“Consider this your commission. This is yours. Once you select your squad, come back, and I’ll bind this core to you, and those Fairies to you,” Ryker commanded.
Charlotte was practically quivering, staring alternately between him and the core. “You would raise me up?”
“You’ll of course serve my queen first and foremost,” Ryker said, indicating Wynne. He didn’t want to take anything from her and he would reinforce her as their keeper. “As your Master, or King if you prefer, this is the command I’ve given you for my purposes. Do you accept?”
“Gladly,” said the Fairy, who promptly disappeared.
“Did you have to do that?” Wynne asked, looking at him.
“I did. Yes. Why, are you upset?”
“No. But you’re going to cause problems giving only one out.”
“Good thing I have five more cores like that. I’ve already set up the blueprints and everything,” Ryker said. “I want Tris and Marybelle here next. Do you want me to call them, or would you prefer to?”
Wynne sighed and gave her head a shake, her hair falling back behind her shoulders. “I’ll call them, my silly king. May I ask what tasks you’ll be giving them?”
“Tris is going to organize a seven strong squad with the purpose of killing high value targets I designate for the dungeon. Marybelle is going to get seven Fairies as well. I want her to start organizing loot we receive, give out to others, and put in the vault. I’m tired of doing it. They’ll both be good at those jobs.”
“Fine. And yes, they’ll both be good at it. The only problem is they’re all the Fairies you were sleeping with. You’ll set up a precedent of needing to sleep with you to get moved ahead.”
“Oh? That’ll make it fun.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“Jealous?”
“Fairies don’t reproduce sexually. We have no attachments in sex, so I have no jealousy. You can sleep with every one of them for all I care. Until your hips turn to powder from the effort. It just makes it harder on me, is all.”
“Well, control who gets put in front of me then. Use it as a way to leverage your power,” Ryker said dismissively. “Pimp me out.”
“Hm. I could do that, couldn’t I. Access to you as a carrot, for your carrot,” Wynne said, her eyes clouding as she slipped into deep thought.
***
“Three wives,” Edwin said, staring at Ryker across his desk. “And one of them happens to be my new boss in security.”
“Yep. I don’t think Adele will be a problem though. Mostly because I’m pulling you out of security and making you mayor of Dungeon. Congratulations. You should probably get a wife and put a kid in her. Since, ya know, mayoral titles pass on to the children in Dale,” Ryker said. He flipped the sealed envelope across the desk to the older man. “I already signed off on it, and I made sure Diane was on board. She doesn’t have a say in it technically, but it’s easier to include her than exclude her.”
“That and you have to sleep with her more often than not. What’d she think of this?” Edwin said, picking up the paper and opening it.
“Honestly she didn’t care. She seemed more delighted about the fact that I included her. So… mission accomplished,” Ryker said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Great,” Edwin muttered, reading over the appointment letter.
“Like I said, find a woman, put a kid in her, start settling in for the long haul. It’ll be fine,” Ryker said, standing up.
“Pah, marriage is one of the dumbest things a man can do. And you did it three times.”
Ryker shrugged his shoulders again. “Didn’t have a choice. Anyways. Do what you need to do. Think I’m going to go poke around on my farm.”
“You realize a Count farming is ridiculous.”
“Whatever. It’s centering. Helps me think. See ya.”
“After all that centering you did on your wives I can only imagine. See ya,” Edwin said, still reading the letter.
Leaving the mayor’s mansion, Ryker hit the street and started towards his farm.
Tris, Marybelle, and Charlotte formed a triangle around him, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for them.
“Shouldn’t you be, ya know, doing your jobs?” Ryker asked, maybe a bit more grumpily than he intended.
“We have subordinates for that,” Marybelle said, slipping her arm into his. She pulled on his arm a bit, pushing it up into her chest. “Besides. If we don’t do this, our Queen will see fit to put others here. I’d personally rather not give this up yet.”
“Yes,” Tris said elaborately. Ever the stoic Elven warrior.
Charlotte said nothing, but he could practically feel her agreement from behind stabbing through him.
“Wynne keeps saying jealousy isn’t possible. You three are acting like you’d be jealous of someone taking your toy away.”
Ryker turned down a side street and kept moving. The farm had an entrance from here that he could access and avoid the vast majority of the population.
“Jealousy?” Charlotte asked. “No. Not jealous. Not exactly.”
“No. That’s not the term I’d use,” Tris agreed.
“It’s more along the lines that… hmmm… we enjoy our time with you, and would hate to give it up? Ah, and if you don’t mind, I believe it’s my turn,” Marybelle said, patting his arm. “We’ll need to get our turns in during the day since your evenings are taken now.”
Oh. Well that’s fun.
“My understanding is that they’re rather fond of the act,” Wynne said in his mind.
“There is something to say about it being enjoyable. Care to make an avatar and give it a go?”
“Another time, I think. Though I’m not saying no. And I do hate to interrupt a good time, but there are two groups waiting to use the dungeon that I think we could use against each other. They’re mercenaries both, but they have a history with one another. They almost got in a fight in the inn.”
