Daldia Town.

Lieutenant Reed had returned a full day ahead of schedule. In order to avoid unnecessary killings, he had made an on site commander’s decision to withdraw early after the Hunt Master Malikai reported increased activities from the Myojhuk territory forces. He had captured and brought back 43 knights, 102 foot soldiers, 38 labor slaves and 8 comfort girls. Everyone of them hungry, dehydrated, and too exhausted to put up any resistance.

Following morning, all the officers including Marquess Daldia, Steward Havington, and Hunt Master Malikai, crowded in for a major meeting inside the main audience room on the 1st floor of the now Marquess’s Daldia’s Mansion.

As Spike walked in through the main door. Someone shouted. “Attention!” for the room to come to stand at attention.

“As you were.” Spike ordered. Then the men sat back on their field chairs with their notepads and other documents. When Spike took his seat in between the Major and the Marquess, Captain Allen stepped up to the front and took control over meeting.

“ Good morning everyone! For the duration of the meeting, I’ll be serving as the Chief of Staff.” Captain Allen announced. Then he looked at Spike, Major Jung, and Marquess Daldia. “Any words before we start sirs?”

“No, Let's get right to it. We have a lot to cover.” Major Jung replied.

Quickly making eye contact with the 3 leaders and nodding. “Very good sir.” Then he started. “Then first on our agenda is the security of the borders with the Stovkow. The consensus of all the combat officers are that it is inevitable that we will eventually clash with whichever force comes out victorious in the east. In the short term, Myojhuk’s forces are of no threat to us while they have the Stovkow Kingdom to deal with. There are 18 klicks of distance from Daldia town to the border, we plan to use the area for our training ground. This will allow our soldiers to learn the area intimately, in addition, to keeping an eye on the border as well as serve as a quick reactionary force to the border. We’ll also turn our current Mark VIII position into a permanent outpost. By posting the Landships at the borders, there will be less pressure on the infantry to man the area. There by freeing up our infantry forces for hunting and security in the west. We’ll keep our current forces make up of 1 platoon supporting both Landships for now. And rotate out the platoon each month so they don’t become to complacent. Any questions?”

“Sir! On the topic of complacent, most of the soldiers are wondering what the expected time frame on when they will be hunting in the frontier and be relieved of prison guard duty?” Lieutenant Cornwell asked.

“That depends on how soon the Myojhuk leadership reacts.” Major Jung jumped in. “We’ve already sent an official message to them and they should have received it days ago. It really depends on how organized they are with their Baron dead. Because of their civil war, they will definitely want all their knightly forces back. It takes many years to train them so it’s only matter of their reaction time and the length of negotiations. I’m not to sure of their foot soldiers, but I suspect Myojhuk’s new leadership may not be as interested in paying for their ransom. Does that answer your questions?”

“Yes sir. Thank you sir. I’ll pass the info to the men.” Lieutenant Cornwell replied appreciatingly.

“Continuing on.” Said Captain Allen. “As you all know, little by little, it’s only a matter of time before we receive more reinforcement. So we will take this opportunity to build a proper base and future support group by quickly building and developing our civilian counterparts. We had initially planned to bring in both Birsk and Farengo population to speed up the development, but there has been a slight delay with their leadership. However, unexpected boon from capturing so many slave labor from the Baron’s forces, our current labor shortage has been fixed.” Making eye contact with Captain Lee. “Captain Lee with the Engineers will explain.”

Captain Lee step up to the front to begin his briefing. “To quickly meet Lord Phoenix’s command, I’ve dedicated Lieutenant Samuel and his 1st platoon to build the sewage system in the town. Lieutenant Hall’s 2nd platoon is dedicated to building up Whitestone. Lieutenant Collins’ 3rd platoon is tasked out to clearing out a 7 kilometers long road to the nearest former goblin cave from Trimmor, so we can start mining it. Lieutenant Henley’s 4th is responsible for all the miscellaneous job. The slave labors have been equally divided amongst the 4 platoons. All the engineer platoons are giving on-the-job training to the slave labors as they work on the constructions. However, Sir.” Looking at Spike. “I’d like to recommend that we give them a promise of freedom after we build what we need. Slaves are generally unmotivated and you can’t expect them to be loyal to us. And the promise of freedom would give them an incentive to work with proper motivation. Our current problem rises from the fact that our basic foundation is none existent. Once built, we shouldn’t have labor shortage of this massive level. And truthfully sir, we don't’ need slaves. And I’d rather not have personnel with questionable loyalty to have too much knowledge of our facilities.”

