A Game With No Rules (Perimeter Defense Book #4) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  I suggested to my cousin that we expand our negotiating group by including First Advisor Apasss Ugu or one of the Swarm admirals, but my cousin was firmly opposed. In Katerina's words, the negotiations were already going to be hard enough, and bringing other races into it would just complicate things.

  Finally, the screen lit up. A scrawny looking and very young boy with a ducal crown in his golden red hair was staring back at us. And a boy was exactly what you’d call him. Despite Mark royl Uvar’s thirty years of age, calling him an adult man was something I just could bring my tongue to do.

  "Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky and his famous 'garland' of the most beautiful women in the Universe," the young Duke said instead of greeting me. "But for some reason I do not see your delightful favorite Astra in your delegation. Clearly, you decided to spare my feelings and not show me so much beauty all at once."

  "It was just that we thought it excessive to bring two blondes in one delegation," Duchess Katerina said with a slight smile, and the man laughed gleefully, having considered that a joke.

  And it should be said that my cousin hadn't bent the truth one bit. Diplomatic protocol stated a monarch's favorite was allowed in negotiations and even welcomed, in that it underlined their significance and official status. Astra was offered to join the Unatari delegation, and initially my favorite looked on the forthcoming event with lots of enthusiasm. But at the last moment, she had a sharp change of heart and, as strange as it may seem, the reason was her hair color. After my criticism yesterday, she had decided to live up to the image of the White Queen even in the smallest details, meaning absolutely snow white. And after seeing Bionica come into my chambers with a tray of coffee and pastries with the same hair color, the Princess became depressed and refused to participate in the negotiations.

  "But why didn't you say that Unatari would have such a formidable delegation?" asked the young Duke, expressing his dissatisfaction. "I'd have liked to invite a couple of my advisors. And also, instead of everyday clothes, I would have worn the Duke's mantle, and belt with ceremonial dagger, much more fitting the occasion. Although... what's the difference, really? I'll admit, Crown Prince Georg, I was afraid of this conversation, and at the same time understood its inevitability. Both Blue House fleets have been missing for four days and aren't taking any calls... You wouldn't happen to have wiped them out somewhere recently, hm?"

  I am not accustomed to stealing valor, so I honestly answered the Duke that I hadn't encountered any Blue House starships since the day I let the Second Fleet go free.

  "I believe you, Crown Prince, although I really do understand why the ships of the Blue House First and Second Fleets are in no rush to fulfill their duty and defend my territories. Clearly, the admirals understand that they will die in vain and are waiting for a peace treaty to be signed. The Blue House has already lost the war, denying that fact is utterly useless. And I admire how artfully you performed that provocation in the Forepost-22 system, unbinding your hands. In the eyes of the whole Empire, my cousin Ovella was the aggressor, while the Unatari State got cart blanche to attack the Blue House. I’m being serious when I say I bow to your mastery, Crown Prince!"

  Katerina and I quickly exchanged glances. My cousin shrugged her shoulders, not hiding her lack of comprehension. Showing my enemy that I was uninformed in some important matter was not the best way to start complicated negotiations, but I decided to be principled:

  "Duke, when my diplomatic ships were boarded and sabotaged at the Forepost-22 station, and Blue House frigates shot down rescue shuttles with my dear friends inside, I took no joy in that. It was an obvious attempt at assassinating me, and only Miya's abilities," I said, pointing to my "wife," "allowed me to avoid death."

  "All the same, the Blue House was not behind the attack," he parried. "Believe me, Crown Prince Georg, I had a very frank conversation on that topic with Ovella, and she denied it. For her as well, what happened was totally unexpected. In fact, my cousin spent a long time trying to meet with you to discuss the possibility of signing a military alliance. Also, you were attacked by Tusk-class frigates, but we only have that old crap in our Second Fleet reserves, but they were five star systems from Forepost-22 at the time, so they couldn’t possibly have been involved."

  "And what do the soldiers that took direct part in the assault of the ships have to say?" I asked, interested in my opponent's story.

  The young Duke grew noticeably embarrassed and led his gaze away.

