Douglas Miller
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MiP B2 Chapter 2: Feelings
🕑 Added 2024-03-19 22:06:33 +0000 UTC<< First | < Previous | Next >
"So, in short, the most stuck-up bully of my life is now begging for our help to fulfill his greatest dream, because we've happened to become his only remotely realistic hope of achieving it. Do I have that right?"
Carlos looked up from his plate of succulent roasted meats and vegetables, all covered generously with a rich gravy, and raised an eyebrow at Amber. They were in Mayor Stelras's personal dining room, enjoying the service of his personal chef. "You know you do. You've read the letter yourself, what, a dozen times now?"
Amber set the letter aside yet again and took another bite of her own lunch. "Yeah, I know. It's just…" She shook her head and chuckled. "Out of all the things that happened the last few weeks, this one is somehow the hardest for me to believe is real. It's ridiculous. I know it's ridiculous. I've personally met and spoken with royalty! Kindar should be nothing compared to that! But, somehow… This is hitting me harder than anything."
Carlos nodded calmly. "Makes sense to me. The presence of royalty is completely new to you. It's huge and important, and far beyond anything you ever expected might happen, but the only thing you've experienced before that's different is its absence. You don't have any memories in the back of your mind telling you 'that's not how this is supposed to work.' For Kindar, you have a lifetime of memories telling you that he's more powerful and better supported than you are, and that you're mostly helpless against his bullying. Now that you're the one in power, and he's the one helpless against you, that's not just new, but contradicts a lot of your past experiences. Some part of you in the back of your mind is having difficulty reconciling the contradiction; it's like you have a subconscious voice shouting 'that's wrong; it's not how this is supposed to work!' For meeting Princess Lornera, that voice is only confused and surprised, not feeling like something's wrong."
"Hmm." Amber cocked her head and paused. She looked down and idly speared another forkful of tender steak. She made a few more contemplative sounds as she chewed and swallowed. "That makes some weird kind of sense. I think." She shook her head. "How did you know that? I never would have figured it out."
Carlos chuckled. "Don't feel bad about it. Not many people would ever figure out that kind of thing about how human minds work without being taught. I certainly didn't. My dad's a therapist, and he taught me a lot."
Amber blinked, then blinked again. "I have never heard of that profession before. In fact, I think it doesn't exist here."
Carlos realized on reflection that "therapist" hadn't translated. There was no word for it in Ganler, the native language here. "Huh. … I hadn't thought about it, but I'm not surprised. It took a long time for people where I grew up to realize that kind of thing can be important. Or maybe the hard part was realizing that it takes education and training to do it well."
"Ah."
They ate mostly in silence for a while, occasionally humming in thoughtful consideration while they chewed. Eventually Amber was leaning on her elbow, just watching as Carlos scraped up a few last bits of gravy from his plate. She stared distantly at nothing. "Hmm… You know, I'm tempted to actually accept, just so I can rub his face in how I succeeded better at his own greatest ambition than he ever will."
"Hmm? Oh right, Kindar." Carlos chuckled. "I imagine a few sessions of smugly condescending to him would be rather cathartic revenge for you. Would it be worth the downside of helping him actually achieve his ambition, at least to a minor degree, though? I'm sure that if Darmelkon had any other viable options for helping his son with this, he would have taken care of it years ago. If we refuse, we'll be denying Kindar from achieving his ambition at all. Wouldn't that be better revenge?"
"Logically, yeah, that makes sense. But it just doesn't feel satisfying to me." Amber took a sip of water and pushed her empty plate away. "I want to show him how badly we outclass him now. I want to see his face when he realizes that he will never measure up to the 'annoying stupid girl' he used to tease."
Carlos put his hands together, resting his elbows on the table, and rested his chin on his hands as he looked at Amber. "Not to mention how much money Darmelkon will pay us for doing it." His voice was calm and level.
Amber nodded quickly. "Yes, that too."
"You realize we're already rich now, right? Receiving taxes, and all that."
Amber threw her head back laughed uproariously. When her laughter finally tapered off, she leaned forward and looked Carlos in the eyes. "You may have heard that Darmelkon is rich, but you clearly don't understand how filthy rich he really is. Yes, I was shocked when he offered a hundred gold bounty for finding us back before we became nobles, but that was only because I didn't know why he considered us valuable. For this? For helping his son achieve his otherwise impossible greatest desire? A price in platinum would be cheap! I would bet that he'll pay in mythril and be glad about it."
