A couple of days later, Greile set foot on the island. He found himself in a cove that somehow just fit the single-lane ferry. Artor drove the T-7000 off onto a landing, and into a vehicle hanger at the bottom of the cliff, then made his way back to them. The big rig wouldn't be able to make the trip up to the top of the cliff on the single lane switch-back road that lead to the top.

"Ah, Little Boss, you'll have to talk to Sonny about a vehicle to take your things up the switch-back. That big rig won't make it up there. He should be in the vehicle hanger. If not, you'll have to trek up, and find him in the village."

"There wasn't anyone inside," Artor told them. "I parked in the area designated for big rigs."

"Ah, then ya gotta go up ta the village," Captain Alex Morgan told them.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Magnus returned, then turned toward Greile and said, "We can get up there using your vehicle, Greile. It can't carry all our belongs, but it can carry up to four people at once. If we fill the back seat with our stuff, we can take the stuff up using multiple trips."

"But, I don't have a license," Greile responded.

"We're in international waters on an island ya own, son, ya don't need a license here."

"I don't know how to drive," Greile responded.

"I can teach you, if you would like," Artor informed him.

"If it doesn't work out, Cordelia is a great teacher," Magnus added.

"Uh, I guess?"

"Let's start with teaching you how to get the vehicle off the trailer," Artor suggested. "From what I was told, your electromagnetic field is the key, so we'll have to teach you how to do everything from getting it off the truck, to driving it around tight corners, and obstacles. We'll start with simple things, but I'll need to see the vehicle first in order to know where to begin. I didn't see it when Magnus loaded it, so I'm not certain of the vehicle type yet."

The group headed into the vehicle hanger after saying their goodbyes to Captain Morgan, who took a motor bike and rode it up the road to the village. He had decided it was best to stay on the island for a bit due to the unnatural situation at Exodus. This decision would turn out to be quite the important decision involving their future, but they would not learn this for a long while.

Artor lowered the ramp into the vehicle trailer, lengthening it half-way to the ground before he finished lowering it. He hadn't seen it before, so Greile was surprised when what looked to be an old muscle car was revealed. Well, actually, come to think of it, it looked like a fusion between a 57 mustang, and a typical art deco car from the 30s and 40s to Greile.

He got into the vehicle, and as soon as he sat down, a sound could be heard, and then a voice said, "Welcome, Master Greile. Commencing activation, and startup sequence... Initiating steam production, 30 seconds until unit is ready to drive. Water tank reads as 99.999% full, and all systems are nominal."

"Wait, steam production, water? Why would a car need a water tank?"

There was no answer from the vehicle, it had simply been an automated start-up notification. Instead, the answer came via Magnus.

"The person who turned it over to us said it was steam powered."

"Not just steam powered, the vehicle has a solar fusion power plant as well, but uses water for the driving force. It's somewhat of a hybrid. Actually, they had other versions, one which uses coal or wood, and another that uses solar and batteries. He didn't suggest the solar due to the massive scale environmental damage he said was being caused by the gathering of the lithium, and the sand, as well as the reactions to refine the lithium, and create the solar panels. He said the damage is far beyond what the experts are willing to admit, or able to truthfully measure," His wife added on.

"Oh right, didn't he say that nuclear was a much cleaner fuel source, but people had become unreasonably fearful of nuclear due to a film that distorted what happened in that incident on three mile island~?"

"Yeah, he said they made it seem like the world would end and the core would be destroyed, but the incident didn't even raise radiation above natural levels, let alone to dangerous levels. If they are monitored, and maintained properly, it won't be a problem. In fact, I did some checks, and there's only been one deadly incident in the Kormine Principality, and that was because corners were cut in production of the plant to cut costs... because government works by lowest bidder, or closest to the representative of the government bureaucracy, not safest result."

"Okay, that's enough of that," Artor interrupted them, "I've got to teach the Young Master to drive this thing a bit. Not sure he'll be ready to go up and down that switch-back today, but I can at least get him started. Right now, you two are in the way."

Artor turned out to be a very capable teacher, and while he didn't manage to teach Greile enough to comfortably go both up and down the switchback, he did manage to teach him well enough to get up the switchback, and over to the place of Sonny, the man Captain Morgan had mentioned.

