Chapter 15:

Jay grinned as he watched the city lord on the screen. Something that (Etiquette) would never allow, if not for the fact that unlike him, Ressia was not allowed to see Jay’s person. Instead, the city lord of Lando was only allowed to see a white screen with a stylised compass rose on it.

A not-so-subtle power play perhaps, but the current discussion was full of such things.

For example, “City Lord Ressia, I cannot help but interpret your actions as stemming from a basic misunderstanding of your situation.”

Jay, while lounging, allowed for the 30-ish desert tribe national to begin to respond before cutting him off. Something that would send his social skill reeling if he wasn’t playing for power.

Jay spoke with a noble sneer in his voice, “Tell me, City Lord, if you were to resist me, who would you turn to? Yes, you would have to call for assistance, because, let me assure you, your city guards and personal trade house mercenaries are not enough to face my city guards and trade house mercenaries.”

Jay popped a nut into his mouth, “Mmmh, would you go to the Stansa nobles? Tell them that you, a city lord unaligned with Stansa, want to go against a Stansa Baron? Or better yet, want to attack the only trading house that substantially trades with Stansa?”

Baron Northsand hummed noncommittally, “No, I don’t think any of the lesser nobles will gather an army and march them across the entirety of the badlands at your call. I think it would be even less likely to hire a mage guild to transfer a substantial force.”

Jay watched the steel appear in Ressia’s eyes. Jay smiled, this city lord was a good man, capability wise. Undaunted. If Jay wasn’t in such a position of power, he may have even been intimidated!

But Jay didn’t give him a chance to retort, “Mercenaries? No, those dogs will fight for the highest bidder, and I hope that I have impressed upon you that that title belongs to me.”

The bite faded out of Jay’s voice as he returned to his imitation of playfulness.

“Mayhaps the tribes of the Northern Sand? I haven’t had the time to dredge up your entire life’s story, but I imagine being a trading city on the edge of the Northern Sand allows you to make some allies.”

Jay tutted, “However, I don’t think that will work. If those people truly are your allies, they would have surely warned you of 15,000 men and an A-ranked combatant. Do you think something occurred to them? I know none of your trading partners have suddenly disappeared. I checked.”

Jay gave the city lord a second to connect the dots, as if it wasn’t obvious.

“A force that big needs supplies, that means either your ‘allies’ sent the slavers to you, or they were too cowardly to even send a message”

Jay laughed, “I don’t know what would be worse, a group of backstabbers, or a group of gutless fools!”

Once Jay was done rambling on, for that was what he was truly doing, Ressia got a word in edgewise.

Jay watched Ressia sigh, “Baron-”

Ressia got a word in before Jay waved his hand and loud static played over the city lord’s spellwork.

Jay laughed yet again, “Now now city lord, I’ll accept your surrender in due time. I was not yet done with explaining your situation.”

Now Jay’s voice shifted into the tone of a patient teacher, “Dear Ressia, I hope you have an active imagination, because this will be a stretch. Imagine I was not a powerful noble with deep pockets that can hire several mage guilds and mercenary corps to push your little city over.”

Jay continued after a pause, “Have you imagined that? Good, because it doesn’t matter that I can do that, I’d have to be a madman to push over your city when I could just push you over.”

Jay held his hands up, even though Ressia couldn’t see him, “Now, keep imagining, what would I do? Who would I turn to? How would I overcome the mercenaries you would now have access to?”

“Would the Stansa Nobles lend support to the Baron controlling their only trade route to the north?”

“Would the villages and cities of the desert be amicable to the hero who took down an infamous slaver group? A hero who also happens to control a large portion of trade in this city?”

Jay watched Ressia intently, “I wonder…”

Ressia’s eyes had become strange sometime during Jay’s monologue. The steel had left them, now the city lord was angry. But there was something else in his eyes.

Humiliation. It was with a start that Jay realised that he had managed to humiliate his opponent. ‘Damn, I didn’t know I was that good.’ was what was going through Jay’s head.

Though, that wasn’t exactly what he wanted, so after an awkward few seconds of silence, Jay got to the point. “Now, City Lord Ressia, I am going to give you two choices. Either you submit yourself and your administration to my noble person here and now, or I topple your administration, and have my own fully functioning by this time next week.”

