From the moment John asked the question, he knew he wouldn’t like the answer. An unsettling silence set about the place, attention shifted to the poor guy sitting in for the Niagara guild. Heiko slowly opened his mouth, “H-he is gone.”

The three words registered in John’s ears and set off a chain reaction of thoughts and emotions. Accusations of cowardice, annoyance, displeasure, schadenfreude, hatred and amusement mingled into a vast cocktail. To the outside, all the Gamer did was lean forward, rest his head on the clenched fist of his left and tapped on the table with the index finger of his right.

Tap. Tap. Tap. A steady rhythm underlined his prolonged stare at Niagara’s representative. Unblinking, the force of John’s eyes, born from Charisma and the raw power of the mind behind them, caused Heiko’s breathing to accelerate. The cold sweat forming on the man’s forehead could practically be seen flowing from his pores in real time. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Finally, his finger stopped.

“Gone in what capacity?” John’s voice was finality. All the tension that had previously existed in the lobby now exuded from him. Through the simple pushing of a mental switch, he activated Hypnotic Gaze. He would get the accurate answers, no matter what.

The second the Attribute of the Vision of Calamity affected Heiko, his nervous posture seemed to relax. A change that nobody could possibly miss, but John didn’t care. He had already intimidated the Lake Alliance during the fight yesterday and when he had Observed Emrik moments ago. In proper Machiavellian fashion, all ‘cruelties’ he wanted to get done, he should get done in a minimal timeframe. The stick whipped quickly; the carrot was to be rationed over time.

“He left sometime in the night,” Heiko answered in a fashion that seemed impossibly calm for him.

“Do you have any idea where he could be?”

“No.”

“Did he leave anything behind, anything that appears unusual?”

“No, only his normal possessions. Although we haven’t actually looked through all his things yet.”

“Are you certain he left the Lake Alliance for good?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“He killed tw-“

“HEIKO!” Emrik interrupted this display finally, but the man was a bureaucrat of little will. What John was doing to him was stronger than the warning. Someone with a combined Intellect and Endurance of less than 25, the Gamer could dominate without any problem, as it turned out.

“-o people accompanying him and stole a bunch of money. Even if he came back, we would be persecuting him.” John averted his gaze; he had heard everything he needed to. “Wha…” Heiko looked around, snapping out of the trance. “What just… why did I…?”

How far Hypnotic Gaze truly went was something John had to experiment on in the future. This was the first time he had actually used it outside of minor tests with his girls. Exactly how much information and of what variety he could draw from people could be of importance. Getting this kind of official, if classified, intel, was one thing. More interesting was the question how personal things had to get before even weak-willed individuals pressed their lips together in defiance.

The problem with this was that John wasn’t usually comfortable using this thing. He also had an inkling that it was more of an interrogation accelerator than anything else. Originally, he was happy to have this so he wouldn’t have to torture people in the future. Right now he appreciated not having to draw all of this info out in prolonged question segments.

While the room reacted to this news and John’s ability to draw it out, the Gamer himself turned over to look at Metra. The First of Wrath was sitting along with the rest of his harem one row behind John. Well, technically two rows, there were so many girls there that they needed to arrange the chairs that way to make room. Regardless, the berserker babe was angered by what she had learned. An anger that she, like usual, kept in check.

John turned back to the actual gathering, where Heiko was now looking ready to collapse from stress and guilt and Emrik was glaring at the Gamer with clear disdain. “The reason,” the Gamer started, unbothered by either, “I asked about Jeremiah first was that the return of the Astrotium and other materials he devoured from my Metra is the most important demand I have.” His finger resumed the tapping. “Him not being around anymore means you cannot negotiate on this term… whether you would want to or not…” with a long sigh, John sat up straight and switched to a more relaxed tone, “…which means continuing to be mad about this right now wouldn’t serve either of us well. Here is my proposal. You agree that these materials be returned to me, should you bring Jeremiah to justice for deserting, and I agree that I will release every last prisoner I still have.”

There was renewed mumbling in the room; Emrik summarized the thoughts of everyone on his side with a simple question, “Just like that?”

“I have come to make peace not to bully you lot,” John stated outright. “And this isn’t even predicated on you agreeing on my other terms. Whether we even make peace or not, I simply want the guarantee that you will return to my woman what was taken from her.”

“One of your women.” Remia opened her mouth for the second time in a bored correction. Simply shrugging, John let that remark be whatever it was. He didn’t care to have that discussion in this particular setting.

“Do we have an agreement?” he asked instead. “And to be perfectly clear, should Jeremiah be found on my territory, I will end the matter personally.”

“…Yes,” Emrik nodded after some hesitation, “this exchange is acceptable.”

“Great,” John snapped his fingers. A gesture purely for the effect, since he was giving the actual command to his maids via telepathy. Rising in a mechanical fashion, Beatrice bowed once she stood and walked towards the entrance. “I have had some brought here. Send some people along with my beauties here and you can confirm I am letting them go. The rest back in the Hudson Barrier will be left to return home on their own. Well, I will give them enough money for two meals and the necessary train rides.”

