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HMJ - Chapter 35
🕑 Added 2024-06-18 13:16:07 +0000 UTC“Ehm, Lust? What are you doing with that boy?” Harry blinked as he watched Lust pull a roped, bound, and gagged young man behind her towards the provisional cells of his mountain hideout. “Who even is he? I never saw him before.”
“You assigned me to be the Head of Internal Affairs; I am just doing my job. That one is a spy who arrived today. I caught him before he could send off a message,” she explained as she licked her lips seductively, taking great pleasure in pulling the young man around like a pet.
While she had accepted Harry partially for his power, partially for the contract between the two of them, and partially because he wasn’t fully human, she still looked down on regular humans.
She had a completely sadistic streak and loved to treat common humans as trash or lower beings.
On the other hand, she liked capable humans, like Lisbeth, for example. At the first meeting, she completely looked down on her, but after witnessing her smithing ability and other SAO abilities, she gained some respect for the brown-haired girl.
Harry, the capable leader he was, gave Lust a fitting position.
She was responsible for internal affairs, which was a broad term covering law enforcement, defense of the island, and other small matters handling humans and management.
She most enjoyed the law enforcement part, but thanks to the contracts the Skagosi were under, she hadn’t much to do yet. Still, the wildlings were unruly enough.
In the future, she would have to build a proper police force. But for now, she was enough—her superhuman strength and newfound magical skills allowed her to handle situations accordingly.
“What exactly did he do?” Harry asked as he took a closer look at the young man.
“That boy arrived this morning at the port. He saw me training the new Warg Squad you wanted to develop. Also, Tiamat was there; the moment he saw a dragon, he began muttering something about needing to inform the citadel. Magic is alive and all that stuff,” she explained. “He clearly is a foreign spy.”
Now that he was looking at the boy, who was wearing brown robes, he noticed something around his neck.
Lust had placed a leather leash on it and was pulling him around, but it was a chain made of different colored links.
“Oh, there was so much happening. I totally forgot that one of these guys was supposed to arrive. He is our new maester,” Harry stated as he remembered that Lord Stark had sent for a new maester for him from the Citadel as the new Lord of Skagos.
Lust looked at the poor boy before blinking at Harry. “Maester? Are you mad? That worm is clearly my new pet.”
“M-a-e-s-t-e-r. The best description for them is learned men, scholars, or researchers. They are an organization that has monopolized knowledge in the Seven Kingdoms and is able to influence every lord. They are teachers, healers, and counselors for the most noble lords in Westeros,” Harry explained as he looked at the boy before thinking out loud. “Although I was conflicted about what to do with him, this one already knows too much. Maybe he should have had an accident before arriving here.”
The young maester became particularly pale as he heard these words.
“Can’t I keep him? I promise I will train him to be a good pet. He brought some interesting things with him: books, roosts, and different vials of potions,” Lust pouted as her finger ran over the young maester’s spine.
“I am reasonably sure he is here to spy for Oldtown, maybe even for House Hightower. Based on my information, they are one of the most mysterious but powerful houses in Westeros, having their hands in everything but never getting truly involved,” Harry replied. “If you want to keep him, we would have to ensure that he doesn’t spy for anyone.”
He removed the gag from the about 20-year-old boy, and he began to immediately beg, “My Lord, I won’t tell anyone about what I saw. Please know that I will serve your house faithfully. Don’t kill me!”
“Stop crying. What’s your name?” Harry asked as he stared at the boy. He had a high level for his age, but his stats were mostly in the mental field; he was weaker than most soldiers.
“Pylos, my Lord. I completed forging my chain this year. I wasn’t instructed to spy on anyone in particular, just to take a closer look at the happenings on Skagos. They also asked me to confirm a few more common rumors about magic, like the unicorns that are supposed to live here. But nothing specific against you, my Lord,” he explained desperately.
It seemed like the Maesters weren’t too interested in Skagos, besides the few common rumors. Most likely, Pylos here didn’t fit with their ideal, but he wasn’t truly against them, so they sent him to a remote location.
But what was it that they didn’t like about him? Watching the chain around his neck, Harry could make out one link that didn’t fit with any of the metals he was familiar with.
“What is that link made of? And what is it for?”
Seeing the link Harry was pointing at, Pylos frowned for a moment before replying, “It’s Valyrian Steel, my Lord. Maesters who have studied the higher mysteries forge one. But, in all honesty, magic is not well liked in our order.
From what I can see, your people know more about it with the skin changers you have. You even have a small dragon.”
