Corco was happy. For the first time in years, he could feel comfortable in his own skin again. When he looked down on the precious silken robe and tunic which covered his body, he could sense the tradition of hundreds of years of craftsmanship course through his skin. Held back by his new hairband, the crown prince's previously unbound hair no longer hung into his line of sight at last and revealed a clear, open view on the world he had missed all these years.

Back when he had left Arcavia for his return here, Corco had finally stopped whitening his skin, no longer content to pretend a role he wasn't willing to fill. However, only now that he had hung up his Bornish merchant clothes and replaced them with the free-flowing silks of the Medalan upper class could he feel like himself once more. Only now did he feel ready to face the demons of his past.

“So that's your style here. A bit garish, huh?” With a grin as crooked as his character, Dedrick the fake knight greeted Corco back into the sunlight. While the prince had gone through the final fitting in Porcero's best tailor shop, the mercenary captain and his men had made sure that the commoners of Etra wouldn't cause a commotion outside, since they all wanted to get a glimpse of the mysterious crown prince who had returned from the dead.

“You have a problem with your eyes, Arcavian?” Corco asked his employee with a raised brow. “This is pure Chutwa silk, a robe over a tunic, both woven, folded and stitched with the greatest care. The folds themselves are the result of centuries of tradition, each one the result of generations of thought and devotion. Each piece is much more sophisticated than your barbarian vests.”

“True. Women's dresses tend to be more complicated anyways.”

Unwilling to indulge the mercenary any further, Corco ignored Dedrick's nonsense and Atau's laughter. He instead decided to focus on the essentials.

“So where is that massive crowd from before? Don't tell me you threatened the people of this nice port town? We've been over this. These are my subjects now, so I'd rather you held back a bit with the bandit attitude. Don't make trouble and leave the people alone.”

“Boss, I didn't do anything. Even if I felt like torturing some random peasants, which I don't, I know you wouldn't want that. No matter what, I won't piss off the guy who has my money, and the only one who can get me and my men back home. I'm not an idiot...” Already anticipating the reaction, Dedrick turned over to Atau's provocative smirk. “What, you got a problem Captain Bucket?”

“Anyways,” After his threat had only earned him a careless shrug from Atau, Dedrick explained the disappearance of the masses with a gesture down the street, back towards the harbor. “Your precious subjects are over there. Looks like your royal authority got nothing on Ronnie and the kid.”

A bit in the distance, a small crowd had formed around two figures. By the pier, in front of Corco's fleet, the lanky alchemist with the frilly clothes and the chubby merchant with the golden rings formed an odd, but effective pair, as each held up an object of the crowd's desire. With loud voices, they called over the crowd's murmur to praise the benefits of the exotic products sold by the Fastgrade Merchant Company.

“Oh for fuck's... can we get those two away from there? We're not merchants, not anymore. Bring them over before they get into trouble, I've got an announcement to make.”

“On it, Master Corco.” In response to Corco's annoyance, Fadelio stepped up and made his way through the crowd and towards the final two members of their little group. Even though Dedrick still held on to his grin, at least Fadelio and Atau, the Medalan natives within their group, would understand just how problematic it was to be considered a merchant here. If Ronnie and Brym started to sell luxury products to commoners, they would have a tough time getting accepted by the elites in the capital, or anywhere else, for that matter.

Just in time, the warrior managed to rip the two chatterboxes away from the glamour of fame, and soon their little band of five – and Dedrick – had entered one of the cleaner side-alleys in the outer city. Shielded by the rest of Dedrick's mercenaries and communicating in Bornish, they would be safe enough to readjust their plans.

“Okay, here's the rub,” Corco began. “For now, I'm still the crown prince of the Medala Empire, but somehow, I'm also dead. Now, I have no idea how the people in the capital came to that weird idea, but there's nothing we can do about it until we reach Arguna and ask the people who declared my death directly. On top of that, my two brothers have become front runners for the throne in my absence, both under support from foreign kingdoms. All of this is serious trouble and will complicate my ascension to emperor by quite a bit. We're not without our own advantages though. We've been preparing for this for half a decade and stacked one superiority on top of the next. Now is the time to cash in all those investments. So first, in order to take full advantage of all of our strengths, we'll have to split up.”

A moan rang through the crowd, as everyone except Fadelio and Atau began to sound their dissatisfaction.

