Homesteading in a fantasy world

POV: ????

I walked into my accommodations and immediately sent a pulse to investigate every inch. The four servants, standing in a row and waiting, looked pristine as they needed to be, and they had kept everything exactly the way it was supposed to be.

"I want an early dinner, at least five courses, but surprise me. I want the best wine that’s currently available, and I need eyes on this Rich Dirt fellow and that stuck-up queen. Otherwise, everything else will be standard." They immediately set about their tasks, with two of them leaving the room to execute my orders.

I went to my library and chose my favourite seat. It didn't take too long, but it was close to taking too long before they were pouring me wine. After I sipped it, I relaxed more into my chair. Now, for the next seven days, I had a free schedule, so I could enjoy some intriguing politics.

While I would have liked to kill that bastard before he executed his plague plan, I must admit that things have become a lot more interesting, though there’s also more work. I will decide in the next 50 years if this was a net positive or a net negative.

It was taking quite a while for my ability to work its way through this building so I could know everything. The defences here were excellent at slowing me down, then the size of the place also played a crucial role in my ability being so slow. And of course, there were accommodations like this one with people as strong as me, and spying on them would take more resources than I wanted to use. Dinner was excellent, but this time I decided to eat more like a grass dwarf, as I was treating this responsibility more like a vacation than an actual job.

"Your Magnificence, Queen Amellean the Third has arrived with an impressive rank 2 bodyguard. He was quite highly ranked in tournaments, and they were met by quite influential people. The Queen seemed to be quite friendly with them.

We pulled up everyone's background, and it seems they went to the same school together. This is probably how Queen Amellean the Third was able to get this set up so fast." My servant continued to relay the information, and while I was quite full and savoring the taste of an excellent dinner, I memorized every piece of information I received.

It will be quite the event, and others are eager to see what Rich Dirt will do. There’s also very little information about him, but he's known to be an impressive fighter and general. While the information is sparse, it is certain that he has won two battles where he was numerically disadvantaged by quite a lot. He was able to help set up an impressively large nation that doesn't follow convention.

And of course, he has finished a raid dungeon and reached the core of the Ruin of Lost Ages Dungeon. The last accomplishment is incredibly impressive, especially because the other people in his party weren't that powerful. In fact, from my calculations, they should have never made it. I never make a mistake like that, so I’m missing something, and that’s both infuriating and exciting.

I tried to take another sip of wine, but my glass was empty. I looked towards my servant, and she quickly refilled it. Well, tomorrow will be his move to play, and we’ll see how well he does. Sometimes I regret that I can't sleep, but tonight passed quite quickly as I was catching up on all the new information about everyone who's here. The place is quite full, so unfortunately, I will not be able to go and see Rich Dirt as he arrives, but a viewing screen should be in place by then.

I could see my servants furiously working, and I noticed their sweat. The screen still wasn't set up, and we already heard rumours that Rich Dirt was only a few portals away. That was incredibly fast. Did he not put up a fight? I would have liked to know how he stacked up against the rank 3 standard.

I had paid out some coin to ensure that the people sent to arrest Rich Dirt were of a specific power ranking, so I could more easily determine his power. It would be quite disappointing if he just gave up.

The screen started showing the portal square just before the rank three stepped through. Following him was a man that towered over him. My first impression was of a barbarian-looking man, but that illusion shattered almost instantly.

The way he looked around to instantly locate any threat, the intelligence in his eyes, and how he held himself made me involuntarily stand up and walk closer to the screen. I cursed out loud because I really wanted to see him with my own eyes. He was an impressive figure, and I could almost sense the potential emanating from him.

I had been so focused that I didn’t even notice he wasn't wearing any cuffs. "Oh, you brilliant bastard, this is going to be so much fun, isn't it?" I looked at the other people around the square, only to realize that most hadn’t realized someone who had been arrested had just arrived and there would be a huge court case with him at the center.

He's even acting like they are his personal guards as they're walking him inside. "Do we know that those guards are still in our pockets?" I asked my servant. It took them a few minutes to answer, and by this time, Rich wasn’t in view anymore.

My servants confirmed that the guards were still loyal to us, so he didn't pay them off. I guess I will just need to wait for the report. The report I got made me smile widely. Rich had somehow been able to get himself not thrown in prison but into house arrest, and from the looks of it, he’s got a pretty nice place. How was he able to accomplish this? Apparently, by being reasonable. That was the same response my purchased guards gave me as to why he wasn't in chains.

As the days went by, he continued to surprise me, and I did love how he made the queen constantly mad. The guards rotated constantly, but he always managed to be civil with every one of them and even managed to get a few tours of the place. Someone else was able to confirm that he did have some persuasion ability, but it wasn't the illegal kind and couldn't force anyone to do anything if they didn't want to.

Still, the queen was quite confident in their victory, and it seems like there are bigger forces at play here who have chosen this fight as their battleground. From my information, they have tried to get Rich on board from the moment he got here, but he seems quite resistant to their offers.

I wonder why he doesn't want to play the game. There shouldn't be any way for him to escape, but he has been able to accomplish things I didn’t believe he could do. For the first time ever, I think I'm actually glad that I’m one of the judges. "Has the world really burned to the ground is this way I'm thinking like this?"

"It is time, Your Magnificence," one of my servants informed me. I checked myself in a mirror one more time to ensure everything was perfect, and then, for the first time since I arrived, I left my accommodation. With my servants behind me, we walked to the judgment chambers.

My entrance was a special one, only used by six others today. Three of them had already taken their seats, and I was about to be the fourth. Walking through the doorway, I needed to ascend quite a few stairs as our seats were the highest. We were also shrouded in darkness, so no one could see us directly.

When I reached my seat and sat down, none of the other judges looked at me, and I didn’t look towards them. This was customary because sometimes rivals might be sitting next to you, and when you see them, well, some people can't control themselves enough to guarantee that a fight won't break out that could level this place.

The judgment chamber was a large circular room, with the half facing me having multiple levels of seating for many to join and cast their own votes. In the center was the area where the accuser and accused would sit, and today's speaker was already waiting in his seat down below as well.

We usually didn't have to say anything. The only reason we were here first was because of the nature of the accusation and many of the influential people pulling strings, as they had their own battles to fight in the game.

The place was filling up fast, and it shouldn't be too much longer before the accuser and accused would be brought before us. I had to work quite hard to keep my excitement down, and I was very curious to find out who would actually win.