Chapter 90: Expansion

Arthur didn’t have to tell stories about his trip too many times. Almost none of his regulars asked him twice about the trip, but as stragglers who hadn’t learned the updates came in and Arthur retold the stories, he found that Lily never got tired of them. She was always there, laughing like they were new, or listening to the interesting but un-funny parts with sparkling little-kid eyes.

“Do you regret missing the trip now?” Arthur teased. “All the Hing adventures and the gigantic breakfast battle?”

“Oh, the breakfast battle, for sure. But not the days and days in the wagon. It balances out.” She glanced out the glass storefront and smiled. “Here comes the breakfast champion himself.”

“Spiky!” Arthur yelled. “How are things going with Leena? Is she settled in yet?”

“Settled in, and has a class, AND has a primary skill.”

“Wow. Why so fast?”

“I guess the system is trying to make up for lost time. She had a lot of potential built up from her time as a stationer.”

“Well, another librarian in the world. Your drink is on me.”

Spiky squeezed out a wry smile. “Not a librarian, actually. An archivist. You remember what I did with the pamphlets for your tea and the shocks? She’s specialized for just that part of my job, plus recording histories and details of things. She doesn’t gain experience from telling other people information, she advances on processing and cataloging information. It’s basically the inside, non-social version of what a librarian does. It’s perfect.”

“Well, you still get the drink.” Arthur handed off one of his new magic-sealed glasses to Spiky and tossed him a little treat. “And a cookie, too.”

“Thanks. But believe it or not, that’s not the only news. Not by a long shot. When I got home, today, I got this.” Spiky waved an open envelope at Arthur. “I’ve been corresponding with the capital through rapid courier about the shock absorbers. Just clarification notes and things like that.”

“Oh, neat,” Arthur said, not too sure where his librarian friend was going with things. But whatever it was, it was important. Spiky didn’t even look at his drink.

“I know they’ve been talking to Minos about his explorations as well. They sent this because they felt I deserved to be kept in the loop on things. And it turns out Minos was right. According to my contact, they are announcing a territory annex soon. As in, tomorrow, maybe.”

Arthur almost dropped his glass. “Just like that? Shouldn’t it take more than a week’s worth of planning for a thing like that?”

“It did, Arthur. They start planning a new annex as soon as the last one ends. We just changed the math.”

“Geez,” Arthur said. “It’s really going to shake the whole world, isn’t it?”

“You don’t know the half of it. I’ve read dozens of books about the last annex. It’s the biggest change our society regularly goes through. You take some significant percentage of the population and move them to a different location. That changes things at home. But at the same time, you’re building a dozen new spontaneous cultures in the wild. It’s interesting, Arthur. Studying new places is one thing. Studying how demons interact with those new places is a whole layer on top of that.”

“Oh, damn,” Arthur said. “Damn.”

“What?”

“You’re going. And you don’t even know it yet.”

“What? No, I’m not. I have a job, I have a…” Spiky stopped suddenly. “Gods. I’m going. You’re absolutely right. I’m not passing this up. I can’t.”

Arthur sighed and sat down. “And that’s one down, before the drawing even begins. How many people do you think are going to go?”

“In our age group? Last time, it was one out of ten,” Spiky said.

“Seems hard on the cities. They dump all those resources into bringing up a new generation, and then they leave before the city sees any benefit,” Arthur said.

“It may not look like it, Arthur, but this city is nearly crowded. When a city can only grow as large as its wall, that can become a problem very quickly,“ Spiky said.

“I see. Maybe I’m still thinking a bit like an Earthling.”

“Or you could be bummed that a lot of the people you know are going to be gone. But new territories mean new goods, and less people to split the resources each town brings in. It has some major positive ramifications on local economies, including trade, growth, and dozens of other factors. The big thing is the rate of level growth. More people means more competition for the same classes, which leads to a suboptimal environment where everyone is bottle necked at a lower level.”

Arthur often ran into situations where he didn’t know something, and someone else did. That was normal. Spiky was giving him a different vibe today. What was usually a sneaking suspicion that someone was smarter than Arthur was starting to resolve into a firm certainty.

“It’s weird, Spiky.” Arthur said, putting another cookie in front of him. “Seeing you in full academic mode, I mean. How much of yourself do you edit out for people like me?”

“Oh, not much.”

“Spiky.”

“About 20%,” Spiky said. “Which really isn’t that much. Some of the higher level librarians I know have to treat talking to normal people like a second language. If they accidentally switch into teaching mode, they ruin parties. It’s a whole thing.”

—

“Hmm. Well, it’ll be a lucky town that gets Spiky. Starting from scratch with a real librarian is more than a lot of settlements ever got. Here, try this one.” Ella handed Arthur another little cube of meat.

“It’s very good. Like all the others. But if I had to say, it’s probably worse than the first and better than the second. How many more of these samples do I need to get through?” Arthur asked after a few bites.

“Oh, not many more,” Ella said as she gestured at a dozen different meat cubes. “I want to make sure this marinade is just right. It’s not every day I get to welcome my husband home, you know.”

Arthur took another swig of water, washing the taste of the meat out of his mouth before sampling another cube.

