"Toss and I turn with ideas that will make things burn
You came across my intention to rule the world."
- Ruby Red, Rule the World

Percy picked at his suit, adjusting the thing to get it some semblance of comfortable. He'd stopped in Windpath to grab the suit (one that was actually tailored to him), some coffee, and to take a shower. He knew he'd be a bit late but he had to sleep on a bullhead to make this meeting. Besides, he didn't owe them anything. If he wanted to take a shower then they'd just have to wait a few minutes.

He finally gave up on picking at his nice silk suit when he got to the final door before the meeting room, taking a larger step at the end to step into shaking Alexandros' hand.

"I'm glad you made it!" Alex said, a large grin on his face. Percy didn't quite share the sentiment, as tired as he was. But he did feel some real happiness at seeing his old friend. While he tried his best to manage his emotions and reactions in a way that was the best for his goals, he wasn't a snake. He wouldn't become someone who convinced a man they were friends with a plastic smile.

...except he definitely would. He just had to not like the person. He knew he wouldn't let personal feelings that were that shallow stand between him and saving this gods-forsaken planet (literally, now that he thought about it). He was kind of a hypocrite, but… he still hated snakes; despite the fact he'd become one if he needed to. Was it hypocrisy if he ended up hating himself for becoming a snake? Would he even hate himself if he snaked someone he thought deserved it? Hades, he'd already done so to Shiro. That was a… startling realization. He didn't think he was a bad person but the only thing separating him from one in his eyes was his opinion of Shiro.

Like usual he made a halfhearted attempt to snap himself from his wandering thoughts.

"I'll let them know you're here, we should still be talking about some more unrelated matters. Make yourself comfortable, I'll come get you when they're ready."

A frown came across Percy's face and in the distance, you could hear faint thunder roll across the heavens. "I came here for a meeting. I wasn't summoned, I'm not here to wait for them. I'm here as an equal."

Alex pursed his lips, hesitating for a moment before letting out an explosive sigh and apparently making up his mind.

"I understand your frustration, and I understand we've asked you here as an equal, but please trust me on this. Just for once let it go, and I promise I won't ask it of you again.

Percy hesitated. He didn't enjoy coming out here in the first place, and the only thing that had convinced him was Alexandros' urging in the first place. Being told to wait outside like he'd been summoned was a spit in the face.

He scowled, but nodded all the same. He was already here, he'd trust Alex this once.

Alex retreated back into the room with a grateful nod and Percy did his best to keep down his scowl. Whatever he was here for had better be good, he wasn't much in the habit of waiting on councils to make decisions about his life anymore.

He sat on one of the available cushioned sheets and waited. To his immense ire he was waiting about 15 minutes before the door clicked open again, Alex leaning out of the door. Without a word Percy stood and adjusted his suit, still hardly in the best of moods all things considered.

Alex just nodded at him and they both stepped through the door, making their way through a short hallway before reaching another door. Alex opened it, and Percy took in the view of every one of the major families of Mistral sitting at a long, oblong dinner table.

The room was small compared to some of the venues he'd seen at some of his less mortal destinations, but Percy had to say it was quite large by mortal standards. The hall could have hosted a small concert, the enormous table stretching down the entire room and filled with dozens of people. It was almost easy, though, to pick out which ones actually mattered. The major family heads stood out, everyone in a bubble around them paying them deference. They were also older than almost anyone surrounding them as a rule, surrounded completely by their juniors. Some had old ladies clinging to their arms in a seat next to them, some did not, and all of them wore exquisite, fancy clothes that could pay for a healthy section of the bottom floor.

The dinner was clearly not of import, and the food seemed there more for decoration than for anyone to eat. The old men were engaged in low conversations with each other — or at least, as low as you could get talking to an old man 15 feet away — and everyone who wasn't the head of a great family went almost as ignored as the dinner. He saw a couple of them whispering to the heads of the families next to them but for the most part they were wallflowers, as much for decoration as the tablecloth.

Alex led him towards the table but didn't sit, so Percy didn't either. As they approached the few who were talking began to quiet until they were standing in almost complete silence. One by one everyone at the table began standing. The heads of the major families set the example, standing from their chairs as all of the lesser houses in their family stood with them. Percy tensed, getting quite the strong feeling that he was the only one that didn't know what was happening.

Alex stepped away a couple steps to face him and Percy tensed even more, quickly determining his odds against the room of nobles.

He attempted to calm himself, though. As stupid as the families had proven themselves to be they were just complacent, not brain dead. If they wanted him dead they would have filled the room with soldiers, or tried doing something to him in the lobby while he was waiting. No, they wouldn't be trying to do anything malicious. They were just doing… something. Something he didn't understand.

