The Path of Ascension - Chapter 306

The wheels of bureaucracy turned slowly, immortal bureaucracy all the more, and that meant Matt managed to escape any non-military meetings for months after their return from the guilds. But months on the outside, and years on the inside of the rift passed nonetheless. So in time, Matt received word that he had a meeting scheduled for “tomorrow.” At least it was a meeting he’d been looking forward to, so he couldn’t grumble too much.

What he could grumble about was the fact he’d apparently been singled out as the one member of his family who was responsible enough to properly pass along the message to his wife and sister. It had taken him multiple in-rift days to track them both down. Aster was off in some mountains to the ‘south’ trying, and mostly failing, to establish a permanent aurora snaking around the massive Tier 35 peaks. Liz, for her part, was off in a massive grassland, laden with the gigantic bones of monsters that had once lived in the rift. She was holed up outside of easy AI range practicing her non-structured magic. And he had foolishly been in Group Scry’s base, working on mana research. So now, he’d lost three of his eight in-rift days to finding and retrieving the girls so they could get their noble houses properly established.

With more than a bit of exhaustion, he dropped by Team Zero’s de facto social courtyard to grab some food, running into Zack as the mage ate his own breakfast. Matt grabbed a pair of bagel sandwiches and dropped into the chair opposite his fellow Ascender.

“Just got word about meeting with an accountant for our house establishment, do you know anything about that?” Matt asked.

“That would most likely be Caroline Coultru. She is competent at her job.” This was high praise, coming from Zack. “Allie and I had a meeting with her shortly after our own Path completion. I hope your meeting goes better than ours did.”

“Speaking of Allie, where is she? I haven’t seen her around recently.” said Matt.

“She left to get food.” Zack said.

“That was two weeks ago.”

Zack slowly sipped his miso soup and then took an identically-sized drink of his tea. “Correct.”

After a moment of silence, Zack continued, “After the first few decades of training, you will have taken all the lowest hanging fruit available. Additional time in the rift can be beneficial, but it is no longer pressing that you utilize every moment to its fullest. Allie is committed to her role, but when she is not needed in the rift she prefers to travel the Empire. I suspect that she returns to the rift from time to time, invisible and undetected, to ensure that she is not required for anything of importance. Other than that, she is effectively impossible to contact or find, just as she wants it. Her newest Talent affords her mobility and freedom that no one else can match, and being contained within this rift with its paucity of excitement and luxuries is grating to her. She has been in the rift more since you three have arrived, but her vanishing like this isn’t unexpected.”

“Mmmh. Well, speaking of training, I’m off to the workshop again, gonna try to get some talismans working before I have to go. Did you want to join?”

“I believe I have said before, but I have only ever made one talisman in my life, and I would prefer to keep it that way. I still remember the taste of bile from that incident. There is no way to salvage an entire subsection of enchanting based around inefficiency like that.”

Nodding, Matt turned away with his bagel-laden plate, and left Zack alone to his meal.

The nice thing about talking with Zack was that he respected that other people had things to do, and didn’t take offense at short social visits.

Flying to the enchanting workshop, Matt signaled the kitchen to send him a gallon of tea every two hours. Half a week before he had to leave wasn’t quite enough to sneak in a decent training session, but he still wanted to make the most of it.

Settling into his section of the workshop, Matt pulled out a stack of treated hides and got to work on improving his enchanting, referencing documentation every few minutes to try to work out what he was doing wrong.

He had been frustrated with his talismans ever since he finished the Path, and to be honest, they had been becoming a challenge before then as well. Objectively, his talismans were better than ever, but he wasn’t fighting mindless monsters any more. The bar was far higher.

He wasn’t just battling his mana control problems, which had only been exacerbated every time he doubled his mana. By most reasonable metrics, he was doing quite well, but his mana control wasn’t even close to what most of Group Firmament’s crafters could manage. By his personal assessment, he was on-par with a normal Tier 25 crafter and well above all but the best delvers, but that metric was so woefully under his personal goals, it was maddening. Ai’la could run circles around his mana control hungover and half asleep, nevermind the level that Light and Liz were working with. Considering the number of mana control natural treasures he’d consumed, it was almost shameful.

