The Gamer Chapter 1564 – Rose Return (Patreon)

“And I should stress,” Lu Zhi whispered to him, “that I do actually mean respectful. Actually, really, truly respectful, even if you think he does not deserve it. You get me?”

“I got you after the first repetition,” John answered in similarly hushed tones.

The two of them were walking through the segment of the imperial palace that had been dedicated to housing the Mandate of Heaven’s leadership and their servants. The beige architecture with its pillars, mosaics, and frescos had been ‘colonized’ by the visitors. Wooden frames covered in paper, kneeling pillows, low tables, and the heavy scent of tea all marked which culture currently lived in these walls. It was rather fascinating, if John was honest.

“As long as we are clear,” the Heavenly Jade Empress hummed and knocked on one of the doors. “Xi, our visitor is here!”

“It is unbecoming of the sovereign to announce visitors to her minister!” a high-pitched male voice came from the inside of the room.

Giggling, Lu Zhi pulled away from the door, tugged John towards the open entrance, then walked away. Allowing himself a glance at her skirt-covered butt, John delayed until he could no longer without being disrespectful. At that point, he turned his gaze to the considerably less pleasing sight of the prime minister.

As John had previously noted, Xi Pang was fat for an Abyssal. His double chin was pronounced, his eyes looked small in his bald, round head, and his corpulent form stretched the many layers of the ornamented robes that he wore. Baubles of all kinds further decorated him.

Despite John calling him fat, he would not have called Xi obese. His mass was more than just deposits of tissue, they gave his rotund form proper presence and weight. He reminded John of the Kingpin from the Spiderman comics. Sure, he was immense, but that immensity did not feel like it was due to a life lived in ceaseless luxury.

Granted, the Asian heritage shone through here as well. Xi was extremely tall for a Chinese man, around 1,85 metres, but that still made him minorly shorter than John. The prime minister looked up for just a moment to confirm that John did stand patiently in the doorframe, then his gaze wandered back to the stack of thick papers in front of him. He held a stamp in one hand, leaving artistic red marks where he deemed it appropriate, and a brush in the other. His calligraphy, despite the intricacies of traditional Chinese letters, was both compact and flawless.

“Enter please, foreign dignitary,” he stated, using an older version of Mandarin to communicate.

“I thank you for the permission,” John answered both in the same dialect and with the proper phrase. Xi did not react to it, which irked him a little bit. ‘Alas, having a reputation for being a genius will mean genius is expected,’ he reined in his expectations. ‘Can’t dazzle that easily anymore, especially not men like him.’

John closed the door behind himself, then walked along the side of the long, cedar wood table that dominated the centre of the room. He stopped behind the chair opposite of Xi’s. “Sit down, guest of the jade will,” the prime minister spoke the next phrase respectfully and mechanically. The dignities of court politics seemed to be engraved in his every fibre.

Following the invitation, the Gamer sat down quietly. He folded his hands on the table and waited for Xi to break the topic of his visit. Five full minutes passed, during which only the soft whisper of brush over sturdy parchment filled the room.

“An insufferably un-womanish person, is she not?” Xi asked, casually.

John forced his immediate reaction to be nothing. ‘Respect him, even if he does not deserve it,’ he cautioned himself. “It is not my place to weigh in on your internal affairs, minister of the mandate.”

“I am not asking you to weigh in, I am asking for your opinion, sovereign elected.” The last word was spoken in a cast, dry cadence, as if the prime minister was enjoying a private joke. “I call the Heavenly Jade Empress a person of great ability but low feminine virtues. Do you disagree?”

“With all due respect, prime minister, I do,” John said and bowed his head, when he felt like reaching over the table and shaking the man. Declaring tomboys to be less feminine was categorically accurate but to say they were lacking feminine virtues? That was entirely unacceptable. A tomboy was just as capable of being soft as a nerd was of being strong, under the right circumstances.

Beyond that, any insults on tomboys were terrible injustices in John’s world. Sadly, he was there to speak diplomacy, not the truth.

Xi just let out a low hum that contrasted with his otherwise high-pitched voice. “Are you interested in the empress?” he asked.

“I must ask that you elaborate,” the Gamer responded.

“As a woman, do you desire her?”

“I certainly find her desirable, yes. I would not mind the opportunity to know her better either.”

“Absalm tells me your interest runs deep and mutual already. I value his opinion. He’s a lie-finder, you see?”

John already knew this, thanks to the trial that had happened the day prior. “Whatever our interests may be, it shall manifest in the proper ways.”

Finally, Xi’s brush stopped moving. He placed it carefully on a specially made tablet, complete with a basin for the freshly rubbed ink, then turned his gaze to John. The Gamer returned in kind and finally he saw something like hesitance from the prime minister. For a few seconds, the man’s mouth hung open as he just stared.

John didn’t even have to do anything in particular. His power radiated from him in a passive way that would elicit this kind of reaction from the unprepared and less powerful. He was the ruler of one the top 10 guilds on the planet. That was just how these things went.

Xi’s demeanour subtly changed. He puffed himself up, as if responding to a predator. ‘Seems like he doesn’t like it much when someone is above him,’ John thought and made himself a little smaller in the chair, so the two sat eye to eye. It irked him to do this, but things would go smoother if he tried his best to play along. The quicker he got out of this arrangement of faked niceness, the better. ‘I can show him his place next time we parlay.’