"Hmm." Carlos quickly did the math in his head. 100 gold was roughly equivalent in value here to a million dollars on Earth, and is also equal to 1 platinum. So 1 million dollars per platinum. 100 platinum is 1 mythril. So each mythril coin is around the same order of magnitude value as 100 million dollars. Just 10 mythril to match a billion dollars. "Okay, that's more than I thought. So he's a major business tycoon? What the hell is he doing living in a backwater in the middle of nowhere like Erlen?"
Amber shrugged. "I have no idea. Ask him."
Carlos stared for a moment and snorted. "I suppose it doesn't matter." He took a deep breath. "Alright, I guess we're at least seriously considering it after all. So, let's break it down, pros and cons. Pros: personal satisfaction for you, Darmelkon loses any basis for claiming we still owe him a favor, and we get a ridiculous amount of money. Cons: Kindar becomes a noble. Also, we have to put up with him being here for a while. Anything else?"
"Another one for pros: Even with the favor and Darmelkon paying so much, Kindar himself will personally owe us, bigtime." Amber grinned. "His house will just about be permanent vassals in service to us."
Carlos hesitated, then frowned. "… Just how much, and how long, do you intend to keep paying him back for how he treated you?"
Amber raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "…Until I get tired of it? I don't know."
"I'm all for giving him a well-deserved comeuppance, turning the tables, and giving him a taste of his own medicine to teach him a lesson. But I will not countenance continuing to humiliate and abuse him long term!" Carlos shook his head emphatically. "If we do that, we would be bullies just as bad as he was. I hate bullies, and I refuse to be one."
Amber slowly lowered her eyes, blushed, and nodded shyly. "I… You're right. That is not the kind of person I want to be. I'm sorry for suggesting it."
Carlos leaned forward and reached out to gently put his right hand on top of her hands. "It's okay. What's important is that you recognize your mistakes, learn from them, and make yourself a better person. My parents taught me that very, very thoroughly."
"Yeah." Amber sighed and shook herself. "Thanks. I'll try to remember that. And… Should we just call off the whole idea?"
"Only if you truly want to." Carlos squeezed her hands gently. "If you can get some satisfaction without taking it too far, then that's completely okay, and you were right that there are serious benefits to it. Even having him as a vassal house, as long as we treat him reasonably. Though… Hmm." He frowned. "There has to be a reason why strong noble houses aren't raising up new vassal nobles all the time, right? It's not all that hard to make a noble soul plan if you know the requirements details."
"I suppose. Lorvan probably knows the reason."
Carlos nodded. "Yeah. I feel like he might just ask if we can figure it out ourselves, like he did about nobles keeping mana wellsprings, though…" He shrugged. "I'm sure Darmelkon knows too, and he wouldn't have asked if the Crown forbids it, or anything like that. He's ambitious and ruthless, not stupid. We should ask, certainly, but I expect any consequences we might have overlooked will be manageable. As I see it, the core question is just…" Carlos reached his other hand forward, firmly clasped and lifted both of Amber's hands, and looked her in the eyes. "Amber, what do you want to do with this?"
Amber stared back for a moment, then averted her gaze. "Don't you have an opinion about this too? Why are you only asking me?"
"Of course I have an opinion, but all he did to me was loan me a sword in a dungeon and then act rude and arrogant when he demanded it back afterward. You are the one who grew up being bullied by him. How to treat him matters far more to you than it possibly could to me." Carlos squeezed Amber's hands reassuringly. "Amber, please, look at me." He waited, and after a few seconds Amber hesitantly turned her head to face him directly again. "My opinion on this is that I want our response to be something that you will be content and happy with. All other relevant considerations that I can think of are less important than that."
Amber stared and slowly nodded. "I… Thank you." She squeezed Carlos's hands back and awkwardly extracted her hands from his grip so she could lean forward and rest her head on them, propped up by her elbows on the table. "I think… I do want to accept, but maybe with some conditions. I still want to show him up in person and see his reaction. Part of me still feels afraid of him, and I want to prove to myself that he doesn't have the power to threaten me anymore. That seems like something your 'therapists' would say something about. Would they say it's a good idea? Do you know?"
Carlos nodded. "Yes, absolutely. Standing up to something you used to fear is a great way to resolve residual fear of it that lingers in your mind."