Ressia imitated a goldfish for a hot minute, before Jay interrupted him, “Today.”

Despite Jay’s urging, it took the city lord a full minute before responding, “...Lord Northsand, it would be my honor to serve you, the rightful ruler of Lando.”

Ressia sounded like Jay could use his teeth as his new gemstone grinder, but Jay was happy as he took out his ‘Ressia agrees’ file. It was much smaller than his ‘Ressia disagrees’ file.

With a snap of his finger, a document appeared on Ressia’s desk. “Splendid! The following clauses are to be implemented as soon as…”

Jay went over the said clauses with the newly reappointed city lord for several hours. Ressia pushed and pulled on some of the several hundred points, but Jay always put his foot down with a “I’m sure my administration wouldn’t have a problem with that.” or a “Mayhaps this was all a waste of time, if your administration is unable to accomplish that, then I won’t even need to remove it before building my own!”

It was all very simple on the ‘takeover’ side. Several clauses were written that gave Jay free reign over the city and all laws written. Ressia would send the taxes to Jay, if only because he wanted his cities to be self-sufficient. Ressia would in turn retain several of the privileges he enjoyed before as he ran the city. It was almost the same, except Jay was the boss now.

Several clauses ensured that, and there were several more steps in Jay’s ‘Ressia agrees’ file beyond the treaty.

When all was said and done, Lando’s governing force was remade. There were three new offices made, each containing the team for a head for a new task force. 5 employees were fired and 42 of Jay’s men moved in. 14 laws were written and 3 laws that Jay found useless or detestable were struck from the records. The two guards were merged, with the defector vice-captain as the new captain. And Jay’s city plan was enacted, a city plan he had help with from several experts in the loops. Jay was certain it would help, and even if it didn’t… Oh well? Jay had other ways to legitimize his rule.

Ressia had even brightened considerably, it was likely that his opinion of Jay had turned from ‘useless grandstanding asshole’ to ‘grandstanding asshole’.

The screen eventually fizzled out, before the spellwork broke, they’d use the crystals to communicate now.

Jay waited for a tick. Then two. He double checked the spellwork. Eventually, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, ITFUCKINGWORKED! WOOOOOO!”

Jay allowed his chair to tilt backwards, trusting the cushion to, well, cushion his fall. The negotiation was something his alt-selfs allowed him to do himself. That was probably because it didn’t really matter, but Jay was ecstatic.

He accomplished something!

And that something was this!

+++

Claim Lando Trading City!

Rank: Rare

Lando Trading City lies in your territory, yet they do not answer to your authority. Remedy this.

+++

And this!

+++

‘Quester’ class has leveled to 12!

+++

Jay noticed that he hadn’t learned a new skill, but that was to be somewhat expected, he didn’t have 11 other class skills, after all.

But what he did have was:

+++

Name: Jay Northsand

Class: Quester (12)

Class skills:

Minimap (N/A), Description (5), Highlight Objects of Interest (3), Danger Sense (2), System Scan (2)

General skills:

Stansa Common (11), Etiquette (6), Strongarm (4), Swordsmanship (2)

Quest:

N/A

Traits:

Outworlder, Stansa Noble, Stansa Citizen, Baron, Soulbound

Soulbound Items:

Seer’s Stopwatch (Epic)

Karma: +27

Reputation: 17

+++

Jay sighed to himself, “Ahhh, nothing better than looking at your status after finishing a quest…”

Jay, once again, went down the list.

“Hmm? Two of my skills leveled? Wish those things had pop-ups. ...Though I don’t know what I’d do with that info…”

Jay, like most people on Divinity’s Rest, went by ear on skills most of the time, you were as good as you were, and unless you were training or entering a metaphorical cock-measuring contest, knowing that number was fairly useless.

“I would have gotten a notification for a new trait or soulbond.”

“...I understand the five rep, I’ve been keeping on the downlow, relatively speaking, but only nine karma?! Come on! I stopped an entire godsdamned city from being sacked. I also improved the lives of thousands of people!”

“Ahh… Come on Jay, you’ve known that karma is harder to get the further away from zero you are for a while now.”

Jay stretched after contemplating his status, “Well, after a hard day’s work, nothing’s better than giving your ass a treat and a good petting.”

Jay laughed hysterically as he went to visit Betsy.