Power Corrupts: Reinforcements (ch. 70) (Patreon)

"Mr. Jericho? How was the Moot?" Lili asked when I teleported back home with Hestia. This time I was able to walk through the front door instead of falling from the ceiling. Lili sat on the couch, a book in hand that she had been reading before the fireplace. Serana also looked up from her place in a chair tucked in a corner, a history book in hand as she caught up on what she missed.

"It was a disaster," I began. "I became High King of Skyrim."

Lili blinked, "My sincerest condolences, your majesty." she responded, offering a bow as Hestia and I entered our home. There was a slight smirk on her face when she rose before she saw my dull expression. That small smile fell as her mouth dropped and she openly gaped at me. "Mr. Jericho is serious?! How? How did you become King?"

I saw Serana look deeply amused as she closed her history book, intently listening. I could only sigh, not blaming either of them for their reaction. I could barely believe it myself a week after it happened. "Ulfric challenged the king, beat him, then I challenged and beat him. So, I'm king. There's going to be a coronation and everything." I told them, dragging a hand over my face.

"Beyond your ascension to power, how was the Moot?" Serana asked, her blood-red eyes following Hestia as she walked across the living room to head straight for our bedroom. She said nothing, and simply walked inside and closed the door behind her. I swallowed another sigh.

"It went about as well as it could have. Only a couple dozen people died, though some of them were the same person over and over. The gods eventually got their act together and came to some… reasonable… ish rules to live by while on Nirn. And I'm going to have to execute a few Stormcloaks later today, but beyond that it was…" I trailed off, trying to think of a polite way to say it was utter shit.

The entire Moot had taken over a week, and between me being King and my threats hanging over the god's heads, the discussion more or less stayed on topic with only the occasional bout of name-calling and murder. The gods hammered out a rough guideline to their rules which would further be filled in as time went on. There were the rules on respawning and murder, as well as consequences for breaking the law. The gods agreed to be fined a percentage of their income ,but any attempt to stick prison time on them was rebuffed.

There were also requirements that had to be met with each Familia. There were three classifications for Familias now -- Exploration, Crafting, Peacekeeping. The former explored caves and ruins, the second created goods, and the Peacekeepers kept the peace by acting as guards. From there, a bunch of legal stuff applied to them like taxes that they had to pay, and they were obliged to deal with threats that mortals couldn't easily handle.

Everyone seemed pretty happy with the checks on the gods' powers, but I wasn't. Simply put, in a thousand years from now, it would be a repeat of Danmachi. Take my own kingship for example -- it was decided that Hestia couldn't become Queen, but the inherent issue was still there even if the title was kept out of her hands. Sure, Hestia had no intentions of being Queen, but that didn't apply to all the gods.

Sooner or later, there would be a king or queen that was just a puppet for their god. How long would it be before the same could be said for the Emperor? Their products and crafts would eventually become the go-to brands to use. Their Familias would be seen taking care of cities or nations. And it would be the Exploration Familias that brought back wealth and treasures so every boy and girl would dream of joining them.

I had managed to gain a few checks like a cap of a thousand Familia members. I had started at one hundred, but the gods felt that was too few considering their influence on Nirn. There was another check that every Familia could be conscripted into war, something that Elenwen had been thoroughly displeased with. Especially when I told her to shut the fuck up and no one cared about what the Thalmor wanted.

In the end, it was just delaying the inevitable. In a thousand years, or less, the gods would control Nirn in every way that mattered.

But that wasn't really my problem.

"I look forward to giving up the crown. As soon as Alduin is dead, I'm throwing it to the Jarls." I decided, throwing myself into the couch as I swallowed another sigh. I never wanted the thing in the first place. I only took it to prevent Ulfric from fucking everything up. Now I had to keep hold of the thing until Alduin was dealt with, or the civil war that I narrowly avoided would happen as they all tried to snatch the crown.

As if to prove why I was rapidly loathing the crown, there was a knock at the door.

"No one is home," I called out in response, leaning my head back and closing my eyes. I heard Serana chuckle, clearly amused, while Lili just chided me.

"Your Highness, you can't just dismiss anyone that comes to your door," she teased.

"I've decided to be a ruthless tyrant, so I absolutely can," I refuted but, all the same, Lili got up to answer the door. I heard it swing open, and despite my growing annoyance with everyone and their mother coming up to me about any absurd reason they could think of I inclined my head to see who it was. The idiots even tried to throw a feast to celebrate me becoming king. Wasn't like half the country was experiencing a food shortage or anything.

