Notoriety, p.6
Notoriety, page 6
“I’ll second that!” interjected Walter Bexley with a wide smile. “After all, it is important that our youths learn while they can, though we wouldn’t want any of them diving in too deep before they are ready.”
“Agreed,” added Edgar Mumford. “We all know that much will be asked of the next generation and many of them might find themselves founding their own house at some point, so a bit of experience will do them good.”
“Now, we mustn’t be too hasty,” interjected Percy Calliwell. “I am sure if we fill this room with youths, it would quickly waylay our efforts and as Duke Bluefire has said, this city will be a unique experience. We wouldn’t want to teach them things that would best not be used in a normal city, but are key to this city.”
“Exactly,” concurred Stephen Ashton. “The last thing we need is to rush things and cause more issues for us to solve.”
“You have a point,” stated Antoine Musgrave. “However, so does Duke Bluefire and they are compatible. The key is that if we bring them, it must be accepted that they are being groomed to govern in these lands and not the rest of the country. Honestly, I think it is a great opportunity to get a head start on securing several of the new holdings that will be filled.”
Xeal smiled as the eight nobles went back and forth as he got a better understanding on where they all were as far as being in alignment with him. In the end, an hour was spent on whether or not to allow wives and children to attend, with it being decided that any lords or ladies who were over 16 would be allowed to attend parts of the meetings. The caveat to this was after a certain point, they would all need to clear the room and an opportunity for any matter too sensitive to discuss with them present could be brought up. When it came to wives attending, it was decided that they would only be allowed if they would take their husband’s seat if something occurred to prevent their husband’s attendance. This meant that they had chosen between their heir if they had one and their wives representing them. For a few this was easy as they lacked any heir that was old enough to be a viable option and for the Mercer house, it was easier still, as they would have let a toddler sit in their seat before a woman. Xeal wished he could just be rid of the Mercer house now, but he knew that acting prematurely would only yield poor results as they had kept their heads down since Hugo was removed as their heir. With Vanessa set to marry Rufus Mumford, even if things were being dragged out as much as possible, Xeal knew that once the war was over, there would be an opportunity to fix the issue.
“Alright, now that we have come to an agreement, I think it is time to address the issues at hand,” commented Alden Mercer.
“What issues? I believe Duke Bluefire more than covered how everything is being handled,” retorted Walter Bexley. “After all, it is only our second day in the city. It would be best if we just quietly observe for a while to get a feel for how everything works.”
“There is still the issue of ensuring that our subjects know our standing,” countered Alden Mercer.
“You have no subjects, only those that you serve,” cut in Xeal. “King Victor’s subjects, who have been entrusted to me, are in no way yours to command. You are here simply to observe, counsel and report on what you see, nothing more and if any of you are caught acting otherwise, I will do everything I can to make an example out of you.”
“We are viscounts. Surely you don’t intend to strip us of the privileges that comes with our status,” responded Barnaby Rais.
“Not at all, if it is a human you seek the privilege from, but the beast-men do not have the same mentality as us. To them your strength is what matters most and if any of you act like you are above someone else, do not be surprised when they have you eating dirt.”
“How utterly uncivilized,” Percy Calliwell scoffed. “How can you expect them to integrate with us when they can’t even be expected to be held to the most basic of standards?”
“You can’t be serious, Percy,” cut in Antoine Musgrave before Xeal could respond. “I suspect that most will to a certain extent over time, but please, you can’t expect them to adapt to a concept that they only had the vaguest notion of. I am sure in a few decades things will have improved as the new noble houses begin to govern the lands and who knows, we may find ourselves becoming more like the Bexleys. The only reason Walter is in the position he is, is due to balance and that his failure to reach tier six was not from a lack of will to like the rest of us. Perhaps there is something to only allowing the strong to lead that we will learn and incorporate into our ways of life and they will learn the value of having those raised to become leaders. It will all depend on how things progress.”
Xeal wanted to smile as he was sure that Marquess Cosmo Musgrave must have really done Xeal a favor by sending Antoine. Either that, or it was all a setup to lure him into a false sense of security before executing the actual plan, though for now everything was fine as another back and forth erupted. Xeal wanted to sigh all day as the same scene played out over and over again, leading Xeal to worry if the council would be able to ever function as intended. The divides between the houses were proving deep as the eight of them interacted as a single body for the first time. When this finally came to an end as the last topic of the day was covered, Xeal just wanted to hold his wives tightly and forget about everything else for a while and did just that after a quick dinner.
(*****)
Evening April 15, 2267 & ED Year 3 Days 89-90.
As Alex made his way downstairs to join the others, what he found made him want to turn around and log back into ED. Anna and his mom were locked into a staring match, while Dan looked like he didn’t know what to do and his dad looked troubled. Everyone else had moved to the sides to avoid being drawn into whatever was going on. Before Alex could even process the full situation, Anna had noticed him and spoke.
“Alex, good. Tell Mom that she is being ridiculous.”
