Her Majesty's Swarm

Plan B

The slavers' leader took a carriage and rode toward the town of Leen. I accompanied him, along with a single Ripper Swarm, which hid in the cargo hold. The city's gates received constant traffic from peddlers, so it was left open.
We managed to enter the city without much questioning. Thanks to that,
our cargo-and the Ripper Swarm guarding it-went undetected as we made our way into Leen. Had we been inspected, I planned to pacify the guard by swiftly jamming a Parasite Swarm down their throat, but it seemed my concerns were needless.
At worst, I'd have had the Ripper Swarm slaughter the soldiers and turn the carriage 180 degrees to flee Leen. Picking this option would have meant we'd never return to Leen again.
"So, where might I find the local tailor?" In the large town of Leen, my first order of business was to find a tailor.
"Ahh, that must be the place." Upon riding down Leen's main street, we found a store that had some elegant clothes out on display. It seemed to be the exact kind of place I was looking for. I had the slaver stop the carriage, and then the two of us disembarked, leaving the Ripper Swarm to watch the proverbial fort.
"Welcome. Oh, it's you. The slaver. What do you want with us?" While we were at first greeted with a retail smile, the shopkeeper quickly turned sour upon seeing the slaver. Apparently, people in this world frowned upon those who dealt in the slave trade. That was a good thing; I was pleased to learn that this town's citizens were decent folk.
Conversely, if I'd learned that this world welcomed slavery, I'd have been awfully annoyed.
"I came... to sell clothes." The slavers' leader was dominated by the Parasite Swarm, and thus effectively by the greater Swarm and myself, forcing him to speak against his will. Normally he'd scream for help and beg to be saved from the monster inside his body, but instead he started bartering with the employee.
"Clothes? You mean things you pillaged off the elves? No one wants threads you ripped off of some knife-ear. Their clothes are far too seedy for our establishment. We only sell garments of the highest quality. Now go away. Shoo, shoo." There was discrimination against the elves after all, even though they were trying to live as well as they could off the blessings of the forest. I suppose the humans of this world assumed the elves to be barbarians of some sort. How irritating.
"No. Clothes I bought... from a merchant." I'd thought up a story beforehand: he had sold some slaves and received these clothes as the payment. It might come across as suspicious, but that was the only plausible story I could come up with.
I prayed and prayed that the man would believe it. Standing in the shadow of the carriage, I could only transmit my wishes through the air.
"Fine." The shopkeeper eventually caved. "Show me your merchandise,
then." The slavers' leader hauled a chest full of clothes from the carriage and placed it on the counter.
"This is..." He lifted out a few expensive-looking dresses, woven with silk-like threads by the Worker Swarms. The box was stuffed with dozens of them,
ranging from everyday clothes to evening dresses that wouldn't look out of place at a grand ball. The shopkeeper eyed them with awe.
Thank you, my sweet little Worker Swarms. Your hard work is being appreciated!
"This is amazing," the shopkeeper breathed, examining the dresses carefully. "I've never seen clothes like these before. The nobles would just eat them up." He was outright mesmerized with how pleasant to the touch the fibers were and by the intricacy of the designs.
"How much... will you pay for them?" the slaver asked.
"For clothes like these? Twenty thousand floria sounds about right." All right, time for some good old haggling.
Having asked the elves about it beforehand, I had concluded that I would sell the dresses for at least 30,000 floria. Still, this was my first time haggling, so I wasn't sure I'd do it right... but I had to do what I could. We needed as much money as possible, and we needed to obtain it legally.
"Too little. You can... pay more for it. If you won't give me forty thousand, I will go to another store." "Fine. Thirty thousand floria, then. I'll take them all for that much, and not a single floria more." I'd expected the negotiations to take longer than this, but they ended in the blink of an eye.
"No objections. That's a... deal," uttered the slaver, who then pushed the chest toward the shopkeeper.
We could have probably bargained for more, but failing the negotiations here could impact our business in the future. Even considering he might have tricked us because of our inexperience, we should still compromise for 30,000 floria.
"There you are, thirty thousand floria. Take it." Having accepted the chest, the shopkeeper handed the slavers' leader a bag stuffed with coins and excitedly carried the chest to the back of the store.
That cleared stage one of my plan.
My original intent was to give the elves these dresses and have them go to Leen to cash them in, but they seemed to fear the town and refused to go near it. I could certainly see why. With people like the slavers around, it was only natural the elves wouldn't get used to this place.