“So you are interested in magic?” Harry said once again, summoning a flame at his fingertip to show off a bit. It was a simple variation of the fire summoning charm, always doing its trick.
The eyes of the young maester widened. “You are a sorcerer?”
“If you mean a magic user, then yes. If you want, you can learn it too, besides your duties. We always need more captive people, but there is a certain condition you have to fulfill,” Harry grinned as his green eyes pierced into the boy.
“What do you want from me?”
The small flame disappeared, and a contract materialized in the palm of his hand. “Oh, simple. I want you to sign this. You can read it.”
It took a bit for Tybald to read through it. “It’s a loyalty contract? Is it magical too? Or how is a clause like, ‘The moment the signer practically even attempts to betray Lord Potter and his house, his life is forfeit and all his knowledge belongs to House Potter,’ supposed to be enforced?”
“Good guess. Yes, it’s basically a magical contract that will ensure your loyalty to my house. It’s what you normally promise the Lord your service anyway, just without the option of betrayal. I will control which information you send to Citadel. You can tell them that the unicorns are real, but there is nothing magical about them. They are just a horned variation of a mountain goat,” Harry explained. He wouldn’t let the Citadel gain knowledge about what he was actually doing here yet.
Sure, with his inferi and his own power, he could defend Skagos against all Westerosi armies.
But he wanted to use them to get richer and gain more power too. If they were his foe, it wasn’t possible.
“And what happens if I don’t sign it?” Pylos asked.
“I think you already know that,” Harry said with a grin. “But think of it. Is loyalty to an order of old men that sends you to one of the seemingly most primitive parts of the world really worth it? Especially if you can learn actual magic in exchange?”
It only took one moment of thought. “I sign it.”
“Good, welcome to Skagos, Pylos!” Harry said before pointing at Lust. “Lust will take care of you. She is currently the highest-ranking person on Skagos after me. You will serve under her.”
“Hiiiiii,” Pylos cried out as Lust licked her lips and once again took the leash that was still placed on Pylos’s chain.
“Follow me, pet. We will have a lot of fun.”
“Oh, and let Lisbeth take a look at that piece of Valyrian steel. I will do so too, once I have a bit more time,” Harry shouted after them as he watched Pylos get dragged off by Lust like a dog. The boy was looking pleadingly at him. ‘Sorry sucker. But I don’t plan to become the target of Lust’s sadistic streak. Rather you than me.’
———
? POV
A muscular man with steel gray hair frowned slightly, gazing over a message that he had just received.
System Notification: A player has unlocked blacksmithing. Ore spawns are now enabled.
First Cooking. Then Tailoring. Now blacksmithing?
Just what is going on? From his spot on the cliff, his gaze wandered across the mostly empty city. NPCs of all sorts slowly meandered around on pre-programmed routes.
This was the second floor of Main City, Urbus. Being the creator of this game had a few advantages, like the possibility to play on the second floor while everyone was still stuck on the first.
The floor should have actually had the possibility to unlock blacksmithing, tailoring, and cooking. Had the system decided that the situation was too dire? There were already five hundred dead people; the majority had committed suicide in some form. But that was according to expectations.
During this period, people were adjusting to the reality of the situation, with quite a high death rate.
To be honest, the death rate was lower than he had expected in the first place. Sure, the suicides were about right, but he expected more deaths from mobs and the like. He could see no reason why the system reacted in such a way.
Not even the one who murdered.
Some psychopaths had already started killing people, but only after a few days. It takes all sorts, and a person’s true personality comes out in dire situations.
Not that he could talk; after all, everyone in here was because of him.
Unlocking cooking, tailoring, and blacksmithing early wasn’t a reason to be concerned. In fact, it would probably extend this little game of his for a bit.
Still, he would have to keep an eye on whatever had caused this change.
Immortal Object
Turning his attention back towards the large, hunched cows bashing their heads into his back, not so much as moving him an inch.
His sword began to glow a deep scarlet red as his skill activated, slashing once and catching all three animals. All three began to glow and explode into small particles of light.
He had pretty much completed all the quests he had wanted to do on this floor. All he had to do now was wait for the other players to catch up and pretend to be a relatively new player.
Heathcliff, Lv. 7
Well, his level would make it a bit difficult to explain, but he could always sit back for a week or so.
It won’t be that boring.
He could explain away his reason for not being at the floor one raid by endlessly grinding in a faraway corner of floor one.
Yes. That would do.
