System Change

For Derek, the rest of the night went by in a blur. As soon as Callum stepped foot in Indria, he went to work without asking any questions about what exactly was going on. Basically, to the man, what he was seeing seemed to be way above his pay grade. He knew what he was needed for, and that’s what he did—not more, and no less.

The process was both simple and elaborate in many ways. It was simple in the fact that when Callum was writing up a contract, it didn’t look much different from how Rudy had done many times before. However, once that part was finished, the real fun began.

On one side, every royal in the room had signed it, and Derek was even tasked with going back to Cydaria and bringing back Duke Ryven just for the contract to hold even greater weight for the royal family. Before, with Walter, he had taken the burden of his soul contract on his own, and it would pass down to the next patriarch of the family if it was still active when he gave up his position or died.

However, Edwin wasn’t just going to forgive those who initiated a war against his country and his people. This contract affected all the royal families in the kingdom. And by that, it meant that it affected the king and the crown prince, and the duke and his eldest son. Sabrina was added into the contract along with the adviser, general, and the guard named Jerum, that was in the room. They acted more as witnesses to the contract, but were still affected by it.

Callum, though, had limited power, and wasn’t able to add everything into a single contract. The first contract hindered the royal family’s growth by placing restrictions on the heads and immediate heirs to the family so that they must be either equal or less powerful than the opposite contract holder unless otherwise specified by said holder, which, in this case, was Edward.

That meant that without Edward’s direct approval, the heads of the family would undergo a considerable debuff and stay that way unless something came up and Edward needed their power for something.

When the soul contract went into effect, Derek watched as it separated in two. One contract went to Edward, while the other burst into mana and formed multiple sets of chains. The first, and biggest, set of mana chains wrapped themselves around King Osian and slowly sunk into his body before disappearing completely. The same thing then happened with Dukey Ryven, then their sons. Small fragments of chains then shot into Osian’s wife, the general, his adviser, and Sabrina.

It all happened in the reverse manner of what happened with Walter at the auction. The chains restricting him had come out of his body, and the contract held by Edwin was used as sort of a key to remove them. This meant that the part of the contract that Edward received would also act as the key to Indria’s restrictions. It would be a heavy burden to bear.

After the restriction came the other soul contract. It was the one that set forth the terms of Indria becoming a vassal kingdom under the rule of Cydaria. It also stated that the country would aid Cydaria with anything they needed, especially if it came to battle. The laws and new rules of the kingdom would be written later and enforced through regular contracts, though the soul contracts would see to it that they were enforced.

At the end, on his own initiative, Osian even made an oath to the Great System to abide by Cydaria’s rule as best he could. The oath was just a cherry on top, or icing on the cake. Honestly, it didn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. The man knew how to make an oath, and the phrase ‘as best I can’ that he used could be used to find plenty of outs. But it was still seen as an act of sincerity and loyalty.

Derek could understand that. Cydaria now had all the power, and it wouldn’t take much to absolutely decimate Indria and their royal family, yet they had given them a way out of the mess they created. In fact, life wouldn’t be too much different for Indria after everything. Sure, they would lose any slaves or ‘servants’ who didn’t want to be there. The royal family did their best to make it clear that the humans weren’t slave contracts, but servant contracts.

Nobody was really buying it, but Sabrina did produce the contract between her and her personal maidservant, Jessica, and, while the terms weren’t good for the servants, they really weren’t slaves. Still, they weren’t going to let the ‘technicalities’ slide. He was sure that while they might not be slaves, they were probably still treated as such.

The servants would be one of the first issues that would be taken care of under their new rule. Even though they weren’t slave contracts, because of the poor terms, Edgar planned to make sure that the current servants would get more favorable contracts if they chose to keep serving at all, and future servants would start with such contracts. He would have Callum created a new template for servant contracts in the future.

The process took the entire night, as Callum had to wait a long time in between each contract he made. By the time everything was finished, the contract maker looked even more ragged and bedraggled than he had before. It was a miracle that the man was able to stand on his own two feet. Derek quickly zipped him back to Cydaria before he fell unconscious in the middle of the palace.

