Enlightened Empire

Chapter 274

As Mayu stormed towards Corco, his scrunched up face darkened further.

“Where did she go?” he asked from between his teeth. Even from a distance, Corco had been able to smell the alcohol in his breath already. This close, the king had to tilt back his head or he would have gotten drunk off the breath alone.

“What the hell are you doing?” Corco asked back, rather than answer his question. For any noble, Mayu's behavior was less than appropriate. Even worse, he showed that behavior not only towards his close family, but also towards his king. Both actions were considered unforgivable, but the governor remained stubborn.

“Where is she? Did she come through here?” Mayu came towards him like a bull who had seen red.

“Yeah, she ran past.” Corco pointed behind him. “What the fuck happened?”

“Out of my way.”

At this point, the usually calm Mayu had completely lost his mind. Why else would the physically weak governor try to get into a fight with Corco? Showing no patience at all, he tried to shove his cousin out of the way to follow the verdant princess.

But before he could react, Corco caught his older cousin's arm and twisted it behind his back. Although Mayu tried to resist, it was already too late by the time the drunk realized his position. With the governor pushed against the wall to seal his movements, Corco shouted in his ear.

“Stop! For one second, stop!”

Even so, Mayu continued to struggle. Maybe he didn't even feel the pain of his overstretched tendons.

“Stop now or I'll break your fucking arm!” Corco shouted again. This time his voice had more force and he increased the pressure on Mayu's arm in kind, both to further his point. After another low grunt, at last his cousin had calmed down enough for a conversation. Still, although Corco reduced the pressure, he didn't let the governor go. Not until he had found out what had happened.

“What is going on?” he asked again, and this time he got an answer.

“That bitch kicked me!” His shout was muffled since his face was still up against the tiles. “Let me go, I have to pay her back!”

Right away, Corco knew that this wasn't the full story. At this point, he had known Sumaci for years and knew very well what kind of person she was. While the princess was sometimes unreasonable, he had never seen her get violent for no reason.

Even more, Mayu had always been interested in Sumaci and tried to court her through all these years. It was the only reason the governor of the south was in Saniya in the first place, rather than in his home of Puscanacra. If he put together what he knew about both people as well as Sumaci and Mayu's present behaviors, Corco felt like he could piece together the whole story.

“Were you actually trying to force yourself on a princess?” he asked in shock. He hadn't thought that his cousin was that kind of person, but Mayu's answer surprised him.

“What does it have to do with you?” he asked back, rather than answer the question. To Corco, that all but confirmed his suspicions.

“I won't just let you rape my guests, you moron!” he shouted. “Apart from this being an obvious scumbag move, and highly illegal in my city, it also reflects horrible on the entire kingdom if you do it to a foreign princess. Are you trying to start a war with the Verdant Isles as well? We barely have any allies right now, and we already have more than enough enemies. You wanna rally our closest ally against us just because you're horny, you fuck!?”

Finally, the dose of reality seemed to calm Mayu down. At least he no longer struggled.

“Okay, fine,” he said in a calmer tone. “I won't do anything. Let me go.”

When Corco released his grip, Mayu turned around right away. While he was still rubbing his arm in pain, he stared at Corco with a dark gaze.

“Can you let me through now, oh great king and ruler?” he asked in a sarcastic tone.

Normally, Corco would be diplomatic to avoid internal conflict in the southern kingdom, but today he wouldn't deal with his cousin's bullshit.

“To do what?” he asked instead.

“Not to worry, I won't harm your precious 'guest'.” Mayu sneered. “I just want to talk to her.”

“And say what? You think you can just apologize after something like that and it's all good again?” a wide-eyed Corco asked. “In the first place, what was your plan here? I know you've been courting Princess Sumaci for a while now, but you really think this move improved your chances in any way? Even if you had been successful, you think after she would have just said 'oh well, guess we're an item now'?”

Rather than answer, Mayu only stared at Corco in silence.

“Look, I want her to marry into Medala nobility as much as you, and you know that I fully support your courtship as well, but you're being a fucking idiot about it. If she sees you again today, you'll only make things worse, no matter what you say. Go home, you're drunk. I'm serious. If you insist on staying here, I'll have you escorted out, and none of us want that. While you sleep off your hangover, I'll try to fix this mess for you. Nothing happened in the end, so maybe you'll still have a shot if we handle this carefully.”

