Nero Walker, Book 3 Ch.56 (171) (Patreon)

Mage-adept Newbanks stood off to the side of the astra-platform, watching the Dorchester council of leadership say goodbye to the majority of the evaluation team. Only three members were being left behind in Dorchester, primarily because someone had to stay and maintain the monitoring link with Lord Walker.

‘What a complete and utter disaster. Not to mention a colossal waste of time,’ she thought to herself.

When she’d learned about Lord Walker’s ascension in status, she hadn’t had a lot of time. Nevertheless, she’d still managed to arrange for sympathetic agents to lead the evaluation team. It had taken a lot of effort, and no small amount of promises, but Lord Cranston had really come through. Or at least that was what she had thought 14 hours ago.

Now, all that effort had been wasted because the agent she’d been sent couldn’t swallow her pride and use what limited mental stats she had to think before she spoke. Mage-adept Newbanks may not have been in the room when the confrontation occurred, but it is obvious that the woman had been played by Lord Walker.

‘That poor excuse for an academic had one job: keep the young man in Dorchester for the time being. How did she manage to fail so spectacularly, and so quickly!’ she thought to herself heatedly.

Now, the new evaluation team was coming in, and she hadn’t managed to get a single agent onto the roster. All she’d been able to find out was that the group had member from several of the great houses, each of which had close ties with the Tower of Magic. As a member of the tower herself, that should have made it easy for her to find out who was coming, instead she found herself being kept out of loop. It was almost as if there were some hidden faction inside the Tower intent on playing their own game.

With a flash of light, the people on the astra-platform switched, and the new evaluation team appeared in Dorchester.

Only 7 academics had been sent, and their leader was a youthful young man with a wide smile on his face. They were all dressed as academics, yet none of them had the gravitas or presence of anyone of importance.

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, she tried to figure out how people like this managed to get assigned to such a high-profile case.

Stepping down from the platform, the leader approached the council directly and slightly bowed as if he were simply offering a courtesy. “Thank you for the welcome. I am Academian Quincy. I’ll be taking over the evaluation of Lord Walker. I apologize for my predecessor’s actions, and assure you that I have no intention of abusing my very limited authority. My team and I are only here to observe, and we will do nothing to influence Dorchester’s path, or any of it’s citizens, including those of Lord Walker,” he promised, his words full of warmth and sincerity.

Mage-adept Newbanks kept her face neutral, but inside she felt herself panicking. She recognized that young man. It was years ago, but she knew for a fact she’d seen him mage robes.

‘How did a mage manage to get himself onto a team of academics?!?’ she wondered.

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“As usual, you have a frame of reference problem. You’re not an idiot, so you know that many people, including nobles here in Dorchester, and probably several other cities, all have some interest in limiting your options and steering you to act in accordance with their goals. For example, I can tell you for a fact that the evaluation team is being led by an agent from House Cranston in Hennings. If you recall, their lord was the one who’d arranged for the assassination attempt you suffered in the arena. He and several houses spent a lot of political capital to take over the evaluation team. I don’t know what they want, but rest assured, they want something. But not all threats are from so far away. Both the city-lord and the general are very interested in what you plan on doing once you formally become a unique. They are plotting in secret, while their agents and associate houses attack your economic interests and try and force you into going along with their plans,” warned Jennings, speaking rapidly and not pulling any punches.

Nero nodded, not at all surprised, replying, “Duh… so what?”

The arch-mage merely smirked and continued, “What your wonderful proxy was trying to get you to realize was that regardless of what title you have, you’ll still be involved in the political games of whatever city you find yourself in.”

Nero interrupted him, saying, “Once again, duh!”

Frowning, Jennings ignored Nero and kept talking. “Since you’ve arrived in Dorchester, several people have skirted the lines of legality in many ways. It was all technically legal by the local standards, but a unique is not a local citizen. If you wanted to, you could bring in lawbringers from the capital to mediate and review your disputes with the local powers. Since Dorchester is currently in a state of war, while also suffering the effects of a density shift, this is the last thing the leadership wants to be dealing with. Kingdom lawbringers may not agree with how the locals have handled you, and they are fully in their rights to demand that further action needs to be taken in regards to how you’ve been treated,” he said, his voice full of doom, implying how bad that would be for Dorchester’s nobility.

