“If only he would have said such words,” she softly whispered, sighing a little. I couldn’t see any malice on her face. Just a sorrow at what had transpired in her life. A longing to be accepted by her father.
“Indeed. But the dead do not speak. It is the living who must take upon themselves the tasks of their fallen family. My brother never legitimized you. But I am here to make amends. I am here to grant you and your mother entrance into my family.”
“I’m not marrying you,” Avaline said sharply, though her breathing was a little anxious.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I won’t marry my uncle, it’s strange and depraved,” she replied, crossing her arms. “No matter how much you offer my mother.”
I quickly threw my hands up in protest. “Woah, woah, woah, I did not invite you for that! First and foremost, the Crown has outlawed any form of familial relations. Second, I have no intentions to marry my own niece for as you stated, it is simply too strange to even entertain.”
Avaline wrinkled her face. “But I thought the nobility of Velicia were composed of incestuous, inbred fools who slept around to gain power.”
“I don’t know what kind of sordid books you are reading, but none of that transpires here, I can assure you. Kin don’t marry. Ever.”
My niece visibly relaxed at that. She sank back into her chair and slid down a little, all of the stress and fear leaving her. “So, what does becoming a family member entail?”
“Not much. Just some paperwork and you’ll be issued an official birth certificate,” I said. “And then you’ll be members of the family. For good.”
Avaline narrowed her eyes. “I should hope you forgive me for being suspicious of your intentions here, dear uncle. My father, when he was around, always told me that everything in life’s a trade.”
A cynical viewpoint. But not one entirely unwarranted. “I won’t pull the wool over your eyes then, Avaline. The facts are fairly simple,” I said. “I’ve inherited this estate due to the loss of all my family. I need allies. And the only way to solidify alliances in this world is through marriage. Blood cannot fight blood, as per the laws of the land. So, in short, I need eligible people within my family. People who would be willing to well…marry on our nation’s behalf.”
Avaline’s eyebrow rose at that. “I see. So you want to marry me off?” Her voice wasn’t particularly swayed one way or the other. She seemed to be taking the information in. “So you mean…I can marry into the nobility?” There was a hint of awe in her voice now. Excitement even.
“That is the goal. I wish to expand our estate’s size and power. We need allies if we are to survive, for dark days have come to the Blake household. I am inviting you into this household, but with the understanding that you must serve for our common good, as we all must serve.”
“And so that service involves just getting married and having babies,” Avaline said with a sigh. Her eyes cast down at this, but she shrugged. “I suppose it is far better to do so in a noble household, in a big warm mansion than in a wretched fishing shack.”
“Oh, I’m not suggesting you settle down, my dear niece,” I said. “Quite the opposite, in fact whichever household you marry into will need to be pushed to support our cause. All alliances have obligations towards one another. You will be charged with garnering us resources, support and even more allies, all in our name. You will be our ambassador and our strategic asset.”
“Why put such faith in a mere peasant girl? Surely my uncle couldn’t have spoken so greatly of me,” Avaline asked. She was having trouble keeping a straight face, for the charge I had given to her had captured her imagination greatly. The young woman was eager, sitting up in excitement, ready to engage in this thrilling new role. Only her skepticism towards my benevolence kept her from agreeing so heartily.
“I am afraid that the truth isn’t very flattering, Avaline. A series of brutal assassinations cut short the life of my living relatives, save for you and my little sister,” I explained. “I can’t afford to be discerning in who I send out to grow our house alliances. You could be competent or a complete lunatic for all I know. I don’t really have the luxury to choose my representatives.”
Avaline brought her thumb up to her mouth and began to chew on her nail, a thoroughly unladylike gesture. There were certainly some rough edges that would need to be smoothed out. Hopefully the maids of the house could help her out a little, teach her the customs and habits of the upper class.
“Seems I have a bit of a bargaining chip in my hands,” she mused as she chewed. “Because you’ve made it clear I’m your ticket to making the estate nice and strong.”
I shrugged and swept my hands open wide. “Ask what you will. I wouldn’t expect you to be without demands for this arrangement.”
“First, my mother gets a nice room here. The biggest one available, with one of those fancy clawed tubs and a scrubbing girl to attend to her when she bathes. Hell, I want her to have her own personal servant at all times!”
I smiled at that. Her first request was to see her mother taken care of. A good sign of one who cared for her family. “Of course.”
“And second, I want some silver in my pocket. I hear you rich folks have allowances or whatever. So give me an allowance. At least two silver a week!”
Her understanding of wealth was quite meager if she thought two silver was good money. “Done.”
“And er…” she paused, clearly having run out of ideas. She fidgeted for a moment, trying to figure something out. No doubt all of her regular desires, food, shelter and clothing would be taken care of by her betrothed. “I don’t know. But you owe me. Take care of my mother, pay me some silver and a favor. That sounds more than fair.”
“Of course, my lady,” I said. “That is more than fair.”
“It’s settled then. I will join this family and claim my birthright. When will I get to meet my suitor?”
“You assume I already have someone?”
“Of course, elsewise you wouldn’t be in such a hurry to get this over with.”
