Shirtaloon
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Chapter 912: Posturing Children
🕑 Added 2024-06-24 23:00:04 +0000 UTC“Let’s assume,” Jason told Elspeth, “that someone from Earth is pulling the strings. There were a bunch of them in Estercost and I left them twisting in the wind for years. It only makes sense that they’ve gone out and started doing things. But, even assuming that someone from Earth is your problem, my being from Earth too doesn’t solve it.”
He sighed, then sipped at his tea appreciatively.
“You know, Greenstone really does have the best tea I’ve had in Pallimustus.”
“We’re not here to talk about tea.”
“That’s a shame,” he said, and set his teacup down with a regretful glance. “I was enjoying making purely social calls lately.”
“Asano…”
He groaned.
“Director, let’s take a look at your situation. The Ustei tribesmen who came south during my time here in Greenstone predate the arrival of more people from Earth by what? Three years, give or take? Assuming that there is someone manipulating this movement of yours, and further assuming that they’re from Earth, this means that they inserted themselves into an existing situation.”
“The violent ones aren’t the issue. Those we can just deal with. It’s the groups that are building up, growing their influence amongst the population, but not taking any violent action. They’re digging into the small rural communities. Influencing the populace and putting their own people into positions of local authority.”
“And that’s your real problem. Hidden powers moving in secret to manipulate one or more grassroots movements. The movements themselves aren’t aware that they are slowly but surely being twisted to serve the very forces they believe they stand against. This happens in my world across the political spectrum.”
“What do we do about it?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do they deal with this issue on Earth?”
“Most with sensationalist journalism and calling each other Hitler on the internet.”
“What?”
“We don’t, Director, and that’s your problem. If we knew how to stop it, we would.”
“You’re saying you can’t help.”
“No, I’m not. Your hidden influencers, we can probably deal with. My group includes some people who excel at infiltration and information gathering. They can probably root out your masterminds, and then I’ll deal with it, if they are from Earth. If not, we’ll leave them to you. That will stop whatever agenda they have, but that doesn’t solve your larger issue.”
“Which is?”
“Whoever you’re after didn’t invent these groups. They came in and made use of what was already there. You delete the person behind the scenes, the groups themselves won’t even notice. They’re going to keep winning hearts and minds in all these small towns and villages. The places where people with power and money only visit if they absolutely have to. Those groups rose up for a reason. You’re going to be dealing with them until the reasons they formed in the first place get addressed.”
“I have no problem with these groups existing. That’s for the Dukes to deal with. My concern is someone using this movement to fund things the Adventure Society has to deal with. Red Table cultists, restricted essence research, messenger collaboration. Things that get a lot harder to stamp out if we don’t catch them early.”
“That’s all well and good, Director, but whoever is manipulating these people is an opportunist. We can get rid of them, fine, but if the opportunity is still there, you’re just going to get someone else moving in. This is a very Earth-style operation they’re running, but there’s no reason someone from this world can’t do it. Especially now that someone has demonstrated how.”
“I’m not responsible for unhappy low rankers.”
“Then don’t do anything. Spend the rest of your career cleaning out maggots because you refuse to remove the rot.”
“What exactly are you suggesting?”
“Oh, I’ve got my own political mess to walk into, back on Earth. You can sort this one out. But, maybe try asking these people what they want, instead of telling them they don’t matter and to shut up.”
“That’s not what we’re doing.”
“Yes, it is. You think these people don’t have power because they can’t throw lightning or breathe fire. They can’t rise up in violence, but they can down tools in protest. What happens if all the quarry workers and spirit coin farmers stop working?”
“The families who own the quarries and farms get more workers.”
“Oh, come on, Elspeth. You’re too smart not to see where that road goes, long term. It just keeps getting worse, and how long can Greenstone’s export economy survive like that? Once supply interruptions become a regular thing, trade partners start looking for more reliable alternatives.”
“Still not my problem.”
“Then stand by and watch the city die. I’ll be long gone.”
Elspeth scowled, picked up a scone and shoved it in her mouth, chewing angrily.
“Elspeth, I’m not trying to tell you how to approach social change. I’ve figured out that I’m really bad at it. But maybe try to convince the Duke to sit down with some of these people. Find out what they want and maybe even think about giving it to them. It’s probably not that much.”
Elspeth finished her scone, looking slightly embarrassed as she wiped the cream from around her mouth.
