Chapter 546: Chapter 546

Billy watched as the group of large bodyguards and a well-fed corporal walked to the teleport stone and departed. He was surprised when the corporal turned and looked at him across the distance, their eyes focused on each other. Then they were gone.

"So that was the Emperor. Funny, I thought he'd be taller."

Laylay, three inches taller than Billy, elbowed him in the side, making him gasp. "He's taller than you; then again, most people are. But wow, what an aura on that guy! He was trying to lay low, but sometimes when he talked, I could see behind the mask. Imagine being that powerful and then hiding it."

Billy looked over at Ozzy and Ben, the two of them relaxing and drinking beer. "I'm used to it, somewhat. Did those two engineer this meeting?"

Layla wasn't sure. "Let's ask them. It's hard to tell, with Ozzy looking innocent and Ben always looking like he's up to something." Walking over to the two workers, she pulled up two stools and took a seat, Billy taking the other.

Ben politely inclined his head, "We live to serve, at least for another couple of years. What can we do to help you find the answers you'd like to hear?"

Ozzy grinned, "I'll look for them in the bottom of my mug."

Layla looked at Billy; this didn't bode well. "You two are up to something, probably the four of you. Don't get me wrong, it's generally worked out well for us and ACME. But this was an entire level above your normal shit. We weren't prepared to meet with the Emperor."

Ben became serious, "Who is? But look at it this way, rather than walking into his throne room where he holds all the cards, you met him in as neutral a battlefield as there could ever be, and one you are in control of. That counts for a lot. And, he got to see you doing such good work! Saving a town, rebuilding its defenses, and when the call came in for emergency mana to help teleport troops, you took it a step further and came with what you had on hand, even jumping into the fray yourselves."

Ozzy also dropped his goofy smile and got serious. "And don't underestimate the last bit. The Emperor would dearly love to have the freedom to do what you just did and wade into battle. Few nobles would, Duchess Claudia being a major exception. And she thinks quite highly of what you are doing in Gadobhra. She was concerned about the plight of those starving farmers. And she's close to the Emperor. You're good deeds are coming back to haunt you."

Billy thought that one over. "With the way things are set up, I wasn't going to turn down hundreds of people who could make me money. Keeping them happy increases production."

Ben said, "Keep thinking that way. It's all about the bottom line, after all. You're improving your property values, training skilled workers, and producing bumper crops and a nice profit. The word is spreading that Gadobhra is a prosperous Barony. You might have a big boom in population when the Winter War is over."

"Yeah, have to consider that. Plan out an expansion for the hamlets and try to avoid another gopher war. Then again, that was fun and came with some nice benefits. But how the hell did you set things up? Seems coincidental that we show up, charge into battle, and then the Emperor shows up for a meeting with us."

Ben and Ozzy looked at each other and shrugged. The Butcher said, "You know, if there was some way to take credit for this, I'm not sure that I would."

Ben nodded in agreement, "Because you'd want us to do it again."

Layla eyed the two of them, "You're saying you had nothing to do with this?"

Ben innocently said, "Not a bit."

Ozzy hesitated, "Well, maybe a little bit. I met Gus...I mean, the Emperor, when Myrna and I were in Wolfsburg doing our best to piss off some of the nobles and advertise Sedgewick Sausages. The Emperor was in the Legion encampment, taking a night off, and smelled the food from our cart. We got hauled in to cook for him, not knowing who it was at first. The man likes simple, hot food, and was a big fan of her cooking. I met some of his bodyguards when I took third in an arm wrestling contest, and afterwards, the Emperor wanted to know about Sedgewick and Gadobhra."

Billy said, "You only took third? Shit."

Layla focused on what else the Butcher had mentioned. "And what did you tell him? Or did that aura of his make you babble like a spy in a bad movie given truth system?"

"He has an aura? Hadn't noticed. Remember, we Contract Workers aren't troubled by such things. But as for our talk, I told him the truth, but not all the truth."

Layla was curious, "And did you paint us as tyrants, or saints?"

"Neither. I told him you were efficient, liked earning gold, and weren't interested in playing the political games of the other barons. That you planned on building up Gadobhra and Sedgewick into prosperous cities, and upgrading your farmland and peasants, even if it pissed off the other nobles. May have mentioned your disdain for rules that kept the peasants poor and that protected the markets that certain nobles have control over. Oh, and that you dearly hated paying taxes and would fight to the death to keep what you were building."

Billy mulled that over, "And his reaction?"