"Perseus, I have summoned you to our sacred chambers today to bestow upon you the highest honor which exists in the Kingdom of Mistral." Alexandros spoke in broken Latin. Percy didn't move a muscle, so tense that he was sure at any moment he was going to start cramping. "Today Perseus, you have the honor that a seldom few not of known noble blood have had throughout history. You are to be granted a title and join the nobility of Mistral." A small corner of his mind acknowledged that Alexandros was better than the other nobles he'd heard speak Latin, at least. Or maybe he'd just practiced because he knew Percy spoke it fluently. That was an amusing thought.

But putting that aside, all that was left was confusion. Certainly not shock, just… confusion.

This was why he was summoned to Mistral? After deteriorating relations with the great families for months now, after sending their huntsman team packing and invading part of their city along with the rest of the continent, after wiping out one of their own. Now was when they finally approved of him becoming a noble. Not when he'd come to them in peace and offered his talents. No, they only gave him a chance once he forced them to.

Hades, forced was much too strong a word. He'd just eaten into their territory a bit. Any one of them individually may have been able to stop him, much less banding together. It didn't make sense, that they backed down in an altercation where he held such a disadvantage.

They're scared.

The realization came almost instantly. He tuned out Alexandros' droning, fighting hard to hide his grin. He kissed Alexandros' ring when it was offered, too amused to be irked at having to show deference. The odds were overwhelmingly in their favor and they backed down. They took the easy route instead of fighting to keep their place in the sun. But then again, what had they been doing for the last century if not hiding from incredibly favorable odds. They held the planet in the palm of their hands, and they… sat on it. They let the nation turn to ruin because of their greed and squalor.

This time Percy couldn't stop the small twitch of his lips. They'd just given him the keys to fix the country, and gods be damned if he wasn't about to do it. He needed a stable powerbase to keep the relics safe, one of the four kingdoms should do quite well. With the population and resources as abundant as they were, his good relations with Ozpin, and a healthy splash of high school economics he'd make Mistral the most powerful kingdom in Remnant. That he promised.

As the ceremony that Alexandros was giving began to come to a close Percy let his eyes roam over the great families in the room. They expected that by shoving him into their structure and allowing him free reign in their kingdom that they could control him, that they may be able to share in some of the fruits of his labor.

But, well, Percy liked to think he knew himself pretty well, and he also liked to think he could get a pretty good grasp on people. If these old, complacent, afraid men thought they would win a battle of wills...

They were dead wrong.

Percy had, to Alexandros' muted surprise, left for Windpath almost immediately after the ceremony and party afterwards had ended. He didn't stick around to elaborate, instead calling Shiro and making sure he was still awake, and to ask him to get a lot of coffee ready.

He had a lot of work to do as a newly declared noble, and he wouldn't let social norms or sleep stop him from doing so. He was genuinely excited, for maybe the first time since he'd come to Remnant.

But perhaps what was even more strange was what had him so excited. There was a pretty specific reason for it, something he'd learned about quite a long time ago — months, actually — from Alex but never bothered to look into. Because, after all, until tonight he'd thought the chances of him ever becoming nobility were just about as close to zero as one could get.

What he'd learned about from Alex was a law — a constitution, really. It determined the rights, privileges, and limitations of the nobility in Mistral, so it essentially formed the backbone of Mistrali society in general.

It had originally been written some hundreds or thousands of years ago or something (he had no idea which) but was forcibly repealed as a part of the end of the great war. The king of Mistral was dethroned, the position was removed, and the rights of nobility were stripped to force Mistral into a democracy. Unfortunately the King of Vale hadn't thought out the peace treaty much, as while there were terms to make sure the King's power base was destroyed and he could never return to the throne, he hadn't done anything of the sort for the nobility. In Vale, he'd learned, the rights of the nobility came from the king. What the Valean king had failed to account for unfortunately was that in Mistral it was quite the other way around.

So, one collapsing economy later and the nobility were right back in power. Originally it had been purely through briberies and economic influence, but eventually that influence became so strong that they just… wrote their privileges right back into law, with a few more added on top of it. Like, of course, removing the power the king held over them. They couldn't have a king returning, that would cost them their independence.

For the first time in his life he'd been excited to read something. It didn't hurt that the law itself was written in Latin, a language he could read for more than ten minutes without bashing his head into a wall repeatedly.

That excitement had died out about a half hour into sitting on the couch in Shiro's office scrolling through his phone.

