Nero Walker, Book 3 Ch.53 (168) (Patreon)

While the commanders at the table debated whether the assault force was sufficiently prepared for the push into the mountain, the general looked over the most recent casualty numbers coming in from the battle currently going on outside the walls. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Without any support from a summoning portal, the kobalds were solely reliant on what few reinforcements they could bring up from the mountain city through their singular tunnel.

As he was currently in the war room under the keep, he was able to utilize the imaging table to follow the battle in real time. He took note of how the commander’s he’d assigned to lead the battle were deploying their forces, and he was filled with pride at how well their troops were performing.

In many ways, the divisions that had been deployed were the most expendable troops in the entire army. Although, it hadn’t really been a conscious decision, as they were the only ones available at the time. Most of his forces were busy prepping for the upcoming assault on the mountain gate.

Regardless, the forces he’d deployed were handily beating back the kobald’s assault, and inflicting upon the enemy devastating loses while they were doing it. Compared to how many thousands of kobalds they’d killed, at worst, he’d lose a couple thousand troops by the time it was all said and done. While unfortunate, it was an acceptable enough trade for regaining control of the surface.

Skillfully manipulating the table’s controls, he changed the image to display of entirety of the mountain’s surface. He carefully looked over the various encampments his survey teams were building, noting that progress seemed to be moving along smoothly.

He had worried that there were more hidden tunnels filled with kobalds, just waiting for their opportunity to join in the surface assault. However, that didn’t seem to be the case. Despite how hard the kobalds were pushing out of their singular tunnel, no other breakouts have occurred. ‘Does that mean there aren’t any hidden forces, or could it be that they are just choosing to stick to whatever their original plan was?’ he wondered, hating the fact that he was working with such limited intelligence.

His internal debate over what the kobald’s were planning was interrupted by Commander Dahl trying to get his attention, “Sir?”

Looking up from the holographic display, the general locked eyes with the man. “What?” he asked tersely.

Commander Dahl gulped, but repeated the question the general had ignored, “Sir, when are the mages going to be able to counter the kobald’s illusions? Without a way to see what we’re getting into, this debate is pointless.”

The general nodded, his grim face displaying how unhappy he was with the situation. “The Tower of Magic is giving me conflicting answers. It could be anywhere from 3 weeks to months. Currently, they’re still patting themselves on the back for being able to get through the density shift’s ethereal interference and show us the battlefield. I’m not holding out much hope, to be honest.”

Several grim faced commanders nodded along with Commander Dahl. All of them had enough experience to understand what that meant. They were on their own.

One of the commanders aides, leaned over to whisper something into his boss’s ear. The commander nodded, as if he had just been reminded of something. Standing up to address the table, he said, “I understand the difficulty of bringing in Lord Walker now that he is up for a citizenship promotion to unique status, but I think it’s our best option to take advantage of the fact that the promotion hasn’t technically gone through yet. As of now, he’s still under our command. So, I recommend we stick him in the Tower of Magic’s scrying hall, and have him get us through those illusions. He did it once, and I don’t see why he couldn’t do it again.”

The general grimaced. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to just order the little bastard locked up in the Tower and forced to scry through the illusions, but he wasn’t in any position to play an offensive game with the young man at the moment. For the time being, he needed to repair Lord Walker’s opinion of the military, or at least hope that the young man wasn’t interested in holding grudges.

‘Whatever leverage I had was neutralized the moment he was put up for ascension to unique. I’m going to have to remember to do something special for Captain Angelton when he gets back here. If it weren’t for him and his hells-be-damned honor, I wouldn’t have to be putting up with any of this,’ he thought to himself, almost growling mentally in repressed rage.

Looking up at the commander who suggested forcing Lord Walker’s involvement. The general’s glare nearly froze the man in place. He then said in a voice devoid of any warmth, “Thank you for your suggestion. I never would have thought of that. I’ll be sure to take your counsel into consideration. For now, let’s return to our plan for taking the mountain. I want a comprehensive list of how kobalds have acted in similar situations, and counter-strategies for whatever they might throw at us.”

The commanders all took the hint, deciding that they shouldn’t mention Lord Walker or his ability which they so desperately needed. Instead, they focused on what the general asked, working hard to ensure the success of the upcoming mission to retake the mountain city.

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Nero’s mind was spinning… he just couldn’t accept what he’d just heard.

For the entire day, he’d been listening to Vera try and impart a lifetime’s worth of knowledge in an endless series of small and understandable mini lectures. After the history of Oglivarch’s founding, she went on to explain the house system, the various iterations of the Center and how it came to be, even the founding and development of the guild and tower systems. Yet, her main focus was always on the Oglivarch’s universal culture of nobility, which while influenced by the local customs of the cities, had elements that were the same everywhere. It was a matter of law, and the pillar on which their entire society was built.

She went into painstaking detail about their definition of honor, the various responsibilities and rewards, and generally what it took to survive being a member of the noble class. He listened to her give countless examples of nobles interacting, up to and including duels. Which then led to an in depth conversation on when to demand one, and how to avoid dying in one.

When it finally became late enough in the day for dinner, she even included a not-so-short lecture on proper etiquette and table manners. She went so far as to scold him for ‘thanking’ the servant who wheeled in their dinner on a little cart. Apparently, as a noble, he should have been thanking her, the host, and not her servants.

Throughout the day, he’d heard variations of the same warning. He needed to learn how things were done here, and how his actions would be perceived. Otherwise, all manner of trouble would come for him. She warned of economic ruin, loss of status, and being forced into the arena to suffer an ignoble death in front of the cheering masses.

