Chapter 699 – A Scalpel Deal

Chapter 699 – A Scalpel Deal

From the moment John asked the question, he knew he wouldn’t like the answer. An unsettling silence set about the place, attention shifted to the poor guy sitting in for the Niagara guild. Heiko slowly opened his mouth, “H-he is gone.”

The three words registered in John’s ears and set off a chain reaction of thoughts and emotions. Accusations of cowardice, annoyance, displeasure, schadenfreude, hatred and amusement mingled into a vast cocktail. To the outside, all the Gamer did was lean forward, rest his head on the clenched fist of his left and tapped on the table with the index finger of his right.

Tap. Tap. Tap. A steady rhythm underlined his prolonged stare at Niagara’s representative. Unblinking, the force of John’s eyes, born from Charisma and the raw power of the mind behind them, caused Heiko’s breathing to accelerate. The cold sweat forming on the man’s forehead could practically be seen flowing from his pores in real time. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Finally, his finger stopped.

“Gone in what capacity?” John’s voice was finality. All the tension that had previously existed in the lobby now exuded from him. Through the simple pushing of a mental switch, he activated Hypnotic Gaze. He would get the accurate answers, no matter what.

The second the Attribute of the Vision of Calamity affected Heiko, his nervous posture seemed to relax. A change that nobody could possibly miss, but John didn’t care. He had already intimidated the Lake Alliance during the fight yesterday and when he had Observed Emrik moments ago. In proper Machiavellian fashion, all ‘cruelties’ he wanted to get done, he should get done in a minimal timeframe. The stick whipped quickly; the carrot was to be rationed over time.

“He left sometime in the night,” Heiko answered in a fashion that seemed impossibly calm for him.

“Do you have any idea where he could be?”

“No.”

“Did he leave anything behind, anything that appears unusual?”

“No, only his normal possessions. Although we haven’t actually looked through all his things yet.”

“Are you certain he left the Lake Alliance for good?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“He killed tw-“

“HEIKO!” Emrik interrupted this display finally, but the man was a bureaucrat of little will. What John was doing to him was stronger than the warning. Someone with a combined Intellect and Endurance of less than 25, the Gamer could dominate without any problem, as it turned out.

Emrik looked at the map for a little while longer, searching for any claims that may be hidden in there. Aside from that one province transfer, however, there was nothing to find. “I will consider it,” the middle-aged man finally declared and returned his attention to John, “depending on the other terms.”

“I only have four other terms,” John stated, counting things down on his fingers. “One, the Lake Alliance will not expand its borders in any capacity in the next two years. Two, in return, Fusion will not expand its borders by means of warfare for two months – until the end of September. Three, the Lake Alliance must release any and all slaves it may have and immediately outlaw slave trade within its borders. Four, peace. No secret operations, no sabotage plots, no hampering of trade, just peace. No violence shall be exchanged between our guilds for the same two years.”

John fell silent and so did the room. What he had just suggested was, on the face of it, incredibly benevolent. Fusion’s dominant position could be used to leverage so much more. Money, land, guarantees, internal policy changes, there were a lot of levers John could pull if he wanted to. Not all of them at the same time, of course, there was a point where any country would much rather fight to death rather than be humiliated so thoroughly.

However, Emrik understood what was really going on and so did a bunch of other people once they thought about it for more than a minute. John wasn’t out to destroy the Lake Alliance. Aside from anger, he had no reason to do so.

What the Gamer really wanted wasn’t as easy as breaking or annexing a country. The goal was to make the Lake Alliance stagnant. If they failed to increase or just recover their power, something quite likely since demigods weren’t easy to find, they would find themselves dwarfed by Fusion’s further rise in strength.

Of course, that paradigm could be reached today, by absolutely crippling the Lake Alliance’s economy. If history was anything to go by, especially the Treaty of Versailles, breaking a country in a peace deal was the best way to create a very deep-seated animosity. Regardless of whether or not the people of the Lake Alliance would become hostile towards Fusion on a vengeful basis, John ultimately didn’t profit from shattering his current enemy.

Because, once his conquest campaign was over, John didn’t want to rule over ashes. Giving the Lake Alliance a peace deal that appeared downright forgiving today meant that they would remain in a functioning country. One that didn’t hate John. One that could, once their military and economic inferiority was realized, join the Federation in a peaceful and smooth manner. One that then had resources and manpower to offer, instead of debt and anger.

Rather than swing a sledgehammer, John needed a peace deal that was a scalpel. Carefully cutting away at the Lake Alliance’s ability to proliferate while creating no wounds that would fester into future complications. By skipping out on the, admittedly satisfying, destruction of the Lake Alliance, John would have the gratification of a worthwhile future addition to his guild.

In theory. Problem with these kinds of more fine-tuned operations being that they didn’t have a simple guarantee attached to them. Not that smashing a country into an anarchic power struggle had a particularly predictable outcome either.

While the question of the Lake Alliance’s future was an open one, the beauty of this deal in the presence was that there was absolutely no way for Emrik to deny it without looking unreasonable. John had already promised to return all prisoners of war, he had even guaranteed that Fusion itself would lay low for a while. Sure, that was self-serving, two months were a good span of time to get internal consolidation done, but that wasn’t obvious on the face of it.

“We accept those terms,” Emrik finally declared, to nobody’s surprise, leaving John to smile.

“Then this is a good day for everyone,” he declared and got up. The leader of the Lower Lake Guilds did the same, and both of them met in the middle between the table formation. They both kept their expressions still while they shook hands, the Gamer joyfully smiling and the Tracker sombre and serious. Applause went through the hall, started by Ahanu and Elu.

“I look forward to seeing your government system unveiled,” Emrik stated, only heard by John in that steady clapping. That was all the confirmation that was needed. The Lake Alliance’s de-facto head could see the writing on the wall and was already preparing for the entrance of his guild into Fusion. In a way, this was bad for John, since this meant they would do so in a way that was best for them rather than best for him.

However, if he wanted to be the head of a system that was about concentrating all power on him, he should have started out with an empire. This was a concession he knew he had to make at several junctures. “I am certain you will find it agreeable,” John simply answered, and their hands departed. “I’m not looking to be a tyrant.”

“Everyone starts with the best intentions.” Emrik walked back to his table.