Sonny then brought a strange pickup truck down the switchback, with the two aboard. This pickup had a cab with three rows of seats, and a longer pickup bed, yet traveled the switchback with little to no issues. Greile hadn't driven before, so he didn't know the road was a bit wider than normal, with each lane being about half again as wide as a standard lane. The seating was also a bit more cramped than in other vehicles, especially in the leg room department. These two things made it possible for the vehicle to traverse the switchback safely, although the height or the cab was also at around chest height, so that kept it from bottoming out. If the vehicle were able to move quickly, this might cause instability on turns, but the vehicle didn't move very fast, even when Sonny didn't use the brakes to head down the switchback, and so it didn't have any stability issues on the corners.

Considering that the island wasn't too large, the speed of the vehicle wasn't a problem, yet it could haul a good deal of weight, so it was a good option for moving heavy or bulky things quickly. The vehicle quite easily brought everything they had brought along up to the manor.

When Greile saw the ostentatious building, he wasn't sure he wanted to live there. It was similar to an old southern manor, with porches at the front that had huge stone pillars going up to the roof. These pillars were decorated with etchings of all kinds of fantastic creatures, and robotic beings fighting. Some of the robots looked eerily reminiscent of gravoids, and the depictions showed them firing beams, or similar actions. It was really quite a striking building, and he really didn't know if he wanted to live there.

As they drove up to the building, they found a crowd already waiting for them. Amidst the crowd, were Hevna's sisters, and a young butler wearing a half-mask. Greile wondered who this was for a moment, but them thought of Greine. Curious, he was able to determine that his hair color was the same as his own, and as they drew closer it became apparent that his eyes were the same. That fairly well confirmed that it was Greine, but he would find out later if that was actually the case. The others were present as well, and all wore a servant's clothing, but Artor's counterparts each had a weapon visible. These weapons were unusual in design, but still recognizable for what they were, be it a gun, a sword, or another type of arms.

"Greetings, Young Master," they greeted him as he got out of the vehicle.

"Uh, hi, what's with the outfits?"

"We deemed it appropriate, considering we will be acting as servants, bodyguards, and confidantes, Young Master," Greile heard, and was able to confirm that Greine was, indeed, wearing the half-mask from his voice.

"I really don't need servants," he told them, letting out a sigh.

"You'll need someone to take care of this big building," Cordelia pointed out.

"But..."

"It's mostly for appearance's sake, Young Master Greile," one of Hevna's sisters stated. "You won't be able to manage the manor and island all on your own, and we should really earn our keep."

"This also allows us to play a believable part, and portray to the world that we are here for a reason other than simply to act as your bodyguards, or play things."

"There's no way I could make you my playthings," he called out in surprise, and horror.

That brought about a giggle from Hevna, who said, "They understand that, Master Greile."

"Yes, but some people will go to any lengths to vilify others in order to reach their goals," one of the three responded.

Artor acted as a voice of reason here, and said, "They can actually use that disguise to vilify Greile as well. For some reason, they have this weird idea that all young masters are 'womanizers who treat their maids as sex-toys' here."

"What would we even use this big manor as if we don't use it for the Young Master?"

"You could use it as an inn~," Magnus suggested.

"As much of an inturestin' talk as dis is, brothas and sistas," Sonny interrupted, "How 'bout we introduce ourselves ta de new owner a de island so de u'ders can go 'bout deir bus'ness."

Greile was then introduced to the adults on the island, and their families, and was finally escorted into the building by his companions. They quickly began to move everything into the building, and soon had everything situated for the time being. Over the next few weeks, Greile got situated. He soon decided he'd rather use the manor as an inn. As tempting as it was to have a bunch of maids at his beck and call, it soon became apparent that the building was much too large for their group to handle, and security was atrocious in such an open, airy, and elaborately decorated building. He would rather have a walled in courtyard with a few small homes than such a large, open building, and his security force tended to agree with him.

As such, Greile decided to purchase or build a number of cabins, small homes, or tiny homes, and put them inside a walled in courtyard for privacy. This choice would be fortuitous in the end, but would take some time to see the results.

There wasn't enough facilities on the island for what The Guide Company would need, but Magnus and Cordelia came up with an idea that would allow for the families to be present, but also hide Greile and his group among them. Basically, the plan was to hide the trees amongst the forest by making a large number of walled in courtyards connected by foot paths, which would hold tiny or small homes with small gardens and ponds or water features, such as bird baths or fountains. While they might be called tiny homes, they wouldn't be that small, but depending on the layout and size would take up a larger or smaller footprint, with some being as long as thirty-five feet, while a smaller two story would be sixteen foot by sixteen foot. As a result, they decided on four foot thick walls with forty foot by forty foot interior spaces. They were somewhat arbitrary numbers, but they would allow them to easily plan out the area they would use. The thick walls would deaden sound between units, and even allow them to include escape routes into the walls if they so desired. They chose an open area near the little village which had fertile soil, but hadn't been used for crop fields.

