Greed God chapter 135

March 8th 2016 Gemworld 1:00 PM EDT

The  next few days were a whirlwind of activity. By which I meant lots of  fucking. Mostly Emerald, but I made sure Barbie got plenty of dick too.  All good things, however, must end. Eventually Amy tracked me down to  let me know that we had been requested at the capital. Her mother had  been apprised of everything, and Graciel had sent a few people to begin  subtly mining up the Amethyst. Now I was expected to come back to begin  negotiations of Amy's dowry, since I was going to be taking away their  heir.

During the wait I was at least able to convert some  more of my townspeople. I ended up at one point two five million points  after days of hard work. Sadly I didn't manage to get any more F rankers  from the conversions, but at the very least my G rank forces had been  filled out thanks to the faster regeneration and chalice charging  capabilities of my new bloodline. I now had two hundred and fifty G  ranked villagers with the vital tempest bloodline, which made them all  stupidly effective workers.

I'd even arranged to rent some  of their services to the house of Amethyst as miners, since they  weren't able to move too many people over without arousing suspicion. At  least not until they managed to swindle my town away from house  Emerald. My own Emerald had actually been brought in on things after I  Branded her (Amy had been thrilled in the trust I was showing her  friend) so she was going to be able to help us out with the acquisition  somewhat.

With all that taken care of we headed for  Amaranthine, with Emerald heading back to her own capital city albeit  somewhat unhappily. She promised to come to Amaranthine to visit as soon  as she got news on the town from her people. She wasn't anticipating  problems with it. Since Lord Town was so low ranked right now even if it  was a bit interesting, she was pretty sure she could get it for us as a  betrothal gift.

Amaranthine was busy as hell when we  arrived there. The streets overflowing with people who seemed to be  celebrating. I turned to Amy, raising an eyebrow as we walked in the  front gate of the city. "What's got all of them so over the moon? I  wouldn't think that a betrothal would be big enough news to get everyone  so excited. Does it really matter to them that much that we're  engaged?"

She smiled at me brightly. "Of course it does.  I'm their princess. My marriage is a huge event, not to mention there's  bound to be a festival to celebrate. This is also an excuse to get off  work, to party, to participate in games and competitions. Holiday's  aren't common. We have banquets for my mother and aunt's birthday, and  one for my own as well, but those don't involve the whole kingdom, only  the nobility. Big productions like that happen once every ten or twenty  years at best."

I could actually kind of understand that.  Life here probably sucked for most people. Maybe not as bad as in a  normal medieval society, but still, bread and circuses were always  popular with the peasantry. Or hell, maybe some of it was genuine  patriotism. Nothing to make you love your people like knowing the ones  next door would kill you if they got the chance. Plus the whole  bloodline thing was just recipe for xenophobia. Whatever the reason,  this whole thing was a good sign. It would be a huge loss of face for  them to publicize this if they weren't planning to go through with it.

Arriving  at the palace, we were met by a pair of E ranked guards and escorted  back to the receiving chamber. I mounted the platform again and waited  patiently to be level with Graciel again. I bowed at the waist, in  deference to her royal status. "You majesty. I trust you were pleased  with the results of the princess's report?" I didn't trust that  actually, at least not all of it. But there was plenty to be happy about  and reminding her of that might temper her reaction, not that I knew  what that would be.

This part was going to be a bit  unpredictable. Graciel was an effective Princess from what I'd heard,  but she wasn't very detached. She favored her family, and Amy in  particular was the apple of her eye. This betrothal was good for the  country, but she'd ignored those conditions before. No, if I wanted this  to work I needed to make her aware of how much Amy wanted me. She  needed to believe this was in her daughter's best interests, or she  wouldn't let this happen.

Sending Amy with me back home  under guard was one thing, but letting her get married was another.  Luckily, Mordiel was on my side. Soft spot or not, she knew if Amy  married out then Graciel was short an heir. It made her standing in the  kingdom much less stable. Having an heir meant that any grievances would  carry on to the next generation, which made people cautious. Unless you  could pop the monarch and the heir all at once there was no way to be  sure they wouldn't get revenge later. Hell, having more than one helped,  it was why noble houses on earth used to shoot for an 'heir and a  spare'.

Luckily Graciel didn't seem too angry, just  pensive. She watched Amy's face, saw how close she was standing to me on  the platform, and seemed to weigh all of it. Amy had followed me up  here so she could be by my side for this. Graciel gave me a measuring  look before sighing. "Yes. Very pleased with the results. We've been  told your quarry will be enough to supply us for quite a while. But that  isn't the only happy news is it. Tell us, what makes you think you're  worthy to marry our daughter?"

The royal we wasn't a great  sign in this context. It provided distance from the situation, which  might mean she was planning to do something distressing. I chose to  believe it was more of an observation of formality when she was under  extreme scrutiny though. I put an arm around Amy. "I think Amy is the  only one who can decide that. She was the one who proposed to me, and I  accepted because she's a very special girl and I've grown to care about  her in our time together. I want her to be mine."

