BXBX NOVEL Chapter 698
“That’s good,” said Kat slowly, still pondering her question, “Hmm... do you know Green at all, as in outside of the tournament at the moment obviously you’ve seen her now,”
“Eeeh... know is a bit of stretch but I suppose the answer is yes,” said Blue as she adjusted the chairs position slightly, finding she was reaching a bit to keep sawing away at the ropes after the most recent one gave way, “we’re both nobles, and of the same age so for the really big formal functions she was there as well but we’re in different political factions and haven’t really talked much. Green also has a bad habit of finding someone willing to put up with her sleeping on them and just getting dragged around quite literally.
“So I suppose she’s somewhat infamous in that regard, and of the many noble heirs that I’m not friends with I know her the best. Which is somewhat odd now that I think about it aloud. Still, I’ve never really talked to her so I don’t know much,” Blue trailed off somewhat at the end, as she started to consider how poor of her it was to not even know the details of fellow Fae nobles. Perhaps some studying was in order once she got home.
“What political factions are there, could you expand more on that?” asked Kat with significant curiosity.
“Kat, I do believe it is my turn to ask a question?” said Blue, and Kat felt herself blush slightly.
“Woops, sorry. Please go ahead I was just interested,” explained Kat.
.....
“It’s fine,” said Blue, “I understand the feeling” she didn’t really but unlike Kat was able to lie about that fact, “so it’s no trouble really. I suppose seeing as you want to know about nobles... I’ll ask are you anyone special in the demon hierarchy?”
Kat was about to answer ‘no’ but stopped to really consider that answer. While her parents were just random humans and she wasn’t high up in the hierarchy or something, her abilities were somewhat weird and the Lust faction leader spent a good deal of time convincing Kat their faction was the right one for her. “Probably not,” was Kat’s answer in the end.
“Probably not? How can you only probably not be important or a noble? Surely you’d know either way?” asked Blue with no shortage of confusion.
“Well... maybe it’s simple for you but there isn’t really a noble class when it comes to demons. Everyone gets their position more like a job interview though I’ll admit the truly strong demons seemed to get assigned to important places like the Faction leader. There are a few reasons I don’t really know.
“The first is that while I’m almost certain my parents were normal, I’m an orphan. I do know how my parents died and that they weren’t really anything overly special,” *certainly not in supernatural terms. Just plain old humans,* “but I don’t know anything about my extended family perhaps a few generations back I AM important somehow,” *because really with how long demons live I wouldn’t be surprised if my many greats grandparents still exist but we’ll see...* “and demons do live for a while so that could come up. There’s also the fact I Ranked up rather quickly and to top it off... I seem to be getting rare abilities quite frequently. Most demons would have one or two of mine at most when they are stronger, I have 2 rare abilities and a rare variant on a common ability which isn’t normal.”
“I see,” said Blue just as the next rope snapped. Blue flexed her fingers, now completely free. Her wrist also had a good deal of movement now. Blue started twisting her hands around, trying to get her right palm facing the back of her left hand. Gritting her teeth and ignoring the slight rope burn Blue managed to wrench her hand around. “Can you summon your fan into my hand?”
“Maybe?” Kat pulled on her fans letting them appear near where she thought Blue’s hands were. Which was in fact... not all that close at all and the fan went clattering to the ground. “That’d be a no then I suppose,” Kat sighed, she’d tried picturing the fan appearing just above Blue’s hand when she summoned that fan, but considering she heard it clatter to the ground it didn’t work at all. “So, can you tell me about the factions you guys have?”
Blue glared at the fan on the floor and debated just how hard it would be to grab. Blue instantly decided reaching down for it was off the table... but perhaps with her feet? Blue got to work grasping the fan between her feet and pulling it up. Shifting herself Blue managed to get the fan onto the chair... which really wasn’t anywhere near her hands. Blue frowned at the fan sitting their innocently. “So we have two big ones I suppose. They have proper names, but the slang term for them is the Joiner faction and the Split faction.
“There are arguments for both, or so I’ve been told. Truthfully, I don’t really understand either side all that much. The Joiner faction argue for more control stemming from the crown. Getting regions to work together as big super regions and solidifying subsidised trade routes to encourage growth. Allegedly it’ll make everyone more money in the long term, with some losses in the short term.
“The Split party though, argue for more power to the towns and cities they rule over. It’s all about elevating mayors to the equivalent of first-generation nobility, barons and the like. They argue that less oversight, and the right people in the right places, would drastically increase the productivity of the region, once again, making more money for everyone in the long term, with some short term loses.
“Which... I guess they can both be right, but one of them has to be MORE correct. The big sticking points with the Joiner factions is that there isn’t a great consensus on HOW to join things together. They say nothing will really change nobility wise, but that’s not true. Somebody will have to become somebody else’s puppet or just stop being relevant loosing a lot of their holdings. They do however, get a lot of support from the Barons because well... it’s really not that different for them, and most of them see the Split party as taking away their power instead of spreading it out more.
“The problem with the Split party is that while it sounds good on paper, most villages don’t have a competent mayor, or even a mayor at all. How could they start giving more responsibility to people who can’t bear the weight or simply don’t exist? The argument is that they’d train people for the position... but of course where do they get the people with the skills for it? And how many? Does every village with just ten families need a mayor? Historically outside mayors coming in and replacing village officials that sort of get elected turns out quite bad,”
Blue shrugged as she once again put the fan between her feet. Now she was trying to send the fan underneath the chair with her feet and grab it on the other side with her hands... but she wasn’t quite able to reach. “There are other policies they argue over of course, but that’s the main gist of things. My family are part of the Joiner faction, but not one of the core supporters. We’re mostly there to have a voting block around us, not because we agree. Or so I’ve been told by my parents.”
Blue grit her teeth and prayed her next action would work. Letting her feet fall a bit Blue steady herself for a few seconds before launching the fan up towards her hands. Blue felt the fan hit the bottom side of her hand before it clattered back to the floor. She just sat there with a pinched expression on her face while Kat said nothing, despite being knowing quite clearly about the failure. Blue just glared as best she could in the fans general direction behind her before shuffling the chair back to Kat’s finger and once again beginning to saw at the ropes. “So tell me about your abilities I guess. Wait... no um... hmm... I’d like you to share, but this is a question I’ll let you skip. I don’t want you feeling like I’ve forced you to reveal what you can do so I get a leg up in the Tournament in future rounds. I genuinely am interested. I can’t say I won’t use this information against you either... but I’d like to know if you’ll tell me.”