"Then, yeah. I want to do that, and I do still want to get some payback." Amber hesitated. "But if I start bullying people like he did, I'd start hating myself as soon as I realize it. So, no bullying. And that goes for Kindar too. If he can't learn to stop being a bully, then he doesn't deserve what he wants. Let's give him a chance. Make our conditions clear, and demand partial payment up front, but give him an opportunity to earn our help."
"That sounds fair." Carlos cocked his head and frowned in thought. "Having him with us may require adjusting some of our plans. … Actually, we're overdue for making certain plans in the first place. I got a bit too carried away with my excitement over all the spell keywords we can learn now. Sorry."
Amber grinned. "Have you forgotten that I told you I'm well known for always having a plan? What do you think I've been doing the past two days?"
Carlos raised an eyebrow, then grinned back at her. "Oh really? Let's see what you've got!"
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Comments
Pamela Gillespie
I get it might come up to later, but haven't they already been told if the teach the soul structures they're responsible for what the student does with them
Dan Chadwick
He's comfortable with his own programming experience overlaying what seems to be a variant on the theme. Someone created the reality-based simulation with reality themed results. And he broke it. Bully personality aside, it's got to be a humiliating situation to be forced to beg your lesser for a hand up the food chain...
Jesse Wood
Something to note is that they haven't considered is that the merchant tycoon knows of their situation, which means he could theoretically spill the beans to other noble houses. Part of the protection of the crown was hiding them so they aren't immediately subjugated by established houses, but it is implied that if the other nobles find out anyway, tough luck. I can think of two possible reasons he approached them first. 1 He considers what he can get from them more valuable than what he can get from the other houses. 2 While the crown wouldn't normally give Amber and Carlos more protection, they might still make life difficult for the one who spilled the beans. While neither is mutually exclusive, I suspect that the first is far more likely and is the card our resident bully plans on playing. And Carlos will shut him down and say "No, we'll get you your soul plan on our terms or not at all. Take it or leave it."
Ddave
Sure taking the high road is great but wouldn't a completely fudged soul plan that leaves him at the mercy of house Carlos be better?? It's good to see some character and world building, and I'm excited for Amber to take the initiative in the next chapter.
Carl Mason
Could make it part of the bonding process for House Induction. Make an Oath, get a Bond. Purple being House Core would keep all relevant abilities continuous for line of succession, as well.
Irony
Tf are you on about? Everyone has been asking for more intimate scenes between Carlos and friends so we can see more character development. Having them to 'go go go‘ all the time wouldn’t be nearly as fun without these types of scenes
Elain C. Moria
Side note to author... When is Carlos going to be powerful enough to cast the ULTIMATE fuck you to his enemies.... The spell 'Gojira' that summons a very pissed off 300 meter tall nuclear fire breathing lizard with a roar that makes even kings tremble in fear?? hmmm???? HHMMMM????? (lol)
Jakob Büscherhoff
Same, also saw that a new one got published on RR but not here. Hope we get a new one before next Tuesday.
Alistershade
Thats what i was wondering. *Insert picture of orangutan* "where chapter?"
ReadingObsessed
Did I miss an announcement that this week would be missed?
ReadingObsessed
He's owed a favor from the crown. I'd ask them for an experienced Seneschal - that's a legal, political & behavioral advisor.
Nechochwen
He wouldn't need to be responsible for making moral decisions, the 'oath giver' structure would monitor and enforce that itself, his structure would only need to be responsible for punishment if the oath giver attempted to remove or alter their own structure without permission.
Chris Brown
Book 1 had an entire chapter devoted to these two eating stew and discussing the very vasics of magic (Chapter 4), another dedicated almost entirely to the creation of a single soul structure (Chapter 13), another dedicated entirely to a conversation between Carlos and Darmelkon (Chapter 18), among others. It's hardly a 'bait and switch' when we have had similar chapters before! Not to mention the fact that we are now in the beginning chapters of the second book. Taking time to refresh readers on what came before and setting up what is to come is perfectly normal.
RJD
OK, I can't help it. I know the story is about his magic development but Carlos seems very comfortable making decisions in a world he doesn't even know the laws of. What is he asking himself why none of the other nobles could be bought to help his son. If it was me i would use my favor to get legal and political and economic advise/tutoring
Chris Brown
Using Purple would be a good idea, if he weren't a dungeon core with limited understanding of human ethics himself. Maybe later on when Purple has developed more himself it would be viable, but not really at this stage in his development.
