Chapter 151

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Conference Room

"So, baroness." Said Alexandra, and that worthy visibly twitched. They were alone in the hastily constructed conference room, Dominique being escorted to the prison block to interview the prisoners to her heart's content, and it was the perfect time for that little discussion away from prying ears she'd been preparing. "I wished to talk to you about some things."

"It would be preferable to await Dominique's return then, to avoid having that discussion twice."

"Things that I want to talk to you about away from the guild."

Allya opened her mouth, and closed it with a snap. Clearly the baroness was in mental distress, although it surprised the dungeon core how hesitant she seemed. She had seemed far more assured in their previous discussions, even when discussing the guild's…problematic meddling and embargoes.

Alexandra filed the impressions for something to dwell on later, when she had the time.

"I see. And what would those things be, exactly?" Said the baroness.

"The guild's overreach would be the first one. But others would be relating to loot that might…help the town against our mutual enemies. Plus mutual military and material assistance."

"An under the table deal for new materials in exchange for weaponry." Simply said Allya.

Alexandra nodded. The baroness was no fool, obviously.

"Indeed."

"What makes you think that I would be interested?"

"I saw the reactions of the adventurers to the musket loot. I also know that most of the nations around are technologically backward, at best, compared to the weaponry I can offer. And you need every possible advantage to stand against the Republic's onslaught."

"While those are all true, the adventurers guild is extremely powerful, and its wrath is not to be taken lightly. Furthermore, after the…deal with general Loveheart, there has been increased pressure and scrutiny placed upon me. Even if I was interested, implementing such a deal would be problematical."

"On your end? Most probably. With those muskets I have already sent the message that I am ready to distribute such weaponry as loot. And it is not like the guild can ask me why I chose such and such loot. Or rather they could, but I doubt they will."

"Right. Which means that I bear all of the risk."

"Most of the risk. I am sure there would be serious consequences for me as well if we were to be caught." They would be less severe than whatever they would slam on the baroness, she was sure, but still plenty debilitating. The guild had managed to keep these restrictions in place despite the UDC's existence, which spoke volume as to their diplomatic power and influence, if nothing else! "But, as I refused to betray you previously, I would refuse to let you fall then as well. If they wish to take one of us down, they will have to take us both. Of course it would be preferable if we did not have to face such an eventuality."

"Of course. But you understand that this makes me…circumspect."

Alexandra gave the baroness a long look, which the noble matched in kind, and sighed.

"Look, may I drop the propriety and the bullshit?"

"Sure." Said Allya.

"Thank you. Simply put, the Republic is going to come knocking at our door again, and this time they'll be ready. I've also heard the rumors from the adventurers. The ones about parts of your own kingdom turning against you. I cannot defend us both on my own, especially not if I am busy fighting off your so called 'allies', or fellow nobles I suppose." Alexandra rubbed her -or rather, CQ's- eyes. "And since the Republic will have the ability to plan around me and my forces, I need to make sure you call pull your own weight as well. Not to mention, helping you might pacify or neutralize some of those foes in your kingdom, and might even gain us some more, truthful, allies."

"Doing so might gather more enemies."

"True. The guild not the least among them, of course. But at this point, I would rather try to stack our deck even if we risk being caught cheating, than lose this game."

"You are acting as if the Republic was able to cross the wasteland in force. But with the sand krakens-"

"I know about the sand krakens. And believe me when I tell you this: when there is a will, there is a way, period. I thought up of five different methods to evade them within the first hour of learning of them. I am sure the Republic has had more than enough time to come up with their own and put them into action over the centuries. If nothing else, their forces are still massing at Erakis, far beyond the point that could be considered as a defensive buildup."

"How do you know this?"

"I have my ways. And they are reliable ways at that." The baroness had no need to know about the UDC's splinter faction actively feeding her intelligence. "They would not be preparing a jumping off point for an invasion if they weren't expecting to use it, especially not with the current tensions with the Tark Hegemony. If nothing else, they had to have some pressure to reassign resources and brace for war, even if the Hegemony itself has not fully rearmed yet." Wouldn't be the first time a military regime launched an all out attack without having finished preparations they wanted. After all, everyone would know the timing of the attack, or at least close it, if you stuck to that! "So I believe that they are coming, sand krakens or no sand krakens."

"I see. Well, you make an excellent point." Allya sighed. "So, you propose to, what? Get some muskets and cannons as loots in the dungeon, to boost my commercial ratings and military capabilities, while I get a shopping list to somehow smuggle to you?"

"I will handle the smuggling. I have my ways." The baroness must have been incredibly stressed, because her expression slipped, and Alexandra's eyes went wide as she recognized it. "You know what I am talking about!"

The baroness froze like a deer in headlights, before slowly nodding.

"Yes, I do. My…associates were able to spot and follow you as you raided that warehouse, and killed everyone within it."

That shook Alexandra. If someone knew about her infiltrators, it put a lot of her actions into jeopardy. Everything she'd done with the stealth golems had been based upon the thought that with their self destructs, no one could link them to her, as she had completely decommissioned the lower tech and much more recognizable as 'hers' infiltrator golems.

She shook her head internally. There was no way in hell the baroness had connected the dots, and even if she had, so what? The dungeon had been nosy and tried to sabotage some mercs. Weird, but understandable, if she was trying to grab them as pocket mana generators and such. Even if their interference in her influence was being a pain in the ass, thankfully kept at bay by an array of influence stabilizers.

