Ruthless V6Ch12-The Fisher Empire

“Thank you for rescuing us,” Alan said, bowing his head slightly as he stepped in front of James. He wore his gratitude with slight but visible discomfort, as if embarrassed to be in anyone’s debt.

“I promised to take care of you back in Orientation,” James replied, “and I promised to take care of everyone here when they swore their allegiance to me. It may have taken me a little while to get here, but I hope you know I keep my word.”

“Yes,” Alan replied. “Everyone here deeply appreciates it.”

The rest of the hostages were in good enough condition to approach James and thank him individually. Some of them bowed their heads or knelt—James caught himself thinking, As if I was real royalty, before he reminded himself that he was as real as any royalty had ever been. One woman threw herself at his waist, sobbing her gratitude, until, to James’s relief, one of her friends pulled her away.

“Alan, can we talk for a minute on our own?” James asked quietly once the others had said their piece—happily, just gratitude, no requests for vengeance against the dinosaurs just yet. As far as James was concerned, he had made peace with every Race of creature that had surrendered. Unless he found out that one specific velociraptor was violating the terms of surrender, James just wanted to get along with them.

“Of course,” Alan said deferentially.

He seems different. Captivity really didn’t agree with him. Maybe he’ll be better once he sees Mitzi again.

The two men stepped away from the group.

“I just wanted to ask why you never let me summon you back to the Kingdom,” James said in a low voice. “I think I get it, but—well, you had to know how worried we all were. Was there some kind of magical barrier keeping you from leaving, or…?”

“I never wanted to be the kind of man who would take an easy exit like that and leave other people behind,” Alan replied in a firm voice. “Even if it would ease Mitzi’s mind. Even if it would save my life. I can’t imagine how it would have felt for the others—to be abandoned by one of the people responsible for leading the expedition.”

“You felt a sense of obligation,” James said, chewing over what Alan was saying.

I kind of thought him refusing the summons might be his way of making sure I came and rescued the group—a way of putting pressure on me, because he wasn’t sure I would do it if it was a bunch of people’s lives at stake who I didn’t really know. That kind of manipulation would have pissed me off a little, even if it was a genuinely noble thing to do.

“I felt responsible,” Alan agreed, nodding. “I was responsible. And, just as importantly, I think the raptors kept us alive mostly because of me. They wanted a Healer, to help their troops recover from all the skirmishes they had with their neighbors. So if I had accepted your summons, I might have been leaving the others worse off than if I stayed. Now I’ve executed my responsibility honorably, and I can go on looking myself in the mirror and looking my wife in the eyes and know that I’m still the same man I thought I was before this experience. And the same soldier. If that explanation isn’t acceptable to you—”

“No, it’s—you’re right,” James said. “You did the right thing. I only partially understood. It’s not in my character to do the right thing naturally. Sometimes I have to be reminded of what the right thing even is. You’re a good soldier. The best kind. You can go back to the others; I’m sure they’re missing your presence even after being rescued. Dismissed.”

Alan straightened his body up, and for the first time ever, Alan saluted James.

“Yes, sir,” Alan said.

James returned the salute, slightly stunned at how seriously Alan had taken this commander-subordinate aspect of the conversation. Alan had seemed like he would be the last one to seriously accept that James was a head of state in a deep, implicit way.

James had imagined that Alan would always look at James as a responsible, thoughtful young man who he and Mitzi could guide in the right direction.

Now it felt more like Alan trusted James to give him leadership, to judge Alan’s actions as a commander reviewed those of a common soldier.

Alan started to walk away, iron in his spine, but then stopped mid-stride and turned back to James.

“James—er, sir—I should add that it was easier to keep to my resolve, knowing that you would eventually come to our rescue,” Alan said. “I never doubted it. Not for a single moment.” There was sincere conviction in his voice.

“Well, I’m not sure if Mitzi felt the same way,” James said dryly. “Let’s get you back to her right away, before something else kidnaps you. I need to start preparing for the Victors Tournament, which means that my advisors need to be working hard on preparing themselves for the World Leaders Summit that takes place right before it.”

Alan smiled. “Nothing would please me more.”

The walk back to Lake Eola Park was brisk, but still, it took half an hour, much slower than the flight James had made to the complex where the prisoners were being held. It couldn’t be helped that so many of the humans in the group with him were underleveled, since it was almost entirely those who had been held captive in these recent weeks. Rotter was a bit better off, while Damien, the Panther Queen, and Mageddon were actually competitive with James himself in terms of travel speed. But in this situation, traveling through a city that was still dangerous, the slowest members of the group determined the pace.

When the group finally made it back to Lake Eola Park, James had the privilege of witnessing something sweet: Mitzi dropping everything she was doing—she had been in the middle of starting campfires—and running towards her husband.

Alan raced to her, too.

When the two met, Alan picked his wife up and twirled her above the ground like they were a prince and princess in an old Disney movie. James felt awkward even being in the same park with something so cheesy going on.

He quickly busied himself with practical tasks and left the two lovebirds alone; he would have time to catch up with them later.

The afternoon’s cleanup was smooth and easy.

No one wanted to challenge James or his forces as they Looted and Pillaged their way across the Lake Eola battlefield and the other conquered areas of Orlando. They consolidated gains and took buildings and huge sections of the park for temporary shelters.

Perhaps there was no one left in the city who wanted to challenge them at all.

