Chapter 138: The Most Horrible BBG!

- Abelis Academy City, Homeroom, After School - Rose's POV –

The rest of the day was uninteresting, with nothing of note to mention, but unfortunately, we still had what passed for detention in this fantasy world. Extra classes. Making our way from each of our individual classes our group of 6 ended up meeting up in front of the door where we’d had our homeroom class mere hours before. The mistakes of the past haunting our present as it were. Regardless though one of us had to breach the border eventually and that task fell to me. Mostly because I was big enough to hide being rather than being braver than the others.

What awaited us was the expected Dwarven Loli but another was also with her, and the goofy grin on the young-looking woman’s face told me everything I needed to know about his identity without even needed to look at them.

[Okay so you’ll spend the next hour catching up on what you missed in your little stunt during class. After that we’ll each have small group studies. Here to help me today i-is G-Manic Blade. T-Thank you for your h-h-help!] – Lolianne

[Oh, thank you pipsq- I mean Miss Sens. As a newly hired teacher it’s always comforting to help out a one of my… “seniors”.] – Gilgamesh

[Hehehehe, senior… heh.] – Lolianne

How much did Legal Loli Sensei even know about Gilgamesh, he’d only briefly spoken of her but the way she acted around him hinted strongly that she knew a bit more than just an acquaintance. Especially the glint in her eye and spreading grin when she was referred to as his “senior”. The emphasis put on that word not being missed by any of us as we all knew of his true age.

[Anyway, I’m especially looking forward to how you, discipline, these troublemakers. Don’t go easy on them for my sake.] – Gilgamesh

[R-R-Right! Please keep a close watch on how I do things! I’m sure you’ll be impressed!] – Lolianne

That lovestruck loli! And don’t think I didn’t catch that little vindictive look you sent my way you old bastard! He definitely wanted revenge for my payback and was using the younger woman’s crush to get it. Well, it won’t work I tell you! It won’t work!!!

- Abelis Academy City, Hallway, Several Hours Later - Rose's POV –

It worked. The last few hours were the most tedious and boring schooling I’d gone through since coming to this world. It was, in a few words, a stark difference to the normal classes. Gone were the analogies and interesting side notes. In their place was a boring regurgitation of facts and dates and equations. And I bet I knew exactly where Lolianne had learned it from since it felt nearly identical to the punishment from Gilgamesh during our sojourn in the forest. That damn loli and her crush!!! Luckily, or unluckily depending on your perspective, my thoughts were interrupted by an irritating laugh that reminded me a bit of when I first meet Argent but had a much more malicious tinge to it making it all the worse in the hearing.

[Ohohohoho! Look at how inferior the Anguis family heir is! No matter how many extra lessons you take you’ll never catch up to the majesty of the Serpanis and Manchen families. You may as well give up now and resign yourself to serving as our lowly slave! Right, Alice?] - Minerva de la Manchen

[U-Umm well…] - Alice de la Serpanis IV

[Hmm? Lamia? Who exactly are you again?] – Rose

[Ohohohoho! As you are the type of plebian that would not know of a beauty such as I I’ll grace you with an introduction for your unworthy ears. You are honored to be graced by the presence of the future Duchess of the Western Twin City and heir of the Manchen line of the Serpanis House, Lady Minerva de la Manchen! Bow gratefully to your better.] – Minerva de la Manchen

[I-I’m Alice. Eek! I’m mean I’m Alice de la Serpanis IV! P-Pleased to meet you?] - Alice de la Serpanis IV

[Uh huh… And why are you approaching me? What exactly do you want?] – Rose

[Ohohoho! This low-class peasant doesn’t know what we want? Either she is attempting to make some kind of jest, or she is an imbici- Ow! How dare yo- Hiiii!] – Minerva de la Manchen

[This humble one suggests the Young Lady leave immediately. You understand what I mean correct?] – Dark Dressed Lamia

[E-Eek! Le-Let’s go Alice! T-this is a waste of time for one such as m-me!] – Minerva de la Manchen

Hah… Nearly sighing out loud as the two children of the Serpanis House blocked my way I decided instead to approach this unwelcome meeting with a diplomatic approach. Surprisingly, while this Minerva character was extremely aggressive in her approach, likely a result of a mixture of low self-esteem and an inflated self-image with a bit of narcissism thrown in, the other one, Alice, was quite the opposite. Shyly staring at me as they approached, I could even see a bit of awe in her eyes, as if she were looking at the supreme example of her future self. It reminded me a bit of how a certain younger classmate had looked at me in my previous life, and that was in spite of my mediocre grades.

