Paladin 4: Chapter 1 (Patreon)

“I don’t know why you make me stand there and watch...” Princess Thalia muttered as she dusted off her dress. It was the same one she’d been wearing earlier, unlike Cassandra. The dress Cassandra had been wearing had been torn to shreds and would need to be replaced entirely. Not that she minded.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy the sneak peek of what you’ll get on your wedding night!” Cassandra laughed.

Thalia glared. Cassandra had been moaning a little louder than she thought necessary. Since the two of them were in the room alone with Darren, everyone would look at her like she’d just been screwed senseless. It shouldn’t be possible for one woman to make as much noise as Cassandra had.

They left the small guest room they’d used with the bedframe snapped in two and the sheets torn to shreds. This had been a rather spontaneous event, but it frequently happened around Darren and his women, so he kept a bathtub full of hot water and a change of clothes for all his women in his Inventory, with multiple changes of clothes for Cassandra in particular.

After washing up and leaving, Thalia blushed at the stares the palace servants gave her. A stuffy male servant with powdered hair and white gloves looked at her as placidly as he could, given what he’d no doubt been hearing for the last two hours.

“If you are quite finished, Empress Thalia, several messengers are awaiting your pleasure.”

“Y-yes. I’ll see to them immediately.” Thalia blushed and scurried off.

Cassandra staggered out a moment later, leaning against Darren’s side for support because her legs weren’t working the way they should.

The servant cleared his throat. “I have told the other servants to prepare the private garden house. It is isolated, and all the foliage dramatically cuts noise levels. You should find it quite comfortable and outfitted with the sturdiest bed frame the Empire’s carpenters can craft. If it pleases you, sir, you may consider it your personal... ahem... washroom and lounge here in the palace, should you ever need it.”

“Thank you, we will use it,” Darren replied. He was starting to feel a bit guilty that he and Cassandra had snapped so many beds in two right when the palace had many guests to welcome from across the Empire. Between them and all the repairs the city needed from the recent demon attack, the carpenters and masons were already working overtime.

“Look at you.” Cassandra nudged Darren’s side. “The big man in the Blackwind Empire. They’re already setting up private garden hideaways for you in the palace. That’s a second palace under your belt! And to think, when we met, you were happy to be homeless and run around in a loincloth.”

Darren chuckled. “If we hadn’t met, I would still be doing just that.”

If Darren hadn’t met Cassandra, he wouldn’t have met Callum or Morgana either. He probably still would have made it to Limedeep, but it would have taken him much longer. He probably wouldn’t have gotten there until Gaimon and his forces wiped the place out, and if that happened, he wouldn’t have any fond memories of the city.

He’d have left it to its miserable fate under Gaimon’s rule and left for other adventures as he built his strength. He would probably still be alone then, quietly fighting demons and completing quests. He certainly wouldn’t be the man he was today.

“Well, I’m glad meeting me was good for you, because it was certainly good for me. Even if you make walking painful most days...” Cassandra giggled.

Darren scooped her up and placed her on his shoulder. “If you didn’t ask for it so often, you could walk on your own.”

Cassandra pouted playfully. “Well, what would have been the point of becoming a fourth-order priestess? Maybe when I reach the fifth order, we can have sex as much as we want!”

Darren chuckled. “Whatever motivates you.”

Cassandra and Darren continued to chat playfully. Any who overheard them might have thought they’d been married for years instead of awaiting their wedding.

But eventually, the two of them realized Thalia was getting away, and they rushed to catch up. She was already making her way to a desk in an office, arms overflowing with letters and scrolls. Darren was holding Cassandra on his shoulder with one hand, but he lent the other one to Thalia and scooped up most of what she was carrying.

Together, they carried her load into the office and heaped the pile of messages upon them.

“Whew. Those are a lot of messages!” Cassandra said. “Don’t tell me you have to respond to all of these?”

Thalia sighed. “Unfortunately, the answer to that is probably yes.”

She hopped down off Darren’s shoulder. Darren summoned two chairs from his Inventory, one plush and pink for Cassandra and the other extra large and reinforced for him. They sat on either side of Thalia while she opened the first letter.

Thalia scanned the contents of the message and sighed. “The guards in Silvercross haven’t been paid in three months, and they’re wondering if our new imperial regime is going to pay them. It’s a vague threat that if we don’t start sending them their pay, they’ll recognize one of my brothers or sisters as the emperor instead. Heavens know they aren’t happy about me pressing my claim because I am the only one of our family in the capital holding the throne.”

Cassandra scoffed. “Your siblings turned tail and fled the capital when things started going south. They didn’t even speak up for you when the Order of the Rod and High Priest Lothar tried to have you burned alive. If you ask me, they don’t deserve to be your siblings. As for Silvercross... my father is in charge there. He probably used the chaos in the capital as an excuse not to pay the guards and blamed it on political strife. I’ll talk to him for you if you like.”

Thalia nodded in thanks. “Now, only I had the coin to pay the guards. Someone stripped the treasury bare. I don’t know if it was the Order of the Rod or someone raiding our coffers in the chaos, but we’re going to have trouble meeting payroll for the palace, let alone guards in other cities.”