She was certainly perceptive. Before I could say another word, a warning alarm sounded off in my head, causing me to flinch. “What in blazes?” I mumbled as the invisible horns sounded beside my ears. I opened up the Grid to see that once again I was being invaded, by none other than Eustace Frankinson.
“Damn it!” I swore, pounding my fist on the table.
“What’s the matter, sir?” Avaline asked, recoiling from my sudden shout.
“Nothing. Come, my dear niece, your suitor should actually be at the Vineyard momentarily.”
Chapter 23
“It moves on its own!” my niece shouted, giddy as a child, her head stuck out the window, trying to grasp the mechanical marvel that was driving us forward.
“Indeed it does,” I said. That’s right, Sigmund had taken a regular horse and buggy, for long trips to peasant villages in luxury vehicles often led to even longer trips back home on foot. Avaline had never seen such a vehicle before.
“Fantastical. Is this the work of a wizard?”
“We prefer the term alchemist now. Men and women of science work very hard to achieve such feats. Wizards are from the days of old, mad mutterers who merely made guesses as to how the sciences of mysticism worked.”
“Our village has a witch. A nice woman who heals us, fixes the cows and blesses the fish so they reproduce aplenty,” Avaline replied. “Hardly a mad mutterer.”
“Speaking of mad…” I said, trailing off as our carriage rolled to a stop. At the front of the Vineyard was none other than Eustace Frankinson and his grandson, Nelson. The poor lad wore an extra exasperated look on his face, but I knew he was helpless to stop the whims of his patriarch. The old man was going to get his way, no matter what.
“Is that old man to be my husband?” Avaline asked.
“The one next to him is your suitor. Nelson Frankinson. The old man is why he is unmarried. No woman can
stand the Colonel,” I explained.
“He’s not bad looking at all. And look! He has all of his fingers!”
“W-what?” I asked, turning to face the woman. The wry grin on her face indicated that this was quite a jest and I chuckled. “Ah, I see. You’re joking.”
“Of course. The witch grows back any fingers we lose to the cruel Gantafish,” she said as she fumbled to get the door open.
“A lady doesn’t open her own door,” the maid sitting opposite of us instructed. Sannah was to be Avaline’s attendant, as well as her educator, teaching her the ways of the aristocracy. “She waits for a servant or a suitor to open the door for her.”
“That takes too long,” Avaline said as she quickly shoved the door open once she found the handle. “This way’s better.”
The attendant maid sighed deeply and shot a look at me that pleaded for reassignment. I helplessly shrugged. Maid assignments were not my department.
“So you think you can beat me on a technicality, do you?” the old man crooned as I climbed out of my own seat, stretching from the cramped compartment. Modern marvels aside, the horseless carriage model we had bought had very little leg room.
“Colonel, it’s almost midnight,” I said. “Couldn’t you have attacked in the morning? Maybe some time after breakfast.”
My nonchalance caused the old man’s face to turn bright red. The shimmering lights from the gas lamps surrounding us gave him a bit of a sinister shadow. “How dare you treat this like it’s nothing more than a mere inconvenience! You got lucky last time! Lucky, that’s it! You cheated and took advantage of a technicality. You didn’t beat me through skill alone. And tonight, I’m going to take your Vineyard. Then? Then I’m going to burn it down. Hah! How do you like that?” Eustace shouted.
“Grandfather, please, your heart…” Nelson moaned.
“My heart’s just fine!” the old man said. “Now then, are you ready to face me?” He paused and looked at the young woman beside me. “Who are you?”
“This is Avaline Blake,” I said. “My niece. She recently moved into my estate and wished to accompany me.”
“Hi,” she said, breaking all sense of decorum and waving at them.
“Pleased to meet you, Missy. You’re going to be the firsthand witness to your uncle’s hubris. He beat me in a technicality last battle and refused to call it a draw.”
“What is he saying?” Avaline whispered to me. I had tried to explain the game to her but, without a visual, it was pretty hard to understand.
“He’s just being a stubborn old b—” I choked on the word ‘bastard’ before I could say it. “Pain in the butt,” I quickly corrected.
The increasingly familiar sound of lightning cracking greeted us as the Judge appeared. “Let’s get this over with,” he grumbled as he looked at us from his tower. The tall platform seemed to create a great light that illuminated the entire area as if it were sundown instead of the middle of the night.
“Has either party reached an agreement?” the Judge asked.
I looked at the old man. “You don’t have to do this,” I said. “I’d much rather we get along.”
“And I’d rather teach you a lesson.”
“Give me a few minutes to shore up my defenses?” I asked. “Since you want to prove your superiority, it would only be fair to face me in my prime.”
Those flattering words were enough to get Eustace to nod in agreement. “Very well. Five minutes. Then I shall invade without mercy. You shouldn’t have brought your niece along. It will be a shame for her to see you cry as I burn your Vineyard to the ground.”
“Grandfather, please!” Nelson chided as I activated the Grid, quickly zooming into the combat zone. My maze had repaired itself; the great barricade sea was fully replenished. I noticed that every box now shimmered in the light, the bronze lining reflecting the otherworldly hue emanating from the Judge’s stand.