Because of my expanded vision, I saw who it was through the gap in the doorway.

Some asshole in fine clothing, looking down at Lili with a flash of confusion. "Er, hello little girl. I have a message for High King Jericho at the behest of Emperor Titus. Could you… perhaps pass this along to him?" He requested, ignoring the fact that he could clearly see me.

"Sure thing, Mr. Messenger!" Lili agreed, adopting a childlike tone as she accepted the message. "Bye-bye!" She waved, earning a hesitant wave before she closed the door. She looked at the message before she marched back to me, earning a dull look as she dropped to a knee and presented me the message.

"That joke wasn't funny the first time you made it," I told Lili as I accepted it, feeling both amused and annoyed. Lili offered a cheeky smile, telling me that she was thoroughly unrepentant and that she found poking fun at the fact I became king incredibly amusing. I choose to ignore her in favor of popping open the wax seal and reading the message.

"The Emperor wants to have lunch," I summarized the message.

"You do keep high company," Serana remarked.

"He probably wants to scold me for telling the Thalmor to fuck off and die," I responded, shoving the letter into my inventory. Lili made a strangled sound and I saw her sigh deeply.

"Mr. Jericho, you can't just tell powerful empires to fuck off and die. It's rude." She pointed out, and while I had a few regrets with how that whole mess turned out, that certainly wasn't one of them.

"Can. Did. And I'll do it again," I replied, equally as unrepentant as Lili was about her 'your Majesty' jokes.

Serana made a noise of amusement but returned to her book. From my new angle, I saw it was a history of Skyrim, volume four. I guess she understood just how much she had missed.

"I'll go tell Hestia," I said before standing up, heading to our bedroom door. I hesitated a moment before I knocked, all too aware of Lili's eyes on my back, no doubt questioning why I didn't just walk in. I didn't get a response, so I just bit the bullet and entered, finding a Hestia shaped lump under the covers. She wasn't asleep because I didn't hear the sound of her soft snores.

Closing the door behind me, for a moment, I was unsure what to do. Hestia and I never had a real disagreement before, and I wasn't exactly sure what we were disagreeing about. I just knew that she was upset with me for something. As for what, it could be any one of a dozen things.

In the end, I decided to take a seat at the edge of the bed, the feathers sinking under my weight. "I'm sorry," I decided to start with, thinking it was a good opener.

"For what?" Hestia questioned, her voice muffled from the blankets.

Fuck. "For… everything at the Moot," I answered, seeing Hestia shift to poke her head up from the blankets to give me a mild look.

"Jericho, you shouldn't apologize when you have no clue what you're apologizing for. It'll just make a woman mad," Hestia pointed out, and I could only sigh in response.

"You're already mad, though," I returned, looking down at her, seeing an expression I couldn't quite describe cross her face. I heard her sigh as well before one of her hands snaked out to grab mine.

"Not at you," Heatia told me. That… was a bit of a surprise because I had been convinced that she was mad at me. All the signs had been there. "I'm mad at me. I… shouldn't have given my Arcanum to the Aedra," Hestia decided. "And I should have told Akatosh not to let the Daedra come through the barrier. I thought… I thought things would be different with the Aedra. All of them made so many sacrifices to form Nirn that I thought… I thought they would take it all more seriously."

"It was a mistake," Hestia concluded. "And because of it, you had to clean up after the gods while you were already planning to save the world, and I ruined whatever plan that you had when you brought us here."

Words rose to my tongue, quick to deny it, but I couldn't quite bring myself to say them.

"Do you regret it?" I asked, not wanting to condemn her for it but… if she made me say yes or no, then I would agree that it was a mistake.

Hestia thought about it, "I don't regret the act itself. The Aedra needed something to balance the scales and they deserved more than to just be ghosts haunting a world they created. I just regret everything that came after. Everything that the gods did, everything that you had to do… Jericho… you really scared me during to Moot, you know?" She told me, and that… that was something I never wanted to hear.

"I would never do anything to you, Hestia," I quickly told her, but Hestia shook her head, her hand squeezing mine.

"I know that, but that's not what I meant. Jericho, you were just… so angry at the Moot. Then you just started killing people… sure, they could come back, but the point still stands. You were just so… forceful. And I understand why. We'd still be talking in circles at the Moot. I just… I just wished you didn't have to do any of it." Hestia muttered, mostly to herself, her eyes downcast.

Ah. I see.