Regardless the more aggressive one became even more so as it became obvious that I was not going to take her bait and react similarly. Unfortunately for her however she got a bit too close and one of the Black Guard watching over me immediately intervened, appearing between the two of us so fast as to leave an afterimage. The resulting scare causing the young Lamia to fall heavily on her backside.

The implied threat in my guards’ words making even the supposed future Duchess pale significantly as she hightailed it out of there.

- Ligera Province, Newly Built Governor’s Office, - Robert's POV –

Hah… The days since the departure of my adorable baby girl had been… difficult. Sure, I was never lonely with my wonderful wife here with me and the prospect of yet another child on the way but, I missed my baby girl… It also didn’t help that lately there had been increased pushback from some of the more rebellious elements in Ligera Province’s outskirts and even some rumors of Church-funded agitators throughout the country. Luckily these were so far limited to the outlying cities and there seemed to be little support for such things in the larger capital city, but it was only a matter of time if it wasn’t dealt with. On top of that was managing my House’s dealings remotely to the point that I spent several hours on an Image Stone every day. It had been easier before my wife’s pregnancy as she’d helped me out herself but with her condition, I’d told her to take it easy, leaving me alone as a result. Luckily, I had help from the Patriarch and Matriarch to a point, but they’d also refused to spend significant time on the matter saying, “If you want to prove yourself man enough for our daughter this sort of difficulty is nothing.” It seemed that even with another child on the way they still weren’t quite accepting of my presence around their beloved daughter. In fact, the prospect of another little one had only seemed to increase their critiques not decrease them.

Which is why I found myself scratching my head as I once more reread a report from the City of Amchier merchants.

[Why the hell would that family do something this blatant now? It just makes no sense…] – Robert

[Perhaps they felt like it was an opportunity to deal a blow with how impressive your daughter has been lately.] – Stereotypical Butler

[But why now? It’s obvious that such aggressive favoritism will only incite the Royal Family to move. If it were the previous head, they’d have never done something so transparent…] – Robert

[I apologize sir. I’m afraid I have neither the expertise nor the class to speak of such matters. I HAVE heard from some of my fellow Black Guard however that the Serpanis Matriarch has recently taken sick. It is possible that she is no longer in any condition to reign in her children.] – Stereotypical Butler

[Hah… thank you Sabastian. But now the question is what to do in the short term? This will devastate the poorer merchants under our protection if we do nothing but if we react too severely it could cause the Serpanis House to demand action against OUR family instead.] – Robert

[It certainly is a difficult problem. Shall I inform my sources in the Twin Cities to do anything specific?] – Sabastian

[Keep a low profile for now. Instead, I want you to inform the Sanguis House of a potential trade deal. Let them know that I’d like to negotiate with them. If those bastards from Serpanis want to block access to trade through the sea, we’ll just see about going around instead.] – Robert

A tariff. Normal between territories and often covered by the merchants themselves by increasing the prices of their goods. Such things were expected and even useful to the ones paying it themselves as the money was used to maintain roads and patrols which would then keep said merchants safer from harm which increased the money, they were able to make. It was a Win-Win situation for both sides. Except in this case the Serpanis House had increased tariffs on non-Serpanis House merchants to unsustainable levels effectively cutting off those that were unable to pay for it from trade through the Twin City ports. The excuse given to the more powerful merchants that could push back a little because of their influence had been that the increase was a result of the recent and upcoming Wars. A reasonable excuse except the amount had been far more than was acceptable and there had been no damage to our own infrastructure. The real reason was extremely apparent from the timing of the drastic price hike. This was a blatant attack against our House because of the recent, and very public, success of the Heir of the Amchier House. Our beloved baby girl had shown herself to be an extremely dangerous existence to those that wished to see the fall of our House and on top of sending their children to harass Rose they’d also chosen to attack more directly.

Such an indefensible move would only cause Laura to move to alleviate the situation though so not only was it a blatant power grab it was ineffective in the long term as the Royal Family couldn’t stay silent to such an unbalanced rule change. In the short term however, this would ruin many of the less successful merchant groups that depended on a constant flow of trade to and from the Twin City ports. In the meantime, we’d need to find a way to supplement them so that we weren’t dealt a major blow as, while individually they weren’t much, losing a large amount of smaller merchant groups all at once would cause severe damage. It was an even more tenuous situation now as well since the family heads weren’t present in the city so I’d not be able to react as quickly as I would if I didn’t have to rely on Image Stones. Haaaaah…. So annoying.