System Change

The room went silent, though, other than the buzzing sound of electricity coming off of the King, there wasn’t much noise to begin with. The King only shifted his gaze from Derek to the recent addition to the gathering.

“Miss Savannah.” The King composed himself, but still narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

The small woman tilted her head sideways while looking at the King. “It’s just as I said. It’s a fight that you will not win. You must face it, King Edwin, when it comes to aura…” the woman’s gaze shifted between everyone in the room, her eyes lingering on Edgar for a moment longer than everyone else. “You and the Crown Prince are the weakest in here.”

“That means?” The King fished for more details.

“That means that you have fewer stat points than anyone in this room other than your son, the Crown Prince. How they are arranged, I do not know, but trying anything with Mr. Hunt would be a big mistake… and I would think that Mistress Swan feels the same way about fighting in her restaurant as I do about fighting in MY city.” Natalie explained.

Alanah just shrugged, not giving a clear agreement one way or another.

Natalie shifted her gaze back to Derek. “Mr. Hunt-”

Derek cut her off. “Please. Call me Derek.”

She stared at him for a moment before nodding. “Derek… was it not immature and impulsive to provoke the King of the Kingdom you currently reside in?”

Derek looked Natalie in her white eyes, eyes that were beginning to give off a subtle glow. “I don’t know. Is it not incompetent to allow a trafficker, both adult and child, to not only live, but be one of the most influential people in the entire Kingdom?”

“Interesting.” Natalie muttered after a moment before looking back at the King. Without saying anything, she took out a blue communication crystal and placed it on the table in front of her. She placed her hand on top of the crystal.

“What are-” The King started, but stopped when a voice came out of the crystal.

“Your orders? Miss Savannah.” The voice said.

“Marcus.” Natalie began. “From henceforth, Gerald Torith and all immediate relations are banned from entering or doing trade with those inside the city. If a business is caught in a relationship with them, they will be immediately exiled from the city. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am, I will relay your orders and send the notice out to all citizens of Savannah.”

“Good. You shall give them two weeks to end all relationships with the family.”

“Very well.” Marcus said.

“That is all.” Natalie removed her hand from the crystal, ending the call. She then placed it back in her storage.

“What?” the King stared at the woman, mouth wide open. “Why would you do that? Do you know the consequences of what you just did?”

“I will not have my city or its merchants associated with a child trafficker.” She stated succinctly.

“He has bad blood with House Torith. How do you know he is not just making things up?” The King questioned again.

“I felt the truth in his words.” Natalie said with glowing eyes. “And I saw where the truth came from. Do you doubt my evaluation?”

“I… n-no…” The King finally managed to say. “I… didn’t know.”

“You didn’t want to know.” Derek spoke up. “Hence, incompetence.”

“I am sorry, Edwin.” Alanah finally spoke of the situation. “I have to agree with my friend Derek on this one. Your blind faith in the man who once saved your life has caused you to trust in him too much, and has allowed him to gain enough power to be a threat to both you and the Kingdom. Though, his actions are discreet and near impossible to unveil unless you are specifically looking into him.”

The King, deflated, fell back into his seat. A seat that, if not for Crown Prince Edward’s fast maneuvering, appeared underneath him just in time for him to collapse in.

Derek looked at Alanah. Was this her plan all along? And Natalie… how scary must her ability be to see what I envisioned when I spoke? Alanah knew that getting the three of us in a room like this would end this way. She read us like a book.

At that point, Edgar walked around Derek and sat in the chair next to him. Ignoring the situation his father found himself in, he changed the subject. “So, you are stronger than both my father and brother? I never knew. That’s great!”

“And you.” Natalie said quietly.

“What was that?” Edgar asked.

“His aura is also stronger than yours.” Natalie spoke aloud.

“Oh…” Edgar looked over Derek, studying him from head to toe. “Well, that’s even better!” He finally said. “So much better, in fact. There is something we need to discuss in private once this… gathering is over.”