"Hestia," I caught her attention. "Nothing I did is your fault. That's all on me," I told her. She thought that she had somehow pushed me on the path I was on by giving ideas to the gods and being unable to manage the gods at the Moot. In the end, the latter really wasn't her fault. Anything short of threats of death wasn't enough for them to stick to the topic. And for some of them, that wasn't enough either. "In the end, what I said before still applies -- you did something good. What everyone else did after isn't your fault."

I received a wan smile that told me she didn't believe me.

"Who was at the door?" Hestia questioned, and I decided not to comment on the blatant attempt to change the subject.

"A message from the Emperor asking about lunch," I answered.

"Politics?" Hestia questioned warily with narrowed eyes.

I gave her a rueful smile. "Politics," I agreed.

In response, Hestia withdrew her hand from mine before grabbing the blanket and bringing it back over her head. I felt the same way. After a week of mind-numbing conversations, I was just… I almost couldn't wait for Alduin to appear. Just to get this over with.

"Is that your final answer?" I questioned and Hestia seemed to think about it for a moment before I heard her sigh.

"Give me five minutes," Hedtia grumbled before she pushed off the blanket to climb out of bed to head to our bathroom. She emerged with a towel, and it was then that it clicked that five minutes meant 'after a bath and getting dressed.' Fair enough, I guess. We did have time for it. Probably.

In the meantime, I laid down on our bed before bringing up my status screen. The title High King stared back at me. Of course, right after I decided that I didn't want to be king, I ended up becoming king. Reaching out, I clicked on the title.

High King of Skyrim

All reputation gains are dramatically increased in the land of Nirn.

Gains access to Ruler Functions.

Additional options are available at world selection menus.

Of the three rewards for becoming king, only the middle one had any immediate benefits. My reputation was already solid enough that even the Stormcloaks were willing to obey me. I had earned that much. And I guess it was clear that I loathed the idea of being King. The latter wouldn't matter until I left Skyrim, but I had an idea of what options would become available to me.

If I could bring people to other world's, could I bring a Kingdom? I'm not sure why I ever would. Or maybe it was something like building connections with other worlds, or something. Either way, it probably didn't really matter much because I was going to toss away the crown as soon as Alduin was dead. Skyrim was a pain in the ass that had plagued me enough. I wasn't interested in being here any longer than necessary. I got what I came here for and it would be time to move on.

The middle option, however, had some use. Bringing up the window, I saw a map of Skyrim. My map. However, details were changed. More information was available to me -- population, population growth, skilled workers, manufacturing specialties, revenue, revenue growth, crime rates… It reminded me of a city builder menu. Everything that I needed to know about a city or village was at my fingertips. Including a little face that represented the feelings of the populace, as seen with a smiley face. Or an angry face with Windhelm.

My previous orders were being carried out -- Markarth and Falkreath were deep in the red when it came to food, so the other holds were ordered to give supplies. With the Mark and Recall system that Sheogorath set up, the orders were carried out near instantly. Which was a little weird, but the information didn't just pop into people's heads or anything. A courier was sent out with the orders, which were then delivered to the Jarl in question.

I could see several mining villages taking shape in Whiterun, dispersing the population. When I clicked on Whiterun, I saw a lot of graphs. There was even a build menu -- I could have the walls be built larger at the cost of stone, time, and labor costs. I could have a barracks built to bolster the number of guards.

It was a micro and macro city builder.

Helgen was a city that was all in the green and its graph projections were just massive spikes that only leveled off for a bit to spike upwards some more. Hestia really did make something special with Helgen, I thought to myself. I was tempted to mess around with it a bit, but given that the cities were all real cities filled with real people, I was less inclined to fiddle around and mess something up. There would be no dick-shaped cities. Unfortunately.

So, for the most part, I just used it as a way to check on my progress with preparing the country for Alduin. I could even see the College -- and, even better, they couldn't ignore a direct order from the king to get their ass in gear. At this stage, it was just resource allocation. Enchanting items, preparing mages and so on.

Time passed by rather quickly and before I knew it, Hestia was poking me in the cheek. "It's time to go, Jericho," she told me, now dressed in a white and fuzzy blue coat. I dismissed the window before standing up. "Are you really wearing that to meet the Emperor?" She asked, looking at my simple pants and long sleeve shirt -- winter still lingered, but the worst had passed so I didn't need to bother with a coat.

"It'll be fine," I dismissed.

"You should wear your crown, at least." Hestia pointed out.

