Aubert glared at me through sleep-sodden eyes. The poor dear had probably only just managed to drop off.

“You?” he managed to mumble. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I was just in this area, checking out the local coups, and I thought I’d tour your dungeons,” I said smugly. “They’re very nice.”

He shook his head to clear it, probably ignoring everything I said.

“You’re here,” he repeated. “No one thought you’d dirty your hands with your own espionage. But we were wrong.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I told him. “I came here for the library.”

“The library… my library?” His outrage cut through the fog of his thoughts. “You’re stealing my books?”

“Not stealing,” I said. “I just needed to pick up a few skills.”

“More skills?” How do you have so many Skill Points?”

“I got two with my new level, remember?”

“I remember that,” he said indignantly. “But most people use those skill points to fill in their gaps. You needed more magic skills?”

“I couldn’t possibly comment.” Getting skills for free by demonstrating competence was a bit of a blind spot for these people. Even though some of them did it for [Scribe] and [Calculate], they discounted the possibility of doing it for other skills. I suppose it was because they started spending skill points at such an early age. It was so much easier to just spend points on [Run], [Jump] and such than it was to actually do the work. Aubert, though, was still going.

“You fight, you have the full list of Social skills—”

“I don’t have [Seduction],” I interrupted.

“What? But you…” he broke off, blushing.

“I don’t,” I insisted. I had a bonus, which took the skill up to one. Paired with my stats and level, that took my total up to 60, which wasn’t much compared to my other social skills, but was a hell of a lot better than the fat zero a normal person without the skill would have. I wasn’t going to explain that, though, so I just stared at him until he dropped the subject.

“Fine. But you still have too many skills,” he mumbled. “It’s almost as if… wait…”

“What?” I asked suspiciously.

“Champions are said to have more skills than normal…” he said slowly.

“Are they? Are you sure that’s not just the legends talking them up?”

“Maybe,” he admitted. “But you were so friendly with the ones in the capital…”

“They’re friendly people,” I countered. “Kaito has five companions that are very much more than friendly,”

“It would explain so much,” he said looking at me intently. “The way you overtook me in levels…”

“Even if I was, don’t you have bigger problems right now?”

“I… suppose so,” he said, remembering where he was. He looked around his cell warily. “Shouldn’t there be a guard?”

“Glamoured,” I said, waving a hand airily. This world didn’t have fairies, but I trusted the term would get translated. “He’s not going to notice anything for a while.”

“Then… what are your intentions here?”

“Hmm,” I said thoughtfully. “Why don’t you fill in a few details first? Why did Victor want to keep you alive?”

“Duke Victor,” he said, frowning at me. I just raised an eyebrow and met his gaze. Eventually, he sighed.

“I don’t know, exactly,” he admitted, “Killing me would be more unusual, these matters are normally settled bloodlessly.”

Remembering the sounds of fighting from earlier, I figured we had different definitions of bloodless. Aubert did seem mostly uninjured, which was probably what counted for him.

“Keeping me here serves as insurance against setbacks,” Aubert went on. “If the King objects, or the people revolt against whatever puppet he sets up in my place, he can set me back in place, no harm done.”

I was learning so many new definitions for words today.

“You didn’t know?” I asked. “He has Guillaume with him.”

“That snake!” Aubert spat. “He changes masters as easily as he breathes.”

“Well Duke Finley is dead,” I pointed out. “I imagine swearing loyalty to whoever could get him out of prison seemed like a pretty good idea.”

“He should have died with him,” Aubert growled. “I’ll make sure of it this time.”

“Will you,” I said, looking him over. He did look in pretty good shape. “That eager for a rematch? Think it will go better a second time?”

“Maybe,” he muttered, looking at the ground. “We were taken off guard earlier. If we’d known, maybe we’d have had a chance.”

“Say that’s true,” I said. “If you do beat him, which is a pretty hard sell given he’s level seven and you’re level five. If you do manage that, and don’t kill him because you want to keep it bloodless… then doesn’t he just order you to stand down? Isn’t he still your liege?”

“He stopped being my liege when he dragged me from my bed!” Aubert protested hotly. “But also…” he trailed off, confused.

“Just what is your legal status right now?” I pressed. “Does Victor get to decide who the Count of Seren is?”

“If I’d done something wrong, perhaps,” Aubert said slowly. “Tradition decides… the Duke has his say, but the King confirmed me. Unless I break my oaths, Duke Victor has no right to depose me.”

“So he just sends a message to the King saying that you broke your oath, so he replaced you with Guillaume.”

“I wouldn’t have thought him capable of such a thing… until now. But yes, that would be accepted.”

“So if you’re out of prison,” I mused, “and, say, back at Dorsay, saying to the King that Victor deposed you for no reason, what happens.”

“Well…” Aubert said, thinking.

“Don’t worry, I know this one. Duke Victor outranks you, so his word gets taken and you’re right back in here. Right?”