They talked to the current villagers, and the two farming families suggested the area as it would easily support the gardens they wanted to include, and could even be used to produce food for the families being brought over. They agreed to increase their field sizes, but did worry they wouldn't be able to produce enough food for everyone, and this would help. The problem was that large farm equipment couldn't be brought up the switchback, so they had to rely on old-fashioned forms of farming. They were willing to teach others the trade, but they'd have to bring in their own animals.

Cordelia brought up the idea of a hydroponic garden, but these families weren't knowledgeable about the process. They also didn't have the funds for such an idea, so it wasn't surprising they didn't show much interest. The community went more by barter than a monetary system, although some money from the mainland was exchanged as well. However, the same could not be said in the countries on the mainland, so they couldn't so easily trade, although the owner of Gravoid Industries did help with that. He provided payment cards, and contact points, but they didn't produce enough goods to normally use those contact points, or the cards that would help them do so.

Sena Trovem came in during one of their meetings with the farmers. "I noticed you haven't been using crop rotation, may I ask why," she asked.

"Mostly not enough land approved for that use," one of the farmers stated, "but there was also the fact that we didn't particularly need to do so either. The island's population has always been relatively small."

"I think it would be best to open up some land for fields, and begin crop rotation in the two farms, we can also improve the irrigation systems on the island, and this will play into a hydroponics garden. We can setup rainwater collection systems, and a small-scale desalinization system to remove salt from salt water pumped up from the ocean. We'll also need a sewage system moving forward, septic systems on the scale used here just aren't enough to last for an extended period of time, even as well-thought out as these ones are. If this is going to turn into something of a colony where political dissidents can run to for safety from the mainland governments, and political activists with a bean to pick, we'll have to think ahead. It will also help to have such a system in place to deal with the sewage the stadium will undoubtedly produce. What?"

Greile just sat there uncertain what to say, or think. He didn't understand what she had said. Well, that wouldn't be entirely fair to him, he did understand, but her sudden, and unexpected knowledge threw him off. Thankfully, someone helped him to understand.

"Sena was extensively trained in facilities side of civic engineering and various agricultural processes, both modern, and old," Trombol explained. "That's her main expertise, while combat is a secondary. As a group, we were mostly trained in the combat aspects, but have some understanding of various civic-minded disciplines. The exceptions here are Artor and Greine. Greine was trained to be your bodyguard, and double. He has some training in acting, and a lot of understanding of your circumstances, so that he can act as you in a situation where it is required. Artor was trained more as a scauffeur, and in many combat aspects. In a way his training includes civic aspects, but it can also be considered a combat discipline. Knowing how to drive in combat can save your life, after all."

"I do have quite a lot of driving, and etiquette training, but I'm mostly trained in combat," Artor corrected. "I have, however, been given enough training in classical wisdom and philosophy, and various disciplines to be a decent advisor."

"So, not like Artor in the novel," Greile said. He had learned that Artor was reading the story already.

"No, unfortunately my namesake was not all that wise despite his position," Artor responded, "Having Greile continue on in Crodiiv despite his obvious inability to grasp the game was not advisable. Thankfully, his friend talked him out of that before it was too late. His decision to stick the boy with Hevna was also somewhat questionable, and hopefully our Hevna does not become so obsessed with you as his did with her Greile. It'd also be best if we do not end up with another Scindara problem."

"Anyway, we can discuss civic improvements with everyone on the island. After all, such decisions will affect them as well as us," Greile said. "I'd like to speak with each of you in private, and see what other training, or understandings you received." They shortly concluded the meeting, and he arranged meetings to learn their strengths.

It turned out Trombol had an advanced understanding of communications, and diplomacy; while Zane was trained in welding, and smithing; and Hart was trained in biology, and medicine. Hevna's sisters were trained in various housekeeping aspects and cooking, as was she, their expertise was hard to pin down, but Aleina was more specialized in economics and bookkeeping. One of the other two, Andrea had a love of painting, and the other, Lana, enjoyed musical performance. These were not expertises, however, but instead were things the two enjoyed doing.

