Nero Walker, Book 2 Ch.48 (80) (Patreon)

The entire Council of Leadership was in attendance, even the members that rarely bothered to participate. Even though the ‘council of nine’ was effectively in charge, there were 30 total members on the council. Today, every one of them had made the trip to the capital. This emergency session was too important to miss.

The Hall of Leadership was filled with shouting. Upon arrival, the nobles were given the details of the exploit they were summoned to discuss. Pandemonium had ensued. Shouts of support for the ideas represented were met with declarations of doom if they were ratified into law. Some nobles wanted to take advantage of the situation, others wanted to maintain the status quo. The only thing everyone in the hall had in common, was that they all recognized the importance of the exploit.

The hall was brought to silence when the massive doors were slammed open. King Oliver Oglivarch stomped into the room, his face furrowed in anger. The essence around him seemed to freeze in fright. It was so rare to see the King showing strong emotions that most of the nobles didn’t know how to react.

As he walked through the middle of the room, the king shouted, “Everyone sit down and shut up.”

The nobles all rushed to their seats. The area normally reserved for observers was empty, this subject was too important to allow pageantry to interfere with their duty. The gigantic room echoed with the nobles’ hurried steps, as they all scurried to take their places.

Taking his seat on his throne, the king abandoned all sense of decorum. Normally he looked regal, but now he looked like he was at a war council, perched on the edge of his seat.

The king’s voice rang out into the room, “The house of Oglivarch owes you all an apology. This shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. I am as stunned as the rest of you. The fact that this exploit has been available since the founding of the house system is a travesty of the highest order.”

One of the few nobles in the room who wasn’t intimidated into silence, Lord Cranston, addressed the king from his house’s table. “Are we sure we want to classify this as an exploit? It’s just clever book keeping. I think their might be aspects of the exploit that could be ratified into law without issue.”

His words sparked an explosion of shouting and calls for sanctions. They were met with insults and jeers from those nobles who shared Lord Cranston’s opinion. In the Council of Leadership, there were many power-blocks, and few of them ever agreed on anything. There was a reason that their kingdom was led by a king.

Infusing essence into his voice which echoed through the hall, the king said, “I thought I told you all to sit down and shut up.” His tone was so powerful that everyone froze in their seats.

Eyes squinted in anger, King Oglivarch looked around the hall, daring anyone to meet his eyes. Even Lord Cranston and his friends wilted under his stare.

Lowering his volume, the king said, “This is an exploit. The house system was designed to put order to the noble class. It seamlessly integrated politics and economics into a cohesive support system around which our kingdom would grow. It was meant to turn the noble houses into a resource for the good of our kingdom. In the distant past, our ancestors provided a framework for what the house system needed to address. One of the core issues was allowing businesses to avoid taxes and bleed cities of their resources while amassing a fortune. To allow a hint of that insanity today would be contrary to its purpose. Taxes are meant to aid the citizens of our kingdom. They provide the roads. They allow the Centers to operate. They are what keeps the walls protecting us strong. If we were to allow anyone to avoid them, we would be inviting disaster. Noble and common, everyone is responsible for our kingdom.”

The king swept his fierce gaze across the room, looking at each noble. He needed to be sure they understood what was at stake. Most seem to agree with him, but there were still a few holdouts.

In a quiet voice he asked, “Do you really want to be the nobles who presided over legislation that led to the destruction of the kingdom? Do you want to return to isolated cities, surrounded by the wilds? You have all read what it was like 10,000 years ago. Do you really want that? If exploits like this are allowed to exist, that’s the world you and your descendants will have to face. As word of these methods of tax evasion spread, corruption will run rampant. Our society will devolve into one of personal gain through the exploitation of the masses. In a mere ten or fifty years, we would have unprecedented inflation leading to a shattered economy. Warlords would create an atmosphere where economics drove policy instead of logic. That cannot be allowed to happen.

“It is our responsibility to shape our kingdom into something that can stand the test of time. We must grow it with care, and never steal its resources for short term gain. The house system is what allows Oglivarch to function. It allows for taxes and assets to work together for the good of all. Society cannot function with antagonism and deceit in the halls of power.

