Chapter 41: The Djinn in the Bottle (2/2)
“You don’t want me to transfer ownership to you?” Friend Victor asked, ever eager to please his master.
“I am too good to claim my indebted minion’s hoard for myself.”
“What wish can I grant?” Mot repeated. “Good question. But a better question would be, what wish can I not grant? My powers are great, but they cannot overcome those of the gods or powers which rival my own. Neither can I affect the entire world. A city I can manage, but nothing bigger.”
“Can you turn a city into gold?” Vainqueur asked, suddenly very interested.
“Certainly, but no take-backsies. I cannot wish a previous wish away. I can make a wish which can counteract the effects of a previous wish though if you word it nicely. Finally, I cannot kill anyone directly, and no time-travel.”
“Okay, let’s make a deal right there,” Manling Victor said. “I’ve read the stories of your kind, and it would be better for everyone if you didn’t twist the meaning of our wishes.”
“I would never do that, Master Victor,” the goblin replied with a grin. “But what do you propose?”
“If you grant the wishes without nefarious side-effects, I will let you out of the bottle all the time, and I will consider wishing for your freedom.”
“I’m not comfortable with the considering, Vic,” Kia said with a frown, while the genie listened with a stone-cold face. “He’s a slave trapped in a bottle.”
“Knight Kia, he is no slave, but my minion’s minion,” Vainqueur replied. “It is the second most pleasurable experience his kind can ever know, after being my direct minion. He is free to do as I wish.”
“I accept your kind offer, Master Victor,” the genie said, showing his teeth. “In fact, I will gladly continue to fulfill your wishes after you free me, out of the kindness of my heart.”
“Yeah… no offense, but I don’t really trust you right now,” Victor said. “I’m not releasing you until after probation. Also, the quest giver Barsino wants the bottle.”
“Yes, only the bottle,” Knight Kia pointed out. “We can give it to him after releasing the genie first.”
“I’m pretty sure he wanted the full wish-granting package.”
“Master, what can this quest giver provide that I cannot top with a wish?” the genie asked, eager to stay with the better team.
“Exactly!” Vainqueur said. Minion subcontracting at its finest! “Tell me where these cursed adventurers are, now!”
The genie looked up at Vainqueur, then turned to Manling Victor for a translation. “Mot, I wish to learn the location of the members of the Blue Rose Legion, a disbanded adventurer company from Barin.”
Mot snapped his fingers, a scroll magically appearing in his hand. He opened it, revealing a map of the continent and other landmasses that Vainqueur did not recognize. Four red crosses formed on the paper, dispersed across the world, a name picture above them.
“Each cross is one of them,” Mot said. “I took the liberty to have them move on their own with the target, master.”
Manling Victor grabbed the map, frowning as he examined it. “They’re pretty far apart.”
“That one, Dextra, is in the Gardemagnian city of Noblecoeur,” Kia said after glancing at it. “But the others are in other countries. The fallen Harmonian League to the east, the Winter Kingdoms to the north, and the vampire kingdom of the Nightlands.”
The Winter Kingdoms. Icefang’s dominion. “Minion, summon them to this room,” Vainqueur ordered. “So that I may eat them.”
“They are too far away, and most too well-protected magically, for me to forcefully teleport them here,” Mot said. “I cannot teleport someone from across the world against their will.”
“What about teleporting us to them?” Manling Victor asked.
“Oh, good idea,” Vainqueur nodded. “Can you teleport us back to my hoard as well? I do not want to burn fat by flying on the return trip.”
“That wish I can grant, but I cannot teleport an entire army to their doorstep.”
“I recognize one of the names,” said Knight Kia, after examining the map more closely. “Garland Renoir, a high-level Scorcher. He and his mercenaries managed to escape to the east before the Shining Crusade could catch him. He still has a hefty bounty on his head.”
Good. Vainqueur would get paid doing something he would have done for free. But first… “Manling Victor, can your chief of staff wish for a Crest?”
“I already found one down there, but good question,” Manling Victor turned to his goblin, “Can you create a crest? Maybe a legendary one?”
“Trust me, Master Victor, while I so dearly wish I could,” the genie said, grinding his teeth. “I cannot affect the Class System in any way. No free Crests, nor level, nor magical stat boost.”
“Then can you—”
“A powerful divine magic protects Crests from being located through supernatural means,” the genie interrupted Manling Victor, frustrated with the subject. “I am sure that part was intentionally meant to screw my kind over.”
“You are disappointing, minion of my minion,” Vainqueur told the djinn.
“Your Majesty, please don’t mock my debt-solving plan,” Manling Victor replied. “Mot, you can create gold from nothing, right?”
“Ah. Ah, yes, wealth is easy. Magical items too.”
“I can erase my debt!” Manling Victor said, before frowning. “You can create magical items?”
“Vic, this may be the reason Barsino wanted it in the first place,” Knight Kia said, although she frowned suspiciously at the genie. “While not all that powerful, Mot’s powers have great military applications.”
“Not all that powerful?” The genie glared back at the paladin. “Half of my limitations are because of this damn bottle! If you want real power, you will have to free me first.”
“Can you summon princesses?” Jolie asked.
“Jolie, there is no bragging in having a princess delivered to your lairstep,” Vainqueur reprimanded his niece. “You have to work to catch them!”
“But I want to have a princess tea party! I will put ribbons in their hair, I will wear a hat, and then we will laugh while putting our claws on our mouth!”
“In any case, genie or not, V&V is already unstoppable,” Vainqueur replied. “Who won the two Wars of the Hoard? All I hear is that Friend Victor is now ready to start paying back his debt. Come to me, my chief of staff.”
Manling Victor approached, Vainqueur putting a finger on his tiny head. “I, Vainqueur the Great, Emperor of Murmurin, Ishfania, and the Albain Mountains,” the dragon declared, “bestow upon you the everlasting blessings of my golden Dynasty!”
“This doesn’t make any sense—” Manling Victor shut up, as a light surrounded him.
Through your [Dynasty] Perk, you granted a [Noble] level to your chief of staff.
Due to your minion’s status, his [Noble] class evolved into [Grand Vizier].
“So what will it be first?” Manling Victor asked. “Turning Icefang’s treasures to snow?”
Vainqueur gasped in horror at his chief of staff’s ruthless suggestion, as did Jolie. “Minion Victor, I cannot do something so horrible to a dragon, even my hated rival. He shall be humiliated, but I will first use my wishes responsibly. I shall start by destroying one of the greatest threats to dragonkind everywhere.”
“Fairies?” Jolie’s head perked up, as did the genie.
“No,” Vainqueur shook his head. “A foe more terrible, more insidious, more nefarious.”
The dragon marked a dramatic pause, as all eyes looked up to him, before raising a fist to the ceiling.
“I, Vainqueur, will wish for the extinction of lead, until the end of time!”