The teachings of some so-called God of Light declared that nature gods,
whom the forest-dwelling elves worshipped, were evil deities. The elves were treated as heretics and barbarians, marked as targets slavers could "legally" capture and sell off for coin. I cared little for religion, but even I believed people should be free to worship anyone or anything they desired.
Not that the Arachnea was weak enough to depend on any gods, of course.
The only one the Swarm worshipped was their queen. For their queen, they would offer up their lives or kill virtually any target. The Arachnea's Swarm didn't need the forgiveness of some god. Their queen's forgiveness was all they required, and their actions were always dictated by her will through the collective consciousness.
For the time being, it didn't seem like I'd have to worry about the possibility of the Swarm revolting against me.
"All right, time for the next stop on our shopping trip. And this is important," I said, which prompted the man under my control to drive the carriage to our next destination.
And that destination was...
"Meat! Cheap, fresh meat! Get the highest quality meat here!" Yes, we had come to the butcher.
You see, my plan B was as follows: I'd sell clothes made by my Worker Swarms and use it to buy meat. It was the most peaceful and most boring expansion plan in the history of expansion plans. The Swarm seemed to approve of it, though, as there was no conflict in the collective consciousness.
Knowing that they were fine with my idea was a huge relief. I wasn't sure what I would have done if they had started indiscriminately attacking random people. This was one obstacle out of the way for my peaceful expansion policy.
There were other potential obstacles, however. For example, the slavers' leader could be arrested by the town's law enforcement for his social status,
or we could be barred from entering Leen. Another was the possibility of not being able to sell the clothes, or only being able to sell them off for cheap.
Lastly, the Swarm could deny my passive approach and rebel, then haphazardly attack the surrounding region. Looking back on it, I probably shouldn't have worried about that, though.
The queen was the core of the colony, and the colony couldn't oppose the queen's will. The Swarm would remain endlessly loyal to the queen... that is,
to me. I could say that with confidence now, but that didn't mean I was going to throw caution to the wind. I still feared I might end up somehow earning their ire.
But it would do for the time being. They're loyal to me for now, at least.
Now then.
"Give... meat," said the slaver, hopping down from the carriage.
"Aye, friend. What are you looking for?" "As much meat as this can buy. All of it." He plopped the sack of 30,000 floria he'd received earlier on the counter.
The butcher looked puzzled.
"Are you holding a feast or somethin', mister?" "Does it... matter? Give me... meat." It certainly was a feast in a manner of speaking, as the meat would be positively gobbled up. But mentioning our true motives here was probably a bad idea.
"Erm, I'm not so sure I can give you your money's worth..." "Unprocessed meat will do too." What we were doing was effectively the same as walking up to the neighborhood butcher and dropping fat stacks of cash on his counter,
demanding everything he had. It was a pretty looney idea, and I wouldn't have been surprised if the plan blew up in my face right then and there.
"Even with the unprocessed meat thrown in, it's only fifteen thousand floria," the butcher said, still baffled. "If you need that much meat, you'll have to hit up other stores too." I kind of felt bad for the guy.
"I will buy it all for fifteen thousand, then." "All right. I'll get it ready, so just gimme a few." It was another compromise, but I didn't really have any other options. I'd spend 15,000 here, and the other 15,000 elsewhere.
"Here you go, fifteen thousand floria worth of meat." The butcher loaded a crate full of meat onto the counter. "You didn't specify what kind of meat you wanted, so I put in all kinds." It was a lot of meat. And I was a veritable carnivore. Hamburg steaks,
grilled meat, beef stew, you name it-meat was my soul food, but eating this much would definitely make me get fat.
Also, there was no way of keeping it fresh all the way back to base. Left with no choice, I bid my dreams of steaks and burgers a tearful farewell. The burgers Mom made really were the best, though.
"Fifteen thousand floria." The slaver handed the money over to the butcher.
"Thank you for your patronage. You enjoy your feast, mister." Oh, we will. It's going to be a lovely banquet.
We went on to a few other butchers, spending our remaining 15,000 floria on more meat as well as some bedding and furniture to make my living space a touch more hospitable.
The Worker Swarms could produce sheets that were softer than silk, but making a comfortable bed was beyond their abilities. All they could manage was to furnish my simple bed with straw. But starting today, I would finally be able to sleep in a comfy bed again.
"Phew..."
After traveling through an unfamiliar town and haggling prices, I was left feeling a little tired.
"That's enough for today. Buying too much would make us look suspicious... though it might be too late for that." With that, we turned our carriage back toward the Arachnea's base. That was the end of that day. At least, it should have been.