“Huh. Alright. I’ll hit the farmhouse and find a safe place to take a peek. I’d be interested in watching.”
“That’s fine. Take care of Marybelle first, it’ll take time for the two groups to get into position. Oh, and the Homunculus passed. She left a clutch of eggs behind.”
“I thought it was a male?”
“No. Female. I placed the eggs in your farmhouse in the hatching area you were using for your chickens. They’ll hatch much sooner than anticipated. It’s because of the rate they’re taking mana from the dungeon. Growing quick.”
***
Ryker looked to Marybelle who was laying in the bed, breathless, nude and sweaty. Smirking to himself at the fact that she seemed pleased, he asked, “Did I break my little Hob?”
Glancing at him, Marybelle gave him a coy smile.
“Mmmhmm,” she purred. “Go see our queen before she grows cross with me.” Rolling over to one side, she snuggled into the bed.
Ryker didn’t argue with her and dove into the dungeon.
He really did want to see the new paths in action.
Circling over the center area between both groups Ryker looked from one group to the other. They were on identical paths. Both the normal and abnormal path were mirrors of each other. He watched as they finished up with the second set of rooms. They’d taken a minimal amount of damage from what he could tell.
Each group was more or less what you’d expect for an adventuring group. Tank, physical damage, healer, crowd control, magical damage.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
The paths were simple things. Straight and slowly looping in on themselves except going downward. It’d been a simple thing to do to save space. This was the only way they differed from each other. One would go down far enough for the other to be above, only for the position to switch at the next crossover. It created intersection points where one was above the other.
Why not make it more interesting.
Ryker created two blueprints for signs and hurriedly scrawled his message i
nto each of them:
A group of Goblins is following you from a path nearby. You’ll be able to see them shortly. For each one you kill, you’ll receive a reward.
He sunk both constructs into the first overlap area, where the group on the normal path would get their first chance to fire on the abnormal path.
Feeding the blueprints with a trickle of mana, he waited there. Watching.
“I see,” Wynne said from beside him.
“I figured… why not. Make it interesting for everyone.”
Each group slowly approached the sign cautiously. Both groups had clearly been in dungeons before.
The motto of a dungeoneer was to fear change.
Any change, even something as simple as a sign, was good reason to be cautious.
The group on the abnormal path finished with the sign quickly and moved to the overpass, a gaping chasm of empty earth between their path, and the other.
They were talking as they moved and were clearly discussing the sign and its message. Ryker didn’t bother to listen in on their conversation. He was sure they were looking at the path below them through the wall of illusionary magic, and didn’t have even a faint idea they were being duped.
It was a thin wall of magic that wouldn’t survive much more than a gentle breeze of scrying magic.
Except why would anyone try to scry something they’d been told to kill for a reward.
Or so he hoped.
The magician of their party started to summon up spells, even as another of their group pulled out a bow and pulled an arrow free.
They didn’t have to wait long, as the group from the normal path came out expecting to catch the goblins unaware. Before they could orient themselves, the other group attacked, a bolt of lightning streaking across the gap in a crackling roar.
Someone went down in a shriek of charred flesh and smoke. Down but not dead, Ryker gauged.
A fireball zipped back towards the abnormal group. It engulfed the man with the bow in a roar of flame as he tried to fit a new arrow onto the string, having missed his first shot.
Ryker snickered to himself as the normal path group grabbed up their injured party member and scrambled across the open ground.
They managed to get out of harm’s way without suffering any more damage.
“So… there we have it then. A simple promise of rewards and they’re more than willing to fire on one another,” Ryker thought to Wynne.
“Yes, but how do you plan to keep them at it. It’s not a guarantee they’ll keep meeting up like that,” Wynne countered.
“That’s a good point. I think we’ll put one more sign at the end. Both paths do lead to the same room after all. Put a chest in the middle, fill it with a few things, and restrict entry until both parties are there. Then let them in at the same time. They’ll realize they’ve been attacking other dungeon divers. Maybe they’ll kill each other after realizing they’ve possibly already done so.”
“That might do it. I’ll go create the signs and loot. You put up the security wall.”
Ryker bobbed his head, even though he didn’t have one. It was hard to suppress physical gestures even if they had no equivalent right now.
Quick as he could, he put together a wall on both paths. When it came time to figure out a locking mechanism, he instead stuck a dungeon core crystal in the earth between the doors.
“Wynne. I’m putting a core here. I want you to pick someone to maintain these doors as their job. When you’ve picked who you want, send them my way after they pick up their avatar. You’re the queen after all. They must respect you.”
“Thank you for making sure to protect my position. And I wouldn’t expect it to be anything else. You’re their master, my king, you own them as equally as I do, and own me as well. I’ll make the decision later as to who. For now, I’ll handle it personally.”
Two hours later, four of the five people from the normal path staggered in. They were carrying their fifth member on a stretcher between them.