Darren reached into his Inventory and pulled out a chest overflowing with coins. It landed on the floor next to them in a fountain of glittering gold. “There. The coin problem is solved. Next?”

Thalia’s eyes widened at the chest. She was a princess and had seen this kind of obscene wealth before, but never in the hands of an individual.

“...Can Limedeep afford to part with so much?” Thalia asked. “I know your city is very rich, but this is a lot of gold to lend to the Blackwind Empire.”

Darren shook his head. “Not lend. Gift.”

Thalia planted a kiss on Darren’s cheek. “They’ll have to start calling you Darren the Generous in the history books.”

Darren shrugged.

Thalia opened the next letter and sighed again as she read it. “Apparently, there are bandits on the western road attacking merchants headed for Limedeep. We aren’t used to them being on our side of the border.”

“Already taken care of,” Darren replied. One of his weaker third-order bodies had dealt with those very bandits just an hour prior. “Next.”

“There’s a group of demons terrorizing villages near the northern coast.”

Darren paused a moment, compiled a quest, and then sent it out to all the sigil-wielders connected to his sigil in that area. He sensed the moment a few of them accepted it.

“Consider it done. Next.”

“The unemployment rates in the city have risen dramatically over the past few years. The demon attacks have destroyed our economy, and all the bandits are making the trade we used to have between cities hard. The average family is nearly running out of coins to feed themselves.”

Darren frowned a moment, then remembered what he’d done in Limedeep to get things running after disaster struck.

“Recruit for the army. A gold coin for everyone who enlists.”

“Are you sure?” Thalia asked skeptically. “People are starving here in the capital. You might get more than you bargained for.”

“Then they will get coin and dinner when they enlist,” Darren replied. He waved his hand, and three more chests overflowing with gold appeared just like the rest. He had plenty of food in his Inventory to go with it. He just hoped the people of the Blackwind Empire liked the taste of giant demonic monsters. “Next.”

Thalia went through a dozen more problems. Not all of them could be solved with Darren’s limitless supply of money, but he had more than that at his disposal. He was able to solve about two-thirds of Thalia’s problems right away.

“You know, a lot of this is detail work.” Cassandra waved her hand at the remaining pile of papers. “They aren’t the kind of thing you should be handling yourself. You can’t run off to every small village to see if they really need a new bridge or if the village elder is just trying to trick you out of some coin.”

Princess Thalia sighed. “I know, but the palace is empty right now. I had to fire most of those Whiteguard left behind because they replaced everyone from the Blackwind Empire with their own people. It’s going to be hard tracking down everyone who used to work for the palace so I can hire them back...”

“You’ll need more than that,” Cassandra replied. “I remember the state of the palace the last time I was here. I based my merchant company on fixing all the inefficiencies and flaws I saw here in the palace. Believe me, I’ve studied countless organizations and figured out what structures work and which don’t. You can’t just hire a bunch of people and expect them to do all the work. You need to create departments and have flexible subordinates who can hire and organize their own people as needed.”

“That sounds nice, but will it work for an entire Empire?” Thalia asked skeptically.

“Thalia, the Silver Sword Merchant Company has an office in Limedeep with more people than this palace, just to track our outgoing inventory! In fact, I bet a few dozen of them would be able to get all Darren’s investments here distributed throughout the Empire and put this whole place to order!”

Thalia looked doubtful. “You’re certain they won’t just make more work for me? I’ve found that hiring people often takes even more of my time because I have to train them before they’re useful.”

Cassandra shook her head. “I’ve hired smart people. They’ll figure out what you need before you do! Why do you think I can be here planning a wedding and not hunched over a desk filing paperwork like you? The Silver Sword Merchant Company runs itself!”

“Well... if it will cut down on my workload, I would be grateful for any help you can provide.”

“Do as I say, princess, and soon you too will get to spend every day on your back while your armies of minions take care of the details. You’ll only ever have to do anything if something unexpected crops up.” Cassandra patted Thalia’s shoulder. “I’ll bring three entire teams over. Once they’re finished straightening out the Empire as a warm-up, they can move on to establishing our local Silver Sword Merchant Company branch here in the Empire.”

Having taken care of everything they could take care of, Cassandra was feeling steady enough for another round.

“Please don’t break my desk,” Thalia pleaded. “It has been in the imperial family for hundreds of years.”

Fortunately, Darren had plenty of other pieces of furniture in his Inventory for them to break, so that’s what they used.

Thalia kept working at her desk while they kept busy. While most of the problems had been solved, she still needed to write her replies. The day ticked by, and before the three knew it, day had turned to night and then back into day. Fortunately for Darren, sleep was optional for him at this point, and he didn’t need to do it too often.

Cassandra also had a greatly lessened need for sleep and even less when she used her healing spell on herself. Thalia was the only one of the three who needed any shut-eye at all. Fortunately, the rhythmic thumping of flesh on flesh as Cassandra moaned and mewled had become so commonplace in her life that it had actually become somewhat relaxing, and it droned out the background noise of hammers and chisels as workers repaired the palace.