He didn’t just need mana control that exceeded that of nearly any typical mage; if he wanted to utilize his talismans in combat, he needed to vastly exceed that. His talismans couldn’t merely be good, or amazing. They needed to be so strong as to justify their place in a fight with Ascenders, and that was a bar that had shot skyward when he was given the best skills and resources that money could buy. Sure, he could and sometimes did use talismans made by Group Cornucopia, but they weren’t his. It wasn’t just pride that presented an issue, there were actual enchanting techniques that his mana in particular lent themselves to, which worked best when the creator and user of a talisman were the same person.

Matt would get there eventually, he just needed time. He was perhaps the most knowledgeable person in existence on the topic of extreme mana capacity talismans, given how uneconomical for anyone else to invest time in that particular topic. Sure, some high-Tiers probably had experience with similar amounts of mana, but high-Tier materials inherently had better mana capacitance and reduced the challenges that field presented. But he couldn’t take those materials into battle with him. Still, what essentially amounted to developing a new field of enchanting to the point it matched or exceeded his existing skills was a daunting prospect.

His mana control was a continuous frustration in that regard. Occasionally, Ai’la, Galanodel, some other crafter he worked with, or his [AI] itself would suggest some new configuration of runes to try out, but they would destructively decohere before he could stabilize them. The designs were fine, he just couldn’t properly make them.

Yet. He couldn’t make them yet.

Once it was nearly time to leave, he headed back to his house to check that Liz and Aster were ready to go. It was something of a formal occasion, so he put on his Ascender robes and freshened himself up quickly.

As Liz was getting dressed, he asked, “Do you recognize the name Caroline Coultru? She’s the one we’re meeting-”

Liz stopped brushing her hair to look at him. “Shit. Yeah, I’ve heard of her. She’s supposed to be one of the meanest bean counters in the Empire. If I had known we were meeting with her, I’d have rescheduled. To next century. Ugh, and I was all excited about this.”

It seemed like an overreaction. Surely if she was that mean, Zack would have warned him.

How bad could she possibly be?

Coming out of his and Liz’s room, he found Aster brushing her glowing tail. With each stroke of the brush, her fur returned to a more normal color until it was completely ordinary. They weren’t about to give away her bloodline change for an interview, so Aster needed to hide some of the minor cosmetic changes from the last few months.

Grabbing a cloak that would help disguise his identity, they flew to the exit of the rift, and within an hour they had boarded a shuttle to the capital, on their way to their meeting.

They landed near the north pole of the capital, in the agriculture district that supplied food for the trillions of people that lived on the planet. Nearly all the food produced for the capital came out of just three rifts, and while the rifts themselves took up no more space than usual, the infrastructure surrounding them was positively enormous. An area the size of a continent was reserved almost entirely for the production, processing, and transport of the millions of tons of food and other agricultural production needed to keep the capital running.

Stepping out from the spaceport, the capital looked much the same as it always did, with multilayered walkways, cavernous drops down to the cityscape below, and thousands of people flying about. The difference here was the sense of industry that permeated the entire area. Letting his [AI] control [Flight], Matt and his team joined the throngs of people in the sky and inspected the mile-tall grain silos that loaded the cargo trains which shuttled food to the rest of the planet. A river of trains went back and forth through an artery a dozen tracks wide, each one going at nearly the speed of sound.

When they were nearly to their destination, Matt noted one factory that seemed curiously inactive, and a ping from his [AI] told him why. Mana prices had become too high, and a canning facility as large as his home city had shut down. Thousands had lost their jobs, and from a brief search, it looked like this wasn’t the only location that had been forced to shut down even in the past few decades.

More and more people were living in the capital, and it was straining the infrastructure to provide for them all. Each new person added on costs, needing a place to live, the means to feed them, and somewhere to keep them comfortable. And despite the exorbitant amounts of resources that were flown in every day, the problem wasn’t getting any better. The war was driving prices up, certainly, but it was one problem on top of a thousand others, and the underlying problems wouldn’t be solved by a sudden peace agreement.

Shaking his head, Matt finally reached their destination, an understated office building a few blocks off the main thoroughfares. As soon as they entered the building, the receptionist whisked them up to the head office, where a woman with honey colored skin and hair greeted them.