Derek shrugged. “Okay.” He still felt Edgar was a bit odd. Not in a bad way, just odd. His lack of reaction, or completely opposite reaction to what Derek said about the King, his father, was interesting. He would have to bring it up when they spoke in private.

“Father.” The Crown Prince finally spoke. “What are we going to do about Gerald Torith? I do not doubt Miss Savannah’s intuition, but we do not have any evidence. Still, we must do something.”

The King took in a deep breath and sighed. “You are, of course, correct.” The King turned his gaze upon Derek, this time, not angrily. “Mr. Hunt, I do apologize for my outburst. I have made a fool of myself, both today, and in my dealings with Gerald.”

Derek kept his eyes trained on the man across the table from him, waiting for him to continue. When he didn’t, Derek spoke, “I’m not going to disagree with you, if that’s what you’re waiting for. Get on with it.”

Edward clenched his fist, but the King stopped him from saying anything. “You are correct in you bluntness. I have previously suspended Gerald from his duties after finding out about his… harassment of your friends. Now, it seems I must order his imprisonment while we search for his wrongdoing. Though, that will be hard to do with the power he has gained. I’ve still no idea how he has so many nobles on his side.”

“Blackmail.” Derek said. “It’s pretty obvious. Learn about everyone’s dirty little secrets, secrets that would ruin an entire Noble House, then use them as blackmail. Set up some failsafes that will leak any and all information you have if something were to happen to you, and make sure those you have blackmailed know of them. That way, you have people who will both follow your orders and do whatever is possible to keep you safe from harm.”

Everyone, even Alanah, stared at Derek, dumbfounded.

“What?” Derek said. “Like I said, it’s obvious.”

“It is.” Alanah said. “I just didn’t expect you to talk about it so thoroughly or casually.”

“It’s bad guy 101.” Derek said.

“What?”

“You know. A bad guy blackmails a bunch of lesser bad guys, creating a bad guy alliance that does bad guy things and tries to protect the interest of the main bad guy. That is, until one of the more motivated, lesser bad guys finds out where the main bad guy is keeping all the blackmail. Then, the lesser bad guy steals the blackmail and gets rid of the main bad guy, becoming the new boss of the bad guy alliance.” Derek said.

Well, that’s daytime television for you. Derek thought. Hell, I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen that exact scenario happen on a tv show. Derek shrugged. “The cycle continues until the hero comes along and cleans house, resulting in the complete collapse of the bad guy alliance.”

“And you’re the hero in this scenario?” The King asked.

Derek shrugged. “Not really. I’m just a guy that the bad guys accidentally pissed off. A guy that doesn’t care about the consequences.” Derek said. “Also, if you are going to do something about Gerald, you should probably get to it. You won’t have much time once Miss Savannah’s command is carried out. He’ll probably know something is up the second the command goes out.”

King Edwin’s eyes opened wide, and he nodded. He quickly took a red crystal out of his storage and injected mana into it. After a moment, he frowned. As time passed, his frown grew wider and wider. Soon, he put the crystal away and sighed.

“What?” Derek asked.

“He’s gone.” The King said.

“Where did he go?”

“I’m not sure. He was seen leaving the castle hours ago, and has yet to return.” The King said.

Derek frowned. “So, now you have a boss bad guy in hiding. One who will find out soon that the Kingdom is on to him. He surely has back up plans upon back up plans for situations like this. Now I’m going to need to be extra vigilant with my friends.”

“They are safe as long as they are in my city. I’ll see to that.” Natalie said and took out a red crystal. After a moment, she nodded and kept the crystal. “Marcus was still drawing up the orders to the citizens. They have yet to go out. I have delayed them.”

“Did you tell the person you talked to about the situation?” Derek asked the King.

The King shook his head. “I did not. I only asked about Gerald’s whereabouts. I have yet to give the order to search for him.”

“Good.” Derek said. “Maybe there’s still a chance. If you capture him, don’t bother with your prison or dungeon. According to you, he has too much power. Hand him over to me. I have the perfect place to hold him.”