Rebirth: Rise of the Slave Master

Chapter Thirty-Four: A Clandestine Encounter

The council room of the town hall was large but hardly ornate. Even though these merchant rulers were men who knew how to enjoy the finer things in life, they were by nature the most frugal kind of people. The table top that filled the bulk of the room sat upon a singular heavy base, seated on a simple hard-weave rug. Theo couldn’t really see all of the chairs but they looked comfortable enough. The walls were decorated with simple paintings and bookshelves lined both side walls and held dozens of collected volumes of various laws and codes.

Large windows dominated the far wall, where heavy curtains had been pulled aside to let the evening light pour through. The mayor, who was seated at the head of the table was doing so with his back to the setting sun, giving him a rather powerful impression when one walked into the room. The rest of the seats were taken up by a variety of citizens, including the other members of the council that controlled Aleside, mostly government officials, business owners, and local landowners. 

The mayor was a sallow man with strict features and thinning hair. He was dressed like a typical Oasis plutocrat. Since there wasn’t anything like air conditioning in the world of Orpheum, the room was swelteringly hot, but nobody dared to complain about it. Sweat pooled on the foreheads of nearly everyone present, excluding a tall buxom woman with long brown hair who sat near the end of the table. From the looks of it, she appeared to be some kind of spellcaster.

When Theo arrived, he was immediately the center of attention, and the council members regarded him as though he were some kind of living embodiment of plague. The only sympathetic looks came from the mayor, his new friend, the Monster Subjugation Officer, and the mage woman who didn’t appear interested in the least and somewhat frustrated at being there. 

“D-rank adventurer Theo, as you requested mayor,” the guard captain, Alaine, introduced Theo to the room of people, though it was clear they already recognized him.

Theo stepped forward and took a slight bow as a formality, though there wasn’t any reason to say anything. No matter what he said, there wasn’t going to be much of a way out of this situation without making even more enemies than he already had. It was best to just hear them out and play along.

“Theo, it’s good to finally meet you, Charles has told me much about you,” the mayor said cordially, smiling through his distressed expression.

Charles must have been the name of the official who gave the monster subjugation missions. Theo gave the dandy old man a grateful nod, which was returned in kind. This didn’t go unnoticed by the others, but they didn’t speak after it. There would not have been a reason to bring Theo here if these self-absorbed NPCs hadn’t already come to a conclusion. Why would they give him the ability to speak his mind when it wasn’t required by law?

“I’ve been informed that you are currently unaware of our predicament,” one of the men, an older bushy-bearded fellow who was dressed like a scribe, said, and he passed a tightly bound scroll down the table in his direction, “This should clear up any misconceptions on your part.”

Theo recognized the scroll as a missive from the Adventuring Guild. This may as well have been the game’s equivalent of a draft letter. Thankfully, it contained a very useful system protection that removed the penalty for death during the events of the quest. The scroll was eventually handed over to Alaine, who presented it to Theo.

Of course none of the council members wanted to approach the armed and dangerous adventurer when he might retaliate at any moment. Theo received the letter from the guard captain with a stoic expression and unrolled it to take a look. The game provided a quest tracker for the player’s convenience, but Theo didn’t enjoy windows popping up all of the time and had it turned off by habit. It was just too easy to get sidetracked by the information the system gave you and forget to look out for bonus content.

D-ranked Adventurer Theo,

It has come to the Guild’s attention that due to your recent actions, a group of [Threat Level: D] bandits, Black Mountain Clan, desires your immediate extermination. This has placed the Oasis jurisdiction city of Aleside in a dangerous situation. The leader of the Black Mountain Clan has requested your execution in exchange for the safety of the citizens of Aleside.

It is the Guild’s policy not to involve itself in such disputes, but it has come to our attention that the quarrel between yourself and the bandits is due to actions you have taken in service to the Adventuring Guild. As such, the Guild will be taking full responsibility for the conflict, and the city of Aleside will support you in this matter. An emergency mission has been posted to subjugate the unruly Black Mountain Clan, but the punitive force will not be able to arrive in less that 48 hours time.

Due to the circumstances, and because you are the only the adventurer present in the Aleside territory, the city government has hired you for a mission. A dossier detailing your objective should be delivered to you by a representative of the Guild along with this letter.

Refusal of this mission will result in immediate termination of your status as a member of the Adventuring Guild.

Sincerely,

Caoimhe Dahlia Fillilita, A-Rank Liaison

As soon as Theo finished reading the letter, he noticed a small postscript scroll across bottom of the missive in luminescent ink. It faded just as quickly as it had appeared, and was clearly a way of sending secret messages using a magical trigger.