“I see. Your reason makes sense.” Spike spoke in approval. Does this mean the men generally dislike slavery and it’s their way of slowly abolishing it?

“I also agree Sir.” Major Jung supported.

Looking around. “Is this the general consensus of the officers?” Spike asked.

“Sir, I think I speak for all the officers. We are a military force. Killers if you will. Not guard dogs for slavery.” Captain Wraeth spoke out.

Looking thoughtful. “Captain Wraeth. I also agree with your logic. Then let's make this a policy. Our government will not make slaves but if they are then give them a means to free themselves through their deeds.” Spike declared.

The officers nodded in satisfaction.

The town's civilian officers watched on as this was their first time participating in such meeting. They observed everything to learn about how their new master conduct his business. To better understand. To clearly learn what is expected of them. Any surprises in the meeting, they kept to themselves for now.

“Moving on.” Captain Lee spoke. “Daldia will be a major staging area for us. Therefore, we expect a massive population growth within a year and will continue for years to come. So we are planning to turn the current agro land surrounding the town into residential and everything inside the current wooden wall into government usage.”

“What!” the 3 town leadership exclaimed unable to control their surprise.

Raising his eyebrows in surprise at Captain Lee Spike asked. “Really? Why do you foresee it being that sever enough to turn the town upside down?”

“From experiences sir.” Captain Allen jumped in. “The other frontier population will surely come to us for security and food when they hear about this safe haven you decided to create sir. Not to mention the escaping war refugees from the east once they also learn of this.” Giving Spike his full attention Captain Allen continue to inform. “Think about it sir. We don't conscript men for war. We definitely won't allow any civilians to partaking in any battle. That’s our pleasure and we are not going to give it up for anything. You just declared; even though you won't outright abolish slavery, you also have no intention to enslave anyone, you even gave the current slaves a way to win their freedom through their deeds. And with our advanced knowledges other nations do not possess, your territories will be a holy land of human development compare to any other nations we currently know of. We expect flood of immigrations. Ah, and not to forget that there will be drastic reduction of infant deaths, fatality of the mothers during delivery, and increase in general public health level with our Doctor Simmons and his medical staffs here with us. Also, we are expecting many spies from many different organizations. So we need to turn the inner town into a government sector to manage and make it difficult for our secretes to fall into hostile hands. Sir!”

“I see.” Spike nodded in acknowledgement. He was really impressed with his officers foresight. He really felt lucky to have all their cheat ass knowledges plus their general education they all possessed.

Worrying about feeding a large number of growing population, the concerned Marquess spoke. “Then how will we feed the people in the long term, Captain?”

Understanding the concerned Marquess. “No need to worry about that Marquess Daldia. We will simply push out the farmland from the current location. We are planning for your territory to be at a self sufficient level for about 250,000 population level, once we are done. It will take a generation or two, maybe faster, but we will lay down the foundation now so things will be easier for us in the future.”

The civilian officers were speechless at Captain Allen’s declaration. They simply looked at him dumbfounded.

Showing a knowing smile to the civilian officers, Captain Lee continued on. “Bring the localized map up.” He ordered. 2 soldiers carrying a large flat chalk board looking thing, except it had many small papers drawing of a city map and surroundings nailed to the board. The map had a city expanding mostly southward with multiple rings of zones and districts indication. “Marquess Daldia, this is tentatively what we are going to build for you and your descendants to administer for Lord Pheonix. The center will be a governing district, which includes your housing and other high level civilian officers. Next ring will be for our current citizens. Giving the original citizens of Daldia a preferential housing location seems to be the right thing to do. Considering they, most likely, will be the ones doing most of the work inside the center in the near future. And for flexibility, the other sections of the rings, as we build outward, each areas will be declared as people migrate to Daldia City. And finally, all the agricultural lands will be outside of this concrete…hmm, maybe stone wall we will be building for the city.”Captain Lee declared as he pointed out on the map. “But until this wall is built, we will build a temporary wooden defense as we build outward. This long term construction project will also give a gainful employment to slaves who gain their freedom and to new immigrants.”

