Enlightened Empire

Chapter 292

For once, Corco didn't spend his day in his study, though all by himself, there would be little point anyways. At this time, his wife had gone to the shipyards to help with the inspection of the fishing and trade vessels that were currently in production. This way, they would know what sort of work needed doing to make them combat ready.

As an experienced captain, she was more suited for that role than almost anyone else in Saniya. In the meantime, Fadelio was still working on organizational issues in the castle's various offices. While both of them were busy, Corco himself used the free time to check on the progress of his map making team.

In a brightly lit room inside the castle's outer ring, a giant, central table had been placed. On top of it sat dozens of pieces of thick, sturdy paper, which had been loosely connected together with wooden clamps. On each individual piece of paper, a part of his territory was depicted. All of them put together showed off the proper size and proportions of the entire western and southern parts of the southern kingdom.

Although the map was still incomplete, in these years the priests in charge had managed to fill out well over half of Sachay's lands. For now, they didn't have access to the other Medalan kingdoms, let alone the rest of the world. But this map, created with proper technology and persistence rather than with guesswork and creativity, would be the starting line, the gold standard all other maps would try to emulate in the future.

Assembled around this modern marvel of technology and persistence stood three people, bowed over the table to get a better look. They were the ones responsible for this miracle, as well as the one who had given them their mission in the first place. While Corco was leaned over the table to inspect their hard work, Watayi, the priest in charge of the map making, pretended to do the same, always with one eye on the king. However, Corco ignored him, since he was fully focused on his newest toy. After a long while of uncomfortable silence, the priest finally spoke up.

“Are the results of this servant's work unsatisfactory to King Corco?” he asked in a cautious tone. “What does king have to advise?”

Corco shot up and stared at the priest for a second, before he shouted, “It's fantastic!” With great enthusiasm, the king leaned back over the patchwork of maps. He felt like a giant looming over the lands, his hands blotting out the sun. Before the thought could really go to his head and he'd do something stupid like build a massive bronze statue of himself, Corco decided to ask some proper questions instead.

“How long will it take until you are done?”

“This servant's progress has been quite smooth. The work is still within King Corco's estates and should be done within another six seasons,” the priest replied. “Most of the southern lords have also been very cooperative with our work and have given us great help. However, in many of the more remote estates, the rural areas have been troublesome. They are very dangerous areas far away from the rule of the lords. With many bandits and wild animals about, it is difficult to work in peace.”

“That's why I've sent you guards as protection, right?” Now that they were talking about important issues again, Corco turned away from the map and towards his guests. “It's not like you're carrying anything of value to them. They probably can't even read our maps, and they can't exactly sell them either. Not even a fence would try to trade something this illegal.”

“This servant is very grateful for king's support, yet the guards cannot protect from large bandit camps. Some of them number in the hundreds, so they are not deterred by only a few warriors. And the bandits do not understand much about value, or about power. They cannot identify the king's sigil on the robes of the guards, and they do not care about our lack of treasures, or about our status as priests. They only see that our equipment looks unusual, glittering in the sun. So they believe it worthwhile to take. There have been several instances where we had to flee a region. One time, we barely escaped a bold ambush from local thieves. It really is a struggle.”

“Young man, I told you to simply disguise the instruments.” From the corner of the room, an old man in a strange patchwork costume made a comment that didn't fit at all with his ostentatious clothing. This was one of the traveling folk. Several years ago, Corco had hired them to find rare mineral, coal and oil deposits in his kingdom. Over time, they had proven themselves very useful.

After long years of observation, Corco had determined that their skills were a result of a uniquely detailed knowledge of the land, a family inheritance of stories that coded the typical locations and surroundings of rare minerals, as well as an eerie intuition, which possibly came from their cultivation methods. While Corco was interested in the cultivation of the traveling folk and its implication for cultivation theory as a whole, for now he couldn't do things too quickly.

For one, prying into their trade secrets like this would needlessly offend them. Further, any information he would get from them would be of dubious value. Just last year, he had begun to arrange systematic tests on cultivation. Right now, a number of the tiny islands around Saniya were being used for research of cultivation speed for different groups, the impact of population density on cultivation and various other factors.

While it was a very thorough investigation, they were still very far off from any usable results. For now, they didn't even have a hint of a theoretical framework with which they could make sense of new, unknown cultivation techniques. At least until then, there was no reason to offend the traveling folk over his curiosity.

Instead, Corco had chosen to give them something to do after they had run out of land to search for resources. His idea had been to assign the traveling folk as assistants to the map-making priests. The travelers knew the land better than most and had an understanding of the area that was much different from others.

Since they were often shunned by the Yaku, their understanding of travel focused more on climate and topography than on cities and roads. Together, he thought, the two groups would be able to achieve even greater results. However, it seemed like their cooperation with the priests was not as smooth as the king had hoped.

“This mortal has his own thoughts. Why retread old ground?” A frown from the priest showed his displeasure far more than his polite words. “The glory of heaven cannot be covered up by mortal hands. Would it not be the shame of all Pacha adherents if the priests of the stars and water had to hide themselves and their sacred mission from common thieves?”

