Chapter 210: Bugs and Baronesses

Chapter 210: Bugs and Baronesses

An hour later, in the ACME headquarters in Gadobhra, Layla was walking down the stairs, dressed in full baronial finery. A few minutes before she'd been in a robe in her bedroom, eating breakfast and looking at the shrinking finances of the Barony. Building the new fortress was like the death of a thousand cuts, with new wounds opening each day. They needed this deal with the Fae badly. When word had come up that Suzette was downstairs, she spent a few minutes on her hair and burned a large amount of her mana using one of her skills to be instantly presentable. She might be getting along with Suzette these days, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to compete.

"How nice to see your darling. I have some tea coming out in a moment. You're a bit early for the nightly blood and gore, what brings you here at the crack of noon?"

Suzette looked at Layla for a moment, then grinned, not able to keep quiet any longer. "I have a bank!"

Layla blinked. Billy had been trying to get a bank in Gadobhra. Banks meant power and success to him. So far no one had taken him up on his offer of a large corner lot. No businesses and no money meant no interest. But of course, the little barmaid had found someone to open up a bank. Probably a halfling with a magic chest who would sit on a corner and put your money in one of seven magical pockets. Nothing in Sedgewick was ever normal.

"That's wonderful dear. You have a place to start putting away a nest egg for your old age." The Baroness sighed. Old habits die hard. "But if you're up here to tell me about it then it's significant. What can a bank do for you? And more importantly, for me?"

"Well, for one, it can get bigger. The more it has, the more it can offer. Eventually we can gain the ability to sell to the entire empire. And all by a secure transfer. No chests of gold traveling roads and subject to bandits."

Layla paused to think. That was a huge asset. She needed all the details. "Start at the beginning, and don't leave anything out." A half hour later, and several sheets of vellum sacrificed to the god of paperwork, Layla understood the basics, and they were starting to firm up a plan.

Layla watched Suzette, who was enjoying the Danish that had been brought in for brunch. The two of them had taken a small break by mutual consent to do justice to the pastries. They'd come from somewhere south, brought by their local merchant prince.

"The Kallveks are the people we need on board with this. We need to convince them that it's going to make them more money to list our items and take a cut, than to buy them and sell the items themselves. Right now, he can make more buying some enchanted knives, or items from your dungeons. But when the Menagerie and Pit start getting regular parties exploring them, we may have plenty of business to send to other merchants. Billy managed to acquire a whole pile of items recently. I was going to talk to you about putting a few up for sale in your tavern."

"Yes, I talked to them a little this morning. I think their hopes are that we will continue to sell to them, and they in turn can sell for a much larger profit deeper into the empire. Right now we need them, and I like them, but we need a better system.

"I have a better idea than just a few more items in the tavern. Tomorrow I'm opening a shop for magic items in a building next to the tavern, and linking it to the bank." Suzette had been thinking about it for a while. She had a few dozen items now, and the Tavern walls made for poor shopping. She had an idea about who she wanted to run it.

Layla liked the idea. "Splendid. And when an item sells, all the money goes into my account? Very convenient and makes for easy paperwork."

Suzette giggled. "I love it when you say something funny with that perfect poker face. Really dear? All the money? Poor impoverished Sedgewick deserves something for its work."

"Squirmie, I think one of the little calves got lost!"

come and find me!' Hopefully it gets eaten by squirrels.>

"Ah, Squirmie, have I been working you too hard, little buddy? You've been doing a great job of rounding them up."

"I gotcha! We'll go hunt something up after we bed the herd down for the night. Go bring in that calf and then we'll thin out the squirrels some before we head up to Gadobhra for butchering."

Squirmie grumbled a little, but flew off to find the calf that had been intentionally wandering towards a thicket. Rolly yelled out to Thumper to start rounding up the cows and calves. The young bull was becoming better and better at commanding the herd and some of the younger cows always clustered around him now.

He knew immediately when Squirmie was surprised and attacked. He whistled for Thumper who came running immediately. Rolly grabbed hold as the bull came running by. Sevigny had been prepared to deal with an annoyed shepherd and was ready to put his sword through him. He wasn't prepared for an angry sedge bull charging straight through the brush. Thumper lowered his head and dealt with the bug-napper as he would Ozzy. Sadly, for Signy, he weighed half of what Ozzy did with 25 points less in strength. Nor was he skilled in the gentlemanly art of Bulldogging. He went flying through the air after being gored by a horn, and landed deep in the thorn thicket where Dmitri was still struggling with the calf. Older branches broke off and speared through Sevigny's thigh and shoulder. He wasn't going to be able to extricate himself without help or losing a lot of blood.

Rolly saw Squirmie on the ground, covered in netting. Bert and Greggy were trying to wrap her up. Two razor sharp wings expanded to their full size, slicing through the thin cotton netting, and through the thin skin of Bert and Greggy. The two men dropped the deadly bundle and backed away. Bert only had a superficial wound across his chest, but Greggy was holding his abdomen to keep things from his insides from moving outside. Rolly dived off of Thumper and tackled Bert to the ground.

Thumper veered around Squirmie and planted a hoof onto Greggy's kneecap as he ran by, crushing it. Dimitry tried to hold the calf in front of him as a shield, but it kicked him hard in the guts with a rear hoof and scampered away. Dimitry took Thumper's charge badly and was driven far into the thorns, piled atop a screaming Sevigny. Thumper backed out, shaking his head to free it from the thicket, thorns breaking off on his hard hide.

Bert had never had any fight in him and had been expecting things to go badly. He didn't even try to fight back. Rolly hit him a few times and let him surrender. Squirmie tossed off the shreds of the netting and flew over to Rolly who gave her a hug. "You ok?"

"I'm surprised these guys could ambush you like that."

Oh no, I have been captured! Come save me brave shepherd'.

"I like it! Can I be the victim next time?"

"Good point. I'm not nearly as pretty as you are. Let's play another game. This one is called 'Interrogation'. I want to know who was trying to steal you from me. These guys don't look like the type of people who like pets."This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøv€lß¡n★