“Leslek,” Emrik immediately decided glancing over his shoulder and pointing towards the door, where the maid was waiting, with his head. “Heiko, you too,” he added when the punk was rising from his seat. “Take your time confirming who is who,” the lead negotiator stated, the table to his right suddenly vacant. Heiko was incredibly relieved to go anywhere else.

‘Not a bad move, he is removing the person I can easily press intel out of from the premise, using an excuse I just gave him,’ the Gamer analysed and kept quiet until the small procession had left the hall. “For my remaining demands,” John raised his voice again, “let’s start with the borders. I wish for a single area in the south-east of the Lower Lake Guilds to be transferred to my ownership.” With a gesture of his hand, John made Aclysia stand up this time around. She quickly walked over and pulled a map from her inventory, placing it in front of Emrik. John had the exact visual memorized.

“Why that province?” Emrik asked.

‘Because I want the border to look smooth.’ John knew he couldn’t exactly present that reason and expect to be taken seriously. “Simply to increase the distance between your safe spots and my important cities,” he said instead, having known that question was coming. The area he was asking for wasn’t a backwater, but neither was it particularly important.

Emrik looked at the map for a little while longer, searching for any claims that may be hidden in there. Aside from that one province transfer, however, there was nothing to find. “I will consider it,” the middle-aged man finally declared and returned his attention to John, “depending on the other terms.”

“I only have four other terms,” John stated, counting things down on his fingers. “One, the Lake Alliance will not expand its borders in any capacity in the next two years. Two, in return, Fusion will not expand its borders by means of warfare for two months – until the end of September. Three, the Lake Alliance must release any and all slaves it may have and immediately outlaw slave trade within its borders. Four, peace. No secret operations, no sabotage plots, no hampering of trade, just peace. No violence shall be exchanged between our guilds for the same two years.”

John fell silent and so did the room. What he had just suggested was, on the face of it, incredibly benevolent. Fusion’s dominant position could be used to leverage so much more. Money, land, guarantees, internal policy changes, there were a lot of levers John could pull if he wanted to. Not all of them at the same time, of course, there was a point where any country would much rather fight to death rather than be humiliated so thoroughly.

However, Emrik understood what was really going on and so did a bunch of other people once they thought about it for more than a minute. John wasn’t out to destroy the Lake Alliance. Aside from anger, he had no reason to do so.

What the Gamer really wanted wasn’t as easy as breaking or annexing a country. The goal was to make the Lake Alliance stagnant. If they failed to increase or just recover their power, something quite likely since demigods weren’t easy to find, they would find themselves dwarfed by Fusion’s further rise in strength.

Of course, that paradigm could be reached today, by absolutely crippling the Lake Alliance’s economy. If history was anything to go by, especially the Treaty of Versailles, breaking a country in a peace deal was the best way to create a very deep-seated animosity. Regardless of whether or not the people of the Lake Alliance would become hostile towards Fusion on a vengeful basis, John ultimately didn’t profit from shattering his current enemy.

Because, once his conquest campaign was over, John didn’t want to rule over ashes. Giving the Lake Alliance a peace deal that appeared downright forgiving today meant that they would remain in a functioning country. One that didn’t hate John. One that could, once their military and economic inferiority was realized, join the Federation in a peaceful and smooth manner. One that then had resources and manpower to offer, instead of debt and anger.

Rather than swing a sledgehammer, John needed a peace deal that was a scalpel. Carefully cutting away at the Lake Alliance’s ability to proliferate while creating no wounds that would fester into future complications. By skipping out on the, admittedly satisfying, destruction of the Lake Alliance, John would have the gratification of a worthwhile future addition to his guild.

In theory. Problem with these kinds of more fine-tuned operations being that they didn’t have a simple guarantee attached to them. Not that smashing a country into an anarchic power struggle had a particularly predictable outcome either.

While the question of the Lake Alliance’s future was an open one, the beauty of this deal in the presence was that there was absolutely no way for Emrik to deny it without looking unreasonable. John had already promised to return all prisoners of war, he had even guaranteed that Fusion itself would lay low for a while. Sure, that was self-serving, two months were a good span of time to get internal consolidation done, but that wasn’t obvious on the face of it.

“We accept those terms,” Emrik finally declared, to nobody’s surprise, leaving John to smile.

“Then this is a good day for everyone,” he declared and got up. The leader of the Lower Lake Guilds did the same, and both of them met in the middle between the table formation. They both kept their expressions still while they shook hands, the Gamer joyfully smiling and the Tracker sombre and serious. Applause went through the hall, started by Ahanu and Elu.

“I look forward to seeing your government system unveiled,” Emrik stated, only heard by John in that steady clapping. That was all the confirmation that was needed. The Lake Alliance’s de-facto head could see the writing on the wall and was already preparing for the entrance of his guild into Fusion. In a way, this was bad for John, since this meant they would do so in a way that was best for them rather than best for him.

However, if he wanted to be the head of a system that was about concentrating all power on him, he should have started out with an empire. This was a concession he knew he had to make at several junctures. “I am certain you will find it agreeable,” John simply answered, and their hands departed. “I’m not looking to be a tyrant.”

“Everyone starts with the best intentions.” Emrik walked back to his table.