“Greetings, Ascenders. I am Caroline Coultru, Head Imperial Accountant, and as of two years ago, your accountant, at least until you finalize your selection of seneschals. I apologize for the delay in our meeting, but a number of things needed to be set straight first, and I am certain that you have been quite busy recently. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.”

“Naturally, I know quite a bit about you already, so let me tell you a little about myself before we get to business. I received my Bachelor’s, Master’s, Grand Master’s, and Hidden Master’s degrees in accounting from Rosegrove Academy, have served under all three rulers of the current dynasty, and am currently managing the finances of Ascenders Waters and Light, whom I believe you are acquainted with. If you are ever displeased with my services, you are free to find other representation, and I would assist you in finding such services as would fit your needs. Currently, I am empowered to manage your finances including your military salary, handle your taxes, represent you legally, and otherwise handle any mundane task you might need of me. Yes, Ms. Alexander?”

Aster lowered her hand and said, “Excuse me, but I was told that you were fierce and terrible. How come you’re nice?”

Caroline gave a polite laugh at her joke. “Oh, I assure you, I am terrible. But, so long as you have your finances in order, are paid up on your taxes, and show me and my profession the smallest modicum of respect, I am perfectly willing to be kind.” Her eyes flicked to Liz as she was talking, and Matt realized where she had received the warning from.

Mara and Leon didn’t like people who came after them for unpaid taxes, and the feeling seemed mutual.

“Moving on to more pleasant topics, as recognition for finishing The Path of Ascension, you are entitled to substantial rewards. No doubt you have already received much of the military portion of your accolades, as befits those needed in active combat. But as any young pather knows, there are gifts of a less combative nature as well. First and foremost, I was told to give you these two growth items from the Emperor himself, along with this note.”

Caroline gestured, and two Tier 4 growth items and a handwritten note appeared in their hands. As Aster and Liz were inspecting the water bottle and flanged mace, Matt read the note explaining that the growth items were from the group of bandits that Matt and Liz had killed on the training world they’d met on, all those decades ago.

It was surprising that the Emperor himself had been to that world and taken the time to collect the growth items. Together, they were worth a Tier 10 mana stone, which would have been an enormous boon to him at that time. Now, though, they weren’t worth much of anything to him, which was somewhat sad.

He thought he should go back to that planet sometime when he wasn’t as busy. Maybe they could relive some memories there.

“Could you donate these to someone who needs them? They would just gather dust with us.” Matt said. Just as silently as they appeared, the growth items disappeared back into Caroline’s spatial ring.

“Certainly, Ascender. You also received a meaningful sum due to sponsoring a team that reached Tier 12 on the Path. Next, there are four monetary rewards of varying quantity and redacted origin. I presume you know something as to where they originate from?” Caroline asked with a raised eyebrow.

Those would be from the dragon rift, the discovery of [Bandage], creating multiple valuable rifts for the Empire, and finally the discovery of the keys and keyholes at the heart of Minkalla.

“I believe we have some clue as to where they come from, yes.” Matt said with a straight face.

“I see. Well, as the rewards were delayed due to your Pather status, they have been rolled into your overall Path completion rewards, increasing them markedly. Speaking of which…”

Caroline gestured, and a hologram of an enormous space ship appeared above her desk, with scale markings to show that the ship was over a half mile in length. It looked like a pleasure vessel, something nobles made to show off to their friends, but blown up to an enormous scale.

“This is a Horizon class cruise ship, highly modular and outfitted to your personal perceived needs and wants. Capable of comfortably housing a thousand guests and two hundred staff, it includes several pools, each of which can be converted into ice rinks, two bath houses, an industrial kitchen, a hangar bay, and three dining halls of varying size. The modular nature of the ship allows for customization for any given trip, and additional modules can be commissioned for specific desires. It also includes connections for most portable houses should you desire to integrate your existing housing. Furthermore, included with the ship are a pilot and mechanic, whose salaries are fully covered by the Empire in perpetuity, and will move and take care of the ship in your absence. The ship is in orbit now.”

Matt boggled at the size and opulence of the ship he was being handed. The spec sheet indicated that the master bedroom suite alone was large enough to contain his entire house, and each of the ancillary craft that were included with the main ship were far nicer than anything he had bought with his own funds.

It was striking how casually he was being given something that must have taken decades to make and cost a staggering amount of money.

