Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 118

Redrick POV:

I stumbled out of the domain and gazed at the palisades that stood guard at the entrance. Soldiers clad in brilliant red armor stood at the ready and checked in the constant stream of adventurers pouring in from the north. There were dozens of workers in the area clearing out trees and gathering materials to be brought back to what essentially was becoming a small bustling city. Currently, the defenses were in the process of being overhauled due to what was seen during the inauguration and the fear the undead could turn their focus to the outside world.

I quickly covered the stone road and walked towards the gate, where two soldiers stood at the guard and checked in some adventurers and ensured that the proper taxes were getting paid on the gear they received. It was a flat tax rate, but many were still chaffed the wrong way with paying for stuff they haven't sold yet, but it has to be done. The kingdom needed funds, and there was no better way to get them.

One soldier by the gate saw me, gave me a slight nod, and stepped to the side, allowing me to skip past the line and walk right past everyone. Which earned me some scornful glares. Which didn't bother me in the slightest since I didn't really advertise that I was the governor. The less they knew, the better. It gave me more freedom to do as I pleased and allowed me to see how things function in the city without having people act differently under the prying eyes of authority. It also helped me route out those that didn't belong if anything.

I slipped into the city's outskirts, quietly moving down the road. Adventures were bustling down the street. Some were trying to haggle down prices at the various stores or get their equipment repaired. Just another day in the city. Just another day for them, at least.

I kept wandering down the streets, walking back towards the city superior and my office. The wave of emotion that I felt from earlier still lingered, much like an unpleasant taste, constantly reminding me of what had occurred. It was terribly vexing.

It was painful dealing with the Empress in her current state of mind. It was as if she were dealing with two distinct personalities. At one point it was a wave of searing passionate anger, then a wave of cold depression. It was just an undulating wave of constantly changing emotions that drove daggers through me. It was such unbidden power that it was sickening but terrifying that she couldn't control it. Perhaps it was to be expected with the anguish that she was feeling. But it also brought back the words that Kharon spoke to me. About what Alessia meant to the Empress. Just how much could one person mean? Were they lovers, perhaps? It would make the most sense for that level of emotional instability. Not that I was judging, I didn't see an issue with it. I was always a fan of loving whoever you wanted. Whether it be the same sex or a different species. Though there were always proponents for keeping things' pure', so to say, but I didn't really care about that.

Before I knew it, I arrived back at the functioning city center. Here the city was teaming with life. A far cry from the forest that had once been here. In months, we quickly built the city up from scratch. All it cost was close to a fortune and the desire for adventurers to have a home. Not to mention the desire of the other nations to establish ties with the domain. That alone boosted the size of the city and allowed for a few embassies to be built.

Which caused tensions to rise. In many people's eyes, it was preposterous to have beast kins roaming free here, especially with the beast kin equivalent of adventurer guilds establishing bases here. To many of the traditionalists, it was a direct war against the traditions that have guided them for centuries. To some, it didn't matter. It opened up trade, and it lined pockets. To the rest, they welcomed it. I didn't have any particular thoughts about them. Perhaps a small amount of joy, but that was really just the greed inside me speaking. Money was money, and I didn't care who it came from.

I navigated through the city square and towards the building that functioned as my headquarters. Two soldiers clad in glowing silver armor stood at attention next to the small bronze gate. A plume of turquoise gryphon hair sat at the top of the full plate helmet, matched by a silvery blue cape that fluttered in the wind. The one on the right turned their head and regarded me with a powerful gaze. Their eyes lost in the darkness that their closed helm cast across their face

.

I felt my skin crawl as they stared at me. As if thousands of ants were slowly crawling across every inch of my body. It felt like an eternity before they broke the gaze, and the feeling stopped. The knight stepped to the side in a fluid motion and opened the gate for me. Mentally, I shuddered as I walked past them. They were both from the king's guard. Their names were never given to me. Even the system, when I once attempted to analyze them, refused to give me any information. Outside of three question marks that hung like omens of death just above their head.

Which made me question how Amari slipped past them. What powers did she possess? Did they let her in? Did she have a permit? I bit my cheek as I walked further into what was for all intents and purposes, my home. The thoughts were relentless in their creation as more and more questions formed.

I slipped into my foyer, and my head butler appeared as if the shadows had given birth to him. "Master Redrick. Welcome back!" He reached a single white glove-clad hand out towards me, and I pulled off my cloak.

"Thank you. Can you fetch Cato for me? We have a few things we need to discuss. Also, can you have one maid deliver some fenrisian ale to me? I've had a long day." I dropped my cloak off in his hand and kept walking down the hall. Normally I would spare more time for them, but now I was just drained. Mentally, I was worn down emotionally I was suffering from an extreme case of whiplash, and physically, well, I was just tired.