After some more convincing, a silent Mayu finally left for the exit. Even so, he was still looking around, always in search for Sumaci. However, the one he had been looking for appeared some time later, from within the hall she had disappeared to earlier.

“Thank you,” she said. “This way, I didn't have to bash his face in.”

“Can someone now tell me what was going on back there? Pretty please?” An annoyed Corco asked. He really wasn't cut out to play couple's therapist, nor did he have any interest in the profession.

“My guess is you already know well enough. The governor was trying to drag me into a private room. I disagreed.” Sumaci's answer was succinct, but confirmed Corco's suspicions.

“He was drunk and lost control. You really shouldn't take it to heart.” Although he didn't believe a word he said, he still had to play devil's advocate, just to preserve the peace of the southern kingdom.

“Yes, since Governor Mayu is such a charming gentleman on any other day.” Sumaci's sneer made it obvious that she believed in Mayu's innocence as much as Corco did.

“Anyways, you don't have to worry about him anymore.” Corco tried to change the subject. “So long as you stay as a guest on my estate, I'll make sure nothing happens you. That's my guarantee as a host.”

“That's a promise I am willing to believe.” A smile bloomed on Sumaci's face as her eyes wandered down, from Corco's face to his bare chest. “At the very least, you look like you can handle yourself, teacher.”

“Is that so?” he said awkwardly. While he was aware of Sumaci's advances, he wasn't willing to play along.

“Not to be disrespectful, but I always thought you were a bit more... portly.” Sumaci joked and came closer.

“Well... did you think I had enough time to eat until I got fat?” In an attempt to defuse the situation, he spoke in the driest tone he could muster as he tried to change the topic. “I'm way too busy for food. Apart from the part-time teacher's job, the administrative work is eating me alive. There's always more problems to be had, and never enough solutions, even with all the knowledge in the world.”

“Anything I could help you with?” Although her tone was perfunctory – or even flirtatious – Corco took it serious to further derail the conversation.

“Well, if you know where to find oil and niter, that would be great!” He thought for a bit, before he remembered something. “Shit, at this point, I'd even be happy with just some bats.”

All of a sudden, he had remembered that guano – feces from bats and sea birds – was considered a high-quality fertilizer, partly due to its high nitrogen content. In fact, at some point in history, it had been mined to make gunpowder and other explosives as well.

Still, his new knowledge didn't help him much for the moment. Corco wasn't aware of any places in Medala that housed a lot of bats. In Yaku mythology, bats were considered almost as evil as snakes and monkeys, so they had been hunted almost to extinction by the superstitious citizens. He expected the situation to be the same for the Verdant Isles. After all, the verdant folk shared a religion and many of their myths with the Yaku, so their attitude towards bats would be the same. However, Sumaci's answer surprised him.

“You've never heard about the bat islands?” she asked, and looked at him with suspicion.

“The what?”

“Bat islands. There is a small island group hidden within the Verduic Sea. Although they are part of the Verdant Isles, no people go there. That's because entire swarms of bats supposedly fly around the islands at night and eat all who dare get too close.”

“Are you serious!?” Corco shouted and grabbed the princess by her shoulders.

At this point, he had already forgotten the fate of the last guy who tried to get grabby with the combative princess, but he was spared the same fate. This time, Sumaci only looked with wide eyes of surprise.

“Yes, of course,” she said. “But it may be a good idea to stay away from that place. People say the islands are cursed, so no one's been there in decades. Going near bats is never a good idea.”

“Say, my beautiful student,” Corco stared at Sumaci like he had just found a treasure.

Although his tone was a lot warmer than before, the princess took half a step back. Her instincts were sharp, since she managed to feel the danger before it arrived.

“What is it?” she asked Corco, who had begun to grin like a maniac.

“Since your time in Saniya has been so tough recently, and since I'm such a good host, let me make it up to you. What do you think about taking a little vacation on a beautiful, uninhabited island?”

The very same evening, Corco called his advisor to inform him of his impromptu vacation. Of course, Fadelio had raised hell once Corco had told him of his new plan. Not only were they busy in the castle's offices and couldn't do without their king, any form of travel was also inherently dangerous for him. However, Corco didn't quite see it the same way.

As far as he was concerned, nothing was more important at this moment than the acquisition of a permanent niter source. Although Fadelio had suggested to send someone else to the bat islands on his behalf, Corco had disagreed again.