  "My sister ordered the soldiers of the border garrison carefully interrogated as precisely as possible. They were all equally convinced that the criminal order to attack the Unatari diplomats came from the Blue House capital and had been given directly by my cousin Ovella. The major commanding the garrison, who was also taken aback by the contents of the order, even demanded it be repeated in confirmation, and he got that. Only after did he order his subjects to storm the starships docked at the station."

  "I'm getting the impression that some third party baited us very skillfully," my advisor said.

  "I even suspect I know who it was," the young Duke said with a crooked smile. "The Gold House has already secretly brought its soldiers into Perimeter Sector Sixteen. What’s more, their representative, a certain Count Albert royl Timur ton Akad has been trying very actively to get in touch with me. I’ve just kept telling him to buzz off, because I'm not planning to have anything to do with a person of such repellent standing!"

  Despite the seriousness of the negotiations, I couldn't resist and broke down laughing. I never would have thought that my spontaneous decision to spoil the standing of the impudent "Voice of the Triumvirate" could have such an unexpected effect on political issues! Based on that, Duke Mark royl Uvar had never spoken with the Antagonists and never had anything to do with them.

  "Yes, I've had the misfortune of talking with that odious worm," I said, explaining my untimely happiness. "He tried to threaten me and even gave me ultimatums. I had to do a painful number on his ego and lower him to unhallowed ground. Based on that, the only language he understands is brute force. I wish I could have given him a special achievement: 'Pedal-Powered Tool,' because his pathos, rudeness and impudence were a great impediment to his profession as a diplomat."

  "Good that I didn't talk to him then. I’ve never gotten along well with rude men. But I suggest that, if you are not opposed, we return to the main topic of discussion. Given that the Blue House is being eaten from three sides by stronger neighbors, Unatari, the Aliens and the Antagonists, I see no reason to continue the war. But I also do not desire to be written off by historians as a ruler of a Great House who signed a demeaning capitulation, either."

  "And?" Bionica asked, hurrying the Duke along, as the man suddenly fell silent.

  "I thought for a long time about this dilemma, and it seems I've found a way out. Crown Prince Georg, I propose we marry our families together and thus unite our territories and end the war. Your daughters, Crown Princesses Likanna and Deianna are too young to be considered for a dynastic marriage. And I would never make a claim on your wife Queen Miya. It wasn't for nothing that I asked about your favorite Princess Astra, but she isn't here. But your cousin Duchess Katerina ton Unatari, from what I understand, has recently been widowed and is not bound by any marriage obligations. Katerina is a rare beauty and a very smart woman, while as a reporter from hotspots she truly knows no equal. I never miss any of her reports and have very warm feelings toward the Duchess. And so, Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle, I ask for your second cousin's hand in marriage."

  My foreign politics advisor was very hard to catch off guard, and even harder to baffle, but the Duke’s suggestion did just that. My cousin got confused, embarrassed, then blushed. For some time, Duke Mark and I waited for a sensible reply, but Katerina was just frozen in horror. Finally, my cousin gave an answer:

  "All in all, I'm not opposed, Duke Mark. But I’m still mourning my dead husband Corwin, so this won’t look very decent to me until I’m over th
at. What's more, I know of my cousin’s appetites and understand that Crown Prince Georg has his own plans for some part of Blue House space. Isn't that right, Your Highness?"

  "Yes. I can offer Crown Prince Mark one of the Perimeter Sectors, his choice. Except Sector Ten — it is already under Unatari State control and goes to me as a trophy of war. Fourteen and Fifteen are under Alien control. Sector Sixteen, from what I understand, has been taken by the Antagonists. So, he may choose either Eleven, Twelve or Thirteen."

  "Not such a generous offer," the young Duke cringed.

  "But it is fair!" I said firmly. "The Blue House will never hold these territories and, in a week or two, such an offer won't even be possible."

  "Alright, Crown Prince Georg. I choose Sector Eleven. But how do you suggest we perform the legal transfer of power?"