"Of course." My head butler's voice faded away behind me as I stumbled down the hall. Exhaustion clawed at my ankles, trying to drag me down to the ground, but I didn't quite want to go to sleep just yet. I still needed to meet with Cato and potentially the other envoys with good ties with Asteria. Which at the moment, that list was small. I've had a hell of a time filtering down many nations that wanted their hands on the domain. After all, too many hands can ruin the fish, or something like that. I wasn't too sure about the exact quote.

It took a bit to get to my office, but when I did, I stumbled over to my desk, and sat down. Much of the fatigue that I felt was washed away and replaced with a feeling of being at home. Really, at the end of the day, there was no feeling like that of being at my desk. I love dealing with paperwork, and I love politics. There was nothing like making plans and placing pieces of the puzzle down.

Almost giddy, I looked through the stacks of paper to see what had stacked up since I had left. The first was various information, like the daily tax income of the adventurers and monthly tax statements. I kept things as cheap as I could here since the quantity of adventurers would bolster the losses. The most significant sort of tax was the coins that came from the domain. Sadly, I had to tax at the highest rate I could get away with. Mainly to stop the value of the currency from dropping too low. If I let every adventurer get out of here with all the money they were raking in, then the entire economy could collapse. Strictly from the value of gold and silver plummeting. After all, there was a reason we had to outlaw transfiguration, and constantly keep pulling gold out of supply, and create a few coins above that to act as a counterbalance.

Why are we stuck with gold as the cornerstone of the economy? Who knows, now it's more of a hassle than anything else and is far too ingrained in tradition to do anything about. So now many governors and leaders are forced to constantly suck money out of the economy to combat illegal transfiguration and inflation. A process that sometimes collapses and sends prices sky high. But that usually only occurs when dungeons and domains are born. We seem to be in an era of right now. Already reports show that a few dungeons were born throughout the content, and two upgraded into domains. This means that the economy may start to over-inflated. It's going to take a few years to balance everything out, especially if the dungeon city leaders can't do their jobs properly.

I pushed away from the tax documents and mentally made a note to take a portion of the taxes for the city, send a portion to the crown and regional nobles as taxes, and a portion to keep in reserve just in case something happens. The rest was signed off to be sent to the Crown Treasury as money to be taken out of circulation. With that being done, I started working through the rest of the paperwork while waiting for Cato to arrive.

I pored through paperwork for about an hour, signing off on new laws and dissolving ones that were no longer relevant here. The mound of the paperwork quickly shrank until I hit a slight hitch. It was a scroll that talked about a runaway slave that recently came into custody. Well, techincally because of the laws of the kingdoms, slavery is illegal, so now it was a ward to the city. However, that also means that the owner would come looking. I usually wouldn't pay attention to something as trivial as a runaway slave, outside of signing custody over to a city department, but something caught my eye.

The slave held a class simply known as forbidden. Which alone piqued my interest. Usually, when a being held that, it was a hereditary class. Something that the system couldn't or wouldn't categorize. However, not all forbidden classes came in handy. Sometimes they were useless and only hindered, while other times, they were extremely powerful, and could rival even some of the super weapons that kingdoms held. The only issue is that, unless the person told you what the class was, there was no way of knowing if you stumbled onto something worthwhile or not.

I stared at the document for some time as a plan formed. If it was a unique forbidden class, then I might gift the slave to the domain. While it could make the domain even more dangerous, it would also further lay a foundation for me to keep building up our alliance. After all, if I could keep in Asteria's good graces, I could continue building up wealth and power. As long as I'm subtle about it, I can climb to the top before anyone else knows it. But I need to make sure that the foundation is strong first.

With that being said, I doubt I can draw the ire of the domain as long as I keep everyone I can off of her daughter and her chosen. Those two were important enough to her to take on a Velcrest task force, so I couldn't use them as bargaining chips. Otherwise, I risk her leaving the domain and rampaging across the countryside, which would ruin everything that I was working on.

I would need to keep building the connections between Corinenthia and Asteria and keep distinguishing us as valuable allies, as well as ensuring that I could collect as many chips as I could to barter with. At the moment, Asteria held more than I did, so I didn't quite want to play my hand yet. But now that I had time to think and process things Velcrest making a move as early as they did was also a good thing. It was a blunder that I could turn into an opportunity on my end. The only issue that I had moving forward was going to be that skeleton. Kharon was a fearsome foe, both intellectually and as a boss. He alone was a significant player, and I see why he was the prime minister.

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