Greed God chapter 103

February 9th 2016 Gemworld 5:00 PM EDT

I  had a decent hope that Zee might get branded after we fucked, but  whatever the thing was that would make her submit this wasn't it. Given  her fanatical research obsession I was guessing it would be magic based.  It made me wonder if it was harder to brand higher ranked girls. That  would make sense actually, given the way rank seemed to interact with  the system as a whole. Regardless since I didn't end up managing that  meant I was running exceptionally low on points, and officially needed  to top up.

I considered multiple possible ways to fix  this, including collecting more magic shit, but in the end that most  rational way I could think to manage it was to go steal a bunch of  stuff. To that end I decided to consult Barbie, who had been talking to  the villagers we'd managed to recruit in her capacity as the assistant  mayor or whatever. I tracked her down at the berry orchard, finishing up  a meeting with one of the farmers and his wife, a lithe tan woman with  startlingly green eyes. As they left I headed in, dropping into a chair  as I looked around the inside of the place.

Barbie had  rearranged some of the furniture but mostly left it as it was. When she  looked up to see me she pretended to be mildly interested, but I could  see the flush in her cheeks and the way her pupils dilated. She was  clearly feeling much more affectionate after our session earlier. I of  course, being a gentleman, ignored that and just flashed her my usual  charming grin. "So, how are the new citizens fitting in? I assume Levka  loves his forge but how are the other farmers liking their  accommodations?"

Clearly happy to have something to focus  on Barbie cleared her throat. "Ah, well they're integrating well. I  mean, we aren't anywhere close to the point where we can be considered a  self sufficient settlement obviously, but those are easy enough things  to fix with your abilities. There are a few more buildings I think we  could use when you get a chance. I'll make a list. Until then however I  think we're doing better than we could be expected to do. Did you have a  timeline for this grand expansion plan? I assume you don't want to be  here for years."

Given Doctor Gotham was back in my town  potentially trashing my stuff and might eventually stumble on my house  and pose a threat to my kids and my women I did not. "No. A few weeks or  a month or two. We just need to build up enough of a visible presence  to seem like a credible partner to the Amethyst noble lineage. Or at  least enough for them to take a request for a meeting seriously. Once I  can talk to the princess I should be able to get her on our side." My  desire abilities would make it easy enough to mess with her head.

Barbie  just sighed. "Honestly I would call anyone else who said that a  lunatic, but given your demonstrated ability to conjure entire  structures nearly from thin air getting to a point where we look like  powerful nobles at least on the surface in a few weeks isn't impossible.  The charade would fold like we tissue paper under any degree of  scrutiny mind you, there's no viable way to get all of these people  integrated into an actual functional society. At least assuming we need  to recruit more of them to fill all the new buildings and such."

That  went without saying, though if I branded them all I could probably  force it. I might do that anyway actually, just get them all to swear  their undying loyalty to me as their lord. It would probably give me a  solid bump in points and it would make this whole thing more convenient.  For now though I had another, better idea. Something that would not  only win them over and make me some points, but spread my name and make  Barbie a bit more enthused about this whole thing.

My  smirk was clearly incredibly smug, because she didn't say anything else,  just waiting for me to finally come out with it. I let her stew a bit  before I finally revealed my master plan. "I actually had a great idea  about that. This is a medieval kingdom, or some analogue, and while the  nobles control their realms there's no way it's a complete dominion.  Medieval methods means medieval problems. If we could take care of those  problems, or at least some of them, it would go a long way to getting  our names out there. So, what are the chances this forest has  any...bandits?"

Her eyes flashed with interest. Bandit  hunting would of course be the best case scenario for me. Not only would  I be able to steal all their stolen shit to stock up on points (I  couldn't spend many more of I was going to go into point withdrawl and  compromise my decision making) I could even capture the bandits  themselves and force them to submit so I could brand them, then  repurpose them into guards. It was a win win scenario for me. Barbie  herself was always thinking about normal people and all that bullshit,  so clearing a menace to the populace out of the forest would salve hero  heroic ego.

She leaned forward. "I take it you expected me  to ask them about the local environment and try to gather as much  information from the farmers and Levka as I could." I didn't even bother  responding to that, just staring at her drolly. She grinned. "Well you  expected right. Yes, I did ask them about nearby threats, and yes, this  huge ass forest DOES have a bandit problem. Not that it was that big of a  reach to ask about it. The bandits in this forest are, however, not  exactly independent. They're somewhat related to the local noble line."