That  last bit was the cold hard truth, though it wouldn't be taken in the  manner I meant it. Amy, as expected, flushed bright red at the words,  which seemed to annoy Graciel. She didn't mention it outright though,  choosing to keep her focus on me. She'd long since made it clear to  everyone that Amy was allowed to choose her own husband. Since she chose  me, breaking us up would contradict her own edict, but not making me  work for it would make everyone think she was soft and that I'd  outsmarted her.

I wasn't looking forward to whatever this  task was. She would give me something insane, and if I could do it then  it would prove I was amazing, if I couldn't it would prove she was  superior, and she could just play magnanimous and say I could marry Amy  but had to marry into Amethyst, which I wasn't going to do. "Very well.  You've certainly proven your spirit. It does our heart glad to see our  daughter's chosen man stand tall even in the face of our power. But you  must prove your capabilities to do so. Knowing one's worth is a valuable  trait. Arrogance is not, and only ability provides a distinction."

I  gave a solemn nod. As expected. Still I respected the sentiment, and it  was hard not to imagine proving my 'ability' to her, especially since  drinking in that milfy body would be a huge breach of protocol right  now. Luckily I had perfect recall so I could recall every curve without  needing to avert my eyes and ruin the impression I had going. So I  looked her in the eye. "I'm not afraid of a challenge your majesty. I'll  prove whatever I need to. Amaya belongs with me, and I plan to make  that clear to everyone."

Well, she belonged TO me, even if  she didn't know it yet, but it was pretty much the same thing. A  flicked of a smile lifted one corner of her mouth. "Very well then. You  have provided us with many stones, but none of true worth. I charge you  to retrieve one such gem. A Duke ranked Amethyst stolen by our hated enemy. We know not what his plans for it may be,or if he has any at all,  but it has languished in his care for far too long. You will find it  and retrieve it, either by guile or force."

Amy  pulled out of my grip, looking shocked. "Mother! That's too much. Dark Opal is a Lord, one of the most powerful of them. How is Nicholas  supposed to infiltrate his territory. What if the Amethyst is with him  personally? This is extremely dangerous! I beg you to reconsider. Please  pick something else!" Her voice was agitated and frantic, which was a  pretty good sign that she was worried about me. It was nice to know my  effort was paying off. Unfortunately she had little grasp on what  exactly was going on, so she was pretty much arguing the wrong case.

Since  Graciel wanted me to fold, giving me a dangerous impossible task was  par for the course. If I actually died it wouldn't really be a loss for  her since she already knew where the quarries were, and if I didn't then  she would get some good benefits. Naturally she expected the former,  since to someone from Gemworld something like this would be regarded as  an obvious suicide mission. This part was supposed to be a formality in  her opinion. She'd gone all out and expected me to just give up without  trying.

Naturally  I wasn't doing that, but I also couldn't just accept in public because  then Dark Opal would know I was coming. Stealing from a B ranker was  possible if I was careful. Stealing from a B ranker who EXPECTED me was  going to be exactly as suicidal as everyone thought it would be.  Luckily, accepting the task would be lunacy. I furrowed my brow.  "This...your majesty, perhaps we could talk about this? Could you assign  me another task? From what Amaya is saying I have no chance of  accomplishing this mission. Must you make things difficult for me?"

Her  eyes flashed with a gleam of pleasure, but she suppressed the internal  smirk I knew must be forming before it crept onto her lips. "Are you  worthy of us making things difficult for? We have made our will known.  There will be no compromise. If you wish to marry our daughter,  especially our of our family, you must prove yourself. Unless the  situation changes we can only dismiss your concerns." I opened my mouth,  my face painted with unhappiness, but she waved a hand imperiously.  "Go. You may think on our words, do not seek our counsel again unless  you accomplish this task...or seek to admit your failure."

Yup,  there it was. That little monologue told me one thing though. Why she  was annoyed. This whole situation was good for her and worked fine, but  she'd heard about what happened at the proposal. She was pissed because  she thought I had tricked Amy into putting her position as heir in  jeopardy. If it had been an accident or Amy's call she probably would  have been less tyrannical when she laid down the law, but that was fine.  I turned as if I was angry, the platform lowering before I stalked out  of the hall, Amy looking after me in shock and horror at what this  situation had turned into.

Poor  girl had absolutely no clue what was really going on. It was lucky for  her I'd decided to take her for myself. No one that straightforward had  any place being in charge of a country. She wasn't stupid, but she  didn't think in enough layers to be a politician. Regardless, this had  gone about as well as expected. Now I just needed to lie low for a bit  before setting out. After all, once word got out that I was locked up in  hiding licking my wounds Dark Opal would have no reason to be on  guard. By the time anyone realized I was taking on this supposedly  impossible mission I'd be back here with the Amethyst. Well, and some  other stuff. It would be stupid to go on vacation and not pick up a few  souvenirs.