Irony
Great chapter! Absolutely loved the development we got to see and can’t wait to see them develop more as they learn. I definitely agree that kindar will have to grow as a person before he becomes a noble, he’s a spoiled brat right now and that’s an AWFUL start to a house. Definitely think darkmelkon(sp) will make a very powerful ally. And a billion dollars would do a lot of good for their small town, and would help them build it up. Can’t wait to see what’s next!!
harkange 585
Damn that turned deep real quick, but the story's great i see the point V is making and kind understand where he's coming from. But I think the problem might lie more in the fact that the "gap" between book 1 and 2 isn't more "pronounced"? (Not sure about the eact terms to use french is my first language) maybe some people have read several chapters in a row and arrive to book 2 and are suprised by the sudden shift. I think if somehow people understood that the story just crossed a major milestone and that things are going to change "brutally" like when someone arrives to the next book of a series of novel. I know you literally marked the difference between the 2 books but with how the story is presented it might feel weird for some people. (Essentially we get a transition like we would from a novel series but we get chapters in a way more similar to a manga or webtoon in chapter size bites)
James Walker
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer!
Dan Chadwick
Purple - Dungeon Core/Dungeon Master - honestly using Purple to telepathically reign in Kindar is a brilliant idea! And to meter out progression for healthy emotional progress. Growing in royalty with acceptance of required responsibility. A template for future adventures in educating a new cast of Royals.
Douglas Miller
Book 1 has several smaller interactions that resemble this chapter. None of those interactions fill an entire chapter, true, but they are there, and readers enjoyed them. While I do have a degree, my degree is in computer science, not psychology, therapy, or anything related to those. "Flexing my knowledge" about psychology did not even enter my mind as a conceivable motivation for writing something like this. My goal in writing this chapter was to depict a realistic and healthy early stage of a developing relationship. I learned from my parents, from my siblings, from the rest of my extended family, from my own experience, and from various other sources, that healthy relationships involve a lot of kindness, communication, understanding, and empathy, all the time in ordinary everyday interactions. Accordingly, I wrote that kind of interaction. It just so happens that doing a good job at the "understanding" and "empathy" parts of that tends to require significant knowledge about how people's minds and feelings work. Readers have been clamoring for a closer relationship between Carlos and Amber for a long time. This is an important step in developing toward that. I put in the bit about Carlos having a therapist parent because I know that the depth and kind of knowledge he displayed here is uncommon. However, I picked up that knowledge, and a great deal of other related knowledge as well, merely out of a combination of intellectual curiosity, how I was raised (by a librarian and a substitute teacher, neither of them therapists or psychologists, incidentally), and a desire to know how to properly treat others well. A significant portion of my knowledge of psychology may have come from reading other fiction novels that happened to include psychological aspects in their stories. A whole lot of people would have much happier and more fulfilling relationships if this kind of knowledge were more common, and I'm not going to hold back from showing it.
Toua77
Many people in the audience have been asking for a bit more focus on Amber as a character and this chapter delivered it. Are you seriously whining that the first two chapters after a big climax focused on cooldown and character development?
V
I seem to have been unclear, I will try again: You go writing an entire book without anything even remotely resembling this chapter, and then expect your readers to appreciate something entirely different. This is not how humans work. I understand that you probably have spent a lot of time and money on a degree, and was a bit overexcited to flex your knowledge, but the saying "don't put jewels before a swine" exists for a reason: Your audience, that have read book 1, has learned to expect and like the style in which it was written, as everyone else were filtered out. Abrupt change in the focus and pacing of the story would have been ok if it was chapter 2 of book 1, but this feels like a "bait and switch".
ForNatureOfPredatorsStories4837
IMAO, I think you wrote this chapter well, like half of the people on here have been asking for amber to be developed, and whatever is the state of the relationship between Carlos and amber is, it at least feels realistic, which makes it automatically better that about 95% of the romance relationships in fiction, but Fr, why are SOOOoooo many romance relationships in fiction sooo bad?
MoonlitShade
Skimmed to find where you made the changes, and I remember him now. Yeah, the changes are good. Like I said before, if we haven’t seen a character in a long time, especially since it’s the start of a new book, it’s generally good practice to put some kind of recap about the character, even if it’s just a few sentences. The author knows everything about their own story, so it can be easy to overlook that the reader might often forget about side characters that we haven’t seen in ages. Doubly important if you plan on publishing your books on KU or something. Just good practice. I hope my original comment didn’t come out too negatively, I do love this story (as evidenced by me being subbed to the Patreon lol)
Douglas Miller
I added a brief summary of Carlos's past interactions with Kindar as part of his explanation for why he's deferring to Amber's feelings about him. Does that help, or are you still mostly confused about him?
