Chapter 1:
"You're going to sell me your city, as you say?" asked the silver-eyed young man, completely confused; such an offer caught him by surprise.
"Of course, my friend. My territory and my city will be yours," said the man, a certain Carter, if he remembered correctly, with an honest smile, perhaps too honest. From his father's lessons, the young man knew better than anyone that when someone smiles so frankly, it's because they are hiding something.
"I... I need to think about it," said the silver-eyed young man, narrowing his eyes. His father had told him that this area had many problems, slave trade being one of them, and he had been sent precisely to try to solve it, but he couldn't imagine that things were so bad that a nobleman would sell him his territory.
The confirmation that something was wrong arrived when he noticed a slight flicker of irritation in Carter's eyes.
"My friend, what worries you, your status?"
This tensed the young man, as, although he was worried about his status, it was not for the reason Carter imagined.
The young man was about to reply that he was no one to speak to the Prince of the Rising Sun Empire like that, but Carter didn't allow it.
"Don't worry about your status," he added, "I will also sell you my noble title."
The silver eyes narrowed again. That, without a doubt, would have made most people fall for it, but not him. He had grown up in the palace of Parnam and knew his father's law: selling a noble title was not only highly illegal, but it usually indicated that the noble had committed at least one crime against the empire. However, without proof, he couldn't do much. His father had made it clear that, due to certain problems in the capitals, the army couldn't move, so he himself would have to resolve the situation as best as possible.
"I don't understand, why would you sell me your lands and your title? That goes against the law of the emperor himself," he said, biting his tongue to avoid saying "my father." After all, far from the palace, it was tempting fate to be kidnapped, murdered, or both, to be used as leverage against his progenitor.
"Ah, I'm getting old," said Carter, something the young prince couldn't deny. "I'm almost 70 now and I don't think I have much time left. Besides, my descendants are a bunch of idiots. My best option is to sell my territory, retire to the great capitals, and live out my last years there. I've heard Uruk is pleasant for retirees," Carter added, hoping the boy would fall for his obvious lie.
"You want to spend your retirement in a desert?" asked the silver-eyed young man, raising an eyebrow. While Uruk could be pleasant for young people who could withstand the climate, the city was in the middle of a damn desert.
"Then, where are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?" asked Carter, with a tone of feigned ignorance.
"In Babylon, maybe," Rose retorted sarcastically. Honestly, he found it hard to understand how people could believe that Uruk, the capital of Sumeria, was in Babylon. They were literally miles apart, with a desert in between!
Finally, he let out a sigh. He wouldn't gain anything by scaring off that individual. "What's the price?" he asked.
"One hundred gold coins for everything," Carter demanded with a dark-toothed smile, a price that, for any commoner, would basically represent more money than they would see in their entire lives.
"Do you still use gold in this part of the world?" Rose asked, genuinely puzzled. He believed his father had implemented paper money, as it was much more practical than sounding like a rattle carrying many coins in a little bag, or risking being robbed if you transported entire chests.
"The empire is vast, young lord. Honestly, it will take years, if not centuries, for the great Emperor Qin to achieve the standardization of the official currency in the four hundred kingdoms he unified. It is likely to be Prince Rose, or perhaps one of his sons, who works such a miracle, as long as the emperor's death doesn't destabilize the situation," Carter explained calmly.
"If only you knew him..." Rose thought. His father was so stubbornly obstinate that he had no doubt he would refuse to die until the world was in complete peace and stability, even if he had to escape from hell itself to achieve it.
"Even so, isn't it a bit expensive?" Although the young prince didn't have a clear idea of the exact value of the gold coins, he knew that one hundred coins represented at least one hundred ounces of gold, enough to start or finance a major work.
"It's an entire territory, a well-established city, and the title of baron. One hundred gold coins is, in fact, a bargain. Other nobles would undoubtedly ask for a much higher price," Carter replied calmly.
"In any case, it won't be much use to you if you're really heading to Uruk," Rose commented calmly.
