Upon spending the night at the border station, I realized two things. First was that the border station had guest rooms for visiting VIPs. These rooms were more spacious than the rest, their walls and pillars were finely decorated, and the floors were carpeted. The carpet looked a lot like Alna’s work, actually.
They also had impressive furniture in them—some that looked made by the cavekin, and some that had a very different flair I wasn’t totally familiar with. I was made to sleep in one of the VIP rooms on account of being the domain lord, and I had to say, the comfort just plain blew me away.
The second thing I realized was that the border station had hired a number of beastkin to work as assistants. I saw them rushing to and fro, but they looked happy to be busy, and from what I heard when they were talking to one another, the pay was good too.
I’d left the management of the border station to Mont and everybody else working there, so I didn’t take issue with them hiring help or anything, but I was surprised that the people they hired were from the nation next door. The border station had even hired a few kids, but they only worked as much as they enjoyed it, and they really loved Mont.
I put two and two together when I saw that, and I realized that the unique furniture I’d seen in the VIP room must have been bought from the beastkin. There were other such antiques and decorations here and there in the border station too.
Still, I guess I should ask...
“You sure this is okay?” I asked Mont over breakfast in the station cafeteria. “I mean, you’re letting foreign citizens get a good look at our border station. Won’t that maybe be a problem?”
“Nope, no problem whatsoever,” he replied, waving his fork in the air. “It’s like Juha always said: When intel leaks and you don’t know about it, that’s a problem, but if you’re in control of what leaks, how much, and when, then there ain’t no problem. And besides, we keep the important places locked up tight.”
Mont was actually more interested in letting the beastkin in than keeping them out. He wanted them to see what kind of place our border station was. He said that letting them get to know us was the best way to ease any worries they had about us.
“If we assuage their fears, they won’t be so cautious around us,” he said. “That’ll have the effect of putting war a good ways out of their minds. Best-case scenario, they see this border station of ours and decide it’s too much effort to make us their enemies. And by opening up and letting the beastkin in, I want them to know we’re friendly. It’s good old-fashioned Mont-style diplomacy!”
“Diplomacy, huh? Well, I guess that’s not a bad idea.”
“I’m within my rights to do this much,” said Mont. “I’m just making friends with the neighbors. All there is to it. Anything on a national level is for you to decide. And look, it’s a really beautiful border station, but look at it through another set of eyes and it’s pretty intimidating. Downright terrifying, even. If we decided we weren’t going to do business with anybody, and we were just going to keep everyone out, I reckon that’d pose problems.”
“Still, we did get the Beastland Kingdom’s permission to build the border station...”
“Like I said, that’s a national thing. It’s not a personal thing. Lords and politicians can use big words and say what they want, but that’s not going to help make their people feel any safer. Some don’t even bother explaining things to the regular folks. Worries can creep up into your people when that happens. They warp over time and turn into nasty rumors... That’s where the likes of racism and discrimination start. But we’ve opened our doors and welcomed exchange between our communities. We’ve told the beastkin that working with us is a good deal. All I’m doing is allaying fears so we nip any future issues in the bud.”
“I see. Yeah, you make a good point.”
“Hmph,” Mont snorted, looking awfully satisfied with himself. “Damn straight.”
The two of us went back to our breakfasts. Mont finished first, and when he was done he gave me a look that told me he wanted to talk about something in private. I responded with a nod, and when I was done eating I stood up, tidied myself a bit, and went to Mont’s room.
“Took your time,” he said.
He was waiting for me in a chair, polishing his wooden leg. His room was real neat and orderly, like somebody had just cleaned it.
“This is something of a continuation of what we were discussing before,” he started; then he paused to think about it a little more. “Well, maybe it ain’t, but since we’ve started talking to the beastkin I’ve been able to gather some intel. Turns out it’s not just beastkin living in the Beastland Kingdom but other races too. A good deal of demi-humans, from what I hear. And when it comes to demi-humans we have a loose connection with, well...there’s Senai and Ayhan’s former home.”
“Oh yeah. Now that you mention it, they came here with Peijin-Do all that time ago...”
When I thought about it, it made sense that the forestkin would live across the border.
“Yeah, them idiots who drove the girls out of their own home,” said Mont. “I know it doesn’t bother the girls much, and they’ll tell you all about it if you ask, so I guess it’s neither here nor there for them, but how do you want to handle the forestkin? If they hear that two of their own are living pretty here in Baarbadal, there’s always a chance that they try to do something about it. I figure we should settle on our stance, and the earlier the better.”
“To put it bluntly, I don’t want anything to do with them,” I replied. “If they want in, drive them away. Ignore whatever reasoning they try to give you. The girls and their parents didn’t do anything bad or wrong, but their village drove them away all the same. I’ve no interest in doing any business with people like that. I know they believed the girls to be a disaster or whatever, but the twins have never caused any trouble since the day they got here—the forestkin reasoning is trash as far as I’m concerned.”
Mont grinned, then broke into a chuckle.
“All right, so they’re not allies in your book then. You never have been very lenient on your enemies, and I’m happy to follow your lead.”
“Wait wait wait, this isn’t about enemies or any of that—”
“Look, I know you go easy on the people who meet you straight, but anybody who tries anything else? You’ve never shown them any quarter. Maybe it’s unfortunate for the forestkin that the twins ended up with you, but don’t worry—I’ll handle things here.”
And with that, Mont stood up, and he made to leave, but not before giving me a look that said to get out. I did what Mont’s eyes said and a beastkin kid ran in as I was leaving. He started dusting and cleaning and whatnot without missing a beat. Mont looked upon that little one with unbridled kindness, and then I realized another thing.
Just when did Mont become captain of the west station, anyway?
I’d left the border station in the care of Joe and my old war buddies and figured that eventually somebody would take charge. I knew that Mont was leading the security detail and training, but now it seemed he was in charge of overseeing the whole station.
Well, it’s not like there’s anybody more suitable, and I’m okay with it as long as everybody else is too... I guess I’ll check on that a little later.
But when I thought about it, I could see that things were going pretty smoothly at the station, and nobody was voicing any opposing opinions, so it looked a lot to me like everybody was in agreement already.
I spent the morning looking around the border station saying hello to everybody and catching up. Balers was well rested and raring to go by the time I mounted him, and when we left the station he raced down the road back to Iluk. The temple came into sight before I knew it, and I noticed Lady Darrell at the little shaded section by the temple proper, giving a lesson of some sort.
“Is that...the Wives’ Club?” I murmured to myself.
I slowed Balers down to get a better look and noticed there were some dogkin with Lady Darrell. They were all wearing dresses made from baar wool, so I assumed they were all women. Lady Darrell was in the middle of teaching them all how to curtsy, so it must have been an etiquette lesson.
Some of the dogkin were mothers, but others were children who’d been born just last year. It looked to me like the lessons were part of the babysitting that Lady Darrell often handled. I rode Balers up to the little class and hopped off to greet them. All the dogkin curtsied to me just like Lady Darrell had taught them, and Lady Darrell told them all to take a short break.