  Katerina and I had already long discussed that factor, so my advisor told her future spouse the details of the peaceful and legal transfer of territorial jurisdiction. According to that plan, the Duke would give his agreement to Crown Princess Natalie ton Miro rejoining the Blue House, after which he would announce another election. The votes cast for him, the Duke would give away to the little Crown Princess which, together with those she gained on her own, would be easily enough for victory. In that the ruler of Unatari was the official guardian of the underage Crown Princess Natalie ton Miro, he would technically gain control over the Blue House, thus bringing the war to an automatic end.

  "Very crafty. But what will happen in five years, when Crown Princess Natalie becomes an adult?" Duke Mark clarified.

  Katerina looked at me and said a suggestion aloud, which I had been holding in my head after the conversation with Astra, but hadn't yet come to any final decision on.

  "I believe, by that time, my cousin will have officially adopted Crown Princess Natalie and thus get the Blue House for life!"

  * * *

  I was much more worried about this conversation than the earlier negotiations with the Blue House head. The grandiose perspectives that had just been unfurled before me, could only come to fruition if I got the agreement of this one lady. Naturally, I was referring to Queen Miya. After all, my previous experience talking with the red-headed Truth Seeker had told me that her opinion and interests simply could not be neglected, as doing so would necessarily lead to loss of life.

  Now, my wife and I had formed a certain kind of mutually beneficial partnership — I fought the battles and removed the threats while expanding state borders, and Miya helped me with her unique and powerful abilities. But at that, we both followed a set of rules we had made a long time ago: she wouldn’t mess around in running the government or stop me from indulging from time to time, while I wouldn’t try to divorce her or impinge upon the rights of my spouse or our daughter Crown Princess Deianna in any way. But now, the Truth Seeker could, and not without basis, regard the fact I was adopting two daughters as an attempt to move her child back in the line of succession. That was a serious problem. An insulted Miya could consider our agreement broken, which would thus cancel her oath not to harm anyone near me, or even me.

  "Is it something urgent, Georg? Or can it wait an hour and a half? It's just that I'm teaching a lesson to young psionic girls now, and it would be very bad to interrupt their studies at this phase." My wife was in an insulated track suit (yet again red) and was sweaty and overheated, as if she had just been working out in a gym.

  I didn't answer the Queen's question, giving the Truth Seeker the chance to just read what she needed from my mind. A few seconds later, the Queen's brows shot up in surprise. Miya turned to the side and said loudly:

  "So, girls, you're unspeakably lucky: King Georg himself has just called to give you a five-minute break."

  In reply, she got squeals of joy from the many gifted girls, some of whom were merely young, while others were actual toddlers. The severe Queen winced and hurried to cut down her students' excessive joy:

  "Let me warn you now: those of you who take even a second longer than that getting back into pain awareness position will be punished in the harshest way! I guarantee that everyone who commits this offense will be paralyzed from the waist down for life!"

  I knew perfectly well that the Truth Seeker was not joking or just trying to frighten her students. Miya really was capable of doing that.

  "Do you really have to be so sadistic when teaching?"

  "I don't know," she said with a careless shrug. "I just use the same methods Krista used on us. The course of study proved effective for me and my classmates, so I see no reason to change any part of it. And you're wrong, Georg. This is not just mindless acrimony. A psionic who cannot bare pain may lose concentration and will die in their first battle. So, the first thing all talented girls learn is the ability to resist pain, fear, disgust, fatigue, and maintain their bodies' physiological responses."

  So, there it was... I had no suspicion of just how nasty day to day life was at the psionic school, even though I had heard that Krista had rather severe mannerisms in her old school.

  "Beyond that, there's another explanation. People need a powerful stimulus to move forward. Threatening health and life are just that kind of stimulus. Someone doing a long jump will go practically twenty-five percent further if the usual sand is replaced with a ditch full of napalm or a pit of sharpened spears. Developing Truth Seekers is nothing more than a series of such tests. Overcoming them gives new experience and strength. But I don't think it was the subtleties of training psionics you wanted to hear from me, right?"

  Somehow the Queen and I had strayed very far from the topic I wanted to talk to her about. The adoption of two Crown Princesses. I was well acquainted with both of my daughter Likanna's best friends, and even found them funny and sweet. But I was not doing this now just out of monarchical folly, nor philanthropy and not even sympathy for orphans. This was pure calculation. There were four star regions of the Blue House riding on this horse, the ability to get into the Imperial Core undetected by the enemy and go to aid my allies in the Purple House.

