We split up into teams of two. Barry and Lulu covered the West side of town and Jen and I covered the East side. The plan was to go door to door and just let everyone know the good news. It was only late afternoon so we figured we should have time to knock on every door before finding a place to sleep for the night.

The first few houses were a bust. We knocked and no one answered. I figured a new strategy was needed. My guess was that the thugs had scared everyone so much that trust was limited.

We started shouting from the street. "The dragon is dead, the Mayor's ring has been recovered, the bad people have been dealt with." We tried to keep the pronouncement short and sweet, but we still had few people even look out of their windows.

I had underestimated how scared people were. What did Kline say and do to these people?

By the time we had finished our side of town, it was getting pretty dark outside. We heard Bear and met up with him and Lulu who had decided on a similar tactic.

"I have somewhere we can sleep in town," Lulu told us. We ended up back at that big building that Bear and Kline had exited. It was Town Hall but also had sleeping quarters for the Mayor's family and a guest as well as an office for the Mayor to work out of. We each picked a room and went to bed for the night. I offered everyone a mattress and Bear set them up on top of each of the basic beds that were in the rooms.

We all awoke refreshed bright and early. We gathered in the main meeting area and discussed our plan for the day.

"People need to know that they can get back to normal town operations." We all let Lulu take the lead since she knew the town best and had lived here the longest. "Bettyford used to be a hub for traders who came in by boat from the North, from Roseglen to the South, and from the massive city of Wolfhill to the Southwest."

"I'd love to get these traders back up and running. I have a ton of stuff in my dimensional space that I have been dying to trade for something more useful. Not to mention enough ore to keep a blacksmith busy for years," I said, hopeful to finally be able to benefit from all the junk I was carrying.

"First, we need to convince the townsfolk that they are safe," said Lulu. "Then you can go to Wolfhill and bring back Jen's parents. Everyone loved her father and he would make an excellent mayor who everyone would get behind. Her mother was like the town's mother. She cared for everyone. It would be a boon to Bettyford to have them back and in charge."

I popped the ring into my hand and held it out for Lulu to take. "Do you want to hold onto the ring then?" Her eyes widened and she took a step back.

"I don't want that kind of responsibility. That is a powerful object you hold in your hand and it is the key to this city's success. Present it to Roderic, Jen's father, to convince him you are the real deal." She looked at me like she was proud of me for not abusing this power I had in my hand. I looked down at the ring in my hand and had no doubt in my mind.

"I have no interest in running a city or being a political figure. I will find Roderic and convince him to be Bettyford's new mayor." A notification popped up for the quest I had just triggered.

New Quest!

Convince Roderic to be Bettyford's new mayor and give him the mayor ring.

Reward: 5,000 XP

"We will go and find this man!" Barry slapped me on the shoulder hard enough to knock the ring out of my hand. The jolt may have been exacerbated by the secondary impact of my cloak airbag. The ring flew into the air. Luckily with my elevated stats, I had the hand-eye coordination and speed to catch the thing. Unluckily, when I caught the ring it partially slipped onto one of my unringed fingers enough for the binding to take place.

Quest Failed!

You chose to wear the mayoral ring and it is now bound to you until death.

I turned away from everyone and tried to secretly take the ring off of my finger. It wouldn't budge. It was as if it had been grafted onto my finger. I struggled harder in my panic and everyone took notice.

"What's the matter?" Asked Lulu in her grandmotherly way.

I was still in full panic mode and said nothing.

Jen came over and gently put a hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong, Theodore?"

I turned and showed them the ring on my finger, "Oops? It was an accident."

Lulu and Jen shook their heads and facepalmed.

"What now?" I asked. "There's got to be a way to transfer this to Roderic still."

"What part of 'bound until your death' don't you understand?" Lulu asked rhetorically.

"I'm not giving up," I said steeling my resolve to bring Jen's parents back home. "I will bring back Jen's parents and we will fix this."

"We," said Barry sheepishly. He knew it was his fault I had tossed the ring up in the first place. "I am coming with you."

"So am I," said Jen putting a fist out in front of her.

"Jen, I'd like you to stay here and help Lulu in getting the town back to functionality. I don't how safe it will be."

"What do my parents look like?"

"Good point," I quickly responded. "We can stick around for today and try to help getting the townsfolk on board and the three of us will leave in the morning." Pips ran up and jumped up to sit on my shoulder.

"The four of us," I correctly.

"How come you're worried about my safety but aren't worried at all for the squirrel's safety?" Asked Jen indignantly.

"Pips can take care of himself, I've seen him fight," I put out a finger to scratch him around his ears and under his chin and added in a baby-talk voice, "Plus, I would destroy without mercy any threat to this little guy's life."

Everyone looked at each other in a very concerned manner.

"I'm just kidding," I said to placate them as I shook my head slightly at the tiny squirrel to let him know I was dead serious.

Lulu broke the tension and spoke first. "What next, Mr. Mayor?"

"Never again," I said with a playful look at the sweet old woman. "Let's see if we can convince people now that I have the ring on." Mae flew over and landed on her designated shoulder seat.

"You have a 'Town Leader' menu now, Teddy. You should check it out before you do anything else," said Mae.

I thought of those words and a new menu popped up. It showed tabs for residents, town map, and communication. I looked through each tab.

