Nero Walker, Book 3 Ch.58 (173) (Patreon)

When Victoria Blackwood became aware of Lord Walker’s recent change in status, she’d gone out of her way to ensure that she was one of the nobles invited to the reception for the Royal Academy’s Evaluation Team. Luckily, despite House Blackwood’s recent loss of reputation, she had been able to leverage what little was left to ensure her a place at the proverbial table.

After what her father had done, she’d worried that House Blackwood would fall to the status of mid-nobility during the upcoming quarterly review. She’d even planned for it by accepting the harsh terms from Vera Salvatore-Verena. Yet, she believed that by tying her house to House Walker, those losses would, over time, be reversed. She had been counting on the long game.

She’d recently taken a significant loss to ensure that her house was officially in business with House Walker, and therefore be eligible to take advantage of the exploits he’d registered. However, that plan may have now ended up costing House Blackwood more than it could presently bear.

For that reason, and that reason alone, she had gone to the reception… hoping to find an opportunity to speak with the evaluators.

She needed to know how Lord Walker’s change in status would affect his interests in Dorchester. From what little she'd heard about uniques, she knew that they were outside of the local power structure.

But, before she could find the right time to broach the subject, everything had gone wrong. In front of the entirety of Dorchester’s nobility, the high-academic was brought up on charges and Lord Walker’s evaluation was put on hold.

Then, only a few hours later, the entire evaluation team was sent back to Hennings with their tails between their legs, and a new team was brought in. One whose leader seemed suspiciously supportive of Lord Walker before he’d even had a chance to meet with him.

It was madness. Yet, it was also evidence of someone playing a very deep game. A game that was happening on a level she hadn’t even considered possible for a city like Dorchester. Even though she had zero evidence to support her conclusions, she couldn’t stop herself from shivering at the thought that all of this was playing out exactly as Vera Salvatore-Verena had expected.

It was more than impressive, the way Lord Walker distracted and then dealt with the evaluation team. Only to then publicly cede his authority to Lady Verena. Victoria could only assume that it was all part of some elaborate and convoluted plan.

Lady Verena must have known about Lord Walker’s abilities, somehow convinced him to hide them, and then leveraged those abilities to raise his status to nobility and acquire what was rapidly becoming the city’s largest shipping empire. As if that weren’t enough, the woman had then actually tricked her into tying her house to Lord Walker’s in a one-sided, iron-clad, long-term contract.

She was brought out of her thoughts as her office door was pushed open with some force, and she watched as her aide came scurrying into the room.

Not bothering to waste time with greetings, she asked, “What did you manage to find out?”

“My lord, after a quick but exhaustive search of the relevant laws, we’ve managed to piece together what will most likely happen to House Walker’s interests,” said the aide.

Seeing the man’s grim face, she wasn't expecting good news. Nevertheless, she needed to hear it.

“Go on,” she said, her calm facade masking her inner turmoil.

“From what we can tell, unique citizens are indeed not allowed to own any personal interests within a city. However, they can have a branch house in whatever city they want. Unfortunately, House Walker only has one member, namely the young Lord Walker. As such, Dorchester's House Walker will be expunged, and House Walker will become his personal house, unaffiliated with any city. Therefore, he’ll have to either sell off all of his local interests or transfer them to whatever house decides to become a branch of his personal House,” the aide explained, trying to stick to the facts and not focus on the dire repercussions his findings implied.

Sitting at her desk, she drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair in thought. The silence in the room hung heavy in the air. The sweat on the aide's brow was a testament to the tension in the room.

Abruptly, Victoria Blackwood started thinking out loud. “So, most likely Vera Salvatore-Verena will formally tie her house to the personal House of Walker and represent his interests here in Dorchester. I very much doubt she’d bother buying him out, and I don’t see the young lord denying her the reward she has so skillfully arranged for herself. Even worse for us, as the transfer of ownership will fall under the kingdom’s charter, we will no longer be tied to House Walker, we’ll instead be in a business relationship with House Verena. Therefore, we won’t be able to take advantage of the exploits, or recoup the losses we’d accepted in order to receive them.”

The aide said nothing, as he and his team had already come to that same unfortunate conclusion. What had been a strategic loss had now turned into a definitive one.

Balling her fists in anger, Victoria Blackwood’s eyes narrowed as she hissed, “This scheme must have been in the works for weeks, and I walked right into it. Very well Lady Verena. House Blackwood will not forget this slight.”

Yet, despite her anger at having been so thoroughly out-played, she couldn’t help but be awed by Vera Salvatore-Verena’s mind-bogglingly deep game.

-----

After the arch-mage had verbally lambasted Nero with the ugly truths he’d been either unaware of or had actively been ignoring, he had retired to his room and told everyone that he was going to bed.

However, that was not actually what he ended up doing. Instead, while hiding behind his locked door, he'd pulled out everything the arch-mage had given him from both his personal space and his satchel.