“Additional staff can be hired at your discretion, but the current staff can keep the ship maintained indefinitely, and provide a minimal level of service during transit. Nevertheless, if you have become accustomed to a delving funded lifestyle, I believe you will be pleased with even that.” Caroline moved her hand, and a new hologram appeared, with the hologram of the ship moving off to the side of the desk. “Your floating island has not yet been fully constructed. The superstructure is ready, but your direction is needed in order to properly shape it to your needs.”

For decades, Matt had thought that a floating house was the height of luxury. He was wiser now, and knew that there were far greater heights, but he hadn’t truly appreciated what was offered to Ascenders.

The base structure of his personal floating island was a staggering five miles across. The placeholder house on the top was enormous, by normal standards, but as the hologram shifted, he saw that the interior of the floating island was riddled with rooms and passageways, leaving huge amounts of space for anything he or his friends might want to do.

He could run a whole guild from his basement, and have room to spare.

The pool house was bigger than his actual house.

“The engine modules from your ship can be decoupled and used to slowly tow your floating island through chaotic space, but it is otherwise incapable of appreciable movement away from a planet’s surface.” She looked up from the pad she was reading from to inspect the three of them. “If you would desire that each of you have separate or interlockable housing and travel accommodations, that can be arranged, but it was indicated to me that you would likely prefer the singular and larger option. I’ve sent you the contact information of the building company and the available options for construction. Go through them in your downtime and decide upon what you would like from your permanent residence. Depending on your choices, construction could be finished in as little as thirty years.”

They sat in stunned silence as they were casually handed a king’s ransom.

Zack had a whole floating island to himself, and he had never bothered to mention it?

Allie had never invited them to hers?

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Moving on, due to the war of which you are no doubt aware, the unfortunate news is that the duchy you are due is unlikely to come to fruition until the conclusion of the aforementioned war. Leaving aside that new duchies are often awarded from newly claimed territory, and the war endangers the imperial claim of that territory in the near future, it is an unfortunate fact that an Ascender’s lands are invariably targeted during wartime as part of propaganda from the attacking Great Power. Until such time that a duchy is awarded at the conclusion of this war, you are considered unlanded dukes, with all the privileges that affords.”

“Wait, wait, sorry, does that mean that if we win the war and a bunch of planets get handed over in the negotiations, we get more planets for our duchy?” Aster asked.

Caroline looked at her with a steady stare and a small smile. “Precisely.”

“Neat.” Aster smiled back.

“I believe I received a statement saying that you were content with your portable house, and had no desire to have, for example, a house porter assigned to you for the transport of a more spacious and luxurious portable home?” Matt nodded silently, and Caroline marked something off her pad. “Now, there are a few more items left to address. Mr. Moore, I was told to hand you these. I trust that you know what they do, as I was not given any instruction as to their use.” Caroline again gestured, and three spatial rings appeared in his hands.

Two seconds of thought and playing around with them made him realize that they were intended to work with his Talent. He could directly crystallize mana in the spatial rings, letting him make mana crystal all the time without having to grow it and then store it away. Two of the rings had a normal volume, and would let him store maybe a week’s worth of crystal production, while the third had a far larger volume, and felt like it could hold a lake.

The first two seemed like they were intended to allow for teleportation and rift breaching without stressing the person escorting him, and the third was for when he had long stretches of time where he wanted to bottle up his mana and didn’t need to worry about transportation limits.

Nodding to Caroline, she continued. “Naturally, there is also a substantial amount of liquid currency, to use at your discretion. I will manage unused funds, keeping your employees paid and your taxes up to date, but any item or task in the Empire is at your disposal, leveraging either your reputation or your funds. While I believe it will not be particularly applicable to you three, should you ever lack a seneschal, send word and I shall execute your will. I don’t believe you had anyone close to you who needed to be carried to immortality? Your sponsees are not projected to have any insurmountable difficulty in advancing.”

Liz jumped on that before Matt had the chance. “Guards for all our friends. I don’t want anyone we know to get exploited or anything because of their relation to us.”

Gesturing to Aster, Caroline said, “Virtually everyone you have any close connection with has had a constant guard duty assigned to them for the past twenty years, excepting those who have adequate personal security. The Empire does not take well to people attempting to exploit their most valuable military assets. Protection will extend through this war and during any time in which you are predominantly undertaking official Empire business, though the general advisement is to make anyone amenable to the idea officially part of your court, and thereby under your direct protection at all times.”

