone more distant for greater benefits."

Celine seemed to have expected that, because she explained to the rest of us. "A foothold inside another noble's territory is always beneficial. It gets complicated, however, because due to territorial constraints certain formalities have to be observed in the form of taxes, while secondary allegiances are usually touted as alliances or trade contracts, at least as a formality."

"This was supposed to be simple!" I whined. "Not easy, maybe, but we just needed to get our asses kicked on the regular and become better warriors. How did it turn into this?" I turned to Callie. "Are you sure we need to do this?"

She gave me a sympathetic smile. "Yes." She said mercilessly. "You saw how one wish was able to alter a building." She was vague by necessity since Anna didn't want her secret room to be well known. "Applied over time imagine what we could get done in a whole territory. Anything too resource intensive would be expensive, granted, but materials aren't the only thing that slows down development."

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I knew she was right. You could hire an architect, or someone to shape the ground, or a stonemason, or any number of other professions. But wishes let us do any of those things as well as an expert in the field. Not only that, it let us do ALL of them at once, at least for small projects. Whole rooms like Anna's were just the beginning. We could do entire houses with my stats most likely. And if we couldn't we could do them in stages.

Affecting large amounts of higher level materials was out, so we couldn't make like, E-rank fortresses, at least not in a timely manner. But we could make F-rank versions of them and upgrade the materials later. And our ability to raise F-rank buildings would be unparalleled.

I was imagining whole towns, smithies, alchemist shops, all the best F-rank could offer to draw in skilled craftsmen and to provide places for our friends to do their thing. A library for Chelsea, a lab for Benny, a greenhouse for Jessie. Training buildings for our troops. The sky was the limit, and even that was more of a suggestion, we could actually probably build stuff in the sky.

It was worth the extra bullshit for a chance at that. The possibility of having a real place to hang my hat, where my friends could come to be safe, was too good to pass up.

"What happens if we finish before the six months are up?" I asked as I perused the contract. "With five wishes a day, chances are good you'll be more effective than you expect. Even if the majority of those go towards stat advancement for your higher ranking officers you should have more than enough extras to turn the tables. To clarify, Prentiss's wishes will be coming out of your total, yes?"

That had been nonnegotiable. One wish a day was a big hit, but it was something. I wasn't going without for months, I'd get left way behind. Callie was closing in on E-rank, and while I didn't mind if she beat me, I DID mind if she was ahead of me long term. If she built up momentum it would be hard to catch up, even for me, and we were partners.

Nodding grudgingly, Camden just sighed. "A hundred. I won't go further. I'm willing to give a bit on that, but not too much." That had been part of the negotiations when he'd wrangled his six hundred wishes. Even with a hundred square miles of territory and a three hundred year alliance, the price had been steep. The lessons and the help with building out army traditions helped, but the assumption that he would be footing the bill for Prentiss was what drove it up. He'd negotiated another two hundred on the assumption that he'd pay.

"Then I believe we have an accord." He said formally, reading back over the contract quickly before signing his name. He passed me the pen and I did the same, scrawling out a neat and orderly signature next to his.

As I signed, I saw a shock of purple static leap from the pen to the ink, and the ink itself glowed briefly before fading back to black. I looked around but as usual no one saw anything out of the ordinary except Nat, who winked at me conspiratorially.

This was kind of a new thing for me. I'd done contracts like this before, getting paid in advance, but that had been for more concrete goals. A lot of this was up in the air, and whole 60 D-rank chits was an absurd amount of money to me (especially since chits were more valuable at D-rank and above) I didn't want that to come into play.

From our negotiations, I'd developed an appreciation for Camden. He was a straight shooter, at least with me, and he seemed passionate about his cause. If things went bad and he died I'd be poorer for it, money or no.

Which was why we were going to train our hardest to help, as well as do our best to rank up quickly so we'd be more useful. This territory thing might not have been my idea originally but I was going to fight for it. Even if Callie hadn't had her heart set on it I'd have given it my all.

Once the contracts were signed, Camden insisted we have a celebratory cognac, and while I wasn't a drinker, the glasses weren't exactly overflowing, and a sip of liquor wouldn't kill me. He poured us each a splash into large round bottomed glasses and took the time to run a lighter under the curve before passing it over, and then we toasted. It was...not great. I didn't like alcohol, but this was sweeter than most, which helped.

"To a harmonious cooperation." Camden said with a smile. I happily toasted back. I was much more comfortable working with him now that I had a contract in place. I was sure he wouldn't double cross me in any case, since getting help from a candidate wasn't exactly something that happened to everyone, but a bit of insurance never hurt. Not after what had happened with Travis.

I felt a flash of anger as I remembered the traitor, and a phantom pain in my gut from the knife. Trust was important, but it wasn't something I could afford to give away lightly anymore. I felt a hand on mine and looked over to see Callie giving me a soft smile. I let my shoulders slump, nodding gratefully to her.

Being careful and being jaded weren't the same. I wasn't going to be a sucker, but I also didn't want to become my dad. Needing contracts for everything and never taking anyone at their word didn't sound like much of a life. I couldn't lose who I was.

As we finished our drinks, we bid our goodbyes to Camden as we all headed back to the barracks, Jessie taking the time to charge us up. We had more training the next day, as well as our first meeting with Camden for nobility tutoring. We'd even given up weekends for events and the like.

The next four to six months were going to be some of the most challenging of my life, I had no doubt. It was nice that challenge wasn't going to be in the form of murderous assassins, but it would still be difficult to overcome. Whatever happened though, I still had my friends, and we would face it together. I just wished that thought was enough to get me through the rest of today's training.