"Don't have one," I pointed out, waving goodbye to Lili and Serana before heading out. "And I don't need a crown." A crown was just a symbol of power -- power that was given to it by other people. They would see it, recognize it as important, then do whatever custom was necessary.

I was seven and a half feet tall, built like a brick shit house, and I walked around holding hands with Hestia -- I didn't need a crown to make people recognize that I was king, however temporarily.

That much was proven when I saw people drop to a knee as soon as they saw us, marveling that the king would just casually walk by them. It was a powerful feeling, I thought to myself. If only that power didn't come with so many strings attached to it, I might consider keeping the title.

The location that the Emperor chose was a quaint little building on the second story. It looked like a proper restaurant -- a brightly colored sign, tables covered in cloth with a candle and glassware. It was completely empty except for the guards and the Emperor himself, who idly read a menu with a bemused expression on his face.

"High King Jericho," The Emperor greeted, setting the menu down before turning to Hestia, "Divine Hestia. Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice."

Hestia threw on a smile, "Of course!" She said, taking a seat, sending me a pitying look as I was forced to stand. Chairs just weren't meant for me, unfortunately.

"What did you want to discuss, your Majesty?" I asked, looking down at the man. He nodded as if expecting me to open with the question.

"Considering the turbulent times we have endured, I wish to learn your aspirations. King Torygg was a man that I respected. He was young, and perhaps an idealist, but I respected him. Ulfric murdered him for the throne, and in turn, you killed him." The Emperor began, eyeing me flatly.

It was almost amusing how people viewed that chain of events. More than a few decried Ulfric using the Thu'um as murder because they said Torygg expected a proper duel. A middle ground called it killing, but found it distasteful because it was clear that Troygg expected a hand to hand fight. Only Ulfric's diehard supporters called it fair and justified.

Yet, as far as they were concerned, I killed him in an honorable duel because both of us used the Thu'um. And that was something that the Jarls were a big fan of. Nords loved the Thu'um almost as much as they loved the Dragonborn.

"Honestly, you're better off asking Balgruuf that question. As soon as Alduin is dead, I'm handing him the crown," I told him, earning a blink of faint surprise. "I never wanted to be king. I told Torygg as much when I became the Thane of Skyrim. The only reason I'm keeping the crown for now is because I don't want to make him king, then instantly start undercutting him."

The Emperor took a moment to mull over that. "I see," he remarked, the edges of his lips quirking up ever so slightly. "You are a rare man to turn away such power."

I shrugged, "I like power plenty enough. Just not when it means dealing with problems I'm not equipped to handle. Diplomacy is not my forte."

Hestia made a noise that made it clear she thought that was an understatement.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that," Emperor Titus responded. "Threats are just another tool in the hands of a skilled diplomat."

"Don't encourage him! Jericho, you can't always use threats to make people do what you want," Hestia chided us both.

"I beg to differ. It's worked out for me so far," I pointed out and Hestia's face twisted as if she had eaten an entire lemon tree, because she couldn't exactly argue with that. Sure, using force didn't exactly win me any allies, but I didn't need them to like me to get them to do what I wanted.

"Regardless," Emperor Titus gently interjected, "for now, you are king and your reign, however short, will be during a dark hour in Skyrim's history. Just as you said during the duel -- there will be threats after Alduin."

Ah. "The Thalmor," I voiced, earning a shallow nod.

"You have been blunt with me, so allow me to be blunt with you -- the Empire is weak. Weaker than it ever has been before. Of the nine territories, the Empire only controls three -- Cyrodill, Hammerfell, and Skyrim. Morrowind is a wasteland, High Rock already declared independence, and Black Marsh… its place in the empire has always been tenuous. Elsweyr and Valewood openly support the Thalmor… the Empire is dying," there was genuine pain in his voice as he clasped his hands before him. "And my attempts to convince Emperor Tiber Septim to take my place have been foiled with the rules decided by the gods." He let out a small huff, "Not that it would have mattered for he has no interest in saving the Empire."

I wasn't surprised, even if Hestia was. Talos had said as much when he descended. The Empire would save itself or crumble, but either way, he would not interfere.

But I also saw where this was going.

"Tell me what you need to defeat Alduin, and I will do my best to see that you have it. But any losses will further weaken the empire. All of Skyrim was nearly lost to a civil war…” Emporer Titus saw that I knew exactly where this conversation was leading. “As Emporer, I will give you what you need, and I must ask you take no more. War with the Thalmor is on the horizon.”

