A wistful stare at the clear blue sky out the window brought Corco back to a simpler time when he had still been at war.

“Master, at your request, this servant has produced the reports of happenings inside Saniya during the most recent period of war.” With a deep bow, Iyo – the skinny official who had done a lot of the city's administrative work over the past year – offered a stack of papers to Corco. “However, there is not too much King needs to bother himself with. Overall, there have been no major incidents during King's absence, so King can focus on more pressing matters and leave these details to this servant.”

“No major incidents? There have been countless minor ones,” Quato interrupted out of turn. For the ghost warrior and one of Tama's closest aides, it was an unusual lapse in etiquette. However, it was an understandable one. As a leftover servant of Sawo d'Ichilia – Saniya's previous ruler – Iyo wasn't very popular among Corco's loyalists.

“Countless, is it? Were your men too lazy to count them, or were they incapable of simple calculations? It appears your fake warriors require some education in fields beyond theft and murder,” Iyo sneered. In provocation, the two men squared off. The distance between them reduced as their voices got louder.

“We only have a handful of men, and they are busy with other matters. They have to prevent outside spies and assassins from infiltrating the city, collect intelligence on any potential uprisings, and more recently they have been forced to fight the criminal elements of the city. How are we supposed to play accountant as well? Keeping track of the exact numbers appears to be your duty, Official Iyo, one you have no interest in fulfilling.”

“You see what I have to deal with, Master Corco?” With the two servants behind him, Ronnie sat across from Corco's desk inside the king's study, head in his hands and a tired look on his face.

“There are no problems with security!”

“King Corco, this is an important matter!”

Before Corco could even answer the chemist, both servants shouted their version of the truth in each other's face. In a rare moment of unity, they didn't even acknowledge Ronnie's existence.

“Shut up, both of you!” Corco silenced the chaotic scene. “The fuck do you think this place is? I don't care about your personal conflicts, and I don't care about your end goals. Iyo, you're worried I'll replace you if I learn about the problems in the city, is that it?” Caught out, the servant's mouth twitched only slightly. Still, it was enough for Corco to suss out his real intentions.

“While I won't throw out a subordinate just because they struggle to solve a simple problem, I am very likely to throw them out if they lie to me. Misinformation is the one thing I won't stand for. Well, that and assassinations.”

Confronted with the accusation, the servant's knees buckled and his head retreated back between his shoulders.

“No, great king, this servant has only had the best of intentions! This must be a misunderstanding!”

“Shut up!” Confronted with an excuse straight out of Arguna's imperial palace, Corco hit the table in anger. “Seriously, every time I leave the city, you people run wild. I already said I wouldn't throw you out, not today. But you are on probation, so you best behave from now on and play it safe. As for you,” Corco turned towards Quato, who tensed up as a result. “Don't pretend as if you didn't do anything wrong here. You're making trouble for Iyo on purpose. You want him removed from his post because you don't trust him. Several different departments have sent me reports to that extent.”

Faced with his master's revelation, the ghost swallowed heavily. Though he was also affected by the king's anger, he did hold up much better than Iyo and soon straightened his spine again.

“Who-”

“Is that really the question you should be asking? About who dared rat out your office politics to your boss?” Corco asked with a brooding face. At this point, Quato at least had the common sense to understand his fuck-up and shut his mouth.

“Now, maybe your goal was just trying to expose Iyo as a fraud, to protect the kingdom's security. Or maybe, you tried to get rid of a competitor, so you could further your own career. I don't care either way. Both options are a problem. You've already gone on a solo-mission when you disagreed with Master Bombasticus here and tried to stop Mason's rebellion all by yourself. Back then, I pardoned you because your good intentions were obvious, and because the circumstances were special. But that was all it was: A pardon for an otherwise punishable offense. From then on, you should have known that you were expected to perform to your orders, and nothing more. You're on probation too. And just in case you two don't understand what that word means, I'll tell you plainly: You'll be monitored for an undisclosed time, and any more tricks from either of you will get you removed from my court. Is that clear?”

“Understood King Corcopaca,” both men said in unison, as if their disagreements had never existed.

