FB: Chapter 129 – Surprise Attack

As I was thinking over my schemes, the entire Mercenery Guild building shook. Small bits of dust and debris rained down from the ceiling. We were located in the town of Goldenbrook, who would dare to attack us?

The entire building shook again, as I grabbed my mega blade from its resting spot and rushed out of my office. That was when a voice sounded across the building.

“By order of the Court of Nobility, Viscountess Foxy Blight, is ordered to produce herself immediately.” The remaining guild members that were present in the guild building gave me worried looks as I strode across the entry hall and exited the guild building.

“What is the meaning of this? If the Court of Nobility desires my presence, they can issue a summons. No noble may be accused or tried without being given the chance to present their defense,” I stated clearly as I scanned the players surrounding my guild building and estimated their strength. Killing them wouldn’t be a problem, but the complications that came afterwards.

“Ah, we weren’t sure if you would comply. I have an Imperial Order, approved by Prime Minister Verus,” the player noble held out the Imperial Order. I took it from them and looked it over. It was a legitimate order for my presence in the Court of Nobility. The seal and signature on it were legit.

“And that necessitated an attack against my home and guild?” I questioned.

“My apologies, I will be sure to send compensation, after you disarm yourself and come with us,” the noble player said with a feral grin. They were clearly from the Super Guild Forged Fang or one of its affiliates. I could pick that up from their accent and appearances. I noted two heavy scorch marks on the outside of our guild building.

I had a choice to make here. Surrendering myself into their custody would see me held up for a long time in the Capital and probably killed in some accident. The fact that they had an Imperial Order approved by Prime Minister Verus, meant that it was a long term scheme. The super guilds had united their noble players to target me directly. Clever, very clever. I had been prepared for another avenue of attack, not this. I knew it was a possibility, but I never really considered the fact that other players might attack me through the Court of Nobility.

They would have paid the necessary bribes to ensure that I was held up as long as possible. The Court of Nobility would find reasons to delay hearing my case but keep it on whatever docket they had so I wouldn’t be able to leave. They were trying to drag me down, attacking in unexpected ways. It was an interesting avenue of attack and an effective one that I couldn’t easily sidestep or ignore that leveraged their financial strengths.

“I am not disarming or going with you,” I replied while tucking the Imperial Order away in my clothing. “You have delivered the Imperial Order. Your job is done.” I knew the laws quite well. While I had majored in accounting, I had enough experience and knowledge of Exponential nobility to know my rights in the Human Empire.

“You were instructed to attend the Court of Nobility, immediately, we have an airship prepared just for you. Unfortunately, it requires that you disarm. If we somehow got back before you, it would be quite a scandal and disrespectful to the Imperial Order,” the man said with a feral grin, like it was trying to split his face. He probably got his rocks off thinking about putting the screws to me like the worm he was. I could tell they planned horrible things if I went with them. Time to put them in their place.

“Unless you have an Imperial Order designating you as my custodian, then I am free to arrange my own transportation, befitting a Viscountess of my stature and renown. I see no other noble of similar or higher rank to escort me. I see no carriage. No servants. I only see worms, ugly ones. And a low ranking noble who smells of the Murk Swamp and failure. That is why I cannot travel with you and that is my official response,” I replied. I might not like these kind of power games, but I knew how to play with the best of them.

“Good luck Foxy, you aren’t escaping this time,” the man said with a grin and walked off with his soldiers. He was quick to give up. They were probably going to rush back, but they had made a mistake landing in my town. Time to send a message of my own.

“File a complaint through the town magistrate,” I told Quant Z who had come out as well.

“Oh, don’t worry. I will hit that idiot with so much paperwork, he will die from papercuts,” Quant Z replied. “You need help with the Court of Nobility?”

“No. Just make such moves in this town unpleasant. Also, you know what to do regarding the master plan and this recent headache that is leaving,” I said, and Quant Z slowly nodded. Their airship was going to have a malfunction and explode. That is why we kept the Mercenery Guild airship in a hanger controlled by NPCs with NPC guards. It wouldn’t be easy to put pressure on them with how I had structured the security. They also didn’t get bored standing around all day. I would also never land in a hostile town, trusting the NPC guards stationed at the landing area.

