Chapter 1299 (2/2)

Which, I obviously hope won’t be necessary, Derek winced. Was all this supposed to be an intimidation factor against me, or is there something else going on behind the scenes that I don’t know about? Damnit, I wish I would have gotten up early enough to track down someone to get more background information on this job…

But he hadn’t. So Derek turned to look at the four most powerful individuals of the Riders, who were all looking at him with an extremely intense expression. This, at least, Derek recognized from his time in the military. Unfortunately, this was genuinely one of the worst sorts of situations he could find himself in: several superiors of equal standing hoping that they will be the first person to be addressed at a meeting.

Still, Derek had been around long enough to have a few tricks to get past tests like these. After glancing around at the almost six hundred Riders of the Ghosthound that stood with a frighteningly perfect stillness, Derek put his hands behind his back and said. “Alright, is this everyone?”

The groups look at each other.

The Rider on top of the toad cleared its throat in an almost aggressively upper-crust accent. “My group, the Legion of the Moist Bounds, have all arrived, sir.”

“The Legion of the Unavoidable Pivots is assembled as well,” the Spider Rider had a smaller, higher-pitched voice that was almost feminine, although it was difficult to make out any sort of gender difference in their plant-based bodies.

The other groups unleashed a chorus agreement, looking sourly at the Toad and Spider groups for speaking out before they had a chance to. Which was exactly what Derek had wanted. As long as he kept their ire direct at each other, he had the chance to position himself as the reasonable but restricted-by-orders ally to every side.

At least in the short term. Long term balance was almost impossible to achieve.

“Perfect,” Derek continued. He smiled around at the inhumane Riders around him, wondering idly what his pre-System self would think seeing him interact with so many strange creatures. “Then let’s begin. This first meeting is just mostly to familiarize ourselves with each other. I’m Derek Moss, the-”

“I, as leader of the Impenetrable Bulwark Legion, would like to motion to put an issue on the agenda for this meeting,” The Rhino Rider leader rumbled.

“I second the motion,” The Rider that was on the back of the Eagle chirped.

Derek felt a headache coming on; so this all wasn’t just a misplaced show of strength, the lateness and the construction were probably to give themselves a mental edge for whatever request they were about to make. But rather than fight it, Derek knew it was better to retreat when he had already been outmaneuvered. “Alright then, what’s the issue?”

The Rhino Rider seemed taken aback at first by Derek’s sudden agreement, but then straightened and hefted the massive greatsword that it carried. “Before we talk about defending the birthday event, we all need something clarified.”

As the Rhino spoke, every Rider in the clearing stirred. Their eyes flashed and the aura of power that each of them released slowly began to grow heavier. Some of the Riders that Derek hadn’t realized were threats in the past very quickly triggered his Wisdom of the Leylines. Derek kept his face neutral but felt a sinking feeling in his chest. It was one thing if just one or two of the powerful groups wanted something, but if all these Riders were entirely united in their request...

Honestly, it was exasperating. If I had the slightest inkling of how much bargaining power I had, this meeting would at least be manageable. Undoubtedly I’d be lectured for giving away too much afterward, but I would probably do fine. But to be given nothing but a job title and locations for meetings-

“Please, tell me your requests,” Derek said smoothly. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“We…” The Rhino’s deep voice quivered in a way that brought Derek’s attention sharply around. It stunk of desperation. “We… ahem… we just wish to know… whether… ah…”

“Coward,” the leader of the Camel Riders said contemptuously. Then he turned to Derek and said, “As head of the Legion of Marching Cadence, I wish to know whether… whether we were deliberately left off the list of groups to receive invitations to Randidly Ghosthound’s birthday. If not… we would like to request invites. We all want invites.”

Derek’s eyelid twitched.