by Han Yang
I couldn’t really blame them for not stopping the Baroness from coming down to see me. Sure, she had been injured, but she still had as much authority as I did over the venturebots in Norn. Taking that right away would be an abuse of my power, one I would never be willing to stoop to unless it was necessary.
“I couldn’t- I needed to -” Joanna drooped down in my arms as she took several ragged breaths to steady herself. “He isn’t what you think- He didn’t -”
“Didn’t what? Attack you?”
Duke stepped out of the cell for a few seconds before he returned with a chair. Though it didn’t look as comfortable as the one in my office, it would still do for Joanna’s sake. I lowered her into the seat carefully and kneeled beside her.
“He did, but- He didn’t want to-”
“What!?” I glanced back at the mumbling assassin. He had made an outright attempt on my life, that much was certain, but after that…
He had stopped.
I still didn’t regret my decision to incapacitate him at that time. Who knows when he would have broken out of the dazed state he had dropped into. Still, I couldn’t easily dismiss Joanna’s comments on a whim.
Duke’s arm had been smashed in a single blow, and the assassin clearly could have continued his strike onward to my skull, but he hadn’t.
“What do you mean by ‘he didn’t want to’?” I asked once I had managed to calm myself a little. Joanna, while weak, didn’t seem to be in any real danger from her injuries as she pushed herself upright in the chair.
“I was in Ginli’s room when he arrived. At first, he seemed threatening, but then his words changed.” She paused for a moment as she winced and gripped my hand tight. “He warned me to leave, to run, but I couldn’t escape without Ginli. Eventually, something in him seemed to break, and he attacked us -”
“How did you survive?” I fought to keep my cool as I imagined the awful scenes that would have played out in that room. The assassin was way too agile and powerful for me and Duke, never mind an unarmed and unprepared Joanna, alone in a room with an unconscious friend to protect.”
“Every time he swung at me, the strike stopped. He looked like he was trying to fight his body, but eventually, the attacks got wilder and harder to dodge.”
“Fought his body, huh?” I stroked Joanna’s hand and planted a kiss on her palm. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. You need to rest, and I won’t take no for an answer.”
“I will, but please-” Joanna looked up at the remains of the old man, then back to me. “He didn’t want to do it. Please, remember that.”
I waited as the Baroness was escorted back out of the room by her venturebot guardian squad. Duke remained silent as I paced back and forth, trying my best to make sense of everything that had just transpired.
The assassin had been told, or more likely programmed, to invade my manor. No specific targets set, more a list of priorities with me near the top, but even then he hadn’t fully taken the steps to finish off his job.
Joanna survived, Ginli was unharmed. Though Duke had lost an arm, that wouldn’t be too hard to replace.
And I… hadn’t even taken a scratch.
From the sheer power held within the assassin’s augmented body, we should have all been turned to mincemeat. A single strike from his overcharged steam blade would have been enough to cut Duke in half, never mind a relatively squishy human like me.
“Duke, can you wake him up?” I finally stopped walking around the cell after a few minutes of silent contemplation.
“Perhaps. The human mind is strong, even against adversity such as this.” He paused for a moment, as though he was considering his next words. “But there is a chance too much damage has been done. If that is the case, then he may not survive the awakening process.”
“If that is how it has to be, sure.” I clenched my fist, hard enough for my fingers to bite into the palm and took a deep breath. “Do it. And get yourself fixed up, please. You matter to us too, you know.”
“I- Thank you, Baron Lord.” Duke bowed awkwardly as I moved back to the cell door. “As soon as we receive any updates of note, I will advise you instantly.”
I nodded and stepped out into the corridor. Several venturebots stood guard outside of the cell, just in case the worst happened, and the monstrous old man attempted a daring escape. Of course, that would need him to have legs to run and arms to open the doors in his way,
The war seemed more real than it had ever done before. Sure, I had gone out with the scouting parties to ambush the reinforcements for the forces in the wilds, but now we had been attacked in my own city.
With Duke’s restructuring of the patrol squads, the chance of another infiltration had decreased dramatically, but that didn’t mean it would not happen again. No one had lost their lives, but the damage we had taken from this one invasion was enough for me to grind my teeth in frustration.
The venturebot squads who had run into the old assassin would be recycled, but they had still valiantly done what they could to defend our home. Though it might be seen as a peculiar way of thinking, I liked to treat every bot under my command as a member of the extended family.
Maybe it was thanks to my extended exposure to Duke and his bizarrely advanced ways, but it wasn’t like I could just change the way I thought on a dime.
Portin and Darden would pay for their crimes, and I would be the one holding the sword to their necks when the time came for them to compensate for all the damage they’d done.
And I didn’t feel in a forgiving mood in the slightest.
Chapter 15
The rest of the day passed with relative ease. I spent most of my time looking over the suggestions Corvo had proposed for the city’s defenses.