***

The following day was more greeting guests, walking around the city, so they were seen, and helping Thalia with another wave of paperwork and national expenses. Darren lent Cassandra the airship so she could make a quick round trip to pick up her people in Limedeep, as well as spread the word about the kind of workers the Blackwind Capitol needed and offer to bring over those that were looking for work.

Darren remembered there were quite a few tradesmen there who’d advanced their craft by becoming sigil wielders and could now each do the work of ten men. Now that Limedeep was completely repaired after Gaimon’s attack, many of those same tradesmen were looking for work. Bringing them to the Blackwind Capitol would be a perfect solution for everyone.

With those problems dealt with, and Cassandra taking care of much of what was troubling Thalia, Darren found the following day rather free, at least until Morgana, Asuriel, and Sasha found him. The three of them weren’t really the type to hang out in ballrooms and greet guests, nor did they feel entirely at home playing imperial politics. Rather than become pawns in a game they didn’t understand, the three of them had decided to keep training and make themselves. This way, they were available as reinforcements should any of Darren’s teams of warriors need help.

“That’s it! Flap those wings!” Asuriel said as Morgana tried to fly on her archcleric wings for the first time. Her feet briefly left the ground before she tumbled head over heels and plowed face-first into the dirt.

“Ow...” Morgana groaned as she rolled to her knees and wiped the dirt off her cheeks.

Darren waved his hand over her and pulled all the dirt into his Inventory before tossing it back to the ground as a blob.

“You’re alright. Try again,” Darren said.

“I think I’d rather just stick to riding on your back from now on...” Morgana groaned.

“Being able to fly will make you a stronger fighter,” Darren replied.

Morgana pouted as Darren hauled her to her feet. He then swept her off those feet, picked her up, and threw her bodily into the air.

“Ahhh!” Morgana cried as her hands flailed wildly.

“Use your wings!” Asuriel yelled. “Just hold them out to catch your fall!”

Morgana’s wings flailed wildly. Darren took to the air and caught her moments before she flopped face-first in the dirt a second time.

“Excellent training,” Sasha nodded sagely. “Like a mother bird pushing a chick from the nest, a person should learn to fly by fearing to fall. Keep up the good work, Darren.”

“Oh no you don’t!” Asuriel said. “You need flight practice too, Sasha!”

Darren picked Sasha up and threw her.

“Ahhhhh!” Sasha yelled as she also struggled to keep herself in the air. She wasn’t quite as new to her wings as Morgana, so she could catch the wind with it and slow her fall, but she was having trouble doing any actual flying. But by the end of the day, Asuriel declared they wouldn’t be a complete embarrassment if they were flying around in the heavens, so long as they didn’t try any peculiar maneuvers.

Despite their powerful fourth-order bodies, Sasha and Morgana were exhausted and needed a break to eat and relax. They hid their wings long enough to find a snack vendor in the city.

“Forgive my rudeness, but are you, Darren? Darren Heavengrace? The one they say rode in with a glorious army of the heavens to purge the demons from the palace halls and conqueror the Blackwind Empire to free it from the clutches of evil?” The stand owner asked as he accepted Darren’s coin.

“I am Darren,” Darren replied. “As for the rest, that is up to you.”

“It is an honor to meet you, good sir! I would tell you lunch is on the house, but... well... food doesn’t come cheap these days! Sad to see the good times are gone...”

Darren rested a hand on the man’s shoulder. “They will come again.”

After that, extracting themselves from the growing crowd proved troublesome, but Darren figured this was the perfect time for Morgana and Sasha to put their newfound skills to the test. Crowds like this were liable to follow them around, but they wouldn’t have to worry if they were able to fly.

“Come on, everyone. Let’s return to training,” Darren said as he revealed his brilliant silver wings and took to the sky.

Asuriel followed quickly, soaring through the eye as nimble as a dragonfly. And like a dragonfly, Darren saw she now had two sets of wings instead of one. Like him, she normally stuck with just the one pair, but since reaching the fifth order, he’d seen her occasionally sporting two. One set of wings came from her shoulder blades and the other from the small of her back. She fluttered through the air with both of them, graceful and nimble, flying circles around even Darren.

In contrast, watching Sasha fly was a far less graceful experience. She took to the air less like a dragonfly and more like a pig with wings. Her body was stiff, and her armor weighed her down. She flapped until her face grew red, rising up mere feet for every agonizing flap while Darren and Asuriel circled overhead and waited for her to catch up.

The pressure must have gotten to Morgana, because she didn’t reveal her wings. Instead, she used her phasing ability to slip right through the nearby building and come out the other side. She pulled out her wings and flew to catch up with everyone else when she was clear of the crowd.

“Say, Darren?” Asuriel asked. “Care for another race?”

“First to the Northern Trade Union. Sasha, Morgana, you can catch your breath again until we return,” Darren replied.

“Ready, set, go!” Asuriel grinned and then raced off, leaving Darren to follow in her wake.