System Change

With all the nonsense about marriage settled—Well, it wasn’t nonsense until Derek had been included in the talks; before that, it had been fun—everyone made quick plans about what was going to happen next. Derek would take everyone he needed to back to Cydaria, including Sabrina. Also, it seemed like nobody wanted the pleasure of being carried around in a pot. So, he would have the privilege of being a taxi after all.

No matter how much he wanted to stuff Sabrina in one so he wouldn’t have to deal with her looks of resentment, embarrassment, and flurries of other emotions she apparent felt toward him. So, Derek was going to have to make multiple more trips than expected.

While the Cydarians were getting everything ready on their side, Indria would be doing the same. Their next mission would be a combined assault on Astrus—leading up to the execution of the captured duke. Both Ryven and Osian would take part in the assault, and it would be one of the situations outlined in the soul contract where Osian would be able to use his full power. The whole thing with the soul contracts was rather interesting to Derek.

Unfortunately, Derek didn’t have any way to bring anyone to Astrus, so they would have to travel the old-fashioned way… on dragon. He thought about sending someone he knew over there, then locking on to them and using Void Travel, but he decided against it. Dragons were much more intimidating—especially when they came with somewhat of an army.

Derek began taking everyone to Cydaria, one by one, until finally, there was only Sabrina left. Well, Sabrina and her maidservant—who she had managed to bring over while Derek was carefully taking people through the portal.

Right then and there, in front of King Osian and Sabrina, he made Sabrina remove any contracts and oaths that Jessica had with her. This, of course, caused the servant to pale and panic, but he had chosen to question the maidservant without any constraints. Both Jessical and Sabrina objected, but he was insistent.

After that, he took the duke’s daughter through the void, careful to keep her at arm’s length and not create any unnecessary contact. She did her best to avoid looking him directly in the eyes—he didn’t know if that was from their earlier interactions or because of Jessica, but he didn’t mind. He didn’t want any misunderstanding after what he just went through.

Then, he came back for her maidservant newly uncontracted maidservant. Hopefully, she would be able to shine just a bit more light on everything.

“Hey.” Derek snapped his fingers in front of the young woman’s face multiple times until she broke out of the daze she’d been from not only being in the palace, but also being in a room with the king. “Don’t worry about him,” Derek said. “It’s just you and me in here. Actually…” Derek looked at Osian and gestured toward an exit with his head. “Give us five minutes.”

“Very well,” Osian sighed and walked out through one of the side exits.

“Y-you… King Osian… he listened to you?” Jessica stuttered through her words.

“Yeah,” Derek said. “I have that effect on people.”

The girl looked toward where the king was just standing, then at Derek, then at the open portal, then back at Derek. She chose not to say anything.

“There are a few questions I have that I would like for you to answer… truthfully,” Derek said. “Can you do that?”

“I… can,” she said. “Especially with the… b-broken contract…”

“Do you enjoy being Sabrina’s maidservant?” he asked right off the bat.

“Enjoy?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“I… not all the time. But other times it can be nice.”

“How so?” Derek asked.

The young woman paused, as if she was collecting her thoughts.

“You don’t have to worry about anything you say coming back on you, trust me. They wouldn’t have the courage to do anything about it,” he said with a reassuring smile.

“She’s better when we are alone and she hasn’t had a stressful day. She treats me almost as a friend… especially after coming back from her trip,” she answered.

“And does she abuse you? Hurt you?”

“Oh, no!” Sabrina quickly replied. “That is against the terms of our contract. Her words can be hateful or hurtful sometime, but she has never physically abused me. She…” the woman paused as if there was something she wanted to say, but didn’t dare to.

“What?”

“She tends to threaten other servants with punishment when they make a mistake… but I don’t believe she has ever followed up on it.”

“Hmm…” Derek rubbed his chin. What she said went along with the limit on punishment that could be given in the contract he looked over—the only real saving grace in said contract. “Would you prefer to be free? You no longer have any contracts or oaths. You could choose whatever life you want starting now.”

Jessica’s eyes went wide, and she backed away. “No, no… I don’t want that,” she said with tears threatening to pour out.

“Calm down,” Derek said. “I’m just asking the question. Why would you want to stay a servant when you had such terrible terms?” He was beginning to wonder if there was a bit of Stockholm syndrome going on with the maidservant.

