Chapter 180: Chapter 179 ~ A Throne

//Author note

Neglected the Monday chapter so here's three to make up for it.

//End note

 

A small cauldron has been abandoned in the middle of a cleared space inside the front room. Floating within is a selection of mixed meats, leaves, and a thick scraping of thick blue-green mould.

The living room is drenched in the stench of syrupy rot, trash is piled into the corners, broken furniture gnawed down to nothing, discarded bones, and tattered furs. Blue-green mould covers everything in the rotting trash piles, the same mould that’s flavouring the stew in the cauldron.

In a very liberal sense, could it be considered a living room garden?

“You’re a violent warlord.” Leon opens the conversation rather bombastically, the nervous slayers at his back holding tightly to their sheathed weapons. The glow about them tells of the quality of the gear. “You seized this city through violent force, and you’re not going to stop, people like you never do.”

He walks about the room, standing tall as he looks down at the small things that the gremlins have left behind. Proof that they lived here barely more than a week ago, and proof that this building was stolen from them.

“I sure am.” I say, shrugging. I’ve embraced war where it was useful and I’m pressing for the title of Empress, which is near enough to a lord since ‘war-Empress’ doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as well.

I don’t even intend to stop here, I’m not crazy enough to think that I’ll be safe in this city forever. We have to keep growing until we’re strong enough to survive anything.

“Is that all you wanted to say?” I ask, looking through his group as I shake my head at the sight of them.

“This used to be a home before you took it away from those who lived here.” Leon says, brushing back his puffed up mane, and slowly stirring the cauldron that’s long since gone cold. “You’re destroying lives for your own satisfaction.”

“Another one of you, really?” I ask, rubbing at my brow. “We’re going to clean this place up, and it’ll be a home again soon enough. The gremlins weren’t exactly a nice peaceful group that we just crushed for the sake of it, or do you think you could’ve organised a peace treaty for us? If so, you should’ve spoken up sooner.”

Leon growls, glaring at me as he rests a hand on the dagger at his hip. It glows with enough mana that it’s clearly not simply for stabbing, though it would still make a fine stabbing implement nonetheless. He has more than a few tools covering his body, all of them dense enough to be a genuine threat.

I can still use my annihilation to scramble his brains if need be, but I don’t think he’s stupid enough to actually start a fight right here and now.

“I’ve seen the petty cruelty that dictators like you inevitably embrace, and I know that you will start bloody new wars to take more land, slaughtering anyone who stands in your way.” He says, staring around at the empty room. “I’m just here to let you know, that when you show your true self, I will stop you.”

“Is that a threat?” Eshya asks, hand on her sword.

“It is.” He replies, glaring at her.

“Enough.” I say in an even tone, rubbing at the side of my head, trying to eliminate the headache slowly forming. “Leon, you’re right to be suspicious. In your shoes, I’d be worried about me as well. So, let’s talk. See if there’s even a reason for us to be at odds.

“What in particular are you worried about?”

“Unjustified executions. Wars for land and resources. Treating your people as tools.” He says, sneering with every word. From his eyes, it seems to me that he’s familiar with each of these topics.

“Well, I’m still waiting for the first real crime to take place, and I’m hoping it’s nothing worthy of executions. You can sit in on the deliberations if you want, I’d rather keep things open with all my people, but I’ll still have the deciding voice in matters.

“Next one: I am looking at expanding, taking lands from wild beasts or groups that cause me serious trouble, like Loekan did. So long as everyone keeps to themselves, I intend to leave them alone. Rushing our expansion would be dangerous, especially in a moment like right now when we need to focus on coming together and building up what we have.

“As for treating my people like tools?” I say, tapping at my chin. “People and tools both need maintenance. Oil, food, and whatever else they need to help them to work at their very best. They are both also very useful in crafting or building, but the big difference is that a person gets to decide their own purpose, where a tool has no will of their own.

“It’s what makes people stronger, but also much more difficult to manage.” I say. “I can’t promise that I’ll be some perfect leader, and that this city will be a utopia. That’s stupid. No, I’ll do my best to make the sort of society that I’d want to live in.”

Everyone in the room looks at me, Vii noting down a few words in her little book, Eshya backing down a little, and Nel simply watching Leon and the others. Adler looks… a little impressed maybe. I haven’t spoken with her about this in perfect detail, so maybe she doesn’t understand what I want to do with my power over this city.

Leon, however, doesn’t seem at all convinced. His own group backs off a little, as he stands up and meets my eyes. He straightens out his thick mane yet again, and I can already tell that that’s an annoying habit of his that I’m going to be noticing every time we meet.

He stays silently in thought.

