Dawn and Thereafter
With his Evening Sky granted dominion over Edeldross, both the magnitude of Element he could summon and the precision of his control over it had improved immensely; so much so that the physical component of his Edeldross-boost could nearly match Aobaru's specialized Vigorflame. They sparred lightly the next morning, Hunger restraining himself to one-twentieth speed and without the aid of his Blade or blood augments. Aobaru was a sweat-drenched mess by the end of the first hour, his weavespun shirt soaked entirely through as the red light of dawn illuminated field and clouds.
Not quite sure just how fast Hunger is here. I don't think he's at one-twentieth of his overall speed, because during their previous spar he had handled Aobaru fairly easily at one-
fiftieth of his speed, and that had been before a bunch of advancements. It says that he isn't using Blade and blood buffs, but surely he can't mean he's only using his base parameters enhanced by Edeldross?
Hmm, there are 6 +s from Evening Sky magnified by Silver, but I don't think that would be enough. Perhaps Quickening and all the other Blood enhancements are still there, he just isn't actively using blood buffs? And who knows how Rank plays into things. Man, Hunger has so many augmentations that it would have been really hard to keep track of them without the Character Sheet.
Should I be glad that Silver-enhanced Edeldross physical buffs match Aobaru's Vigorflame EFB, or should I be ashamed that he matched our... 34 Arete with his 7? Well, matched might be exaggerating things, he lacks the ability to create Graces and his buffs don't apply to all Stats, just to Might and Agi. But he can move the Stats up the ISH ladder, so that balances out somewhat. Really hard to compare those without seeing either our Graces or the effects of fractional conceptual stat enhancements.
Hmm. Speaking of Graces, while his Element doesn't quite have enough versatility to create such varied spells, I suspect there's a lot more to his Element than meets the eye. True Vigorflame said that he can explode even targets with abstract and conceptual parameters. The simple interpretation is that can even get around the defenses of something on Tier 2 of the ISH, but if we're talking redheaded protagonist powers, this also reminds me quite a bit of Shirou's Broken Phantasms.
And what do you know, we have an Artificer on our team that has shown the capability to make one-use weapons! Would be interesting to see all the different ways Gisena could use Aobaru's Vigorflame. Can he overload specific properties only? Like enhancing the effect of a time grenade instead of just making it explode gloriously. Probably not without some tweaking, but I believe in Gisena's genius, she'll surely find a way!
"It's, okay," Aobaru heaved, one hand held up to forestall Aeira's intervention. "I, can, keep, goiumpfh-"
Hunger had struck in the interval, burying two fingers into the boy's solar plexus. He carefully laid down the staggered Elementalist and turned to Aeira and Letrizia. "That's enough out of you, let the others have a turn. All right. Who's next?"
Poor Aobaru, he's training so hard, but there's just no escaping the Hunger poke. Is it just me, or does Hunger seem a bit resentful? Must be my imagination. No way Hunger would be so petty as to take out his frustration on the poor children!
I'm impressed by Aobaru's mettle despite everything. I've had my doubts about his suitability for the Praxis due to his reaction to Hunger's injury back then - imagine thinking that getting injured during training is a bad thing! - but this chapter is making me reconsider that opinion. He's a hard worker for sure, and being the protagonist he's also clearly afforded enough determination to see things through. Especially once he realizes just how vast the chasm between him and Hunger really is, not just in power but also in learning speed.
Praxis is one of the few areas that could equalize the difference somewhat, even if Progression still gives Hunger an advantage. That said, I don't know whether it's possible for Hunger to teach others the Praxis in the first place. He only knows the Sword Praxis himself, and the Royal version at that. I expect non-Cursebearers to initially only have access to the Noble version without very special circumstances, and Aobaru hasn't shown much interest in the sword so far, so he might have to tweak things.
Aeira stepped forward determinedly, cloak of shadows enfolding her like the distaff counterpart to Hunger's own. "I shall be your opponent, sir. Do not worry, Letrizia. I will tire him out so he must go easy on you!"
...tire Hunger out? Oh sweet summer child, just how naive is the girl? I'll commend her spirit of self-sacrifice though. Letrizia sure knows how to pick them. It's a bit strange how good Letrizia's relationship with Aeira is, now that I think about it. It seems they'd become friends almost immediately upon meeting, following which she'd been introduced as a candidate for joining Hunger's adventuring party. Just good compatibility?