Seemingly appeased, Xi hummed. “Very well, then, as long as the glory of China is maintained. Onto the topic of your visit, foreign dignitary.” The prime minister reached underneath the table and pulled out the dark bag that Lu Zhi had showed John the day prior. “The return of the Rose of Artifice to its rightful owner, as is proper.”

John took the bag after it was carefully pushed over the table. Restraining his wish to double check the contents, a disrespectful gesture when dealing with one’s supposed friends, the Gamer put the bag to the side. “A sign of respect will be paid in return, as is proper,” he responded smoothly. “What would the prime minister of the Mandate of Heaven recommend as tribute for the great nation he serves?”

“19’000 Tokens, 950 kilos of your finest wood, 1920 kilos of your valuable metals, a gram of Celexiums, and a formal letter of thanks to the Middle Empire,” Xi listed immediately. “Of course, such are just the official expectations.”

“As is reasonable,” John answered, swallowing his complaints. The odd numbers were chosen with purpose, as was the push for John to go beyond them. A most basic trick in corruption was to have an official letter state what had been expected to be delivered, not what was actually delivered. Those that oversaw the transfer then pocketed the difference and distributed it amongst their buddies.

To talk about it this blatantly spoke to how widespread the practice was in the court of the Mandate of Heaven. Lu Zhi had not understated the corruption problem among the eunuchs. His meaning understood, Xi leaned back and folded his hands in front of his broad chest. “Further, it has come to my attention that Fusion has interest in the land of our eastern tributaries.”

“For the cause of our unification of the continent, such lands would certainly be required.” John dared to put on a bit more of a forceful tone. Since they weren’t talking about the Chinese mainland, he could be less diplomatic about it without sounding discourteous.

“Doubtlessly you are aware that the Mandate cannot abandon its tributaries in their time of need. It would reflect poorly on us if we ended our valiant oversight of their lands after all this time. They came to us to be protected from the Lorylim and we have obliged since.”

John gave a deep nod. No unusual density of Lorylim had been spotted in the area since one freak event over a hundred years back that had caused the current tributary relationship. One freak event was enough that John would scour the whole area once he got there. Somewhere, there was a nest of the things, he was certain of it, and Alaska was on the shortlist of potential places.

‘One problem at a time,’ he told himself. “I would not want to suggest that Fusion wishes to put the Middle Empire in a difficult situation.”

Xi’s fingers drummed against his chest for a few pondering seconds. “There is precedent, of course, of the Mandate of Heaven assuring the peaceful unification of tributaries that share ethnic or geographical foundations. If Fusion’s payments remain frequent and large, the correct voices will find themselves amicable to the suggestion.”

This corruption, at least, he had been prepared for. Lu Zhi had been obvious about the fact that certain wheels needed greasing and money was the oil of politics. Money that went, more frequently than not, to the politicians involved in the deals rather than the treasury of a nation.

“I believe arrangements can be found, prime minister… and it would only be proper if the transfer of such tributaries was enacted through means you see fit.”

Xi’s eyes sparkled and a little smile played around his lips. “It would indeed be best if we do not burden the empress with the cumbersome planning of caravans and processions.”

“May I suggest we set up an area of exchange on the island of Taiwan?” John pushed a little further. “I hear you own some land there, courtesy of your great position. If some of this could be transferred to Fusion, on a purely leased basis, of course, I could set up a teleportation outpost that would greatly ease the burden of transport. My First Lady has further shown great interest in participating in efforts of mutual aid.”

Xi nodded thrice throughout that explanation, stroking his smooth chin all the while. “The triplet palace of centre, west and east are under my sway. The east wing could be leased to your nation, wise diplomat, and the resources transferred to the west wing to be properly accounted for, before being presented to the empress at the central palace.” He stopped for a moment. “Would a monthly transferral find your agreement?”

“Such would be easy to arrange,” John agreed. “A first, large payment of raw materials shall arrive. For the honour of being given such a historic location and for the friendship of our old and new nations.”

Xi reached under the table again, pulling up a bottle covered in golden, East Asian patterns. Without asking, he poured the clear drink into two swiftly produced cups. He pushed one of them towards John, who only took a smell test after Xi had done the same. The alcoholic smell was so intense that the Gamer thought his nose hairs were burning.

“A toast, then,” Xi said. “To our great agreements.”

John raised his cup and downed the drink. It burned on the way down, but after trying some of Scarlett’s preferred whiskeys, he had gotten used to worse. He smiled earnestly after the drink was down.

Putting aside that he was buying the loyalty of corrupt officials with tribute, something he loathed on principle, this was going just as he would have wanted. As Lu Zhi had told him, the Mandate of Heaven would surrender the eastern tributaries to Fusion and even aid in their peaceful transfer. The tributary system set up did give Xi the opportunity to scurry away with ‘his’ share of his nation’s wealth, but it also let John see Lu Zhi once a month. At least once a month plus whatever schemes his fiancée was going to put in place for the empress to visit the island frequently.

The best part? Xi thought all of it was his idea. The prime minister would not obstruct any of this for as long as he felt it was his scheme and he got his wealth. By the time Lu Zhi pulled the rug out from under him with their whole marriage scheme, it would be too late for him to protest. If he was even interested in protesting. A rich nation was less likely to mind that some of the taxes were appropriated in wasteful ways.

In a way, they all got what they wanted.