James’s scouts reported to him that there was a small number of monsters fleeing the city, apparently in response to the invasion. The remaining population was apparently hunkering down, either preparing to fight or hoping that this attack from the Royal Fisher Army would blow over.

At the very least, with the World Leaders Summit scheduled to transport the Rulers away along with their guests in eighteen hours, the Rulers would have a chance to investigate what was up before the mysterious and deadly Fisher King and his forces advanced further into the city. They probably thought that if they met him at the Summit, they could negotiate more favorable terms than if he marched into their territory and destroyed their defenses.

All they had to do was take shelter and wait for the transfer.

But that evening, Rotter displayed his moving record of James’s victory over the Vorpal Wyvern Warp King in the night sky. It was edited, but so lightly as to be imperceptible even to James, except in the places where he noticed the obvious fact that Doppelganger had been removed completely. Others watching would not have been able to notice even those minor edits. It looked, for instance, like the Bonded Oni Axe simply fell onto the Warp King’s neck, probably pulled by James’s Precision Gravity Control Skill.

The picture Rotter presented in the sky was so large that the entire city could see it, eclipsing the moon and stars with its bright lights.

James’s entourage loved it. The Royal Fisher Army cheered at all the best moments, seemed to audibly gasp when James was getting hit and losing blood, and applauded outright when James vaporized the wyvern’s head.

They had become a lot more bloodthirsty since the System arrived, James noted. The men and women he had met in Orientation had not been at a stage of acceptance of the situation where they would applaud bloodshed, he didn’t think.

Then someone, probably instructed by Rotter, brought out a bunch of casks of wine and spirits that had apparently been liberated from some surviving liquor stores nearby, and the post-battle rest turned into a party.

James held himself somewhat aloof from the celebration—he mostly hid out in a tent that had been erected for him—but he accepted congratulations as they were repeatedly given throughout the evening by people who sought him out specifically to kiss up. Mina carried most of those conversations, since even if she was just as bored as James with the predictable interactions, she was at least somewhat charmed by the fact that people were there to celebrate her husband.

And as the night wore on, something special happened.

Sixteen Rulers, seeing the broadcast in the night sky, came to Lake Eola Park in order to pay their own respects to James and, as each explained in his or her own wording, to surrender to the Fisher King.

Some came alone. A few came in pairs, arriving in the company of their most trusted ally so that if the Fisher King intended to kill surrendering Rulers on sight, they could at least put up a fight. One set of six Rulers arrived all together, as a sort of show of strength.

James didn’t bat an eye at any of them. He gave them all identical conditions. There were to be no promises on his end in exchange for their surrenders, but he welcomed them to walk among his followers and ask other former Rulers how they had been treated. They could consider those cases as exemplary of how he would behave toward them.

That seemed to be persuasive. All of those who came to the camp agreed to become citizens of the Fisher Kingdom in the end.

There were lizard people, cockroach monsters, frog folk, flamingoes, a small band of Concrete Elementals, and many stranger creatures who had banded together under Rulers not necessarily the same Race as themselves.

Near the end of the process, just after the Flamboyant Flamingo King had surrendered to James, he received a System alert.

[More than ten Rulers have willingly submitted to your rule in a single day. Required conditions met. Accept Job Evolution? Y/N]

Could you at least tell me what my Evolution options are? James thought.

But the System gave no answers. The notification simply floated in front of him, defying his question.

The System could read his thoughts, at least some of the time, he was fairly certain. There were definitely moments when it answered questions that he was thinking of, and it had happened too many times to be a coincidence. It probably wasn’t offering “options” as much as a simple, straightforward upgrade to his current Job. There was nothing to consider, in that case, except whether he wanted to progress.

James selected “Y.”

A great force seemed to descend on him, and then James felt his power and awareness expand as his stats increased significantly. His field of vision filled with alerts.

[You obtained the Job “Fisher Emperor”!]

[You acquired the Talent “Imperial Presence!”]

[You acquired the Talent “Tyrant’s Might!”]

[All existing “Fisher King” Skills have been upgraded.]

[The Fisher Kingdom became the Fisher Empire!]

He let out a long breath.

Yep. Just a straightforward upgrade. An upgrade that sent a surge of power shooting through his entire body, but still fairly straightforward.

Before he did anything else, before he reviewed further specifics, James accepted the surrender of the last few leaders waiting to formally kneel and offer their allegiance. They seemed to be able to sense that something had changed about James, but they were too polite—or perhaps intimidated—to ask about it.

Once the surrenders were done, he thanked all of them for coming and gave them the same first orders that he had given the previous batch.

“If there are any other Races of creatures that live next to you, tell them to come and surrender to me right away. They shouldn’t wait until after the World Leaders Summit.” James could now add an additional detail. Without reading his Talent descriptions yet, he could feel that his power had expanded enough to justify this point: “If their subordinates have to live in Orlando while we’re at the Summit, and they haven’t surrendered to me, they’ll all be living under tremendous pressure. My aura will cover the entire city starting tomorrow morning, and any life forms who aren’t recognized as my citizens will probably feel forced to leave.”

The former Rulers looked slightly alarmed, then impressed.

“We made the correct choice, it seems,” said the Frog Prince in a croaking voice.

James simply smiled.

“Live in peace, my new friends. That’s what I want for all of us.”