Homesteading in a fantasy world

Pov Omar

The three hours of sleep were just enough for me to be fully ready for the day we were about to have. I looked around to see the 14 people with me in this meeting room, all being informed about the situation.

Last night, a lot of things were discussed, but nothing was decided because we simply didn't know if that nation was hostile towards us or not. But after this meeting, my main job was to find that out.

There was a lot that we needed to understand, and I used my perfect recall ability to replay the scenes from last night, especially the poker game. That was absolutely ridiculous, and I kind of envied that sort of capability.

While this meant I could return to my home and to a more familiar playground, it also meant that I needed to go and convince my family to start moving things along because this power shouldn’t go unchecked.

It also seems that I need to learn a lot more about the religions that are popping up because they might actually have true power behind them. They definitely need to be monitored better, and hopefully, we can find ways of using that kind of power to benefit our entire family.

"It doesn’t matter what the power is; it's only dangerous if it's used in the wrong way." That was what Rich said last night when the rest of us started to discuss that perhaps it would be better to eliminate that kind of power, even if they're not looking to expand.

I kind of agreed with him, but there are only a few people I know who could handle that kind of power without abusing it. There was no way I was going to bet that whoever was in charge of that nation was the kind of person who could handle power.

Yet the benefits made my head spin. Using luck to your benefit is something everyone thinks about, yet few actually try to achieve it, and even fewer actually manage it.

Making sure that crops don't fail, protection from natural disasters, and ensuring the war effort goes as well as possible - all those benefits are not small. Thankfully, my family will be one of the first to know of the true power religion can bring. There's no doubt in my mind that some other families already know this, but I’m quite certain that they don’t know the dangers like I do, thanks to Rich.

I took a moment to properly look at him, a puzzle that I have been trying to solve for quite a while. He looked so put together, while others were outwardly displaying horror as David continued to explain what we knew about the situation. The moment he walked out of that portal, I knew he wasn’t like most, but at least now I know what game he plays.

I have been playing the game for close to 70 years, and in this time, I've learned that not all games are the same. What I’m most familiar with is the game of families who serve the families who rule this world. It's a brutal game, yet I thoroughly enjoy it.

Like all families who are so close to the top, we are always trying to make it to the top. When I was just starting out, I did push for that a lot more than I do now, but the goal hasn’t changed. We are still trying to reach the top. Not all have the same goal, and it's important to recognize it because it changes the rules.

Rich knows how to play the game, and he knows it so well, yet it feels so different that even when I was younger, I might have picked up on the differences. But while I do know that he plays a different game, what game was the question I was trying to answer, and I finally figured it out.

It was one of the comments he made last night, and finally, everything clicked. He was talking about religion when he mentioned that he had to make sure he knew what religion the soldiers under him practiced, so he could use them to the best of their abilities without pushing their beliefs too far.

With a few more questions, I didn’t just learn about religions but about him as well, and I now know that he plays a completely different version of the game. He learned and played the game he knows during total war, where everyone was a lot more brutal than usual and actually faced more physical threats than just spoken threats. I honestly wanted to learn more, but this wasn't the time for that.

Still, I knew enough that I wouldn’t accidentally stumble and burn myself with what I say. His style might actually work quite well to balance out the more normal game, and I could certainly use such a person for my benefit as well.

It was at this moment that Rich glanced towards me. I instantly changed my mind on that front. Rich couldn't be used like that because you'd most likely get your hands chopped off even if you succeed. A more earnest approach would be needed, not something faked. I should lower my mask when I’m around him and show my true self more.

That thought was hard to accept, but it was the best approach. I actually think that Rich is a decent person who would be worth knowing even if I don’t get anything out of it. Yet, it's so hard not to play the game as I can already see multiple ways I could use him for my own benefit. But sometimes, it's just best not to play the game. If my younger self knew what I was currently thinking, I wonder if he would think that I had gone mad.

‘You never stop learning,’ was something my grandfather drilled into me. I truly never realized how correct that statement is. I was broken out of my musings as decisions were starting to be made. Currently, only the 14 people here will know what's going on, and when I message them back after I complete my mission, they will tell the rest.

My mission will be to get the World Council bureaucracy moving with the help of my family. There were a few ideas thrown out to test the luck further, but Rich told everyone that they might already know something's wrong, as last night there was more holy energy around our card game than normal.

And of course, moments later, he basically told everyone the opposite of what he had said just a moment ago. "That being said, while we have a chance that they still don't know, I say we see how far we can stretch their luck.”

“I will try to get 50 coin flips to land on the same side in a row, and if I do, none of us is going to tell anything to anyone for a full month, or something along those lines." After Rich said that, everyone fell quiet.

That’s one of the most devious things I’ve heard, and the sheer luck you would need to make that happen is immense. There was no way an entire nation's whatever they were using to produce this luck effect was going to be enough.

He's just straight out ruthless when he needs to be. And I could see that small glint of a smile; it got my heart pumping. It would bring so many problems, especially if the nation isn’t hostile to us, but I so want him to try. Like a few others, I started to shake my head. "It's just not worth it with the current knowledge we have," someone said, and I agreed.

But now that the meeting was over, I needed to start preparing myself. "David, before you go, do you perhaps have a room where I can make myself presentable?" David looked at me dumbfounded, but someone else spoke up, "Yes, follow me."

It was a middle-aged woman, but she looked a lot more put together than everyone else here, so I followed her. We engaged in comfortable small talk, and it was a good warm-up for what I was about to go through. It was like preparing to go to war; everything had to be perfect as I couldn’t afford a single mistake.

I hadn’t been this nervous in a while. I guess country life can do that to you. I've let myself go a bit. My speech pattern was a bit too relaxed; it needed to be crisper. Things didn’t improve when I stood in front of a mirror.

There were more mistakes than I had fingers, and my eye started to twitch a bit. If I looked like that when I was younger, my mother would’ve chewed me out. After about two hours, I looked perfect, and I was told that the portal was already ready. I didn’t like portal travel, especially when I needed to do it several times in a row, but things could be quite dire so I can endure.