Toward the end of dinner, a servant approached the lord of the city and whispered in his ear. The fat man instinctively glanced at Calvin.

Calvin winked.

“…I see. Thank you,” Zhin’er said, unquestioningly dismissing the servant from his presence. “Now that dinner is over, let’s turn our attention to your business here. Would the others please excuse us?”

Without a word, the remaining courtiers stood and filed out the door, leaving Calvin and Ella alone with the obese man.

I would be correct in assuming this has to do with the occupation of unclaimed land to the south of us?”

“Let’s start with the ‘unclaimed’ aspect, then work our way up from there,” Calvin said.

“’Unclaimed’, as in there is no Juntai force or village within a hundred miles. The division of the land is simply a convenient line on a map. The forest south of the mountains has good soil for farming, and as you might have noticed, the city is in need of food.”

Maybe you just ate it all! Elliot said.

Calvin reviewed the unusual amount of refugees he’d seen in the city and the desperate work ethic of the farmers clearing the land, and the answer became obvious: the lord of the city was sending the refugees south to establish farming villages by encroaching on Juntai’s territory.

Calvin wanted to tap his fingers on something while he was thinking, but they were trapped in the damn fancy dress Ella had convinced him to wear.

Next time I pick the outfits. For Ella, I’m thinking something sheer.

“I want to resolve this without violence.” Calvin said. “Obviously.”

“Committing arson when insulted does not instill me with confidence.”

“I categorically deny any involvement in Ning’er’s home burning down.” Calvin said.

They both knew that Ning’er hadn’t been mentioned, and that by bringing her up, he was indirectly implied he had been involved. They both knew this, and simply let the matter lie.

Calvin might have felt bad about leaving a peasant woman destitute and homeless, but this was a noble. She had three to four Breaks at least. She could outthink or outfight any standard peasant thug. So even if she was homeless and penniless, she wouldn’t suffer more than humiliation.

In this world, power was inherent. You could only strip it from them with death.

“You’ll have to tell me how you did that.”

“I’m a Royal.” Calvin said with a shrug. It felt weird applying to himself the label of a human who’d pushed their abilities to the limit of what a Legend was capable of…if the shoe fits…

Do you even know where that idiom is from?

Wait, does this mean Karen is a Royal?

I mean, technically I guess she probably qualifies, but I get the feeling that they prefer to give the title to people who can shape the world with a thought and kill thousands with their mind alone. Don’t get me wrong, I think Karen could’ve probably killed everyone in Uleis, but it would take some time.

Calvin gave a mental grunt of acknowledgement while Zhin’er moved past Calvin’s evasion.

“If we stop cultivating the lands to the south of us, many thousands of men and women will die of starvation. You can understand why it must be done. If you wish to solve this dispute without violence, I have an offer for you.”

“Oh?” Calvin asked.

“sell the land to me and my contemporaries.” Zhin’er said “I am more than willing to offer you a fair price for area, and this would be an advantage to you as well.”

“How’s that?”

“The influx of population is viewed as a burden now, and other states are punishing their immigrants, starving them and abusing them. I alone understand that they represent a resource and an opportunity. Maybe not immediately, but in the course of time, my city will swell sevenfold in size and power. Being on good terms with a future emperor couldn’t be a bad proposition for you.”

“You think you’ll be the next emperor?” Calvin asked, brows raised.

“The current family has lost the mandate of heaven.” Zhin’er said solemnly. “The refugees flooding my city from the constant civil unrest is more than enough evidence. In a generation, the refugees will settle, and their people will become my people.”

“What’s causing the refugees, exactly?” Calvin asked.

“The Tzen dynasty is embroiled in a senseless war with one of its vassal states that has spiraled out of control.” Zhin’er replied.

“They should understand that tearing each other apart will only lead to both of them being replaced,” Calvin said.

“They should, and yet they continue to make war with each other,” Zhin’er said with a shrug. “There are many theories surrounding the motivations for such senseless violence, ranging from a marriage gone wrong, to revenge for a murder, and even madmen raving that the two clans are attempting to flood the land with Warp and bring about the end-times.”

“Battlefields are breeding grounds for monsters, after all.” The fat lord said. “That has only added to the chaos. The eastern lands are practically teeming with monsters right now as a result of the fighting. There have even been reports of new species emerging, something that hasn’t happened in three hundred years.”