“There’s nothing terrible about it.” She countered. “I… I’m from Astrus,” she said. “From a city called Ampshir, close to the border. It was awful. My friends and I were always beaten and nobody did anything about it. I…” she began to cry. “One day, one of my friends was beaten so badly that he died right in front of us and all we could do was watch… we were twelve—we didn’t even have the Great System unlocked. So we left…”

“And you came to Indria? With all the rumors of slavery and such?”

“We were twelve and focused on surviving. We didn’t have time to pay attention to rumors.” She shrugged, still sniffling at the trauma brought up. “Ampshir wasn’t far from the border, and it only took a couple days of walking to get here. As soon as we crossed the border, some elves found us and asked us a lot of questions under oaths, then they took us away. We were fed and clothed and moved to a city with other races. When I was fourteen, and had unlocked the Great System for a little over a year, I chose to become a maidservant, and I was brought here, to the capital. That’s where I met Mistress Sabrina.”

Either this is rehearsed, or Osian really was telling the truth, Derek thought. “What happened to your other friends?” he asked.

“Oh, Robin is the servant to a blacksmith!” her eyes lit up. “He got to come to the capital, too. We get to chat when we have time off. I don’t know too much about Gary and Rose, though, just what Robin has told me. They were already older when we came here—already sixteen when I was brought to the capital. I think Gary is still in the city, and helps take care of other refugees. Rose accepted a servant contract, but I don’t know which city she went to.”

“And what do you get paid?” Derek asked.

“Paid?” Jessica looked at him in confusion. “Why would we get paid? We get food and a place to live. And we don’t have to worry about being beaten or killed everyday. Robin gets to work with metal sometime, though! He’s been steadily increasing his blacksmithing skill over the years.”

“I see…” Derek said. It’s definitely exploitative… But, Osian was right, they are happy…ish. Derek looked into the woman’s eyes. “Well, some of that is going to change soon.” Jessica winced, but he continued. “If you want to stay with Sabrina, you’ll have to sign a new contract. You’ll get a salary and more time off. And you’ll be able to do anything you want with it. It’s how a real servant contract should be.”

“But…”

“It’s not just you,” Derek continued. “You’re probably going to have the first one, but it’s going to go into effect for every servant in the kingdom. You can talk about it more with Sabrina later. Those in Cydaria will be there to make sure the contract is no longer so close to slavery.”

Jessica nodded her head in understanding, but stayed quiet. A couple of minutes later, Osian walked back into the room.

“We’re finished,” Derek said. “I’m going to take her through now.”

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Hunt.”

“I’m sure it was,” Derek chuckled. “I guess the next time we see each other, we’ll be on our way to Astrus.”

“That seems to be the case,” Osian replied.

Without anymore words, Derek covered the young woman in a thick layer of void armor and stepped inside the portal with her. When inside, he closed it and moved to Cydaria. Before long, they were standing in the Great Hall of the Cydaria’s palace. Derek dismissed the armor from around the girl and willed the portal closed behind him. Almost instantly, a light weight appeared on his shoulder—Silvi had taken up her normal position.

The girl saw Sabrina in the distance and ran off to meet up with her. Sabrina, on the other hand, looked at Derek, then quickly turned her head away, firmly ignoring him. Then, the two women were taken away by one of the palace servants so they could get settled.

Derek hadn’t needed to question the girl about everything, but he wanted to get a better feel for everything and just make sure that Osian hadn’t slipped anything by him. And from his quick discussion with Jessica, it seemed that her life was closer to most people’s lives back before the system. She worked all the time just to have shelter and food, and very little free time.

It really reminded him of most young adults back in the states. After the initial deaths from the system coming to earth, it provided a lot more freedom and opportunity, but with a tremendous amount of risk. So, in a place where a system had existed for countless years, he could understand some people just wanting a relatively safe place to live, especially after growing up mistreated, as she had been.

So, Derek decided to let everything go for now. He would check back on things later—once all the new contracts were made. He definitely wanted to see how all the other houses in Indria reacted to the new regulations. But all that was now going to be under Edward’s control. That prince sure was going to have his hands… hand full in the future. Edgar really dodged a bullet there.

Speaking of Edgar, he and his brother were currently busy filling Edwin in on everything that went on during their time in Indria. Edwin was nodding along as they spoke. Derek looked around, but Alanah had disappeared, and Natalie had been gone for some time. They were both very busy people, and he was sure they had plenty of work they needed to catch up on.