Boarding the guild airship, I set off for the Capital at once. I began messaging several of my contacts to get a picture of what was happening. The short answer was bad. The long answer was quite close to what I had expected with details on the bribes and set up the super guilds had laid out for me. I was momentarily distracted by an explosion in the distance as an airship exploded but ignored it while I focused on more pressing concerns. A message sent and a message returned.

The super guilds were looking to suck up my time, by filing a case with the Court of Nobility, and looking to drag things out. Thankfully there was a way to cut straight through the bullshit, unfortunately the super guilds had prepared.

They had recruited a level 400 NPC, if I wanted to declare a trial by combat. This was the most expensive and highest level NPC they could find. He was on retainer to fight me for up to one real world month, which was four in game months. The super guilds would keep rescheduling the trial up until that point, daring me to accept the trial by combat.

If I didn’t accept the trial by combat, then after the month, they would unleash the court case, which would be pointlessly long and complex. The core charge was damaging noble interests. My actions with the Mercenery Guild could be looked at like that if one squinted, but we were in the legal clear. After disaster with the Fanged Fox Guild I made sure everything was above board. I didn’t want to be called before the Human Emperor again. I had both player and NPC auditors check my books and actions.

Unfortunately, noble courts were circus performances and tests of influence, less focused on law and legality. While the super guilds would burn a lot of their favors and influence if a trial went through, they could afford to do so. That was the power of the super guilds. They had countless avenues of attack and suppression with their massive player base and deep bank accounts. A quick mental estimate for the cost of an elite mercenary, political favors, and everything else associated, would put the price at a minimum of 100,000 platinum, probably closer to 250,000 platinum.

I had pissed a lot of people off and they were going all out to crush me. The response to my ENN interview and on air ambush was quick and deadly. Some people didn’t like the face slap I had given them and were willing to spend insane amounts of money to target me.

It was honestly a bit scary and impressive at the same time. I was such a threat in Exponential, that governments were literally setting money on fire just to burn me a bit. Even if I was found guilty of the charges, it would be a small fine at worst. There were very clear punishments for each crime. And going for more heavy charges would burn up a lot more favors that the super guilds didn’t have or didn’t want to spend. Well, that might not be the case in this situation, since they were clearly going all out to drag me down.

The system was corrupt, but it was balanced corruption. Since that money would be flowing into the various NPCs in charge of the Court of Nobility and Prime Minister Verus, they would charge more, the more excessive the super guilds wanted to be. My guess was that they had come up with two plans, and the bean counters went with the low cost option. That was a big mistake in my opinion, or they might have learned and decided to spend whatever was necessary to crush me regardless of the cost.

The biggest danger was that if a super guild became irrational, then it was about image, not about money. It seemed like things had taken a turn for the worse in this regard. The super guilds weren’t about to pull their punches against me. I should go into this thinking they would do their absolute worst rather than putting my trust in their bean counters. Things had escalated beyond mere money at this point.

A trial by combat would be tricky, but it would be the best option for to resolving this situation as quickly as possible. I just needed to be sure that whatever Champion had been hired wasn’t going to be swapped out at the last moment. I also needed to review the rules for a trial by combat again, just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten or missed anything.

It was a ridiculous way to administer a real court system, but QAI had set things up in game with the nobility and autocracy. There was no democracy in the Human Empire, it was called an Empire for a reason. It wasn’t a Kingdom either, since the lore had the Human Emperor uniting all the human kingdoms into one super Empire to fight against the dark gods. Hence his popularity across the NPCs, despite his garbage personality.

As I flew towards the Capital, I considered my various options, which seemed to be fighting in the courts, which was a losing proposition due to the deep pockets of the super guilds or having a trial by combat. That was also a losing proposition for the same reason. It would be nice to have an entire nation to fuel my ambitions. Perhaps I should run for some political office after this, just to stir things up. President April White had a nice ring to it. Not as nice as God Player Foxy Blight, but it would etch me into the history books for all time, more than I already was.

Making it clear that I didn’t expect to win, but merely to troll the two main political parties. If they wanted to fire shots at me, creating legal headaches in game, I would fire shots back in the real world, creating political headaches for the people causing me trouble.

First, I had to sort out this legal disaster. Once I got to the Capital, I would have to start unraveling exactly what was occurring and how much the NPCs were bribed. Thankfully there were information brokers to speed things up and we were on good terms with how much I had paid them over the years.