The residents tab showed a list of names, a contentment level, and an occupation. The occupations were currently blank and the contentment levels were in the red. Contentment level appeared to be a sliding scale from red to green and I assumed that red was bad.

Town map was exactly what it sounded like although it was helpful enough to label each building and its occupants.

Communication was the tab that confused me a bit. The closest analog I could think of was an instant messaging service. I could think of a resident's name and send them a message. I wasn't sure if they could respond so I tried it out on Lulu.

Lulu jumped as a floating textbox appeared before her. "Did you do this?"

"Do what?" I asked not wanting to inform her answer.

"I have a weird box floating in front of me that has the word 'hi' and a sideways smiling face." She looked at me and smiled. "You can communicate with the town through the magic of the ring? That is amazing!"

"Can't all mayors who wear the ring do that?" I asked.

"No other mayors have had your menu ability. It isn't something that NPCs have access to." Mae answered.

"Nevermind," I said to the people who couldn't hear Mae's answer. "Looks like I can message people. I don't have Jen or Barry on here though."

"Maybe because they aren't residents," said Lulu. "You should be able to add them if they want to become residents. Also, please take away this message screen."

"I don't know how to," I said. I turned and asked the others if they wanted to become residents. They both nodded in the affirmative.

"Just think about adding them as residents," said Mae. "She just needs to focus on the text box to interact with it."

I added them as residents and sent them both the same message that I had sent Lulu. Then I explained that they needed to focus on the text box to interact with it.

They each managed to close their messages and the boxes disappeared. Only they could see their personal messages, but I could kind of tell when they were interacting with them solely based on the odd movements of their eyes.

Theodore: Jen, could you try to respond to this message?

Jen: I'll try. Is it working? CAN YOU SEE THIS?

"Yes. I can see it. You don't have to mind yell at me," I said out loud confusing the others. I explained the exchange and we practiced the mental messaging.

They couldn't create a message of their own they could only respond to my messages to them and only one response. Thank goodness. I couldn't imagine opening myself up to constant messages from a few hundred residents.

I tried sending a message to all residents at once and, to my surprise, it worked.

Theodore: All residents of Bettyford. The town is safe again. The dragon is dead. Come to the town square as soon as possible for a town meeting. Think about closing this message box to close it.

"Now we wait," I said turning to people around me. I could tell Barry was still working on reading my message, bless his heart. I would try to help him as much as possible. I really felt bad for the guy being used his whole life and not having anyone care or invest in him as a person.

The residents of Bettyford all showed up in the town square over the next ten to twenty minutes. I explained what had happened as far as killing the dragon and driving out the bad guys as well as I could. I also explained Barry's reformation and why I allowed him to stay in town. We took a vote on accepting Roderic as their new mayor if I could bring him back and it passed by an overwhelming margin.

"We need to get the town up and running again as a major trade hub. That means that everyone who can work needs to have an occupation again. I'd like us all to make a big community meal to celebrate and Jen, Lulu, and myself will talk to each person individually to make sure all occupational needs are met. Tomorrow Jen, Barry, and I will travel to Wolfhill to convince Jen's parents to come home and lead the town. Does this sound good to everyone?" I asked the crowd. I didn't know how to talk to large groups of people so I wasn't sure how much I sounded like an idiot.

The vast majority of the town seemed to be on board and we got to work gathering food for the celebration. I thought it would be an important step to moving on and recovering for the residents. There is always one naysayer and they came and found me as I worked.

"Can I talk to you privately?" Asked a middle-aged man who looked a little cranky.

"Sure," I responded walking him over to the mayor's office to sit and chat.

As soon as we were seated he went off on a tirade about how he hated my plan, he hated Bear, he didn't want an occupation, and how he wanted me to die. This must be what being a politician feels like.

"First of all, what is your name?" I asked the annoying man.

"Lester Sharpe," he snapped.

"Listen close, Lester. All residents who are able to contribute to town through an occupation will have one and they will do their job. This town is not going to be able to rebuild if people are being counterproductive leeches. Barry is a good man, he just has had some bad leadership in his life. Also, I'm already dead so your death threats mean nothing to me. If you don't want to be on board with the plan, that is fine. You can leave anytime you want. If you choose to stay and don't do your job or make others carry your load, I will send you a message every couple of minutes until you leave town. Understood?" I felt very mayoral as I put the man in his place.

Lester gulped, "Yes, sir."

"I know that you have been through a lot so I don't mind putting all of this in the past. I want to make it better here. Will you join me in making this a better place to live for everyone?" I extended my hand out to the man for a handshake.

After a few seconds of silent contemplation, Lester took my hand. "I will." He smiled and gave me a nod as he got up and excused himself from the office.

"I'm not so bad at this political leader stuff after all," I said out loud to the empty room.

"Don't let it go to your head, Teddy." Mae hopped down onto the desk in front of me. "Would you have actually sent him messages constantly if he hadn't complied? I don't think that is in the city bylaws."

"It worked though, didn't it?" I said with a slight head tilt at the fairy.

"You probably would've just 'accidentally' killed him," she said with sassy air quotes.

It brought back to mind Larry, Gary, and Jerry. I felt guilty yet again.

"That wasn't kind. I already felt bad about the accidental NPCicide. I'll never kill another human NPC." I put my hand up trying to make the scout's honor hand sign but I couldn't quite remember it since I was never a scout.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," she said sternly.