“Oh… Huh. Well then, I have nothing.” Liz said, looking contemplative.

Matt leaned forward and asked, “There’s a woman I worked with, named Amelia Galley. She was having some legal troubles in getting her designs approved for sale. Would you be able to do anything about that?”

Caroline nodded, made a short note on her pad, and looked back up. “Handled.”

Matt waited for a moment to see if she had anything else to say about it, but no. That was it. A few words, and a legal battle that Amelia had been fighting for over a century was over.

“There is the option of funding any business, guild, tournament, or other endeavor you might want. Ascender Waters founded the delivery company Aqueducts, and Ascender Light has a controlling interest in a premium tea operation, for example. There is little time pressure on this, so if your desire is to wait until you have more time available to dedicate outside of the war, I would understand. But the Empire encourages Ascenders to set up a venture that can help support them long term.” Matt wanted to get started on making his guild, but while he had assigned gathering information about that for his possible aide, it wasn’t something he really wanted to finalize anything on until this war was over.

When none of them said anything, Caroline continued. “Lastly, there is the matter of choosing your seneschals. The applicants you indicated were most suitable are waiting for you next door. Barker can guide you if so necessary.”

Outside the room there was an older man who must have been Barker, but oddly enough, the moment he saw them he cocked his head as if he was listening to someone they couldn’t hear before he flickered. When his presence steadied, he was holding a small hand sized device towards Matt.

“His Majesty has instructed me to give this to you, Ascender. He said it is a personally created Bifate Pair-Linker courtesy of Managing Director JR, the Tier 50 of the corporations. It should allow for multi-material pair-linkages along with allowing for nearly any base material to be used as a talisman.”

Matt was opening his mouth to ask a question, but a message from the Emperor arrived explaining all that he wanted to know.

‘It’s not cursed, a spying device, or anything, I made sure of that. JR is just trying to get us to spend money on custom-made Ascender gear by giving you a shiny new gift. That, or he’s using this as a pretext to flirt with Aunt Helen. Point being, it’s safe. Try not to break it, though you’d have a hard time of that for the next five Tiers anyway. Even you can’t afford custom works made by a Tier 50 yet. I attached the specification sheet, go over it at your leisure, but you should find this useful.’

Matt didn’t need a Tier 50 to tell him a BPL that allowed for multi-pair linkages was useful. He especially didn’t need someone to tell him that a BPL that worked on any and multiple base structures was useful. If he could get it to work on his mana crystal… Now that was an idea. One of the biggest problems he’d been having with making talismans out of the substance. It didn’t so much as work badly with other materials as much as not work at all.

It was most certainly possible, it would just take time. It was functionally a novel material, and as such, it didn’t have the centuries of accumulated knowledge which all modern enchanting was built upon to work with. But if anything could brute force decades of research of material compatibility, it would be a BPL made by the undisputed best crafter in the realm.

Even better, he could feel everything in the item was made out of Tier 25 materials, so he could use it in the war or even take it to a battlefield. Not that he would take an item of such value to a battlefield before there were a dozen working copies, something he wasn’t sure was possible. This was, after all, the work of a Tier 50 crafter. It was as close to priceless as anything got in this realm.

Not that that fact would stop Matt from cracking it open and seeing if he could learn anything from the device, though he was sure he’d need to fight for time with the device with Group Firmament.

But if he did master it… he could half-make talismans beforehand, then make a few final pieces in the middle of a fight to perfectly adjust the spell’s effects to be exactly what he needed. It wouldn’t be quite on the level of true mid-combat crafting, but it would be halfway there, and wasn’t that an exciting thought?

Matt felt an itching in his fingers and debated if he could call Allie to teleport him back to the rift. She was probably off planet, but it might be worth a shot.

Aster must have felt how conflicted he was because she snatched the item out of his hands and pulled it into her spatial ring. “We have a job to do. Remember my plan! We still have the interviews later.”

Matt seriously thought about wrestling Aster for the BPL, but that might damage the item and he couldn’t allow that.

He had agreed to this.

He was a big boy and could wait to play with his new toy.

He was going to steal the first aurora scarf Aster made in revenge.