“Is that agreeable with you, or are we going to have to fight this out?” I ask, feeling the mana tingling inside me, ready to take on a new purpose. I haven’t rebuilt my mana to its full capacity again since the last time. My mana form has been… unstable, but this is still more than enough to counter his own threats.

“How many other warlords have you met? Dictators? Do your people talk about them? If so, all you’ve ever heard is lies and propaganda. Every single one of them, makes promises like you do. They say that they’ll make society better, that all their enemies deserve to suffer, they all convince their people that they’re righteous.

“Just like you.”

“I’m sure they do.” I say, turning to the door, and ushering Eshya and the others out. “I’m assuming I can just ignore you, then? You’re not going to try and stop me while I’m weak, or anything like that?”

“Your first misstep…” He growls.

“Sure, sure. You know, while you’re at it, go gather together everyone else who thinks I’m a monster and go make a political foundation, or a guild, or something. Shit, I know a few people who’d be interested in joining.

“I do hope you’ll do something actually productive aside from that, but it’s not my job to babysit you. Do what you want, and so long as you don’t hurt any of us or damage what is mine, then I don’t really care.

“Now, right now I’m trying to spend some time with my lovers, so if you’ll excuse me.”

I don’t give him a chance to say anything more as I shut the door behind me and leave him behind.

“Is that alright?” Nel asks. “Won’t he cause us trouble in the future?”

“We’ll deal with him when he starts something. We didn’t have to waste a full half hour, so I’ll call it a win.” I say with a shrug. “There’s no reason to let him drag our mood down, let’s go have fun.”

Though I try to smile, a building fear does start rising in my gut, pushing me to get back to training. I need to recover my mana form so that I can confidently beat Leon should he ever start a fight.

I need to be strong enough, to hold this city and its people against anything and anyone.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

The last of our spare time slips away as Nel kicks me out of bed in the early morning. Eshya is already up and about, still acting all energetic while pretending not to be half asleep. I’d thought that she’d be tired of that by now. I’d drag her back to bed, but I’m afraid that’d just inspire a different energy from her.

I just don’t have that much time this morning. Nel wouldn’t be happy with me if I run late.

We have class later today, mana form and reinforcement magic, before that I have to deal out land rights to the people of this city, and I’m not ignorant enough to think everything is going to be easy for me. Then tonight I need to go and rescue a few collared students before they mentally break, or end up on the dinner table.

Nel pushes my dress onto me, leaving my armour in the side of the room. We need to show the people that there’s no war being fought here after all. It’s a little freeing to be back into light clothes again.

Vii and Adler fuss about with their own clothes, as Eshya harasses them with endless conversation. Vii, back in a good mood, matches her pace, while Adler rubs at her eyes looking between them, clearly at least a topic or two behind.

Nel rushes us out of the room and down to the third floor of our reappropriated tower. Loekan really did have a good taste in flowers and aesthetics.

Here, a servant rushes about preparing some meals for us at a small table, and while it’s surprising, something else takes my attention.

Ria, my favourite singer and enchanter, stands before a massive throne of dark crystal. This definitely isn’t from Loekan, but the purple lilies certainly give it a good backdrop.

“What’s this?” I ask, stepping up to the massive throne. I can’t hold back a smile as I look it over.

“This is your delivery.” Ria says, smiling as she hums a little tune. “There’s more that I’d like to do with it, but for now it should work just as you wanted. If you can use your magic to clean up the carving on it, I can add the final enchantments.”

Atop the throne, higher than where my head would rest, is a carved figure of me. It’s quite striking, though subtle by the very nature of the canvas. Contours on dark crystal make the image a little unclear when you’re not standing right on it.

The image of me is fully dressed, thankfully, and while I’m not a big fan of my own image being placed everywhere, I might have to get used to it if this works. If it’s for the security of my people, then I don’t mind it being a little uncomfortable.

Focusing on the image, I try to feel out the imperfections in it.

It’s the same thing I did to a miniature statue of a harpy that I refined into Vii’s shape, and I’m hoping that I can use the same trick again. The image made it work well with Ria’s enchantments, and I’m hoping that I can attach myself to this throne and maybe even the mana that’s going to be stored within it.

That’s the plan, but already I’m stumbling. As much as I try, I can’t quite figure out what’s wrong with the image. It’s like a picture, a reflection of myself, but unlike with Eshya, Vii, Adler, or Nel. I simply can’t obsessively picture myself.

“Can you all stare at me for a moment.” I say. “I need to borrow your eyes.”

“That’s a little egotistical don’t you think?” Eshya asks, with a short giggle.