Uruk, the second great city of the empire, only surpassed by Parnam. Although King Gilgamesh (or 'Uncle Gil', as he insisted on being called) loved gold, it was not the official currency.
"How much do you offer then?" said Carter.
The young prince didn't answer, he simply dropped one hundred ounces of gold onto the table.
"It's a deal!" exclaimed Carter, not caring where the money had come from; after all, it was gold.
Rose spoke calmly: "I never said I didn't have gold."
Gold always retained its universal value, and Rose knew he could exchange it for the local currency at any bank upon reaching the major cities. The legality of the deal mattered very little, or nothing, to him. His real goal was to establish a base of operations to investigate the region, and, although the situation was unusual and highly illegal, it represented his best strategy at the moment.
As his own father would say: "Sometimes, to enforce the law, you have to move within its margins."
"Hahahaha, my friend, you won't regret it! Starting tomorrow, you'll be a baron and, most importantly, a baron with a prosperous city and territory!" said Carter, smiling and showing his tar-black teeth.
"Wash your damn teeth!" Rose snapped dryly. Damn it, not even his younger brother, who thought stained teeth were cool, had them that black.
"You're a bit abrupt, aren't you?" Carter asked with gritted teeth.
The silver-eyed prince looked at him with his best poker face, which made Carter shudder, not expecting such dead eyes in a teenager.
"Enough to let you know I'll stick my spear through your heart if you're lying to me," the young man replied.
"Hahaha!" Carter simply laughed, trying to divert attention. "We won't have to go that far. Tomorrow I'll take you to my lands, publicly announce you as the new baron of the territory, and you can move into the castle immediately," he said with a smile.
"Fine," without saying anything else, he wrapped himself in his cloak. Immediately after, he mounted the horse he had brought with him and began to follow Carter.
As they rode, Rose couldn't help but observe the people they passed. A strange feeling settled in his stomach when he noticed that everyone wore clothes that seemed to be falling apart instead of being simple, and their behaviors were, somehow, strange.
Certainly, his contact with commoners had been limited. However, from the palace walls, he enjoyed splendid views of the fields that supplied the city of Parnam. Even those peasants dressed decently, as his father maintained the philosophy that "a man proud of his work and justly remunerated is a thousand times more loyal than a slave who was given a little land."
However, these lands could not be very different from the great capitals or even the smaller cities close to them, such as Wallter, Babylon itself, or even the Six Warring States. In reality, they seemed to have stagnated in the pre-empire era, with technology and ways of life identical to that period. This explained why his father had sent him to investigate: before the empire, slavery was completely legal and, if these lands, located in the farthest corner from any possible major city, practiced it, then there was definitely something wrong with the territory.
His mental image was not helped by the fact that he had already deciphered that Carter was an imbecile nobleman trying to scam him. Selling a noble title, as he had mentioned before, was not only highly illegal but was considered high treason, as his own father had selected most of the nobles and the few whom he allowed to keep their domains before the wars of unification. Getting rid of his title was, therefore, spitting on that trust.
He really wanted to stick his spear into that man's chest, of course. However, Desmos herself advised him to wait, arguing that it was not the right moment. Despite the man being an imbecile nobleman, they needed a base of operations to monitor the territory. It would be enough to send a letter to his father to neutralize the forces of order. In the long term, it would be easier and more productive to stabilize a small barony with the hope of turning it into the great city of the territory, thus focusing power and decreasing the crime rate.
In other words, the "spear of destiny" had suggested transforming the barony into a principality. It would be an arduous task and would take time, but he should be able to achieve it. After all, he was the eldest son of the Great Unifier, and glory ran through his veins.
Furthermore, if he needed resources, he could always travel between his new city and Parnam to resupply. After all, his father wouldn't send him to the "ass-end of the world"—quoting the man's own words—without a way to quickly return home in case things got complicated.
"It's going to be a more complicated mission than I thought," the silver-eyed prince murmured to himself.
End of chapter.