Leaning back in understaning, Nero thought, ‘Oh. So they’re worried I’ll call in the feds now that I’ve got some juice at the kingdom level. I guess that makes sense.’

Jennings continued, “Now, that being said, the Dorchester nobility still wants you to stay. You see, you were able to pierce the kobald’s technique which was hiding their forces. Properly utilized, you could change the entire face of the war. You could allow the humans here to regain their primary advantage of fighting within their city’s domain. With your aid, you could allow the local Tower of Magic to find what the kobalds are hiding, scout their deployment strategy, figure out their plans, and shorten the duration of the war considerably.”

Nero nodded along, seeing sense in what the old man was saying. “And let me guess. The only reason I can act, while someone like you cannot is that I’m outside of the political structure now. So why don’t they just ask me for my help?”

Arch-mage Jennings smiled and replied, “Because currently you’re under evaluation for your elevation to unique citizenship. You see, while you are outside the rules, they are not. While you were a noble, you operated under the local hierarchy. Now, your only tie to Dorchester is through her.” He pointed at Vera and continued, “She’s the only one in Dorchester who is legally allowed to ask for your aid. Which she was refusing to do, and the primary reason for the conflict you just saw.”

Vera, still shaken by the feeling of the essence being completely out of her control, stuttered, “I will not abuse my friendship with him to influence or affect his path in any way. Nero is a good man, and will do what is right without me plotting against him.”

Rolling his eyes, the arch-mage scathingly replied, “So that’s it. You really are a politician. Your entire being is mired in the game.”

Nick, handling the essence issue much better than his wife, chimed in, “Hey! Watch it. I might not be able to duel you, but I can still think of several laws you’ve broken that I’m sure the Tower of Law in Hennings would love to hear about.”

Nero looked over at Nick, proud to see his friend standing up for his woman.

The arch-mage waved a dismissive hand in the air, as if he didn’t take Nick’s threat seriously at all. “You see Nero, she wasn’t trying to teach you about being a noble. She was using the subject to convey how nobility here works. The unspoken rule that is illegal to talk about is: If you don’t say it, it’s not what you mean. From what I can tell, wherever it is you hail from, it was incredibly easy to hide your actions and your plans. Here though, someone is always watching. I’m sure there are many houses watching Vera’s every move. The only safe place to have a conversation is probably in their bedroom, which they couldn’t bring you into as you are currently under evaluation. If you haven’t figured it out, it is currently against the law to hide you from your evaluators at the moment. Therefore, she couldn’t just come out and tell you what she wanted you to know, not without knowingly violating the law.”

Nero, while mildly surprised, was quickly catching up with all the various things he’d overlooked or simply misunderstood, said, “OK. So, I’m under constant watch for the moment. While that’s creepy, I guess I can see how that makes sense. I’ve grown pretty used to feeling people’s eyes on me, so no worries there. But, I don’t unders-… Wait, I get it. You put up the secrecy thing because what you’re telling me now is technically illegal too.”

The arch-mage nodded, his face utterly serious. “Yes, Nero. As an exceedingly high level citizen of Hennings, I’m not allowed to influence your choices, whether it’s for your own benefit or not. Me being here, explaining these things to you, is entirely unethical, and more than a little illegal.”

Nero took a moment to think, then asked, “So, ‘influence’ means anyone offering suggestions or recommendations on how I should go about leading my life? Doesn’t that seem a little impractical? How can you have a conversation with anyone without some kind of influence happening? This system seems inherently flawed.”

The arch-mage leaned back in his chair with a fond smile on his face and replied, “It is, and it isn’t. I know you learned about the social hierarchy from Vera’s lecture, but she didn’t do a very good job of putting it in a way that you’d understand. For Oglivarchians, these aren’t just laws, they’re moral imperatives. It is not just ‘rude’ to try and influence someone you have no claim over, it’s outright evil. Lot’s of people can be an influence on who you are and who you become. The laws are there to formalize how that is structured. Your family members, house head, and personal relations… all of them have a legal right to give you advice and help you on your path. People immediately above you on the ladder, along with supervisors and mentors that you’ve chosen to work with. But there is a massive difference between that and someone like me coming along and telling you what I, in my infinite wisdom, think you should do. The law is there for a reason, because with such an inherent power difference, will you do what I say because you fear me, or because you agree with me?”

