Dux Canus escorted Governor Aemilia through the city streets and out to the battlefield, joined by Magister Tiberius and Miallói. The two armies had to rearrange themselves first, with the Dobhar gathering outside the city and the Imperials and Selkies moving back towards it, so it took them some time to arrive.

But they did so now, exiting the city gates and marching towards King Uscfrea. He was standing in front of the Dobhar, now neatly arranged into their original formations. NSLICE-00P stood in between him and the approaching Imperials.

The Imperials were just about to announce their arrival when King Uscfrea gave a mighty shout.

“ALL HAIL THE RIGHTFUL QUEEN OF THE DOBHAR!”

All the Dobhar slapped their tails against the ground in response, and then took a bow, including King Uscfrea. Estrith grit her teeth but followed suit.

And they all bowed…towards NSLICE-00P.

The Imperials froze. Dux Canus groaned.

What exactly happened in the time it took him to return?!

Turning time back to right after Dux Canus left…

King Uscfrea explained the traditions of the Dobhar, how due to living in the dangerous North Seas they had to prioritize strength, and so rule always fell to the strongest. And how that now applied to NSLICE-00P.

“Clarifying Summary: So King Uscfrea and entity Dobhar are offering to become this unit’s subordinates?”

King Uscfrea nodded.

“Or rather, it is your right to claim rulership over our people. Of course, we didn’t set the terms of that duel beforehand and we’ve never been ruled by an outsider, so there might be some resistance if I don’t specifically acknowledge it. But I’m willing to do that, with some conditions.”

“Negative Response: This unit cannot be affiliated with a third party faction without prior authorization.”

King Uscfrea tilted his head and rubbed his chin…but the Dobhar had spent a great deal of time learning other languages and trying to study the Empire, so he had some experience parsing unfamiliar wordings.

“Affiliated huh? I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. You wouldn’t be joining the Dobhar…or even inheriting the rulership of our people. We would be surrendering to you, and becoming your humble servants. So any ‘affiliations’ we had would be wiped out once we surrender, and we’d instead have to follow yours.”

NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered.

“Requesting Clarification: Does the terms of surrender also apply to ongoing hostilities, both recent and historic?”

King Uscfrea thought for a moment and then nodded.

“You’re asking about the Dobhar’s enemies? Well, yes, that’s correct. As far as outsiders are concerned, you’ve crushed the Dobhar under heel and subjugated them to your will. They would no longer have any right to complain, their debt is with a people who have lost. Again, their relationship with you would take precedence.”

“Acknowledged. Request: Please define terms and conditions of surrender offer.”

King Uscfrea crossed his arms and looked her in the eyes.

“The Dobhar will be your servants and your people. We will follow your lead, we will fight your battles, and all that we have will belong to you. I only ask three things. One, that you preserve my people. Do not wipe us out, do not send us to our destruction, do not scatter us abroad. Two, we need a new home. Currently we live out in the sea, where we are always vulnerable to the monsters and dungeons of the deep. We need a place on land, please help your people find one. Three, I would like to continue ruling the Dobhar on your behalf. We have lived in our ways for the entire history of our race. I would ask that you respect that, and have patience with us. We will change, even as you command, but it will take time. Allow me to act as the executor of your will, and determine how best the Dobhar might obey.”

“Analyzing…”

And so NSLICE-00P started up her simulations. If the Dobhar’s affiliations and ongoing conflicts would be ended by their surrender, then there was no specific protocol that would prevent her from accepting.

There was the issue of her contract with the Empire…but subordinating the Dobhar and ordering them to cease hostilities would fulfill the terms of her contract. She had assisted the Empire in battle, defeated the Dobhar, and did her utmost to preserve Imperial lives.

But NSLICE-00P wasn’t functioning purely off of old protocols and records at this stage, having already determined that behavior as dangerous under the local conditions. So she analyzed the offer in light of her primary directive, without considering past behavior.

And the calculations were clear.

Accepting the Dobhar surrender would give her full access to any intel they had on the persons of interest, and retain the Dobhar’s service for her future commander if it did turn out they were originally friendlies. Likewise, additional subordinates could help expand her search even if they didn’t have any relevant intel. And the Dobhar seemed well-suited to maritime operations, which is one area NSLICE-00P was not specialized in, further increasing the efficiency of the search via specialization.