  "So then, your decision?" I said, hurrying my wife along, as she had been silent for too long, not giving any kind of answer.

  "Seeing as you've bothered asking my opinion for once in such a long time... I am opposed, Georg!"

  "But... why? The benefit is obvious, and as for how to compensate Deia's position..."

  "This has nothing to do with Deianna!" my wife sharply cut me off. "I'm against it not because of my daughter. It's just that I understand perfectly well that my husband is lagging behind and playing the political game by antiquated rules. And after all, a bad evaluation of the political situation could mean death for both of us!"

  I was somewhat thrown off by my wife's words and asked her to explain.

  "Georg, what are you doing still looking back to the Empire? Forget about it! The Empire is a corpse. It's already rotting and decomposing. It died the very moment August royl Akad broke the political foundation that once bound the loyalty of the Great Houses. The Gold House was lost to the Empire due to August’s malfeasance long ago. The Red House has been destroyed by the Aliens. The Orange House no longer exists either. The Blue House has left the Empire, and soon the Green and Purple will follow after it. What remains? Just the Core, which is shrinking every day."

  "The Empire is not just systems. It's also got a powerful space fleet with forty thousand starships and armed forces numbering in the millions. They will be capable of stopping the fall of the Empire."

  "The armed forces are controlled by living people. Your standing among the Imperial Military is very high, and a certain part of the fleet and army would join you, if need be. The same can be said for the rulers of Core systems. They will follow whichever leader they consider the strongest. The whole Imperial political system has rotted and is falling apart. Georg, has it occurred to you that you are still only eighteenth in line to the Imperial throne? Who are these seventeen aristocrats standing before you? I know only your sister Violetta and the Head
of the Green House. I've also heard tell that the Emperor has a son. That's it! The rest are rich lay-abouts, pointlessly wasting their lives, whose whole political strength consists of only their close family ties to former rulers. Throw the allies of the Grand Duchy from that list and you get the real condition of the present Empire: a decrepit impotent old man, his son who’s not interested in politics and nothing."

  Miya spoke very convincingly, and I also understood that she was only saying things that needed to be said for a long time. The Empire as a political organism was already dead...

  "Now, now!" the Truth Seeker said, clearly reading my thoughts. "The Antagonists also understand that perfectly. Remember your conversation with your twin sister. Violetta was thinking of blatant nasty treatment against her competitor, however swore, at that giving her word as a Crown Princess, not to do harm to little Joan. But that was all after she’d already announced her plans to join the Grand Duchy and leave the Empire. Strange that you didn't notice how Violetta will soon stop being a Crown Princess of the Empire, so her oath to not attack Crown Princess Joan's convoy doesn't actually hold her to anything!"

  "Hey, you're right!" I agreed. "I really was confused that my sister gave such an oath, while planning to violate it from the start. Here's how that makes sense, I guess. On habit, everyone considers such an oath inviolable, but Violetta understood that she would stop being an Imperial Crown Princess in two or three days, and gave the promise calmly."

  "I'm glad you're starting to understand, Georg. And now, look in a new light at your suggestion to adopt the two girls. I mean, for me, it largely makes no difference what you do with them. Their title as Imperial Crown Princesses is just such a fragile mirage as the one made by your twin sister Violetta. It's a holdover from an old system that's already dead. The interests of the Unatari State and the Empire are bound to clash, just as Unatari is bound to stop serving the decrepit old egomaniac August royl Akad. The corpse of the Empire will be torn to pieces sooner or later by Unatari and the Grand Duchy, and our mission is to tear away the biggest chunk, so we will have the better position in the deciding battles. If we win this dispute, you will be able to appoint new Crown Princes and Crown Princesses yourself, and the current order of succession to the Imperial throne will have absolutely no meaning. I know that our daughter Deianna will not be left empty handed, and Georg Junior will also get the much-vaunted Crown Prince title, in this case. And if we lose, Duchess Violetta has made a clear demonstration of how the Antagonists handle their political opponents."