Polymath Redux – Buying power with money is a legitimate strategy
Chapter XXI
There are often two kinds of people in the world, those that are crazy and those that are not. Crazy people are both a hassle and a pain; immune to manipulation and scheming. They don’t value what they ought to value and always take business at their own pace without giving an ounce of consideration to what’s happening around them. So for the sake of any evil puppet masters’ sanity, it is better not to associate themselves with the clinically insane.
Then there are sane people; normal people, which are the majority of people and also the oasis of every evil mastermind’s crippling addiction to manipulation and scheming. Not only are they plentiful but negotiation with them are always accessible because they understand the same values and language. So while many people may say to watch out for crazy people, the truth is that we should really all be watching out for the sane man; the every man; normal people.
Why?
Because while crazy people are certainly erratic and often times dangerous, that’s the extent of it. Once you remove them there is no more problems, but that isn’t so with the sane man. You never know just who is silently watching and controlling them from the shadows, and that is what makes them even more frightening and uncanny than any crazy person.
We fear what we don’t know, that is just the nature of all sentient beings. So then, in what category do you belong to? Or the better question would be, which type of person is the Baliazoural’s Minister of Warfare, Atem Aspidova?
“Mistress, I’ve been meaning to ask but what exactly are we doing at the Baliazoural capital?”
After successfully infiltrating straight through the heavily guarded front gate of the enemy capital, all tensions that were residing within Yda’s body had dispersed. With that she was finally able to remember that she was curious about why they even came to the heart of the enemy’s territory. When they had left it had all happened so sporadically that she didn’t even get a chance to ask, so now that she has a bit of room she wanted to get it out now.
“We’re here on important business.”
That was the answer she received before she had left the inn and it was now the answer she received as she arrives at Celes, Baliazoural’s Capital. As much as Yda enjoyed the company of a womanly, mother-figure like her mistress, sometimes she was hard to talk to and enigmatic beyond what Yda could handle. Letting out a sigh she accepted that answer, well, it wasn’t as though she really had much of a choice in the matter.
She was told by Mordred that all she needed to do was silently act the part of Morgana Daltress’ maid. Though in her heart she was actually slightly enjoying the situation; being able to go on a trip and wearing a maid uniform, even if the cost was rushing head into the enemy stronghold.
After leaving their carriage at a nearby inn they checked in. It was likely that this business trip would take a few more days so finding a place to stay until the mission was over was a necessary decision. After preparing everything that was necessary they made their way towards the ministry building; with Grimal silently casting light hypnosis at anyone that looked at them suspiciously they were able to slip past all of the heavy security and made it to the main hallway where the office of the Warfare Minister’s was.
Since the hypnosis wasn’t permanent, nor did it last all that long, they didn’t have much time to do this.
“I’ll take it from here on out, so you two stay out here and make sure no one interrupts.”
Though she asked both of them, in truth she was really asking that of Grimal since he was the only one with power to do so. They both gave a professional nod towards Morgana and let her on her way. For Yda she had practiced nodding professionally before a mirror for hours trying to perfect it.
Morgana returned a lovely smile and entered into a secondary hallway with the warfare minister’s office being at the very end. Since it would cause problems if she went in with this form she changed her form using [Alter: appearance]. A slightly buff masculine form, cloaked in a white mantle with the face covered up by a white mask with only a single slit for the left eye.
Though a little unnecessary, there was also a voice modulator that made her sound nothing like a human.
When a large white figure enters a room what would be the most appropriate response? For minister Atem Aspidova it was to bolt out of his chair and scream out ‘guards!’ Of course to his dismay no guards would be coming since they had all been replaced by the silver devil king and his master, a clumsy maid.
“Calm down minister, I am not here to bring you harm. I merely wish to negotiate.”
Morgana replied to his hysteria.
“With a voice like that I can hardly believe you. Take off that mask and then we’ll talk.”
“Unfortunately I cannot do that for certain reasons. But believe me when I say that if I wanted you dead you would’ve been on the floor and bleeding out right about now.”
Both a threat and a warning, the minister couldn’t exactly deny what this tall figure was telling him since none of his guards seemed to be responding to his earlier outburst. He sighed as he tried to stabilize his rapidly beating heart, before turning to take a seat back on his leather armchair in front of his desk.
“Fine, I’ll play your little game. If you were able to get past all of that security with that outrageous getup and still have none of the alarms go off, then I’m forced to admit that you’re more than just talk. So I don’t really have a choice, now do I?”
The minister replied with a displeased face but at the same time couldn’t help but be rather impressed by this large figure’s capabilities. But the large figure shook his head in denial.
“No, you always have a choice minister. If you so wish it then I will leave and never come back. However I would like it if you could at least listen to what I have to tell you before dismissing me.”
“… You have my full attention.”
The figure nodded.
“Then I’ll get straight to the point, every two months Xagontetia receives a new batch of weapons to replace their worn out old ones. I want you to intercept all Xagontetian weaponry shipment for this month. Cut them off from their fresh batch of weapons so they’re forced to use worn out gear.”
It took the minster a full minute to even comprehend what was being said by the large cloaked figure. Did it just ask him to intercept ALL weapon shipments from the enemy nation? It is true that if they could do that they would exhaust the enemy’s fighting strength considerably, but that was near impossible to accomplish, else they would’ve done so already.