Douglas Miller
No action, fair. No world building, fair enough. No character development, what the hell are you talking about? Nearly this entire chapter was character development! The decision about Kindar and Darmelkon is almost a red herring as this chapter's focus; the real primary focus of this chapter is Amber's personality and character, and the relationship between Carlos and Amber. That's why the chapter title is "Feelings". The discussion about Kindar serves primarily to prompt the other topics. I am trying to depict a reasonably realistic relationship (which might in due time become romantic, as many patrons have commented about wanting to happen) developing in a healthy way. Next chapter will focus on other things. The various other plot threads started and/or set up in book 1 will return and continue.
RJD
Talking and planning are good. I dont know about readers who want all action. I agree that a vassal of Kindar is asking for trouble.
V
I regret waiting an entire week for this: No action, no world building, no character development , and even the "relax after the heavy action" happened in the previous chapter. The entire back-and-forth between the 2 MCs should have taken 1 paragraph at most - I would prefer less than 5 scentances, but you were flexing your psychology knowledge, so I agree to be haggled up to 1 paragraph, but an entire week worth of chapters?! Are you trying to loose patrons? Because 'subverting expectations', like the "song of ice and fire" movie adaptation ("game of thrones"?) did, is a very good way to do it: If you start a story one way, but plan on completely shifting into something else, you MUST leave hints and imply the transition. Since otherwise, those who would actually like the second type of story won't stick through the first type, and those who do like the first type, will leave once the second type starts.
ParadoxFox
Honestly money should not be considered a significant benefit. I think a lot of other people would be willing to pay immense sums of money for the knowledge Carlos and Amber can dispense. Furthermore, Darmelkon is crafty and far more experienced with noble politics than they are. He would make for an awful vassal if he’s constantly looking for ways to exploit them for his own gain. That being said, Darmelkon is (again) crafty and experienced with politics. So if they manage to ensure his loyalty, he would be an invaluable ally…
Elain C. Moria
I'm all for walking Kindar in, and then calling him on even the slightest disrespectful behavior he'll do, because you KNOW once a bully (almost) always a bully (some do change). And I have zero doubt he'll think he DESERVES for Amber to kiss his ass, because that's all he has ever done. He'll revert to type real fast, and he'll need to get slapped down hard enough to wake him up from stupid. I'm going to have to go back and re-read the previous chapters that discussed Royalty, Vassals etc because I think for some reason that making Kindar a minor royal, means Carlos and Amber are responsible for his behavior, so yeah... That may come back and bite them on the ass. *edit* Were it me, I'd tell the merchant no. That he'll need to consider a different favor.
Nechochwen
Frankly using Purple as the binder would likely be even better.
Nechochwen
"Oath binder" soul structures for our heroes and "oath giver" soul structures or just a one off "oath" structure being required for their vassals would resolve their issues nicely.
Riley, Glutton of All the Foods
Hey, new subscriber here. Just binged the whole story over the last couple of days. Great job! Love this story so far! The only thing I'd change (if I had the magic power to) would be whatever prevents you from writing more! I mean that as a compliment, not a complaint or suggestion. Anyways, thanks for writing this and keep up the great work!
MoonlitShade
I’m not going to lie I completely forgot who Kindar is and allllll of the context this chapter assumes I should have. Even the ending of last chapter reveals nothing and I’m not going to go back to the start of the story to find out, I’m just going to continue being confused and mostly glaze over the chapter. In situations like this it’s generally a good idea to have a short paragraph refreshing the audience’s memory, and providing the important context we’re supposed to know here. ESPECIALLY since this is the start of a new book, and all of the stuff about this Kindar guy was last book.
Marian Ch
I'm glad they won't be going into petty bullying. Just train him, take his money and send him packing. I wouldn't even bother vassalizing him, all they'd get is a discontent subject that would be more trouble than it's worth.
MoonlitShade
Tyftc
bbk
I think that's the best possible way to deal with that bully. And if he can get some sense and since redemption I'm sure he would make a great ally long-term
Lee Hulbert II
Oooh, plans! The next chapter should be good! (Not that this one isn't.)