“Until now, we thought we had a system without loopholes. The exploit reporting system was created to address this very concern. As time goes on, we will find more issues that need to be addressed. Our ancestors didn’t want us to be inheritors of their words, but of their ideas. They wanted the house system to grow alongside us, and continue to serve its original purpose. And we must ensure that it remains the backbone of our kingdom. Otherwise, the noble houses will fall, and the kingdom will fall with it.”

Nods of acceptance went around the hall. They were all intelligent men and women, but they had let their greed blind them. They needed to rise to the challenge, and be the leaders the kingdom needed them to be. The king saw them straighten in their seats. Even Lord Cranston and his cronies were nodding.

In light of their support, the king’s anger cooled a bit. He said, “Now, we have a great deal to do today. It is imperative that we overhaul the tax code along with the laws governing businesses and close the loopholes so that they will no longer allow this kind of exploit. The new laws must be fair, and serve the purpose for which they were originally intended. If anyone sees an issue, let’s address it immediately. We must not fail in our duty. We are nobles, and it’s at times like this when we earn our titles.”

The nobles in the room were ready. Their steely eyes demonstrated their desire to fix what was broken.

The king nodded in silent thanks, then stoop up and shouted, “For Oglivarch!”

The hall erupted in response, every noble in the room raised their hand and cheered, “FOR OGLIVARCH!”

-----

Nero had trouble falling asleep the night before. Vera’s casual words weren’t easy to forget. He had injected the shady politics of his old world into this new one, and now he felt dirty. Hopefully, the system they had in place would survive. The hope of smarter people being in charge here was the only comfort he had.

The morning had found a tired Nero struggling to keep up his frantic training. Here in this new world, focus was paramount, and he was too distracted with worries to push himself as hard he had been. His struggle was so obvious that Captain Angelton personally pulled him out of his morning workout.

“Recruit Walker, front and center,” the captain shouted.

Huffing, Nero dropped from the monkey bars he was on. While wiping his forehead with his sleeve, he jogged over to the captain who was standing in the middle of the training field, observing everything.

“What’s up Cap?” Nero asked.

Frowning, the captain said, “I’d like to ask you that question. You seem distracted. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you aren’t the same young man who has been here all week. What’s the issue?”

Covered in sweat, Nero laid his hands on his hips as he tried to catch his breath. He looked exactly as tired as he felt.

With a look of defeat on his face, Nero said, “I got some news last night. One of the ideas I had may have led to something bad. But I’m hoping it won’t end up being a big deal. I’ll shake it off. Sorry, Cap.”

The captain looked at the young man with curiosity. He asked, “Is this about the exploit House Walker has registered with the Tower of Law?”

Shocked, Nero’s eyes snapped up to meet the large captain’s stare. “You heard about that?” he asked.

Nodding, Captain Angelton said, “General Branson thought I should know about it. He wanted to know if you had voiced any thoughts on how the military is organized. I told him that the subject wasn’t a current concern of yours. You are here to train, not evaluate our execution of our doctrine.”

Nero chuckled. He said, “Thanks for that. If it matters, I don’t know enough about how you guys run things to have an opinion. And I’m not sure I should say anything anyway. Why mess with something that seems to be working fine as it is.” As he finished, Nero’s mouth twisted into a sour expression. His regret of trying to game the system clearly evident.

In a rare show of understanding, the Captain took a step toward Nero and placed a large hand on the young man’s shoulder. He said, “New ideas aren’t dangerous. They are what drives progress. It is the responsibility of those with power to address them logically and without bias. Just because you have an idea, does not make you responsible for what others do with it. Personally, I want everyone under my command to come forward if they see something that is an issue. That’s how we improve. That’s how we grow. We are here to train to be better tomorrow than we are today. Isn’t that why you are here?”

Nero looked up at Angelton’s cold, hard, gray eyes. The man looked like a mountain blanketing Nero in his shadow. The Captain’s words were like a balm on Nero’s soul.

Sighing, Nero said, “You’re right. I’m here to train. What happens outside these walls isn’t my concern. I’m here to train to fight. Someday, what I learn here will help me survive those things outside the walls, both the political monsters along with the actual monsters. I’ll do my best to remember that. Thank you, sir.”

The captain offered Nero a rare smile. It wasn’t a large smile, but it was something. He gently patted Nero’s shoulder and then loudly said, “All right recruit. It’s time to get back to work. Get moving.”

