“Very well Sir. Is there anything else for us to go over?”

Aastor seemed genuinely annoyed, and perhaps just a little bit sad, at my reaction. After all, as a Butler, I wasn’t sure exactly where the bounds of “Formal Conventions” ended and impropriety began. On the one hand, I assumed I wasn’t allowed to call him insane, or crazy, or any of a hundred other choice adjectives that demonstrated how little I thought of his mental state. On the other hand, perhaps it was within a Butler’s duties to actually help their Employer see sense and avoid disaster? I didn’t know, and since stepping out of bounds seemed to result in being choked by Isekai Hero, I decided to stay quiet. Aastor, however, wasn’t exactly the quiet kind.

“I-Is there anything else? Anything ELSE?” Aastor was apoplectic at this point. “Listen, boy, this is the bit when ya call me an idiot! A lily-livered, brain hemorrhaging, poppy-cock spewing madman! Where’s tha anger?”

“Yes Sir. Shall I proceed to do so?”

“Yes you damn well should!”

Oh. Well, this changed things. Surely, Isekai Hero couldn’t take offense if I’d been ordered to insult my Employer by my employer. Even so, it would be a good chance to experiment. I imagined it wasn’t one I would get too often.

“Sir, with all due respect, your plan is-AHAAAACK!”

—————————————————————————————————————

WARNING:

Class limitations when interacting with Entity “Employer”: All interactions must fall under Formal Conventions.

—————————————————————————————————————

A vice clamped down on my throat as the airflow stopped abruptly. Aastor, who was looking directly at me this time, noticed and ran over to my side.

“Breathe, boy, breathe! What’s wrong?”

And as quickly as it had come over me, the choking feeling disappeared. So, I couldn’t actually curse out Aastor, even if I was explicitly being ordered to do so? It confirmed my suspicions at least. Isekai Hero was in control, at all times. Even if Aastor was my designated “Employer”, he was still only being given power through the System. I didn’t have the authority to beat the System or my Employer, and Aastor didn’t have the ability to actually force me to disobey whatever innate programming Isekai Hero had set up to stop me from doing certain things. In a tug of war between Aastor and XXXXXX, Aastor was likely going to lose terribly, at least within the confines of Isekai Hero.

“Sorry Sir. As it stands, I am simply unable to bring myself to insult you.”

“Cut the crap. You ain’t gonna tell me yer havin’ an allergic reaction ta being rude.”

I hadn’t even said it was a reaction! It would have been a good excuse, had Aastor not been so perceptive, but he’d nipped it in the bud before I’d even had a chance to say anything. Well, if we were going to experiment, there was something else I’d been curious about.

“Sir, pardon the interruption, but perhaps we can discuss a different matter for the time being?” I cleared my throat. It still itched a little, though in all honesty, that was probably more psychosomatic than a result of the magical restraints on my speech. “I was curious as to my…role, in your overarching goals?”

I was pretty hopeful. I wasn’t sure if it would work against Aastor, or indeed, against any Employer. Business at Hand didn’t explicitly mention it couldn’t be used in a conversation that I was having with my Employer, but at the same time, Isekai Hero V2.0 was dangerously arbitrary. A lot more temperamental and flightier than the earlier versions had been.

It worked, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little counter tick up from 1 to 2. Aha! Success! Business at Hand was going to be an extremely powerful ability, especially if it allowed me to manipulate Aastor. More and more, even though I liked Aastor and had no reason to distrust him, I was beginning to see that manipulating and subtly moving him was going to prove to be far more powerful than implicitly following instructions.

Perhaps that was the intention behind the skillset I’d been given, after all: Subtle manipulation and maneuvering. Even if it wasn’t, I wanted to figure out the point of my class sooner rather than later. A Holy Warrior, for example, was meant to be the sword and shield of the innocent and virtuous. However, they were not meant to be the enforcers of a rich and corrupt temple. Unlocking the potential of the Holy Warrior class involved genuinely helping people and deposing tyrants, even if they came in the guise of self-proclaimed monks and priests. Similarly, perhaps a Butler was meant to be a sort of unseen, manipulative, diplomatic force that aided their Employer? Not necessarily doing what their Employer said, but rather, carrying out instructions and doing what was best for their Employer?

“Yer role, my boy, is to be my Butler. Like I said, I ain’t planned on havin’ some Legendary hero around.” He scratched his chin as he spoke to me, and gave a quick glance at the starchart behind him before continuing. “Yer a bit of a windfall, but I ain’t sure what good bein’ a Butler is for ya. And ya won’t tell me yer strengths or anything.”

