Chapter 3, Part 1

Philip woke up in a great mood. He spent some time laying in bed, engaging in a mix of daydreaming and going over his schedule for the day. It really had been a great year for him. The gamble he made to forge close ties with the Sorcerer Kingdom had paid off more than even he hoped.

The loss of men from the massacre at the Katze Plains resulted in a lackluster harvest which led to near-instant food shortages. Combined with the devastation wrought earlier by Jaldabaoth on the warehouses of the capital, there were no extra supplies for the crown to distribute. The nearby countries were mostly facing their own issues, and it looked like famine would hit the Kingdom hard.

That’s when Philip and his faction made their move. The Sorcerer Kingdom would trade grain and other foodstuffs with Philip, who would then distribute it among the nobles in his faction, who would then sell it. This way not only did all those involved made a good deal of gold, but the faction Philip had established just months earlier saw an unprecedented rise in power and influence.

In fact, my faction is as powerful, no, even more so than the other two factions combined! Philip thought excitedly as he laid in bed. But what should my next move be? Should I marry Princess Renner, and then look for a way to get rid of King Zanack, so I can become the ruler of this kingdom? Or should I marry Albedo-sama directly?

His thoughts having shifted to the gorgeous female, Philip felt a hint of annoyance. Albedo insisted that he and the nobles he dealt with sell the grain and other foodstuffs at an affordable price. Granted, it was still highly profitable, and he now had a large, well-furnished estate in the capital. But, he could have made so much more if only he could jack up the prices.

That just goes to show that even though Albedo-sama is an amazing woman, she is still lacking in her understanding of economic opportunity, compared to me. Philip thought, a self-indulgent smile creeping across his face. After once again coming to the conclusion that he was a genius, he decided to get up.

He put on a white shirt, brown trousers made out of a soft, high-quality textile, and brown, leather shoes, which were as expensive as they were impractical to wear. Then again, he wasn’t going to hunt or work in the field, for a powerful figure like him, the appearance was what mattered.

Philip left his bedroom, the passage to the stairs leading to the first floor had a lavish rug covering the floor, while numerous paintings hung from the walls. He didn’t know anything about art, nor cared for it, however, Hilma, the landlady, who had helped him furnish this place had assured him that these paintings were of adequate quality for someone of his stature. Their cost certainly reflected that.

His mind once again turning to finances made Philip grimace. The estate, the maids, the carriage and driver, the furnishings, all of these expenses had eaten most of the gold he had made. The Kingdom’s situation would eventually come under control, so it was imperative for him to make as much money as he could, while it lasted.

Hmm, I should definitely talk to Hilma, Philip thought as he descended the stairs.

“Ginny! Is the breakfast ready?” He yelled into the kitchen.

A cute girl, in a maid uniform, jumped out of the kitchen and bowed, somewhat clumsily.

“Breakfast is ready, Philip-sama,” she said.

“Serve it, I’ll be there in a moment.”

The maid left, while Philip looked at the retreating figure. Ginny was around eighteen, with shoulder-length black hair and a cute face. Philip wanted very much to bring her into his bedroom, slowly undress her and then… Alas, he couldn’t do that.

Hilma had explained to him that if he developed a reputation of a skirt-chaser, then his chances of marrying someone important, like Princess Renner, would be much lower. It didn’t matter if the husband cheated or not, but the appearance had to be pristine. After thinking about it, he had to agree.

Of course, as a young man he still had his urges, luckily his benefactor had come through once again. She brought him to a certain place in the capital, where his physical needs could be discreetly satisfied. Because of that, he was able to restrain himself when it came to interactions with his, predominantly young and good looking, servants.

Philip walked into his office and checked the schedule for the day.

“Hmm, a meeting with some fool at eleven, a gathering of nobles and the King, to discuss the latest news, at two. I should also check with my traders to make sure we’re ordering what we need from the Sorcerer Kingdom. More importantly, I need to talk to Hilma,” he said while looking at his daily planner.

He hummed a song while checking the schedule for the next few days, before closing the book.

“And I should meet with Hilma today, there is no time later in the week.”

Having come to this conclusion he left his study room and walked to the dining room, where Ginny had already placed the breakfast on the table. A delicious-smelling omelette, a small mountain of pancakes with strawberry jam, a basket of various fruits and a jug of orange juice.

Ah, now this is eating! Not like what I had to endure growing up. Here’s to my good fortune! Philip mentally cheered as he drank a mouthful of orange juice.

He made small talk to Ginny while eating. Predictably the topic was the surprising move by the Slane Theocracy to free the elven slaves. It was a huge shock to the Theocracy, both economically and culturally. While elves and humans had friendly relations at one point, the Theocracy had been at war with the elves for many years, and their citizens had learned to see elves as creatures lower than humans. It was a huge undertaking to undo such attitude. Rumors claimed that the Theocracy was doing all it could to keep its citizens appeased. Which was undoubtedly hard, the elf situation side, the Theocracy now bordered a kingdom ruled by the undead king. Such a thing had never happened before, and the citizens were already calling for a crusade against the blasphemous nation.

