Apocalypse Reborn: Academy: 5

Apocalypse Reborn: Academy: 5

…

The Conquerors had a lot to learn about public infrastructure and how it benefited the military, but I obliged them.

“All of this is overthinking. Put aside your desires to build triumphant messages to the whole continent, and focus on housing your people, caring for them, and getting them fed. Reduce your weaknesses first, then enhance your strengths.”

“The people can endure. They have endured far worse. The establishment of our nation via the creation of a worthy structure will be a message to the whole continent that we are not to be trifled with.” The Deliverer argued against me. He wanted to have a monument built and start off his cultural section, which would lead into unlocking espionage and happiness buildings. Honestly, a good start… if you’re not Conquerors. “We are more than beasts that can wield weapons. Ours is a people much like all others in the land. We are not monsters.”

“I agree. The Children of the Elm are the real monsters pretending to be human. And, they’re not going to invest in public works or improving education or making art displays, when they could be working towards killing everyone else.” I worked off of my game knowledge. While the cultural start is decent, it turns sour quickly when you consider the fact that someone else I building military units or infrastructure to support more military units. The opportunity cost was too high, even for the benefits the cultural start offered. It’s better to have your population climb high quickly, or just make a military unit to protect yourself. “Were you not recently in conflict with them, I’d agree with your course of action. However, now, can you truly afford to build a monument to last the ages when there are monsters at your border?”

The Deliverer grunted at my words and raised his mug to his lips. The mug was the size of a normal barrel for me, and it was filled with some sort of spiked beer, yet the guy wasn’t tipsy even after tanking three barrels of the stuff.

These guys are literally built different.

Case in point, their budding city was mostly made up of large tents. I think back in my world, they were called yurts. Circular with slightly pointed tops and easily packed up for travel, they were upsized for the Conquerors since ten-feet was their average height. For now. They get bigger with more food during their developmental stage, but I’m getting off track. These guys are the most different from all the other factions that’ll take Citadels, mostly because of what they don’t have.

They need to make their own culture from scratch, solve issues with settling down that wasn’t present while they roamed freely, and figure out loads of other things everyone else have.

In short, the Deliverer was thinking about the future, with his plans to kick off with culture.

However, they had problems now that needed solving.

“I see your point, Heir of the Academy. There are threats at the door. Even with the new wealth and excess that we now have, we can ill afford to waste any.” The Deliverer admitted and gazed past me. A small welcoming party was offered to us. The Conquerors usually took any excuse they could to hold celebrations and drink, but the Academy and the Conquerors didn’t exactly have a good history with one another. “But there comes a time when choices must be made for the sake of the good of all. My people will not be marked as barbarians and warmongers. We can hold the line against the Elm, and show that we are a true people to be admired.”

Normally, I’d wash my hands of this argument at this point.

The man’s obviously dedicated to his current plan, and there wasn’t much I could do to sway him.

However, unlike in the game, I couldn’t just close the dialogue box and do something else.

I was still right in front of him, able to speak to him, and I wasn’t really going anywhere else for the time being.

So, it was time to become a pest and annoy him.

“Okay, okay, but let’s take a look at what happens, while you do that…”

At the very least, I’ll try to talk his ears off to get him on the right track, and if it didn’t work… I tried my best.

At the very least, I won’t have regrets.

…

Surprisingly, even after talking at the Deliverer for several hours, we weren’t kicked out into the wilderness and actually given accommodations within the city’s boundaries.

Near the outskirts, but still within the city’s boundaries.

“Well, that went as well as could be expected.” Ayah roomed up with me. Given the Ancient Administrator’s propensity towards looking really great, I’m sure that in the future rooming with it would be a horrific test on my willpower. For now, without puberty, I was in the clear and could have Ayah around without any issues. “Ayah, how was your survey? Anything useful?”

Ayah nodded, it’s ‘hair’ bobbing up and down with the movement. Hard to believe it's all composed of the same material from head to toe.

“Security was intense. Many of our people were kept within a single section. However, they did not expect my ability to change shape.” There were other uses for material manipulation besides looking like a tan, black-haired bombshell with the ability to throw around stagecoaches with one hand. You could also change your appearance for the sake of infiltration. Not limited to people, either. As long as an object was somewhat similar to Ayah’s size and shape, then it could mimic it. Prop hunt, but where the prop has insane amounts of health and can rip your head off if you unmake its disguise. “After bypassing them, I found the Conquerors are rationing food in their capital, and many of their children still remain in hibernation. There is also a lack of building in the surrounding area. They have little investment in housing.”

“So, they’ve put more behind their conflict with the Children of the Elm than they’re letting on.” Well, I’d suspected. They started their war shortly after raising their Citadel and had plenty of troops for their fights. Logic dictates that those troops came at a cost. That cost, apparently, was housing and food. Not the best, but not the worst. “We’ll leverage that since we have plenty, right?”

“Correct. We have more than enough food and the manpower to move it, even without the Academy’s help.” Such was the way of things. Find a person’s weakness and offer them a way to make up for it. Opportunity cost is a hell of a thing. There’s always something that’s lost in exchange for something else. It’s a tragedy, but I can make use of it. “It should prove to be a lever that you can utilize.”