Faster than he would have thought, the second group came stumbling into their own corridor. Though all five members were standing, they were all clearly wounded.
“Seems they really took a toll on each other. How interesting,” Wynne commented dryly.
Both groups were standing in front of the wall with the sign. They’d clearly read the sign at this point and were waiting.
“What’d you put on the sign?” Ryker asked.
“Two groups, one chest, one winner,” she replied. “I imagine they think it’s a group battle with the goblins.”
The rock wall slid upward, and both groups shuffled inside, and stared at one another.
“It’s you!” shouted a man from the normal path group.
“Bastards!” came the reply from the other group.
At least they recognized one another immediately. That’ll make it more interesting.
Then as one they looked to the center of the room. Sitting there in the middle of the room was a chest that was open. Inside it one could see the faint sheen of coins and what looked like a steel breastplate.
“Oh, dropping something useful are y—”
Ryker came to a halt as both sides stopped staring at the chest, and rushed each other. Watching in a mild shock, Ryker couldn’t finish his thought as they began killing each other.
In a few heartbeats, it was all over. The group that’d come from the abnormal path, starting with all five members, came out victorious. Though two died during the last mad scrum.
“That was productive. Ten went in, three come out. That’s seven less for Lauren to worry about,” Wynne said
Ryker couldn’t disagree. It’d worked rather well.
And those survivors sure as hell weren’t about to talk about what happened. They were now part of the system he was going to put in place.
Part of the killing.
He could use that to his advantage.
With an idle thought, several bright red circular tokens dropped to the ground in front of the survivors.
Each was marked with a dagger on one side, and a number one on the other side.
Clearing his voice, Ryker concentrated for a second.
“Welcome to the blades,” he projected into the room. He’d used a voice from his mind, one that had nothing to do with his own. A deep resonant voice.
The three survivors flinched, looking around in every direction.
“Be sure to take your count token so you can purchase rewards in the future. See you next time,” Ryker projected, then closed the spell up.
Chapter 19- Playing House -
Ryker idly drew his finger along the edge of his plate. He was waiting for the servants Diane had hired to finish putting out breakfast.
His life had changed quite a bit being the count and husband to the future duchess in the last three weeks. She wasn’t getting involved in his affairs as a count, but his personal life had been turned inside out. Though he had put his foot down on a few things. Like Adele and Claire being allowed to live in their home with rooms of their own.
He argued his point as wanting to make sure they remained safe and available. As at this point, it was likely Lauren could view them as threats rather than allies going forward.
Diane had quickly agreed to his request after hearing his point. Their rooms were immediately put on the same floor as his own and Diane’s.
It was weird to have a room to himself, but when he thought about it, most marriages were probably political. He doubted sharing a bed every night was safe for some spouses.
A hand lightly touched his shoulder and then rested on it. Ryker blinked and looked up to find Diane staring down at him with a small smile.
“Good morning, husband.”
“Allo, wife. I didn’t wake you when I snuck out of bed and crept out of your room, did I?” he asked.
“No. You didn’t. Thank you for being considerate,” she said, her smile growing wider.
Ryker shrugged. He wasn’t in love with
her, but he saw no reason to antagonize someone he was legally married to.
Just because I wish it was someone else, doesn’t make it someone else.
Besides, she’s not a bad person. I kinda like her.
“Of course,” he said, reaching up to lay his own hand atop hers.
She flicked a glance to the servants who were nearly done and looked back to him.
Oh? She wants to say something but not in front of the spies. If a servant hears it, chances are someone else will, too.
Another minute passed in silence as they servants finished and left the room.
Diane sighed a few seconds after the door closed. “I can’t tell if they’re spies for Lauren, mother, or someone else,” Diane complained.
“Your mother?”
“Yes. I’m sure she’s still nervous about you. She did leave me to your tender mercy in a certain way. She’s well aware of your ability as a wizard. No stamina, but some of the best control seen in a long time,” Diane said, turning her gaze back on him.
“I know, perfectly suited to an assassin. Well, surprise, I’m just a farmer.”
Diane’s lips twitched and her smile turned into a sultry grin.
“So I’ve found out. You’re particularly adept at trying to plant your seed as deeply and vigorously as possible?” she asked as casually as she could, her cheeks becoming a flaming red color.
“Oh ho? Are you flirting with me, wife? The honorable and upright daughter of a noble household?”
“Mmmm… maybe? Besides, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” she said, trying to change the subject. “Thank you.”
“Uh, for what?”
“For… taking care of me. I do realize that as a noble lady I have duties I need to perform. And one of those is to carry your child. From conversations with family and friends, I’d come to suspect that it wouldn’t be anything pleasant. A chore at best. Painful and unpleasant torture at worst.”
“Sex? A chore?”
“Well, considering who they are, and that their marriages are political… I imagine a number of them use it as a weapon of sorts one way or the other, against each other. So yes. Thank you for… making sure it’s pleasurable for me. And not a chore. For taking your time with me and treating me kindly,” she said, staring into his eyes.
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