“How do you plan to pay the labors once they are freed? People have other needs and they can’t just be paid with food and other supplies forever?” Do we have some sort of long term economic plans?” Spike asked.

“Sir!” Captain Allen spoke up. “Once the road to our first mining operation has been built. I was planning to recommend Marquess Daldia be given authority to mint coinage with all the excessive amount of brass casing from our daily shooting practice. He can mint lower value coins until we find any silver and gold mines, if there are any in your territory. If not, we can just trade for them with other nations in the future. In anycase, Captain Lee is already drawing up plans on building a mintage. For the long term solution, we all believe in the free market. We’ll just slap an anti-monopoly law then step back and let each individuals make their own decisions.”

“Sir!” Captain Murphy with Logistic spoke out. “We are at a civilization building stage. There is so much work to be had. For those who lack direction, they can work for those who have. Nobody should be hungry from lack of work for generations to come.”

“Hearing you say it, I agree with you Captain.” Spike quickly though to himself before speaking again. “This area hasn’t even started their industrial revolution. Without any machinery to free up human labor, everyone should be busy as hell.” Nodding in appoval. “Alright.”

“Also, even though it will be expensive, I would like to requisition about a 1024 metric ton of cement powder sir. We need it to build a proper sewage and drainage system for the center and housing district or we will end up constantly digging up the ground for repair. And Major Jung has ordered us to build a large armory.” Captain Lee spoke up as he looked at Major Jung.

“That’s correct." Said the Major. "We currently have more guns than men. And I expect this will become the norm in the future. Also, as Daldia becomes a city and the territory becomes more civilized, I don’t want our men carrying around anything bigger than a dagger or a bayonet, or maybe a sword off duty. Having our men getting robbed of their weapons in their sleep and getting set up for mugging for our weapons is something I foresee in the future. So for better security, I want our weapons and munitions under concrete armory, not wooden cabin.”

“What’s the price tag on the concrete?” Spike asked nodding his head in agreement.

“340RP sir. Once we locate the right resources, in the future, we will produce them locally.” Captain Lee replied. “10% cost reduction from Engineer request, and another 5% from Logistics processing them will saves us 60RP, Sir.”

“Might I ask what this RP is my lord?” Steward Havington asked.

“Simply think of it as a limitation on resources we can summon Steward Havington.” Major Jung quickly replied. Spike glanced at the Major to see how much information he would share. But the Major quickly added with a reassuring smile. “You don’t want to know anymore than that Steward. It’s not that we don't’ trust you. Because we do trust you. That’s why you are in this meeting with us. But, it’s for your protection that you don't know the process.”

“Understood. Thank you Major.” Steward Havington replied appreciatively and satisfied with the answer.

“Speaking of concrete. I know that we need steel to make reinforced concrete for the armory. What is the estimated time for the road to the mines to be completed Captain Lee.” Spike asked.

“Sir. If you’re asking because of your concern about our iron supply, we currently have more then enough metal from the war loot to make the reinforced armory. As a mater of fact, the small foundary we put togather should be in operation within a few days to process them. As for the mine. With a single engineer platoon, 100 horses, and 250 slave labors, judging from last 2 day of our work, we are on average making 100 meters a day progress. Distance of 7km. It won't be a straight line. So a little over 3 months, Sir.” Captain Lee replied.

Nodding. “Also, I notice the town's expansion is pushing south, and the drawings are different for the north. What are those marking on the northern part of the map?” Spike asked again.

“That... is a dam sir. Increase in population will require more clean water, so we plan to create a water reservoir on the north side. The valley we came down is actually a good location for one. And once we get a better look at the terrain later on, I will draw up a better map with more detail, Sir.” Captain Lee answered.

