To Build An Empire

For an entire month, Jonas and his fleet floated just outside of the harbor's cannon range. Every once in a while, the pirates and mercenaries would try to fire a few volleys in hopes a few would miraculously strike a ship. Whether they hoped for an extra strong wind to push the spells farther or a god would descend to guide them himself, he didn't know.

But what he did left him absolutely giddy. Every day of the entire week, a small fleet of tired and homesick pirate-yea, the thought of that left Jonas bewildered for a few days-would return from a long and eventful journey. And with them was what they had sown.

Whether it was through raiding, trading, pirateering, or god knows what, each fleet came back with a large amount of wealth meant for the pirates and mercenaries on the harbor. From fine silks, spices, weapons, armor, gold, to special treasures. They had it all.

It took Jonas and his team of scribes and scholars-he just found out they even existed when Frezar asked him why he was reading them by himself-a few days to go through all the reports from each individual fleets trip and how they obtained their wealth. From the Bapago Islands, Kerlud Free States, and even the Orcs from the south and southwest.

And for that entire time, the pirates suspected nothing. That kept up until none of their scouts ever returned from their missions. No matter how they tried to get by, Medulis always caught them and executed them without prior warning. They wisened up, finally catching on to what was already happening.

Without a way to warn their incoming trading fleets expecting a warm welcome instead of the cold iron, they were doomed to fail economically. Pitting them against the nobles from behind and Jonas from the see. Of course, they somehow never found out about the 'idiot from Petrous' and his weekly visit to make sure Jonas was still going to go through with the plan.

Still stuck in a sea of papers, Jonas reclind on his comfy seat as he watched the scribes and scholars create for him a neat and easily ready report of what they had 'requisitioned' and 'repurposed' from the pirates. He sipped at a cold beverage and popped a gr.a.p.e or cherry into his mouth every once in a while, keeping himself busy.

"How is it going, Frezar?" Jonas said, inquiring on the progress of the work.

"We will need at least another day at this rate, Young Master. These pirates-the degenerate filth-were quite active raiding entire cities and towns of the archipelago surrounding the Orcish Continent. Some even had the audacity to disguise themselves as merchants and trade with respectable people. The vile low lives!"

Jonas flicked a gr.a.p.e into the air with thumb, doing his best to catch it with his mouth. It hit his cheek and fell to the ground. He stared at it frowning.

"No, Frezar. We have to thank them. Its made us filthy rich, richer than even I can imagine." Just thinking about how much gold he had acquired made him shake with excitement and that was not counting the fifty-four sh.i.p.s they had relieved from the pirates.

Shock and awe, that's all it took for the pirates to surrender. Plow through half of them to bring the other half to their knees.

"I've heard tales about how much gold dragons collected. Their personal hordes that they could swim in, even with their incredible size. Do you think we have that much already?"

Frezar looked skeptical.

"Dragons collecting gold? What are they, birds? The thought makes me cringe in disgust." A second voice cut into the discussion.

Jonas turned towards its owner with a withering glare. "Shut up, Clay. Go back to sleep you lazy bastard."

"Young Master! Your language is not befitting-"

"-I guess maybe their lesser kin, ground lizards. But actual dragons, drakes, wyrms, or serpents. Never. They are too smart to keep with them something they know would be useless-"

Clay, the sleeping mage-as Jonas has come to call him-finally deemed it necessary to stay awake for the past two days. But every time he spoke up, it was always to annoy Jonas. Like a little brother nagging and picking on him at all times of the day. Worse actually.

No matter what Jonas did, he could never lose the man, it got to the point where he planned to jump into the waters to get away from that incessant voice just jabbering at all times of the day.

Must spend tonnes of energy just to keep going without a single pause.

"-you get what I mean? Elves serving dragons? Those stuck up bastards got a pole so far up they can't even walk-"

Frezar got up from looking through the reports. He got close to Jonas. "Young Master, did you think of a way to get the nobles to read the royal decree? We have to find a way to force them to do it without a chance to retaliate. A rebellion could be at hand."

"A rebellion? Wouldn't the empire destroy them without quarter?" Jonas said.

"Probably, but by then it would be to late, won't it. Your image as a ruler would forever be tainted with this. It would only make the major families all the more willing to oppose you on everything you plan to achieve."

Jonas nodded, doing his best to zone out the still blabbering Clay. How would he possibly achieve that. As he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that they would have to get all the nobles to read it at once. It would prevent any uprising or escape from accepting his station above them.

Yet, he couldn't think of a way to get them together at one time and view the papers. If he got one person to do it, their reaction would have the rest scrambling to either get away for get rid of him before it became their turn.

"You are thinking of getting them to read it at once aren't you? I believe it to be the best way forward, Gravious Ash thinks the same. But how we are supposed to achieve that is up to you, young master," he said to Jonas.

"I'd appreciate the council, Frezar. I can't seem to think of any way we could-"

Then it clicked. Why did he have to get them to read it all at once? It wasn't feasible when they had their solution in front of them. It was much simpler and far more possible than what he imagined doing to get every single noble in the same room at the same time, then read the same paper at once.

All he had to do was get the idiot who acted as a messenger between them and the nobles of Petrous to read the paper then force him to swear to give not outwardly sign, whether direct or indirect, to his peers. After getting the idiot on his side, he would slowly get the paper to different influential members of the nobility, patiently getting them to swear oaths until he was done.

He could even be there personally to witness it by following the smugglers path the idiot came through each time to get to them. By the time the battle finished and he entered the city of Petrous, he could have enough support to prevent anything they planned on within moments.

Especially if they got those soldiers commanded by the ones who saw the decree into the most effective positions to either take the city locking out the rest outside or take them out while they are distracted with the corpses of the mercenaries and pirates.

His plan was almost fool-proof. What could possibly go wrong?

As he thought that, he felt an unusual dread run down his spine. He shook it off and began to regael rezar with his awesome plan. It helped that Clay had finally fell asleep again and shut his mouth.