As for Hevna, she was actually an excellent cook, and had been cooking their meals since soon after Greile first received her. She was also an excellent housekeeper, and so one might wonder why she and her sisters were unable to keep up with the manor with the help of others, but it was just too large to easily handle as it was. In addition to this, it was too open to the outside for safety reasons, and had too many decorations on the outside that would give would-be intruders hand holds to get to the upper levels. One could say a larger house would be safer, due to the abundance of rooms making things more difficult on enemies, but to Greile it just wasn't worth the effort, trouble, and worries to live in it full-time. The others didn't gainsay this idea as they really were too few to properly use, and maintain the place. Thus, the reason why they chose to build a smaller house and courtyard setup.

After discussing with the villagers, a sewage system was approved, along with the hydroponics garden, and increased farm land for crop rotation. The people on the island were understandably nervous about having new people possibly come permanently to the island, and even building the new section, but when they learned it was for people who had been mistreated on the mainland they agreed to it, as their circumstances were similar. The courtyard setup intrigued the islanders, but they did worry it might lead the people to isolate themselves from others. Sena convinced them by arguing that the Sacenes hadn't become isolated from their countrymen despite heavily using courtyard structures to surround personal property, and that the homes being minimalist in nature would prompt people to be more active outside.

She also brought up the idea of a form of money for the island itself, but didn't know what might be used as a backing for this money. In this regard, Greile helped out by suggesting Cupric Silver, a form of mineral amalgamation that was largely undervalued, but quite unusual, and rare. Each chunk of the stuff had a different mineral signature from the others, and would therefore be traceable. It was most common in the continent spanning mountains of his home country, and could have been a much better backing for their money, due to it's unusual nature. Instead, they had used crude oil as a backing, a fact he never quite understood. Why use such an abundant resource, rather than a very rare and unusual one that would have a much more finite amount available? This was especially so when diesel and thereby gasoline could be made into renewable resources via certain processes even he had heard of, rather than finite ones.

The idea of a monetary system was received fairly well, especially once the people were informed about the stadium Gravoid Industries wanted built. Having their own monetary system would make trades more precise than a simple barter system. The idea for a backing for this system was also intriguing, and Greile argued for it so effectively that it was adopted.

They didn't know it, but these meetings and their decisions would bring together a form of government similar to that of Greile's home country, although still different in nature, and lead to the prosperity of those on the island. In the mean time, Greile, began to buy up Cupric Silver through The Guide Company. He also began to buy nickle, copper, silver, and gold, although in finite amounts, and a set of presses with coin plates they designed, forming the basis for the new monetary system. They even had "In God We Trust" on them, to acknowledge the origins of his home country. When they finally began to put together a constitution for the new country, that was already beginning to be conceptualized, Greile would adamantly argue for that constitution to enshrine religious freedom, and the inalienable rights their creator had given them, within it's body of words, but that is a story for a later time.

After the talks, Greile and The Guide Company began to get their works underway. He met the young woman whom he had insisted be brought over, and her young daughters, and the two soon became friends. He heard her story, and this cemented the idea in his heart that the inalienable rights must be included, and adamantly protected, should they form a new country on the island. He also decided that something must be done to ensure any constitution would be treated not merely as a social compact, but as the nation's highest, most important, and most secure, law.

The Guide Company brought in a construction company that they often worked with. The company's owners, and workers could be trusted to keep quiet, and were sticklers for building for safety, rather than lower costs. That being said, they didn't go straight for higher costs. If something was cheaper, but safer, they would go for what was cheaper, and safer. Greile was amazed as the walls for the area went up in days, even with incorporating a rainwater collection and filtration system, which Sena requested. They then further surprised him by building up the houses , and roofing for the walls in a matter for a couple of weeks. The total number of houses they put up were sixty, and that was no small feat, even with the fact that they were tiny homes.

When asked why they could put up the buildings so fast, the owners of the company laughed and said that it was because they didn't have to deal with regulations out here. This might sound chilling to some people, and it did to Greile too, until they explained why that was so. Without the regulations, they were able to implement several time-saving methods that actually made the buildings safer. When they had to deal with city planning departments, and get safety modifications done, it took a lot of effort to implement any changes the city planning departments' engineers and regulations disagreed with, but with there being no such bureaucracy here, they were able to simply implement the necessary architectural modifications without arguing over unnecessary regulations, and building requirements that were actually less safe, yet still required. They had been able to implement a number of old, and new techniques that were safer, but simply not allowed by bureaucratic agencies and ignoramic laws. Sena did oversee the whole situation, and even gave them some advice that helped them increase the safety of the buildings further, which the two had been surprised, and delighted by.

