Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 6

The first thing I did when I returned to Crownhill was prepare to share my recent discovery. I found Frank in the same breakfast joint I’d seen him that morning, probably still enjoying a late breakfast.

“Frank, I need to call a council meeting. Actually, scratch that. Make it a meeting in general. This is something everyone should be able to hear.”

“You got it,” Frank said, scarfing down a breakfast burrito.

It didn’t take Frank long to organize a council meeting. I called for these often enough that everybody held a position knew they were on call, and they were assembled before long. Then, for the public crowd I wanted, he just shouted to the cluster of people around the Obelisk.

“Hey, our supreme overlord emperor guy is making an announcement soon. Tell your friends!” Frank yelled.

And so people scurried around to prepare for my announcement. I waited until the last council member arrived, by which time we had a decent crowd going. As always, standing up in front of a bunch of people to speak to them was a daunting task, but it wasn’t so scary now that I’d commanded a legion at war.

So I told them of my encounter and then what they should take from it.

“In summary, there’s another faction out there containing at least part of the remains of the old country of Japan, along with a foreign faction of oni likely serving as mercenaries or allies much as our Amazonian friends here are doing for us. If you encounter them on your expeditions, try to make peaceful contact with them. The council and I will be working to establish contact with their leadership. Any questions?”

I had kept things short and simple. Hopefully, there would be no questions, and I could return home with my ladies to do more renovations in preparation for the baby.

Naturally, I wasn’t so lucky. As soon as I asked, a hundred hands went up. Others were less polite and simply started shouting their questions at me.

“Who’s going to lead the first contact mission?”

“What if they attack us first? Are we supposed to just run away?”

“How dangerous are they? If their allies are so battle-hungry, shouldn’t we prepare for battle?”

“Why did you only encounter oni? Did they transform their human allies?”

The questions came one after another. Originally, I hadn’t planned for this to be a big deal, but perhaps I had made it one by calling a big public meeting. The crowd did bring up some good points, though. First contact with another shard wasn’t the sort of job I could leave to independent adventuring bands. I knew I could trust Frank and his crew, but some of the others wouldn’t hesitate to start an altercation over loot.

I could put Frank in charge of this. I usually delegated this sort of thing in Crownhill, so it wouldn’t be entirely unexpected. Frank would hate the extra work, but that was how I knew he was the right man for the job.

But despite taking a long breakfast some days, I knew Frank was busy hunting monsters with his people, and I’d already asked for his help keeping an eye on those military guys we’d met. It would be unfair of me to ask more of him.

There were others I could turn to, sure. And no doubt, many in the crowd before me would volunteer if I asked. But this was an important job, and I needed it done right. How this encounter played out would shape the future, not just for me, but for my child on the way.

With that last thought, I abandoned any ideas of washing my hands of this matter and delegating the task. As the old saying went, if you want something done right, you do it yourself. So that was what I decided to do. I'd chosen to be a leader back when I'd taken command during the wolfman raid. Now it was time to live up to that promise.

“I will be handling this matter personally. I will hunt down this other settlement, then find out of they are friend or foe. If they are potential allies, we’ll settle things quickly. If not, they will wish they were our allies. As I’ll be handling this matter directly, you may start seeing recurring quests relevant to this mission. Please spread the word.”

I waved goodbye to the crowd and departed through the shadow realm. I’d just signed myself up for a lot of work, but it was work that needed to be done for the security and future of Crownhill.

***

I returned home with Bridget and Sakura and immediately sat down to figure out what I’d just signed myself up for. First, I needed to start issuing scouting quests for that area, but only for trusted adventurer teams that I knew could either de-escalate a conflict or were powerful enough to end it without lethal force. First contact would go much cleaner without deaths to explain.

I would need to stay connected to the adventurer’s radio network so I could be on the scene the next time people from that settlement showed themselves. I’d messed up with the girl we’d run into, but if I was able to question a few of them, I’d get a better idea of what was going on and eventually figure out if it was a good idea to show up unannounced.

Or perhaps I was overcomplicating things? I was nearly A-Grade. Maybe I could kick down the door, demand to speak with their leader, and then take things from there.

That might just work, though at the same time, it risked blowing up spectacularly if I misread the situation. It would be better to learn more for now and reserve such drastic action for an emergency. It wasn’t like my people were under attack or anything. We had time to resolve this the right way.

“Look at you, my hardworking emperor. Leading a diplomatic mission with a foreign power?” Bridget kissed me on the forehead while I scribbled my thoughts down on a notebook to organize them. I had a dozen quests I could issue through the System interface to the adventuring groups, along with my own possible courses of action.

“I’m just thinking,” I replied as she placed a mug of tea in my hands while sipping at her own.

“You’re preparing to set a good example for our son. It will be good for him to see his father working hard for the good of all,” Bridget said as she wrapped an arm around me.