“They’ll need a lot, but we can make it happen.” The Citadels were under Academy control, but there was plenty that I could do with the surrounding areas. Alistair couldn’t care less what I did with the ‘uncivilized’ lands after it’s been taken. The spots for towns and fortresses all over the region were cleared out by my mercenaries, and then I used them to embolden my own operations. Land that was protected was a high commodity and Alistair was happy as long as taxes were paid. Was I jumping ahead several ranks of nobility by having several towns under my control? Yeah, but the nobility of the Academy didn’t care… and couldn’t do anything about it. This was all a special project by the headmaster and they didn’t invest squat into it. “Send letters out. We’ve got buyers for our food.”

Normally, the settlements in the region surrounding the Citadel would be sending food back to the Citadel, but the Academy had the largest amount of agricultural land on the continent. They were more than capable of making up for the deficit that the Citadel had. Therefore, the surrounding areas were free to make food with less pressure and sell them off to the surrounding region because they held the advantage of lower transport costs. Sending food all the way from Academy lands to the Conquerors would give little profit, but from the neighboring region?

Yeah, there’s profit to be made from that.

However, there’s also something else that I could do.

Monopolize agriculture by selling at so low of a price to the Conquerors that non-nationalized efforts at agriculture on their end just fail.

“I want you to crunch the numbers, so that we can control them through their stomachs.” I’m sure this is a human rights violation, but I had to use soft power as much as I could. Alistair would bring the book down on my head if I used my mercenaries beyond clearing out lands, protection, and that sort of thing. Not only that, but my forces weren’t going to be capable of handling the Conquerors in the first place. Therefore, I really only had this option to play. “We’ll sell food without a profit or nearly no profit on the basis of good faith, and cut off any enterprising Conqueror from making their own farms. We’ll make them rely on us completely.”

Ayah nodded at my words.

“I shall take time to calculate it this evening, while you rest.”

“Thanks.”

With that, our little meeting was over, and I could start dealing with the aches and pains of a long day of traveling.

One step closer to getting another faction that I could influence.

It was a small victory, but I hoped they’d eventually all pile up and help me out in the longer war to come.

…

I considered showing off to the Conquerors a bit more, but I only stayed with them for five days. Enough to not shame them, but still being mindful of their lack of infrastructure. Basically, just enough to stay within that sweet spot of not being an asshole, but still getting what I want.

So, upon returning home, I expected to rest a bit.

Only to find Alistair waiting for me at the landing strip.

Since he’d cleared my visit to the Conquerors, I knew that this was about something else that I had in the works… and needed to apologize for.

Or, at least, I suspected that was the case.

But I let him talk first, so I didn’t accidentally incriminate myself.

“I bid you welcome to meet with those savages. Not to broker trade deals with them.” I could assume that someone had betrayed me. Or, I could assume that he kept up on reports regarding my towns. I’d hoped that I’d be sending enough chaff at him from all the towns that he wouldn’t be able to see through them all, but I guess he’d question tons of material suddenly moving towards the Conquerors. “You were meant to stop their foolish attempts to act like a nation. I assume that you did so and found opportunity?”

Sorry, Deliverer, but I’m throwing you all under the bus.

“They’re on a war footing and ignoring their infrastructure. Most of their people are in tents or training for war, rather than preparing fields or forming pastures. It’s a weakness. We’ll make them rely on us for food, then other things, until they’re as bound as they should be.”

“Hm. Good.” Yeah, I know how to push your buttons, you asshole. Yeah, you want the Conquerors under your thumb, just like your ancestors did, and you want to erase their rebellion from the history books. That’s the only reason why I’m saying these things.  That smirk of yours, knowing that we’re fucking the Conquerors over with this move, makes me sick. I’m doing it to get influence on them, and to hopefully prep them for the upcoming apocalypse. You’re just fucked up and want to enslave people because your ancestors didn’t get away with it. “I’ll condone this action, then. However, what do you have to say about this weapon you’ve tasked Master Erol to create?”

Erol, the dwarven man, was present and abashed as he came forward with the rifle I’d asked of him and several alchemists.

I’d asked him for it almost half a decade ago, and it’s been years of collaboration starting from the very first moment I got an ounce of freedom, and now it’s being shoved in my face.

“That is a rifle with several improvements. Uniform satchels filled with powder and shot, as well as alchemical caps to ignite them and fire them, rather than powder. A new bullet that catches grooves within the barrel for speed and accuracy, too.” It was a massive improvement in half-a-decade. Guns were smoothbore and required powder measures to be used. Most were bespoke and used to hunt monsters, and they were at the mercy of a lot of things in the battlefield. Honestly, most of the metalwork was done within the first two years. Most of the time was getting the new powder formula and firing caps fixed up. “I wish to emulate the weapons of the Ancients. Those that can fire from mountaintop to valley and kill like lightning. To make up for shortcomings, I believe that quantity and quality is the key.”

“You intend to replace the crossbows in your pike formations with these.”

I really hated this asshole being so clever. The bad part was that he knew that I knew, but he wanted to hear me say yes, like I’d been caught doing something wrong by him. It wasn’t even cheeky. He was just being an asshole.

“Yes.”

Still, though, being truthful and playing my cards right paid off more often than not.

“Your dealing with the Conquerors will be left to you. You’re handling those beasts as you should. However, this advancement is of great importance to the Academy as awhile. You shall not monopolize it… or garner an advantage before sharing it.”

I bowed in answer, and I could hear the man smirking as he turned his heel and left.

Yeah, you took my five year project from me for the whole of the Academy, along with all the people I hired for it.

You really established dominance over me, buddy.

It’s not like I want those weapons to proliferate or anything!