Philip cared little for such rumors though. He got excited at first, thinking he could make even more gold by trading grain to the Theocracy. However, his hopes were dashed – the Sorcerer Kingdom had directly compensated the Theocracy for the freed slaves via a large amount of grain. With no opportunity to profit, Philip put the whole thing out of his mind.

After eating his fill, and enjoying the conversation with the young woman, Philip left the dining room and retreated to his study room, there was still some time before his eleven o’clock meeting. He penned a letter to Hilma and had Ginny deliver it. He spent the rest of the time thinking about what he was going to say to the landlady.

Time passed quickly, there was a knock on the door and another maid informed Philip that his eleven o’clock visitor was here. Philip noted that it was still two minutes before eleven. He smiled, at least this fool knows better than to show up late.

“Bring him here,” he told the maid.

A bit later the door opened again and the visitor walked in. He was a short man in his mid-thirties, short, straw-like brown hair, small, biddy eyes and a stream of sweat which constantly ran down his face. Philip felt disgusted at such a sight. Still, he matched the visitor’s fake smile with one of his own.

“My name is Morion Faulis Lorkat. It’s such a great honor to finally meet you, Philip-sama! Here’s an introduction letter from Samuel-sama,” the man introduced himself while handing Philip a letter of introduction.

Samuel Elke Fenolio, was a second son of the Fenolio – a mid-tier noble house. He became the head of the family after his elder brother got killed during the Jaldabaoth invasion of the capital. However, it wasn’t until he joined Philip that he came to prominence. His current position would be that of a second in command of Philip’s faction of nobles.

Philip, naturally, considered all of these other nobles as little more than leeches, who were just riding his coattails. Still, appearances had to be maintained and the old saying “there is strength in numbers,” rang true. As such Philip had to play along. He looked through the letter, which told him that Morion was the third son of his house, and had only recently become the head of it after his two older brothers perished.

As a new noble, Morion wanted to change the course of the Kingdom, and so he naturally wanted to join the new noble faction. He had therefore reached out to Samuel, asking him for a letter of introduction, which Samuel supplied, basing his decision on the favorable impression that Morion made on him.

Philip expanded a lot of effort not to laugh at the letter. Reading between the lines it was obvious that Morion was a greedy bastard, after becoming the head of his house, he immediately sought to make a quick buck, which was obviously joining in on the monopoly of trading grain, which Philip’s faction held. As for the letter of introduction, it couldn’t be more obvious that Samuel was simply bribed to write one.

Philip sighed, dealing with this morons is an unavoidable step in my rise to power, but I really don’t want to do it. I need to do something that will propel me beyond this point, to where dealing with such fools will no longer be my responsibility. And the key to that is Albedo and the Sorcerer Kingdom!

He realized that he was still staring at the letter. After coughing twice, he looked at Morion.

“Based on this letter I see no reason to refuse your request to join my faction,” Philip informed his visitor. “I will speak to Samuel about including you in our foodstuffs trades. You can finalize the details with him.”

“Thank you so much, Philip-sama. You will not be disappointed by the contribution I will make to our cause!” Morion exclaimed with a wide smile on his face.

“I look forward to your efforts,” Philip replied.

Morion’s smile this time was real. However, as he looked at the door behind which his visitor disappeared, Philip could only feel doubt as to the man’s claims of contributing anything.

“Ah, truthfully, the only one who has contributed to my efforts has been Hilda,” he couldn’t help but speak out loud.

Before he had a chance to complain about stupid third sons who thought too much of themselves, without doing anything worthwhile, there was a knock on the door – Ginny had returned.

“Hilma-sama said she can see you tonight, after the meetings of nobles with the king,” Ginny told him.

“Alright,” Philip replied after clapping his hands together. “I am heading out,” he added.

The meeting between the nobles and the king was more than two hours away still. And since he would be meeting with Hilma afterward, he decided to use this time to check on his traders.

***

The time was a quarter till two, when a somewhat tired Philip had arrived at the throne room filled with nobles who talked about this and that. However, things were very different now compared to the first time he attended a gathering of nobles. His appearance was immediately noted, and quite a few nobles came over to greet him.

Samuel Elke Fenolio greeted him a bit later. As the second most prominent figure in their faction, it wouldn’t be proper if he came over right away. After exchanging some pleasantries he asked about Morion.

“That fellow? Yes, I have met him earlier today. I trust your judgment, so I am sure he’ll work hard to contribute to our efforts,” Philip told him with a brilliant smile.

“I appreciate your understanding. It’s great to know that the man that leads us is as selfless as he is smart,” Samuel nodded lightly.

“Then, what do you think of the recent news? With the Elf Kingdom becoming a part of the Sorcerer Kingdom, there should be quite a bit of movement between the two,” Philip said in an attempt to change the topic.

