Book 3, Chapter 9

9. Preparation

I spent another thirty minutes with Daemon, giving him the various quest documents that I had generated.  We discussed my plans in further detail, and he seemed to grow excited in the role and scope that he would be playing in them.  He took a handful of the documents to deliver to Travelers himself, while leaving a few for me to distribute tomorrow because, he said, it would make a difference to have me personally assign those quests.

I don’t think he was talking about increasing the chances of quest completion or success.  I think he meant that it would mean more to the traveler for me to give them personal attention.  I had no objection to such reasoning, of course, and so I even asked for a bit more detail about the Travelers Daemon was singling out.

His list included fourteen of the twenty goblins who had come with him.  They were really, really happy with their new race and wanted to personally thank me.  One of them was, for some reason, insisting upon becoming my butler.  The others had challenged him for the position, and in the interim Daemon had designated them all as valets.

I recalled the nine valets of my uncle, Storm, and how I had thought it was ostentatious.  Now I had even more than he did.

“I hope you warned them that their position would be considered temporary or on a trial basis,” I said when I realized what he had done.  “I don’t want to disappoint them when I have to let more than half of them go.”

Daemon laughed.  “Hail, this is a game to them!  If anything, they’re more likely to get bored with the novelty of it and go off to seek adventure than to seriously consider sticking around and working like this.  Only the butler candidate has shown any real commitment to his role, the rest are doing it for a lark.”

I nodded seriously.  “If that’s the case, I will ask for volunteers when I determine that it’s necessary to reduce the number of servants in my household before making the selection myself.”

“And I’ll compile a list of prospective candidates who would fill any gaps in the services you require as a lord of Yuikon,” Daemon promised.  “You’d be surprised just how hard I have been working to maintain and improve your image as a proper Earl of Yuikon, Hail.”

His face took on a sudden ghastly pallor as he came to a sudden realization.  “Work which will count for nothing once the timeline recursion occurs.  I only just realized the scope of the amount of time I have wasted.  It is … damn.”

“It wasn’t wasted,” I said quickly.  “It was practice!  A training period in which you perfected your talents, learned the lay of the land politically, and, hopefully, figured out a plan on how to do everything again more efficiently a second time around.”

Daemon looked at me, and some of his distress faded.  “You are right, Hail.  I simply need to look at it through that lens, and it becomes less soul-crushing.  I put a lotof effort into my duties as your steward in your absence.  I had as many negative outcomes for those efforts as I had positive ones.  Revisiting those events with the experience I have gained will improve my success rate significantly.”

“The power of positive thinking,” I said to him, holding out my fist for him to bump, which, after a moment, he did.  You pick things up on Earth, I guess.  Or from watching their entertainment media while the lawyer who was holding you hostage sleapt.

“Word is already beginning to spread through guild chat about the opening of the recursion portal,” Daemon informed me.  “I’ve instructed the officers to treat it as a guild secret for now, although <Peasant’s Revenge> and our other allies have been informed.  A large number of them will be waiting in Briarton to portal through into the Recent Past as soon as the option becomes available.”

I nodded.  “Good.  I’m going to go visit my mother and brother again, then I’m going to go to sleep.”

Daemon nodded.  “I’ll begin distributing these quest items.  If past experience holds, simply possessing them will be enough to trigger their associated quest.  I wouldn’t know, as my canon status prevents me from benefiting from this sort of experience in that way.”

“You don’t get quests any longer?” I asked.

“It would be more accurate to say that everything I do for you is one giant quest,” Daemon explained.  “I earn a steady income of experience, gold, and reputation for every task I perform as your steward.  It is less than I would earn adventuring, but I had given up that pursuit before I’d even met you.  If I continue on this track, I might even reach endgame.  Have you [Analyzed] me recently, Hail?”

I did so, and was mildly surprised.  “Level 132.  You were 115 before.  You got all of that experience from being my steward?”

“I did indeed,” Daemon said, sounding proud of himself.  “As I said, I have been working very hard at it in your absence.”

“Thank you, Daemon,” and to my surprise I felt a little touched by his dedication.  “I’m sorry that I was weird to you for a while at first.”

“It’s quite alright.  I was … uncertain how to treat you as well, Hail.  On the one hand, I thought I knew what you are, objectively.  On the other hand, now that I have more information, I can’t even begin to imagine what you experience subjectively.  Arc’s blue posts on the matter simply stated that you were part of a project to allow players to have digital children uploaded into this world.  I thought, at first, that meant that you were like a much more capable, yet limited, Native.  I understand now that my previous understanding was quite limited in scope.”  He paused, considering how to continue.

“I like AI personalities in general.  That’s what I saw you as at the beginning, a nascent personality which was being fed human interaction to develop a uniqueness.  I believe, now, that you are much more than that.  So let us both say that we were wrong about how we treated each other in the past, and work on our cooperation in the future,” he concluded.