Oh, he’d seen right through me. I thought I was being smart about it. Well, perhaps a little teaser?

“Very well Sir. My primary abilities are centered around supporting you, Sir.”

“Supportin’ me, eh? Like what?”

“As Sir noted, I am able to aid in casting spells and using other abilities. I am also extremely capable at carrying out Sir’s instructions, no matter what they may be. Additionally, I am also able to glean information from others through conversation.”

“That doesn’t tell me anythin’!” Aastor was going to tear his hair out, but unless I spilled the beans about Isekai Hero and then explained class based mechanics to him and then explained Stats and abilities and skills, he wouldn’t understand. “Ya just sound like an arrogant butler! Able ta glean information? What, do ya hypnotize people or something!?”

“No Sir. I prefer to simply hold conversation.”

The Old Magus sighed, and collapsed into his chair, looking exhausted.

“Look, boy, ya must be lyin’. Legendary Hero of twelve worlds, and your abilities are makin’ magic easier, and talkin’.” Aastor shook his head and groaned. “Yer a clever one, and ya can’t trust me, sure. But I can’t trust ya either, especially if ya don’t come clean about yer actual skillset.”

But I was! I wasn’t lying! Dammit, I was withholding key pieces of information, but that wasn’t lying! And if I did tell Aastor everything, he was almost certainly going to end up trusting me less.

—————————————————————————————————————

System Notification: Trust Deterioration

As a Butler, the relationship that matters most to you is the one you have with your Employer. As your Employer trusts you more, Employer Assigned Quest Rewards increase in size and value and your abilities become more effective. High Trust can allow unexpected bonuses! Low Trust can cause unexpected failures! Trust values can drop below 0.

Employer Trust: 5 -> 3 (Unknown Quantity)

—————————————————————————————————————

It was hard to qualify my exact reactions. First, I felt frustration. Great! Something else to balance, and moreover, it was a way to quantify how much Aastor liked me. Which, judging by the number wasn’t very much. My frustration was quickly replaced by dread. Every new addition to the System was making me more of a puppet, and less of an individual. It was…extremely discomforting to realize that Aastor’s personal opinion of me was going to lead to my abilities being hampered or boosted. And while it was obviously a two way street, since my abilities were intended to help Aastor in the first place, he didn’t know that. I’d have to do the heavy lifting, so that we could both reap the rewards. The Butler class had powerful support abilities, but apparently, while balancing the game, XXXXXX had decided to hamstring it entirely in terms of individuality and autonomy. It was an extremely, extremely odd choice, one I wasn’t content with in the slightest but also couldn’t fight. Yet.

Aastor and I had settled into an uneasy silence. He seemed a little drained, which I guess was understandable. I was a little bit taken aback by how little Aastor actually seemed to value talking as a skill though. Clearly, the man had next to no CHA, and no diplomacy skills either. I’d come to think of CHA as a magic bullet. In a world controlled by sentient creatures, being able to control sentient creatures was ludicrously powerful, but clearly Aastor would have preferred that I shoot fireballs or wield ancient weaponry or something. Well, I would have too, but I had to make do with what I had.

“I guess…just do what ya can. I ‘unno, maybe just clean or whatever.” He sighed. “Figure out how ta be useful.”

“Yes Sir. I shall endeavor to be as useful as possible.” Apparently, Isekai Hero only punished my actual words and not my tone, so I attempted to make my tone as dry and cynical as possible. I don’t think Aastor noticed it, but it made me feel better.

“Aye. Ya do that, and tell me how ya did it. Next, yer pay.”

Aha! I’d forgotten all about being paid! Legendary Heroes didn’t really get paid, since everything was pretty much free. I’d walk into a tavern, the barkeeper would recognize my face, and lo and behold, I had water, bread and a room for the night. (Sidenote: Always water, never beer. Beer can hide the taste of most poisons. Water cannot, and if someone is going to try to poison you, why give them more options?)

“Yes Sir. What are you paying me?”

“Fifty Crowns a week, plus expenses and meals.” He looked at me and grinned. “And ya have no idea what that means, do ya?”

“No Sir.”

“Worry not boy. Here.” He rummaged in his desk for a few minutes, and pulled out what looked like an old, battered book.

I don’t know how Isekai Hero handles translations. I’ve thought about it before, because there’s some translations it won’t handle fully. For example, if I’m on a world with multiple species, I’ll be able to understand at least one, maybe a few of them, but not all. On Grimmar, I couldn’t speak to the natives at all, but on Excelsia, I seem to be conversant with almost everyone including other Summons, from other planets. My best guess is that Isekai Hero, and Summoning in general, localizes the language to whatever sentient race Summoned me.