“I agree Spiky will be great wherever he goes. I’m a bit worried about things if I’m being honest. Which I know is selfish, but everyone I know is great at something. How many of my friends are going to leave before this is done? They’re all great. And young. And apparently those are the people who go.”

“You’re thinking about this wrong in a couple of ways. Some of which make your problem a little worse.” Ella paused. “How was that one?”

“Much worse than the others. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, that one was a long shot. But you’re thinking only young people will go. That’s not true. You can’t build an entire world out there with just inexperienced people. They need support.”

“What kind of support?”

“Well, for instance, think of governance. Pico is our mayor, which means he makes decisions. He’s elected. There will be mayors out there, too, but most of them will be community members, not skilled administrators like Pico. So you’ll see some folks sent out to help people coordinate things. To work with towns on what’s feasible to try, and share knowledge until they understand how to run the town better themselves.”

“Portable decision-makers?”

“Absolutely not. The decisions will come from the towns. That’s how it’s always been. Think more coordination than leadership and you’ll have it.”

Arthur ate another cube of meat himself.

“Oh, this one is it. Probably. That’s very good. Is that woodmelon?”

“Just a tiny bit. It helps it char better. Don’t ask me why. As for other classes that might get pulled out there, it would probably be a list you would put together yourself. Healers. Fighters. Again, shared between towns, and just enough of them to let the new settlements survive until they find their footing. In the distant past, they’ve made mistakes with both too much help and not enough. It took a long time for our ancestors to find the right balance.”

“Hmm.” Arthur could sort of see the logic behind what Ella was saying. “I guess it makes sense if everyone is so young.”

“Again, not everyone will be. Lots of people will see this as an opportunity, Arthur. Others will see it as an adventure. Some will follow family. There will be a mix.”

“Really? Uprooting to take care of their kids?” Arthur asked.

“Well, sure. If your kids are your only family where you live, why wouldn’t you want to go where they are?” Ella said.

“It’s just hard for me to imagine someone uprooting a whole life like that. Who would actually do it?”

“Well, I might, for one. If Milo went. I’ve been thinking about it since Minos said it was a possibility.”

“You? The most famous chef in the city?”

“Oh, that? If I left, someone else would be the most famous. Imagine this house empty, with nobody to cook for, and Minos gone half the time. Famous wouldn’t matter that much then. It doesn’t matter that much now, frankly. I just like cooking, Arthur.”

She tasted a few of the cubes on the plate from the next few batches and grimaced.

“I don’t think you need to try these. Clear misses, both of them. Arthur, I’m not saying I will go. Or that Milo will. I’m just saying that more and different people will go than you’re thinking. Which actually leads me to the second thing you have clearly wrong. It’s not just that other people might go, Arthur. It’s possible you will too.”

“I… why?” Arthur said. “I have a shop here. I just got it. And it’s doing well.”

“Well, sure. And if you want to stay there, nobody will stop you,” Ella said.

“I don’t even know why I’d leave,” Arthur said.

Ella sat down at the table and sighed, “Arthur. Young Arthur. And I mean that. You’re smart, you’re by the laws of our land an adult. But there’s a lot you haven’t lived through yet. And I can tell you that things like a shop or living in one place or another aren’t always permanent.”

“It’s only been a few months, Ella.”

“True. And how long did you plan to have the shop?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“My point is that the city helped you get into the shop because they thought it would help you, Arthur. And as repayment for what you had already contributed to the city. But they did not want them to be,” she pointed at him, “chains that shackle you down. Now, I’m afraid you might be hearing this as advice that you should leave.”

“A little, maybe,” Arthur said. “It’s not? Because you were being pretty persuasive.”

“I’m just a big fan of making sure things are as clear as possible as early as possible. It avoids problems. What I’m saying isn’t that you should leave. And it isn’t that you should stay. Do you remember when Mizu was sick? What I told you about duty?”

“Yes. That I didn’t have to help her past a certain point, basically.”

“That’s right. And when you then decided you wanted to even though you didn’t have to, I hope you know I threw every bit of weight I had behind you to help push you up that hill. This is a bit like that. You don’t have to go. Even if you were pulled in the drawing, you wouldn’t have to. People do turn it down. But absolutely nobody is going to make you feel bad for leaving either. A territory expansion is good for all of us. It’s something everyone you will meet in this world wants to support, in one way or another.”

Arthur looked down at the table. It was a lot to think about. Especially since one of the smallest complications in his life was also the biggest.

“Arthur, you don’t have to make a decision about it right now. Stop making your hard thinking face.”

“No, I know. I was just thinking about Lily.”

“Oh, my. Yes, Lily does complicate things,” Ella said. “I’m sorry I was forgetting about her. The frontier is an adventure, Arthur. But it’s also fairly dangerous. It’s one of the very few places that demon laws become strict. An unclassed person can’t go, absent some clear need from their guardian. And while I love your class…”

“Nobody really needs tea. I understand that. But she can work. Why the strict restriction?” Arthur said.

“This part is simple to explain, at least. It’s a matter of stats. She doesn’t have them. And can’t get them. And with the risk of injury without a ready cleric, and with the possibility of needing to flee from monster waves, it’s just too dangerous unless it’s a necessity for some reason or another,” Ella said.

“Well, that sort of settles it, I suppose. I wouldn’t abandon her.”