“That… might be true,” Aubert admitted despairingly. “The King would not look kindly on someone who showed up as a beggar. It might be different if a Champion were to speak on my behalf though?” He looked at me imploringly, but I dealt with real puppy dog eyes every day.

“Not for your entire county,” I told him flatly. “I’m not getting entangled in politics in the city. Again. Let's talk about what happens if you manage to win here. What and where are the forces involved?”

“My main garrison in the town has probably not been informed yet,” he said thoughtfully. “They probably plan on sending Guillaume there tomorrow to inform them of the change of leadership.”

“That’ll just work?” I asked.

“He is a Duvost, and the Duke’s men will be standing by his side. My men will have no reason to doubt what he’s saying. If I was there at the time it would be different.”

“Right. So what does the Duke have in town?”

“About half my numbers,” Aubert said. “He had more troops outside, but we’ve been bringing them in quietly to avoid notice.”

“And in the castle?”

“I had only a tenth of my garrison stationed here,” he said. “Those that yet live are probably confined to their barracks, for now. They may go over to my cousin but the circumstances of tonight’s events will make them wary of swearing a new loyalty. Duke Victor has probably brought in about the same number of his own troops.”

“What about your high-level people?” I asked.

“Imprisoned down here as well.” The voice came from outside the cell, from one of the locked rooms. I stepped out and saw a number of faces looking through the barred windows. The man who’d spoken before continued, allowing me to identify which one had spoken.

“We’re willing to fight again for his lordship, but we’ll be needing healing potions,” he said. “We went down fighting to protect him.”

I looked over at a relatively unscratched Aubert.

“I surrendered only when it looked hopeless,” he said, wilting under my gaze. “Which was after my guards were beaten.”

“Whatever,” I said dismissively. “So it sounds like you’ve got three options. You can fight him in the town, with two-to-one odds. Beat him there, and you can bottle him up in your castle until he surrenders. I’ve no idea how easy it will be to take the castle from the town, but I assume it's designed to make that hard.”

“It is,” Aubert sighed. “And we’ll have to fend off attacks from his men outside as well. At least we’ll have the walls for that.”

“Sure. Or, you can try and take the forces in the castle with what you’ve got here. That's… less than even odds? Assuming you can get weapons and healing potions.”

“But if we win here, we win,” Aubert stated. “The Duke can be forced to order his men to surrender, Guillaume can be executed, and rightful authority restored.”

I didn’t know where to start with that statement, so I just let it pass. “If you capture the Duke, does he just say ‘You won, good game,’ and everything goes back to how it was before?”

“I’m not that naive,” Aubert said sourly. “If we captured him, I would have to take him back to Dorsay to bring a case before the King. He would have to make a ruling.”

“And you’d just have to hope that he ruled in your favour,” I said. “Not to mention, you’d have to escort the Duke all the way to Dorsay, through territory filled with his men.”

Aubert opened his mouth and then closed it again. “That would be challenging,” he eventually admitted.

“What if you killed him during the fighting?”

“That’s not very likely,” he told me, with just a hint of condescension. “He is Level Seven, after all. We might be able to overwhelm him, but if that looks like happening, he will probably surrender.”

“Humour me,” I said flatly. “What would happen if he did?”

“Then… command would revert back to the highest ranking officer. He has a son with the troops in the town— not his eldest, but of high enough rank to be listened to. A new duke would need to be confirmed, taking precedence over the current operation. They might be willing to leave in return for receiving his body.”

Aubert took a deep breath. “And then, either I would be summoned to Dorsay to answer for the murder of my liege, or I would have started a blood feud with the Bargougnes. Since they are the Ducal house, it would be less than a year before I found the entire duchy raised against me. They would raze my city to the ground and kill every man, woman and child named Duvost.”

“So… bloodless victory is preferred,” I said.

“Indeed,” he replied.

“Does the King have to worry about that for Duke Finley?” I asked.

Aubert shrugged. “He is more powerful than a ducal house,” he said. “He had the right, no matter how transparent his motivations were. The King chose to pay the costs he is facing now because of his actions.”

“I suppose. So anyway, how did you want to proceed?”

“You said there were three options.”

“Oh right. Well, the third option was if you wanted to kill Victor. Sneak a small group in and kill him. You could try for a capture, but he does have that level gap. A small group will be at a disadvantage.”

“None of the options appeal. What is your advice?”

“Did you mistake me for one of your advisors?” I said, amused. “My advice is option four. Sneak out of the castle, and leave the noble life behind. Start a new career as an adventurer.”

He grimaced in disgust. “Why even suggest such a shameful thing? And if you’re not here to help, why are you here?”

“I already told you why I’m here. If you’re asking why I’m talking to you, it's because I’m trying to find a path where Talnier doesn’t get attacked. I’m helping you only if it helps me.”

I gestured around me.

“You’re in charge of these poor fools, of the poorer fools in the barracks right now, and the unsuspecting fools in town. They’ll obey you, not me. What are you going to do with that power, and is it going to help me?”

“Or is it just going to get all these fools killed?”