67. Favors (Patreon)

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Shen listened to Alicia's recounting of her past. She had been born  in a wealthy family then fell prey to abusive relatives. She had also  gone through a fair bit of relationship drama, though she glossed over a  lot of it.

"And then I came to the tutorial seeking power for revenge," she  explained. "I wouldn't have passed the first stage without help, and you  know how bad I went in the second. I'm not special in any way. I have  been improving magically, but it's definitely not enough. You could  defeat me with eyes closed."

That was a fair assessment. Shen could kill her with ease.

"I'm not sure if it was a few days ago or yesterday," she continued,  and Shen was sure it had to do with the time perception dilatation they  were subjected to. "Either way, I got an offer to reach the E-rank in  his stage. It was suspicious. As I said, I'm just another girl. It was  too tempting to pass though, so I asked to hear more.

"I was taken to what felt like an interrogation room with a lawyer. He didn't say he was a lawyer, but I can smell the fuckers nowadays. Fuck lawyers. I  disliked him at a glance. He offered me knowledge worth four million AP  if I signed a contract saying I would answer questions whenever his  client asked.

"I refused, obviously. Scams were bad enough on Earth. Imagine  signing what might be a magic contract to sell my soul or something. But  I also made a complaint about him to the system. He didn't look  concerned until someone offered me help. I accepted that through a  notification, and a few moments later, the lawyer teleported away.

"Then a gorgeous elf lady, the one I had accepted help from, appeared  and told me the lawyer had been killed, and no one would investigate  it."

Shen took a few moments to digest everything. Alicia's past sounded  common enough for a mortal, but the lawyer bit was confusing.

The system translated the word for Shen and even added a crash course  on tribunals, judges, and prosecutors. It was bizarre; he had never  seen anything like it.

In the Eternal Empire, the Emperor appointed judges exhaustively  trained by the Eternal Court. They knew all imperial law like dragons  knew their scales. When they took a case, they investigated everything  themselves with the help of their deputies. They looked for evidence and  sought to understand the circumstances from an impersonal point of  view. They did hear the parties multiple times during the investigation  to better understand the case, but only to a certain point. Some  judgments were made with barely any word exchanged.

There was no need for representatives trying to subvert the law or  being paid to lie; the judge knew all law and did their best to apply it  according to the Emperor's will. Who would investigate and gain access  to information better than a judge appointed by the Emperor himself and  trained by his Court?

And after being adequately investigated, the facts spoke for themselves.

Judges weren't infallible, of course. If any party found the judgment  unfair, they could ask for a new trial, and another judge would  investigate. If they were found guilty twice, the penalty would increase  at least twofold. If they were considered guilty by a judge and not  guilty by another, the matter would be taken to the Emperor himself.  Likewise, the twice guilty could still appeal to the Emperor, but their  penalties increased at least tenfold if they were found guilty once  again.

Unsurprisingly, few dared to do so.

But they did it sometimes, and the Emperor reverted some sentences.  When that happened, the involved judges were thoroughly investigated to  ensure they were fit to maintain their positions. Some lost their jobs,  and all the trials they had ruled over were reviewed by peers. If foul  play was involved, they were condemned by the Emperor.

To Shen, that was a much better system.

Alicia was telling him that these lawyers twisted the law to their  interests. They studied how to better take advantage of it. They lied  and cheated the best they could to achieve their goals.

How could a proper judge let words from people known for their lies  change their minds? How could society allow people to abuse the letter  of the law to go unpunished?

Where was their honor?

Shen supposed there had to be honorable lawyers out there, too, if  only because there were disgraceful ones. Someone had to be willing to  protect the innocent. Shen just had to believe in it.

But he agreed with Alicia: the deal had been shady, and the lawyer getting killed confirmed it.

"Someone wants to get to you or to me," he concluded.

Alicia's experience with the lawyer pointed in that direction. The  dishonorable actions could be mostly ignored; the Alliance had never  hidden that it had miscreants. That the trainees fought prisoners guilty  of atrocities said enough, and the Empire also had had to deal with such people.

However, for no one to investigate a death was too much. It meant  influential people were interested in keeping their connection to the  lawyer a secret.

"Anyway, now you know why I have trust issues," Alicia concluded.  Shen had almost forgotten she had told this tale to explain why it was  weird for her to trust him. "Every time I trust someone, I get  disappointed. If I had trusted the Alliance, God knows where I would be  now. I know better." She looked him straight in the eyes. "But I trust  you."

Shen could almost physically feel her powerful emotions. He nodded  somberly and cupped his hands in front of himself. "Thank you for your  confidence, my friend. I shall aim to make myself worthy of it."

Alicia smiled and did her best to hold her laughter back. That was  already an advance, as far as Shen was concerned. She was trying to  respect him.

"So?" She stood up and walked to the window. So put her lower back  against the wall and started twirling a lock of hair with her finger.  "Knowing you, you didn't come just to talk about the weather."

Shen was a bit offended until he realized she was right. He sighed.  "That is fair. I will aim to improve our friendship. I already have  questions I want to ask you, like where you are from, which places you  have visited, and your goals after the tutorial."

Alicia widened her eyes in surprise. "I didn't see that coming."

She smiled slightly, sadly. "I have a good idea of your plans now,  and I want to talk to you about it later. But you're right; that's not  the main reason I came." He took a deep breath. "Thank you for sharing  your history with me. I also wanted to talk about my past. Or rather, I  wanted to ask you not to mention my place of origin to anyone."

Shen wasn't sure how effective her silence henceforth would be. The  system had said it was listening to conversations during this stage, but  that didn't mean it hadn't spied on the earlier stages either. It was  always ready for their commands, after all. For all he knew, the entire  Alliance might know about the Empire already.