And shouldn't Hunger's and Gisena's Charisma be far greater than Letrizia's, thus also the loyalty earned through actions? We'd just personally saved her country and (probably) parents, which combined with Triumphal Gleam should have made Aeira into a fan of ours. Though I guess even if she is, she might not express such feelings easily due to the greater hierarchical distance.
He could feel his attention sliding off the girl, natural instincts telling him she was no more relevant than the mists and dew of daybreak around her. But his Rank had increased immensely after felling the Rotbeast, and with a pulse of Pressure he repelled her Element's effect on his senses.
Hmm, how would Hunger have solved this without Rank? Wait, silly question, he has the Guile-Defeating Stance, so attempts at deception were doomed from the start. That it had worked at all and hadn't been subject to the full power of our Ruin until Hunger actively applied Pressure probably means the Stance wasn't turned against her. Which... makes sense? It only applies to effects hostile to the wielder, and this is just a spar, hardly something the GDS would activate against without prompting it to.
But Rank is really a tool for every job, isn't it? You know, I'd wondered a bit how exactly a Rank 10 user would deal with a Stage 15 Cultivator when the latter has access to transfinite force and the former might not even have any physical enhancements. It's nice to talk about the enormous power of their spirit, but could they really resist if their physical body might as well have been frozen in time? Undoubtedly they could have brought their force of personality to bear, but that would also be a bit difficult with the speed difference. The answer is probably Shrouds or reality conspiring to make the battlefield one where they have a chance to win, but it's still hard to imagine such a confrontation.
How do Accretion user other than Hunger and the Forebear fight combatants with superior physical stats in general? We'd been told that effects that enhance physical parameters are exceptionally rare, so what do they do when their movement speed can't keep up and they lack the strength to pierce the enemy defenses? Do they just fight on the spiritual plane, do they bring their enemies down to their own level the way Gisena had described Jotarun's aura, do they consistently get lucky enough that their sword finds chinks in defenses? Or do they employ even more esoteric means? The fights must be quite strange to watch, supernaturally strong beings just losing to what appear to be normal humans physically.
"My hero!" Letrizia cheered, "Time to earn that pay!"
"The person paying you is me," Hunger groused, raising his palms in a fighting stance. "Ready?"
Letrizia: But I hired you! So your money is my money and my money is my money too!
Hunger: I think I should take some time to teach you about economy and the difference between mercenaries and slaves.
Letrizia: ...you only have to pay for slaves once?
Wait. Jokes aside, It just occurred to me that Empire might have actual legal slavery. I don't remember any concrete explanations Letrizia might have given, but it would certainly fit the Evil Empire theme they have going for them. Slavery isn't really economically viable, but people might be traded as luxury goods among nobles or something? Man, now I imagine Hunger hearing about slavery being allowed or even meeting a slave, and Doom kicking in immediately.
I'm probably overthinking things, but it's interesting to think about what might provoke Doom procs when Hunger finally enters the Human Sphere. He appears quite reasonable at the moment, but the Doom ensures he never bows to foreign rules and regulations, and the Empire likely has an entirely foreign culture with different values than what Hunger is used to. He had tried starting a revolution even when tehre was no Doom of the Tyrant influencing him, just how much worse is the clash going to feel now that he can't compromise?
And Apocrypha won't make it any easier on him, that's for sure. Ah, we're in for some 'fun' times once we get there, aren't we?
"Always, sir!" Aeira bounded forward, a passing shadow the color of midnight, whipping her blades around to catch him from the side. He stepped back easily, creating distance as his Pressure ramped up - an invisible barrier pressing against everything she was, constricting all routes of action until only his victory remained. Even the flashing sharpness of her daisho seemed to flatten and dull in the wind of that all-eclipsing Pressure.
Though their speed was equalized, still the shadow-wreathed mercenary stood little chance. Her ambushes were sealed, her attacks predicted, countermeasures slotting into place before she'd even thought to attempt the act that they nullified. She swept and he ducked, firing bursts of edeldross to propel him into a spin-kick against her torso; she thrust and he deflected into a clinch, overpowering her with superior mass and reach. Retreat saw her backing into a wall of solidified Edeldross; striking out with her Element, she was countered by a perfectly-timed blast of his own.