“Ok, you’re right. Sorry. Let’s head in.” Turning to the older man, he nodded. “Thank you for delivering us and getting me that item.”

“It was my pleasure, Ascender.”

After the man bowed, he flickered and appeared standing a dozen feet away from the door.

Knocking, Aster opened the door where they found three people waiting for them.

The first was a dark blue-skinned bald woman in an impeccable formal suit and a top hat tucked under her arm, standing dead center in the waiting room like she had a rod replacing her spine. The Tier 41 Alice was Aster’s chosen seneschal, a woman with a record as impeccable as her suit. She was currently unemployed only because nobody high-profile enough had been looking for a new right hand in the seven centuries since her last employer had ascended. Now, barring an utter catastrophe at their first in-person meeting, she would be taking up the role of Aster’s head of household, with all the responsibilities and paperwork that came alongside the combination of being a duchess and Ascender. Even as unlanded nobles, they were still Ascenders, and that came with a million and one things and people who wanted or needed to talk to them about a billion and one things.

And they couldn’t ignore it forever, no matter what Matt may have wished.

Next to the bastion of professionality that was Alice, Isabella looked hopelessly flustered and overeager. Her eyes, the color of freshly beaten steel, shone with poorly concealed excitement and her deeply tan skin tensed and momentarily flushed with excitement at their entry. Matt couldn’t really hold it against her, for a Tier 20, the mastery she had over her body was commendable, and she wasn’t old enough to have the skill shards to make up the difference.

Isabella was technically still in her final year of Bethany’s Academy of Excellence, but that hadn’t stopped her from sending in her application to be one of their seneschals when they Ascended. That gumption had caught Liz’s eye, but it wouldn’t have been enough were it not for the fact that she’d been top of her year four hundred and ninety-eight out of the past five hundred years in the empire’s most prestigious non-combat academy. And instead of casting about for the normal mid-ranked jobs, perhaps as a seneschal’s aide or secretary in one of the regional capitals such a record would normally lead into, she’d shot for the stars and hit them.

While nominally less qualified than her more experienced competition, she was still plenty capable of filling the role, and Liz and her got along quite well. Matt liked to tease his wife that it was because the Tier 20 had a hobby of gardening, but if he was being serious, he saw the same intense fire of wanting to challenge anyone and everyone who dared to doubt her in the both of them. If Liz hadn’t laid claim to Isabella, Matt had been considering her himself. She was that good.

Instead, his own future seneschal sat in a shadowy corner, spinning a small chain through his fingers in a complex pattern while watching them with glowing, green slitted eyes. They contrasted with his ink dark hair and skin so pale, it was almost see through. Cato gave a fanged grin at Matt, then snapped the chain around his fingers with a satisfying thwack before it was sent spinning an instant later.

The Tier 33 man had endured no small amount of ridicule and teasing from an exceptionally young age about “the snake” wanting to be in any form of noble advisory position, until he’d one day decided he’d been done with the entire charade and decided that if nobody was going to trust him, he may as well lean into the bit. Despite what his appearance, straight from every cheap movie, might suggest, Cato was loyal and competent to a fault.

Cato had done two stints for a Viscount as a seneschal’s assistant before taking the position over for the viscounts descendant who had ignored his responsibilities, and all good common sense, and started squandering the families fortunes. Breaking his contract had been a bit of a black mark on Cato’s resume, but instead of taking a position as a seneschal in another noble house, where he could prove he was competent, he took an assistant position to a Tier 40 Guild’s guild leader. From there he had taken control of the guilds finances and daily organization and turned the guild from a middling Tier 40 guild to one of the empire’s best in just a few decades.

That was the experience Matt wanted for his seneschal. Someone who could run a noble house and both help him set up and then later run the guild when he was needed to fight in wars or was delving.

Isabella was the first to speak, and clutching a large pad to her chest, she stuck out her hand to Liz. “It’s wonderful to meet you in person.”

Alice never moved from her spot, but her eyes tracked Aster exactly like Luna’s did when they were training with her. There was a fierce intensity Matt had rarely seen, and had never expected to see in a non combatants face.

He wasn’t able to watch the show, as Cato had walked up to Matt and proffered a hand. The slight shadow that had clung to him when he sat in the corner still seemed to linger, but his smile was bright.