Then again, would the Emperor ask him to kill anyone he had told about it if it weren't effective?

"Not talk about the Empire, you mean?" she asked, then widened her  eyes and put both hands over her mouth. "Holy fuck, I'm sorry."

= - = - =

Alvaerelle was paying extra attention to one of the screens. No one  knew why Earth had had sleeping cultivators, and she had just gotten a  hint. An empire, was it?

Suddenly, all screens in the room turned black. An instant later, she felt a vast will focusing on her.

| Dreamer: Alvaerelle Elafir, I offer you a system favor. In  return, I demand you cease all the Talent Reevaluation Committee  activities related to Feng Shen and Alicia Winter.

"Refused," she sent back without a second thought. Corruption had caused her planet to fall. She would never lower herself so.

| Dreamer: It was not a request. Either you accept it, or I shall kill you.

Alvaerelle didn't believe that threat for a second. Killing a Talent  Reevaluation Committee representative on the line of duty? Even a  well-connected B-rank like the Dreamer would pay for it.

That thought made her recall who she was talking to.

The Dreamer could dream about the future. It was a very, very flawed  ability when it started dealing with the Void or B-ranks. But against  her? They knew how she would react; they knew she would refuse; they  probably even knew what she was thinking right now.

She still doubted they would kill her, but even threatening  to do it would cost them political capital if she reported it. They had  done it all the same. So she wondered about their end goal.

They sent a new message an instant later

| Dreamer: I'll give you two favors.

That gave Alvaerelle pause.

Favors, like AP, were also provided by the Guardian System. The  difference was that they could be exchanged between people and were  rewarded for great deeds only.

Getting your first favor was relatively easy if you went to war  against the Void and distinguished yourself compared to what was  expected of your rank. One in every trillion Guardians or so could do  it.

A favor allowed one to make requests of the system that would usually  be refused because it cost more resources than it was willing to spend.  Nothing illegal could be requested, which limited things somewhat, but  favors were still valuable.

Influential organizations or beings usually spent favors to increase  the monitoring priority of crucial figures. A talented seed, an  offspring, a lover. However, using the favor didn't give them access to  said monitoring data if they didn't have it already. That would be  illegal. Higher monitoring only meant the system got better data with  less likelihood of interruption, thus improving the monitored being's  safety.

That was helpful but not something Alvaerelle had any interest in.  The high elves were a strong race, and she was well-connected. If she  wanted a favor spent to increase someone's monitoring priority, she  could get it.

Two favors were something else.

Being awarded the first favor required one to distinguish themselves  against the Void. That favor could be spent, and further distinction  would net another favor. However, to go beyond one favor in your  "account" required much more.

Saving entire galaxies, advancing technology in a way it helped  against the Void as a whole, uncovering high-level treason that would  bring untold catastrophe to the Alliance; those were the kinds of things  that the system required to let one have more than one favor at a  single time.

The difficulty in achieving two favors was reflected by how much  could be done with it. Direct system protection, planetary monitoring  priority against the Void, even access to locked parts of the system,  among many other possibilities.

Those were things Alvaerelle had no hope of ever achieving despite her connections.

Speaking of connections, she could also get a B-rank to act in less  than legal ways by paying two favors. Even an A-rank who looked at her  favorably might consider it. A-ranks had enough strength to not really need system help, but if the request wasn't too hard for them—and few things were—why not do it?

That was enough to tempt her.

Alvaerelle considered it for a very long while, certainly longer than  she had ever thought she would. It was one thing to believe herself  beyond getting bribed, but when a simple act could give her so much...

The things she could do with two favors!

But in the end, there was something that no amount of favors could buy back: her integrity.

She opened her mouth to reply when pressure crushed her from all  sides. Mana flooded the room, exploding her monitoring screens into  smithereens. She was locked in place by a being much more significant  than herself.

"I was not lying," a surprisingly young-sounding voice boomed,  exploding her eardrums and giving her a splitting headache. "Take my  offer or die," the Dreamer said directly into her mind, crushing her  mental defenses like they were nothing.

Alvaerelle no longer doubted they would kill her. That attack was  already too much. How ironic for it to happen right after the trainees  had been given that inspiring warning against infighting.

"I..." she said with difficulty, "...refuse!"

She tried to resist the pressure, but it was way beyond her. The  Dreamer was a peak B-rank being while she was at the early stages of  C-rank.

She was thrown on the floor and crushed like a bug. Bones broke, organs ruptured, blood flowed freely from her torn skin.

Alvaerelle had never thought she would die like this, but she faced death without shame, and it was enough for her.

She would die with honor.

And then the pressure was gone.

Her body tried to regenerate right away, but the Dreamer had been  vicious. Their attack had filled body and soul with their Path, and it  was still there, preventing her healing. She would not recover unless  she got access to a B-rank healer to get rid of their influence. The  Talent Reevaluation Committee would cover the cost as she had been  injured at work, but it would still require her to leave her post with  alacrity.

"Log and report," Alvaerelle whispered.

Nothing happened. The Dreamer had disabled the system in that place.  Not surprising, all things considered, but still something else for her  to report.

She thought they might also stop or redirect her teleportation  attempt, but they didn't. When she willed herself to teleport to the TRC  local branch, she appeared exactly there. She would be taken care of  from thereon.

Alvaerelle had no idea why the Dreamer was so interested in hiding  Earth's past, but she realized the dark elves had been right all along:  the Dreamer was a rabid beast that had to be put down regardless of how  valuable it was. A rabid prized dog was still rabid.

Alvaerelle would make sure to convince her people of that.

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