Calvin studied the other man with interest.

“What kind of new creatures?”

“Large blue four-legged chitinous creatures with gargantuan exposed brains and interesting mental abilities, about the size of a small guar,” Zhin’er said. “I feel pity for those who have lost their lives to predation, but I also look forward to what out alchemists devise from their corpses.”

Calvin considered for a minute.

“Rather than selling you the land, what if I were to lease it to you?”

“Oh?” Zhin’er asked. “I fail to see how permanent debt would be more beneficial than outright purchase.”

“I’ll throw in a road,” Calvin said. “Between your city and Allast.

Zhin’er burst into laughter.

“A road. You’ll ‘throw in’ a road! Over a thousand miles long through the jungle, and you’ll throw it in like a merchant adding a bauble to sweeten a deal. As if I would see the culmination of such a road in my lifetime.”

“You do know who made the train your northern neighbors enjoy, don’t you?” Calvin asked curiously.

Zhin’er’s levity faded.

“You’re serious.”

“Of course.”

“…And what kind of payment do you expect?”

“I’ll impose a modest tax on the goods flowing through the area, and you will profit from having a direct line between your city and the heart of Juntai. A week of travel back and forth on a smooth stone road instead of five months through dense jungle.”

“Since the money will be coming out of the pockets of merchants using the road to make a profit, you will see no loss of wealth whatsoever. At least, compared to not having a road at all.”

See if you can interest him in a breeding program. Mixed race children are genetically superior. It’s not a fetish, it’s science!

Calvin ignored Elliot.

“You make a convincing case,” Zhin’er said, contemplating. “Give me the evening to speak with my ministers before I reply.”

“Of course,” Calvin said, nodding.

Calvin and Ella retired to their room in the castle, and Calvin exploded out of his fancy outfit like a Macra grub bursting from a Guar’s chest.

“Gah! Finally! I felt like a damn prisoner in that thing.”

Calvin glanced at his arms. “I have hands! Look, Ella, I have hands!”

Ella rolled her eyes. “If you didn’t like it, you could’ve taken it off.”

“Nah,” Calvin said, waving a hand. “You’re looking at a new and improved, diplomatic-as-fuck Calvin. I would never willingly dress outlandishly compared to the other people of the city. I intend to blend in.”

“Don’t.” Ella said.

“Don’t what?”

“Whatever it is you’re thinking of doing. I can see it on your face.”

Calvin had been thinking of unleashing a swarm of creatures through the city to destroy or remodel every single impractically long-sleeved man-bubble in the city.

If none of them existed, he wouldn’t have to dress up in one to match other people, would he?

“I think it’s better if you go in Gadveran clothes,” Ella said. “It’s what you’re comfortable with, and they’ll likely enjoy the refreshing change in style.”

“Why did you dress me up in that thing, then!?” Calvin demanded.

“I wanted to see what you looked like in it.” Ella said with a grin. “To be fair, I think I like you in Juntai outfits the best. I’m actually thinking about using Boles silk to make a Gadveran vest, shirt, and pants. It sounds flashy.”

Calvin blew a raspberry and waved a hand dismissively.

“Fine. I won’t burn all the gimp-dresses in the city, but I do want to learn more about the situation from the refugees. Something sounded familiar about that four legged brain monster.”

“But first, food nap. I’m stuffed.” Ella said, lying down on the fluffy silk bed, stretching ‘till she nearly popped out of her clothes.

Which was the point, I suppose, Calvin thought as she shot him a sly smile before she turned over on the bed, arching her back until the edge of her skirt began to ride up her thighs.

“Not yet, you’re not,” Calvin said, jumping on top of her, eliciting a squeal.

***the next day***

Calvin got dressed in his ‘real’ clothes, leaving the beeswax-filled deathtrap aside for Kurawe to dispose of. Calvin wouldn’t be wearing it again even if politeness dictated he should.

Calvin was half afraid someone was going to stab him with a fork or something the entire time he was wearing it. The tines would catch a tiny bit of beeswax on the way in, causing the wound to burst into flames.

People would then assume Calvin’s weakness was silver, forks, or manners.

I think manners actually are one of your weaknesses.

How do you figure?

Give me one example of a conversation where you didn’t insult the person or do something overtly hostile as soon as you got flustered.

