Chapter 25

“King Josh does have a few rivals. That still carries a number of downsides. You would have to renounce your allegiance to queen Andrea. There is also no guarantee that they would be able to protect you from any duke level assassins that king Josh sends after you. Even if you do, at best you would become a pawn in their competition.” Faye explained.

Between becoming the pawn of a swarm king and my own life I’d choose my own life. But I wasn’t as sure about abandoning Earth. If I renounced my allegiance to queen Andrea someone else would replace me. Some other lord from swarm society that had probably never even heard of Earth and wouldn’t care near as much about the inhabitants.

I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that I’d be the one making the final decisions. After all, it was clear that the queen herself was going to be involved in the integration process. However, she was in charge of over ten million worlds. That didn’t leave her time to do more than give some general directions. It would be easy for me to drive the day to day policies and decisions. Just as importantly I’d also be able to protect my family and friends.

“If I renounce my allegiance to queen Andrea I won’t be in charge of Earth any longer. Right?” I asked Faye just to confirm.

She nodded. “Earth falls under queen Andrea and king Josh. The only way you could renounce your allegiance and stay in control of Earth would be if you got someone above them to protect you. A greater swarm king or a swarm emperor isn’t going to meet with a swarm count though.”

“So how do I stay in control of Earth but not let them kill me? There has to be some way. Even if it’s only a slim possibility I have to try. If king Josh is in charge of Earth he could easily use my family members against me.” I said. If the king threatened my family I didn’t know what I’d do. Probably anything he told me.

Faye thought about it for a moment and then frowned. Over the past week I had gotten to know her well enough to know that she had thought of a possibility. She just didn’t like the odds. “I can think of one way. The odds still aren’t that great though. And if it’s not successful it’s going to be nearly impossible to find anyone willing to protect you.”

“As long as there is a chance I’m willing to take the risk.” I said. Anything I did was going to be a risk anyway. Although part of me knew that based on how Faye was talking this was going to be a larger risk.

“You mentioning your family reminded me of a possibility that you mentioned earlier. It’s possible someone in your family is even more talented than you are. It’s unlikely, but with you being a swarm count the possibility that one of your parents, grandparents, siblings, or even just a cousin are a swarm king has increased. If one of them is a swarm king they could protect you. They would swear allegiance to the swarm emperor in charge of our galaxy. If swarm king Josh attacks you they could file a complaint with that swarm emperor. Such a complaint would have far more impact on his reputation than his son being less talented than you are. In fact just having a family member that is a swarm king would eliminate the entire reputation issue. I doubt that king Josh would attack you over a single tiny core factory at that point.” Faye explained.

“Okay. But how do I test if any of them are swarm kings? All of my family is on Earth. Also won’t it take time to find out?” I asked.

“The solution has to do with why I was hiding that I’m a swarm duchess. And why I deceived you. My father was one of the three greater swarm kings in charge of the galaxy. He’s the one responsible for Earth. I found out just a few days after I received my micro core factory. I became obsessed with trying to figure out why he did it. So instead of taking my position as a swarm lord I left and started investigating it myself.” Faye confessed.

I frowned a bit. That didn’t explain why she was pretending to be a maid. Or why she had practically thrown herself at me when we first met. “Did you figure out why he did it?” I finally asked hoping it would give me some insight.

Faye shrugged. “He turned himself in after his crimes were discovered and he was sentenced to life in prison. It took me months but eventually I was able to arrange a meeting with him. That was one of the first questions I asked him. He said that after hundreds of thousands of years he got bored and started to study the origins of the swarm. Eventually he realized that those origins are not magical in nature. Instead the swarm was created using technology. As an experiment he purchased an uninhabited planet and colonized it without placing any mana nodes. His hope was that eventually he could study the technology that was created on that planet.”

I couldn’t help but feel a bit confused. “Wait. Why would anyone think that the swarm was created with magic? Isn’t it obvious that it’s technology? The swarm uses energy in order to create the mana system. Without the swarm there wouldn’t be magic, so obviously the swarm existed before magic. Once it was created it replaced technology.”

“You know that because you grew up in a world with technology and without magic. But almost everyone else thinks that technology is useless. The only thing they know is that it’s dangerous since it can be used to create dangerous diseases and nuclear weapons. Even after my father told me it took me nearly a year of doing my own research before I believed him.” Faye explained.

I nodded. She was right. In a swarm world technology by itself wouldn’t even reach the same level as the industrial revolution. With that type of technology it would be hard to conceive of technology so small it couldn’t be seen, and then make the leap to believing that it was the origin of magic. The only real indication was the swarm cubes, but those were something that magic could have replicated.

“So why pretend to be a maid?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“A friend of mine managed to get me the integration plans for Earth. The leaders of swarm society are terrified that there will be a war and in the chaos Earth weapons will be taken from the planet. If the transition is peaceful they can fully focus on preventing that possibility. So they have spent the last couple years stockpiling testing devices and figuring out how to disguise them as gaming devices. If there are swarm knights, or even a swarm baron, that are natives of Earth the integration process should be far more peaceful. I figured out what assembly the prospective swarm knights would be sent to and then made sure I was able to get inside. My hope was that I could get close to one of the swarm knights from Earth.” Faye explained.

“That explains how you did it. But why did you do it?” I asked. I loved her but I felt like the answer to this question was important.

“After speaking to my father I realized I was nearly as obsessed as he was about figuring out the origin of the swarm. They would never let one of his children near the planet before the integration was completed, and after the integration none of that technology will work. So I came up with a plan. If I disguised myself, and I was close to a swarm knight from Earth, I’d be able to travel there and back easily. If anyone had told me I’d also fall in love with them I’d never have believed them.” Faye said the last with a bit of a blush.

For a second I still felt a bit suspicious of that answer. I couldn’t imagine someone being willing to seduce and sleep with someone just to be able to travel to Earth. Then I thought about how swarm society thought about relationships. Given that it wasn’t nearly as surprising.

I hadn’t met any but I’d bet there were women on Earth that would be willing to sleep with someone in order to travel. Let alone to be able to travel somewhere that would be impossible otherwise. If she truly disliked the swarm knight she met she could always leave them. It wasn’t like they would be able to stop her since she was a swarm duchess.