Captain Allen stood back up to the front. “And to support our security needs, Captain Wreath’s Alpha Company will take over guarding all the POWs until we successfully ransom them back to Myojhuk. Captain Pearson’s Company will be responsible for all security, including the work forces outside of the town. Especially for Lieutenant Collin’s road construction team.”

Rest of the meeting went more into details and break down of the town's development and expansion until lunch break.

The lunch was a buffet of sandwich, slices of meat with wine to wash it all down. The officers were holding their plates full of food as they moved around individually to independent small group discussions.

“Hey Stein. Can you loan me a team of your flamethrowers? I think the road construction will go a little faster with your boys burning away all the extra foliage as we chop down the trees.” Lieutenant Collins asked Lieutenant Stein.

“Sure thing Collins. I was actually wondering how to keep my minions busy.” Lieutenant Stein replied happily. “Major doesn’t really like the idea of us running around in the forest, fearing me and my minions would cause a major forest fire.”

With that, their little group burst out in laughter.

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Whitestone.

That same afternoon, LTC Simmons, Major Jung, 2 infantry Captains, Captain Allen, and Spike held another meeting inside the officer's tent.

“Are you absolutely sure about this Doctor?” Major Jung ask in shock but also very happy with the medical news.

“I am. We checked multiple times. Our men simply do not get sick. We recover from poison at a very fast rate. I would need to conduct more testing on this but, my suspicion is telling me, we may even be immune to disease in general. Our healing speed is just supernaturally fast compare to our old world. Even compare to the humans in this world. We compared our injured soldiers with the injured POWs. I can say with 100% confidence that the humans in this world are no different than from our old world. It’s just that we ourselves are little different.” Doctor Simmons informed. Then he added. “Down side of this is that booze are not as effective on us as normal. That includes any alcohol related medications. So our men end up consuming more than their fair share."

“This is just an amazing news!” Astonished, Captain Pearson spoke. “This means we have less things to worry about. However, the part about the booze is a goddamn Greek Tragedy.” Looking upset. “And all this time the men thought Lord Phoenix was giving them a waterdown liquor. So… do we need to double our booze ration?” He asked, looking at Major Jung almost expectantly.

Amused at Captain Pearson’s last comment, Major Jung chuckled as he replied. “No, lets leave our ration system as is for now. No need to fix something that isn’t broken.” Turning to face LTC Simmons. “And good call on keeping this topic out of the regular meeting sir. Our civilian counterparts would starts to treat us as superior beings if this information were to get out. And that's the last thing we need.”

“Meh. I’m a doctor, not a politician. It’s not my job to inform the general public of unrelated medical informations. That’s the leadership's job. And I’ve done my job.” LTC said as he looked at both Spike and Major Jung with a satisfaction look.

“Anything else to add Doctor?” Major Jung asked.

“Yes I do. Many of the pleasure girls have STD, so it’s…”

“What!” Captain Allen bolted up and shouted in Panic. “What the hell Doc. You can’t be serious?” He asked almost in tears as he reflexively reached for his family jewel with a horrified look on his face.

Judging by his reaction, everyone more or less guessed where this was leading to.

“Well, well, well. So the rumors are true. You’ve been hanging out with them wild girls, after all.” Captain Pearson said will chuckling. Then the other captains who were silent joined in on the laugh.

“What the!” Spike blurted out. “Didn’t I say no marriage, no touchy, Captain.” Looking displeased at Captain Allen.

Coming back to his sense. “Sir! I have every intention to obey your order. I’m already supporting them with my personal rations.” Captain Allen declared even as he looked a bit unsettle about the STD.

“Wait! What!” Spike said in surprised. “What the hell do you mean by ‘them’?”

