The messenger arrived as the eastern sky began to grasp at the light of the sun. Segar, the village head, was waiting for him on the road leading into town. “It’s time,” the rider said, yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Segar hadn’t slept either but was wide awake. He swung his leg up over his own horse, and the two men rode into the village together. As they passed through the streets, men and women noted their passage through uncovered windows and left their homes to follow. Some brought jars, some buckets. All carried grim, determined expressions.

Two houses, side by side, had been commandeered by the invaders. Knowing that any threat had to come at them through the town with a much larger garrison, the ten men that were left here grew lax in their security. There was no town guard, and the men rarely were seen out of their house until late in the morning. Today, their laziness would seal their fate.

Without a word and with softened footsteps, the townspeople poured the oil from their jars onto the walls of the buildings or splashed it up on the thatch roof. Several men lit brands of twisted straw and looked towards Segar.

He nodded, and they lobbed the flaming bundles towards the oil. An ocean of flames quickly engulfed the buildings, rising high into the sky. The black smoke rose angrily upward.

Nearby, teams of men used buckets of water and ladders to douse thatch roofs and quash any embers that would spread. Their vigorous actions contrasted with the silent, still majority who watched the flames rise skyward.

Only a few covered their ears.

---

At midmorning, Cole and Jason stood in front of the townsfolk. All were present, down to the last man, woman, and child, save the men who were keeping watch over their prisoners.

Cole cleared his throat and looked around at the faces of the crowd. “This is a historic moment. Last night, the men of Enderton responded to our plea to free us from the army that stole our property, our homes, and treated us like we were little more than cattle. And my friends, this morning, we are free!”

Cheering rang out from the crowd, and Cole smiled. “But we don’t want this to happen again. You might ask yourselves, what is to stop them from sending a larger force next year? What’s to stop them from burning and pillaging their way through our lands?”

“Nothing!” A voice rang out from the crowd, and the mood shifted darker.

Jason wondered if the comment had been pre-planned, but dismissed it as unlikely. I know Cole had a core group that knows what’s coming and agreed to it before-hand, but I’m not sure how much the rest of the village expects this.

“That’s right,” Cole shouted. “Nothing. Right now, nothing stops the hordes of soldiers from sweeping through our town like a plague of locusts. But that’s one more thing that changes today.

“Today, the man standing beside me has agreed to unify our lands. His army, though few in number, have the weapons and ability to rival much larger cities. You saw how they were able to clear out our invaders in only one night. What you may not know,” he paused for effect, “Is that lord Jason’s army was the one that stopped their marauding forces in their tracks in the first place. Without his army, all of the unclaimed lands would have fallen. He and his men were what caused the invaders to quake in their boots.”

Cole took a breath and judged the audience’s reaction. The crowd was waiting in anticipation for his next words, and he would oblige them.

“Men and women - I present to you today your protector and your liege: the king!”

Applause broke out, then grew as Jason looked out over the crowd. They knelt, one by one, and then in larger clusters. Soon, the square was again silent, as even the stragglers of the group bowed.

King Jason, he thought. No, that doesn’t flow very well. King Hoffman? Still weird. I now know why kings used to change their name when they took the throne. Ahh, what am I thinking about when there are so many people kneeling?

“Please stand,” Jason called out. “Thank you, please stand up.” He waited while they did so.

“You may be wondering what kind of a ruler I will be. I invite you to ask anyone in Enderton to find out, but here is what I can promise.

“I will be just. I will respect your people and your property. I will use the power I have to make your burdens lighter and give you the chance to support yourselves and your families in ways you never dreamed possible. To the best of my ability, I will keep you safe.

“I will repay your hard work with prosperity and your devotion with liberty. This I pledge to you today as your king.”

Jason smiled as he thought of what he’d be able to bring to these people in the future, then raised his voice again. “United we stand, or divided we fall. Today, you are citizens of a new nation, standing together to face the future stronger than we would be apart. What should we call our new kingdom?” the new king asked, and then continued. “Let’s call it Unity.”

---

“What do you think, my love?” A man asked his wife when they were back behind the closed doors of their house on the outskirts of town. “About the whole thing? The new king?”

“We came here to escape the tyranny of nobles.” She said cynically. “It seems that was too good to last.”

Then she sighed. “But I have heard good things from Enderton in recent months, and people are moving there in droves. They say it’s possible to earn twice as much coin as anywhere else if you work on one of the lord’s projects.”

“That would be nice,” the man said thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t mind if that happened here. Our boys are growing up, and you know that Tom has no interest in following in my footsteps.”

His wife grinned. “No one has any interest in following closely behind you when you’ve spent the day tanning, my dear.”