I nodded.  “I like that, Daemon.  Let’s shake on it.”

And so we shook hands before parting ways, and I returned to find my mother napping.  I didn’t disturb her, but instead went into the nursery, where a goblin nursemaid was burping my brother.

<<You’ve been doing very well,>> Grandfather’s spirit told me.  <<This will generate a lot of interest in the game at large.  This is very good for Natives everywhere.>>

I didn’t know how to respond without talking, so I simply smiled at his goofy baby face.  To his nursemaid, I asked “How is he?”

“Like a dream.  Not at all like a real baby,” she answered.

<<Please ask her in what ways I am deficient compared to Earth babies>> Rain asked. <<I am unable to pose the question in a contextual manner to her>>.

I ignored him again.

“If you don’t mind, I think you’ll be one of the ones who get left behind when the action starts.  Do you have a friend who can cover for you when you need to take care of your body?” I inquired.

“Oh don’t worry about it.  Me and Ketsy have it all worked out, one of us will always be here.  We weren’t planning on fighting anyway, and you just generated what looks like a very appetizing quest for me.  As long as I’m able to share it with Ketsy, we’ll both be satisfied with this role in things,” the nursemaid answered.

I nodded.  “Okay then.  Thank you.  I’ll leave him in your care.”

I made my actions match my words, retiring to a small bedroom where I kicked off my clothes, put on my nightclothes, and slept for ten hours.

~~~~~~~~~

I awoke early in the morning.  Predawn.  Once I finished dressing, the villa was still abuzz with the actions of the hundred members of my staff who had followed Daemon, as well as the bodyguards who had stayed behind to protect myself and my family.  Many of the Travelers had already left to work on the quests and projects which had been generated for them when Daemon had given them a quest item I’d generated for them.

Mostly they were letters to nearby nobles whose lands would be easier to reach by riding directly than by the restricted list of portals that was due to open up in – I checked the timer – a little under ten hours now.  Once the portals opened, I would be on a limited time frame to complete my objectives.  As would all of my allies.  Then the portal into the past would become available, and the flood of Travelers into The Recent Past would begin.

I had initially thought to control this process better, through the use of my updated [Summon Karmic Warrior] ability.  I realized now I was fooling myself.  This would snowball on me just as Zhesa castle had.  Just as the first confrontation with the bandits had.  But I was determined, this time, to at least have a hand on the rudder to keep the story going in the direction that I wanted it to.

My story.  Whatever else I was, I was a Native of Lagrea, and my story mattered.

First things first, I checked in with Tarisha.

Hail

Tarisha, you guys, are you able to talk now?

Tarisha

There you are!  Did you have a nice nap?

Hail

Yeah, sorry, I’m well rested now.  How did the challenge dungeon go?

Tarisha

It was difficult, but we prevailed.  The Throne is … enthroned in the Temple of Thedum just as you requested.  We’ve been waiting for you to wake up to get your follow-up instructions, oh cap-i-tan.

Hail

That’s an earth joke, right?  Anyway, I guess you should check with Laurant and Phil and start coordinating the defenses.  When the battle really starts, we need the towns and the villages of North Shire to be evacuated or fortified as best we can.

Tarisha

I think we know next to nothing about fortification, but evacuating the smaller villages into Ebbyvale shouldn’t be difficult.  We’re endgamers, the Natives in the area are afraid of us.  We can intimidate them into just about anything if we need to, although there might be a few stragglers.

Hail

Try not to strongarm them too much, but make it clear to them that the evacuation is for their protection. If they refuse to leave, that’s it.  We’re not going to protect them from bandits by becoming bandits ourselves.

Tarisha

Don’t worry, Hail.  We won’t cross that line.  We’re going to spread out and get to work.  I checked with Lewis and Phil already, and they’re making good time.  They’ll arrive in about two hours, but they’ll need a bio break when they get to the border of North Shire.

Hail

Okay.  Nothing’s changed with their part of the plan at all.  As soon as they hit the border, tell them to activate their [Summon Posse] and [Summon Army] abilities. Have Phil’s team focus on nailing down the bandit’s strongholds and preventing them from escaping, but don’t challenge them directly.  Have Laurant focus on coordinating the fortification of our strongholds with Randal.

Tarisha

Yes, My Lord.  You make an excellent general, did you know that?

Hail

I’m not worried about that sort of fighting right now.  I’d rather fight a team of Travelers than dive into the Viper Pit that is Yuikonese politics, but I really don’t have a choice.  Once we start for real, things are going to get noticed, and I need to have political preparations in place to make it clear that I’m not rebelling or making a play for the crown.

Tarisha

Good luck, Hail.  I know you can do it.