Hestia’s face twisted, clearly displeased with the request. I swallowed my knee jerk reaction and instead let out a sigh.

I should have seen this coming. And what an absolute dick more using my own words against me.

“Enchanters and soul gems are what we need the most at the moment,” I decided. “Quality over quantity, but if I can get both I’ll take them. Beyond that…” I trailed off, a frown tugging at my lips. The trap for Alduin was set. More soldiers on the ground wouldn’t change much. Like I said, we needed quality over quantity. “Marksmen. The best of the best that won’t scare when facing down a fuck-off big dragon. Or, at least that don’t scare enough that they can’t shoot him in the eyes when they get a chance.”

In the end, I should have seen this coming. While it was a nice thought to have the entire Empire and the Thalmor throw in to handle the problem… I was right. There would be an afterward to this battle and everyone was treating the battle like it had already been won. That’s why they were looking to prepare for the battle that came right after. So, the Empire would toss me a bone, but they wouldn’t go all in. From the Emperor's point of view, he couldn’t afford to.

Annoying. It was so damn annoying.

“You shall have them,” Emperor Titus said. “I understand how this must seem… but the Thalmor have been waiting for an opportunity for decades. Like a wolf circling an animal pen, trying to sniff out weakness and fear.” I think the reason why I could accept that was because he was a hundred percent correct. The Thalmor had absolutely tried to weaken the Empire in preparation for war. That’s what the whole civil war was about -- Ulfric was their pawn, however unwilling, to make Skyrim secede from the empire.

Skyrim, who hated the Thalmor more than anyone else, whose infantry had utterly wrecked the Thalmor’s shit…

“It’s fine,” I dismissed the issue. “Just… keep something in reserve if we do fail. Alduin is going to be weakened when he arrives, but even weakened… he’s still the World-Eater. No plan survives first contact with the enemy and all of that.” I didn’t think we would. Not with the resources we had available, but it was always a possibility. “From there, he’ll start reviving dragons. We’ve gathered up the ones in Skyrim and placed them in a Dwemer ruin to make sure he can’t get to them, but that’s just Skyrim.”

Emperor Titus offered a nod. “As you say, High King Jericho.” He opened his mouth to continue, but I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my vision. Looking over, I saw Azura climbing the steps, confronting a hesitant guard. In her shadow was the Neveraine, a black cloak covering his body which made his snow-white hair stand out that much more.

“Move, mortal!” Azura demanded, “I have a grievance to take to your king!”

Oh boy.

Azura stepped forward, intent on going through the guard one way or the other. However, before they could make contact, both Azura and the Neveraine simply appeared behind him. Azua pinned a glare on me, “Jericho! Don’t you go getting a big head just because you’re king. You aren’t the boss of me! How dare you order me to relocate my food reserves!” She huffed at me, striding towards the table while she flipped a lock of hair back.

I cocked an eyebrow, “One of the perks of being king -- I get to tell my Jarls what to do,” I pointed out, my gaze lingering on the Neveraine more than Azura. Amusement danced in his crimson eyes -- he was handsome, even if in a dire need of a haircut.” Falkreath and Markarth are starving. You, Whiterun, and Helgen are the only Holds that have a surplus. And I gave you all that food, you know.” I pointed out with some annoyance.

Azura frowned, clearly displeased. “Well, you could have asked before you sent some messenger to order me around.” She muttered, and I’m pretty sure her cheat-code driven success at being Jarl had gone right to her head.

Hm. “Actually, it’s a good thing you’re here,” I said, and instantly, Azura perked up. “I’m calling in your half of the alliance -- I need your help fighting Alduin,” I said, directing the words to the Neveraine. He rose a pale eyebrow in response while Azura preened, clearly pleased that I was asking for help.

“Of course!” Azura agreed easily, “It’s only natural that I would follow through on my obligations as a Jarl and a goddess.”

I will admit. That was not the answer that I was expecting. I was expecting… something to come up why she couldn’t help.

Looking to the Nevraine, he offered a small nod. “It would be troublesome if the world were to be eaten,” he agreed. And…

Okay. In my corner, I had Sheogorath and the Neveraine -- both were previous bullshit Bethesda protagonists. The world might have forgotten about the Hero of Kvatch, but they hadn’t forgotten about the Neveraine. And he was every bit as bulllshit broken as Sheogorath was.

There was the quality that I was looking for.

“Okay…” I said, unable to hide my relief. We could do this. I had another month and a half to prepare.

Time to make the most of it.