My gut told me that the old man was planning on a chaos strategy for his first attack. He would send as many of those little Ignition Golems as possible. But what he didn’t know was that my barricades were now explosion-resistant. That meant his strategy would fail pretty spectacularly. I didn’t know how many hits a barricade could take now, but I had enough to ensure the enemy wouldn’t be able to take them all down.
I had some mana crystals to work with here, as well as insight into my enemy’s disposition. If he were going to try and take out my barricades, perhaps I should put some Shield Golems in the way. They were resistant to pretty much all damage and if placed right at the front of the maze, in place of two crates, the enemy bombers would try and crash into them.
Two Shield Golems in the front. 40 mana crystals used out of 200. Should I spend them all? Or maybe wait for the next round to put offensive units down, to catch him off-guard? If that were the case, I should solidify my defense strategy here.
My eyes turned to the Wrench Golems. These small, monkey-like golems were fast, flexible and capable of repairing any building as long as it had 1 hit point left. Buying 3 would ensure that the barricades that took damage would be fixed up rather quickly. Perhaps even fast enough to keep them all standing, despite the waves of Ignition Golems.
I made my last purchases, placing the golems amidst the barricades. These little impish golems actually looked similar to Ignition Golems, though their skin was dark brown instead of bright red. They stood idly by, repair tools in hand. They were quick enough to scurry across the battlefield, so I figured placing them out of blast radius for starters would probably be the best move.
“Come on, that’s long enough,” Eustace grumbled.
“Grandfather, it’s been two minutes, let him work,” Nelson said. He sounded a little more nervous today. Perhaps the presence of my eligible young niece had caught his attention. No doubt the conversation about finding him a wife from my household was playing back loudly in his mind. I just hoped he would make a good impression on Avaline.
“Very well,” I said, exiting the Grid for a moment. “I am prepared. Thank you for the extra time.”
“Let’s get it on with then,” the old man gruffly shouted at the Judge. “We are prepared. No terms have been met.”
“Then let the fight commence!” the Judge boomed.
Chapter 24
The Grid lit up the entire area, almost as if it were daylight, allowing me to easily watch the enemy movements. The usual battle synopsis appeared in my vision.
Wave 1/3
Enemies Remaining: 25
Total Enemies: ????
The first group arrived at the entrance: five Ignition Golems. They made a beeline straight towards the first barricade they could find. Curiously enough, these little imps seemed to ignore my Shield Golems, moving instead towards building units. Explosions rocked my view as each imp either detonated upon reaching a barricade or from being struck by a ballista.
When the blasts finally cleared, I was pleased to see that all my barricades were still standing at half health! Already my Wrench Golems were atop the barricades, working in a wild frenzy to repair the damaged buildings with ease.
Five more Ignition Golems appeared. I noticed my opponent was unusually silent. Normally he’d chime in about something at this point. The golems collided into the same buildings as before, but thanks to the repairs, every barricade but one was let standing (albeit at like 3 hit points each!). Thankfully, the one destroyed barricade had another one behind it, so it was no big loss.
“Damn it all,” Eustace mumbled beneath his breath. I grinned at his words. I had rightly anticipated his strategy of merely doubling down on what worked last battle.
More Ignition Golems came barreling in, ten this time, and to their credit, they made quite a dent in the surrounding area. But it took almost three golems to take down a single barricade. Rebuilding one with my special ability completely rendered them useless, for they were all more or less forced to go to the nearest wooden crate.
An
d to cap off this invasion wave, you’ll never guess what units my opponent used to attack. That’s right, five more of those stupid little imps. My Wrench Golems worked overtime, too nimble to be struck by the explosions, always dodging out of the way at the last minute. By the end of the first round, the enemy force had barely gotten past the halfway marker of sector one. Rows upon rows of barricades still blocked the path to the bridge.
The wave ended and the break began. But rather than tend to my units, I decided to make a calculated play. Exiting the Grid, I looked at the old man who clearly had lost all of his nerve. “If I may have a moment, Colonel?” I asked.
Eustace sighed and turned to face me, a silver shimmer flashing across his eyes. Perhaps that was what it looked like when one exited the Grid. I’d have no idea, honestly. “What?” he asked with a deep sigh.
“I think you’ve made your point here. Why don’t we call it a draw and perhaps retire for the evening in my estate? A well-made brunch in the morning should soothe our frayed and agitated nerves, hmm?”
“You think I don’t know when I’m being patronized?” Eustace grumbled. “I hear that tone every Stardamned day of my life.
I looked squarely at the sour old man. “Don’t slap the generosity out of my extended hand, good sir.”
There was a silence for a moment. I waited for Eustace to begin shouting and rambling at me, but it was clear that he was tired. Perhaps it was the late hour of the night, or maybe the fact that his entire strategy had been upended almost instantly. Either way, it seemed as if he wore the world on his shoulders.
With an exasperated sigh, he sank his head low. “You’re right. I suppose if you want to call it a draw, I should have mercy on you.” And then, with a wry grin, he winked at me. “Judge!” he called. “We have reached an arrangement. Both sides are standing down.”
Gentleman's Wars: The Rules of Engagement: A Tower Defense LitRPG Series (The Great Game Book 1) Page 14