“A Knight?!”

“Maybe it’s a Squire with an Engine?”

“That’s the same as a Knight, dumbass!”

The small group of fake bandits chattered as Gaius floated down. A man, clad in distinctly better armour and holding a rather large sword, looked at the small child cautiously.

“Your Excellency,” he said, “what do you want from us?”

“I want to use the passageway in this settlement to enter Orb,” replied Gaius. “And I need a new bunch of followers.”

“The first we’ll gladly give, but the second? I don’t think so.”

“Oh?” Gaius asked, intrigued. “Might I have a reason?”

“We used to have a town head, but he fled halfway through the fight, after having us buy some time to gather his valuables,” replied the man. “Without him at the frontlines, most of us died in the next few minutes that followed. We’re not willing to offer part of our livelihood to someone who might flee at the first hint of danger.”

The others tittered in agreement.

“What kind of person are you willing to follow then?” asked Gaius.

“If possible, we’ll never do that.”

“Assume that’s out of the question,” replied the boy. “I don’t like leaving loose ends.”

Gaius didn’t move, but the other bandits flinched and took a step back at these words as a nebulous might spread out soundlessly from the boy. The leader of this motley crew stared at the little boy, sweat rolling down his face, but there was a steely undercurrent beneath his expression that tipped the boy off about the man’s true nature.

“You’ll never bend, eh?” Gaius looked at the man. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Tetsu, sir.”

“Tetsu, eh? I’m not asking you guys to pay me tribute, I don’t need that,” said Gaius. “What I want are people willing to fight for me, to obey a single order of mine.”

“What will we get in return? Surely you don’t expect us to follow you without any benefits, right?”

The boy tossed a small bag over, and as the man opened it, dazzling light entered his eyes. Tetsu took a few steps back, before waving at the others to stand down. “These are gemstones from Heritage?!”

Gaius raised an eyebrow. “Why do you find that surprising?”

“Because it means that you’re under twenty, or you have an elite who’s under that age!”

The boy looked at his body, and then looked up again. “Do I not look like a child? I am, as I understand it, of average size for an eleven-year-old.”

There was a moment of silence, before the bandits in front of the boy took a step back. “Please do not kid around, Your Excellency. The record for the youngest Knight ever is seventeen years old, Knight Isabelle of the Southern Continent.”

Gaius coughed violently when he heard that name. “Come again?”

“Isabelle Lorenze, from the House of the same name,” Tetsu replied obligingly. “You don’t know who she is?”

“Just didn’t know that lass was that famous,” said Gaius. It was possible that there was a second Isabelle who was also a Knight, but the boy didn’t really want to believe that. Incidentally, this Isabelle was the second person with a surname. There was probably some significance to having one, but judging from the words the peanut gallery was spewing out right now…Gaius didn’t really hold much of a hope that they would know about it.

An odd expression appeared on Tetsu’s face.

“What?” Gaius said. “Make up your mind. Either I’m older than her, or I’ve broken her record as youngest Knight. Both of them entitle me to call Isabelle a lass. She wouldn’t object if she was here, anyway.”

The boy smiled at the inside joke. “Alright, enough about that lass. What I really want is for you lot to cause as much chaos as possible. Just expand your level and area of activity. Be a bandit lord.”

Tetsu’s eyes followed the complex orbits that the handful of sigils behind Gaius were following, and then smiled fearlessly. “If you’re going to such an extent to support us bandits, I don’t see why we can’t do as you say. But why do you want to do this? The South has been beaten down and crippled, but it’ll wipe us out easily if we piss them off enough.”

“Not if you play your cards well,” replied Gaius. “Rebuild the city on the other side of your passageway, and pay lip service to the guy that’s going to come over eventually. You’ll be part of the South in name, but…”

“We’ll be, err, your spies?”

“Something like that.” Gaius nodded his head. “Gather people who are unsatisfied, and then grant them positions in the town’s bureaucracy. Under the noses of the rulers of the South, create a second city, where you can nurture forces loyal to you alone. I don’t really care. All I want is…”

“…chaos.” Tetsu finished Gaius’ sentence. “Can I ask why?”

The boy snorted. “Do you not chafe at the inexplicable superiority of the Southern Houses over normal people? Do you not feel anger when these people kill commoners like us, and get away with it? Why should we retain such a system of governance?”

“I—”

“You said it yourself, Tetsu,” Gaius interrupted. “Your town head fled, and left you lot to die. He’s probably enjoying his life now, when he should be hung for cowardice, because he’s someone from the Houses.”

The boy was talking through his hat, but it wasn’t too hard for him to draw on the various stories and histories of Earth to create a credible argument. Stirring up malcontents and arming them with ideological weapons was an easy way to secure access to a high value target…and if one was lucky enough, a riled mob would do an assassin’s job for him or her.

“That’s unfair, eh.” Some life fled from Tetsu’s eyes. “Yes. Why did I not think of that? Why did anything they do seem so natural? Killing us, raping our wives and daughters…why do we think that these were natural, acceptable actions for the Southern Houses?”

“Boss…you’re right.” One of his followers spoke up. “Isn’t that unfair?”

Similar murmurs filled the place. Gaius didn’t know if it was another one of those mental suggestions from any divinity that conditioned them to such actions, but from the apparent lack of fainting or madness, any divine compulsions were probably not it.

“The Southern Houses have conditioned everyone to think that way,” Gaius said quietly. “They offer food and money to those who obey, and crush those that don’t. They redirect problems and pin them on innocent beastfolk, stirring up a war that killed countless youths. This is the result of power without checks on it.”

Gaius extended his hand. “You’ve seen the truth now. Are you lot really willing to eke out an ignoble existence like this? Or will you fight for something greater?”

“I will fight.” Tetsu looked up, a fey light in his eyes. “To my dying breath. You guys, are you with me?”

Cries of approval echoed around the camp.

“Excellent,” said Gaius. “Take these gems and use them as needed. Moving forwards, here’s what you need to do…”