Now having a better idea as to how the people of this world thought about knowledge, he'd decided that he had better catch up on what he’d been missing. So, for the remainder of the afternoon and well into the night, he’d been reviewing the books and tomes in his bag, and trying to remember the exact circumstances around how and when he’d gotten them.

From there, he'd tried to alter his way of thinking to emulate Arch-mage Jennings, and try and figure out what the old man had been trying to subtly tell him.

Perhaps it was due to his improved stats, or his personal development, but eventually, he'd come to several startling conclusions.

The first of which was that the arch-mage, much like Nick, was a nerd. Therefore, he tended to over-explain whatever point he was trying to make.

The arch-mage had given Nero several books on basic magic and the planes. With the benefit of his new perspective, Nero now knew they were given to him so that he could learn about the ether. That’s it. Instead of having given him books on actual casting, he’d given him theory books on how the essence flows in the ethereal plane worked, and the myriad of ways it could be interacted with.

Nero even took advantage of the fact that he was back in Dorchester and utilized the link he’d been ignoring, looking up whatever public information he could find on how to cast magic. When he took the time to compare the available beginner texts on magic with the books he’d been given by the arch-mage, he’d nearly started breaking the room's furniture in a temper tantrum.

Next, Jennings had gone out of his way to obscure the fact that he wanted Nero to understand how monsters and beasts could form from the influence of other planes. Now, in retrospect, he could see that it was all just a big hint that foreign invaders from another plane would be able to take advantage of the density shift to more easily connect with their homeland.

The bastard had probably known about the kobalds since he’d gotten here. At the very least, Nero was positive that the man must have suspected something.

Then, to add insult to injury, the books on being a hunter were barely about hunting. In reality, they were specialized texts on complicated theories covering the subject of essence in the wild. The few spells and techniques that dealt with hidden enemies had entire sections which at the time he’d ignored. Of course, he now realized the books were merely meant as a hint that there were many ways to ‘hide’ in the wilds. While he couldn't be entirely sure what exactly the arch-mage had been trying to tell him, he was now positive that the man had known about the upcoming assassination, and he had been trying to prepare him to face it.

As a man who liked to be in control of his destiny, the fact that the arch-mage was playing stupid games with his life, not to mention the lives of the people in Dorchester, was almost enough for Nero to go through with some of his planned countermeasures against the old man.

However, knowing that the worst he’d be able to do would amount to nothing more serious than giving the arch-mage a headache, Nero put off any ideas about retribution and focused on the bigger picture.

After all, the man had been trying to help. Albeit he did it in the dumbest possible fashion, which as far as Nero could tell was how everything was done here in the kingdom of ‘Oh-god-I’m-fucked’ Oglivarch.

As the night grew darker, and his conclusions became more cynical, Nero felt like the walls were pressing down on him.

Thinking back to everything the old man had alluded to, Nero realized that being in the middle of a bunch of plotting assholes was a lot less fun than it looked like when he was reading about them. However, at that thought, Nero had a profound realization.

He didn’t actually have to care.

‘So what? A bunch of nobles and big-shots are plotting and planning against each other and me. Is there even anything I can do about it? Probably. But, am I actually going to do anything about it? Probably not,’ he said to himself, trying to be as brutally honest with himself as possible.

Setting down the book on essence identity interaction between the planes, Nero leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling in thought.

Whenever he'd seen a main character going through a personal crisis where he'd found out about the larger concerns affecting his life, Nero'd always wanted to reach into the story and smack the bitch.

Now that he was the target of numerous plots and conspiracies, he refused to make the same mistakes they did.

Instead, he would continue to do whatever he felt like and ride the wave of adventure to wherever it took him. He would keep his focus on the little slice of the world he had control over, and ignore everything and everyone else until they did something that merited a response. If he tried to accept responsibility for anything more than that, he’d end up driving himself crazy.

After coming to the simple decision to just stop worrying about it. He figured that he might as well try and get some sleep, retiring to his bed.

Laying under the covers, staring up at the ceiling, he closed his eyes and thought to himself, ‘Don’t let the wise, yet stupid, old man get in your head. Stick to the fortune cookie wisdom that has gotten you this far. Keep it simple stupid.’

Sleep came without any problems, and his dreams brought him images of massive mountains filled with kobald civilizations. He saw massive towers built with condensed earth and stone, each of which was filled to the brim with kobald clans living in communal bliss. There were red skies and ash as far as the eye could see. And in the open plains, there were farms of all kinds filled to the brim with unrecognizable plants. Mingled throughout the ether, there was a sense of desire for more. It was omnipresent, and he could feel the kobald's desire to spread out across all the planes and reshape them into what they considered the proper image. It was like there was a primal directive written directly into their identity. A universal law that meant to be a kobald was to go forth and multiply. To spread their plane across the dimensions, increasing their influence until all of reality was theirs. Every single thing they did, from their dances around the fire to the time they spent in the mating huts, all of it was for the glory of their god, the dragon -

Nero shot up into a sitting position on his bed. While covered in sweat, he raised a hand to his head and winced in pain.