“It issss mossst excellent to meet you in persssson, my lord.”

“Likewise. H—”

Cato turned his hand over and proffered a stack of papers before Matt could finish. “Turn your eyes to these, oh wisssse one. There are many things which you must consider, the identy of those guilds which you may sssssseek to emulate. I posssesss much knowledge which musssst never leave itssss shadowssss.”

The man’s accent… if it could be called that, given how intentional it was, was certainly amusing, but for the sake of productivity, he elected to tune it out. Matt flipped through the pages and nodded. Before they returned from guild space, Matt had asked Cato to prepare a few case studies for guilds and create three proposals for a research centric guild that would be doing charity work.

Guild structures were incredibly complex, and that only compounded when trying to protect research secrets. Not that Matt cared if any research information was leaked, but he was worried about his Talent being leaked, and this seemed like the easiest way to test Cato.

Matt had done his own research, and while he knew he was no expert, he had a general idea of what his guild structure would look like.

Flipping through the first proposal, Matt appreciated that Cato had gotten secret guild correspondences and reports from guilds who used that structure. It was the same structure that Matt had been considering to use, and he liked that Cato had come to the same conclusion.

“Turn your gaze to this first, a restricted guild structure akin to that which most research guilds utilize. They provide many numbers, but many of these are false. You may see them inscribed in black here, while the tallies in scarlet are much closer to the sincere truth.”

“I see. It’s basically what I was thinking of when looking into it.”

Cato nodded. “I suspected as much, and it is, to be truthful, the most foolish way forward. However, oh wise one, the decision is yours.”

Matt raised an eyebrow, to which Cato responded with a hiss. “It is not my duty to make your decisions for you, Ascender, but to assist you in making the decisions you have set your course upon. What sort of seneschal would I be should I be incapable of forseeing my master’s desires, be they serendipitous or foolish?”

“Is that why you left House Twal?”

“Precisely. I showed the Viscount the set of answers he wished to see, alongside better options. He consistently selected the options that brought with it only pleasure, not those of a skilled and good lord. So I left so another could come take my place and whisper my guidance in a more… receptive ear.”

Matt nodded. That fit what the reports had stated, and it was exactly what a seneschal should do. Or, at least what Matt wanted from his seneschal. He didn’t need a mother or sycophant, but someone capable with a mind of their own. He was sure sometimes he was going to make the ‘wrong’ choice for whatever reason, and he wanted someone who could anticipate that and still work with him.

The more he was hearing from Cato, the more he liked.

Flipping to the second document, he immediately raised an eyebrow at the structure.

Cato explained his reasoning. “I would advise against this structure, but its structures are the most binding you can set within a guild structure. There are several archaic laws which it is based upon, not commonly in use yet still within record as legal. The more you wish to push this, the more dubiously legal it is, and many of these laws have seen courts rule against them. For anyone but an Ascender, attempting to form a guild in this manner would be foolish, but for you…” Cato let the point hang before spinning his chain around his fingers.

Skipping the rest of the document, Matt went to the third and pursed his lips.

“This is an interesting approach. Register fully as a charity guild which operates a research corporation? That seems needlessly complicated. Is it even legal for a Guild to own a Corporation like that? I’ve never heard of that before, and it didn’t come up in my searches of guild structures.”

“It is non-standard, but it is entirely legal. It is, however, somewhat limiting, which accounts for much of its unpopularity. It does not wholly exempt the guild from taxes, but does require you to sustain the full level of transparency in spending and services which a charity must. For most it is simply an unwanted burden, but your actions in support of low-Tier crafting schools, the medical assistance you supplied to Ventillyria, and of course your scribing of a new medical rune says that it may be of interest for you.” Cato’s snapping chain was almost as expressive as a shrug. “If it were all simply a display for the crowds I would not be surprised, but it seemed worthy of setting before you as an option to consider.”

Matt sat in silence, ostensibly reading the files his new seneschal had provided him but mostly studying how the rest of his team was interacting with their respective assistants. Both of them were animatedly talking with their counterparts, and Matt silently thanked everyone involved in helping them get this far, considering how well it was all going.

Looking through the rest of the proposal, he nodded as he read, even as Cato stood there silent except for the snicks of his chain snapping around his fingers.