“I would need to know what was going on first,” commented Alex, before his mom could get a retort in.
“What is going on is your sister thinks that she is an adult and can make her own decisions, regardless of what her parents think is best,” stated Mrs. Bell, in a voice that was filled with frustration and barely not a shout.
At this Alex knew things were bad as his mom was referring to herself in the third person and holding back her anger. This meant that it had already passed the reflexive shouting and his dad had been unable to sway her to calm down. Knowing this, Alex looked around the room before he spoke next.
“Amanda, what the heck is going on?”
“Why the heck are you asking me? I don’t want to get in the middle of this.”
“Because you are the one who is likely to be the most honest and have the least to lose from either of them being pissed at you.”
“Fine. Your sister declared that her and Dan are a thing after they slipped away for a real date for a few hours and that he is going to move back to California to be near her if the distance thing falls through. Your mom wasn’t happy about it at the time and she had finally had enough and just told her to stop hanging off him and slow down.”
“Thanks. Anna, go have Gido raise the gym floor for swimming and get changed with everyone else while you let me talk with Mom.”
“Oh, are you going to tell me that I am overreacting?!” interjected Mrs. Bell.
“Mom, I am not going to take a side in this one, only offer a solution that makes everyone equally happy and unhappy.”
“Oh, and I don’t get a say in this?!” retorted Anna.
“Anna, like it or not, you still have another year before you can legally make your own decisions in what I am going to propose. That said, I am not going to ignore reality and screw you over, so just go and cool off and you can yell at me later.”
Anna frowned before stomping off as Alex turned to his parents and walked with them down to the conference room, where he plopped down in a recliner and his parents sat in a love seat. Alex just wanted this to be over as he had enough work in his last session to last a week, as the self-important viscounts wouldn’t stop bickering. At least he felt like he could reason with his parents, though his mom looked as closed off as could be to anyone convincing her of anything, with her arms crossed and a look that Alex was all too familiar with.
“Mom, will you at least hear what I am going to say before thinking about the lecture for whatever role you think I have played in Anna’s rebellion?”
“What role I think you played? I will have you know that I think that you are at fault here for giving Dan a green light to date her!”
“Green light, right, because her and Dan’s rooms don’t have any furniture to relax on of their own volition. Mom, I have been clear with Dan that even if he is one of my best friends, that he won’t like me if he messes up. Besides, anything beyond that would have just made Anna push for more quicker.”
“Why-”
“Honey, Alex is right here,” cut in Mr. Bell. “Just calm down and at least let him offer his solution before yelling at him.”
“Fine, go ahead, tell us how to be better parents.”
“Ha, not possible. Sorry, Mom, but I don’t think I will ever have you beat in that category. Not sure about Dad, but I reckon he did what he could working like he did. All I will ever have on both of you are the credits that I have to work with, though I worry that it will cause other issues along the way.”
Alex smiled as he watched his mom soften her stance slightly as he continued to speak.
“No, the issue is that you are here and she is in California, so it’s simple. Regardless of anything else, she is moving out here if she wants to be with Dan. That way you can at least keep an eye on her and be more involved with her life and when our younger sibling is born, she can learn just why you want her to wait as you put her on diaper duty. By the way, I know you two know the gender, but are you ever going to share?”
“Don’t try and distract me with baby talk, and no, we will wait until delivery before letting anyone know anything,” responded Mrs. Bell as she finally smiled. “As for your plan, I think you’re actually on the right track, though I still don’t think letting Jessica follow her is a good idea.”
“It’s not for me, but it is likely what is best for Jessica if Lauren comes out here with Anna,” responded Alex.
“Are you worried about her repeating her first attempt?” asked Mr. Bell.
“Trying, sure, succeeding, not at all. Ava and Mia will likely not let me ever be alone to the point that they would guard the bathroom door whenever I was in it. The only way Jessica would ever get me alone would involve a lot of work on her part, as I would have the staff alerted of the situation as well.”
“So, you are saying that we should just give her what she wants?” inquired Mrs. Bell in an annoyed tone.
“No, you should do what makes sense. Anna isn’t going to suddenly stop seeing Dan, or slow down because you tell her to. Yes, part of it is my fault as my relationships have set a bad example and my success has made others notice her and she wants to make it clear that she is off the market, so to speak. I can’t ask you to simply stay out of it as I believe Dan will hold back as long as they are in this house, but I will ask that you realize that all that telling her no does is make her move faster. That is unless you want her to give you a grandchild in the next 16 months. If so, keep going as you are and I can assure you that by the end of summer you will have your results.”
Alex held a straight face and even tone as he looked his mom in her eyes after finishing speaking. As she looked him in the eye, Alex was relieved to see her soften and sigh before responding to his statement.
“I am going to look forward to seeing how you deal with a pair of teenage girls and understand what I am going through right now. Alright, get everything set up to have her move out here, but Jessica only comes if Lauren does, otherwise she can wait another year to come out.”
“Alright, now do you need some time to cool off before speaking with Anna, or are you good?”