Hah, now the shoe is on the other foot! No longer are we the ones getting slammed with the Pressure of others, now we can do it to our pupils and watch them fumble around as the world conspires to make her lose! Seralize eat your heart out, your mid-battle transformation wouldn't help you now. How much Defensive Rank does Aeira have, anyway? The difference can't be less than 1 Rank, as it seems pretty overwhelming here despite all other things being near equal, but I don't think it's much lower than Defensive Rank 5. After all, she didn't kneel and surrender immediately and still fought for a while, no matter how ineffectively.
It's nice seeing Hunger apply Edeldross in combat so adroitly, though it isn't quite as seamless as it could be. Still no
Mana Edeldross Burst, but perhaps a precursor to the technique! Fighting him must be an exercise in frustration for Aeira anyway, her own powers not really working and her every action perfectly countered in advance. Did she at least learn something from the exercise? More than 'don't anger Lord Hunger' and 'fighting users with high Rank is suicide', I mean. Those are good lessons to draw from the exercises, but perhaps we want her to progress in other ways as well? I can very well imagine this spar pushing her to her limits, but it's hard to tell whether she makes any improvements when her actions don't make any difference. What insights can she gain when there are no winning paths forward?
Fighting only with finger-jabs and the fundamentally non-lethal Edeldross, Hunger was quickly able to disable her, leaving Letrizia the last opponent standing.
I know, we should make the finger-jabs our next Artifact! It's a time-honored technique of many
annoying awesome teachers around the multiverse! Though perhaps we're better served following K*kashi's example than M*ster As*a's... if betrayal is inevitable, at least make sure that we survive the aftermath.
Seeing how Hunger barely has to try against Aeira, it's a bit sad that she had been rendered all but irrelevant so quickly. Maybe I'm getting the wrong impression, but it seems to me that even with Progression (Combat) she will soon need more Arete investment to keep up if we continue at this rate. And that's even before we get OaF! Maybe Gisena can outfit her with some Artifacts that would help her Defensive Rank, cause otherwise she's shit out of luck in fights against high-Rank opponents. Not sure we want to waste Gisena's time on that though, when there are so many other things we want her to build.
The young Duchess gulped as she stepped onto the proving grounds. "W-why don't I go get Verschlengorge and you can face someone your own Rank? It's fine to use equipment in battle!"
This feels about as threatening as a puppy baring its teeth at Hunger, even though I know Versch is quite strong. Actually, how exactly do we compare to the Armament right now if we don't include his Ultimate? There was the one option to get him to Rank 7.4 that would have made Verschlengorge strong enough to deal both with the Rotbeast and likely Mizuku, and while doing that would have Exhausted Hunger back then, his Rank has improved by leaps and bounds since then, plus we have a lot more time.
But we've gotten much stronger since defeating the Rotbeast too... even disregarding Praxis Techniques as too dangerous and/or draining for simple training, Silver Evening alone more than doubled our speed, improved our Edeldross buffs, the Hero-Defeating Stance would deal with most of the Rank difference, and the Blood Rank has also improved further. I would say we're a lot stronger than even 7.4 Rank Versch, and we won't be able to heal him up much further until we get to the Human Sphere, so this is what he'll be limited to for the foreseeable future. Hmm, adding him to our Panoply is starting to look more attractive by the moment... at least that would let us upgrade Versch without having to exit the Voyaging Realm.
Hunger impatiently tapped his side. "You should be glad we're doing something so productive as your punishment. I had half-decided to make you do lines on a chalkboard."
Letrizia cocked her head. "Lines... on a chalkboard? People actually did that in your time?"
He shrugged. "Who cares? It looks miserable enough."
"Using your position as the Reckoner of Rotspawn to procure such ancient artifacts! This is truly abuse of power!"
Huh, the stuff Hunger manages to retain still surprises me sometimes. Forgetting his name but not the school punishments? If I hadn't been told the burning of self was random, this would have made me pretty suspicious about Hunger's attitude towards life. That he had been quite the delinquent, for example. Wouldn't be surprising given his future occupation as a rebel against a tyrannical regime! And Hunger has made it an indelible part of his personality thanks to the Tyrant's Doom.