Groaning, he dragged himself to the bathroom and took a shower. ‘That’s what you get for spending hours reading about hostile forces coming in and rewriting reality. Pure, undiluted nightmare fuel,’ he thought to himself.

When he was finished, he checked the world’s mental clock and realized it was a little after 9 am. He knew that everyone would probably already be up. Or more likely, they’d all have been waiting for him for hours, as their entire culture was inherently designed to piss him off.

Grumbling to himself about the commonplace idiocy running rampant all around him, he made his way to the main living area in this wing of the estate.

Exiting the hallway, he was proven right when he saw Nick, Vera, Cathleen, and Rose all sitting around and enjoying their morning seemingly without a care in the world. However, he was surprised to see a fifth person added to their group. It was a man dressed like the academic people, complete with a stupid-looking essence light stuck to his hat.

The man hopped to his feet the moment he saw Nero turning the corner. While Nero was suffering from his typical early morning brain deficiency due to not yet having gotten his morning coffee, the man seemed awake enough for the both of them.

With a smile wide enough to reach his ears, the man rushed up and bowed deeply, saying, “Lord Nero Walker, it is a great honor to meet you. On behalf of the Royal Academy of Hennings, I formally apologize for that wretched woman you met yesterday and promise to perform my duties as your personal evaluator to the utmost of my abilities. If you have any questions, any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask. I promise you that neither I, nor my team, will interfere with your path, and merely chronicle your abilities for the official record. While I’m here, if there is anything that you require, I’ll be more than happy to take care of it.”

Nero’s half-lidded eyes stared at the man, his face showing nothing but utter ambivalence.

Leaning a little to the left so that he could see past the uncomfortably close man, Nero looked at his group of comrades and asked, “Who’s this? And why is talking to me before I’ve had any coffee?”

While Cathleen started chuckling in that amused way she did whenever Nero acted like an idiot, Nick and Vera both looked at Nero accusingly. However, Rose, bless her heart, started pouring Nero a cup of that black gold he loved so much.

The man didn’t give anyone a chance to speak for him, as he went right on talking. “My apologies, Lord Walker. My name is Academian Quincy. I’m leading the evaluation team now that High-Academic Nurling has been recalled. Here, let me get you that cup of coffee,” he said, then turned around only to see Rose walking up with Nero’s cup of coffee in her hand.

Seeing that Rose had already procured Nero his coffee, his shoulders slumped a little and he dejectedly said, “Oh, she’s already gotten it for you.”

Nero took the cup of steaming coffee with a gentle smile on his face, meeting Rose’s eyes he said with total sincerity, “Thanks, babe. I mean Rose. Thanks, Rose.”

After his slip-up, Nero decided to immediately pretend that the past ten seconds hadn’t happened. Completely ignoring Academian Quincy and Rose, he walked past them to join the rest of the group at the couches, while he started sipping his coffee and letting the warmth wake up his brain from its lethargy.

Behind him, Academian Quincy seemed to bounce back from the awkward moment he’d just had. With a chipper tone, he asked, “So, Lord Walker, whenever you’re ready, we can go over how you want to handle your evaluation, your allocation and transfer of assets, the formalization of your personal house, your house words, and colors… which I happen to have some ideas on, then we can decide which cities you want to visit after your trip to Hennings, and then we can-”

Nero stopped mid-step and turned to look at the man with a face of utter disdain while holding up his finger to his mouth and then loudly ‘shushed’ the man. Seeing the man immediately stop talking and reel back in surprise, Nero offered the man an encouraging nod and a smile then turned around to take his place on one of the couches.

Besides Cathleen, Nick was the only one who seemed to be enjoying Nero’s antics. His tone slightly mocking, he said, “Well, great Lord Walker, do you want to sit here in silence for a while, or are you willing to start your day?”

Nero didn’t rise to the man’s bait, and instead said, “OK. So last night I did some soul-searching, and I've made a few decisions. But before we get into any of that, I first want breakfast. After that, we can talk. Until then, you can all go about your business.”

After saying his piece, Nero ignored everyone and reached into his personal space to pull out one of the plates he’d stolen from the keep. The large pile of finger sandwiches and tiny meat skewers immediately filled the room with the wonderful smell of fancy spices. While Vera looked on in disapproval, Nero dug in.

Meanwhile, Academian Quincy took a seat on one of the couches and watched Nero eat with a huge smile on his face. The man was transfixed to see Nero’s antics in person, and his eyes sparkled as if he were watching his hero performing the signature technique that had made him famous.

The rest of the room gradually returned to whatever they had been talking about before Nero arrived, but Nero was too focused on his meal to pay much attention to whatever it was that they were saying.

He'd deal with everything after he'd finished his meal.