Ah,  I nodded my head. That wasn't completely unexpected. It was an old  trick for nobles to sanction criminal organizations and support them  behind the scenes. They got to keep any ACTUAL criminal elements out of  their territory, got a weapon to use against dissidents, and could use  them to manipulate trade routes and put pressure on foreign dignitaries.  I may not know shit about medieval society, but the nobility were good  lessons in political maneuvering for a growing Lord. My dad had given me  plenty of lessons that referred to similar methods of dealing with  problems.

It could cause issues depending on how the  arrangement was structured. "What do we know about their relationship?  Is it explicit backing? Or do they need to justify themselves to nearby  allies?" Setting up a powerful puppet faction had upsides, but there  were downsides too. If they used the bandits as proxies to inflict  damage on nearby noble forces or other powerful local factions the  Emerald nobles wouldn't be able to explicitly back their tools. They  would need to maintain deniability, and even if we took the bandits down  they couldn't say shit about it without admitting fault.

If  the distance was in name only though, such as letting a disgraced  family member take control of the organization, taking them down could  result in direct intervention from the Emerald noble lineage. It would  limit the external uses of the bandits, but it would also enable them to  take a more active role in supporting the criminal group, having their  police forces ignore them completely or even offer them help with any  issues they couldn't handle themselves. In that case we would be better  off finding another target rather than start a war with an established  noble house too soon.

The fact that Barbie had figured  their relation out within a day somewhat implied the latter, but there  was a middle ground there too, and she would have pumped them for more  information about it. Her eyes glittered with approval at the questions.  "From what I can tell the Emerald Edge is a sort of dumping ground for  the local bastards. They aren't exactly backed by the nobility, but the  house of Emerald has been known to outsource certain dirty jobs to them  when the need arises. In exchange for their services they've set up  something of an unofficial neutral zone in the forest where the Edge is  free to raid without fear of reprisal, with a few...specially designated  exceptions."

That was one of the better possible setups  for us. "It's a protection racket then. They let the bandits run amok in  the forest in exchange for a fee or considerations from merchants or  visiting nobles. Since they aren't bankrolling the bandits and they stay  out of their direct influence they have deniability while still making  use of them. In that case we should be free to kick some ass and steal  all their shit without repercussion. Hell we might even be able to  request a reward from the house of Emerald for services rendered and get  paid twice."

That got a fond eyeroll from Barbie. "As  much as I enjoy your optimism please keep in mind that I did say these  people consist of several bastard sons of the house of Emerald. Based on  what we know about Amethyst we can assume the Gemworld nobles each have  a unique magical bloodline power. We have no idea exactly how powerful  those abilities are. They rule this whole world. It's entirely possible  for them to be a genuine threat to you."

As much as I  wanted to dismiss the possibility she was right. The nobles of Gemworld  might be as strong as Doctor Gotham. If that was the case their kids  could be as powerful as Raven. I just wasn't in a position where I could  afford to go charging off into the woods to stock up without doing any  sort of recon. Of course, I could just appraise them, but that would  mean getting close, which would be reckless. I sighed. "I assume you  have a suggestion and aren't just poking holes on my plans for no  reason?"

In actuality I was glad  Barbie had brought it up. I tended to get tunnel vision when I was  excited about something, even without the Greed System influencing my  decisions. Granted my plans were more impatient than cartoon stupid when  I did it normally, but still, it was something I needed to work on, and  having my redhead to point it out in this case might have saved me from  a severe ass kicking. As confident as I was in my power, I had to  remember this wasn't Gotham. The same elements of Gemworld that let me  build a fucking village meant I couldn't assume I was the biggest bully  on the playground.

Barbie  did, as it happened, have a suggestion. "I think an amended version of  the spell Zatanna used to help you search for magic materials would be  the best move here. We could cast it on..." Her eye twitched slightly.  "Cherry. And she can use her abilities to sneak into the camp and give  us a report on who and what is in there in terms of enemies. Then we can  decide if they're too much for us or who we would need to bring to put  down the bandits."

Her  disdain when she said my phantom lady's name made it clear that while  the three way with Zee had helped ease some of the tension between the  two of them, she wasn't suddenly ok with everyone. Which was fair, her  dislike of Cherry was more for the whole trying to kill her thing than  jealousy. Still, one step at a time, she hadn't seemed upset when she  mentioned Zee so that was a good sign for things to come, we could work  on the rest of it. For now her plan was workable. I'd send Cherry out  for recon, but when she got back, assuming it was feasible, I was gonna  go fuck up some bandits.