Amazon Apocalypse 7: Chapter 2

Toward the end of our family vacation, I left Bridget and Adrian in the apartment and went for a little trip of my own. Prince Herius' new world was only a single jump away from Glacia, and I wanted to keep in touch with whatever members of the Nineteenth Legion there were still in my employ.

Prince Herius was still busy with all the business of managing a newly colonized world. Practically every city was an entirely different culture, so he practically had an integration to deal with as various factions jockeyed for position. It would be generations until alliances and cultures stabilized into something Prince Herius could leave alone without checking on every minute or so.

It wasn't an enviable job, but all the peacekeeping operations meant there was plenty of room for soldiers loyal to the prince rather than to their cities and former homeworlds. Prince Herius was using a lot of the former soldiers from our crusade across Ladwick to keep the peace.

One of the largest mercenary companies in his employ was the Nineteenth Legion. It had been the legion I commanded during the crusade. Many of the other legions had already disbanded and its warriors released to find other work. Many of those soldiers had found work in Prince Herius' service, and the First Legion had been transformed into his royal guard for managing the planet in his name.

The Nineteenth Legion was different though. On my orders, and with the help of careful research from Reluna, I'd retained many of my best. It was past time I checked in with them.

"How stands the legion, Legate Asimi?" I asked. Asimi had been one of my commanding officers from the start. When I'd formally resigned my command, I'd handed the job off to her.

"Acting Legate only, sir. You're the true legate of the Nineteenth Legion." Asimi saluted me in Glacian fashion. I returned the gesture.

"As for the legion?" She looked around behind her, where the troops were already drilling. "Our headcount is just over two thousand right now, but don't let our low numbers fool you. Those we've retained are the best of the best. The weakest are high level D-Grades. The best are early B-Grades. Until recently we were completing mercenary contracts for the prince to keep the legion outfitted, but our contract is running out and I don't think he'll renew it, since we haven't been doing much lately. My guess is that he's recruited enough local forces to take over our role."

I looked over our location, which was along the coastline. That was a dangerous thing considering what lay in the waters of Prince Herius' new world.

"You've been hunting sea monsters, I take it?" I asked.

Legate Asimi nodded. "Anything that comes up along the coast. And a few things deeper out. We don't dare tread the truly deep waters, but the shores aren't completely infested anymore. Still, it's going to be a long time before anyone dares to fish around here, and I think we're starting to get tired of marching in wet boots."

"Eager for a change of scenery, huh?" I ran my fingers through my hair. Unfortunately it wasn't quite yet time to deploy the Nineteenth Legion. But at the same time, I might need them at any moment so I couldn't arrange another long-term contract for them.

I realized I'd just have to foot the bill for the legion personally and keep them at the ready, much like a standing army. Combined with the new equipment I was about to distribute and all the money Bridget spent on vacation, this was the first time in a long time I knew what it felt like to be running low on funds.

"Focus on drills. I want the legion ready for door to door urban warfare. Something more like aggressive peacekeeping operations rather than what we did on Ladwick. There are plenty of ruins on this world to practice with, just stay out of anything that looks too haunted. I've also got custom gear to distribute." I tossed Legate Asimi an unfamiliar uniform. I was pretty sure it was her size.

"What's this?" Legate Asimi asked.

"Some of the finest in enchanted protection. It's also got your new colors on it." I gestured to the uniforms.

Unfortunately, Reluna had commissioned the uniforms. I wanted to use the symbol Sakura came up with, which was a crown hovering over a hill. That was the sign employed by Kyle and the other city guards of Crownhill.

Reluna had come up with something different, which now served as my personal symbol. It was a golden scepter piercing the world. It would make a bit of an unfortunate political statement when it was revealed, but I could see no real alternative. These soldiers fought under my banner, not the local governments'.

"This stuff is from Doomblade's Armory! It must have cost a fortune. Did you really buy gear for the whole legion?" Legate Asimi asked.

I chuckled. "I'm not sure if anyone told you, but I own Doomblade's Armory. But yes, the armor and equipment is damned expensive, so don't trash it too quickly. I've got staffs and magical focuses for all the spellcasters in the army too. Not just plate mail and swords. Distribute it, train with it, be ready for a fight."

Legate Asimi saluted. "I suppose this makes you our lord now instead of our legate. Very well then. We await your command, my lord."

***

With the Nineteenth Legion training for the future, I returned to Mucaria to take Adrian and the girls home from our family vacation. Long stays abroad were nice from time to time, but there was always something nicer about returning home.

Adrian seemed happy to return to the castle, though once there he was swarmed by the many women of the house who all planned on mothering him whether he wanted to be mothered or not. We really needed to get in touch with families with other kids for an actual play date so he could get out and make friends instead of hanging out at the house with my eclectic crew of women.

Sakura and Bridget were normal enough, but Myrina seemed intent on teaching him to wield a sword before he learned to talk. I'd seen Cyra trying to compete with him in a pre-workout stretching competition, which she'd lost. Mimiko doted on him like he was the son of an emperor and would spoil him rotten given half a chance. Reluna had been testing his magical perception, which seemed normal enough. But I knew what Reluna's hobbies were and knew she'd be teaching him to magically steal Frank's burritos sooner or later.

I made a mental note to think it over later. But later meant I could put the problem off, which was good because the reason we'd ended our vacation was for a council meeting in Crownhill. And for once, it wasn't a council meeting I'd called.

A new wave of elections had swept through the Crownhill city government, and a lot of familiar faces had lost their former positions. I hadn't been paying any attention to the campaigning and the voting, but apparently the competition had been pretty fierce this time.