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“Well, I am perfecting an engraving of myself on my own throne.” I say, smirking as I touch the crystal. “So, I’d say yes.”

Closing my eyes, I look at myself through the blended perceptions of my ‘Eyes of an Empire’. It’s a bit of a difficult task, but it works surprisingly well, even if the end product isn’t quite to the same quality as Vii’s little statue, which we’ve moved into our new room.

“Time for the enchantments.” Ria says, scratching a few marks into the back of the throne. Most of the work is already done, and she only takes a moment to finish up. When done, she pulls my hand into the web of complex engravings.

“Press your mana into here and cycle it through like you do with your armour.” She guides me through the process, and I follow her words. The mana flows out into the dark crystal, taking on a slightly new light as I draw it back in again and convert it.

Already I can feel a bond between me and the throne, but it grows even stronger as I continue cycling more and more mana through it. After a few more moments of rapid mana cycling, the throne connects to me in a way that’s reminiscent of my armour.

More than that, it’s like a set of eyes have grown out of the throne’s etchings, and I can see all around the room through it. Though, I can only tell because I’m looking for the change.

I can already see this room through a half dozen different perspectives, and rather than trying to comprehend them all, the different perspectives are pasted together into a 3d image in my mind, some corners are more shadowed and blurred where no one is actually looking, while other parts, where their eyes are focused, are particularly clear.

The thrones vision just clears up a few details that other perspectives can’t quite make out, but it’s no better than peripheral vision.

I’ll have to see about making more enchanted objects like this. I’d like to have some set up around the walls of the city so that I can clearly see anyone approaching and potentially support my city from afar. On that thought…

While touching the dark throne, I can share my mana with it, but when I let go, the mana can’t cross between us. What I can still do is stir the mana around within the throne, and when I focus on it, I can even cast a spell through the mana inside of it. I’ll need to explore the limits of this ability.

“Good work.” I say, nodding towards Ria. “I owe you. I owe you a lot.”

“Well, if you want to pay us back, I noticed a few shiny things that your army gathered when clearing the city.” She says, smiling brightly.

“Nel?”

“I’ll arrange a walkthrough of the recovered goods.” Nel says, nodding to us. “Also, you might like to hold onto this, it’s a list of common goods traded locally, most are from hunting or scavenging from the cavern or the neighbouring caverns. Contact me if you need anything from the list and I’ll arrange for it to be delivered.”

“Oh, thank you.” Ria says, taking the note with a bright smile and a deeply satisfied hum.

“For now, we really need to get this meeting started, so Kyra.” Nel waves me over to the table where breakfast still sits getting cold. A map of the city has been laid out with a few fields outside, and a section of the ceiling lake drawn on a map beside.

“I’ll talk while you eat.” She says. “I’ve marked down 12 districts of the city, along the design of the stone buildings and streets. We’ve successfully cleared out the beasts and gremlins and gathered most of the valuables into the storage area in the basement below us.

“The crafters have mostly all joined together for negotiations as a guild, but I’ve asked that all come together for the meeting just to ensure that everything is acceptable. This cooperation does help us to subdivide the city effectively. Do we have any city-planning concerns or thoughts?”

I shove down the cool not-bacon and eggs, while thinking on the topic.

“Let’s try to make sure that everyone can actually live together. So, what can your neighbour do to make life completely unliveable?”

 “Being noisy when I’m trying to sleep.” Vii grumbles. “Playing loud, pounding music in the middle of the night, and refusing to turn it down. Especially if it’s bad music.”

“So, wannabe musicians get their own corner of the city. Next?”

“Poor cleanliness.” Nel says. “Gathered trash, or anything else that might cause intense smells to drift through the neighbourhood.”

“That goes on the list.”

Eshya shrugs, with nothing to add, and Adler looks thoughtful but doesn’t speak.

“Well, we’ll ask a few things when people come in.” I say, rubbing my head. “What’s this part of the map here?”

“That’s where we’re intending to develop the central markets.” Nel says. “It’s near the gates, and it neighbours the residential areas on one side and the crafters guild homes on the other.”

“So, it’s well planned out.” I say, nodding. “Let’s get started. Who’s up first?”

“Farmers want to have their lands divided between them so they can get to work.” Nel says. “They’re waiting downstairs if your ready.”

“Call them up.” I say, standing by the table and staring at the map.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Skills & Stats

 

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 3958 units

~Mana distribution:

Defence: 20/100%

Offense: 20/100%

Mana sense: 20/100%

Recovery: 20/100%

Gluttony: 10/100%

Misc.: 10/100%

Efficiency: 100/100%

 

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Trapping

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net

-Eyes of an Empire

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

//Author Note

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