“You are correct about my intentions for the guild in both your unspoken assumptions and spoken ones. I truly do intend for my future guild to do things like I did with the runes during the tournament. I still don’t understand the double layering. How does that help?”

Cato didn’t smile, but the man still managed to beam with pride. “While typically it is impossible for guilds and corporations to own one another, charities possess their own allowances. While the legalese is a little sophisticated and intense for this short conversation, the summary is that you may utilize a mix of both guild and corporation contracts for hiring, and the maximum allowance of both corporation and guild security, for maximum secrecy. Meanwhile, the hindrances which accompany a charity already align with your stated goals, and as an Ascender, much of the troubles which sometimes befall oversight of a charity are less likely to occur with you.”

Matt nodded. “I might not always take the logical route and sometimes might take the answer I was already set on, but I’m not that stubborn. Let’s go with option three. I won’t need the incredibly strict contracts for more than a select rare few. For the rest, I don’t care about secrets like you might expect. My intention is to make most of our findings public anyway.”

Cato hissed. “Ascender or no, what you seek may not be possible. While it is rare, the Empire can and has confiscated particularly dangerous or valuable discoveries and set them deep within the shadows, never to be seen once again. It seldom occurs, but does happen occasionally.”

Matt just smiled. “I’ll worry about that if it happens, but I’ve chatted with the Emperor about this idea more than once. He’s supportive, so unless we create something truly unprecedented, that is unlikely. That, and I intend most of our inventions to be aimed at low Tiers and improving their lives.”

With an effort of will, he incinerated the papers before shredding the atoms of the ash to hydrogen.

Proffering his hand, Matt caught Catos eyes. “It’s a pleasure to have you on board.”

Following the old customs, Cato bowed before taking his hand in a firm shake. “I serve at your will, my lord.”

Matt waved Cato’s honorific off the moment they let go. “I know it’s part of your schtick, and I don’t want to get in the way of that, but please lay off the honorifics a bit? It’s bad enough with everyone calling me Ascender, I don’t need endless ‘oh wise one’s and ‘my lord’s. It just sounds sycophantic and too formal.”

Cato smirked, a fang menacingly spilling out from between his lips. “Most certainly, it shall be so… my lord.”

Matt snorted.

“Now, is there anything else you wished to discuss in person, or shall I take my leave? Starting a guild will be fairly intensive work.”

Matt shook his head. “Not really. The guild is going to have to wait until the war is over before I can form it.” Seeing Cato wanted to speak, Matt corrected himself. “I know I can start it now, but I truly am personally invested in it, and the ideas behind it. I don’t want to just start it and let you or anyone else get the ball rolling. I won’t be able to be as active as if I wasn’t an Ascender, but once the war is over, it’s going to be my top priority outside of Ascender work. I want to experience all the important firsts, if you know what I mean.”

“Have you any plans for where you shall establish your guild? I presume upon your duchy, once you are landed.”

Matt nodded his head. “I only get three locations for a guild headquarters, so one will definitely go there. But as for the other two, I’m thinking I want to purchase a moon to be delivered to Lilly where I grew up and put a guild base there. It will be useful for low Tier testing. As for the final location, I don’t know, there are a million and one things to take into consideration. Getting a spot in the capital system would put us close to rare high Tier resources but would also make any testing that much harder thanks to how firm reality is.”

“And of course, the spies who slither and sneak, searching for new discoveries only to publish first and lock all of your findings behind their own ownership.” Cato added with a slightly resigned look on his face.

Matt nodded. “I’ve seen a similar game get played out. I’d love to see who is ballsy enough to try that with me, but it’s a very valid point. Even if the Emperor himself told people to leave me alone, there would still be people trying, despite knowing it will go nowhere if for no other reasons than to get their names out there.”

“I shall begin assembling a list of locations which may prove auspicious for your purposes. If you could provide a list of requirements, I can narrow them down all the more.”

After thinking about it for a few seconds Matt rattled off a list of requirements for any guild location then went into his wants and desires. They were mixed and contradictory enough that Cato said he would need to review possible locations for a comprehensive list, but he was able to send a few locations that met most of Matt’s requirements. None of them called to Matt, but this wasn’t something to be decided on a whim anyway.

They were nobles now, and the decisions they made here and now would set the tone for their entire rule.