When the buildings were completed, the company began work on the hydroponics garden, and a few water silos that would feed off the rainwater collection in the walls.

Greile didn't quite understand how the sewage was being dealt with, although he knew that none of it was going into the ocean. All he knew was that there was a treatment plant that would then lead into a giant leech field after the sewage had been pretreated, and would fertilize fields that would either be used for crops, or left wild. Work on the sewage system had been contracted out to another trustworthy company, although their work took understandably longer to complete. How the entire thing would work, he had no clue, only those few details he could fully understand even when he saw the results..

As for sewage in their little walled in community, there had been a few late changes in the setup, replacing the sewage system with incinerator toilets. The ash could then be used for the gardens, rather than having to be treated like the majority of the island's waste would need to be. They even rerouted the liquid waste into a natural filtration system, where it eventually came out into an underground cistern, and was pumped up to the water storage for the hydroponics garden, and the walled in community. Sena requested the changes upon hearing of the timetable on the main sewage system, and she had decided to implement a few systems that were quite natural in nature, and even with their unusual implementation would be done in much less time than the sewers.

In the span of three months, the building they needed done was completed, while the stadium would take another two years to complete, some of that being done at a port, where the rig the entire thing would be sitting on was being assembled. Before any work began on the stadium, Greile, and his friends and companions were moved into their new homes. This time had been quite hectic, and Greile didn't bother to log into gravoid despite the fact that his life was no longer in constant danger.

-----

"Big Bear, this is Eagle Eye Seven, that's the last of them."

"Good work Eagle Eye," Big Bear responded, "Head back to base."

It had been a long three months, and the Eagle Eyes had been constantly at work, but their command had finally destroyed the organization hired to assassinate Little Fish. Now they had finished the final mission, and it was time to return.

"How's Little Fish?"

"Alive and kickin' you wouldn't believe how much has changed on the island, and at base," Big Bear responded. "Big Plans has been fighting with the bureaucracies on the mainland over that rig she designed, so that part's slow going, but everything else is going fast."

"Did command contact her about that?"

"That's part of the problem, scuttlebutt is that the plan changes for what we need are what's slowing everything down."

"Big Fish can't do anything about it," he asked as he began to make his way out of the area.

"He's unwilling to interfere," Big Bear responded, "He thinks it'll only cause more delays, and the Colonel agrees with him, so we're stuck waiting. See you at base camp, Big Bear out."

"Roger that.

He just hoped he could get some well-deserved R&R in before they were needed again.

-----

The head of TRM Global Changes stood there glaring out the window of his office, an obvious scowl on his face. Nothing had been going right with this situation. They finally found the boy, and then a strange group interfered with the assassination attempt. Then his agents and contacts in the organization he tried to use to accomplish that began to be picked off, one by one. Not only had they been picked off, but even after they gave up and ran they were hounded by this mysterious group. He had just received information that they were now completely wiped out.

"So the Skulls were knocked out."

"Yes, Sir, they were all killed, right down to the very last man."

He let out a sigh, "What's the situation with the kid?"

"So far as we can tell, still safe. None of our agents have been able to get onto the island, even after spotting signs of him being there. They even tried to sneak people in with the construction crews hired by The Guide Company, but their attempts were thwarted because they weren't hiring, and wouldn't budge. About the most we've been able to do is stall the construction of that rig they're trying to get going, via the bureaus, but that won't last much longer."

"Have you heard about your nephew's company?"

"Don't remind me they should have just been good little dogs and rolled over, but they sheltered under that man's table, and thwarted every effort we've made to make Axel look like a villain. Hell, The Show is back, and bigger than ever, and no amount of ratings manipulation has worked, so don't remind me of those fools. Ever since we got involved with this kid, things have gone down hill. Let's just let sleeping dogs lie for a bit, and stop our attempts to deal with him, those attempts have only harmed us."

"Surely, there must be something we can do."

"Pull back our agents, it's worthless. Just put out a bounty, and leave it be. Maybe someone will take up the job, and do the deed for us. All I know is that we've lost too much in this enterprise as it is. Did we ever find out what they wanted with cupric silver?"

