“Ow.” Vyra murmured out of habit, despite the fact that she wasn’t really in any pain. “What did I say wrong?”

Surumi tapped his fan on his palm in irritation. “You told me you had memorized the contents of Elven Harvest, but clearly that's not the case.”

“I haven’t forgotten it. It’s safely stored in . Ow.” For talking back, she was hit again on the top of her head. Vyra leaned back in her chair to exit the Beastman’s range.

“Do you think that’s good enough? If you only store the information with a skill, you will have to actively go searching for it later. If you had memorized it like I told you to, you wouldn’t have given me such a poor answer a moment ago. You would have recognized the framework of the question automatically.”

“But, you know, I used because my memory stat isn’t good enough to store a whole book inside it word for word.” Vyra folded her arms and eyed the ceiling. “I wonder if there’s a skill to auto-retrieve information from when it becomes relevant.”

Ye Surumi gritted his teeth and walked around the Orc Lord’s desk, then lifted his fan and gave her a hard smack on the back of her head.

“Ow.”

“Don’t be so lazy with your education!”

Vyra turned her head and glanced down at him, raising an eyebrow. “What about you? It’s been six days and you’re still only speaking in the Beast Person language.”

Surumi set his jaw and opened his fan, lowering his head in embarrassment. With a very heavy Beast Person accent, he spoke softly in New Orcish, “To bi onhest, I hev a hardt time pernuncing some of teh wards.” He glared over the lip of his fan, “But at leest I hev put in teh effrt.”

Vyra blinked. He learned that much in just six days? She rubbed the back of her neck and dodged his glare. “Is that so? I apologize for being rude.”

The master Scholar snorted and returned to speaking his native language. “As a teacher, I should lead by example. As an aspiring leader of a nation, you must do the same.”

The city lord sighed and checked herself, nodding in resignation. “Fine, that’s fair.” She raised an eyebrow, “But can we use a different book? Elven Harvest really isn’t relevant to Babylon. I don’t want to waste time memorizing information that I won’t use practically.”

Surumi started folding his fan, then stopped, sighing, “If you had properly learned the contents, you would know that it is relevant.” He looked at Vyra’s expression that seemed to be asking him to elaborate and shook his head. “Really, such a child. I won’t just hand it to you.” He turned toward the door. “We’ll end the lesson here. Use your study time to complete your assignment. By tomorrow, I want you to be able to explain how the contents of Elven Harvest can be useful to you.”

Vyra watched her teacher leave and slouched in her chair, crossing her arms.

I thought I’d be learning things like court etiquette, land management, and financing--maybe even some tactics. Why should I care about how Elves farm? Babylon’s ability to produce crops is already superior to theirs, thanks to our use of Orc manure.

But, her expression turned stony, it felt really unpleasant being looked down on by someone who knew more than she did.

Straightening up in her chair, Vyra searched for the audiobook Surumi had quoted for her--in Elvish, no less. She listened to it once for general content, then a second time to try and pick up on the finer details. She was out of study time after that and shifted gears to focus on city management. Nerun provided some unpleasant midday reports.

“The High Goblins are doing what?” she scowled. Nerun looked down at the tablet to read the line again, but Vyra held her hand out impatiently. “Give it here.” She took the slab and scanned the contents until she read the offending report.

[High Goblins have started buying up the remaining housing areas and are renting them out to groups of immigrating Orcs and War Orcs for more than their market value. Sometimes as many as six or seven form groups to be able to afford a room.]

Vyra gritted her teeth, then forced herself to think about it rationally. If they’re able to do this, then the situation must be allowing it. Clearly, she needed to work out something to fix the housing situation as soon as possible. There apparently wasn’t enough for all the new citizens, and what was left was being driven up in value.

I can hardly punish merchants for taking advantage of a ripe economic opportunity. It’s my fault for not noticing sooner.

She ran a hand down her face and stood up from her desk, handing Nerun his tablet back. “Tell me the rest while we walk. I need to visit the core.”

