The interrogations of the surviving members of the Viscount of Amar’s invasion force did indeed cheer John up. With Spiz’s mass hypnosis, it was an easy thing to make people confess. He showed them all sorts of gruesome sights until they couldn’t stand it any longer. A few of the stronger ones still held out, but the majority of them gave statements, testifying against the Viscount. The Empress had earlier said that these statements would not be enough for her to take action. When he messaged her about it he received a reply to keep the statements and recordings. They could not be used now, but perhaps they would be useful in the future. John imprisoned these people and then moved to the city’s walls to let out his remaining anger on the monsters which were continuing to assault the city on a daily basis.

The Viscount soon made a scene on the root way, showing videos of his cruiser’s destruction.

“They were only there to help maintain peace, but the wild Baron of Fi destroyed them without so much as ascertaining their purpose,” the Viscount said.

John put up a statement saying that the approaching fleet been warned not to come near Fi and that they were clearly a hostile force. The Viscount of Amar was clearly a fool who couldn’t see what was black and what was white.

After a game of tit for tat and a lot of name calling, the Viscount of Amar contacted John personally and asked for five million credits in compensation. John bargained with him for days and in the end they settled for four.

With this headache now over, John went on an inspection tour of his many projects. The dwarfs were busy building components of a battleship in a top secret facility in the city. The partially assembled components would be launched into space three days later where the final assembly would be done.

“We needs a name for our battleship,” said the dwarf in charge of the project.

“How about...” John chose a random name, “Pikachu.” John thought his name wasn’t that bad. The battleship did have a lightning emitter coil so there was some link between the yellow pokemon and the ship.

“Pikachu,” said the dwarf, “that’s a good name for a ship. It sounds big and deadly.”

“The name should be painted in yellow.”

With a state of the art battleship of his very own John felt much more relaxed. By the time the tribal boy Abzulon grew up and became a grand admiral, John would have many such ships.

In another facility they were going to start manufacturing craft for all purposes...war, transport, battle, cargo, exploration, and so on. Attached to it was a hangar where they were building war machines, great hulks of metal holding swords and cannon. His munitions factories were working non-stop. Everything was in order with his agricultural zone, the wave heaters doing much to assuage the coldness of winter. The metal refineries on the outskirts of the city near the walls, were overflowing with ore, too much for their current capacities. He’d have to build more refineries. His warehouses were nearly full, mostly of refined metal. He’d need to find more trading partners. The present ones just didn’t have enough market share to handle his full supply. Maybe he’d start dealing with the Conglomerate.

He went to the training grounds in the Oomari, as the native tribesmen had taken to calling this area of the city. There, martial artist trainers were teaching the tribesmen how to channel internal energy and use it. About sixty percent of the tribal population had a natural affinity for martial arts. Their struggle for survival during winter had endowed them with great strength and skill. Some of them had perceived the benefits of living in a city and became citizens. The others would go back to their nomadic lifestyle once winter was over, but they would be John’s allies, and his eyes and ears in the wilderness.

John went back to the command center to inspect everything through the digital map. He thought of getting a holographic projector. It would make things so much easier, but the most up to date one cost a million credits, which was unreasonably high.

John went to check on Sher Khan in the botanical gardens. All was well with him. The tiger had gotten used to sleeping out in the open and hunting small game.

The next day, John contacted Sor Al. On his last call, he had just been about to tell her the news of becoming a realm master. He had forgotten all about it when she warned him of the invasion of his barony.

“A realm master already?” Sor Al was shocked. “Have you been experimenting on your own body again?”

John nodded in affirmation. He didn’t have a better excuse. He wanted to keep Inashta a secret.

“Maybe I’m wrong,” Sor Al sighed. “Some people have the knack for experimentation. Just keep your safety in mind.”

“I will,” John grinned and ended the transmission.

He had been contacting Team Rose every now and then to find out how they were doing. He had tried to buy their contracts from the Conglomerate but had been met with refusal. The Conglomerate really valued them.

John was kept busy, expanding his fleet to the limit allowed a baron in the Empire of Oor. Winter slowly turned to summer, and his city expanded five times. He started building many satellite towns and expanded the areas under cultivation. Most of the tribesmen went back to their nomadic lifestyle. Peace and prosperity reigned in Fi.

Five years passed. John had grown and was now six feet tall, the average height in Oor. Sher Khan had grown much bigger, and was now the size of a house. The tiger had not yet learned how to control his size, but Lin, his friend from Team Rose, had said he would learn soon.

Duke Pular’s lackeys had not tried to invade Fi during this time. The situation in Tanis, the capital world of Oor, was getting more and more tense. The Empress was giving her all to win more support to her side. John was contacted by the Spymaster to assassinate the marquis of Qush who owned several outpost worlds at the fringes of Oor. It was a long way from Fi, and John didn’t want to take the job, but he had no choice. He was deeply obligated to the Empress. Moreover, the Spymaster said this matter concerned his planet Fi.

He grabbed his imli daggers and boarded the stealth ship that had been waiting for him. It took three weeks through hyperspace to reach the frontier where the marquis had his home. John landed some way from the city. The planet was sparsely populated with very few civilian ships coming and going. Most of the ships were military. This system was close to one that was owned by a particularly vicious warlock. The marquis and the warlock had been fighting each other for years with no clear winner. The Empress’ Spymaster said that the marquis was in fact colluding with the warlock and all their skirmishes were a pretense. John wasn’t sure what advantage the marquis was trying to gain by doing this, but he trusted the Empress and her Spymaster.

John changed his appearance. The Sleeping Goddess Inashta had taught him how to cast a glamour that could even disguise his DNA. He infiltrated the city at night and came to the marquis’ palace. He scaled the walls until he reached the marquis’ bedroom. The marquis was within, having a conversation with someone.

“Is everything prepared for the invasion?” the marquis asked.

“Everything is ready,” a gravelly voice replied from the communications screen. “We will take Fi by surprise and conquer it before that baron even knows what is happening. My orcs have hidden a hyperspace beacon there. I shall send you its bearings.”

John felt a jolt of fear. They were going to invade Fi?

“I can make everything look aboveboard,” said the marquis. “A casus belli claiming that my nephew is the rightful ruler of Fi, as it was given to him by the previous Emperor.”

“How did you manage that?” asked the gravelly voiced man.

“His father was in charge of exploration of that system. It was indeed given to him by the Emperor. He relinquished his rights to the planet later on, thinking it not worth developing. I have forged documents to show that the relinquishment was not fully legal and that my nephew still holds claim to it. As long as we conquer the planet before the Empress can react, it will not matter.”

“All I need is the waygate. You can do what you wish once you get the planet.”

The communication ended. John covered himself in a shroud of darkness and stabbed the marquis before he was aware of anything. So much for your plan, he thought. The creature the marquis was talking to was probably the warlock in the next system. John went through the marquis’ personal interface but everything was encrypted. He copied the data from the marquis’ chip as the Spymaster had asked him to, using the black technology gadget that he had been given for this purpose. John escaped from the palace and left the planet.

He went to Tanis and reported to the Empress, handing in the marquis’ data.

“He was planning on invading my planet,” he said to the Empress. “Did you know?”

“We had some idea.”

“You could have warned me without being so cryptic about it.”

“Now that he’s dead his invasion plan should come to nothing.”

“Should,” said John. He didn’t place much faith in ‘should.’ He didn’t want to be burnt because of carelessness. “I need to increase my fleet of ships if I’m to defend Fi. Make me a special baron with no fleet limit.”

“I can’t do that. I could make you a Viscount, but we’ll need a good excuse.”

Viscount! John was slowly rising up the hierarchy.