“That’s easy, I…”

Calvin blinked. This challenge was more difficult than he’d thought. Unable to think of suitable response, switching to default retort.

“Fuck you.”

Hahahah!

“I blame Karen.” Calvin muttered, buttoning the rest of his vest together, glancing over at Ella, who was taking her time oozing out of bed. Her upper body hung off the edge of the mattress, her legs still buried in the covers.

She groaned pitifully, her head hanging down, hand resting on her pile of clothes.

Ella perhaps slept too well on big, fancy beds.

Calvin still didn’t sleep at all, but using Meditation, he was able to achieve something sleep-like.

It was a combination of shadowboxing and relaxing his mind and allowing it to free associate that allowed him to simulate dreaming. Close enough to stay sane, anyway. And Kala was able to visit, which was good.

Thinking of shadowboxing and Karen this close together…made Calvin wonder whether he was finally better than her.

He hadn’t tried since before he’d used the temple of awakening to max out all his Abilities.

Calvin glanced over at Ella, who was blearily trying to put her panties on her head.

I got time.

He took a seat and leaned against the corner of the room.

Shadowboxing.

When Calvin opened his eyes, he was in Deinos, Karen standing in the middle of the practice ring, same as always.

“Who’s next?” She asked, resting the wooden practice sword on her shoulder, deliberately showing off her biceps.

“I’ll have a go.” Calvin said, raising a hand.

“Calvin. You got a little taller, squirt. Is this one of your Shadow-thingamajigs?”

“It is.” Calvin said, entering the dirt circle.

She looked him up and down. “You walk lighter than the last time I saw you. You been pumping iron?”

“Something like that.”

Karen’s blunt face split into a grin. “Let me get my sword.”

She ducked into her hut and came back with the massive cleaver that couldn’t rightly be called a sword. She jammed it into the ground beside her and leveled the practice blade at him.

“I wanna see your basics, boy. Let’s start with practice swords only, no Bent Abilities.” She said, waiting for him to grab one of the nearby wooden swords.

As soon as his fingers touched the sword, Karen slid forward and thrust the point of the practice blade at his throat in a killing move.

Calvin didn’t have time to raise his guard so he collapsed downward, allowing the strike to pass above his head as he swung the blade at her leg.

Rather than move the leg away or block it like he expected, Karen pushed her knee forward, putting it outside his range and attacking him at the same time.

Calvin leaned to the side and caught the knee on his shoulder, tumbling backward and springing to his feet as Karen charged him.

Calvin threw some of the practice yard’s dirt at her face, catching her full in the eyes.

Seizing the chance, Calvin lunged forward, aiming for her head.

Karen leaned aside, kneed him in the stomach and flipped him over.

Calvin rolled out of the way before she put the wooden sword through his chest.

“I raised you to go for the kill whenever you could, but that’s a little too predictable. Against someone like me, you should’ve gone for a crippling wound to even the odds. My dominant hand or my thigh.”

“Honestly, how many people like you am I going to come across?” Calvin demanded going for a more cautious attack targeting her midsection.

“Hah! Not many.” Karen said.

Karen was blinking the dirt out of her eyes while effortlessly fending off Calvin’s attacks without being able to see them, lending credence to the idea that she had an Ability specifically for detecting attacks.

“What is that, about a thirty-five on all your physical attributes?” She said, dropping her guard and surveying him up and down.

“You’ve got the raw strength and the skills to go toe-toe with a combat-oriented Veteran.” She said, shaking her head. “If only you’d taken some real fighting Skills, you would have been a terror on the battlefield. What a waste.”

“I already am a terror on the battlefield.”

“Not if a single person with a length of steel can put you down,” She said with a smirk, tossing aside the wooden practice sword and ambling over to her greatsword. “Let’s take things up a notch.”

Shifting.

Mayfly’s Body

Gradual Split.

Calvin dropped his weight down to next to nothing, activating Mayfly’s body to correspondingly alter his perception of time.

He used Gradual Split to put tiny wisps of compressed air at various points across his body, ready to push himself around.

His knives emerged from his palms, each one tipped with an invisible extension over ten feet long.

“Aaaarrre Yoooou Reeeady?” Karen asked, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

Calvin nodded, and the dirt beneath her exploded in slow motion as she charged, seemingly as fast as ever.

