Chương 83: The Androic Lands - 2

LANCE followed the king into the backroom. It was a private chamber and decorated as beautifully as the main throne room or antechambers preceding the throne room. The walls were lined with little cabinets and cupboards filled with flatware and foods. Lance thought this must be a place where the king and his closest friends spend their nights gambling or gossiping among fellow elites.

"Please, take a seat," the king motioned and Lance obeyed.

"I am sure you have heard much about me and my religious prerogatives. You are here to try and entice my people to join this 'alliance' against the coming Horror. I understand this, for I understand the ways of the world outside my domain." Pluglet wasn't wrong, so he said nothing and let the man talk.

"My purpose is to my faith. You are a Deity Champion. You more than anyone understand my position," the King continued.

"So, how about we settle our lands differences. You are young. You are looking for a way to make a name for yourself beyond that of your father's legacy. I understand your position, as I, myself, was once in that position many years ago, when I first ascended the throne and knew I needed to differentiate myself from my father. Lucky me, my father was a despot, and so it was easy to make a name for myself as the reformist lord.

You, being young, and your masters expecting you to not strike a deal beyond pleasant pheasant words, are in a position to make a name for yourself beyond mere expectations." He knew what Pluglet was talking about — ambition: more than ambition, the king expected him to be willing to make an unfair deal to his country out of career expediency. Wherein lied his fatal error: Lance was no underappreciated civil servant. He was a warrior.

And he had a warrior's mentality, if not a burgeoning honor beyond his years to boot. He was not about to make some sissy deal which put his own countrymen last. Though he would use King Pluglet's ignorance to their detriment.

"King, let's talk. What do you propose?" The King smiled.

"I wish to be allowed conversion rights in all the alliance lands. Obviously, I am wise enough to understand that whatever we strike here today will need to be verified by other legislative bodies and those bodies will have their own input which will cause the deal to change, and yada-yada-yada — fine! But let's form the largest elements now, shall we? Conversion rights, what would it take?" Lance nodded along as the king spoke. He knew the King would go for conversion rights.

As a religious fundamentalist, they had a one-track mind. He understood how derisive conversion rights were in the alliance lands. Most alliance territories outright forbid the flesh-mechs from converting their people and weren't willing to negotiate one way or another. Lance would use that to his advantage, too. He looked at the king and smiled.

"Lord Pluglet. I respect your desire to honor your gods. You are aware as well as I that any deal we strike will be difficult to officiate with the lands' legislatures. That said, I am willing to pull on my father's influence in helping solidify this deal. How about this: we begin looking into ways to help you spread the word of your god at the cost of you opening your nation up..." He doubted King Pluglet would go for this: the Androic Lands were a hermit kingdom.

They had closed themselves off to the wider world for decades, ever since Pluglet had taken power, and liked their security that their mono-'ethnic' status as a mechanized conglomeration gave them. King Pluglet hummed to himself as he considered Lance's words; they got up and brought from the cabinet a tea set and made tea while continuing to hum.

"This 'opening up,' would entail...?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Lance blinked. Was the King going for it? Were they considering his proposal? What should he say? What could he say?

"I think what 'it' would entail, honorable king, would depend in part on the degree of conversion rights you wish to see in the alliance lands. Setting up a mission, for example, would demand a lot more cooperation in opening your country up then, say, sending out a missionary into pre-approved locations." He decided to keep things vague. Abstract but with places to go. The king continued to hum as he poured the water over the tea bags. Right away, Lance smelled their incredible scent.

Whatever was in those satchels were beyond what was available in the human territories. Pluglet looked at him and said, "Let us be bold. Let's assume full and total conversion rights — sending missions into all areas of all alliance territories, pre-approved or not; the setting up of missions, and yes, churches, even, and perhaps even a discontinuation of the bigoted propaganda against our kind that your own religious institutions put out. Let us assume all of that and more."

As the tea steeped, Lance figured his words.

"I like your game, lord Pluglet. If we assume all of that, then it would be safe for me to assume in turn that the alliance lands would require from you a complete opening: economic cooperation, military cooperation — of the kind both in regard to the Horror's approach but also regarding pact formation with extant states — as well as religious cooperation. Uh...

this would mean open borders with the alliance realms, trade access to all sectors of the Androic economy, and cultural exchange; no more tariffs, for one; economic planning for another, to the point where the economies of both the Androic and non-androic economies are one..." Lance was trying to think of more to say when the King spoke.

"A younger me would have had your behind kicked out for suggesting such things. But the older and wiser me is too wise to pass up such an opportunity. What would you say if I said, 'yes' to all of your suggestions?" He couldn't believe it. He was in shock. Had he heard the king right. Was he really suggesting he would go along with a total opening of his land?

"I would say..." Lance began, picking his words better than he ever had before.

"That we have a historic deal to sign." From ear-to-ear the King grinned.

"Perfect, boy! You make a name for yourself as the plucky diplomat who opened up the mysterious and brutal Androic realm and I spread my faith far and wide! A win-win!" Later that evening, after he had told a stunned Bipin of what transpired between the king and him, the king's words were echoing in his head: 'a win-win.' Was it truly? It felt... too easy. Bipin approached.

"I know I have asked you several times already, but please, can you once more tell me, word-for-word, what transpired between you and lord Pluglet? I just cannot wrap my head around it..." Lance sighed.

"Very well..." He told Bipin all that happened, as he requested, word-for-word, not that there was much to tell. This time, he even included what few facial gestures there were just to satiate the diplomat. Not that the facial features meant anything — not to androids and not to him, a college student.

"Ugh! I don't get it, then! What is this guy's angle!"

"Maybe he doesn't have an angle?" Lance proffered.

"Could be, however unlikely it seems, that maybe he is just done with playing hardball and wants to push his faith at the expense of his nation? People do weird things all the time for the people and things they love."

"True..." Bipin was unconvinced.

"But I doubt it." A knock at the door interrupted them. Lance went to answer it. Before the door stood King Pluglet. No, not Pluglet, but someone who looked an awfully lot like him.

"Hello," the figure said.

"May I come in? My name is Outlet, King Pluglet's son."