Getting full control of himself, Captain Allen explained without any shame and unapologetically. “Ah, well sir. I was a bit bored. So I decided to be proactive and help out with the management of the extra personals. But all the POWs are more or less locked up building their POW camp. The slave labors are all under Captain Lee’s command. So that only left the pleasure girls. While managing their works, I noticed the girls forming up into different factions. And I noticed some of these faction leaders were very vile to each other. So as a general public service to all the decent girls, I decided to take the most vile creature off the market. It just so happens that the more beauty a woman has, they tend to be more insecure and crazy, that’s all.”

“Guh.” The late middle age Doctor Simmons commented looking very amused at Captain Allen. “I’m so glad I got summoned with my current physical age. Having to go through that wild hormonal age again would be hell on my intellectual well being.” Then he broke out in laughter.

Looking crossed at LTC Simmons, Captain Allen said. “Sir. Saying it like that is just plain mean!” Making LTC laugh harder.

“So. How many, Captain?” Spike asked out of reflex.

“3. Sir!” He promptly replied.

“Wow… So… Isn’t, like, polygamy, like illegal?” Spike asked with mixture of shock, curious, disapprovingly, and maybe a little envious of the Captain.

“No sir. Not unless you make it so for your territory. This is a different world. And marriage in this world is more for political elites for forming alliance. The common man and women simply make a public declaration of their relationship. It’s even a women’s logic that if a rich man only has 1 women, then the said women is being selfish to keep all of his wealth for herself, especially in this age of scarcity.” Captain Allen informed.

“Huu… That’s an interesting information about local marriage.” Major Jung commented without expression. “I’m assuming you asked around during your spare time.”

“Yes sir. I asked around. Sir!” Captain Allen replied with a straight face, leaving out the part about spare time.

Looking at Captain Allen. “You’re in command of the cavalry troopers from this moment on Captain Allen. Congratulation!” Major Jung spoke nonchalantly. “Now. Getting back on track.” Turning back to LTC Simmons. “What’s the solution to this STD problem Doctor?”

“I’m going to need specialized medical equipment for bio-analysis and a micro factory to produce medications that hasn’t been discovered. Most of all, I will need a specialized NBC Doctor. But STDs are generally curable within 2-3 years at the latest, most often much sooner. This is going to be another expensive purchase, Sir.” LTC looked at Spike with his last sentence. “We’ll have everyone tested and identified. So everyone will be conscious and aware of the danger. And who not to screw around with”

“Well.” Spike spoke looking disappointed. “I suppose this is something necessary. Even I understand why nations of our old world have disease control division in their civilian and military departments. I suppose it’s better we build a support for this now then laters with our pants down. Send me the requisition once you figure out what you need.”

“Yes sir.” LTC Simmons replied. And looked at Captain Allen with a mocking face. “Be sure to bring by your women for testing Captain.”

“Yes sir!” Captain Allen promptly replied miserably.

“So. Do we need to do anything about this marriage thing?” Spike asked as he looked around the officers for advice.

“Sir!” Captain Allen quickly spoke up. “I probably lost credibility to even speak about this, but we should not temper with it. It’s not our business how people choose their partners. As long as they are not killing, stealing, or hurting others. We should let the civilian officers handle this. It’s their world. We shouldn’t waste our energy on this. We should take care of only our military needs unless it becomes a problem. Besides, it’s not like our old world went to shit because of polygamy and polyandry.”

“I agree with our promiscuous captain here.” Major Jung supported. “It’s not our place to shove our value onto other people just to satisfies our own moral value. After all, morals can change from culture to cultures. And… most importantly, we are here as killers and we aren’t so good and clean ourselves. We have no right to force them to change their culture.” Giving Spike a hard look. “Sir. Lets just focus on our duty as military and defending our new people from foreign power and killing inhumanoids and monsters for humanity.”

“OK!” Spike quickly replied in agreement as he didn't want to talk about this issue anymore.

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Daldia Town.

After the meeting, in the late evening, the 3 Daldia leadership held their own meeting in Marquess's study room.

“It seems our new master is planning to expand into this territory. They bluntly said they will use this area as a staging point. Now we know for sure.” Marquess Daldia said. “And what is this their ‘pleasure to kill’. They are a frightening people.” Looking at his trusted men. “What are your thoughts Lord Havington, Hunt Master Malikai?”