“So how has your cooperation with the traveling folk been going?” Corco asked in a sarcastic tone, but Watayi seemed to see it as a chance to vent his grievances.

“Great King Corcopaca, why force the most exalted of priesthoods to cooperate with these uncultured nonbelievers? Even if they have no power over the actions of this mortal, their mere presence is demeaning to the rule of the Divines! Association with these heathens will also lower Saniya's status in the eyes of the people. Why force cooperation where only division may sprout?”

“So I take it that it's going well then?”

“Please, great King. This mortal implores you to rethink and rely on the servants of heaven instead. Who knows what sort of strange changes these people will force onto this divine work otherwise.”

The fuck is this guy even saying?

Somehow, Corco managed to suppress his eye twitch. At this point, the priest was barely disguising his contempt for the 'nonbeliever'. However, the king wasn't willing to waste another second on the priest's complaints, even less so since he couldn't see any solution that wouldn't annoy everyone involved. So long as the priests and travelers continued to produce good results, he would ignore their power struggles. Thus, rather than deal with the issue now, he decided to move on to a more productive one.

“Talking about changes,” he said as he turned back towards the table, looking at the maps closest to him, where the south was depicted “We'll have to make changes the south coast now. Get rid of the Eternal Ice there.”

“What!? That is preposterous!” the incredulous priest shouted. “Why would we ever do such blasphemy?”

“Well, you should've already heard the rumors that are going around the city these days.” Corco shrugged. “The Eternal Ice is not so eternal anymore.”

“No, impossible! Those are no more than rumors! Why would king base his decisions on the malicious lies of nonbelievers!? Surely, these lies are spread by all the foreigners who have come together in this city!” While the priest screamed with a red face, Corco's annoyance rose as his expression sank.

“They're true, believe it or not. Penning the Eternal Ice on the maps as solid ground was always improper anyways. You should make a clear distinction between solid land and sea. If you want, you could add the yearly movements of the ice with a dotted line or something.”

“How could King ignore the honor of the heavens like this? Why risk angering the gods and so shame their glory!?” The priest was still shouting, moving closer to the king.

“Well, that's how it is. I'm not sure what else to tell you,” a grumpy Corco replied.

“Impossible! Absolutely not! Times are already difficult for the Yaku, and now you plan to vacillate the faith of the people!?”

While the priest had lost all sense of etiquette, Corco was getting fed up as well.

“No more dragons, remember!?” he shouted back at the red-faced priest. “That was the deal!”

“This is not a dragon.” Watayi pointed at the map. “It is one of the Yaku's great sites of pilgrimage!”

“And now it's moved a bit further south and made room for a canal!” Corco shouted, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “So will you fucking change this or not!?”

“Impossible! I will never go against my convictions.”

“Then I'll order you to! You wanna go against my orders? We're not fucking playing here! And I'm rarely in the mood for power plays!”

As if he had an epiphany, the priest's eyes lit up.

“Surely, these foreigners have confused King's mind! King used to be such a faithful adherent, those outsiders must have clouded King's judgment. All of this must be their fault! We should-”

“That's enough!”Corco screamed to interrupt the priest's delusions. “I'm done with your bullshit. You're gonna do as I say, or you can get the fuck out.”

“Over my dead body!”

In a fit of madness, Watayi swiped across the table and threw the maps he had spent years of his life on to the floor.

Annoyed, Corco watched the priest storm out of the room. However, he did nothing to stop him. He was in no condition to calm the man down, not until he himself had found some peace of mind. He realized that his relationship with the priesthood may get rougher from now on, the honeymoon period was over. With a sigh, he turned towards the traveler who had stayed quiet in the corner. The old man looked awkward, but he was the only one who had remained calm during their exchange.

“So, how well have you learned the map making business since you've joined the priests?” Corco asked. His tone was still sharp, but the old man seemed unfazed.

“We have picked up a thing or two while following the priests,” he replied. “Our younger ones have studied hard. By now, we should be good enough to do our own work. That is what this servant believes.”

“Good. In that case, I'll give you a new mission. Should you choose to accept it,” Corco grinned at his lonely joke. While it would never get a laugh out of anyone, at least it managed to calm his mind. “I'll get you a second set of gear, and then you'll measure out my kingdom separately from the priests. If you do a good enough job, I'll consider having your people replace their work.”

“It is a great honor.” The old man bowed his head.

“You're dismissed as well. Tell your people to stand by until my servants send you the instruments and your official orders.”

“Yes, King Corco.”

While the enthusiastic traveler was rushing out of the room to spread the good news to his people, Corco had already bent over to pick up the maps again. Although they weren't quite up to date at the moment, they still represented a great achievement, and were more advanced than any other maps in this world.

With a sigh, he thought about the impact today's fight may have. He had given the priests important roles in his kingdom, and now it seemed like their responsibilities had gone to their heads. From now on, he would have to be more careful, and spread out the benefits of his rule more evenly.

At least that's about as bad as it can get, right? Feels like I've used up my quota of horrible stuff for a day.

Just as Corco had this thought, the door to the room opened once again.

“King Corco,” his out-of-breath servant shouted. “King Corco, the scout from the Verdant Isles is back with urgent news.”