“But there is no direct route between the two. They either have to cross through the Kingdom or the Theocracy. I am sure this is giving the king quite a headache,” Samuel smiled.

Yes, more headache for the king is good. Still, there doesn’t seem an easy way for me to usurp the power of the Kingdom. Philip shook his head dejectedly. No matter how much power his faction amassed, it was just influence. Even marrying Princess Renner wouldn’t get him any closer to the throne.

The murmur of the nobles was interrupted when King Zanack walked in. He was crowned fairly recently, after his father, Ramposa III, had abdicated. The King was accompanied by a young man in his early twenties, by the name of Lemus Vitor. An open and honest face, a sturdy build and short green hair – the new Warrior Captain. Philip knew nothing about the man, except that he was chosen by Brain Unglaus, a formidable swordsman in his own right. King Zanack apparently agreed with the selection, and the man catapulted from a complete nobody to the lofty position of a Warrior Captain.

Being a commoner, he received even more scorn than Gazef Stronoff. However, the kid was much less tactful than the previous Warrior Captain, during his first introduction he had directly confronted the noble who scoffed at him, challenging the man to a duel to the death. The noble naturally declined, prompting Lemus to declare that some people are all talk, but are completely worthless when it comes to action. The noble turned bride red from anger, but couldn’t do anything.

The nobles, of course, continued to hate and scoff at him, but after the incident, it was done behind the man’s back. No one wanted to turn into a laughing stock after all.

The King sat on the throne and scanned the room. The situation seemed to be getting worse and worse. The royal and the noble factions lost a lot of their power, while the new faction was gaining strength daily. Although, finding the new Warrior Captain had added some weight to the royal faction – the nobles rarely engaged in open confrontations, but combat power was still important. However, it couldn’t change the balance of power in a meaningful way. With a heavy heart, Zanack began the meeting.

“I have gathered you all here today to discuss the matter of the Elf Kingdom and the events surrounding it becoming a part of the Sorcerer Kingdom,” he began.

“How could such a thing even happen?”

“Why did the elves join the undead?”

“How could the Theocracy free their slaves?!”

And other such exclamations filled the throne room. Zanack waved his hand calling for silence.

“We don’t what exactly transpired, though it’s apparent that military action was not involved. Regardless of how it happened, what matters is how it will affect us. I know some of you are worried that there is no direct pass that connects the Sorcerer Kingdom to the Elf Kingdom.”

“Yes, since that is the case, it’s very likely that the Sorcerer Kingdom will ask us to allow them free passage, between the two parts of their nation,” one of the nobles from the noble faction said.

“They could ask the Theocracy to pass through their land instead,” a supporter of the royal faction protested.

“The Theocracy had already freed the elves, do you honestly believe they would push for further concessions? It’s obvious they will ask us,” the noble faction supporter retorted.

“We can always decline! It’s our land, we are under no obligation to let anyone pass through it, much less duty-free,” the royal faction was adamant.

“Allowing them free passage would put those lands in danger of being annexed. But not allowing them to pass through could antagonize them. Can we afford to do so, given our food supplies?” Samuel added fuel to the fire.

“Pfft, I heard that the Sorcerer Kingdom will have to halt their supplies of grain to us since they had to provide so much of it to the Theocracy,” one of the royal faction nobles countered.

“Those rumors are unfounded, I had just talked to my traders, and the Sorcerer Kingdom is able to meet our needs without issue,” Philip waved his hand dismissively.

“And just how does the Sorcerer Kingdom produce so much grain? It must be cursed!”

“This again? The grain had been checked many times, there is nothing wrong with it. As to how they produce so much, that’s on them,” Philip shrugged his shoulders.

The fact that a small nation, that was really just one city and a dozen villages, was able to produce so much grain had spawned many rumors. Still, the grain was good, and Philip didn’t care about anything else. In the end, the Kingdom was in no position to turn down the food from the Sorcerer Kingdom, simply because of some rumors.

The nobles of the other two factions scoffed at him, but there was nothing they could say. The meeting continued for over an hour, with the noble and royal factions trying to push Philip’s faction off of its dominant position. In the end, this meeting ended like most such meetings, lots of talk without any actionable plans. Though it was hard to blame Zanack for it, after all, what silver bullet could he invent given the overall political circumstances the Kingdom was in?

“That poor prick,” Philip thought while he rode the carriage to Hilma’s estate.

There was one good thing that came out of this meeting though – it helped Philip realize what his future step should be. There was no point in trying to become the king of the Re-Estize Kingdom. For all his supposed power, the king still had to deal with all these brainless morons. Just like Philip had to.

No, what he needed to do was attain a greater power. A power that would allow him to do what he wanted. Without worrying about alliances and factions. Without having to tolerate those who only wished to leech off of him. Without having to pretend to be someone he’s not.

He needed the power of the Sorcerer King.

 

Previous | Next