Chapter 86: Swear Upon Your Life (Patreon)

Willem had a rather difficult conundrum on his hands.

He’d come to enjoy being honest. It was a vaguely fun restriction, where he had to say the truth while doing decidedly underhanded things. A little treachery was expected in investing—one had to buy things for less than they were worth, which was someone dishonest or at the very least opportunistic. Finding enjoyment in it was how he’d reconciled the promise he’d made to his late great wife. He enjoyed keeping the vow that he’d made to her. It made him feel good every time he wanted to do something that broke the vow, but didn’t. It was like he was winning some sort of invisible game.

Now, though, he’d moved on to a new life. He’d found a new, but equally crazy, partner. Seradiene was crazy in all of the right ways and some of the wrong ones, and most importantly he enjoyed talking to her. She was rather the polar opposite of the woman that he’d made his vow to, and he never thought he’d move on… but then again, she’d never asked him to vow to stay fixated on her ghost for well over half a century.

And Sarah wanted—perhaps needed—Willem to break the vows he made, or she’d die.

Willem learned what she and King Arnoud had been discussing. It was how to launch another Grand Crusade. They were formulating battle plans, and as it turned out, armies need commanders. The king intended to give command to all those that had proven themselves; namely, the dragon marks and the golden marks. He was expected to be one of them. If he declined, Sarah would lose perhaps the only genuine ally she had in this whole affair. Without any true allies, her prospects of filling up her lava tank at the lava station were slim at best.

Willem didn’t have much doubt that the king would be willing to betray Sarah. Honor didn’t seem to rate highly in his list of priorities—pragmatism seemed to be the number one priority, battling against his hatred of the Dubois family. The princess wouldn’t be so willing, but she didn’t have any authority over her father. Arnoud had Galahad whispering in his ear, talking about the debauchery of the chimeras and what a worthy thing it was to slaughter them. Doubtless Arnoud had half a hundred vassals telling him just the same.

If Willem wanted to make sure that things turned out well for Sarah, he needed to accompany her to the north, to Avaria, to join in on this Grand Crusade. And if he did, he’d need to break his promise. It was a very complicated equation for an old-fashioned gentleman such as himself. No one would be around to chide him for breaking his promise—Viviene and all of the rest would be happy, even. The only thing holding him back was his own stubbornness. And so, he did what most old-fashioned men did when they encountered difficult problems.

Willem ignored the tough question and threw himself into work to get his mind off it.

“So, Dirk, what do you think?” Willem asked as he sat across from his old friend.

“You’re not talking about lending money. You’re talking about being someone that facilitates the lending of money. Credit cards, debit cards… I get the gist of it.” Dirk scratched at his cheek. “I see how it could be valuable… it’s rather obvious to just about anyone.”

“it’s clear that you don’t know who I’ve been sharing a carriage with the past few days,” Willem said, looking back to where Arend stood. “But I knew I could rely on you, my son. My favorite son.”

Dirk looked a little disgusted, and he elected to ignore the son comment. “Rather than risking any money ourselves, we’ll just be taking a little bit off the top of every purchase. It’s obviously worthy of thinking about… the only question is, is it feasible?”

“I may be bright, but I’m not original.” Willem took the paper out of Dirk’s hand. “This is just an idea that I stole from people that are smarter than me. Where I’m from, payment networks already existed. They had a hell of a lot of clout.”

Arend looked at Willem oddly. “I thought you were from the far north.”

Willem looked back. “Why are you only sharp when it’s inconvenient to me?”

Arend sealed his mouth shut.

“If we were going to get this started… you would need a very trusted partner,” Dirk reasoned.

Willem nodded. “Of course. The king. What use is the central government is not to lobby for favors? We give him a ground floor opportunity to suppress dissidents and raise capital for the kingdom, and he gives us privilege of being the first mover on a ground breaking enterprise that spans the world.” Willem held his hands out as if they were a scale. “Tit for tat.”

Dirk shook his head. “I’m not just talking about a political partner. I’m talking about a magical partner. We need someone that knows magic and knows what they’re doing in the field of magic.”

“Yeah, that’s why Suzanne is here.” Willem looked to his sister.

Suzanne, who’d been drinking in disinterest in the corner of the room, came to attention when her name was mentioned. “What? Somebody say my name?”

“Do you think you’d be able to make a payment network that spans the world? Willem asked without preamble.

“Uhh…” Suzanne gaped. “I can destroy things quite easily.”

Dirk leaned in. “Suzanne is quite excellent at practical applications for magic, but in artifacting grand designs, Galahad has said she’s lacking at points.”

“I told you that in confidence!” Suzanne protested.

Dirk looked at her with genuine remorse. “Oh, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t know you didn’t want him to know.”

“Awww… I can’t say mad at you,” Suzanne said, doing a complete attitude 180 so quickly Willem’s head spun. She walked up to Dirk and squeezed his cheeks. Willem looked at Arend miserably. “But he’s right. I don’t know how to do grandiose things like that,” Suzanne eventually said.

