Chapter 6 Part 2 of 3 (Patreon)

"I think that it would be best to go with the suggestion from the Associations here," Elise said. "If we push too much into the fourth realm, then it will create greater friction and we could be facing another war soon. If we wait, overtime the fighting in the fourth realm could come to a halt on its own."

Delilah didn't like it, she wanted to bring and end to the fighting but she knew that they were not Alvans and people could always go to a lower realm and find a happy existence.

"I agree, lets table the discussion for the next three years. Make it clear to the forces in the fourth realm and our allies."

"In four years it is possible that our allies will clear the realm by themselves," Glosil said.

"They are free to do as they want in that regard. It will bring stability in the long term. We must focus on fusing our efforts together and combine our nations together so the alliance is bound so tightly together it will be near impossible for it to unravel." Delilah said.

Glosil nodded.

"What is our military situation otherwise?"

"We have five thousand in training, new limits have been placed upon entry. Reserves has a nearly constant turn over so everything is fine there, the overall individual power of the soldiers has increased. I have a proposal to increase the minimum cultivation and level strength required of each soldier," Glosil took out a binder and passed it to an aide who handed it to Delilah.

"I talked to the researchers and with the dungeon managers and checked the cost to increase their cultivation."

"Thank you I will take a look at it after our meeting. Anything else in regards to our alliances?"

Jia Feng raised her hand.

"Head mistress?"

"Of the six academies built, the consortium that has finished all of its alterations and been expanded in the first realm, the academies in the second and third realm are still under construction but the main campus has been completed, the academy in the fifth realm has been established as well. Each were located in remote locations as asked. I prioritized schools within the realm getting teachers first, to prepare the younger generation to pursue their desired jobs. We have been hiring and training teachers as fast as possible, but we have not yet met up with demand. We are hiring externally and adding them to our training rotations as well. Hopefully in two months we will have all the teachers required to meet the academies needs."

"That is great news, and I agree with your priorities. I know that the students will be estatic, I hear that we are nearly full for this years round of students?"

"Yes, even with the new testing there is a great number of people looking to join the academies as there are wanting to join the Empire," Jia smiled at Lord' Chonglu and Aditya, they looked well worn and tested, new lines adding to their features.

"Well as we are talking about the empire," Delilah smiled.

"King's Hill has developed rapidly, we have planned out the next one hundred years of development in rough strokes we hope. The city is swarming with people, the beast problems have greatly decreased but with the increase in dungeons the various fighting guilds have remained. Trade is strong within the Kingdom as we meet the demand internally, the external demand is only increasing," Aditya looked to his counterpart.

"Alva has grown rapidly, each of the floors is populated, the living floor is bigger than ever, with the destruction of the dungeon core, we have had to consume other dungeon cores in remote locations and weaken the dungeon cores on the lower floors to make up the difference. With the influx of citizens and people within the Empire we have only increased the amount of mana we are drawing in and the dungeon cores are rapidly expanding. Still only Alvan Empire citizens are allowed within the city. Still we have people trying to illegally enter the city. The number of non-Alvan citizens within the Empire has only increased with time."

"I guess I should add that all of the nations within the first realm have made it clear they don't want to be on our wrong side and have joined the alliance by whatever means possible. We will be tightening the restrictions for one to become an Alvan. The prisoner force is working on the southern fields and will be moving through the Empire on different projects. I have the cities leaders putting forward suggestions for updates. Looking at the numbers while we have gone through a lot of growth recently, things seem to be stabilizing. Everyone has done a great job, and last but not least, Blaze?"

"Council leader," He nodded his head with a smile on his face.

"With Erik and Rugrat as four star heroes, the highest level of hero in the known realms. It seems when Erik flippantly told them to just put a mission hall here, they, well agreed. Last week we had confirmation that the Mission Hall will be moving an outpost down to the first realm, it will be a tester location, but if it performs well then we might have a mission hall here permenantly and that might extend up into the other realms as well."

Delilah made a note.

"The Adventurer's Guild has only become larger, even with losing a large amount of members to the reserves or joining the Empire. We have re-estblished our positions across the higher realms alongside the Trader Guild. Other guilds were hesitant to compete with us to start, but now things are heating up in a good way. Trade routes are more secure than ever and most of my adventurers are searching out dungeons for the Special teams to clear and control."

A knock came from the council chambers door.

Delilah frowned checking a seeing spell before she pressed a formation that unlocked the door.

Rugrat stood there.

"Hey everyone," He walked inside.

"I thought you were off to the eighth realm?" Blaze asked.

"It's as Lee said, that place is just a trial, here" Rugrat handed Delilah a letter.

"Message from the Sha, they're inviting us to go to the Violet Sky Realm. asking for representatives of Alva to grace them with their presence. Erik and I know your busy, so we'll go in your stead, no knowing what is in a realm like that."

"But Rugrat, are you," healed Delilah bit off the word. "sure about this?"

"Well you can't go, the council all have things to do, Erik and I can grow our asses or get out there, fly the flag and all that. We're going to be right beside the Marshal in the middle of his fleet, give us a Special team to come along for the ride, we'll be in and out in no time, the realm is only open for two weeks round trip. Be good to get out and see the world a bit."

Delilah looked at Glosil who shrugged.

"I'll have to read this and check it out."

"Okay, sounds good, nice seeing you all," Rugrat turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"You think that he?" Blaze asked.

"No, if they made it through the trial, you think he'd be so down?" Glosil sighed and rubbed his face.

"They're hurting, understandably, their cultivation has been crippled and they're sitting at the highest seat while they have nothing to do," Aditya said, rubbing his leg unconciously.

"You ever think that they were two people to sit back on their asses while they watch other people get shit done?" Chonglu said.

"I wish that there was more we could do for them," Jia Feng held her hands, her eyebrows pinching together.

"We can only help people who want help. They're stubborn mules and what we've tried hasn't worked. We know that we can try to stop them going on this trip, but like with going to the eighth realm, either we let them go with our blessing or they'll do it themselves," Glosil shrugged.

I wish they would just get better. Delilah's hand tightened on the letter as guilt flooded in with her thoughts.

"Yeah," She exhaled. "Glosil, make the preparations. I hope it helps them." If only she could make a pill that was able to reverse the damage, to heal them. She knew that across Alva, alchemists and healers were working on similar concoctions, therapies and treatments. She also knew how Erik and Rugrat saw it as a burden instead of a help and nothing she had said or done had changed their minds. You can only help those that want to be helped.

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