Nero groaned, immediately drawing a mental comparison to what he remembered as ridiculous Earth laws about power dynamics and crap like that.

Looking over at Vera, he asked, “So, you were like, what? Trying to let me make my own choices without being an evil influencer or something?”

Vera narrowed her eyes, not liking Nero’s tone. “I wouldn’t put it quite like that, but yes, essentially.”

Nero turned back to the arch-mage, giving him a scathing glare, and said, “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Your entire society is stupid, and you’re all crazy. You stop powerful and informed people from helping those less fortunate, and you even go so far as making laws to enforce your idiocy. The entire point of civilization is to pass on knowledge to the next generation. Hoarding knowledge, let alone wisdom is a sure-fire way to slow humanity’s development to a crawl.”

Arch-mage Jennings surprisingly didn’t take offense, but instead replied easily, “And what would the alternative be? Allow a few strong people to dictate the lives of everyone weaker than them? It used to be exactly like that. Powerful rulers spanning the entire spectrum between benevolence all the way down to the truly vile. Ideological principles forced onto the masses through the threat of the common citizens safety being stripped away. Our society developed this way for a reason. I understand how you see it as completely foreign to what you’re used to, but it didn’t develop this way without reason. The journey to wisdom has to be taken by each and every citizen on their own. Civilization is not about passing down knowledge, but developing a framework to ensure the process is protected.”

Nero narrowed his eyes and leaned back into the couch cushions so that he could stare up at the ceiling and take and try to see it from their perspective.

In many ways, he understood that it was just an application of ‘give a man a fish, and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime’. But they’d taken it well past the point of common sense and approached the level of extremism. That being said, should he really fault them? It wasn’t like he couldn’t see how the entire system was based around letting people grow up, make mistakes, learn their lessons, and level up on their own.

And it wasn’t like they hoarded knowledge. It was there for anyone to go looking for it. The leveling system itself was based around the idea of people interpreting knowledge and incorporating it into their own personality. So, in a way, it made sense not to limit what people could learn. Furthermore, restricting how people taught and presented their opinions allowed the masses to come to their own conclusions.

However, it also resulted in a society where no one said what they actually meant. Which was, of course, totally ironic considering the fact that translation magic made sure everyone understood each other. It also left everyone all alone, completely reliant on themselves for all of their deep insights.

All of the sudden, Nero finally understood what the center was really for. It was a place that legally allowed someone to go and ask someone what their options were. They didn’t go their for advice, or for a job… that was all secondary. What they really went there for was hearing what options were available by someone who had legal authority to disseminate that kind of information.

Nero was brought out of his thoughts by the arch-mage’s voice.

“Now, Nero. This all leads to a very important question. What are your plans moving forward? Take this opportunity to ask any question you want, and I will give you as clear and concise an answer as possible. I won’t hide my answers in riddles, or otherwise prevaricate in any way. But by the end of this conversation, you’ll once again be on your own. So think carefully, and choose your questions wisely,” he said, his voice over laden with wisdom and authority.

Nero dead-panned at the man, his face doing a very passable impression of an anime character. “Seriously? Overly dramatic much? As usual, you’re all unnecessarily complicating things. You guys don’t want to interfere with my personal journey and all that crap? Fine, I get it. Your fascist government is listening to everything we say and are just waiting for their chance to come down on you? Sure, why not. I’ll even agree that there are probably tons of schemes and plots that I’m currently unaware of and probably going to have to eventually deal with. But besides all that, I think that you are all overestimating how much I actually care about your opinion. That being said, you all do you. Now, if you really want to waste an afternoon answering my questions and hiding me from the evil overlords in the sky, I’m all for it,” he said.

Sitting up at the edge of the couch, he rubbed his hands together and said, “Get comfortable old man, because you’re an arch-mage, and I’m a magic user with questions!”