He thanked me profusely for the watch towers, along with the other defensive measures I had planned. The moat would be filled with water first and, after it had been completed, he then planned to invite the crocs and other beasts into the waters.
What was once seen as a pest infestation would quickly become a tool to defend the city. Efficient use of resources if I do say so myself.
The trap laying work continued. Corvo had assigned his own squads of human workers to assist the venturebots, and the tasks had been shared out equally between each side. Sure, the forces set against us might hear hints of what we were planning, but it wasn’t like we could easily hide our preparations.
At worst, they would assume we were floundering around in a panic.
The venturebots had been ordered to make several of their preparations easy to see, even from a distance, while the rest were worked on in the background. Though the simplest of the lot would be planned for by our enemies, I had high hopes they would still run afoul of some of our more sinister plots and schemes.
I allowed the grizzled old general to take over the final steps of our defensive preparations. Though he had come to Norn as an outright spy from Hexpa, the fact he had revealed his identity and promised himself to me as a loyal follower changed the situation significantly.
If Hexpa had been the one to declare war, then maybe I’d have treated him differently. I trusted him to do what he could for Norn but forcing him to decide between his new home and his old one wouldn’t end well for either side.
At best, he would resent me for turning him against his old friends and allies, and at worst…
He would sabotage our defense and basically hand the keys of my city over to our enemies.
I did hope that eventually I could fully trust him as I did the others in my inner circle, but that would take time. The issue was that I didn’t fully trust Hexpa to stay aloof in our conflicts forever. Eventually, when the time was right, I fully expected them to jump out to kick us while we were down.
Langshire, on the other hand, was an unknown element.
I trusted that Charlie wanted an alliance with Norn, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe his motives were pure in the slightest. This was the man who had betrayed his sworn mast
er and allowed himself to become the lapdog for the one who had taken her down like a snake in the grass.
Sure, he had let us go following the coup, but he had also made it clear that the decision to cut us loose hadn’t been his own. I had understood his logic at the time, but that didn’t make the pill any easier to swallow.
But, as the day’s end drew closer, I stepped out onto the balcony of my manor as I prepared for the final moment of peace for the next week.
Icy gusts of wind blasted against my face as I looked out across my city. Norn, while not technically flourishing, had grown in both size and scale significantly since my take over as the dictator slash Baron Lord.
I gave the statistics a quick once over, just to see how far I had come before the inevitable sharp decline began.
Norn Statistics:
Citizens: 539 + 6
Visitors: 26
City Debt: 0 cubes of hydrox.
Citizen behind on taxes: 0
Buildings behind on upkeep: 0
Buildings behind on taxes: 0
City projects slated for downgrade: 0
Upgrades in progress: 2
Complaints in progress: 7
Immigrants this month: 138
Emigrants this month: 10
Rating: 100
Walls: 3
Docks: 3
Taxes: 5% on residents
There were a few areas I fully expected to see change wildly in the next few minutes.
Emigrations would explode as I bled the citizens we had built up over the last few weeks and months. Complaints would also increase as anyone without the capacity to leave raised their concerns, either to request we surrender, or to demand financial assistance in escaping the doomed city.
The visitor line annoyed me. Some might be tourists, sure, but I knew that Duke had captured several groups of spies and informants. The larger my city grew, the higher the chance that others would see it as a juicy target ripe for the picking.
Even with the danger of the wild lands rising to swallow us whole, human nature couldn’t be kept in check that easily.
Greed, gluttony, envy. The deadly sins were true to their names as their siren call led the constant cycle of war and death back and forth across the planet.
But those pessimistic thoughts would have to wait. I took a deep breath and set my shoulders as the final few seconds ticked by.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
A crackle of energy filled the air as a bluish hue shimmered into view above the city. For a moment I half hoped the two cities had changed their minds at the last moment, but then a loud, echoing voice rang out from the heavens far above.
Residents of Norn. The city of Portin has declared war upon you. Any who remain after one week will be classified as active participants. May the grace of Gearnix shine down upon you.
…
Residents of Norn. The city of Darden has declared war upon you. Any who remain after one week will be classified as active participants. May the grace of Gearnix shine down upon you.
I waited with bated breath, even though I knew the announcements were over. The chill air continued to batter my body as the harsh reality of my situation settled in.
I fully planned to give them the fight of their lives, but even I wasn’t so stupid as to believe the war would be an easy victory.
“Bradley.”
I turned to face Joanna as she stepped out onto the balcony behind me. She had mostly recovered after her run in with the old assassin, but she still did not yet seem back to her usual self.
To be fair, I likely looked like shit after the announcements we had both heard.
“Hey. Good to see you’re up and about.” I smiled as Joanna pushed herself under my arm. “Did the doctor say you were ready to leave your room?”
“Well, no, not exactly,” Joanna grumbled to herself as wrapped an arm around me and pulled herself closer to my chest. “But I couldn’t stay cooped up in there knowing what was about to happen.”