“Look, I can't be everywhere at once, and we're half a year behind the competition. We need to catch up, and I need you guys in the right spots, to make sure we maximize our strength. Can I count on you guys for this?”

For a while, Corco's eyes moved from one of his friends to the next, until all of them had replied with a determined nod.

“First off: Brym, you're gonna stay here and help establish our first two shops, one in the inner city and a second one in the outer city.”

“Got it bro.” the young merchant replied with a sloppy salute.

“Wait, wait. Wait a second,” Dedrick interrupted the sortie. “You're just gonna leave the kid here all by himself? Isn't that a bad idea?”

“...he is hardly a kid anymore. And Ronnie will stay here as well, at least until we've set up the stills for the brandy production. Until then, the two can get into the good graces of the locals, which is sort of their super power anyways.” After he had dealt with Dedrick's moaning, Corco turned to the two smooth talkers, who had already proven without a doubt that they could deal with the local crowds. “You think you can handle this?”

“Yeah, no problem bro,” Brym replied.

“An easy task for the great alchemist Bombasticus. As my first mission in the Occident, I had hoped for a greater challenge, one befitting of my talents,” a much more flamboyant Ronnie answered with both his words and his hands.

“Okay,” Corco clapped, “there you have it. They'll be fine. Next up, I'll have to get to the capital. If we don't make it there by the time the elders of the ancestral hall announce the next candidate for emperor, we'll be out of luck. Even if we don't make it in time, at least we need to get there before the noble's assembly confirms the hall's choice. Otherwise this entire operation is a bust. I'll take Fadelio with me, as my personal attendant. And Dedrick: You'll come too. Go pick one hundred of your guys to go along as well, as moral support.”

“No, wait a second.” Once again, Dedrick interrupted Corco's grand planning session, with no regard for gravitas. “Didn't you say before that there's an entire army waiting in that capital of yours? What the hell are we supposed to do with one measly company? What about the rest of our troops?”

Just like before, Corco did his best to answer with the driest look he could muster.

“...did you hear a word I said when I described the Medala Empire? We're not really all that keen on outsiders here.”

“Not a single place in the world is keen on outsiders,” Dedrick fired back.

“...point taken. Still, this isn't a sightseeing trip. I'm touring to become emperor. If I come to invade the capital with a foreign army, it's gonna be a bad look, even if those foreigners are sworn in as my warriors. That's why we're only taking a hundred, and why no other foreigners can come along. Having Ronnie or Brym with us would be a great help, but I can't have Arcavians speak for me before the nobles. Especially not when I'm trying to win over the traditionalist forces in the country. Being anti-Arcavian is their whole deal. If nothing else, with this many soldiers no one would believe we died to bandits... Just in case someone gets any funny ideas and starts to dress up his warriors. As for war: we'll get our allies once we reach the capital. Then we can have their troops work for us instead. Besides, I'd rather not start my reign with a war anyways, not if I can avoid it. One more reason to not bring too many outsiders."

“So what about me then? I just stay with the fleet?” Once Dedrick had been pacified, Atau chimed in at last to finish off their group.

“No, You'll need to get south, to your family.”

In response, the captain scoffed and scowled.

“I know you haven't left on the best of terms, but if we want this emperor business to work out, we'll need all the support we can get. If nothing else, we should have the south on our side. There is no way the Sachay lords will support my other brothers. After all, I'm the only southern member of the imperial family... and your father is still the Governor of the South.”

“Aaaah,” with an exaggerated expression of annoyance, one Corco knew full well was faked, Atau rubbed his face and pretended to be torn for a moment, before he gave in with a sigh. “Fine, I'll do it.”

“Great. In that case you'll have to get all of Dedrick's soldiers, plus our new craftsmen and our Fastgrade accounting team across the south, over into your dad's territory. They really should have just landed here, but my precarious status is only gonna endanger these guys. It's better we park them in allied territory for now. We can't have our precious artisans stay cooped up on a ship until I'm emperor, not after all the stuff we promised them for following us here. Oh, also: since you'll be moving along the east coast anyways, you can bring Ronnie along later as well, since he's already well-liked by the other craftsmen... and he can do way more over there.”

Corco looked over to his old stage partner, who managed to read his mind as usual.