Willem stroked his chin. “Fair enough.” He looked at her. “What about that fellow, Harmon? And the other one, Rolof? You seem to know them. Do you think that they’d be up to the task?”

Suzanne looked bitter. “Yes, I knew them for a very brief period of time. Rolof was fine, just quiet. Harmon was absolutely insufferable, but I can’t deny that he’s very talented.”

“And?” Willem pressed.

Suzanne let out a very deep and long sigh. “If there’s anybody that can do it, it’s going to be them. But why in the world would they help you when this contest is raging?”

Willem scratched his temple. “I almost forgot about that.”

“Really? What about Sarah?” Suzanne walked closer. “Isn’t she rather intimately involved in the contest for the princess’ hand? Galahad tells me that she asked for you almost every day. Sometimes multiple times a day.”

Willem smiled very, very widely. “Did she now?” That had given the most amusement of anything that he’d heard this day. When he was reminded of the conundrum they were dealing with, his smile slowly died. “Anyway, we need to get a head start on this. I’m told that Harmon and Rolof teamed up. I think that we should get Gustav and go talk to them about this.” He grabbed Dirk’s wrist. “Are you interested?”

Dirk looked out the window. “it’s the middle of the night. Are we going to go out and talk to them now?”

Willem shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like they’re little boys that have to go to bed early.”

“But Gustav isn’t here,” Dirk pointed out.

Willem looked at Suzanne. “You have a portal, don’t you?”

Suzanne looked offended. “That was for Dirk, not your merchant errand boy.”

“Gustav is a practiced and proficient pun master. Show him some respect,” Willem said.

Suzanne shook her head. “Not a chance.”

Willem turned his head to Dirk. “Please beg her for me.”

Willem and Dirk both turned their heads to look at Suzanne, a certain pleading in their eyes.

***

“Do you think we should hear them out, or turn them down?” Rolof asked Harmon.

“Decline their proposal? Reject the very individuals who secured second place in the vaunted competition to ensnare none other than the illustrious Red Raven? Preposterous.” Harmon gave his head a firm, almost theatrical shake, as though dislodging the mere suggestion from his mind. “Moreover—and let us not diminish the weight of this—Willem is of the same blood as Suzanne. And Suzanne, let us not forget, is the presumptive successor to Galahad, whose name carries with it an inheritance far grander than mere titles.”

Rolof looked confused. “What does the last bit have to do with anything?”

“Look, if one entertains Willem, one tacitly affirms Suzanne. And to affirm Suzanne is… a somewhat worthwhile endeavor,” Harmon continued.

Rolof rubbed his eyes. He forgot that Harmon was smitten by Suzanne. He could only rely on his own judgment in this matter. There wasn’t any demerit to hearing out one of the Six Drakes, and it had to be an interesting proposal. Maybe Willem would have some insight on what the next stage of the contest would entail.

“Very well, we’ll see them.” Rolof stood up.

***

Willem, Suzanne, Dirk, and Gustav stood in the room with Rolof and Harmon. Suzanne and Harmon seemed to be having a silent angry staring competition, while Dirk and Gustav had faded into the background. Roloff and Willem seemed to be the only ones engaging in any sort of conversation.

“You know, I’ve worked with another member of your family before. Karel van der Heiden. Do you know him?” Willem asked.

Rolof van der Heiden narrowed his eyes. “Our family is very large.”

“I’m aware.” Willem leaned in. “And if you’re anything like he is, you have an insatiable desire for money.”

Rolof blinked uncomfortably, “I wouldn’t put it quite like that, but I have a healthy need for money. We all need money to survive, on some level.”

“Ah… that’s the mentality. That was precisely the answer that I wanted to hear.” Willem smiled. “My people tell me that you’re somewhat cast out from your family. You don’t agree with their methods, and so you decided to forge your own path working in the Cabinet making magical artifacts.”

“Yes. And it’s led to my tremendous success,” Rolof confirmed. “I already make more money than most smiths of my family could ever make.”

Willem snapped and then pointed. “But not Karel.”

Rolof blinked for a little while. “I’ve heard whispers that he’s doing decently.”

“Whispers?” Willem shook his head. “I’m sure that people are telling you that he’s a disgrace to the family name. They’re conveniently leaving out the fact that he’s making money hand over fist, working for me.”

“Hence my mention of whispers,” Rolof pointed out. “I don’t care about what my family shouts. It’s the whispers that tell the truth.”

Willem smiled, and then unveiled a piece of paper. “I want you to look over this. If you think that there’s something viable that can be done, I want to talk more.”

Rolof looked at the piece of paper. “Right now, my focus is on the king’s contest. Does this have anything to do with it?”

Willem shook his head. “Not a thing.”

Rolof held up the paper. “Then why should I waste one second on this?”

Willem looked at Rolof decisively. “10,000 gold upon delivery of a successful prototype that meets spec.”

Both Dirk and Gustav looked at Willem like he was a psycho, but only one man reacted faster.

“I’ll take a look,” Rolof said, looking down immediately.

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