Actually, what do they do as punishment for schoolchildren in the futuristic Empire? Can they simply download knowledge a la Matrix? Letrizia has books on hand, so I don't think that's the case. Then they could be told to reread certain things repeatedly, or to listen to a recording. Hell, since the main point of writing lines is making the children remember what they're being punished for and why, they could be using some sort of hypnotic speech patterns to make it stick if they were really unscrupulous. Direct stimulation of pain receptors would be efficient if a bit dangerous, as a replacement for corporal punishment...
I guess I should avoid thinking about what sort of abuse advanced technology allows. Hunger is positively gentle in comparison!
So saying, she flared her own Pressure, its whipsaw force colliding with his own, blanketing the field with dust as she charged. Like her erstwhile 'classmates' Letrizia favored an offensive style, though her personal combat skills were nowhere nearly as refined as Aeira's.
Her Elemental-infused Pressure lent her an intuitive grasp of the tactical situation, but lacked the sheer power necessary to contest Hunger's own. She wielded her Rank with keenness and brilliance, but could not fend off his avalanche force.
She's, what, around piddly Rank 4 by now, I think? SharpBright said that 'reaching the apex of Middle Rank [is] extremely difficult', and she's had the Element for about a week? Maybe a bit more. Well, she had also been Ennobled, but that would bring her to a maximum of 3.5 Rank, so once again, I wouldn't put her over Rank 4 unless Hunger had shared some fame-boosting tips and she had earned Rank from the Temple and the Rotbeast as well. Almost nothing in comparison to Hunger's own Rank ~6.5. Still, she'd overtaken starting Hunger, looks like, good on her.
Huh, she would make a very good Accretion user thanks to her Element and position and fame as Versch's pilot and a Duchess, wouldn't she? She doesn't have Progression, so it could still take years to get anywhere, but it's something to think about in the future. I don't know how widely we should spread knowledge of Accretion though. Just teach it to our closest friends? Our minions, whenever we acquire them? Or teach it to everyone? I don't think anyone could keep up with Hunger's pace, so letting the secret out won't be as dangerous to us as it could have been otherwise.
On the other hand, it will improve our fame massively if we go down as an innovator in the field of Rank science or whatever they call it. It would be deserving of a Feat at the very least, I'd say! There are probably many more consequences I'm not thinking about, like Armament pilots becoming capable of binding them more tightly, and the social upheaval the appearance of so many people with Rank would lead to... but it will take time, and we might be able to ride that wave to success. Chaos is a ladder etc etc.
Hunger deflected her initial forays with a wall of sheer edeldross and effortlessly outflanked her, poking her mercilessly in the side with index and middle fingers.
Letrizia yelped, spasming uncontrollably as she twisted away, but he was already on her opposite flank. A series of swift jabs had the Duchess nearly in tears; knees buckling, she stood resolutely through the assault, swiping wildly at him but catching only air.
Is... is this the rumored Pressure Point fighting technique?! Or is he tickling Letrizia mid-combat? I'm not sure which idea I like more, bullying Letrizia is always fun either way. That's one way to make sure the lesson sticks, I suppose. Heh, we'll teach them to fear the Poke of Doom yet! It's not even the technique's Final Form, we have yet to make a Praxis Refinement from it! Then they'll learn what true fear is.
"I'm not going to give up so easily!" She exclaimed, fists bunched as she launched a focused shard of her Pressure directly into the swelling tide of his own, the greater density of her power forcing open a wedge through which she poured a torrential blast, equalizing their effective Rank for just an instant. This she followed-up with a proficient series of melee strikes, a swift combination of arm-bars and lashing kicks that nonetheless faltered before Hunger's vastly greater martial skill. Easily sidestepping the main line of her attack, he targeted the back of her calf with a strike, forcing her to her knees as he locked her arms behind her.
Huh. That's... huh. Her Element allows her to close the distance between our Ranks despite there being such a wide gulf, even if only for a brief moment? I might have been underestimating Sharpbright if it's capable of bridging such a difference in Rank, unless hers had grown much more than I'd expected.