"No, they bought out the market before we could find out much. Even price gouging by some of the people involved didn't stop them from buying it all up. One of our guys thinks they bought various minerals, but we've no clue what they would have done with them."

"What minerals?"

"Copper, silver, gold, nickel, and a few others," the reply came back.

"Hmmm? Making coins? Nah, that couldn't be it. Well, not like it does anything to our plans either way. The kid's out of the way, let's just leave him be, and concentrate our resources where they should have been in the first place. How's the situation in Plattersville?"

"It's proceeding as planned."

"Good, at least something's going well. Make sure everyone knows, leave the kid alone unless he sticks his neck into our business. No sense in wasting anymore effort where it's done no good at all."

"Yes, Sir. The 'investors' won't like this though."

He stared out the window for a while after that. This wasn't something he would normally do, but the situation had gotten completely out of hand. Unfortunately, even the higher ups in government had gotten involved, and wanted this boy dealt with, so even pulling back and getting a breather would harm him. He couldn't afford to continue to go after the kid, but he couldn't afford to ignore the kid either, he was between a rock and a hard place.

"Damn it..."

-----

Sam sat in his new house, quietly contemplating everything that had happened over the past months. He couldn't quite get used to being called Greile, even though everyone else had so naturally switched over to calling him by the name. He hadn't really been able to reconcile his situation before with the one he was in now, it was just too different. Before the events of the last few months he had barely been making it by, but now he wasn't struggling just to make ends meet, and had his own island, a home, and enough food to put on the table. He couldn't say he had an over-abundance, but he could provide food for all those working under him thanks to the help of the islanders, and the hydroponics garden would soon be ready for it's first harvest thanks to Sena's careful management. It was still so surreal, and he never would have believed such a thing would be possible before all of this.

For that matter, he never would have believed that the housing they had ordered would be able to be put up so quickly, and still be safe, but they had completely exceeded his imagination. Apparently the regulations and procedures required to get approval on the mainland usually bogged things down greatly, and the process had been greatly sped up due to that, and various methods of construction they were not allowed to use on the mainland, and would have had to wage a long legal battle to get approved. It was like night and day seeing the difference in the construction rate as opposed to what they normally had to deal with on the mainland. It helped that they were an ethical group, however, and with less scrupulous groups it may have resulted in shoddy workmanship. Sena had inspected everything, so they weren't totally without controls, but without the over-abundance of regulation, and requirements for approval from bureaucratic agencies it was a much faster process.

It made him wonder how safe such a society would be, but the company owners had assured him that very few companies would purposely bring their customers into danger, because a bad reputation would be untenable, and spell the end of their business. This was especially so if they had competitors. They also suggested that learning about various things would be wise, and suggested that if they were to form some kind of construction control agency that they form an elected group made up of those that worked and lived on the island. Having an expert's opinion was one thing, but it was better to have experts be advisors, more so than turning them into pseudo-lords by having them not be elected, but instead being installed. If they were elected by the people, they would be beholden to them. After some consideration, Greile thought it would be best to have a dichotomy, where some were elected by the people whole some were elected by the people's representative government. It would be much the same as why the founding fathers of his home country had pitted the senate and the house of representatives against each other in the original methods by which each were elected. It would certainly slow the rate by which new laws or regulations could be enacted, but it would also prevent nonsensical regulations and laws from being enacted by pitting both groups against each other.

That was all well and good, but it didn't matter if they never founded a country, so there wasn't much use in considering such things for now. In his estimation, it was also unlikely they'd ever have so many people that they'd need such an elected body. He should just deal with what he could deal with for the time being, and not jump ahead of himself. He supposed that if the need did ever come for such considerations, any ideas he came up with now would simply be considered thinking ahead, so he did make a mental note in order that he would remember his current thoughts and considerations at that time. He didn't even realize that his buying up of materials to turn into coins was already jumping the gun.

As he was considering these things, his beautiful companion sat beside him, and Greile couldn't help looking over at Hevna.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"I was just considering what the builders told me, and how to implement something like that. I think I'm getting ahead of myself though," he answered.

"It's not bad to think ahead," Hevna responded, and then sat quietly beside him for a while before saying, "You want to help others, don't you?"

"Yeah," he admitted it freely, he found that easy to do with this woman. "I want to give others a hand up, like I was given. Well, it's more like I was given the keys to a kingdom in a way, but I still want to help others like the others helped me."

