“Thank you,” he told her. “I’m sorry to have worried you.” Then he approached me and said the same thing.
“As long as you learn from this, and value your life more in the future, I will accept your apology. That goes for the rest of you as well. It doesn’t make me even a little happy to hear that you laid down your life for my sake. You can’t protect me if you’re gone.”
The other three stood at attention.
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Mela agreed.
“Of course!” Pomme enthusiastically seconded.
Manzana just responded with a grunt. He really was the quiet type.
I wondered if he opened up to Pomme when they were alone together. Maybe they just liked to sit in silence and hold hands... In some ways that was even more romantic. When two people were so comfortable with one another that they felt better by just being around each other, that was real love. Just thinking about it made me want to sigh.
Right about then, there was a knock at the door. Apparently, the king was finally ready to talk again.
Even before this little incident, I’d already been in an overwhelmingly advantageous position for negotiations. Now the duke had gift wrapped an even better one for me. Nearly having one of my royal guards killed during a peaceful diplomatic visit was quite serious, and I planned to use it for all the leverage it was worth. Negotiations were about to get heated. If they thought I wasn’t going to ask for more based on what had just happened, they were sorely mistaken.
A few minutes later, I was in the smaller conference room with King Doma again.
“We have decided to agree to cede the entirety of the portion of the Grimwood we currently lay claim to, in return for you building a wall of towers to contain the monsters there,” the king began.
“I’m glad we could come to an understanding in regards to that matter, and I’d be happy to sign or affix my seal to any of the required documents,” I said. “However, in regards to my other request, I’m afraid I must now insist on constructing a path to the royal capital. There are seeds of conflict here that I must monitor diligently. In exchange for that, and the treasured sword I retrieved from the duke, I am willing to grant you a new sword that will suit you better, and forgive your brother’s attempt to kill one of my guards.”
Was it heavy-handed? Yes, but it was effective.
“I-I see. That’s very thoughtful of you. If you would, I’d like to know where exactly you plan to place the towers for your path to the capital, so we can ask for changes if there are any problems. Is that all right?”
The king did his best under pressure. Normally he’d only ever have had to negotiate like this with people of inferior positions; I supposed you could say international diplomacy was an area where he didn’t have much experience.
“Certainly,” I agreed. “If you’ll prepare a venue, I’ll be happy to show your advisors where I plan to erect my towers and how they would be linked together. Just so we’re clear, there will be a small group of guards stationed at each one. I hope that’s not an issue.”
“When you say ‘small,’ how many would there be?”
Ah, that’s a fair question. Although I said “a small group of guards,” due to the nuances of the language, he may have thought I meant many small guards...
“Four. That is the minimum required number for a tower to function. Once the new towers are established and linked together, the Irregulars assigned to it will likely spend most of their time inside. It’s not a bad arrangement for you. They’re basically free security for travelers. Of course, I can have them all gather at specific points—so if I have four Irregulars per tower, and five towers, I could move all twenty to the entrance of a single tower, for example.”
I laid out my cards on the table, hiding nothing. Once I linked these new towers together, I could quickly assemble my forces if I needed to. Better to give them that information now than surprise them with it later.
The king nodded. “I see. That does make sense. As long as the number is kept to the minimum, I don’t mind guards being in place. I can see I’ll have to give your offer special consideration to remove the blot on our kingdom’s honor.”
Good, he got it. What a great king. I was sure that in the back of his mind he had to be thinking about the possibility that I would send an army to his doorstep, but hopefully he understood I had no intention of going to war with him.
“If you’d like, I can give you and your advisors a presentation on where my towers will be placed as soon as a room is prepared,” I offered.
“Very well. I’ll send for you as soon as the room is ready.”
The meeting adjourned, and I went back to the antechamber. I’d scouted trees I could use to make towers during the carriage ride here, so all I’d need to do now was explain the route to the king. I knew I’d be able to counter any excuses they might come up with. Honestly, I hated being heavy-handed, but I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by. A secure trade route in Doma would allow me to bring people to the main tower more easily. Then, I could convince people to live there and farm the dungeon. More farmers meant more points. Oh, in case you don’t game much, when I say “farm” I mean killing monsters for treasure and experience points...although I didn’t actually know if the people here earned experience points or not.
In the current situation, it’d be a waste to create superstrong monsters nobody could defeat. I’d do the opposite, and flood most of the dungeon with low-level trash monsters anyone could handle. Then I could put treasure chests everywhere, and people could barter with the items they found. They’d get treasure, which they could sell for money, and I’d get dungeon points. Everyone won.
I just had to get through a little presentation.