And I wonder how much of that martial skill is her previous military training, and how much is her Element making skill improvement a breeze. I'd almost call it unfair... but Hunger has no room to talk.
Defeated, Letrizia hung her head. All her efforts had only briefly neutralized his advantage in supernatural power, while his speed and skill both were still vastly the greater.
This surprised neither of them, but it was one thing to know a thing and another to see it so harshly demonstrated. "Okay, now I give up!"
Now that I think about it, she'd mostly seen Hunger in action from within Verschlengorge's cockpit, which could have given her a distorted view of his capabilities. Could it be she hadn't really internalized his quick advancement? It's not an easy thing to accept, not even for an Armament pilot.
That said, she should have some experience with hostile Rank from Armament fights, hell, she should be used to far worse, if once removed thanks to Versch. The stat difference might be new to her if she'd mostly fought other Armaments when they were at max capability.
Hunger laughed and let her go. "Don't think you three will get off so easily. Training tomorrow as well, and the day after that, until you're all up to par."
Time to turn on the Eye of the Tiger and show the kiddos what real training is like! They'll rue the day they dared to defy Dark Lord Hunger and call him something as pretentious as 'Reckoner'!
I think he really wants them to get better too, but I don't know how much he can accomplish in such a short time. I don't remember any of Hunger's powers that would be especially suitable for teaching? Except maybe his Int and Wis that would help make the perfect training plan, and his Rank and Charisma that would make sure the lessons set in. It's a shame we hadn't seen any such advancements for helping our subordinates advance more quickly, I would expect at least the Forebear to have something like that given his themes.
Letrizia grimaced, holding back a shiver at the thought of what Hunger's definition of 'up to par' meant. "Don't you think this is a bit over the top, Lord Hunger? We helped spread your legend! According to you that even contributed to your huge improvement in Rank."
"And you're to face that same Rank on the field of battle," he rejoined. "Fitting, isn't it?"
Never let it be said that Lord Hunger doesn't know how to enact disproportionate Vengeance for slights both petty and great! It's a fundamental part of his initial vote, even! Vendetta, says so right there. Might this count as Heroic Passion: Vengeful? It was influential enough to have him refuse the thought of a peaceful life with his resurrected wife and child, however little we've seen of these urges till now.
Aobaru staggered up to him, toweling the sweat from his face. "I'm, up for, another round, sir!"
"Not yet," Hunger said. "We need to get some calories into all of you. But only half portions, since you're still being punished. I heard the Kaguya has laid out a spread of shaved ice and sundaes..."
Now I'm starting to believe that Aobaru may have the determination to pursue the Praxis. Though who knows, Willpower doesn't really help all that much, so it's difficult to determine just what qualities make someone good at learning the Praxis. Repeatedly doing one's uttermost? Seeing him do his best during a few training sessions might not be enough to make sure.
---
Letrizia hummed merrily, legs swinging beneath her as she dug into her ice cream sundae. Her entire body was sore, battered into submission like dough for the baking, but the prospect of delicious fare had pain and exhaustion melting away like the airy cream in her mouth.
Mm, ice cream. I have something of a sweet tooth too, even if I can't really indulge it, so I understand where she's coming from. Especially nice after some exercise, even if not necessarily best for one's health...
Halfway to her mouth the spoon stopped. Eugh, what was she thinking, evaluating this moderately capable cuisine as anything near delicious?! Trapped in the Realm her standards had truly fallen. Her house chefs alone were ten times more skilled, and Lord Hunger's Fish half a step above that. Perhaps he would be more accommodating of her prank if she flattered those fishing skills of his... but Letrizia saw no such opening today.
Glad Hunger lived up to her high standards! Is he seriously that good at cooking, or was the King Fish simply that delicious? Maybe we'd missed our calling as a chef... Letrizia herself had shown quite a lot of promise with her SOUP, of course, so maybe we can hire her once we open up our wandering restaurant.
Aobaru ate with frantic speed, peppering Lord Hunger with questions, while Aeira diligently worked on an Elementalism primer for some of their less-talented classmates. They were both such hard workers, as she'd been, once upon a time.