Just thinking about how many people would be necessary to accomplish that was giving him a headache. It may be possible to do this if they used up the majority of their military but that would leave them exposed for far too long and would likely suffer an invasion. Using thousands of mercenaries could be a remedy but doing so would exhaust an astronomical amount from their war funds and wasn’t entirely viable.
“Are you joking? Just leave.”
The minister blew off that suggestion only after a brief moment of contemplation. However what the figure did next surprised the minster to no end. It was unclear from where but it had taken out a large sack and placed it on his desk, almost breaking said desk in the process. As the sack fell onto the desk it made a large banging noise, followed by small tingling noises.
Gold… inside the sack was full of gold, and not just a small amount but a significant amount. The minster gulped audibly as he took a peek at the contents of the sack.
“This sack contains 50000 gold pieces. With this you should be able to hire the necessary amount of mercenaries to accomplish that task. Now are you willing to negotiate?”
“50000?!”
The minister shouted out from the top of his lungs. 10 gold would be enough for an OMEGA ranked adventurer to live for an entire year in luxury. 50000 gold was a near unfathomable amount of money, that even exceeded the entirety of Baliazoural’s war fund. Just where… just how did this large figure manage to amass more money than a large empire?!
The minister gulped once more as he stared back at the masked figure. A mixture of awe, fear and admiration could be felt swelling deep inside his heart. This person was just giving away money for such a reason? Just who was this person?
“Just who are you…?”
“Let’s just say that Xagontetia is our common enemy. So what do you say minister?”
The minister peered down at the gold once more. Suffice it to say, only a ‘crazy’ person would refuse this absurd amount of money and the minster was a ‘sane’ person, thus negotiations were set.
“Then… just what do you want exactly?”
“It’s simple I want you to intercept all weapon shipments that Xagontetia would be receiving and gather them up in a remote place for me to retrieve it. If you want you can take a bit of the weapons but make sure to leave the majority of them intact. With the amount of gold I gave you, you should be able to hire a good amount of mercenaries to accomplish this task. You can keep the rest.”
The minster thought about it. Indeed, perhaps the most it would take to hire all those mercenaries would be around 20000 gold, then having it moved to a remote place might take another 500 ~ 1000 gold. Overall the minister would be pocketing the rest of the astronomical sum of gold.
The minister nodded back.
“Yes, that should be possible.”
“Good, when you have finished the job adequately I will come back and hand you a further 20000 gold pieces as a bonus.”
“20000?! Are, are, are you sure?!”
“Yes. There is just one more thing.”
“Of, of course, what is it?”
“I would like to take a single Baliazoural magician, of the expendable kind. I would like to ask for one of the top magicians but that would be greedy, I’ll make do with an adequate magician. Just know he will not be returning.”
The minister thought about what the figure would do with a magician, perhaps framing the country? But since Xagontetia and Baliazoural were both at war that would be meaningless. The minster shook his head, it might be impossible to fathom what was going on in this person’s mind.
“Of course.”
The minster nodded,
“I will have him sent when we deliver the weapon shipment.”
To that the figure nodded, signaling that it was acceptable.
“Oh before I forget. After intercepting all their weapons, Xagontetia will be considerably underpowered, but I wish for you not to strike the first chance you get. I want that honor to go to me.”
“You plan on fighting Xagontetia?”
“That’s right, is there a problem?”
“N, no of course not. That can easily be arranged.”
“Very good. Then I shall be back in a few days.”
Afterwards the figure had left the room, leaving the minster breathless and wondering what had just happened.
…
Once more the Wayfarer Council had gathered, with 8 members all in attendance. They sat at a round table, lit only by small amounts of light, covering most of their identities. Though most of them already knew each other by now.
“You had something to report, Casec?”
The leader of the council, the ‘Luminary’ had received news for a meeting by one of their core members. Since it was Casec who had gone to research more about the situation at the Magician’s Chasm, the fact that he was gathering their members meant that something was figured out.
“Yes, it’s rather… unbelievable, but this may affect our future so please listen carefully.
Casec spent the next 10 ~ 15 minutes explaining in detail about what it was he saw at the Magician’s Chasm. About the little girl named Morialia who could go toe to toe with the dragon king himself. Of course as Casec had said, it was a little hard to believe for anyone in the room but the Luminary had chosen to believe this report.
“You’re not really going to believe this are you, Luminary?”
Lazzaro, the Grand Cardinal, asked in a mocking tone.
“That remains to be seen, but we should take caution nonetheless.”
“Well, if it doesn’t affect me then I’ll leave all of it to your decision.”
Lazzaro answered back as he stood up to leave. In his mind, such a being couldn’t possibly exist; a little girl that could fight on equal grounds with the dragon king? What absurdity was this dirty adventurer even speaking about?
Though not as verbal as Lazzaro was, the other members also had a hard time believing in this report and also deferred the decision up to the Luminary. They had trusted him enough to know that he would pick the most optimal path.
“So, what do we do now?”
The only ones remaining were Casec, Sven and the Luminary.
“We don’t have enough information, go out and try to figure out more about this ‘Morialia’, if she really is deciding to partner up with the Hywel Knights then she will appear there.”
Sven and Casec both nodded in return and left, leaving the Luminary to ponder on about the appearance of this strange girl.
Hiring mercenaries? 20000 gold
Colluding with an enemy nation? 70000 gold
Conspiring against your own nation? Priceless
For everything else, there’s master card.
Rebirth Online World 