She’d explained how a person’s status, their home-city, their family name… all of it dictated what they were allowed to do, and what could be asked of them. The accords governing the restrictions on how people could help one another, and the cities they were in, were so strict that someone could end up being sentenced to death for saving a person from being run over by a carriage.

While she had gone into excruciatingly punishing detail on the philosophical reasons for such laws, Nero couldn’t help but wonder why anyone with sufficient power didn’t just ignore the law whenever they felt like it. Would the populators really assemble to go execute some high level badd-ass because he didn’t feel like standing by and doing nothing while a village was left to be ripped apart by a beast tide?

Apparently, the answer was yes… they would. Everyone in Oglivarch had a role to play, and it was dictated by a variety of factors: where they hailed from, how powerful they were, what rank they were, what their job description was, what ties they had, it all came together to dictate what they should be doing, and what right they had to interfere with those below them in status. Vera even went on to explain why Jennings has been hiding out in his tower since things had gotten more and more out of hand. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to get involved, it was that he couldn’t. These trials were for Dorchester to handle alone, and his aide would cause more problems than it would solve… or so she said.

Vera’s tone, along with Cathleen and Rose’s apparent affirmation of how serious the subject matter was, led to him paying attention to every word as if his life depended on it. From everything he was hearing, it truly sounded like it did.

But now, he slowly set down his fork and leaned back in his chair. Eerily calm, he asked, “I’m sorry. Could you repeat that last bit?”

Vera, who’d not even touched her meal, was still standing next to her hologram. It was currently showing what she described as the standard model for an inter-house ladder system. To Nero it had started out looking like an overly complicated pyramid, or a family tree. However, by the time she finished, there were so many exceptions and rules defining special circumstances, that it had turned into more of a cloud model.

Turning away from the hologram, she looked over at Nero and replied, “I said that your house will not look like this at all. Remember, if you do become a unique, none of these rules will apply to you. You would be completely outside the house system. Therefore, you’d be able start houses which would look like this in any number of cities, but you would never be in a house that arranged itself in this way.”

Nero looked at her, fearing that the conclusion that he was coming to might be, in fact, be true. “When you say ‘these rules won’t apply’, you’re just referring to the way my house is set up, right? Not the stuff about ‘perceived honor’ and its affect on my position in the city’s ladder? The various levels of ritualized dueling, and all that stuff about ‘implied collateral’, ‘standardized betting’, ‘city-rules’ and how important it is to keep up with them? All of that crap… that would still apply to me if I end up being a unique, right?”

All three ladies looked at Nero in confusion. Even the silent servant who was manning the desert tray threw Nero a look that seemed to question his intelligence.

Vera replied simply, “Of course not. Haven’t you been listening? These are the rules and codes that NOBLES live by. Anyone that would want to duel you, attack your house through either an economic war, or a formal declaration of war… they would only be going after whoever you put in charge of your localized interests. As a unique, you’ll have no home city, no local standing on the ladder, no reputation that you need to defend. You’ll be able to interact with whoever you want, influence local events at your pleasure. Your participation in anything is completely voluntary. If you want to duel someone, you can, but if not, you don’t have to. If anyone has a problem with you, they’d have to file a formal complaint with the capital, and then hope that someone there cares enough to ask you politely to stop whatever it is that the local powers had a problem with. Honestly, Nero, this is very important. I need you to listen and try and pay attention to what I’m trying to teach you.”

Nero looked at the incredibly sincere expression on Vera’s face, and came to the conclusion that he must be missing something.

After lightly slapping his cheeks with his hands a few times to make sure he was fully in the moment, he said, “OK. I promise you that I’ve been paying attention. All God damn day I’ve been paying attention. But, what I’m asking you is that if I’m going to end up being a unique, and none of this is going to apply to me, then why have you been telling me any of this?”

Vera’s mouth opened as if she were going to say something, then immediately closed it. This repeated a few times as she tried to figure out how to reply to Nero’s most recent idiotic question.

Nero’s eyes didn’t blink, as he stared directly into her eyes.

Vera finally replied, “Because this is important for you to know! It’s the framework behind every interaction between the nobles. Everything they do, the way they think, how they see the world, all of it stems from the noble system. Without understanding why they do what they do, you will never be able to act like them. You will just continue to go through life, causing chaos, upending the delicate balances of every social situation you find yourself in. You will forever be an outsider.”

Nero’s glare didn’t falter at all. “Vera… I appreciate what you’re saying. But, has it ever occurred to you that I might not give a shit? It’s one thing to try and fit in when there is the possibility of some asshole putting out a hit on me. Knowing how to avoid getting killed is a valid subject, one I’m very interested in studying. In fact, it’s probably going to end up being my favorite subject,” he said, then slowly raised his voice as he continued.

“But don’t you think learning how nobles legally kill each other is waste of time if it isn’t going to apply to me! How about telling me how nobles interact with uniques… what are the ways in which I’m liable to get myself killed? You’re going to be running my Dorchester house, and you already know all of this! For all I know, I’ll be on the first teleporter out of here in a few days. I’ll probably be in the capital, getting a medal or something, then doing something altogether different to get myself killed than anything I’ve done here. Tell me about things that might actually affect me,” he nearly screamed.

By the time he was done, he had stood up and was clenching his fists at his side while taking heaving breathes. He just couldn’t believe she had wasted the entire day explaining things that wouldn’t even apply to him going forward.

‘This is what you get for going to class. You learn a lot about shit that has nothing to do with you. Learn from this, Nero. And remember why you’ve always been a staunch and steady advocate of self-study,’ he told himself, while feeling his muscles unclench as he dropped heavily back into his chair, completely done with the subject of Oglivarchian nobility.