Don't get him wrong, there were interesting tidbits, tiny things that may be useful in the future. Perhaps the most useful he'd found so far was that he had diplomatic immunity — he couldn't be prosecuted in other kingdoms. Of course that wouldn't help him much if Ozpin found him on the wrong side of Vales' future, but… it was handy nonetheless.

Some other things were utterly useless but gave him hope that what he was looking for would be there. Clauses about duels for honor and knights to serve him, both so archaic he figured that aside from a few additional privileges that nobility didn't have before, the law hadn't been changed at all.

Which, considering laws built when knights and duels were commonplace, were not written for a modern economy…

He could abuse the system, he was hoping. Some sort of major clause that said something along the lines of 'nobility is allowed to create money out of thin air whenever they feel like it'.

He and Shiro had split the pages of the law 50/50 and the bits about money he had found so far were far from what he was looking for. The only thing his pages mentioned was that he had to pay a stipend to his lord (Alexandros) and what a reasonable amount is. Another page said that all lords were entitled to a rather small stipend from the taxes of the kingdom of Mistral through his lord. He imagined he wouldn't be doing much of the former or seeing much of the latter. He preferred it that way.

The only other interesting bit of info he found that he made sure to scrawl down on a piece of paper was that the penalty, legally, for any non-noble who raised a hand against him was death. Gods damn were they archaic.

Well, the law didn't apply to him it seemed.

He sighed, tossing aside his phone and digging his palms into his eyes. Almost an hour later and he was finally done. For once he was faster at reading than… literally anyone else. Ever. He'd literally met blind old ladies who read scrolls faster than him, but for some reason he had finished faster than Shiro.

Glancing over he discovered why. While he'd scrawled down a good sentence and a half throughout the duration of his read-through, Shiro had a solid page and a half written in neat font in the textbook in front of him.

Percy blinked. Was he just really bad at thinking about things as potentially useful, was he completely blind to most of what had been written in his half, or had he just been screwed for useful content?

...he better make sure Shiro took another look over his half just in case.

Percy patiently waited for a few minutes until Shiro finished, recovering his mental capacity as much as he was able before they'd have to talk for the rest of the night.

Soon enough — too soon, Percy's exhausted brain shouted — Shiro gently closed his computer into his desk and shuffled his papers.

"So, I have a fair bit here."

Percy groaned. "I guessed. Let's get it over with."

Shiro gestured to his paper. "Let's go over what you have first, might be a bit quicker."

Percy snickered, "Yeah, you could say that." He waved his paper through the air. "It's possible I'm not exactly getting creative enough here, but I only have a couple things. I have diplomatic immunity — which as we both know won't help me much against anyone who'd want me dead — I'm not allowed to be struck, punishment is death, blah blah blah, I think we both know that won't be much help. And the only other vaguely interesting thing I've found is that I owe taxes to Alex, and can get taxes from him. I doubt I'll be doing much of either."

Shiro hummed deeply. "Well, I have a few more things than you."

Percy raised his eyebrows and mockingly glanced at his page which was crammed with notes. "Really?"

Shiro rolled his eyes. "Anyways, I think you'll be happy with what I've found."

Percy sat up and leaned forward, exhaustion gone — or at least, banished for now.

At his prompting Shiro began. "I'll start with the least impactful — but still potentially useful — first. So starting off there is a way for you to become a great family yourself. The easiest way is if your lord's bloodline is completely wiped out and you're his senior-most house."

Percy waved that along. While he wanted to be a great family Alex had been nothing but kind to him. He wouldn't betray that trust by killing him and his family, he was pragmatic but not a monster. And that was ignoring the fact that that included Pyrrha. Yeah, no. Percy didn't blame Shiro for asking him, though. He had no reason not to believe everything was on the table, and he hadn't met Pyrrha. He was just doing his job. At least, that's what Percy told his involuntarily tensing muscles.

Shiro, getting the hint, moved onto the next part. "The second method is to become a great family by unanimous vote of the existing great families." Percy snorted. Shiro inclined his head "As you may have guessed, this has not only not happened in a long time, but it's never happened. Ever."

Percy sighed, "Well, that's… something to keep in mind I suppose."

Shiro nodded. "Next, certainly useful but not exactly game changing, is law enforcement. Every police officer in the city is obligated to come to your aid should you request it. There's vague limits about this but it's probably safe to say you shouldn't try and use it against any other nobles or the city itself."

Percy nodded that he understood. That could be useful in the defense of a relic, but Shiro still had no real idea the relics existed. Either way an emergency defense force the size of an army could come in handy, relic or not. The only catch was that it was truly a defense force. He was sure it wouldn't quite stretch to assaulting, say, Atlas.