Though the man did still end up falling unconscious in the middle of a palace, at least it wasn’t the one in Indria. However, King Edwin didn’t mind one bit, and even had some of their servants—ones with proper contracts in place—take the man away and see that he got properly rested. The king was in much too good of a mood, even after a sleepless night, to let anything get to him. Though, at their levels, sleep was something none of them really needed to do unless they taxed themselves mentally.

Derek stepped back through the void tunnel and moved back over to Indria. Now that all the contract signing and oaths were taken care of, he would ask the questions that he really wanted to. Technically, Cydaria’s side of the contract stated that Indria would also be under Cydaria’s protection since becoming a vassal of it, but that was also limited.

If Derek asked his questions and was given answers he didn’t like, Cydaria wouldn’t protect the royal family from him—they wouldn’t be able to. Strength was everything. He realized that the only person who would give him and Silvi any type of issue would be Alanah, but he doubted she would see anything different from him. In fact, she would probably step up to fight beside him if he so chose. Though, as he listened to the negotiations and contract making, he got the feeling that the answers he received wouldn’t be as bad as he had expected before coming to Indria.

“Ahem,” Derek stepped out of the portal and cleared his throat, gathering everyone’s attention. For the first time in a while, he closed the portal behind him, as it wasn’t going to be needed any time soon. Everyone was gathered at the opposite end of the table, around where the royals had been sitting—everyone other than Alanah, who was still seated in the same seat she’d taken at the beginning of their negotiations. It was where the previous contract signings had taken place, and they all still lingered there.

Derek pulled out the chair at the opposite head of the table—the one that Edgar had sat in earlier—and took his seat. He looked around and met eyes with everyone—most stared at him in confusion.

“Mr. Hunt,” King Osian said. He had seated himself back down after signing the soul contracts. His face was pale—even more pale than usual—and he was still recovering. “Is there something else?” he asked.

“There’s just one small matter that I wanted to discuss once you all got all the contracts and loyalty stuff squared away with Edward,” Derek said. One of the main reasons he waited until it was all finished was because he figured they’d basically have to be truthful with Edward about anything and everything he or Cydaria wanted to know. Sure enough, the contracts covered, and they couldn’t hide anything from them anymore if asked. There may still be some wiggle room to withhold non-harmful information if not prompted, but that was it.

“And what is that?” the man asked.

Edward and Edgar both looked at Derek. They knew what he wanted to ask. They’d been there when Derek told Edwin that it was possible that they might have to change plans depending on the answer.

“So, you obviously know… knew Gerald Torith,” Derek stated. He didn’t think there was anyone in the room that would refute that. However, he was wrong.

“You are incorrect,” the king said. “We knew of Gerald Torith, but, other than my niece, nobody here had ever spoken to the man.”

“Obviously,” Derek said. “But you know what I mean.”

“I just wanted to get the facts straight. Most humans are lowly, but he was the lowest. I would rather not be accused of knowing such a vile human being.”

“Oh?” Derek raised his eyebrows. “And why is that?”

“I can already see where you are going with this. You want to know how involved I…” the king looked around. “We were in that man’s… business.”

“Read me like a book,” Derek said. “So? How involved were you?”

“We weren’t,” Osian said. “Did we know of his business? Sure, we’ve known for years. It really wasn’t hard to find out about if you were looking. It was surprising that it took so long for Cydaria to catch on when it was you who was most affected by it.” Osian looked directly at Edward, who lowered his head in shame. “Surely you won’t fault me for not acting against someone that has nothing to do with my kingdom.”

“And what about the people who were sold to Indria?” Derek asked. Edwin had said that the majority of people were traded within Cydarian borders, but that still meant that some still went to Indria. “If you knew about him, then surely you knew about that, too.”