“Yes, my Lord!” the High Orc scrambled after her and spoke quickly. “If you wanted some good news, it seems that the apprentice researchers have finished all the preparations for installing the wall barrier.”

Vyra sighed. “I might have to ask them to wait on that. Is there anything else?”

“Erm,” Nerun scanned the tablet. “Well, I know I mentioned it in the evening report, but most of the Living Dead are having a hard time adjusting.”

“So I’ve been hearing every evening for half a week.”

“Well, one of the former humans was found dead in the early hours of this morning.”

For a moment, Vyra’s feet stopped, then she forced them to move forward. “What was the cause of death?”

“It was unclear, my Lord. He showed signs of malnutrition and dehydration, but he was also covered in scrapes and bruises. There were no fatal wounds.”

She bit her lip, murmuring, “Even though I did so much for them…”

“What was that, my Lord?”

Vyra shook her head. “It was nothing, Nerun. Did he leave a will of Body or a will of possessions?”

“He had no possessions, my Lord, besides what he was carrying.”

“Those count as well, Nerun. Human-made clothes could be useful if he was willing to proffer them.”

“No, my Lord, he left neither.”

Damned fool. “Then we do as the law states. His body will be used to produce flesh clones until it expires. His possessions will become possessions of the state.”

They found themselves in the heart of the palace: the wide hall on the ground floor. No one had expected a secret to hide in such a defenseless and naked place-- until Vyra had felt it call out to her a few days back.

She bit her thumb and dripped her blood on the floor. When it tasted the blood of it’s Lord, the floor dropped down to become a spiral staircase. After descending several tens of feet, they entered a small room, inhabited only by a large, foggy green light.

Babylon is a living structure, Vyra thought. In other words, a dungeon. I wonder if it’s the only one.

She stuck her hand into the light and they shared their knowledge. Vyra got a clear picture of the current state of the city, and the city felt her concerns and ambitions. She took her hand away and they both shuddered. The light dimmed considerably, and Vyra dropped to one knee, grasping her forehead. Nerun rushed to her side immediately, placing a worried hand on her shoulder. She smiled and waved him away.

“I’m alright. It seems we'll be able to scrape by somehow." She stood up properly and started back up the stairs. "What else was in the midday report?”

“Nothing, my Lord. Hopefully, we can look forward to a routine report in the evening.”

“Hm. In that case, what was next on my agenda?”

“That is…” Nerun activated his own skill and took a look. “Reworking the golem distribution routes. People have been complaining that they get in the way a lot following the main roads.

They reached the top of the stairs, which slid soundlessly back into place, fusing into a single slab of green crystal. Vyra sighed internally, Looks like I’ll have to explain the purpose of sidewalks to the… An image flashed through her head: the one she often saw when looking down from her palace balcony. But … No. The city doesn’t have the energy to build a new road system right now. Until then, I’ll reassign the golems to the lesser-used roads.

“After that," her personal assistant continued, "you’re supposed to balance the city’s accounts according to the bank’s latest data and all of the city-funded institutions’ expenses.” Nerun smiled pleasantly, “And then, you were going to check for issues with the waste management system, and then perform maintenance on several cart golems that were damaged in transit. Also—”

[[Conditions met. Acquired .]]

***

Well after the sun had set, Vyra closed the door to her room, with herself inside. She took a few sluggish steps forward and fell face-first onto her nestbed. After groaning into one of her pillows, she pulled it to her chest and rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling with blank eyes.

“If the housing situation gets fixed,” she murmured, “and the wall barrier works properly, everybody in the city can live happy and peaceful lives. We could hold back a siege for, hmm, forever?”

She rolled onto her side and sighed. “I wonder when the Humans will reply to my letter.”

Vyra’s eyes sagged closed, but her teacher’s judging face popped into her head. She groaned, sitting up. and went to work while she listened to Elven Harvest a few more times.