P.S. Do your best, and try not to die! <3

“Sarcastic bitch!” Theo cursed the woman in his heart, though his face remained placid.

The letter was more or less what he had expected, but for some reason the little message from the greeter was enough to ignite a fire in his belly.

“Well, it’s not anything I hadn’t expected,” Theo said, taking a moment to inform the council members of his prior knowledge.

The rest of the men looked at him as if he was a suicidal maniac, but that was normal for the interactions most NPCs had with adventurers. The players were functionally immortal, and they had no fear of failure outside of the small loss of time investment they would face. It was impossible for them to feel pain or fear like the AIs. Theo had long since grown used to to this kind of expression.

“So you were aware, already,” the mayor spoke for his cabinet, doing his best to save face for the startled men.

Theo only shrugged, turning towards the woman who had been impartial up to this point. “I am guessing this is the messenger from the Guild?”

For the first time, the woman turned to look at Theo, “Clever. I like that. So am I to believe you were aware of me from the beginning?”

Theo honestly had no idea who this person was, but she was clearly the prideful type that expected people to understand her importance beforehand. Given her ability to suddenly appear before the backwater politicians without much of an explanation, it was probably the case that she could use teleportation magic. That meant that she was at least level 100, which seemed to imply a status of an A-rank NPC adventurer. She was truly an opponent that Theo couldn’t hope to combat, even if she was on the low end of the threat level, but there was nothing stopping a level 200 NPC from casting level 100 magic. With his current [Perception] skill, it was was insult to try and discover the truth behind the lax woman.

“How could I not?” he lied openly, “Well, I can only pay my respects now, that I have the chance,” Theo said.

The woman in the witch-looking outfit finally turned to him and inspected him with a pair of icy azure eyes, that felt as if they were piercing his very soul. This was a common effect upon those who fell under the perception of one many levels above them. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say this woman could even peek into Theo’s future, his fate was so easy to view for a high leveled figure, if only such a thing were possible for player characters.

Contrary to the frustration Theo expected to cover her features, the woman quirked an eyebrow at him, followed by a sudden bolt of fear that shook her to her core. It was only through thousands of hours of interaction that Theo could make such a judgement, and for the first time since he encountered an NPC in Dream World Online, he was stumped by their reaction.

“What… could she have seen?” he murmured.

“Well,” the woman cut him off before he could stew any longer in his own thoughts, “I came here just to bring you this dossier, I’m sure a respected individual such as yourself will know what to do with it.”

To the shock and awe of all of the Aleside bigwigs, the pair of adventurers, despite their vast disparity in status, regarded one another as equals. The woman spoke with Theo as if she was regarding an old friend, and handed him the packet of documents with a curious smile.

“My name is Beatrice, Witch Beatrice,” she said with a coy smile.

Theo had to keep from freezing up as he smiled and accepted the mission briefing with a respectful grin.

This was Witch Beatrice. Forget about level 200, she was a terrifying level 300 Boss NPC! She was the high protector of the mage’s college of Barantis! She was also an adventurer, but she was beyond even the A-ranked class. The only reason why Theo suspected she might be here was because she was the closest and most convenient NPC the system could make use of. Even the most powerful boss in the game was still just a delivery boy for the the AI that ran the whole show.

“Hohoho, for a young one, you certainly know how to treat a woman!” she laughed, showing off her figure in a decidedly suggestive way.

The system was equally biased towards fan service, it seemed.

Theo could cite this character’s entire backstory better than she could, by any measure, but he managed to restrain himself in this instance. He wasn’t the same War God he had been when they last… *ahem*... met.

How could he possibly forget this name and face?

“Does this make me a sleaze at this point?” Theo couldn’t help but think.

Naturally, the high leveled NPC who could solve this entire issue with a wave of her fingertips wouldn’t step in to solve the problem. The less effort a character had to make to fix an issue, the more expensive it would be. The issue was the same when Theo had become the War God. An entire cult of NPCs sprouted up to celebrate his rise to divinity, and it was profited from in each instance by the Alabaster Alliance. Even then, the most petty of requests could still end up being heard if the God himself had a moment to spare and sense of pity or boredom.

“I thank you for your aid in this matter,” Theo replied, trying to lead the god-like entity on.

The woman smiled, easily seeing through the lower-ranked adventurer’s provocations, “I’m sure you’ll be able to handle a small matter like this… Theo,” she said.

Why did he suddenly feel like someone was breaking script here? He tried not to let the shock show on his face when he eyed the woman. Although she had made it clear that she wasn’t going to help in this incident in any tangible way, her words were enough to increase Theo’s credibility as an adventurer beyond even the league of C-ranked adventurers. This was one of the true rulers of this world, a Hero who had long since retired! If she said that the world was flat and gravity flowed in the opposite direction, who would dare to contradict her!?