Hey, Hunger is a hard worker too, you think he could have achieved such advances in the Praxis otherwise? I still regret a tad that we hadn't had the opportunity to invest 25 Arete in our initial training session. It would have undoubtedly made things more complicated since we would have chosen Imperial Praxis and lacked the power to resolve the following problems, but the mere opportunity to meet a High Cursebearer or even the Accursed and acquire a Curse...
For example the Plenary Brand, I reckon we've already reached a level of power where we could bear the weight of the Curse without putting ourselves in too much danger. There would have undoubtedly been commensurate rewards for taking it up, like Relinquishment or Retinue! Not sure about the latter, since dealing with Decimator already reduces our Progression quite a bit and we don't have companions that are fully synergistic with us combat-wise yet, but the former would have been worth a lot on its own.
Hmm, maybe that's what his visit was supposed to do, make us join the network of Cursebearers that temporarily exchange Curses? Maybe we could even arrange deals such that we would occupy consecutive weeks with Curses from different Cursebearers, that's almost like having an additional Curse! Hmm, I wonder just how common such Curse-swapping business is and how much it costs to arrange, can't be cheap or every Cursebearer would be doing it all the time and Curses would be much less of an issue. After all, in such a case you could always exchange a Curse that is inconvenient in the current situation for one that represents a lesser burden in these circumstances.
Uncowed by their example, she luxuriated in another bite of fluffy whipped cream and rich vanilla, sucking the flesh off a rum-dipped cherry to twirl pit and stem against her tongue. It really was best to eat cool dessert after a nice, heavy exertion in the morning. After Hunger was finished with his torments maybe she would take a dip in the hot springs.
I've been wondering for a while whether Letrizia burned out due to her forced Armament pilot training. She's always so critical of the concept despite (or because of?) spending much of her early life doing it. It almost makes me feel sorry, though I don't think it's something to 'fix'. She already has things she enjoys, like her research into Astral Rank, so there's no need to force combat training on her if it isn't her cup of tea anymore. Verschlengorge more than makes up for any deficiencies she has!
Letrizia frowned. She couldn't help but think she was forgetting something, however...
"Ah!" She exclaimed. "Lord Hunger."
"Hm?" He turned to her swiftly, taking the offered lifeline to deflect the relentless Aobaru.
What is Aobaru even asking about? Can't be about Surgecraft, he should know more than Hunger, yet he doesn't have active Rank, so the only thing left that Hunger could teach is combat skill? Maybe he's asking Hunger about stories from his old life, which would be quite awkward with Hunger missing many of the memories.
"The Decimator's Affliction." She popped the cherry pit out of her mouth and set it down. "It'll be coming back soon, right? You said you'd dealt with it for a month, and that was three weeks ago. I know you... absorbed... Verschlengorge's portion, but were you able to mitigate it any further with the opponents you've fought in the Realm? Several were extremely strong, especially in the Temple, so..."
We wish. It's interesting to see Letrizia raise this question first, rather than Gisena. Not too surprising, since she has had much more exposure and would rightfully be more worried about having some more of her lifespan shaved off. But then again, Gisena had made that Lens, so perhaps she was bothered by the possibility too, just less vocal about it. No woman wants to age prematurely, not even an Evil Sorceress! Especially not an Evil Sorceress! They had been known to go to extremes for the sake of retaining their youth... would suck to die of old age when she was gifted effectively immortality thanks to Azure.
He shook his head grimly. "Unfortunately not. It's my top priority after we're finished here. I don't believe the Decimator's Affliction is concerned solely with the strength of foes beaten. Searching for a suitable target may take weeks, so we'll be departing as soon as the political situation is stable."
It's still not fully clear just what the requirements are. Hunger Sated the condition is called, but it has become clear that it isn't about the quantity or quality of the lifeforce absorbed. Hell, the options in this chapter don't require that we kill anyone at all! There seems to be more to Decimator than just its vampiric habits would suggest, it's almost Apocrypha- or Geas-like now that we've decided to pursue the Huntress' Moon Mitigation line.
Does that mean we're 'Mitigating' the Curse by giving it properties of other Curses that we have? Hmm, too late to try and apply that logic to the Doom, since we can't Mitigate it anymore, but could we for example make Decimator less strenuous by pushing more of Tyrant into it? Like making conquest give us time-outs too, that would certainly help quite a bit in this and future Geas tasks.