Nero grinned and slammed his fist into his chest like he’d seen the army people doing to each other. “Yes Sir!” he shouted, then ran off to return to his training.

Reinvigorated, Nero spent the rest of the day doing his best to push his limits. Every exercise, every challenge, every task, he gave it his all. Despite that, he still spent most of the day getting his ass handed to him by Cathleen. On a positive note, she seemed happy with his enthusiasm.

Nero didn’t even slow down during his magical combat training. Rather than pestering Specialist Howard about teaching him more complicated spell forms, he kept his mouth shut and just practiced. Like a machine, he cycled through the elemental spell forms, casting them in quick succession. There were four basic elements: earth, fire, water, and air. Specialist Howard had shown Nero ten each, and wouldn’t teach him anything else until he mastered them. Normally, Nero would complain but today he just took his shirt off and did his best to destroy the target dummy.

Spells ‘rock pellets’, ‘sandstorm’, ‘iron spike’, and ‘ground spike’ were among the basic 10 spells that made up the earth-spells. Everything was a variation on creating temporary earth constructs. Some were dirt, others metal, but they all were basically the same. That was a fact that Nero typically pointed out repeatedly.

Nero had spells that could send frozen spikes, along with super-heated plasma to make up the fire-spells. Instead of complaining that the category should be called ‘heat’, or ‘temperature’ spells, he followed the training regime. His training dummy was frozen and heated like a poorly cooked turkey.

His water-spells, like ‘water-whip’, ‘geyser’, and ‘water orb’, caused the humidity in the room to rise. Even though his spells just created ‘constructs’, the amount of essence in use seemed to affect the entire training hall. Yet, Nero didn’t even bother to complain about the ‘mud’ spell having multiple points of commonality with the earth-spells.

Air-spells like ‘gust’, ‘cyclone, and ‘air-slash’ caused the wind around Nero to pick up. The air became an issue when the sweat on his shirt started to rapidly evaporate. It felt like he was wearing wet clothes in a monsoon. To avoid the distraction, Nero just took his shirt off and got back to work.

Ten spells an element, and four elements meant that each cycle was 40 spells. Nero managed to get through six and half cycles before he started losing control of his spell-forms and was unable to reclaim what he spent when forming them. Once that happened, he started losing more and more center with every cast. By the time Nero got to his eighth cycle, he was running on fumes. Before he managed to complete his water spells, he collapsed in exhaustion.

Panting on his hands and knees, Nero felt like he was experiencing the worst flu of his life. His every joint was on fire, there was nausea, along with a cold sweat, and he even had a headache. The only thing missing were clogged sinus’. As he tried to focus and re-center himself, he felt someone approaching.

“It’s about time you started pushing yourself. You can’t just ‘learn’ these spells, you have to internalize them. I gave you these exercises because it’s how we all start. First you learn the basics, then you train the basics, and finally you know the basics. I think you’re ready to learn how to fight,” said Specialist Howard with a smug look on his face.

Nero just looked up at him from the ground and asked, “What does that mean? What the hell have I been doing?”

Nick walked up behind the specialist and said, “You first have to know how to cast before you can be taught how to fight. Why don’t you ever listen?”

Nero didn’t have the energy to argue, so he just rolled onto his back and splayed himself out on the ground. He said into the air, “Hey, if there are any super-mages watching right now, please disregard what I say in the next few minutes.”

He rolled his head to face the two men standing over him. They were both sporting grins. Nero gave them the most disgusted look he could manage, and said, “You guys are going to regret teaching me how to fight. Maybe not any time soon, but rest assured, your regret will be epic.”

The two men just stared at Nero, clearly unimpressed. Specialist Howard said, “Sure thing. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out. Take 10 minutes, get your center under control. Use the focusing techniques I showed you. After that, we’ll do a review of how to impart your center into your spells. Depending on how you do, we’ll start on mage-duels.” He turned around to walk away but paused to say over his shoulder, “And don’t worry, I know how to cast resuscitate as well as any medic.”

Nick watched the specialist walk off, then looked back down at Nero and said, “He’s been watching you train with Cathleen. I think he’s been waiting for this. Good luck.”

Nero just closed his eyes and groaned. ‘I shouldn’t have warned him. His future ass-whooping should have stayed a surprise,” he thought.