Chương 102: Escalating Tensions

It turned out the government could open the portal without me. I didn't know this until I felt the gate building up energy later that day. At first I thought something was pushing through from the other side. Then I realized the pressure was coming from my side of the gate, which narrowed it down given that soldiers camped twenty yards from it.

I'd asked Pierre to have someone from the Moonbound keep an eye on things, mostly because I don't trust the government on principle and experience had only reinforced that position. One of them called Pierre, Pierre started a video chat, and I watched through his phone as a truck backed up to the gate site and started dumping planar crystals onto the ground. The amount of crystals they used made me want to cry. I could have bought so much stuff from the Planar Store with what they poured onto the ground.

Instead they used it to open a gate. They did this without asking me or even a courtesy text. They then sent a small team through with a stack of crates. I watched the crates go and had a pretty good idea what was in them. The government doesn't pack crates for a scouting run. They pack crates when they're planning to stay. I'd assumed at some point they'd want a forward base. I just hadn't expected them to move this fast. Usually the government operated like a glacier.

Something had changed and they'd decided they didn't need my cooperation to do what they wanted. Apparently, they were right. That made me petty enough to open the gate myself the next morning and send Kess through with a few vultures. The birds could fly over the perimeter the soldiers had set up and cover ground without anyone stopping them. The land animals were furious about being left out. The birds were insufferable about being chosen.

I chose not to get involved in that argument because I had enough problems. The vultures and Kess came back with footage of their own. The ratkin had pulled back from the gate site entirely. The pens were empty. Whatever we'd done, they'd noticed, and they'd decided to put distance between themselves and the gate before figuring out their next move. The soldiers had set up their forward base. Most of the crates had turned out to be drones. I had to admit that was smart.

Of course, it couldn't compare to my bird brigade. Back on my side of the gate, things were getting complicated in a different way. Adventurers had been showing up for days, and when the soldiers wouldn't let them through, they didn't leave. They camped there while more arrived. The crowd around the gate site grew until the soldiers were spending more time managing the perimeter than watching the gate, and the adventurers were getting louder about it. I understood their frustration.

People had gotten a taste of what classes and mana could do, and they weren't interested in waiting for government approval to level up. A few gates in other parts of the country had already turned ugly. There had been firefights between soldiers and adventuring groups who'd decided the gate was worth fighting over. The military had pulled their stateside combat-ready forces and sent them to the hotspots, which was why it took days for the armored vehicles to show up at my gate.

Reconnaissance vehicles and personnel carriers rolled in and the noise level dropped immediately. Adventurers protested but apparently 'might made right.' Needless to say, Washington D. C. was reportedly the safest it had ever been since the politicians prioritized their safety over the safety of remote locations such as ours. I wasn't surprised. I wasn't going to sit back and let the government lock me out of my own gate, though.

A few of the Moonbound had already been talking to the leaders of the various adventuring parties camped outside the perimeter. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The deal I worked out was straightforward. The adventurers wanted to get through the gate. My followers needed escorts who could handle themselves in a fight. The soldiers could object all they wanted, but they couldn't stop me from opening the gate on my side.

What they could do was try to stop the adventurers from going through once it was open. The government had made their position clear by opening the gate without me. I could return the favor. However, I wasn't going to risk lives. I also had rules for the adventurers. There would be no attacking the ratkin unless attacked first. There would also be no looting the pens or the structures.

Anyone who caused a problem on the other side got left there until I decided they could come back, and they surrendered whatever crystals they'd collected. I made Pierre explain the rules twice to make sure everyone understood that I wasn't joking about the last part. Most agreed. A few didn't and were told to find another gate. There was no way I was going to risk starting an interdimensional war.

I started with Marcus and Tyler's group because I knew them and because Loki had already vetted them, which saved me the trouble. Marcus's Church of the Sacred Raccoon had grown more than I'd expected. At least two dozen people had made the drive out, which was either flattering or alarming depending on how I looked at it.

They'd set up camp at the edge of the tree line away from the soldiers' perimeter, neat and organized, and they'd been waiting patiently for three days while the adventurers around them got louder. Loki came to find me the morning of the fourth day.

"Marcus's group would like to meet with you," he said.

"I've spoken with them at length. They're genuine."

"I know they're genuine," I said.

"That's the part that makes me uncomfortable."

"They want to cross through the gate. They believe you can open a passage for them." The fact that they knew wasn't surprising. Pierre had been talking to the various leaders of the adventurer groups. As for this group, I actually trusted them the most. Afterall, they actually thought I was a god.

"Do they know I control the existing gate or do they think I'm going to conjure them a new one?"

"They don't seem to know, or care," Loki said. I looked out toward the tree line where they were waiting. After a moment, I said, "Fine. Set it up. Tell Marcus I'll meet him at the porch." Loki left to deliver the message, and I sat in my recliner for a few minutes thinking about what you say to a kid who decided you were worth building a church around. I didn't personally meet Marcus before, but he seemed like a good guy.

He was smart enough to know raccoons were the best animal as well, which was a point in his favor. Marcus had been easy to deal with, too. He'd paid his crystals and gone home happy. The only thing I was worried about was his judgment. Marcus was telling people that a raccoon god had died and been resurrected and was walking around the Ozarks doing miracles. He was also good at it. Two dozen believers had driven here and camped in the woods. Still, I'd rather trust him than any of the other adventuring parties.

I heard them coming up the path before I saw them. I looked to Tala who was next to me and shrugged. I sent her a mental message, Let the fun begin. Marcus was in front, which made sense since it was his church. He looked older than I remembered, or maybe just more certain of himself. He was in his early twenties. He stopped at the bottom of the porch steps and stared wide-eyed up at me with his mouth hanging open. I looked down at him.

"Hey," I said. Marcus opened his mouth, closed it, and then said, "Hey," back. Marcus stared at me while I stared back. Obviously, neither of us seemed entirely sure how this meeting was supposed to work. Behind him, twenty-three people were having a variety of reactions to seeing me sitting on a porch railing. A few looked reverent. A few looked like they were trying very hard not to look reverent. One in the back was crying quietly, which I chose not to acknowledge.

"Loki said you wanted to talk," I finally said.

"Uh, yes lord." Whatever he'd planned to say, "hey" hadn't been it.

"Thank you for seeing us, Great Trash Panda." He then awkwardly knelt and bowed his head with everyone else quickly following his example. While their eyes were looking down, I rolled mine. I made a mental note to find out who had leaked the title to the humans. Whoever had let that information slip was going to get a thorough scolding. I just hoped I wasn't about to make the worst mistake of my life.

Either way, the following conversation was bound to be one of the most painful experiences of my life, except for the walk back to the cabin after getting drunk and marrying Tala. Speaking of whom, Tala immediately turned to glare at me. Before I could react, she "patted" my back forcefully enough to send me flying into the dirt at Marcus's feet.