He expected Alanah was on her way to Savannah to see Avery. During all the contract signing, Derek had told her about everything, and she knew where he and Lyra were keeping the dragonkin. She actually seemed pretty excited to meet Lyra, but she didn’t seem all too thrilled when he told her that they’d brought a wyvern out of the dungeon for her.

He wasn’t sure why, but it seemed something strange was going on with her. Once she was fully recovered, when they talked, she seemed a bit anxious. He wondered if it had something to do with her transformation skill, or if the war and all the killing was weighing on her.

“You’ve both done a fantastic job,” Derek heard Edwin praise his sons from atop the throne. “You negotiated well with the soul contracts, and the marriage idea is not a bad one at all.”

“Thank you, father,” Edward said. Edgar didn’t look like he cared much about being praised by his father, but Edward’s eyes shone with happiness.

“Derek,” Edwin called out.

“Yeah?” Derek asked.

“I know we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, and I haven’t exactly lived up to my status as a king, but you still helped the kingdom when you were needed. For that, I am grateful.” King Edwin actually stood from his throne and bowed. He then raised his head and said, “Without your aid, not only would this war have dragged on for an unknown amount of time, but Edgar would still be inside the raid dungeon, and unable to provide his support.

“In fact, while I’m not certain, I do not believe Cydaria would have been able to weather such a storm in the long run. Even Alanah, for all her strength, would have eventually exhausted herself. Actually, I’m not even sure if she would have fought at all, if not for you. So again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Derek shrugged. “I didn’t do anything for you,” he said. “It was for my people.”

“Still, you have my gratitude,” the king said. “And are you sure you do not wish to become a duke? The kingdom will back you in whatever you choose to do. You could, perhaps, build a new, prosperous city. I’m sure citizens would travel far and wide to become residents in a city controlled by Duke Hunt.” The king smiled.

“Yeah… I’m good.” Derek shook his head. “You don’t know how many times I’ve turned down the offer to start my own city. I don’t think I’m going to start accepting it now.” He inwardly laughed. At least this time it isn’t the system requesting me to build a city.

“Very well,” Edwin replied. “I will not ask again.”

“Good.”

“Now, with one kingdom down, I assume you plan on helping with Astrus as well?” the king asked.

“That’s the plan,” Derek said.

“Then I would suggest you prepare yourself,” Edwin said. “Our journey begins as soon as Edward tames his dragon!” The king was all smiles and Edgar rolled his eyes.

“Oh? You’re coming, too?” Derek asked.

“I’m old, Mr. Hunt,” Edwin said. “I don’t believe I will have another opportunity to subdue a kingdom on a dragon. That is the thing of legends, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Derek laughed and shook his head. “Come on Edward,” he said. “Taming a dragon ain’t easy, and you don’t have a lot of time to waste.” With that, Derek, with Silvi perched on his shoulder, pulled Edward into the void, and they headed off to tame another dragon.

***

Osian looked at the space where the portal just disappeared from and sighed. “Well, brother,” he said to Ryven, who had made his way back to the Throne Room. “Our father would be disappointed.”

“We took a gamble on what should have been a sure thing, and it blew up in our faces. The fact that we are still alive at all would make father proud… even with what we are going to have to endure under the rule of another kingdom,” Ryven answered. “I am sorry about Orion.”

Osian clenched his fists and sighed again. “That wasn’t your fault. It was just the start of the house of cards falling. I will miss him, and unfortunately, he will never be avenged.”

“That man and his companion are anomalies. I doubt the Dawn Siren would even be able to hold her own against either of them. Everything was our fault, and Orion was the first to pay the price. Now it’s our turn,” Ryven replied.

Osian nodded. “Retake your command. Gather the soldiers and capture those remaining from Astrus. They no longer have a leader.” The soldiers had scattered after Derek and his companion attacked, but both parts of the army was still in Indria.

If they took care of the soldiers—by capturing, not killing—then all they would have left to deal with was the nobles. And Osian doubted that even the strongest of the nobles in Astrus would be able to contend with the combined force of Alanah and Derek. Plus, he would be there, too, and he was looking forward to letting some of his frustration out on Astrus—whether they deserved it or not.