"Hmph," Letrizia laid her head on an upraised palm. "They should just declare fealty to the Crown and be done with it. Or I can take them in as a fiefdom under my House Lands."
That might not be a bad thing, Letrizia is sure to treat them nicely and will likely leave them to their own devices. She'll be too busy with her own problems that had cropped up while she was away even if she had any desire to meddle in their politics. Not that they have any reason to believe her.
"Y, you can't just trample all over our sovereignty like that," Aobaru exclaimed. "Our ancestors came out here and braved the dangers of the Voyaging Realm precisely to escape Imperial tyranny!"
"What, 'no taxation without representation?'" Letrizia scoffed. "Might as well just defect to the Republic if you're going to pay lip service to empty ideals."
Wow, guys, tell us how you really feel. Do we need to tell them to kiss and make up?
As befitting of a hero, Aobaru is quite the idealist. I hope this won't cause friction in our party in the future! I don't know if we'll take him out of the Voyaging Realm back into the Empire, but he's going to be in for quite a wild ride in any case. First stop: saving a princess and dethroning a Tyrant, conquest entirely optional but likely to occur nonetheless!
"Enough." Hunger put a slightly heavy palm down on the table. "We'll let the people of the Sovereignty make their own determination as to their political state."
He held up a forestalling hand. "...So long as it doesn't involve making me King."
Hmm, speaking of Kings, I had been thinking about how the Tyrant could have defeated destiny. And it occurred to me that there is a particular example of bound Artifacts that would be applicable to his scenario. There are two Artifacts we know he had in his possession, the flaming sword and the Hunger Ring, but he doesn't seem to have bound the latter and merely used it as a training tool. Maybe his armor was another Artifact, that seems to be a popular choice.
But I have a guess about his third Artifact: his territory, which is how he would have disabled destiny. We know that binding an area is possible for high-end Accretion users, and I imagine they have large-scale reality-warping in their domain, much like Elven Naturalists in EFB. Might that be enough to destroy the concept of Fate if he focused his efforts on it? It even said that 'He sets the world spinning to the direction of a new master', that sounds remarkably like binding the world as an Artifact. He would have been in a good position for that as well, being the absolute Tyrant of his kingdom.
Aeira giggled. "But you are considerably wiser than our current rulership, my lord. Even if that is not a very high bar to clear."
"Rulership's tough," Hunger replied easily. "You're blamed for everything, but only have a finite span to redress it with. Not a job I'm looking forward to any time soon."
Yeah, I don't think I can blame the prior government that much. We still have no idea what really went into their decision-making, like why they'd escaped into the Voyaging Realm from the 'Empire's tyranny'. Letrizia mentioned paying taxes without getting anything in return? I would expect them to be war refugees or something then. But once in the Voyaging Realm their range of choices had narrowed down a lot, especially once the Rotbeast started invading Elixir.
"Maybe you should consider it!" Letrizia said brightly. "I'd support your Imperial claim. As long as you maintain the framework of Empire, there's nothing wrong with putting someone both well-meaning and capable on the throne."
"Still able to think such kind thoughts of me," Hunger grumbled. "Either you've the patience of a saint... or I've been too easy on you in training."
Apo-chan had been threatening to sic the Empire on us, so I wonder just how well they'd accept such a move on our part. Did we defray the proc with the decision to take over Elixir, or did we make things worse? Only time will tell, hopefully not by siccing Imperial Kill-Squads on us. I've heard they're better equipped!
Letrizia pouted. "You can't punish me for voicing my political support! Just think of the precedent that would set!"
"Maybe I'll put Gisena in charge. That would show all of you..."
Perhaps Gisena could finally afford to make some more clothes for herself instead of wearing the same dress all the time?
We did end up effectively putting Gisena in charge, because Hunger can't really be bothered with all the minutiae of rulership when there's so much SORDing to do.
"As long as she is not also in charge of cooking," Aeira said worriedly.
Thanks for giving us all those nice ideas! We'll put that in practice once we want to punish a conquered area for the temerity of resisting us. Gotta earn that Tyrant moniker, eh?