And having additional military capacity wouldn’t hurt either. She would also be able to provide much greater value to a future commander should she succeed at her current mission.

And thanks to NSLICE Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third, she now knew that subordinates could be added to the NSLICE network. She wasn’t sure if that would apply to non-dungeon master/non-summoned monster subordinates, but the possibility existed that it would.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

On the flip side…there was a risk of being drawn into third party conflicts by forces targeting the Dobhar, once they were designated as friendly. But if she fulfilled King Uscfrea’s request to find them a safe home, and had them negotiate with the Empire to end hostilities there, that risk could be mitigated. And since self-defense and defense of friendly units under assault were not subject to the same protocols as intervention, so as long as she commanded them not to initiate any conflicts the ‘third-party conflict’ risk wasn’t relevant to that scenario and so didn’t need to be included in the calculation. Once the Dobhar were her subordinates an opponent picking a fight with them would be perceived as an opponent attacking her directly.

Then there was the opportunity cost of having to administer a much greater number of subordinates. But that was balanced out by having access to many more units to conduct her search. And even better…King Uscfrea had specifically requested autonomy in the Dobhar’s internal administration. So…she could simply delegate management of the Dobhar to him and issue high level commands, and then proceed with her own search.

Finally, she evaluated each of King Uscfrea’s terms individually. And quickly determined that none of them was an issue. Preserving his people just meant defending friendlies and avoiding complete termination of Dobhar units, which was basically a given in NSLICE-00P’s protocols. There were some scenarios where achieving a major or primary directive would take precedence over unit survival, but if she signed a contract with King Uscfrea she could add ‘Dobhar race survival’ as a counterbalancing major directive.

And establishing a safe home base for the Dobhar would be a given under that scenario as well.

And then she took a look at the last term, which was essentially a request for self-autonomy in the Dobhar’s internal affairs. And again, NSLICE-00P did not consider that an issue. She had no protocols for or experience with political or social administration, after all, and so it was not at all necessary for her to step into that area. As evaluated previously, if anything this condition was beneficial to NSLICE-00P, allowing her to delegate management of the new subordinates to someone with experience in the field.

So when she considered this all together…

“Analysis complete. Reporting Results: This unit finds the terms and conditions of the Dobhar surrender as beneficial to this unit’s primary directive.”

King Uscfrea started to grin when there was a flash of light. A contract made of mana appeared in the air before him.

“Statement: If King Uscfrea and entity ‘Dobhar’ would like to surrender per the proposed conditions, please have all relevant Dobhar authorities sign the contract.”

King Uscfrea frowned slightly as he looked over the contract. He had heard of these magic contracts, something that would bind him to his word. So it seemed this mercenary wasn’t just going to take his word for it, unfortunately. He did have some hopes that she would be on the naive side, given how freely she had spoken with him, but it seemed she had a cautious part to her after all.

So he would actually have to follow through on what he told her.

But that was fine. He looked over the contract, finding its terms almost word for word what he had proposed, just with some additional stipulations regarding what would constitute a break in the agreement. And that was incredibly generous, as NSLICE-00P was currently in a position to demand anything she wanted of him, much less agreeing to his initial, incredibly optimistic opening offer. After all, what sort of conqueror just agrees to let the conquered keep ruling themselves? Well to be fair, the Empire did that a lot in practice but they rarely granted autonomy in an official document, much less a magic contract like this.

So…he would have to follow this mercenary’s will. He would have to help her with her primary mission.

And he would have to drop all his grievances with the Empire and the Selkies. Not only that…but this mercenary was contracted with the Empire at present and being declared an Amicitia Populi Elteni. He would have to interact with the Empire as a friend from now on.

He frowned at that as heat rose from his belly, images flashing through his mind of past atrocities by his foes.

But he shook his head.

If he signed this paper, he would guarantee a future for his people. And that was what mattered most to him.

Better to bind them to this mercenary than let them be scattered by the Empire.

King Uscfrea signed the contract.

Contract signed! Uscfrea Ymmason (Dobhar Level 95) added as a subordinate. Restrictions applied per contract stipulations.

You have achieved the dungeon feat: Elite Subjugator!