We both fell silent for a moment as we stared out across the snow swept city before us. Though I had half expected riots in the streets and an angry mob at my gate, Norn seemed just as quiet and relaxed as it had ever been.
“Are ya okay?” Joanna looked up into my eyes as she asked the question that we both knew needed to be asked.
“I- I’m fine, actually.” I chuckled and shook my head as I tried to pull my feelings together. “I thought it would be worse than it is. I suppose having a week to prepare kinda, well, numbed me to it, in a weird way.”
“What about the stats page?”
I shrugged and pulled up Norn’s details so we could both see the results of the announcement. The declaration of war had happened at the same moment the page ticked over to a new month, so the effects were clear to see.
Though I didn’t really expect what popped up before my eyes.
Norn Statistics:
Citizens: 501 +4
Visitors: 22
City Debt: 0 cubes of hydrox.
Citizen behind on taxes: 0
Buildings behind on upkeep: 0
Buildings behind on taxes: 0
City projects slated for downgrade: 0
Upgrades in progress: 2
Complaints in progress: 9
Immigrants this month: 12
Emigrants this month: 50
Rating: 100
Walls: 3
Docks: 3
Taxes: 5% on residents
Sure, we had lost fifty citizens in one fell swoop, but twelve had decided to join our ranks. Some of those might cancel their plans once the rumors got out, but for the time being, we were still above five hundred in total.
I’d only received two complaints, and neither of them were in relation to the war itself. One was from the crotchety old man who ran the inn requesting an increase in trading runs for alcohol, whilst the other was from an old couple who wanted me to… get rid of winter?
“I- What?” I glanced at Joanna for some support, but she merely giggled and shrugged her shoulders. “Are they insane? Do they not understand the threat we’re under right now?”
“Remember what they were like when you first arrived?” Joanna pushed herself back enough so she could stare directly into my eyes. “What did they say to you when they described their home?”
“They knew it was dying, and they still -” I paused for a moment as the memories of my first visit to Norn came rushing back. “They didn’t want to leave, no matter what…”
“And it seems like that spirit has spread.” Joanna gave me a wide smile as she gestured toward the city below us. “They care about Norn, and they know you won’t leave them high and dry. That’s enough for them to believe in you. Maybe you should believe in yourself, too.”
The loyalty of my citizens caught me off guard a little as I tried to understand why they thought so highly of me. Sure, I had given Norn a chance when no one else would, I had negotiated a trade deal with one of the major commercial hubs, never mind the alliance we had formed with Langshire, a city well known for its stinginess when it came to contracts…
Well, I did understand their logic, a little.
But the belief of my citizens only made my drive all the stronger. We would weather the storm of Portin and Darden’s war and, after their forces were wiped out, I would find a way to take my revenge on the cowardly duo.
The Moonlit Goddess was a wonderful little gadget, but there was no way I could pull off a stunt like the Langshire raid again without facing severe consequences. The rumors of how I had dropped into the Tycoon’s mansion would have spread, along with the fact we had used the tiny vehicle to fly away in full view of the crowd atop the half-finished blimp tower…
Yeah, everyone would know about our ace in the hole, though it was likely they didn’t yet understand just how powerful the Moonlit Goddess could be.
Still, the watch towers were completed, our la
yered traps and other defenses would be completed well in advance of the ‘surprise’ assault, and Duke had put plans into motion to counter any attempts to land blimp drops directly in the city.
I still wanted him to explain what those warehouse plots were, exactly. They were related to the town’s defense and, given the now running clock we faced, it wouldn’t be possible for me to let the mystery go unanswered any longer.
The outer defenses were as strong as they could be, given the circumstances. I couldn’t do much more to push their level any higher, so that left one thing to improve.
Myself.
“I need to train.” I pulled Joanna into a rough hug once more as I spoke gently, but firmly. “There’s no way I’ll hide away while others fight and die to protect the city.”
“Exactly as I would have expected from you, my cute Baron Lord.” Joanna pulled me down for a quick, hot kiss before she gave me a cheeky wink. “Don’t think you can leave me behind, though. We’ll show them what we’re made of… together!”
Chapter 16
Joanna’s face was a view to behold once we had moved back into the relative comfort of my office so I could show her my readiness checker statistics.
Shock, anger, confusion. Various emotions fought for dominance as she double and triple checked the numbers laid out before her again and again. She even tested with a spare checker, just to make sure I wasn’t pulling some sort of trick on her, then she gave her own stats a once over, just in case.
Name: Joana +1
Origin City: Korvi
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Resident City: Norn - Baroness Lord
Rating: 12.5
Strength: 9
Endurance: 11
Perception: 19
Burst: 13
Luck: 29
Reflex: 13
Charisma: 17
Charge: 86%
Healing: 3
Intelligence: 16
Melee Combat: 9
Crafting: 1.6
Aim: 17
Dexterity: 18
Steam-bot Mastery: 19