"Gus is hard to read. However, he was very happy that you took in the refugees, and he dislikes how the nobility is entrenched in the Empire. He's trying to break things up so peasants can become merchants, and merchants can start new villages. He's cautiously in favor of the deal with the corporations, and views the trouble they cause as a small price to pay for...well, the trouble they cause. And he wanted more sausages. Baroness Claudia is getting shipments through the Legion that she passes on to him. We're making sausage cheaper across the Empire. That's popular with the peasants and the Legion. Gus notices things like that."

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"And he just happened to be here?"

"That happened because of Gus. We talked a little when he got here. If this little village fell, it would leave just two other teleporters working in the south. It's become disproportionately important because so many other teleporters are out of action. When he heard about the attack, he didn't waste time and grabbed any soldiers he could from the capital and teleported in, expecting a fight. He was happy and surprised to find us cleaning up and me cooking soup. With you being here already, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that he'd talk to you, so I did my best to set things up and explain a few peculiarities surrounding your contingent of explorers and insurrectionists. Might also have dropped a few hints about how you could be useful to him. Maybe talked a little about how you're feeding his armies, providing troops and support when needed, that sort of thing."

Ben added his own thoughts. "What we should be focusing on isn't the possibility that we are scheming behind your back, which we prefer to think of as supporting our beloved Baron and Baroness. The real focus needs to be on the bottom line, and whether you're going to make more money."

Billy's eyes narrowed, and Layla looked suspicious. Then they shrugged, and she said, "Damn right. Most everything else we can forgive. And ACME won't forgive us if we fail to keep producing. You don't want someone like Vern to take over."

"I will point out that I think we have proven both our support of the current regime and our disdain and dislike for Vern. It was a difficult decision to force him to get better, but we could see the shining future where he left us for the beautiful jungles of the south. And we'd like it if he stays here."

"Yeah, me too." Billy was already beginning to worry about the suddenly more competent Vernon Brockmeyer. "I want him down here and doing good enough to produce profit, but I'm not sure I want him back in charge of a city that could go to war with the Empire. That would screw up our new relationship with our best customer."

Ozzy grinned, "No worries on that count. Marcy's group is tough, but they aren't taking out that dragon. Vern already tried that, and having twice as many troops and a few levels won't change things. He's lucky the temperature down here doesn't get below one hundred."

"Yeah, which is good and bad. Good that we don't have to deal with it, and bad that I want that huge pile of gold he's sitting on. And hell, if we did kill it, that puts Vern back in power, and I owe him a portion of the gold. He'd be back in power with the lizards backing him, and we'd have the same problem we had before. I need the dragon gone, the gold in my bank account, Vern powerless, and the lizards laying off the Empire."

Layla rolled her eyes. "I'd settle for three out of four on your list. If we pull this off and grab the gold in the villages and take the gold mines, I'll be happy. A little creative accounting can screw Vern, especially if we keep him running around the jungle forever and causing trouble for the Dragon."

Ozzy was thoughtful, "Maybe if you become enough of a pain and cut off his gold supply, and the war in the north goes our way, Winter might pull him back North. It's a long shot, but not much else is going to tempt a dragon off of a pile of gold. How big did Vern say that pile was, anyway?"

Billy's eyes got huge, and he spread out his arms. "Massive. A whole room full of gold. A dragon-sized room. The damned thing flies up and dives into it like it's a pond. It must be filled with coins twenty feet deep. It's a mesmerizing sight," Layla elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Or so I've heard from Vern."

Ben was counting on his fingers, then stared blankly into space and whistled low and long. "If that room is 100x100x20 feet, and air takes up half the pile, we're talking about twenty-five thousand tons of gold. That's insane, even for a dragon! How the hell did Vern plan to move it?"

"A road and a wagon. A lot of wagons. I don't think Vern thought it through. In his world, that was his gold, and he didn't have to worry about what happened when he tried to teleport a wagonload of gold guarded by a bunch of lizard warriors. He's not quite up to speed yet on how this world works, as you've seen."

Ozzy looked at his bag, ran some math in his head, and came to the same conclusion Ben had. "That is one shit-ton of gold. I think even a fraction of that would cement your position in Gadobhra."

Billy agreed. "Yeah, not going to turn my nose up at even a tenth of that much. Even my greedy little heart gets overwhelmed.

Ozzy stood up, "Well, I've got no idea on how to deal with dragons and piles of gold, but I do know we need to finish the fortifications on the town, and you need to get Marcy and Vern going. After that, it seems like I need to grab anyone I can and slaughter the hell out of Gadobhra and get some sausage shipped out."

Billy agreed, "Nothing like a few hundred barrels of tasty Sedgewick Sausage to buck up the bottom line. And we're going to need more of the heavy wagons we used to move stones to Rowan Keep. They'll come in handy for shipping sausage and groats, and if things go right, I'll need them to haul some shiny coins we find lying around."