I chuckled. “I suppose so.”

I’d given myself this job because we had a baby on the way, and it seemed that would just be the start of the work in store for me. It was looking increasingly like being a father was going to bleed into everything I did.

While thinking about what to do with the first contact situation, I took a break to check in on Governess and do some work in my barn. Governess had finished putting together the nursery, and the building looked pretty nice overall. She was already making a playground suitable for a young child. A lot of the toys seemed a bit challenging for a child to me, but a few levels would probably make up for that.

Satisfied with her work, I went into my barn and prepared some other odds and ends. The crib was a big project, but the kids needed a lot of other things. A high chair so he could eat with us, gates to block off the stairs, and a dozen other little details.

***

By the time my hands had put a few hours in, I had a fully formed plan in my head and returned to town to issue nearly a hundred distinct quests and a few proclamations.

I gathered a second crowd for another set of announcements, and this time, there was an even larger group of onlookers.

“The quests you are about to receive provide generous rewards to any guild members who are able to make safe contact with individuals not affiliated with Crownhill. These will be open to the guild members of Crownhill’s most trusted adventuring guilds. I will be counting on you all to prevent any potential conflicts from spiraling out of control, and you will be given appropriately high rewards. But everyone else, I ask that you steer clear of border territory.”

Naturally, the guilds I named as trusted let out a few cheers. But other parts of the crowd were quite silent. I knew people wouldn’t be happy with this arrangement, but it was the best I could do without diverting massive amounts of resources from the defense of Crownhill to patrol the wilderness.

The people who were not part of the trusted guilds made their displeasure known.

“This is blatant favoritism and corruption. You’re giving out government-funded quests to your friends and supporters!” a woman jerked a finger at me accusatorially, and a few others voiced words of assent. Many of the lower-leveled and independent people nodded along as well.

I held my hands up to calm the crowd and explain myself.

“I know, I know. But these guilds were selected strictly based on past quest performance and longstanding reputations for quality work. My personal feelings didn’t come into the matter. And it isn’t as big a deal as some of you are saying. Crownhill has new frontiers on four sides. I’m only asking the smaller guilds and freelancers to avoid one particular direction. You are all free to go anywhere else.”

“But you said you discovered an old supermarket in that direction. If there are shards from old towns, that’s probably where the best loot is!” the same woman insisted.

“It was one building, and it’s mostly destroyed by now. There’s an equal chance more old-world stores lie in other directions. Heck, there are probably more monsters in that direction, since you guys won’t be competing for them with any adventurers this other settlement might send out.”

There was much grumbling at that. I sighed. I used to command a lot more respect for leading people through the early stages of the integration. For a moment, I wondered what happened.

But just looking over the crowd, I knew what. Most of the grumbling faces were new to me. The old residents of Crownhill had been cheering me on as part of the trusted adventuring guilds I’d listed. By now, most of them were established, high-leveled, and successful. The freelancers and smaller adventuring operations were mostly comprised of human survivors from other shards that had been defeated and were living in the wilderness until our people rescued them. They were happy to live here in the city, but they were less thrilled to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy with so little wealth and levels.

With that realization, I hardened my heart. Maybe these new people would learn to love me too, maybe not. In the past, perhaps I would have been frozen with indecision, but not now, when Bridget and our unborn son were counting on me to build a stable future for this city.

Besides, if I was going to have the support of just one portion of the city, having the support of all the major adventuring guilds filled with all the most powerful people seemed like the obvious side to favor.

“We demand inclusion for the new quests!” the woman said, but I held up my hand to cut her off.

“My decision is final. However, I will come up with a few additional monster-hunting quests available only for those under level twenty-five. No one in the major guilds will be eligible for them, so this will be my compensation to the rest of you. That is all.”

I left by taking to the air. If I lingered, the questions would keep coming until sundown. But while I watched, I saw the woman who’d been yelling at me turn. She was still wearing a scowl.

Behind her, a nondescript man tapped her on the shoulder. The same one I’d bumped into when buying breakfast rolls. She jerked his hand, clearly indicating he wanted to speak with her in private.

It seemed discontent was growing on me. I could have followed the pair to their meeting place and nipped this problem in the bud. But wasn’t that exactly the sort of thing a tyrant would do?

In the end, I let them leave to speak in privacy. I would let them say whatever they wanted about me, for in doing so, I would be proving them wrong.

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<Note>

The previous chapter got removed by patreon for violating their t33n safety policy. I'm trying to get it back up, but it is blocked right now. Sorry for the inconvenience. It should hopefully still be in your email inboxes. The chapter has to be manually reviewed, which will take three days or so. Perhaps a week if it needs to be reviewed and portions deleted.

I don't think it actually violated any policies, but somebody probably reported it and Patreon assumed the worst, since this is an 18+ patreon.