“True,” he chuckled and reached up to scratch the back of his head. “My job stinks.”

“Maybe it won’t be all bad,” she thought out loud. “We will simply have to wait and see.”

---

The riders finally arrived at the two other towns in the broad valley with messages for the town leadership. Jason hadn’t wanted to risk anyone else receiving word of his new kingdom before they had the chance to drive the Silver Kingdom out, so they had delayed sending any communication until it would be too late for the word to leak out.

The letters the messengers carried were carefully worded to not threaten or intimidate. He didn’t want to give pause to any of the psychologists he knew Razor likely had keeping an eye on his actions. He’d try to entice the towns, first, and get them to join willingly. If that didn’t work, he’d have to reevaluate. After all, he wanted to meet the simulation’s victory conditions, too, and that required building a kingdom.

The village near Granite Pass near the edge of the unclaimed lands was a close-knit community. Their town went by the same name as the mountainous route, and many of the villagers supported themselves throughout the mine that was located nearby. Most of the iron ore that they mined was smelted into crude ingots and then sent to Brighton, but it was common knowledge that Enderton had been purchasing more and more of their supply. Business was booming, and life was decent, if not good.

The head of the town, a short, muscular man by the name of Rusty, was a man who believed in following the will of the community When he received the letter, he called a town meeting, saying he had important news. Soon, the crowd knew of the events that had transpired in the last day, and their opportunity to join. They were offered security, like the other villages, but Jason had tailored his enticements to the town. They were told that within a year, they would have a system to pump fresh air deep into the mine, improving safety. Jason would also have his men work on easier ways to extract the iron ore from the depths of the earth. They’d see prosperity, he promised. What their families would be able to purchase in five years even kings would want, he claimed. All could be theirs if they joined Unity.

Rusty rolled up the letter and looked around at the people surrounding him. A carpenter was the first to speak up. “They make good lumber, I can tell you that,” he said. “Cheap, too.”

A woman asked a question. “If we say no, will they take us by force, anyway? Or stop trading with us?”

Rusty shrugged. “Probably not, from what I heard. But that could change.”

One of the miners spoke up. “Our mine is owned by the whole village. Would that stay the same?”

“The lord - I mean king - says that he’ll respect our property,” Rusty replied. “I couldn’t tell you how much that promise is worth. Any other thoughts?”

“Did they really defeat Silver City twice? How can a small town take on a large city?” Another man asked.

“That is what it says, and I do not know,” Rusty said. “But people are passing through here every day, headed to Enderton and what they believe will be a good-paying job and a better life. Something big is happening there, and we have to determine if we want to be part of that or watch from the outside.”

In a remarkably short time, the town decided that they would be the fourth town of Unity.

---

“One yes and one no,” Jason said when he got back the messages. “Not bad, considering I wasn’t sure either of them would go for it.”

“You’re probably the only king who would be so cheerful about that,” Samantha spoke up. “I doubt most rulers are as tolerant of rejection.”

I am disappointed, he admitted to himself. But it’s more helpful to think about how much we gained in the past few days than focus on what we didn’t get.

“Oh well,” he said out loud to the council members seated around his table. “They’ll see what they’re missing out on soon enough. We will conquer, but we’ll do it with gold rather than guns wherever possible. Now, let’s talk about how we can start to make our kingdom wealthy.

“Otto tells me Granite Pass has a good place for a waterwheel like we have. We need more lumber, and they expressed interest in having other industries than just the mine. They don’t think it will happen any time soon, but the fear of any mining town is that the ore could dry up at some point.

“For the other towns - what were their names?”

“Pleasantville and Farholm, your majesty,” Alex replied.

Not sure if I should quash the ‘your majesty’ or not, Jason thought, and the battle of emotions flitted across his face. Nice on the one hand. Pretentious on the other.

Guessing what he was thinking, Alex spoke up again. “Your subjects need a way to express their respect and loyalty, my king. By elevating their king, they elevate the kingdom.”

“I get most of that, I suppose,” Jason admitted. “It just feels like I’m pretending to be something I’m not.”

“But you are,” Sam said. “You’re the king, now.”

“Aye,” Tyler said. “You need to command respect worthy of a king. And at some point,” he added, looking around the room they were in, “You need a palace and a proper court.”

This is going to take some getting used to.

“Okay.” Jason finally agreed. “Let’s get some industries up and running in Pleasantville and Farholm. I’m thinking about paper production and ink to start with. We’ll need a ton of those when we finish the printing press. More lumber mills, and let’s get a cement production facility running in Granite Pass if they have the stone for it.

“We’ll need a military presence around the area, too, and I think it’s time we sent that ambassador to Brighton. That will be a fun conversation, I’m sure.”