"Ah. I suppose you have kept that close to your chest?"

"Very close."

There was an uneasy silence between them, and Alexandra sighed as she grabbed a glass of…something. It was a fruit juice, tasted vaguely like orange juice mixed with mango. It was refreshing, but the fruit it came from was clearly not terran, or at least had no equivalent.

"Well, thank you for not ratting on me I suppose. You could have thrown me under the bus with the guild if you'd wished."

Of course that would have pretty much screwed any hope of cooperation between them, and Alexandra would have never dealt with the baroness again, but she wasn't crass enough to mention it just now. Besides, she was sure the noble could see the implications as well.

"We are allies. Allies help each other. Even under…trying circumstances."

"That they do. That they do." Alexandra cleared her throat. "Well, I must really thank you for that regardless. It could have lead to some awkward questions with the guild."

"Indeed. So, concerning your offer, why would I help? I agree that the guild is becoming a problem, and overreaching, but you are asking for a lot of risk for fairly minor immediate rewards. I had agreed to find a way to have you produce gunpowder before if I could, but only because that was of immediate military interest."

"Then what would you like, to equalize that offer?"

The baroness leaned back.

"I want artillery. Not just field guns, but rockets, howitzers, the works. I want it through loot so that I can finally arm up and fight the Republic on equal term and not just rely on you for the heavy lifting."

Alexandra took a sip.

"That could be arranged." She'd need to modify the plans for the fourth floor, but it was definitely doable. She'd need one hell of a ceiling height to justify the howitzers however. But it could make for some fun mechanics, like rolling barrages from shrines or special golems serving as artillery spotters, requiring adventurers to take cover wherever they could. Trench warfare, dungeon edition. "Of course all of this will depend on your ability to get me the materials." Alexandra held her hand up as Allya opened her mouth. "I'm not going to blackmail you about that. I understand, it'll be a complicated process at best. But I'm sure you can handle it." Besides which, the baroness was her only real option right now, and this was only possible thanks to her stealth technology from her golems. She'd considered doing a deal like this a long time ago, it would have stupid not to have, but given the constant guild surveillance of the baroness' activities, it would have been suicidal. Even now it would be risky. "And if you find some of the more…esotheric items, I promise you, I'll make it worth your while." The Earth-born smiled. She would be more than happy to, because on that shopping list's 'esotheric items' were the components necessary for Ella to replicate alchemical gunpowder for mass production, and some of the elements she was missing to build some of Seraph's schematics. "As you said, we are allies after all."

"Of course." Allya looked at her, the baroness' expression utterly unreadable, before the young woman let out a loud sigh and nodded. "Alright, I will provisionally accept this deal. But I insist that you be careful. And it might take some time on my end."

"That is pretty much assumed. But remember, any new material makes me stronger, and enriches the loot I can give. In the end, helping me is helping yourself, if in a roundabout way."

"Oh I am well aware of that."

"Good. Then, as for the guild's overreach…"

"I know that they are getting bolder and more problematical. The deal with the general did not help. I've had to accept young Dominique here into my council, and I doubt that will satiate them for long. Do you have a plan?"

"Several. Most of them involve letting the guild destroy its own reputation."

"How?"

"They already are. Every time they throw their weight around, they lose legitimacy. As long as we keep nurturing adventurers, their grip can only diminish."

"That would only reduce their power here."

"Agreed, but you are a frontier principality. Moreover, the guild's power is soft, not hard. They do not roll around with private armies smashing people into submission." Most of the time anyway. "They will, yes, throw their weight around aggressively, but Starvak won't take up arms. What he can do however, is try to interdict my dungeon. And that will only work if the adventurers are willing to listen."

"So your plan is to chip at them, and cause them to destroy themselves when they're pushed to their limit?"

"In a way? Yes. Try to avoid causing a catastrophic reaction while refusing to bow down either. When powerful people used to getting their way get partially denied like this, it usually drives them to stupider and stupider stunts."

"That's a dangerous game."

"Once again, I would like to remind you that we are in a damned warzone. Between two continental superpowers no less! Everything we do is going to be dangerous, but quite simply we need to weaken the guild. First and foremost so it stops meddling in our efforts to protect ourselves, but also to make it impossible for them to support our enemies internally. You have to be aware that the Republic had to have some kind of bribe to get the guild to swallow my kidnapping, right?"

"Yes."

"They might also use those avenues to try and undermine you domestically too. The guild won't stoop that low at first, but as things go on the chances of them doing that increase. And before you say 'hence why we shouldn't provoke them', I'm of the mind it's a question of 'when', not 'if'. So we need to weaken them before that happens."

It wasn't technically a lie, Alexandra figured that once things went to hell and the guild realized that Allya wasn't trying to keep a leash on her, they would attempt to get her replaced to try and stamp down on Alexandra's offensives. But primarily, she needed the guild to be as weak as possible at home so that they could not strangle her revenue stream at a critical moment and force her to the negotiating table too soon.

"I…do not necessarily agree, but I take your point. Very well, I'll see what I can do on that end as well."

"Good. Good. Now, I've started working on the third floor boss, and I'd love your opinion! Care to take a look at the prototype while we wait for our friendly representative?"