“You missed a bit on your chin,” Jason said. “No, the other side. Yeah, that’s it.”
She put down her napkin and sighed.
“So,” she said. “That was the famous Jason Asano ‘change everything about your society’ speech, was it?”
“I suppose it was. Look, I did one semester of political science before dropping out over a girl, so my expertise is limited.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means that I once learned just enough to be wrong about a lot of things. But sometimes, when you have power, you have to deal with those things anyway. Despite your insistence that this is the Duke’s problem, I think you know that.”
“I do,” Elspeth conceded.
“I have my own mess that I’ll be walking into on Earth. I’m trying to find people who can help me not make a giant mess of things.”
“Geller?”
“Amongst others, hopefully. I think you would be a good fit, but while you have the political acumen, I wouldn’t trust you to make moral choices. I’ve done terrible things, out of anger, frustration or ignorance, but I’ve always regretted them. You do them out of cold calculation.”
“This is about the Wexler girl.”
“You don’t sell people to twisted deviants, Director, however much doing so might advantage you.”
“Not all of us get to waltz through life with gods and high rankers giving us special treatment, Asano. Some of us have to fight and scrape for every little thing we get. Not everyone gets to walk the easy road and have things just handed to them.”
Jason smiled.
“Do you remember, back when I was iron rank, and I didn’t give much of a care for what rank difference meant you could say to someone?”
“How could I forget?”
“You should be very grateful that, for all that I have changed since then, that has remained the same.”
He stood up.
“I’ll find your masterminds, Director. If they’re from Earth, I’ll deal with them myself.”
“You said that before. You should hand them over to the Adventure Society.”
“I tried that once, Director. You sold them to a pervert.”
“And your hands are clean, are they? I remember someone who murdered five Adventure Society members, not that far from where we’re sitting.”
“My hands are filthy, Director. But at least I try.”
“So? It’s results that matter, Asano. Trying doesn’t matter a damn.”
He sighed.
“I don’t think anything productive will come from us continuing this conversation.”
“Agreed. Are you still willing to loan me those infiltration and information experts you mentioned? The only ones we field here in Greenstone belong to the aristocratic families, and are deployed against each other. They aren’t up to something on this level. I checked.”
“I set them to work about ten minutes ago.”
“While we were talking?”
“You aren’t worth my undivided attention, Director.”
She also stood up.
“I’m going to regret you coming back to my city, aren’t I?”
“You don’t already?”
“I suppose I do.”
***
Li Li Mei loved Boko. It was a beautiful city, filled with gorgeous architecture and wondrous gardens. She was going to miss it. Someone was looking for her, and had gotten far too close before she noticed. Despite the go-betweens, cut-outs and false identities, someone was zeroing in on her. For weeks they’d been digging their way through her layers of protection, and she only noticed now through sheer luck. Whoever it was, they were extremely good at what they did.
Her decision to abandon the entire undertaking was immediate and without hesitation. She was leaving behind a lucrative operation, but she’d sent enough money away that it hadn’t been wasted time. Gold rank cores were wildly expensive, but at least they could be had for money. On Earth, they were the rarest and most valuable commodity, perhaps other than reality cores.
The only thing she stopped to grab was a go-bag she had stashed for this exact eventuality. She took it and descended the tower she owned, not by the elevating platform but by the stairs. A secret door led into a basement that no one but a long-dead stone-shaper knew about. From there, a long tunnel led into the sewers. The sewer tunnels were massive, reminding her of a video game more than the actual sewers of Earth. There were sinister types to be found down here, but she let out just enough silver-rank aura to warn them off.
Li Mei had learned the importance of good aura control over the last decade and a half. She’d known that Jason Asano had far superior aura control to anyone else on Earth, but she hadn’t realised how bad they all were until she arrived in Pallimustus. Looking back, it was no wonder he treated Earth’s magical factions like posturing children.
She absently wondered what had happened to the man. The Earth refugees had all been cooped up at the Geller compound in Cyrion waiting for him. Then they were told that he wasn’t coming. The stories as to what had happened were unclear, but many of the Earthlings believed him dead. Li Mei did not share that opinion.
She took to the streets further from her storehouse than she would like. It was close to one of the city gates, and had no ties to her on paper. It would be found eventually, she was certain, but she intended to be long gone by then. A well-dressed Chinese woman walking through one of the seedier sections of a city full of black people would be easy for her pursuers to find out about. Hopefully, she would be well away before that happened.