“Rest assured,” Theo followed up shortly, “My matters won’t bother the High Scholars in this case.”

Even Theo himself wasn’t sure why he had answered in this way, but Beatrice only smiled back at him pleasantly, “When that time comes, you know who to ask,” she winked.

“Why are you winking? This isn’t Tazzharath! Please don’t remind me of that incident!” Theo’s mind was racing, trying to keep up with the woman’s bountiful… *ahem*... exposition.

The High Scholars were the ruling body of Barilantis, and would always be Beatrice’s most sensitive subject. She would rail on and on about how those old bastards were always telling her how to live her life. As the youngest and most powerful witch of the last hundred generations, and a ripe old 300 years herself, they were the only entities in the world that could boss around the walking nuclear warhead.

“Very well,” Theo finally stopped trying to push for help and accepted his fate.

Beatrice gave him a look as if to say, ‘I’ll see you around,’ and exited the room with a resounding popping noise. Almost as surely as she had arrived, the woman was gone, most likely not to be seen for a good long while. When you got into the many hundreds in age, you tended not to pay too much attention to the way time passed. Even the six extra years Theo had lived wasn’t anything of consideration in comparison to the terrifying spellcaster’s life.

“I had never expected you to know such a distinguished guest,” the mayor said in his best impression of a casual voice.

Although he couldn’t possibly comprehend the nature of Theo’s relationship with the Witch Beatrice, the mayor was opportunistic by trade. It was only a shame that he was already on Theo’s side from the beginning. It would take him a while to convince the rest of the council members just how wrong they were by placing the woman’s acquaintance in danger, but that wouldn’t serve to protect Theo’s life in the meantime.

The only thing the man could do was try to express as much goodwill as was within his power, even if that meant giving up a room in his own home. Theo denied the preferential treatment as the meeting dragged on. His role in the ensuing conflict was going to be simple. He was the vanguard that would meet the bandits on the field of combat outside the walls of Aleside. Theo wondered if this was a quest that had always been programmed into the game from the moment an adventurer set foot inside the city, or if it was really the result of his own actions in the game. This was always something that would remain a mystery to the playerbase.

Theo’s ultimate goal was to go out in front and get slaughtered by the bandits, in the hope that his death would placate the Black Mountain Clan long enough to get them to pack up and go home. It was the kind of desperate strategy that only the large dark bureaucratic menace that infected Orpheum could come up with, but how could the prospective world ruler himself really discount such a strategy? If Theo was placed in the same situation, with the same information as those in power, he would probably make the same decision.

Theo wasn’t worried about holding the line, since low level bandits would never be his equal in combat no matter how many of them there were. It was only the looming shadow of the Shapeshifter that caused him to feel apprehensive. The bandit army wasn’t far out, and it was impossible for him to travel outside of the walls and grind up experience before the conflict unfolded. That would be the same as leaping openly into the waiting arms of Death.

“All that I request is a place for the girls by my side, I know that the conflict will be dangerous, but I’ve tried and failed to get them to leave,” Theo’s voice was calming, gentle even, as he requested permission to bring a mute princess and a sociopathic Goblin into combat with him.

The only thing the councilmen heard was another selfish concession given to the average adventure, and they didn’t at all consider the emotional impact on what could very well have been two unwilling sacrifices. If this was all he asked for, the profit-minded merchant community couldn’t possibly deny him. Theo knew this, and presented his action as a final favor to a dead man, rather than an ostentatious request.

Although Charles the Monster Subjugation Office had an inkling of the relationship between the three, only the mayor fully understood after the exchange with Beatrice, how important this man might be to not only Aleside or Oasis, but the entirety of Orpheum. If it wasn’t on direct order from the Adventuring Guild itself, he wouldn’t have dared let this man step onto the field of battle.

Given the situation, the group easily granted Theo complete leeway to do with the girls as he wished, without having to worry about the interference of the guard. Alaine gave the adventurer a curious glance, but the ‘just trust me,’ look that was returned to him was enough to placate his concerns for now. He had a good opinion of Theo, and expected an adequate explanation from the man when the time finally came for the both of them to offer up their lives to the Black Mountain Clan.

Theo bowed to the merchant leaders and decided to take his leave, “I’m afraid I have nothing left to do but wait in response for the invader’s actions, I’ll fulfill the mission to the best of my ability.”

The Slave Master left the room with air of man who was already on death row. Considering the various strings Castle seemed to pull behind the scenes, that might very well be the case.

“Let ‘em try, I’ll show these bastards the real wrath of the War God…”