Long Live the Emperor: Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Alvin woke up with a start. He’d slid right off his bed while he’d been sleeping. Strange. A fall like that should have woken him.

He would have considered that harder if not for the broken lamp on the floor next to him. It had been a cheap thing of aluminum plated to look like brass. He’d bought it hoping to melt it down and sell the scrap, but when he realized it was just aluminum, he’d decided to use it as a bedside lamp. Now it sat on the floor in front of his face.

Its fall had dented the floorboards, but it glittered a deeper and bolder yellow than brass ever could. This was not the lamp he’d fallen asleep beside.

He scrambled to his knees and tried to lift it. He could barely heave it off the ground. He’d never felt the weight of gold before, but there were very few things that could be so dense. The tube through the center of the lamp had been hollow metal, and while that had worked fine for aluminum, gold had folded under its own weight, and he now had two broken halfs of a golden lamp. Peering inside, he could see it was gold all the way through.

He cast his mind back to his dream and the strange nobleman from another world. Could all that have been real?

Alvin shot his gaze to his desk, which held only his shitty old desktop and his phone. The noise had come from the phone, which meant his classes hadn’t started yet. He often napped between work and his online classes in the late afternoon, so it was a daily alarm. He silenced the message, then glanced between his computer and the gold vase in his hands. Surely missing one class wouldn’t hurt. He had a ‘B’ in statistics so far, which was a passing grade, which was close enough that the end of the year bonus assignment should still have been able to just barely push him into having an 'A' just like all the tryhards who got perfect scores on every assignment. Besides, all the lectures were recorded. He’d be fine.

He needed to get this thing appraised before the day was over.

Alvin stuffed his vase into a backpack. It felt heavy, weighing on his shoulders.

He took an Uber to the nearest shopping mall. Many places were willing to trade cash for gold there, albeit at a steep service fee. He’d probably pay more than most because his lamp wasn’t labeled as something made out of gold, but the lamp on his back was very heavy. It had to be worth something.

Soon enough, he found a shop and waited in line. It was a sketchier place, and from asking around the mall it seemed like the type to not ask too many questions about where the gold came from. He just hoped that he'd get a better price than at the pawn shop across the street.

An armed guard patted him down on the way in, and he raised an eyebrow as he rummaged through Alvin’s backpack and saw the broken gold lamp.

“Most people come in here with a pocket full of jewelry,” the guard said as he closed Alvin’s backpack.

“It’s a... family heirloom.” Alvin shrugged. He didn’t really have a good explanation for why he would map a lamp out of gold. Who would waste so much gold on such a shoddy lamp?

The guard escorted him to a back room, where a clerk sat behind a sheet of bulletproof glass. He raised it just enough for Alvin to slide the lamp over. He pushed his glasses further up his nose and furrowed his eyebrows as the odd lamp.

Alvin shuffled awkwardly in his chair as the clerk checked the underside of the lamp and saw numbers that no doubt meant aluminum plated with brass instead of the gold he clearly felt in his hands.

Should have scratched those numbers out before coming here...

But the clerk was a professional, and he tapped on the lamp with one hand to hear the ring. Then, he ran a few more quick tests, heating it with a lighter to watch for a color change, testing it with a magnet, and hooked up an electrical device to it. He peered down the neck of the lamp just as Alvin had and frowned the whole time.

He shook his head several times as he stared at the readings before eventually shrugging.

“This is a most unusual find. It seems like someone found a mold for a cheap lamp and decided to fill the mold with gold instead. How incredibly strange. I will have to cut a small sample to ensure it isn’t tungsten underneath the surface, but this looks like real gold to me.”

Alvin gave permission for the clerk to take a sample, and soon both he and Alvin were satisfied that the lamp was solid gold.

“The shape it’s in isn’t worth much, but the metal value of this gold is still quite impressive. I can give you eighty-four thousand dollars for it.” The clerk set the lamp aside, sliding it back to the space between him and Alvin.

“Eighty-four?” Alvin asked, mouth agape.

“Final offer. I’m afraid the company doesn’t allow me to haggle.”

Alvin’s mouth was dry, but he licked his lips and blinked himself back into focus.

“Can I get that in cash, please?”

***

A few minutes later, Alvin was walking home with his golden lamp replaced by a backpack full of twenties wrapped and banded. The gold exchange had been surprisingly good about not asking questions and giving him cash. They probably thought the lamp was stolen, but had been willing to help him hide his identity. Right before he left, the clerk asked him to bring any similar pieces their way. He had pointedly never asked for Alvin’s name.

He’d no doubt been ripped off in terms of price, but Alvin was wise enough to the ways of the world to know that it took money to make money. Waving around that much gold and cash as a dishwasher and college student would have been crazy. He needed to use this money to set himself up in a way that wouldn’t look as strange.

A few hours later, he had a new bank account, a brand new laptop, and a plan.