“In the future, I will be implementing a better, more formal system of mutual control for the different departments. That way, we might put down this sort of backstabbing crap, at least a bit. I won't have you give me fake information just because it helps your career planning. I can't work like that.”

For a moment everyone was silent, while Corco glanced through both reports from the two men. Although the tone of both documents was colored to achieve a certain effect, the general picture was the same: As soon as the army had left Saniya, there had been an increase in criminal activity.

“As for this issue,” he said at last, looking back up into the faces of his waiting servants, “This should be real, right? There have been problems?”

“Yes, King Corcopaca,” Iyo answered. This time, Quato didn't interrupt him. “Since most of the city guard were away to fight in King's army, the city's defense was understaffed. As a result, there have been many more cases of robbery and such as before. Although there were no major incidents, the actions have been quite disruptive for the regular citizens.”

“Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to introduce a formal police force,” Corco mumbled, and thought back on the promise he had made to his hero soldier the previous day.

“Okay, let's do this,” Corco clapped and rubbed his hands together, his enthusiasm restored at the thought of progress. “We're putting together a proper police rather than this archaic guard system. That is, we will form a group of people employed by the crown, tasked to solve and prevent crimes inside our borders. There will be no more city guard, and all guard personnel will become simply part of the army. From now on, the army will only deal with outside threats. I don't want any of my people to fear my soldiers.”

“And what would be the difference between these... police and a guard then?” Quato asked in a hesitant tone.

“Well, the police won't be carrying weapons, for one. Rather than the current situation, where people have to listen to the army because of the military force they have, we put in place a proper system of rights and regulations for ordinary citizens as well as for the police. It will supplement and expand the set of laws we introduced last year. That way, we avoid abuse of power and make the executive branch accountable for their actions, at least to an extent.”

“No weapons? How will they prevent crime then?” Ronnie looked incredulous.

“...well, just give them batons or something. For now, let's just define a weapon as either a firearm or any bladed tool with a length beyond twenty centimeters or so. They can still use anything else. That'll probably limit them to blunt weapons, but their goal is to catch criminals, not kill them. And it's not like people in the city have an easy time getting their hands on weapons either. The police can also wear some armor, light stuff like leather and gambesons so they can stay mobile. And they'll receive the same level of physical training and martial arts practice as our regular soldiers. With all of those advantages, they will still have a leg up on criminals in any confrontation.”

“Very well,” the two servants answered. While both pretended that the excited king had explained everything perfectly, Ronnie asked the important questions, as always.

“And where will we get that many new recruits as well as the necessary requirements to replace the city guards? Who will train them, and where?”

“For the where, we'll need to open up a new branch for the school. Maybe set up a new building as well. Any member of the police should at the very least be able to read and write anyways, some simple knowledge of mathematics would be nice too. That's something they will have to be taught, together with the laws they are meant to protect and uphold. The physical training and martial arts practice needs to be organized too. Right now we're a bit short on teachers, so for the moment they might have to share them with the other students. For the law education we can get some of the Pacha priests to help out. They've been working as judges for a year now, so they should have a basic understanding of Saniya's laws... though I might need to put some more effort into that area, I kinda neglected that so far, what with all the war and somesuch.”

While Corco was talking, the silent Faedlio in the corner of the room kept taking notes to organize the king's disjointed thoughts.

“As for combat training, we'll get some former army people. After this war, there are plenty of injured veterans who can no longer work as soldiers but can still work in this area. Those will also make up the first part of our recruits. Those veterans have shown their loyalty to the crown, and they already have some real combat experience, which counts for a lot. Beyond that, we might be able to recruit some of Sawo's former warriors, at least once their punishment is over. Finally, Quato, I want a few ghosts to step in and take on the role of leaders within the new police system. We'll absolutely need some experienced, loyal warriors in those roles to hammer this disjointed group into a proper unit.”

“However, we barely have enough ghosts to fulfill our current duties,” Quato replied.

“Yeah, I get that, but all of us stretched thin, not only you. Within Saniya, there aren't nearly enough people who have proven their dedication to our cause, and most of them are needed in other places. Since the police force is a core issue for now, you'll have to somehow deal with the lack of personnel in other areas. I'll put you in charge of organizing the police personally. I want to replace the guards by the next harvesting season, before all the villagers enter the city again.”