“Ha, just because I agreed doesn’t mean I am not going to give her an earful later, but go let her know and your father and I will stay and discuss the details of how we want this to work.”
Alex just smiled as he left. He was sure that Anna wasn’t going to like what his parents came up with and he would need to get Dan to temper her response, but he had gotten what he needed. As he stepped out, he found Kate waiting for him with a smug smile on her face as he gave her a kiss before she started to speak.
“I take it that they agreed to having Anna do the distance learning plan.”
“Yeah, now I just need to figure out how to pull it off.”
“What is the most you’re willing to spend?”
“If we can get the school to accommodate my requests and have her teachers meet her in ED for lessons, do you think we can get away with under 500,000 credits for both Lauren and Anna?”
“Let’s assume that they are each worth 400 credits a day to the school and if they don’t go in person, the school just loses that money. That means about 150,000 just to replace that loss. Next, you need to make it worth the teachers’ time as they will need to set aside an hour every day for the work this will create for them. Let’s see, if we assume 240,000 to 320,000 credits as their annual salary, it will be close due to their needing to be six of them, but it should be doable. Though for that kind of money you could hire a great private tutor and have them homeschooled for their last year much easier.”
“Yeah, but we need to try to let her finish her last year there so she can graduate from there. If it can’t be done for around 500,000 credits, I will be able to explain why to my mom a bit easier. After all, it is she who cares about Anna walking for her graduation more than anyone else.”
“Alright, would you like me to make that happen, or are you going to pay Background Inc. to take care of it?”
Alex could tell Kate was unimpressed with Background Inc.’s recent failures, especially in the land acquisition that had led to a hedge fund trying to muscle their way in to FAE’s operations. This had led to a reset of the acquisition of the land needed to build a guild city in reality, as Kate took the effort over directly. So far all she had said is that it was going as well as she could expect when Alex brought it up with her as she said that until it was complete, she wouldn’t say a word on the details. While this was frustrating, Alex understood why she had made that decision as he knew it would be hard for him not to want to make adjustments accordingly. By keeping it as quiet as possible, Kate was trying to ensure that by the time anyone knew about it, the land would already be secured. With that and everything she was dealing with in ED, Alex wasn’t sure that he wanted Kate to add this to her work load.
“Kate, you’re great, but I don’t want to overload you.”
“Alex, you couldn’t if you tried. Besides, you act like I am going to do more than place a single call to someone I already have on retainer to make sure that an ironclad contract is signed by the end of the month. It’s not like I would call the school directly and talk to the principal, especially as it may be best to go above their head in this matter. It’s finding the six teachers who will satisfy the graduation requirements that will be difficult, though we could run and experiment to see if we could make a profit off running a virtual school.”
“No, it would fail for a number of reasons, the least of which is the politics that we would be dragged into. Let others take on that headache. We can just garnish Anna’s wages over the next few decades to recoup the credits.”
“Right, because she is going to have no issue with that.”
“Let me worry about that. Just get the contract signed with the school.”
“Alright, I take it that you are going to talk to Anna and Dan now.”
“Yah, should be a blast. Hopefully she has calmed down.”
Alex ignored Kate’s giggle as he made his way to the pool, where he found Anna swimming with Dan and everyone else like nothing was wrong. At this he looked at Kate who was putting on an air of innocence that was about as genuine as a politician saying that they cared about just about anything beyond staying in office. Still, Alex just got their attention and pulled them off to the side as he didn’t even think that it was going to be a hard conversation any longer.
“So, how much of that was real and how much of it was you following Kate’s script?”
“Just because it was artificially escalated doesn’t mean it wasn’t real,” interjected Kate.
“To be fair she is not wrong,” added Anna. “But, I would say that I escalated things way past what I would have without her advice. Alex, you better watch it with her, or before you know it, you will be following her script completely in another year.”
“Oh, no, he is the only one who consistently forces me to rewrite my script,” commented Kate. “It is why I have fallen for him as he mixes reason and forethought with emotion and irrational action so beautifully.”
“Right, doesn’t mean that you aren’t working on that. Now, what was the result?”
“You are moving here in June. Enjoy diaper duty as it will be a large part of your life for the next two years at least.”
“Hold on, what? Alex, that is not cool. You basically have five wives. Surely, they can handle it.”
“Who said anything about my daughters? No, you are going to be dealing with our new sibling. Oh, and Jessica moving out will only happen if Lauren gets the okay as well.”
“Alright that should be easy. I just need to get Lauren to convince her parents, but what does any of this have to do with changing diapers?”
“Mom is terrified that you will be pregnant by the end of summer at the rate you’re going, so she is going to make you learn what having a baby is like. Don’t be surprised when she gets you a fake belly and everything to give you as much of the experience as possible.”
Alex smiled as Anna started to complain about how ridiculous she found the idea of being forced to walk around looking pregnant was, as Dan just stayed quiet for the most part. This continued for a few minutes before Alex turned to Dan and shifted topics slightly.