“We did,” Osian said. “Believe it or not, Mr. Hunt, we do not condone slavery. It is obviously against the wishes of the Great System, or it would allow coerced oaths to be made. Yes, we have servants, and yes, we prefer to keep our bloodlines pure.” The king glanced at Alanah. “And while our servant contracts may favor us considerably more than the human, halfling, and dwarf servants—along with other non-elven races who reside in our kingdom, they are not slave contracts… even if some immature elves use that derogatory for them. I can assure you that many, if not the majority of our human servants, are happy with their contracts.”

Derek noticed a blush appear on Sabrina’s face as she lowered her head, but he ignored her. “Is that so?” he asked. He wasn’t exactly buying it, but the fact that Osian didn’t seem wary at all about the line of questioning had him wondering.

“It is,” Osian continued. “Look around, Mr. Hunt. Look in our cities—on our streets. Our population is composed of more than eighty percent elves. Rarely will you ever run upon a beggar or homeless person. In the grand scheme of things, even servant-wise, there are few humans. Speaking of humans, do you know where most of our human servants come from?”

“Where?” Derek leaned forward.

“Astrus and Cydaria, Mr. Hunt, but mostly Astrus. The tales of how terrible non-elves are treated and how much those of my kind look down on others are spread wide. And… all of that is true. I will not deny it, and I will not admit fault with or apologize for it. It has served us well for thousands of years, only coming to an end because of my folly. And for the most part, it keeps visitors out of our lands, other than traders. But when one of your humans is desperate and has nowhere to go and no other options, it is common for them to venture forth into Indria.”

“And what happens to those people?” Derek asked.

“It depends on the person,” Osian answered. “Oathbreakers are killed on sight. Many are offered contracts, others are turned away. But, one thing most who sign a contract have in common is that when the terms of their contracts are up, they willingly sign a new one. They are atrocious contracts, but if you ask a servant, they will tell you that it’s much better than what they experienced in your human cities.”

“What about the people who Gerald traded here? What about the citizens of Cydaria? What were you going to do once you took the kingdom?”

“If you must know, Mr. Hunt. The reason that your vile human conducted so little of his other business over here, and the vast majority of it in Cydaria and Astrus, is because he ran out of elves willing to trade with him. As I said, we do not allow slave contracts or slave trade, and I tend to actually pay attention to what my people are doing.” He looked at Edward once again. “Though I can see how that is easier with a much smaller population.”

“So you’re saying…” Derek started.

“Those elves are dead or imprisoned. As for the ‘slaves’ they bought, you will find them in Cordonia. Gerald Torith did what he did for years. Many of the trafficked humans are servants, and the others are taken well care of. Vile man that he was, Gerald Torith was also a well of information, so we couldn’t have those people getting back to you, you understand?

“Though, in hindsight, we should have paid more attention to the man and asserted more influence on him. I imagine our plans would have worked out much better if he hadn’t been captured and caused most of those noble families who were dissatisfied with their rulers to be caught up in everything. It would have helped if we would have had more people on the inside.

“So, if you must kill me for not doing your king’s job for him and taking advantage of his ineptitude, then go ahead. But don’t lump me in with humans. Humans are far worse to their own kind than we are to them.”

“And for the citizens if you won the war?” Derek asked.

“It is war, Mr. Hunt.” Osian shrugged. “It is all speculation now, as it is not going to happen. I suspect many would have died, especially your loyal nobles. Of course, we would also take many in as servants. The population of an entire kingdom is too vast, and our elven population is too small. I imagine most of the citizens would have fallen in line under our rule once the noble houses and royal family fell. As for what Astrus would have done… you’d have to ask them.”

Derek scratched his chin and hummed. It seemed that, though he didn’t like their methods, killing them would be too harsh and would screw up everything Edward and Edwin had planned. I guess them practically being controlled by Cydaria is enough punishment for now. This is more politics than anything else, and I don’t want to get into it.

“So, Mr. Hunt,” the king said, breaking Derek out of his thoughts. “Was my answer acceptable?”