“Thank you, King Corco,” an elated Quato answered. “This servant will fulfill his duties to King's satisfaction.”

As he saw the warrior's over-the-top reaction to his promotion as well as his stiff, formal manner, Corco's interest in the topic waned. Everything important had been said anyways, so he chased the servants out of the room with a wave.

“Okay, that's enough for now. You two can leave. Master Bombasticus stays behind a bit longer.”

After the two servants had bowed, one with a smile and one with a frown, they turned and left the king's study. Silence fell over the room as the two friends listened to two pairs of footsteps disappear into the distance. In the end, it was Ronnie who spoke up first.

“As you can see, these disagreements keep cropping up between servants and I am incapable of resolving them. I am really not made for this sort of work. I would much rather spend my time in the laboratory.” At the thought of more administrative work, another sigh escaped the chemist.

“As I said, everyone is stretched thin, and we're all forced into uncomfortable positions.” Corco paused for effect, before he nodded. “You're right though. Considering the circumstances you've done really well, but you're far more valuable in a lab than in an office. Now that I'm back, there's no more reason for you to waste your time on administration.”

“Fantastic!” An elated Ronnie sat up to fix his lazy posture. “In fact, I have already been working on a few new ideas. There have been some new artificial colors besides the purple that are as good as ready. With additional time freed up, I am sure I can show you the results very, very soon!”

This time Corco shook his head to deny the chemist his request for research.

“You should focus more on actually training your apprentices for once.”

At the sheer mention of his teaching role, Ronnie was about to jump up, but Corco interrupted him before he could complain.

“I know what you're trying to say: The brats are useless, your genius is wasted, your time is precious. Save it for someone else. We're understaffed everywhere, so you can't keep avoiding your duties as a teacher. At some point, we'll need more than just one chemist in the kingdom, and that point is pretty much now. So far, we somehow got by since we focused on the essentials and only made valuable, complex and impactful compounds. But as we move closer and closer to proper mass production, we will need literal tons of all kinds of acids and bases, among other things. No matter how hard you work, you alone just won't cut it any more. I'd teach them myself but...”

“I understand, the great king's time is precious,” a sour Ronnie replied after Corco's words had drifted off.

“No, you fucking idiot.” The king raised his brows and pointed at his chest. “It's because I'm an amateur. What the fuck do I know about chemistry? You're the only real expert we have, so you best get to it and make some more of you.”

Although he grumbled a bit more, in the end Ronnie agreed to be more mindful of his apprentices. Maybe, Corco hoped, the new kids would be able to do some simple handiwork in the lab within a year. More and more, he realized that education was the bottleneck for the growth of his empire. Thus, it was even more important to attract talented people from other parts of the empire, and to create a better environment for them to live and work in the future.

“Right, Atau mentioned that some people wanted to see me in regard to... copper mines or something?”

Ronnie thought for a moment, before his face lit up in realization.

“Ah, yes, some traveling people came through here and claimed to have some innate connection to the earth? They claimed they can show us the valuable resources hidden under our soil. Since you weren't here, I let them stay in the city for now, but didn't do much else.”

“...why does this sound like a scam?”

“Who knows how real it is? There are many strange things in this world.”

With a frown, Corco thought about the Pacha faith which also focused on a worship of the earth. Even more, he thought about the strange cultivation he couldn't explain, and about his own second life. More and more, the idea of cultivating geologists seemed possible.

“Put them in some decent place and make sure they're taken care of for now. I'll go meet them once I have the time. In the meantime, you go back to your lab and try to at least find out the names of your students.”

“Right. Then I will get to it. What do you have planned that is more important than those guests, Master Corco?” Ronnie asked.

“Me?” Corco chuckled in response, giddy at the thought of his next duties. “I haven't been here much over the past months, and when I came back from Chutwa everything else was overpowered by the war stuff. So I get to catch up with all the progress this place has gone through in the meantime. I'm really looking forward to all the new toys my people have prepared for me.”