V1CE: Online

Power and Faith

Alora knocked on Bae's door, opening it before her trainer could reply. She had grown bolder since being taken under the demon's wings. Bae was pacing in her study, looking over the notes she had been brought from All-In. In the race for apprentices, she was in a distant third with Alora. The woman managed to gain a few levels in the Administrator class, but both Lorka and Merrik were ahead.

Though they had never sanctioned it as a competition, Bae viewed it as such. Her sharp teeth grinded together in frustration. Turning to Alora, she quickly reset her demeanor, hiding the emotions that were leaking out from her face.

"Mistress Bae, is everything alright?" Alora asked, setting a pile of papers onto the table in the middle of the room. "You seem flustered."

"It's nothing my dear. I have a task for you, however. Get me a map of the kingdom, quickly."

Alora rushed to the cabinets, pulling out the latest maps from the previous year. It didn't indicate the new territory of Emberdale, which was held at All-In's manor, but it at least listed the towns surrounding the city. She laid it out on the table, and Bae quickly scanned over it.

"This town, right here," Bae announced, tapping a fingernail against the map. "What can you tell me regarding their trade?"

"That would be Cendra. It is a port town that mainly deals in weapons manufacturing for the kingdom. Several iron mines and dwarves live in the area, and they provide crude weapons for the different nobles and their private armies."

Bae raised an eyebrow. "Did the previous Duke have any of these contracts?"

"He did, milady. Due to your contract, those holdings have now been passed to Governor All-In. However, some of the local magistrates have been reluctant to send their products, and are instead holding them until the documents from the King have been produced. In fact, this is true for almost all towns that fall under All-In's territorial contract."

Bae understood the issue. Such a drastic change gives many of the towns autonomy while the transition occurs. She suspected that the local leaders have been selling the supplies to rival nobles while they can, and pocketing the money in the hopes that delays will keep prying eyes away from their dealings. All-In was clever enough to know this, but his penchant for unnecessary risks kept him from making a move. She laughed to herself knowing he probably flipped a coin to decide.

"I have a job for you," Bae explained, causing the human to pull out her notebook. "You will take a small contingent of soldiers from the casino and farms, a maximum of twenty, and make your way through the territory. I want these supplies and their shipments back on track immediately."

It was a gamble of her own, but she had no other way of fast-tracking the woman's leveling. Since her new class was entirely passive, she needed to quickly pile on a multitude of administrative problems onto her. The process of structuring the new territory would likely overburden the young woman, but it was the only method available. Bae was determined to have her own pawn on the board. Her greatest fear was the differing views between the three Testers regarding how the territory should be run.

Wreckt viewed in a theocratic style, and since All-In came from a similar religious background, the lizardman was laying out his case for the matter. The explosive growth of Merrik meant that an army of faith could form under both Testers' leaderships. All-In was hesitant on the matter, and she knew why; sinners would vanish. The Rat-King fed off their vanity and greed, and every convert to the Mormon faith meant less opportunities to experience his own vices. 

Finally, there was her own preference, one of mercantilism. She knew money was power, but gambling it away was too easy and quick. It was the slow twist of the knife through debt that she craved. It's why she relished in her new position, already setting into motion the goal of monopolizing key trade sectors in the kingdom. Her eventual goal was seceding from the kingdom as a whole, and having Emberdale become a nation in its own right. That was decades away, however.