"This next one… could be big. How good are your relations with your 'lord', exactly?"

Percy straightened a little bit. "I'd say pretty good. I'm a family friend at this point."

Shiro hummed, glancing down at his notebook and rereading something. "Well, the good news then is that nobody is allowed to tell a great family what to do on their territory. So he's the one guy you have to answer to. That includes anything illegal, by the laws of mistral. Your own laws on your land supersede that. The taxes collected and anything produced there are also, obviously, yours. On top of that, I know you may want to open a stock market in Mistral, that's entirely within your ability on your land."

Percy perked up. "Oh, cool. And what exactly is considered my land?"

Shiro shrugged. "It doesn't specify here. While I've heard of the great family's estates the only time I've been anywhere near nobility is reporting to Headmaster Lionheart. You'd have a much better idea of that than me." He shuffled his papers around. "But while that's useful, compared with the last interesting tidbit here, it's downright outrageous today."

Percy gestured impatiently. Shiro got the message, beginning to read what was on his page. "Well, while I don't know what you or your lord's land is considered as now, I do have the requirements for claiming land." he flattened the table, clearing his throat. "The first way is very straightforward. The great families have to grant you an existing or created title via majority vote. The second way, however." Shiro paused to send him a quick grin. "Was created by the king to encourage colonialism, hundreds of years ago. It was never removed because even up to the great war we've been desperate for colonialism and expansion — expansion into Vytal is what started the great war, if you recall."

Percy furrowed his eyebrows and nodded, wondering where exactly this was going.

"So the second way," Shiro said again. "Is to colonize new land. The official definition is 'to construct a proper residence, greatly invest labor in, locate, or purchase property which does not exist in the present title or is owned by any noble persons.'. Translated from gibberish that was translated from Latin, as far as I can tell it just means that if nobody else owns it… you can lay claim to it by investing a solid amount in it. Enough that you can argue it only exists in its current state because of you."

He paused, considering the possible implications. "So, what do the great families own…"

"It would be a very good idea to figure out what they officially lay claim to, yes."

Percy snatched his scroll, calling Alex. He didn't pay attention to the time of night, the only thing on his mind was the possibilities of the future.

"Percy? Is everything alright?"

"Alex, what's considered a noble's property. Like, what part of the city and country does each noble own."

There was shuffling on the other end of the line, and a few moments later his voice was a bit more in focus "What? Is there an emergency, is everything alright?"

"Look, Alex, I'll explain later when you're not deathly tired. Please, just answer the question, it's important."

A stifled yawn sounded from the other line. "Well, just like anyone else I suppose. What they own is their land. It's just that nobility are the only ones allowed by law to own land. So if someone's paying rent or renting a storefront or running a shop, it's all owned by a noble somewhere."

A small grin began to cross Percy's face. "And the abandoned buildings? The apartment complexes at the bottom of the mountain, the shut down factories and store fronts?"

"Wha—? Yeah, nobody owns those. Same with the land outside of the city of Mistral I guess. Power was pretty centralized before the great war, so most titles were officially held by the king. The only titles nobility officially held onto were our estates. Why are you asking anyway?"

"Look, thanks Alex, I've gotta go."

"Wait, Pers—"

Percy looked across the couch to grin at Shiro, who for once seemed to be sharing his enthusiasm. They were both thinking the same thing.

"So anything we can buy in this city where land is as cheap as the shoes it takes you to walk there, is ours…"

They shared a grin, and Shiro grabbed his scroll. "I'll start making calls now."

Percy nodded in agreement, grabbing his own scroll and moving to the door. "I'll head to Mistral and start directing things there."

His exhaustion from the last night's sleep was forgotten as he almost ran out the door and raced to the stairs, taking them down three at a time. Logic told him that the families were complacent and nothing would change soon, but a voice at the back of his head warned that once he began laying claim to the city the other families would realize what he was doing and do it much faster than he could, being established in the area.

Beginning his quick drive to the bullhead docks, Percy braced himself for a repeat of his longest night in Windpath. But whereas then Percy had been awake for three days straight taking over a city by Way of the Sword, this time he was doing it by Way of the Pocketbook.

Most of the bottom floors had very sparse, if any, businesses or actually owned homes. But even the middle and lower floors were left with vast amounts of unowned space. Not exactly unused per se, as many of the citizens had taken to living in the abandoned husks of apartment buildings, but certainly unowned.

As Percy neared the bullhead docks, his giddiness only rose as he got closer. There was a city on fire sale, and he had a whole lotta cash.