“That would mean my skills as alchemist require me to make fertilizer? And perhaps some additional powder in case our battle runs long and we have need of the additional barrels we have packed.”

A nod from the prince confirmed Ronnie's hunch.

“Once we have our soldiers in the south we can combine forces with the governor's estate and use the southern army to put some pressure on Arguna. Though that might strain our supplies in the long run, so it's better to be prepared. That would be all I guess. Anyone else have any ideas about the distribution?”

“If I'm supposed to set up shop I'll need a couple people too. Some accountants and a few guards to make sure we get the shops operational soon... and so no one gets any ideas about stealing secret formulas and such,” Brym added.

“Sure thing. Just pick a couple volunteers to stay with you.”

“I still don't get it.” Once more, Dedrick played the voice of dissent. "That Lord Saliena tried to kill you and you just took, as if nothing happened. We killed no one, took nothing, demolished nothing. No retaliation at all. What's with that soft attitude? You want everyone to walk all over you?"

In response to the mercenary captain's annoyed outburst, Corco replied with the same calm as before, almost as if it hadn't been his own life which had been threatened.

"Ultimately, Saliena just acted in his own interest... and in his family's, which is much more laudable. That's the problem with Medala though: Everyone in this place only ever thinks of themselves and their own at the cost of everyone else. It makes us miss the big picture. In Saliena's mind, there is absolutely nothing wrong with his actions because that's how we've always been doing things... and by 'we', I don't mean Yaku, I mean people. Humans. The challenge for the future is to incentivise good behavior... or if all else fails, we can at least increase the circle of what people consider 'their own'. That's what will get us into the future. If I act the same as Saliena and also follow through with this whole 'violence begets violence' nonsense we will never start to solve the problem. Besides..:"

Dedrick had already tuned out of another one of Corco's lectures, but still glanced to the side when he realized that his boss had stopped talking. He saw his employer's sly grin and understood that the speech wasn't over yet.

"...however much you think those land deeds I bought from Saliena are worth, take that number fifty times over. You've also been to the big Arcavian port towns like Valerna and Whiteport. What do you think will happen with the land value in Porcero once it becomes the main trading hub between the east and the west? I already own a third of what will be the central harbor district for the most important trading hub in Medala. That man probably thought he ripped me off with this price, but he simply lacks imagination. When I bought those deeds, I took more money from Lord Quintus Saliena than he has ever seen in his life."

"Spoken like a true merchant," the mercenary scoffed.

"I know I'm repeating myself, but you best cut that kind of talk out right now. I know most people don't understand Bornish here, but if, against all odds, someone actually does, we're all in huge trouble. If you screw up and ruin my reputation, I will have to look for a new captain, which just sounds like a total pain. Don't forget, you and your men are my warriors right now, not just hired hands. Everything you do reflects back on me. If that reflection is unflattering, I don't really have a choice but to discard it. Until I'm emperor, my neck is on the line as well."

With a much softer tone, Corco turned over to Brym. “That goes for you as well. You better present yourself as Brymstock di Pluritac, warrior servant of Crown Prince Corcopaca. If people find out that you're an actual merchant, it's gonna be nothing but trouble.”

“Sure,” the youngster answered in a light tone. “I don't think hiding will be a problem. I mean, people tend to be remarkably blind if they have enough gold and silver in front of them.”

Shocked and stunned, Corco stared at his realist little brother for a few seconds, before his brain managed to reboot and return on topic.

“Okay fine,” he shook his head with a smile. “Anyways, I guess this will be goodbye for now. We already got a good caravan of donkey carts sponsored by our generous Governor Saliena. Now there's just one more thing to do here in Porcero, just one more step before we're on our way to the capital.”

“Which would be?” Atau asked, no doubt impatient to get back to his crew. In response, Corco's lips began to form into a smile, the kind which would make his enemies shiver and his friends roll their eyes.

“Don't you remember that we still have an invitation with the wine makers? It's time to get some raw materials, make some allies, and return some favors.”

SociableHermit

Oof, there you go. This marks the end of the first mini-arc of Book 2. I haven't slept in 24 hours to get this last one out on time, so there might be a few more mistakes than usual. I'll fix whatever I missed after I'm a bit more rested though.

I want to get the first ten chapters of book 2 out by Sunday, but I won't guarantee anything (I'll try my best!)