Enlightened Empire

"Please excuse this servant’s inability to comply with the request. Honored guest will have to wait for a while longer until all discrepancies have been cleared up." Although the barbarian servant looked earnest and apologetic as he bowed his head, Felian wasn’t convinced.

"Nonsense! You have told us the same story for days already! We have paid your taxes thrice over and you still won’t let our ships leave the harbor! How much more do you want!?" Felian’s fist landed on the table and made the tea spill over. Not that he cared much. The knight didn’t have any interest in this strange occidental drink in the first place, and he had been stuck in this room for so long that it had grown cold and stale.

Rather than the cheap excuses or cheap tea, he was much more interested in the servant’s stubborn insistence that their fleet couldn’t leave the port for Chutwa. They had followed all the rules and paid all the bribes, so how were there still problems?

"Please understand this servant’s difficulties, honored guest. In all other times, the only merchants who leave from this port are natives of Yakuallpa. Since the arrival of outsiders is new for us, of course the process would take much longer than usual. Since matters are so strange this time, they are not in this servant’s hands."

"If not in yours, whose hands are they in?" Felian scoffed. Although the foreigner understood the proper Arcavian language and Felian didn’t have to rely on a translator for once, it didn’t make the man any more helpful. "Is your king trying to make things difficult for us because we’re affiliated with Borna instead of Cahlia?"

"And if he was, what would honored guest do?" The servant still sounded friendly, but his eyes narrowed into slits. In truth, there wasn’t much Felian could do, despite the unfair treatment. Although he still had a bunch of soldiers with him, they were in enemy lands now, and hopelessly outnumbered.

"You’re lucky we need your help right now." The knight left an empty threat before he shooed the servant out of the room. "Since you have nothing but excuses to offer, there is no reason for you to stay here. I would like to talk with my people without your presence, so please see yourself out."

"Then this servant will excuse himself."

After King Amautu’s warrior servant had bowed and left, Felian raised his hand to throw the tea set off the table. However, at the last moment, he stopped his actions. If he broke the expensive Chutwa glaze, he would only have to pay them more. Even more, anger would show his weakness and frustration would only cloud his vision. He had to calm down.

"Three days. Three days we have been stuck here for nothing," A brooding Felian said. "We have already bribed them. What more do they want?"

As he saw the knight regain his calm, the merchant next to him relaxed his shoulders. The trader had been sent as the representative trader of Borna in the Occident and was to handle negotiations during their journey. So far he had proven useless. Even during their stay here on the Medalan west coast, it had been Felian who handled all the talks. Now that the foreign servant was finally out of sight, the coward lamented their fate with a sigh.

"If only the war between King Amautu and House Ichilia had not started at the most inopportune of times, we could have taken a more direct route down the Argu River. That way, we would have traveled through King Pachacutec’s land, who is our ally. There would have been no problems and we would not have needed to pay any tariffs either."

"And that route wasn’t an option? I know there is a war, but even a battlefield could not be worse than this mess."

"The war along the Argu River still rages on and neither side is our ally. With his actions here, King Amautu has already proven that the northern kingdom does not support the traders of Borna. House Ichilia is not our ally either, even though they are part of the central kingdom. A fat sheep like us, we would have been swallowed whole by whatever side got to us first."

Again, Felian suppressed his anger at his helpless position.

"Even now that our ships are long loaded and waiting for us to continue westward, we can’t even board until that northern king lets us go. But the new, emergency wartime tariffs these bandits are asking for this time are outrageous. If we agree to pay them, we will lose money even if we reach Chutwa. So what do we do now?"

Although Felian really wanted for them to just turn around, he knew that it wasn’t an option. Duke Herak had tasked them to reach Chutwa, and the duke never had time for excuses. Another sigh escaped the merchant.

"There is not much we can do. It appears we will be forced to pay the price asked by the northern king. Since it is our first journey on this route, let us just consider it a learning experience. Even more..." As he paused for effect, the merchant’s face lit up. "Sire may underestimate the value of direct trade with Chutwa goods. Even with all the difficulties so far, we still expect a grand profit from our journey. So long as we can reach our goal, the gold-plated streets of Chutwa, we will let us reap profits beyond our wildest dreams."

"Unless something else goes wrong," Felian quipped.

"No need to worry about that, sire. I have talked with the captain from Huaylas, the man responsible for the next leg of our journey. He claims to know a safe route through the Verdant Isles, one free from pirate attacks. He has sailed the same route for decades and has never run into troubles. After that, we will already be in Chutwa. Our troubles are finally behind us and soon, we will come to see the wonders of the Occident."

Somehow, the merchant’s enthusiasm failed to infect Felian. Maybe it was because the knight was more worried about the well-being of his men rather than about the gold the traders had on their minds. As his frown expanded, he looked down into the puddle of tea that had done the same on the table. Even after all the reassurances, his bad feelings still hadn’t vanished.

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"You were the one who said the route would be safe, is that right?" Felian stared down the useless man who called himself captain. At this point, he didn’t care that the Medalan warrior didn’t understand him. He just needed somewhere to vent his frustrations, and the overconfident guide of their expedition was the perfect place to start. "If your secret route is so safe, then explain this to me!"

His forceful sweep captured the close to dozen ships that had encircled their little trade fleet. The strange ships were green all over, without sails on their masts and with a dark green growth along their hulls and decks. Despite their unusual coloration, they were quite easy to overlook. After all, Felian’s fleet was traveling through the Verduic Sea now. All around them was green-tinted water as far as the eye could see. Farther in the distance, a small island group overgrown by jungle was just barely visible within the green on green. No wonder they hadn’t spotted the pirates before they had been surrounded.