Either way, I could read the title on the book that Aastor was holding out: “A Summoned Guide to Excelsia.”

Oh. They actually, legitimately had a guidebook. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, since Summoning was obviously an industrial level effort. The logistics in place to make sure Summoned workers had a basic grasp of the world were probably fairly intricate. I flipped the book open.

Summoned are called forth from other, inferior worlds to the land of Excelsia. By virtue of being allowed to live in Excelsia, all Summons must have a Summoner, who is responsible for the upkeep and activities of their Summoned workers. Summoned must abide by all the laws of Excelsia. This guide will inform the Summoned of any necessary etiquette, daily functions and basic understandings of the Excelsian community.

Oh. It was propaganda. I closed the book, and looked at Aastor. I wasn’t sure if my face was betraying my feelings, but the book and everything it stood for disgusted me to my very core. An utterly exploitative, dystopian system of pure exploitation had been put in place by the Excelsian’s and the fact that they considered it a “virtue” to be “allowed to live in Excelsia”, rather than straight up kidnapping was….it made me tremble in anger.

“I know. I know boy.” Aastor was sympathetic. “It’s mainly garbage, but there are some useful things in there. Read it, and I’ll trust ya have the sense to not swallow everythin’ they say.”

“Yes Sir.” I could barely keep my voice from shaking. The audacity of Excelsia!

“Now, couple other things. First, yer friends are more or less fine. They’re restin’ in the medical ward.”

“Yes Sir. You have a medical ward?”

“I used ta be an archmage, and I’m tryna overthrow tha Queen. Why do ya think I wouldn’t have a medical ward?”

I didn’t say it out loud, but mainly because I didn’t think Aastor had the good sense to make decisions that were clearly logical. Instead I just shook my head.

“May I go see them, Sir? Perhaps they are more amenable to an offer of employment now?”

“Which brings me ta my second point.” He leaned forward, more out of curiosity than anything else. “Why did ya make me save ‘em?”

“Ah. Well, Sir.” I unintentionally began to rub the back of my head. It was going to be a hard sell, but I was prepared! “Sir, from your actions with Ms. Laura, I surmised that you had no great love for the Excelsian government.”

“Correct. But why bandits?”

“Yes Sir. It was my belief that you would be well-served by having employees who were well versed in the gray side of the law.”

“Well-versed in tha-Ya mean, willing ta do illegal stuff?”

“….Yes, Sir. A rather succinct way of putting it.” The man really didn’t enjoy speaking in riddles. What kind of Old Wizard didn’t enjoy speaking in riddles?

“Hmm…Employment, ya say? They wanna work for me?”

“….Perhaps, Sir? I have not yet…discussed employment in complete detail with Mr. Baldric and his companions.”

At this, Aastor burst out laughing. Something about the situation was hilarious to him, and he had a tear in his eye.

“Boy, are ya tellin’ me you want me to hire some bandits? And not jus’ that, bandits who ain’t even asked for employment yet?”

“…Yes Sir.”

“So, you wan’ me to offer ‘em a job. And you’ve told ‘em the job already exists? And you’ve been tellin’ me they want ta work for me?”

“Apologies Sir, I did not intend to deceive.”

“Bullshit! Ya intended to deceive, and ya did a damn fine job of it.” He was chuckling to himself. “No shame in that!”

What on earth was wrong with Aastor, and how could I make sure I didn’t catch whatever mental affliction ailed him? The man was equal parts jolly, frustrated and insane. He appreciated diplomatic skill, but didn’t have the patience for it. He had natural charisma of some kind, but none that would allow him to actually engage in any political gamesmanship or diplomatic maneuvering. And even so, he planned to disrupt Excelsian society at the very core of it’s being.

“…O-Of course, Sir?”

“Twenty crowns each, weekly, with free meals and lodging. Not a bit more.”

“Yes Sir.”

“And boy?”

“Sir?”

“If ya make ‘em sign up for less, ya can pocket the difference.” Another cheeky grin. I had no intention of betraying Ellem or Chanak. Baldric, on the other hand…maybe. I’d have to think about it. I couldn’t exactly make a decision without knowing how much a Crown was, exactly.

“Thank you for your generosity, Sir.”

“Aye. Now, the last thing.”

“Yes Sir?”

I had a bad feeling about this one. Mainly because I had avoided bringing it up myself, hoping that Aastor had forgotten about his request.

“Hand over yer Spark. Let’s see what it can do.”

At hearing that, Kel shivered in my breastpocket.