Apart from him, there weren't many people who could properly identify niter. The only one in Saniya who would be more qualified than him was Hieronymus, but he would never leave his lab for a trip overseas. If he were to be ordered, Ronnie would continue to push back the trip with various excuses, of that Corco was sure. Even if the chemist ended up going, Corco felt that Ronnie's everyday research was far more important than his own everyday pencil pushing.

So in the end, he had convinced Fadelio. Or rather, he had managed to force his will. Though of course, he wasn't an idiot, so he had tried to make some careful preparations to guarantee his safety. This journey would be the most dangerous thing Corco had done in ages after all.

In order to make sure that the news wouldn't spread too fast and assassins wouldn't be able to catch up with them, they would travel suddenly, without telling anyone. They would start their journey the following morning, when the other lords would still be sleeping off their hangovers from their excesses in the bath house.

At the same time, they had limited the number of people who would know about the trip. So far, only Corco, Sumaci and Fadelio knew about the plans. As far as everyone else was concerned, Sumaci's ship would leave the harbor tomorrow and carry her back home for an irregular visit due to her homesickness.

Only her and Fadelio would know that Corco would be on the ship as well. They would travel to the bat islands, check that they were what Sumaci had promised, and sail back straight away. Meanwhile, Fadelio would stay in the castle and continue to hold meetings in Corco's office, without anyone else around. If everything went according to plan, they would return to Saniya before anyone would even realize that he was gone.

Though while his preparations were thorough, they still couldn't keep up with reality. In the end, nothing would go according to plan.

After Corco and Sumaci had quietly bemoaned their fates on the sandy beach for a while, they stood up and tried to make sense of their situation. Both of them were pragmatic people, so they soon regained their focus and began to trouble-shoot.

“Well, if we can't even make a fire, then what do we do?” Sumaci complained first. “Are we supposed to just sit here until we starve or freeze to death?”

While the princess was still confused, the king had already thought things through. After all, while he was surveying the island, he had had more time to think.

“There is an obvious solution to all of our problems,” he said.

“Oh? Then please enlighten me, great teacher.”

“You're not gonna like it though.” He looked at her from the side, as a smile crept on his face. “I'm serious. You'll hate my answer.”

“I can be the judge of that, so please just tell me. You think I can't handle bad news?”

“Well... if you insist.” As he remembered Sumaci's description of the bat islands, his smile grew a bit wider. “Do you know how in caves, there's usually a decent amount of condensation because of the difference in temperature compared to the outside? Even better, we have a much higher chance of finding a source of fresh water underground than we would above ground.”

For a second, Sumaci stared at him with a dull face, before she paled like a ghost.

“Oh no, we are not doing that!” she shouted, but Corco continued, unconcerned with her concerns.

“And inside such a cave, we would also be shielded from the outside. Not only are we safe from wind and rain, we can make as large of a fire as we want and no one would see us from the shore. Assuming that we have a way for the smoke to escape of course.”

“No! Stop! I disagree!”

“And did you know that the caves on this island contain a large amount of protein, in the form of very tasty animals?”

“Nononono, I'm not going near those!” she began to beg. “We can't do anything else?”

“What, are you telling me that you're scared of a few harmless bats? You can't be serious! Those guys probably aren't even the bloodsucking kind.”

This time, Sumaci crawled backwards through the sand, away from him and the caves. In shock, she only stared at him with moist eyes. When he realized that he had maybe gone a bit too far with his teasing, Corco dialed it back a bit.

“Relax, relax,” he said. “We don't actually have to sleep under a blanket of bats. We just need to find a smallish cave and smoke them out to make some room for us. That way, we have shelter, water and food. All our immediate problems will be solved.”

“Still...”

At this point, Corco got annoyed with her reluctance. Was this the same fearless pirate's daughter he had known for so long?

“What, you'll let some superstition dictate how you live your life?” he asked. “Not only life, it's even dictating how you'll die right now. Is this how you want to go out?”

“Okay, but you investigate the caves,” she finally agreed.

“Sure, I can do that. You can start a proper fire in the meantime, since you seem much better at that than me. We'll need cloth with a decent size as well, so if you could get one from the wreck that would be great.”

“We will need a whole lot more firewood if we want to smoke out an entire cave before nightfall,” Sumaci added, now back to her pragmatic self.

“That's the least of our problems.” Corco grinned again and thought back to the thick layer of gunk inside the caves. “After all, we've been sitting on nothing but fuel this entire time.”