“With their military might, I think it was very obvious from the start that they would lay claims to this land.” Steward Havington said.

“Even as they talk of their privilege of killing. From the way they treat non combatant. And their talk of hunting. My instinct tells me that they are more of a predator looking for worthy games, than psychotic killers.” Hunt Master Malikai spoke.

Both Marquess and Steward ponder the Hunt Masters words.

“I’m a hunter, my lord. I care about actions more than words that may or may not be true. They have yet to rape any of the pleasure slaves, nor senselessly tortured any prisoners besides that one scout for interrogation. I’ve yet to witness any of their men looting for personal gains. It’s as if worldly wealth has very little meaning to them.” Hunt Master added. “And they don’t seem very interested in invading the eastern kingdom. But they are hungry to hunt inside the frontier.”

Then the 3 men became silent in their own thoughts. Even though many of the policies so far has been initiated by the military officers, Lord Phoenix approves them. And the level of support to the town and authority given to the Marquess is simply unheard of for a newly ennobled. Also the trust and confidence shown to them. But yet, the Phoenixians have yet to share where they come from nor how they are summoning men and resources. Hunt Master had personally witnessed Lord Phoenix summon healer Simmons and his healing equipments to heal hunter Rikko, leaving them more mystified.

Then the Marquess broke the silence. “Then let's support their aim in fighting and taming the frontier, and keep the peace with the east.” Pausing. “In any case, those greedy fools at Birsk and Farongo. From the lack of response to my last message to them I’m assuming the mayors have yet to inform their people of our immigration policy.” Looking both of his trusted lieutenants. “Use your connections with the hunters and others you know of, and get the message directly to the people. It’s simply derelict of duty to put the people under unnecessary danger for such selfish gain. With such large movement of the goblins, I feel that the frontier has gotten much more dangerous than we realise. But most of all, we are the free people of the frontier. Not some bargaining chips for fools!”

“Yes Marquess.” Both men replied.

“Then let's end it for tonight. My bones are aching from the long day.” Marquess Daldia said.

After he was left alone in his study, he wondered if he should have told them about his family’s past. He didn’t want to lie, or withhold informations, especially after directly questioned by Lord Phoenix. But Marquess Daldia pounder his action. Was it correct to bring out his past or should he have kept it buried forever. Being called Marquess Karan Honhanzor sounded like a stranger's name. A name he has never been known as and never been called by. But most all, after Major Jung informed him to expect it in the future, he wondered if he has unintentionally brought troubles to his people in the future.

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Whitestone

Before going to sleep, Spike meditated to reflect today's activity. Something he started to help him stabilize his emotions and help focus his mind. Replaying the day’s activity also helped him be more aware of himself.

“Hey Silhouette. Did you do something to me? Spike asked.

“Of Course I did. I brought you into this world.”

“Please. Seriously. Did you do something to me? By now, I should have seen signs of PTSD or some other disorder beside feeling extra emotional. Spike asked in almost in demanding tone.

“If you are asking because of your unhappiness about killing those civilian men and women. You shouldn’t. Only thing I did was bring you into this world and let your soul flow to dictate what powers you would be seeded with. I summoned your body to accept your soul and your soul did the rest.

“Then why am I able to adapt so quickly to this world?

“You are much more stronger then you realize Spike Phoenix. When your friend died in your arms as he bleed to death. When you took a stand against your mother to save your siblings. When you made the difficult decision to change your life by joining ROTC. When you made a decision to work under the table to make some money to feed your siblings even as you broke your civilization’s law disapproving child labor. Living in a community where drive by shooting and drug wars are the norm. Should I keep going?...You are more adaptable than you realize. You give me more credit then I deserve. All the decisions you have made to be strong for the ones you love, has made you strong. Even now, you are fighting for the lost souls and the local frontier people. Your small emotional spike are simply, your soul is adjusting into your new body. Which normally takes many months, but you are filling into it nicely.

After so much praises from the Silhouette, Spike couldn’t find it in himself to ask anything else. And simply reflected in her words and self reflected on himself, on his actions, and the whys.