Side note about the acceleration of gravity: it’s not very fast. When operating at extremely high speeds, the ability to duck, or allow gravity to pull you out of the way of an attack is nearly nonexistent.

This speed was more evidence Karen had simply been matching his own before, rather than actively trying.

Calvin ducked, pushing himself down with compressed air before flipping to the side, his blades creating deep gouges in the dirt beneath them every time their tips pointed the slightest bit down.

Karen’s eyes widened as Calvin moved without giving two shits for gravity or inertia.

He took a swipe at Karen from both directions, trying to catch her in a scissoring move between the invisible extensions of his blades.

Karen leapt over the strike by simply stepping on air and hoisting herself above Calvin’s swing, taking a shot at his face on the way above him.

Calvin’s ghost hands grabbed onto her sword mid-swing and managed to divert it enough for Calvin to dodge out of the way.

Once Karen had the height advantage, she didn’t give it up, running on air above him and beating down at him with the oversized blade, forcing him to scurry for balance and safety.

Finally, Calvin spotted an opportunity and squirted out through her hail of attacks, lifting himself up into the air.

“Hmmm…” Karen said, watching him with narrowed eyes.

Calvinian summoning

Chimera.

Atom Ant

Calvin created a handful of Battle-Form Kurawe.

“Royal with cheese, huh?” Karen said, glancing around as the summons flared their Complacency auras.

Kurawe lunged forward, all his copies aiming for the woman air-walking in front of Calvin.

Rather than try to keep track of them, Karen seemed to lean on some kind of instinctive Counter Skill that allowed her to decisively counterattack each Kurawe the moment they took a swing.

The battle from Kurawe were nearly impossible to damage, with Atom Ant reinforcing their already tough armor by a factor of forty-five.

After the first three counters, Karen frowned, and her sword began to hum and glow slightly red.

After that, the sword began to bite into Kurawe’s armor, leaving behind wounds with streaming clouds of green smoke erupting from them.

The complacency aura was working…It just didn’t matter.

While they were distracting her, Calvin worked to seal her in a prison hot enough to melt his face off.

Shaping

Atom Ant.

Trait doctoring

Calvin created a box of blindingly hot tungsten gas around Karen, and held it in place with Trait Doctoring, giving it the strength of abyssal steel.

Kurawe was turned to ash by the overwhelming heat in a fraction of a second, unable to resist the sudden heat.

Did I finally beat her?

The white-hot box erupted outward, as Karen’s sword pierced the surface with relative ease. The fighter air-walked out above the hot metal and off to the side, avoiding the column of superheated air.

Somehow she’d managed to equip all of her armor in an eyeblink. The only damage seemed to be the wool padding that emerged around her neck was charred, and the armor itself had the fainted glow of heat.

A blink later, and the armor flickered, returning to pristine condition.

Calvin glanced down at the village of Deinos, which had unsurprisingly been partially vaporized from the astronomical heat. The rest was burning merrily.

“When am I finally gonna make you serious?” Calvin asked.

“Come over here and find out,” Karen said, motioning.

Nah.

Multi-shaping.

Trait Doctoring.

Rather than close the gap, Calvin used his pre-packaged grimoire to rain lightning down on his foster mother, but she ignored it in favor of closing the distance between them, forcing Calvin to make the air between them solid.

It surprised and stunned Karen when she ran headfirst into an invisible wall, giving him enough time to go after her with his knives again.

Their battle reached a fever pitch of clashing blades and devastating spells as they soared across the sky above the utterly annihilated village, and after a couple minutes of cat-and-mouse, Calvin managed to land a hit with one of his daggers, lopping off Karen’s left hand.

The fighter looked down at her missing hand, expression unreadable behind the ominous steel helm.

Alright! Calvin thought, moving forward to press his advantage.

Karen kicked back and spun, her sword glowing a brilliant white.

Hey isn’t that-

***In reality***

Calvin’s eyes flew open as the hit slammed into him, slicing open his chest and the walls of his room, drawing an arc of pristinely cut stone that started at the door and ended at Ella’s feet.

Ella stood beside the bed, sunlight highlighting her curves as she was halfway through squeezing into her clothes. She stared at him in shock.

“What in the Abyss was that?”

“Imaginary finishing move,” Calvin’s throat tickled, and he coughed up a little blood as his lung closed itself. “I finally made her get serious.”