The storehouse had a large, fully loaded camping skimmer. It had amenities and supplies that would let her lay low on the inner reaches of the continent until she made her way to other parts of the world. She didn’t trust hiring a portal specialist, and while ships were also a risk, it was one she could ameliorate. She wouldn’t use her own shipping contacts, but she had a list of dockmasters who would reliably stay bribed and direct her to a captain to discreetly sail her out.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she reached the storehouse. She slipped down an alley beside it and carefully swept her sense through the building. Sensing nothing but the skimmer and its supplies, she used a very expensive crystal to unlock the reinforced door. She opened it and duck inside, using the crystal to lock it again.
“Yeah, that’s her.”
Li Mei froze. She slowly turned to find three people looking at her, including two women she didn’t recognise. The man looked different, and it had been more than fifteen years, but she recognised him immediately.
“G’day, Miss Li. It’s been a while.”
Comments
Daniel Heritage
I knew this would be some communist shit, bringing the pipedream delusions from earth to palimustus is stupid that chinese women should have known better but then again that propaganda works on earth and brings power and money to those in charge while the people at the bottom remain near ignorant to the fact that they're being used.
ItWasIDIO!!
Ya learned alot miss Li Mei but you still didn't learn the tyranny of rank or that ya gotta have power to go with skill ... also F**k Elspeth
David Fletcher
They’re also diamond rankers and have been for thousands of years.
Kalanaere
Jason needs to learn the trick to making cline bodies like Dawn and Shako did. His prime Avatar takes a long time to build but they made avatars to work in like a few hours or a day. We know he can change appearance at will and personally I'd find it hilarious if he mimicked Emi or even Erika just to amuse himself and cause some ba petty argument
Rhett Sellers
Lol, Jason's cult following him to earth would be hilarious
ResidentCyborg
We have heard vampire war about things in that area of the world. I don’t believe the vampires have any strongholds there like they do in Europe, but we did get an update that the vamps used a stolen nuclear bomb in a Chinese city after the humans dropped a magical sun nuke on a vampire occupied city in Europe, and that was what first lead to the talks about declaring terms of engagement for the interspecies war so that WMDs weren’t used left and right.
Scott McCarthy
You think they do not know about his wife what with various international organizations looking for her...
Justin
Chinese network branch
David Bohn
Can anyone tell me who Li Mei was again? I‘ve thought about this for a couple of minutes but can’t remember
Bettafish
Important detail, we're swiftly running out of time for Clive's parents to be in earshot of a Clive's wife joke
Bettafish
Come to think of it.... mostly prompted by the presence of Li Li Mei, we've never heard anything out of the eastern front of vampire lands on earth have we? Its vampires Vs basically everyone on earth, China was a network stronghold if I recall and there's at least one vampire taking the "do not invader russia in winter" adage as a challenge
Philipp Battenberg
Li Li Mei, quite the surprise! Though it would have been quite the plot twist if Jason's fanatical ex-priests would have been the culprits. They demonstrated that they collected as much information about Jason as possible, so they should be familiar with the ideals he represented and spouted during his early career. Oh, well. Perhaps some will wait in Rimaros asking for a ride to Earth.
Philipp Battenberg
Wasn't the greater danger that Belinda makes her vanish?
Philipp Battenberg
Are we sure she is an elf and not a human?
Joanna
Is it really a cliffhanger though? It’s not like she has a chance of getting away
Derek
"Special treatment." Great line. Not only does that perfectly embody Elspeth's completely amoral and apathetic approach to life, but the fact that Jason doesn't utterly bitch-slap her, aura-wise, or verbally, for such an ignorant statement shows how beneath contempt he now finds her. Well done.
John Durrett
The only reason Elspeth is still breathing is because of her Dad and the fact that Jason saved Sophie before she got in the hands of a very evil guy. I would not be surprised if Sophie between Gold and Diamond rank doesn't just whack her off.
Liesmith
Elspeth is aggressively unwilling to actually solve problems...are we certain she's not from Earth?
Adrian
Yeah. The uncle who unwittingly collapsed an astral space nearly destroying the solar system and everyone in it for greed and profit . Not sure if Jason's personal growth is high enough to let that pass.