There was a knock at the door "Heya, boss?"

Percy glanced up. The man was a faunus — one of Adam's less radical men, who knew the area pretty well. After he'd learned that Percy planned to bring jobs to the area (even low quality factory jobs, it seemed) he'd practically begged Adam to be able to help. Most of the White Fang had been a little more reluctant, but this was their community and they cared about it. While economic exploitation had a bit of a bad reputation back on earth, people down here didn't care much for that when the alternative was no job at all.

Well, hopefully he'd fix that. He'd been awake for two days in a row now but the first phase of the plan was well underway. That being to claim as much land as possible by industrializing and refurbishing it, which while not a short process, was quick enough with some of these places that he already owned quite a bit. Not a real chunk of the city quite a bit, but a small percentage. He was getting there, and despite his renewed exhaustion he couldn't wait for the plan to get to phase two.

Shaking himself from his sleep-delirious thoughts he turned his attention to the man, Rufus. "Sorry, what's up?"

"There's a kid here to see ya. They say they have their aura unlocked and they want to help."

Percy raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Help how?"

Rufus shrugged. "Don't ask me, I'm just the messenger."

Percy sighed, wondering how it always ended up with him signing papers at some desk whenever he tried to get hands on with something.

Standing up, Percy moved to the door and gestured for Rufus to head back out. "I'll go speak to 'em."

He followed Rufus to the decrepit lobby of the building but stayed where Rufus left, turning his attention to the sole occupant of the room.

"Can I help you?"

The little girl in front of him stood and bowed towards him reverently, definitely Japanese or something. Not that that existed here, but— oh whatever.

"My lord, I was sent by the Onyx Viper gang of Kuchinashi to help you in Mistral with anything you may require, as a tribute."

Percy blinked, and stared at the girl in front of him who couldn't be older than ten. She wore a flat, green uniform of some sort with long black hair, a pink strand running through it.

"Sorry, how exactly are you gonna help?"

He was desperately trying to ignore the fact that one of the gangs within his purview was apparently hiring 10 year olds. He didn't know if he should go down to Kuchinashi and knock some heads tonight, or leave it alone and figure it was a culture thing.

He… didn't know. This was the kind of thing he had to ask Shiro about. But culture or not he wasn't gonna be hiring children.

"I'm an assassin, lord."

Percy let out a decompressing sigh and shoved his face into his hand. Really? A ten year old assassin?

"Look, I'm not gonna use you as an assassin, and stop calling me lord. Hades, I'm not gonna use you at all. How in the name of the gods did you end up working for a gang in Kuchinashi?"

The little girl pursed her lips, looking rather uncomfortable with the question. But for whichever reason, she answered anyway.

"My village was lost to the grimm when I was young. I've been travelling the frontier for some time before the Onyx Vipers took me in almost a year ago."

"And why did they think to send you instead of, say, anyone else? Or nobody?"

The girl remained silent.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. You're an assassin. Very worthy and strong et cetera et cetera. See, the only problem is that I don't need an assassin at the moment, I need a bodyguard, so how about you stick around and protect me."

The girl pouted in a manner a bit too serious for her age. "I am an assassin of the Onyx Viper clan. I have been sent to serve as your agent, and if I do not bathe my blades in the blood of your enemies my life is forfeit. Give me your target or order me to die now, it's your choice."

Percy recoiled, surprised at the sudden backtalk. What sort of brainwashing had she gone through? He'd make sure to look into whatever sort of clan was willing to do this, at the least. More likely than 'look into' he meant wipe out, but one of the two would happen for sure.

"Look, I don't have any targets right now. I'm a bit low on enemies at the moment, which now that I think about it is really, really strange." The girl stared back passively, unimpressed.

Percy patted down his pockets, finding his wallet and scroll. "Tell ya what, I haven't eaten in about a day. Let's grab something to eat and then we can settle this whole 'assassin' business."

"As you wish." the girl bowed again.

Percy walked out the door with an aggravated grunt, heading to the elevator so that they could eat somewhere a bit nicer, the girl following him outside.

"Do you have a name, or is it some part of your cult that you aren't allowed to give your name or something like that."

If the girl was affected by the jab she didn't show it, keeping a passive, almost emotionless face at pace with him down the street.

"My name is Lie Ren."

Sleep deprivation go brr. Discord and pat-reon are on my profile. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Gonna be ramping it up a bit soon. Next chapter is slow, but after that I've decided I really wanna get the show on the road, and I've set the beginnings of pretty much every plotline that needs to develop until V1.

Well, all but one of them. Hehehehehehe.

Next chapter is November 1