"Ask him! Wasn’t his route supposed to be secret!?" spittle flew as Felian turned to his translator, who had been just as shocked at the knight’s outburst as everyone else. All this time, he had tried to retain his calm in public to avoid a panic among his men, but now even he had lost all semblance of control. While the captain could still pretend to not understand and shirk his responsibilities, the translator had no choice but to answer.

"Master, wait one moment," he said in a tiny voice and turned to the captain.

As Felian waited for the two foreigners to work out their excuses, his eye twitching throughout, he looked back over to the enemies who had given them so much trouble. A total of ten ships, that was all it had taken. They weren’t even ships, really; at least not compared to the great vessels of Borna’s fleet.

At a length of maybe eighty feet and with a single short mast, these primitive things were even less impressive than the main vessels of the Whitean fleet that had been so soundly smashed apart by Borna’s strength over the past few years. These barbarians weren’t even armed with cannons. At most, each ship would house a few dozen soldiers and archers, tired out from all the rowing. A single Bornish galleon would be enough to hunt down and wipe out this entire pirate fleet. Yet here they were, trapped like rats by these weaklings.

"Master, he says that he has traveled here for decades and this route has always been safe. He says someone in your group gave away our location and the content of our cargo hold. It is not his fault, he says." For a moment, Felian looked at the gray-haired captain, who returned a defiant stare, one eye almost pinched closed. The knight really felt like beating the arrogance out of him right now, but it wouldn’t do much other than relieve his anger. He had much more important things to do. Somehow, he managed to push down his fury by taking a deep breath.

"Tell him that we’ll move on in a bit, so he should get his crew ready. And he should be aware that for future missions, he is much more replaceable than we are. Even if he thinks he is safe, backed by his lord, there are many other lords and many other captains along Medala’s west coast. If he decides to slack off or make deliberate trouble for us, we can do very well with him at the bottom of the ocean. At worst, we will pay off his master as compensation."

Of course, Felian would never actually attack the old man who had seemed earnest in his work so far. Despite Herak’s forceful nature, they were guests in this strange land. If they angered the locals one too many times, they might just be kicked off their islands, and then all the hard work of the past year would be for naught.

Still, the barbarian captain didn’t know his apprehensions, so the knight made sure their guide would not act against them in the future. In his weak position, it was the best Felian could do to increase their chances of survival. Annoyed, he left his translator to threaten the captain and turned to the front of the ships, where the merchants were hard at work.

Huddled together in a large group, they talked among themselves, no doubt nothing but profits on their lips.

"Sir Felian!" one of them called out in faked enthusiasm, only to make all the others aware of the knight’s approach as well. A curt nod from him returned the greeting, but he would much rather get to the core of the issue than waste time on fake friendships.

"What do the pirates want then? Why haven’t they boarded us yet?" he asked. It was indeed strange. When the pirates had first appeared, the merchants had come together to negotiate while Felian had been off to organize his men for a desperate defense. However, even after they had been held up for a long time, they still hadn’t been attacked.

"It appears Captain Tayali over there has decided to spare us."

Felian followed the merchant’s hand towards the vessel opposite of theirs, and towards the man who stood with one leg on its front railing. Confidence emanated from his wide grin as he conversed with the translators of the merchants in a casual tone.

"And what does that mean, ’spare us’?" Despite the good news, Felian was suspicious

"According to Captain Tayali, he will spare our lives and not even take all our wares, so long as we surrender. We have a total of five ships loaded, and he will only take cargo from the largest three vessels. Even the ships will be spared. Now we only need to discuss whether or not to take his offer."

"And what have you decided?" Felian sneered. Although the pirate had phrased it like an offer, no one would be stupid enough to believe in free choice here. If they didn’t agree, they only had one possible road to walk, and it would lead straight down the deep sea.

"After some calculations, most of us have decided to agree. After all, while the larger ships transport some bulk cargo, the most valuable goods have been put onto the smaller vessels. Even with all of the expected losses, we might still be able to run a profit, so long as there are no more problems on our way to the Occident."

"Good, at least we can still complete the mission. If their offer really is this good, what’s the holdup?"

"Some of us – not me, but some – have guessed that Sir Felian’s mighty troops would be able to fight back against the dirty pirates. Why would we give up our wares when we can protect them instead? That is what Sir Felian and his men are here for after all."

In response to the greedy merchant’s hopeful stare, Felian did his best to hide his ever-growing derision.

"We are outnumbered at least ten to one. This is their territory and their ships are much faster and more maneuverable than our own. Even if they failed to win the initial engagement, they can always retreat and return a day later with twice the ships, or come at night when we are unprepared. With their strange ships, they are already close to invisible in the daytime. We would never see them coming. I will not fight them, no matter what the profits are. If you want to throw your lives away for some gold, I will not accompany you."

As the merchant retreated with a fake smile and some fake apologies to inform his compatriots of the unfortunate news, Felian looked over to the pirate captain to observe him more closely.

This entire chain of events seemed far too coincidental for his tastes. What sort of pirate wouldn’t just take everything from them? The ships alone would be worth far more than their cargo. Somehow, he felt as if these pirates knew about the Bornish expedition, and about their goals. The way the pirate’s offer worked out, they would still run a profit even with all the problems they had encountered; which would encourage his master to send even more traders in the future and sink even more money and manpower into the endeavor. It was the perfect plan for all these bandits and pirates to milk them dry en route.

At this point, Felian was convinced that they hadn’t just been unlucky all this time. He had the sinking feeling that their adventures might end up being the standard Chutwa travel experience from now on.