He chose to start with the spreadsheets.
[ARMI - ACQUISITION PROTOCOL: CROWN PRINCE ALDRIC]
Time Remaining: 67h 44m
Preparation Status: 19% complete
Priority Assets: Revenue documentation, operational showcase, strategic proposals
Secondary Threat: Inspector Vorne (Regulatory)
Probability of Optimal Outcome: Calculating...
The Core Chamber had been transformed.
Sniv had commandeered one corner as a document station, scrolls and parchments fanning across the stone floor in what he insisted was an "organized filing system" and what everyone else called a bureaucratic wildfire. Valerius stood at a new portable writing desk, ink-stained to the elbows, producing a polished financial summary at a pace that suggested he was channeling several years of suppressed ambition. Nova projected revenue charts in cool blue light against the cavern wall, their numbers ticking upward in real time.
Zip scurried between stations, ferrying messages and silently judging everyone.
"The revenue documentation is presentable," Victor said, sliding a completed folder to one side. "Visitor counts, potion margins, loot distribution curves. All real numbers. No projections I can't defend."
"Boss wants to show the Prince real numbers?" Sniv asked, looking up from his filing. His ears were tilted in confusion. "Not... big fake numbers?"
"I want to show him true numbers that look impressive. There's a difference." Victor tapped the folder. "A lie can be disproven. A true number, properly framed, is permanent."
[ARMI - NOTE]
Subject's Earth Managerial Background: 15 years corporate restructuring.
Previous notable quote: "The best manipulation is facts, arranged in the right order."
Assessment: Consistent.
Asterion stood near the main entrance, polished greataxe angled against one massive shoulder, running security contingency plans in his head. He'd been doing this for three hours. Victor found it reassuring in the way one finds a loaded weapon reassuring — technically dangerous, but pointed in the right direction.
"The Prince's escort will include royal guards," Asterion said. "Level 16 minimum. Elite combat units. They'll want a full tactical assessment of the dungeon before they clear entry."
"Schedule them a tour," Victor said. "Floor One only. I want it impressive, not hazardous. Have Krog run the greeting protocol."
Asterion looked pained. "Krog considers greeting protocol to mean 'not immediately attacking.'"
"Then brief him on expanded greeting protocol."
The agenda took shape over the following six hours.
Victor had presented to boards, regulators, pension fund managers, and once to a congressional committee that hadn't wanted to be there. He understood the structure: establish context, demonstrate competence, project credibility, close with a proposal that gave the audience one obvious choice.
The Crown Prince was, in essence, a very expensive stakeholder who needed to believe that partnering with Insolvia Holdings was the inevitable conclusion of his own reasoning.
Victor made sure the reasoning was pre-assembled.
[ARMI - PRESENTATION OUTLINE V3]
Section 1: The Kingdom's Financial Position (Facts. Sourced from Valerius.)
Section 2: Insolvia Holdings Revenue Model (Demonstrated, not claimed.)
Section 3: The Value Proposition (What Victor offers that the Crown cannot replicate.)
Section 4: The Ask (Strategic partnership + limited regulatory immunity.)
Closing Hook: "You aren't being asked to invest in a dungeon. You're being asked to invest in a solution."
By hour three, Victor had distributed roles.
Asterion handled physical intimidation — his presence alone communicated that Insolvia Holdings was not a soft target. He would stand two paces behind Victor during the tour, silent, giving Aldric's guards something to calculate.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Sniv handled logistics — documentation, beverage sourcing for the reception, and ensuring that the Core Chamber was aesthetically presentable. He had asked, three separate times, whether they could hang banners. Victor had declined, three separate times. Sniv had hung small decorative pennants while maintaining eye contact and not saying the word "banner."
Valerius handled the written materials. He was also responsible for not visibly panicking, which was proving to be his most difficult assignment.
"The Prince has advisors," Valerius said, holding his quill motionless over a half-finished summary. "What if they ask questions I can't answer?"
"Then you pause," Victor said, without looking up from his own notes. "You say 'I want to make sure I give you the most accurate information possible' and you write down their question. It signals diligence, not ignorance. Nobody trusts someone who answers instantly. It implies they aren't thinking."
"That's..." Valerius considered. "That's genuinely useful."
"It's also a delay tactic while you calculate whether to tell the truth." Victor turned a page. "But both functions serve the meeting."