"Well, I think you should start with planning out how to develop the island, we'll need more housing in order to help others. You allowed your friends to purchase housing in this area, and own land for protecting their people, but we'll need housing for more than just them if you really wish to do this."

"I concur Master Greile," he was startled to hear Sena say from his other side. "While allowing The Guide Company to make this housing surrounding your own does help to hide you from enemies, currently little housing aside from those are available on the island. Hevna and I have noticed your distant gazes these days. I was a bit worried, but Hevna was right, you were thinking of others. Might I suggest something?"

"Sure," he responded, he wasn't averse to listening yo opinions from others.

"Sanlistra Island is not so small that only one village may fit. I would suggest that we build a number of communities or small villages using various housing themes. Right now we have a community in the Sacene style, with some modern elements. As this is connected to the main village, we'll add another similar sized setup closer to the sight where the stadium will be setup alongside the island. People can rent out these houses, and stay in them short term while visiting the island for tournaments. These places can also serve as places where political dissidents, or persecuted individuals from the mainland may stay until they can clear up issues, or until the heat on them reduces enough that they can return safely."

"In three other locations on the island, we will setup other villages or hamlets which will each follow a period, and culture theme, with allowances for modern amenities that are setup in a style more accurate to that period and culture. These communities will be more permanent housing, which can be rented, or purchased, but certain rules will have to be followed, similar to modern HOAs. That being said, the rules will be much simpler, and allow much more freedom than an HOA agreement. The other things we will require is that any improvements be within acceptable visual limits that will be accurate to the period and culture, and that modern vehicles will not be allowed within the areas. I already have three periods and cultures in mind, all of which are perfect for horse-drawn carriages, but it would be acceptable to use steam automobiles due to their timeframe being in line with the time during which steam engines held sway."

"What societies are these," Greile asked, curious as to the ones she had chosen.

"One would be the Sanders Era of your native country," she explained, "While steam vehicles were not always common during this period, they were present, and could be found. Another would be the Hamelonian Era of Saxony, where again they were uncommon, but could be found. The final one would be the Gilford Era of Holens."

These mentioned periods and cultures were similar to the Old West of The United States of America, the Victorian Era of England, and Holland just prior to World War I. Each had some differences, with steam vehicles being present in each of them. Gasoline engines were also present, and had eventually won out over the more expensive steam engine vehicles of the time.

"Do the communities always have to follow real period themes," Greile asked.

"What do you mean, Master Greile?"

"Elves," Greile said, hoping Sena would understand.

"Elves," Hevna asked in confusion while Sena's eyes widened.

"Oh my goodness! Why didn't I think of that," Sena cried out, "We have all that forest unused!"

"What are elves," Hevna asked.

"Eh? Oh, elves are a race of mythical tree huggers from fairy tales," Sena said.

"Well, some portray them as tree huggers," Greile admitted, "but they were more tree dwellers. The elves lived in the forests, up in the trees, they drew their livelihoods from the forests, and so took seriously the need to protect, and clear them of rubble that would lead to large scale fires."

"Shouldn't they have wanted to let the forests be? Why clear the forests?"

"Would you leave a forest completely wild if you were living in it," Sena asked. "The elves would have wanted to tidy up their forests to ensure their continued existence, and reduce wildfires. If I were an elf, I'd make sure to clear unruly brush from near the trees, and any dead trees and underbrush in order to prevent disastrous fires, while preserving some that is less dangerous to preserve the forest's ecology. I'd be working to not only preserve my home, but ensure it's safe for future generations to enjoy, and thrive in."

"The elves I've read of were like that, they took care of their forests, but they didn't leave it wild and destructive," Greile agreed. "It doesn't make any sense to leave nature be, no matter how dangerous the situation will become. It's better to protect the creatures from wildfires, and you have just as much right to live, and be free as any other being. I can't understand these doom-sayers who say we have to put the plants and trees before ourselves, sure, we should keep the planet healthy, it's in our best interests to do so, but do we even understand enough to keep it healthy? What if, by responding quickly, and without sufficient information, we instead cause a situation that was not dangerous to turn into a truly dangerous situation by our panicked reactions? We aren't all-knowing, after all."

"That's a wise consideration," Sena told him, "but it seems I need to consider another village, and it may be wise to reconsider where we will be staying more permanently."

"What do you mean," Greile asked.

"I think we should hide you in a place more suited to such things, a more natural place for hiding a tall tree," Sena said, grinning wildly.