He deposited four thousand dollars in cash in the new account, which was as much as he thought he could reasonably put in without any awkward questions. That wouldn’t be all he’d have for long though.

He had more classes after statistics, but he also ended up skipping those. He had something more important to do.

Alvin spent the next few hours setting up a simple website. It wasn’t anything fancy, just enough to look legitimate. He swiped a few pictures of custom-designed sculptures. He spent some time throwing filters over them in photoshop before throwing them up on the website. They were a temporary fix, just barely good enough to look plausible. From there, he added a list of extremely high prices and some payment information.

It didn’t really matter since he would be his only customer. He’d buy his own products from himself and say that’s where his money came from. With taxes taken care of, the unease in his heart lifted considerably.

There was still a lot of work to do. Once he had a bit more money, he would have the assets to hunt down better contacts with more of a return on his gold. And what about other precious metals? Could that earth spirit the baron mentioned produce platinum or palladium? If he was from a medieval society like he looked, there he probably wasn’t aware of any metals more valuable than gold.

He had to come up with a plan. In the short term, he'd keep putting in the minimum amount of hours his job required and show up for his exams. He wouldn't want to rest too easy until he'd lived for a few weeks with a much beefier bank account. For all he knew, this could still be some sort of fever dream. But if it wasn't, he might have finally caught his lucky break.

He felt his eyelids drifting downward, and a knew a dopy smile no doubt covered his face. When he kicked back like this, he usually had a bit of anxious worry in the back of his head, knowing all the work he was hiding from. But today, for the first time in a long time, that feeling was gone. He could rest after a hard day’s work.

***

Alvin found Aldrich, the Baron of Eastwater, exactly where he’d been in the previous dream.

“Alvin! Did you find my little gift acceptable?” Aldrich asked, eyes twinkling. He could no doubt read Alvin like a book.

“I did. And I want to talk about your offer from earlier. I’m willing to rent you use of my body for that same amount of gold every day,” Alvin said.

Aldrich chuckled. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. You see, it took my earth spirit a month to save up the power she expended making your gift.”

Alvin scoffed. If Aldrich thought he could play him for a fool, he had another thing coming.

“Don’t take me for a fool just because I don’t have one of your fancy spirits,” Alvin said. It was a complete bluff. He had no idea what a spirit was, other than the fact that one of them could make enough gold to turn him into a rich man. Aldrich had mentioned being in a rush though, which meant he probably wouldn’t know what Alvin should and shouldn’t be familiar with.

“Fine. Every two weeks,” Aldrich sighed, though this time, a bit of pain dug into his face.

Alvin inspected his fingers. It was odd to see them so clearly in a dream. He pointedly ignored Aldrich waiting for him to accept the nobleman’s offer. Alvin wanted more.

“I can’t offer any more gold than that,” Aldrich said.

“But you can offer something more?” Alvin asked.

Aldrich grimaced. “If you want, I can bargain for help from a vitality spirit. I have one I usually use to keep me fit and healthy. I could have one come by and do a bit of work on your body too. We could add a few inches of height, lose a bit of fat, gain a bit of muscle, that sort of thing. You’ll probably end up looking a lot like me. That might actually help our connection synchronize a little more.”

Now that was more like it!

Alvin wasn’t a good judge of male appearance, but he had to admit he’d gotten a bit thicker around the middle than he’d like. From the sound of things, Aldrich promised an instant fitness package with no effort required. He did his best to hide his excitement, but with how carefully the nobleman was watching him, Aldrich probably saw through his expression.

“I suppose that will be acceptable for now,” Alvin said. “But this deal only stands for a month. After that, we’re renegotiating.”

The nobleman probably handed him a raw deal, but if they were switching bodies for a bit, he’d be able to see what Aldrich’s world had to offer and therefore learn just how badly he was being scammed. But for now, Alvin and Aldrich had come to a deal. The two shook hands, and the bargain was settled.

Note:

Originally I'd planned on going right over to Aldrich's world for chapter 2, but this chunk ended up being necessary. I could cut it for the final version and start with what's going to happen next chapter instead, since I know some people like the isekai stuff to happen quickly. It really depends how big a role Dreamwalking plays in this book, as well as how big a role Aldrich using the MC's original body is.

Ideally, I'd like Alvin to be able to go home whenever he wants, but at the same time I don't want to sacrifice any fun empire-building time. Not sure yet.

Whatever the solution, it is buying me time to get a better feel for Alvin's character, so that's good.

I know you guys mentioned he felt like a bit of a slacker last chapter, so I added a few extra points to his ambition. He's not as ambitious as, Theo from Spellheart, for example. But he's higher on the scale than he was before. You know the saying, "Give a lazy man a job and he'll find the easiest way to get it done?" That's Alvin. He's the lazy man in that saying.

Better? Worse? What do you guys think?