Valerius wrote that down.
Victor had studied Crown Prince Aldric through Valerius's intelligence files. Nineteen years old. Third year of practical governance education. He believed in the system — believed it was repairable, specifically — which made him harder to manipulate than a cynic but easier than a true idealist.
The correct approach was not to flatter him. It was to treat him like a peer who hadn't read the correct reports yet.
"The numbers on the kingdom's debt," Victor said, looking at Valerius. "How solid is the sourcing?"
Valerius adjusted his spectacles. "I cross-referenced three separate Guild records, two Treasury public filings, and one very indiscreet conversation I overheard between two senior court officials at a merchants' banquet." He paused. "The conversation was the most accurate."
"Can it be attributed?"
"Not traceable to me, no."
"Then it counts." Victor made a mark on his notes. "The Prince's advisor doesn't need to know how we know. He only needs to believe that we know."
Sniv appeared at Victor's elbow at the four-hour mark, clipboard held at the precise angle of a goblin delivering important news.
"Visitor," Sniv announced. His ears pointed outward — not fear, but wariness. "Not adventurer. Not Sterling man. Wears city seal. Dressed like someone who likes rules."
Victor looked up.
The messenger was young, Guild-issued in navy blue, carrying a sealed document with the unmistakable urgency of someone who had been told not to dawdle. He extended the scroll toward Victor as if presenting an invoice to a man who might contest it.
Victor took it. Broke the red wax seal. Read it.
He read it again.
[ARMI - DOCUMENT SCAN]
Source: Adventurer Guild, Regulatory Division
Filed By: Inspector Vorne
Type: Motion for Emergency Injunctive Relief
Grounds: Public Safety Risk — Proximity to Royal Visit
Proposed Action: Immediate suspension of all Insolvia Holdings operations
Hearing: 48 hours
Note: Magistrate Halloway presiding.
"Get out," Victor said to the messenger. His voice was pleasant.
The messenger got out very quickly.
The room went quiet. Even Nova dimmed slightly, as if the Core was processing the implications.
"Boss?" Sniv said. His ears were fully sideways now — the position Victor had come to associate with this seems very bad.
Victor set the scroll on the desk. He looked at it with the particular focus of a man who had read a lot of legal documents and had learned to categorize threats by the density of their subordinate clauses.
This one was dense.
"Vorne filed for an injunction," Victor said. "He's arguing that a 'hyper-magical zone'—" Victor's quotation marks were audible— "poses an unacceptable risk to Crown Prince Aldric. If the Magistrate signs it, we're sealed before the Prince's carriage enters the city limits."
Valerius went pale. "That would close us during the Royal Visit."
"That's the point," Victor said. "It's a pocket veto. Temporary today, permanent by bureaucratic inertia tomorrow."
The pieces aligned with the particular satisfaction Victor reserved for recognizing a good strategy in his opponents.
Vorne can't shut me down permanently. Not without a year of investigation. So he's stealing my opportunity. No point killing the company when he can just make it irrelevant on the one day that matters.
He had to respect it.
"Two problems," Victor said, picking up his quill. "One: we need to stop the injunction in forty-eight hours. Two: we still need to be operational and presentable for the Prince in sixty-eight hours."
"Which problem is bigger?" Asterion asked.
"They're the same problem," Victor said. "Beautifully, inconveniently related."
He wrote at the top of a fresh page: PROJECT GRASSROOTS.
"Sniv," Victor said. "I need you to go to the lobby and talk to the regulars."
The goblin's eyes lit up.
"Tell them the people with the city badges are trying to close our dungeon. Tell them who eats the loss if they succeed." Victor paused. "And tell them there are free potions involved."
Sniv was already running.
[ARMI]
New Protocol Initiated: Regulatory Counter-Offensive
Timeline: 48 hours
Sub-protocols: Legal Defense, Public Mobilization, Compliance Documentation
Probability of Injunction Defeat: 31%
Note: Subject appears to be treating a courtroom as a negotiation table.
Note: Historical precedent suggests this approach works approximately 41% of the time.
Note: Subject appears unconcerned with the remaining 59%.
Victor looked at the two sets of documents on his desk. The Royal Presentation, immaculate and organized. The court filing, sealed and dangerous.
He had sixty-eight hours.
He had two battles to win.
He picked up both.
END OF CHAPTER 52