Ligeia
I've never hated Elspeth, I just thought (and still think) she's a real jerk. She tried so hard to screw Jason over simply because she dislikedhis iron rank personality. Also, she has NO sense of humor, which almost annoys me more than her trying to sell Sophie to that awful man! I'm glad Jason doesn't have to screw her over back; she did an excellent job of that all by herself!
Adrian
Clearly, you havent done 6+ full read-throughs like some of the hard cases here 😅
Zachary Ross
I kinda liked energy vampire Thadwick way more than human Thadwick. Are we sure the new Thadwick can't be recruited and or healed? He is the version of Thadwick who isn't a raging bag of dicks.
Zachary Ross
Multiple blasts from the past. Eslibeth is such a horrible person, there are some people who are written to be absolutely easy to hate and she is definitely such a character. Li Li Mei is another blast from the past, but I'm hoping she ends up way more fun. Jason is absolutely going to take her back to Earth, assuming she wants to go back. Last I checked taking advantage of bad politics wasn't a crime. I'm really looking forward to the next conversation with her, it's going to be epic, truly epic.
Alex Schellenberg
Nerd
BloodStorm
Lei Mei was a good twist. I just reread/listened to book 4 last week. I’m also happy it looks like this whole greenstone political movement thing will be over soon. I don’t want to do too many side quests. I want it to be about energy vampire Thadwick, The purity artifact or back to earth
Stephanie Washburn
Who was Li Li Mei again?
John goode
Biscuits!
Razeel Nightfall
She has higher worth alive so I don't think they will retire her.
Ceasarty
She was part of the China branch of earth magic faction, think daughter of the leader and her uncle was one of the gold rankers they unfroze, she was the one China sent in book 4 or 5 to try and recruit him, she got caught in the teleportation incident and ended up on palimustus in book 7 it seems
Patrick
I'm thinking the several weeks was her noticing Elspeth looking into the issue, but Jason, Belinda, and Estella probably found her out in under a day
David
Three of the four Jason has commented on or spoken to so far are so untrustworthy that it’s like he wants to fail.
Justin
Wow didn’t expect her, she’s definitely hoarding gold rank cores to take back to earth. I don’t know exactly why she would have that idea unless she knows that Rufus and Taika went back. Nice try, Belinda and Estella are too good though.
David
“Is she trying to help?” Gonna go with a hard no after reading the second half of the chapter.
Jay Doubleyou Kay
The second most beautiful woman in China just got a promotion because the #1 slot has definitely gone from temporary absence to permanently retired
CritHappens
Not quite 3000 words. Not complaining but are the chapters getting short. I have nothing to base that on. Maybe I’m just reading faster.
Karma Esl
Estella jason and belinda they are the brains in this opperation (belinda and estella)
Scott Way
I think it said in an earlier book somewhere that they needed the next rank up at a certain point to cross the last threshold to advance. So they could use silver cores for like 95% of silver to advance but then would require gold for that last push.
JoeyRed
Wasn't Lie Lie May head of UN now? Or who was riding Anna?
Tommy S
Pretty sure insurrection is a turn off for most people, Jason maybe especially. My vote is he offs her, or stows her as a prisoner in his domain. I don't think he'd go down the route of working with those he hates again.
Zac
Why gold rank cores? Wouldn’t she be needing silver cores to reach gold?
Rowdy Robby
Should have checked on those earthlings. Estelle must be one. Who's the other? I'm thinking Sophie.
DirePants
Elspeth is so easy to hate. Great job writing her Shirt. Didn’t expect Li Mei. Nice twist. I do wonder if she’s made any personality changes. I can see her being useful to Jason when it comes to manipulating the public back on Earth with some good old Chinese trained Propaganda. Hopefully used for good. The odds of them hooking up are also there, all depends on her reasons behind this operation she got going on. Is it malicious? For survival? Or is she trying to help? Good writing tho. Answer one question, propose three new questions.
SmokeJam
Next chapter will start with Li Mei swearing: "Biscuits"
Mike Zebill
She must have established quite a network if it took several weeks to catch up to her. At least by the sounds of it the money was for personal power and nothing too nefarious.
Justin Fralin
Li Mei could be an interesting addition to the diplomatic advisors Jason is collecting. Although given his past with how China handled things and now this..... maybe not
Namorat
I am amazed how many people remember her! (I didn't)
Ligeia
Yeah, it was all just handed to him. 🙄
Owen Kaz
Nah, she seems to overall be the same as the perfect little adventurer's guide leader we were justttt speaking to. Using everything she can for her own gain.
