Chapter 27: 25 – [Battle of Wills]

The Duke seemed to have finally gathered back his spirit after I finished speaking as he promptly stood back up and glared at me. "Your Majesty, that treatment was hardly civilized or warranted. I, as the official ambassador to your Kingdom, demand an apology and prompt reorganization of your embassy staff! They kept us waiting almost 2 full days before we heard of a response to our request for an audience with Your Majesty, with excuses such as you being out of the city on formal business! They also had the audacity to refuse our request for diplomatic lodging and directed us to purchase lodging from the establishments of the city that are meant for the common people. We--"

I released a constrained amount of Ether directly at the man to cut off his long-winded diatribe so I could clear up a few things for him. "Firstly, ambassador, that treatment was both civilized and warranted within our borders. Your actions within my Kingdom were extensively recorded for me to review upon my return to the city, and many actions came dangerously close to violating the laws of the Kingdom, with several definitely violated our social norms. Secondly, ambassador, you have not been approved to carry that title as of yet. We do not allow any nation to interfere with our politics and we certainly do not accept just any representative into our midst, especially when considering that attitudes such as yours are common among the nobility of human nations. Thirdly, ambassador, my embassy staff is instructed to provide visiting diplomats with a truthful response to their requests, meaning that I was absent from the city when they advised you of such. They are also instructed that lodging for delegations be provided only for parties approved by the Crown and as such directed you to the many available establishments since the Crown was unable to approve anything at the time of your visit. Perhaps if you had sent advanced news of your arrival, as is custom, you would have been properly received otherwise, you would receive the exact reception that you have already received. And finally, ambassador, the dwarven people do not recognize foreign claims of nobility and do not have a common and noble class. All dwarves are proud members of the noble dwarven race and bow to a single authority, myself! If I hear of you slandering the good name of my kin again I shall swiftly remove your delegation from our borders and restrict any trade or contact with your nation until such time as your nation has rendered a fitting punishment upon you for your disrespect."

I leaned forward slowly and made sure the man met me in the eyes before finishing my retort. "Now, ambassador, to what pleasure do I owe your visit and I suggest you choose your words and tone wisely this time." I leaned back into my throne and placed my cheek against my left fist before dispersing the Ether I had used to silence him. It took him a noticeably longer period of time to recover from this bout of panic-inducing pressure, he gracefully stood himself upright after he finished catching his breath and calmly adjusted his clothes to remove the wrinkles before addressing me again.

"My apologies, Your Majesty, I let my temper and expectations get the better of me. It is certainly as you say that the majority of our treatment has been well earned. As to the reason for our visit, my brother Emperor Aelfric Byron Gecuria desires to form agreements with your Kingdom regarding the trade of dwarven arms and armor in return for our naturally rich mineral and fishing exports. As such, I was dispatched shortly after we learned of your Kingdom's prowess from our officials within the Kingdom of Traisan." He bowed lightly after the end of his speech and I closed my eyes to appear to be in contemplation, I was interrupted just afterwords with a pop-up from the system.

Skill Granted:

The King's Coercion: Your control over your own Ether allows you to override the Ether within a target if their Perception stat is lower than yours, with impact scaling based on those stat differences. Induces issues with their control over their Ether related abilites along with causing minor and reversable damage to their Instinct.

I read over the description briefly before dismissing the prompt and opening my eyes. I glanced over the rest of the delegation, who looked visibly distressed, before returning my gaze to the Duke. "I am open to such agreements, we shall grant your party temporary lodging within the embassy. But I remind you that you are only an accepted delegation for trade agreements and are not yet recognized as an ambassador to the Kingdom of Brimstone. One of my aids shall call on you this evening to work on a rough draft of the trade output each nation will desire before we continue with negotiations tomorrow." I signaled to the master of ceremonies for him to begin the pompous exit speeches that all human nobles seem to enjoy before allowing my eyes to slide closed as I mentally connected to my dungeon crystal and began to observe our visitors as they were guided to their new rooms.

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The Duke promptly threw into a rage once he reached his quarters and was informed that our guides had left the area. His men looked un-nerved by his halted speech and bulging eyes as they watched him perform a mimed retort to an invisible version of myself where he berated me for my 'brutish' actions while invoking the supreme power of the Empire that could 'crush' my backwards Kingdom in a mere week.

It took him roughly 20 minutes to run out of energy and profanities, sweat and even some tears flowed down his cheeks and neck as he gasped for air, the man looked even worse for wear than when I had crushed him with my Ether the second time. He caught his breath and proceeded to clean up his appearance using a few magic tools, such as a portable silver washbasin that summoned freshwater and created a mirror-like surface in the air above it and what looked like a comb but appeared to automatically clean and style his hair when brushed through it. I will have to have our smiths work on producing some similar daily use items for dwarven homes and businesses in the future.

"Now, I suspect that the King's aids shall be arriving not long from now which gives us only a short window of time to discuss. First, how we can benefit the most from this trade deal while passing off our inferior products to these barbarians under the guise of shortage or rarity? We do not want to rely too much on tricking them with rarity or shortage, since the Traisanian mutts will likely wag their tails and inform them of such things. We want products that are just rare enough for us to claim difference of opinion if they call us out on the lie, any such items come to mind?"

I watched them bicker about how best to trick us and which products are truly their pride and joy before my aide arrived two hours later and I disconnected from the dungeon to return to my office and send for an informal drinking session with Duke Lucan. The good old Duke should know which products to ask for in our negotiations that are likely to lead to a convenient breakdown in the discussions that will require more authority than their Emperor originally gave them. We shall see exactly how badly they want dwarven craftsmanship, and the possible reasons why they might need new instruments of war. I suspect they may be feeling pressure from another of their neighbors given the urgency of their arrival, but the Duke should be able to inform me of the facts instead of the feelings regarding their hasty behavior.

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