Ben Cooper
Anyone hoping we get to see what kind of Outworlder abilities Li Mei unconsciously designed for herself? I'm not expecting that curiosity to be satisfied, but I'm quite interested none-the-less.
Nergie
Li Li Mei being a proper little Li Li Mao. Love it.
Ben Cooper
Daddy Crimebux! Oh, I laughed far too loud in far too public a place when I read that comment.
Joanna
Good chapter! As soon as I saw Li Mei's name I was like, "Damn! That's a perfect person to be behind all this." I wonder if there's any chance of Jason getting her to change sides? We don't actually know much about her personality, just that she's beautiful and trusted by the Chinese Network (she was in charge at the transformation zone in Slovakia before the gold ranker showed up). Also from these few paragraphs smart and careful, if not capable of outsmarting a bunch of gold rank specialists
Connor
I’m really curious where this is going now. There was definitely some sexual tension between them back on earth. But then we learned that she’s a pretty terrible person. And what we learned now is just compounding that fact.
Bingus McCready
Elspeth is the worst, oh my god. “The easy road”????? Dude fought a 2 decade-long personal war against a legion of GABs for the fate of the cosmos while you were sitting there complaining that Daddy Crimebux couldn’t bump you higher up the ladder. Don’t even with that nonsense, ugh. FANTASTIC character though, even if I hate her guts and wish Jason would’ve flexed a little to knock her off her high horse. Can’t we have a little aura suppression, as a treat? TFTC!!!
Joanna
Yeah, that's how I remember it as well. But she may be trying to accumulate the gold cores for future sale, azssuming she'd make it home eventually. I don't know, Shirt has been a bit inconsistent about the description on that here and there
Hayden Leech
Fucking cliffhanging motherfu…
Sébastien Gagné
Weren't Silver cores needed when at silver rank?
Raphael
TFTC
Ligeia
More like number 25 or so,I fear.
jacob butler
Oh yes he really had it easy landing in a new world with no understanding and having to fight essence users with nothing but banter basically sure complete walk in the park
Zachary Blevins
Well, if it isn’t the most beautiful girl in China
David Cooper
Ok, 'outworlded' is now a canon word.
David Cooper
"The most beautiful woman in China" has some competition now...
Scott McCarthy
The "easy" road she chose was one that could only hurt her long term interests as well. It was only easy in the right now, not even a month from then.
Ligeia
I wonder just what kind of mischief Li Mei has been making on Pallimustus (besides trying to make enough illicit money to buy gold rank cores). She's learned about political dialectic from the best, so I suspect she can run rings around anyone native to this world. Even Danielle -- although I suspect that after a few months on Earth I won't be able to say the same thing about her!
Tyler S.
So very close, maybe next time
Tyler S.
Yea she really couldn't grow out of her heritage, shame
D P
Oh this is going to be good lol and it looks like I’m number 5. ;)
Brad Gammey
Oh this was unexpected, I'm excited!
Michael McMahon
Tftc.
Jordan Rogers
I feel immensely vindicated. I’m glad it was lei lei.
Jonathan Crandall
Hahahaha
Adam
I was wondering why we hadn't seen her on Earth. From memory Li Mei had a gold rank Uncle in China so that should earn Jason some brownie points if he brings her back to Earth with him.
Michael Madsen
Ah beans
Hunter
Is that the most beautiful women in china?
Ligeia
Yup. She seemed quite pleased to be a honey trap, too.
DeltaByte
Elspeth is really bad at politics isn't she? Can't even mange to not insult the gold ranker that she's supposedly terrified of
pyrite jester
Wow shoes on the other foot now
Azwrix
"NoT eVeRyOnE gEtS tO wAlK tHe EaSy RoAd AnD hAvE tHiNgS jUsT hAnDeD tO tHeM." Lmao okay Elspeth
usa1ph
Is this the girl the chinese tried to honey trap him with?
JonO
Oh hell yes! Li li Mei was one of the outworlders!? Love it!
David Carr
NICE!!!!!
mhaj58
Surprised to see the pretty Chinese princess getting outworlded. I imagine Jason is about to have a lot of fun
Agent P.
Loved of course the most beautiful woman in China was poking her nose to close
D P
Ha got number one finally!
Tyler S.
Biscuits
Josh Vanderpool
Love this
John goode
1st