Frank, Marcus, Terrance, and Reginald had all lost their seats, largely due to not campaigning much at all. I wasn't surprised. When we set up the initial council, I'd basically had to force people to take these positions of power. It had been a lot of work and a thankless job in a time when most of us were worried we wouldn't even survive.

Now, things were different. Despite a little incident with a bunch of void monsters trying to destroy the city, we were thriving. The roads were clean, the city was beautiful, and our population had exploded.

Frank and his adventurers had made contact with hundreds of smaller survivor groups, and many of those had elected to come to the safety of the city. And the huge survivor group near the military base certainly contributed. As far as I knew, we were the only shard out there that could afford to set newcomers up with an apartment and a jobs training program, which meant we were the place to go for down-on-your-luck survivors.

As a result, we'd gone from a ruin inhabited by a few thousand survivors to a magitech-powered city inhabited by more than a hundred thousand. We weren't as heavily populated as New Kyoto or even Camlaan, but we had more people than the Order of Sorcery and the military base. Especially when considering Crownhill controlled several other cities with Obelisks and more minor settlements besides that.

All these people were eligible to run for office, so it was only natural that there were a few ladder climbers in the bunch somewhere. Normally, this wouldn't be a big issue, but two of the people who'd lost their seats in the recent election were Frank and Marcus, both of whom occupied seats that were mine to appoint. The same was true for Bridget's seat, though she'd long since delegated her position to some woman I wasn't too familiar with. During our next round of elections, I'd have to make it clearer that those three seats served at my pleasure, but for now it served my interest to turn the other cheek.

When I arrived at the council, I found myself surrounded largely by unfamiliar faces. The only real exception was Margaret. She'd become something of the informal head of the council, thanks to everything she did for the city. She ran the city's radio station, which was the only real source of news on the whole shard. That probably helped get her name out there long before any voting happened.

I looked them over, eyebrows rising when I realized most of these people were only E-Grade, and a few were only F-Grade and hadn't even reached level ten. With their smart-looking business suits and practiced smiles, they looked like they would have been perfectly at home in the halls of power before the integration. The only difference was the people here looked closer to thirty than ninety, but that was at least partially the effects of the improved health levels could give.

I was surprised to see them eying me with the hungry eyes of predators. Given the soft look and low levels of the politicians streaming in, it was a little funny. Like a bunch of confused mice thinking the tiger in front of them was just another mouse.

I took a seat first at my usual spot at the head of the table.

"I see some new faces, so let's start with introductions." I glanced at Margaret, who flashed me a smile. She looked concerned as well by all the new faces and was sitting much closer to me than usual.

Toward the end of the table, one of the newcomers cleared his throat.

"Ahem, Mister Smith, I think it would be best if I led this council meeting. After all, I'm the one who suggested it," the man said. He straightened his overcoat and looked around.

"And you are?" I asked.

"Councilman Morris, and I was elected to represent a concerned constituency of citizens worried about the increasing concentration of power into authoritarian hands. The focus of this meeting should be to more formally distribute executive powers into the people's hands."

Councilman Morris drummed his fingers together as he spoke. From the way he looked at me, I suspected the only people getting their hands on more power would be him.

Normally, there were any number of ways I could deal with a guy like this. Just about anywhere else I could think of, a guy like this one would be instantly vaporized by someone like me for even insinuating that he would do a better job with my position.

But at the moment, Councilman Morris was exactly the sort of guy I was looking for. So I leaned back and nodded to him.

"Very well, Councilman Morris. Take it away." I waved to him, but made no move to give him my seat.

He turned to the rest of the council. "I am Peter Morris. Previously, I worked as a campaign staffer in Washington and was visiting family when the integration arrived. As someone who was fairly well versed in the way our democracy ought to run, I must say there are serious flaws in our current political structure. During my time in office, I plan to make sure they're taken care of."

A few of the new faces clapped. I suspected most of their support came from survivors from the refugee camp outside of the military base. Their population dwarfed Crownhill's original units in numbers, though they were far behind in levels.

This was the reason democracies weren't too popular in the wider Arcadia Multiverse. A small city like Crownhill dominated far larger settlements politically and militarily, but in sheer headcount we were far behind. Such an arrangement was far from uncommon. Individuals or small clans could rule over entire cities or regions through their personal might.

One by one, the new council members introduced themselves. I watched carefully to see who appeared to be aligning themselves with Councilman Morris. I remained casually silent, despite the looks Margaret was throwing my way. When Morris started explaining the importance of having hundreds of low-level clerks and functionaries, I started pulling out pictures of Bridget and Adrian which I'd taken during our vacation and started showing them to Margaret.

"Mister Smith, is now truly the time to be showing off pictures of your family?" Councilman Morris asked. His eyebrows twitched in annoyance at me.

"If you just had a kid, you'd be showing off pictures of him too." I chuckled, but put the photos away.

"Now that introductions are done, let's get to the reason I called for this emergency council meeting..." Councilman Morris went on to expound on the desperate need for more bureaucracy.

Apparently we needed a head of public works, roads, public health, chief judge, department of revenue, department of transit, department of education, and a dozen other things I'd barely heard of.

Admittedly he had a few good points. We weren't a small collection of survivors living off a code of rules that was only half written down and half unspoken. We were a real civilization. More than that, we were a budding empire.

Previously, I'd relied a lot on volunteers and one-off quests to deal with this sort of thing. If the workload ever reached more than Margaret could handle, I foisted part of the job off on Sakura or Reluna.

Now though, each department would require a full-time position, along with someone answerable to the public if they failed to do their job correctly. Councilman Morris' solution was basically to install what we had prior to the integration. I had some doubts.

"I'm not sure putting just anyone in charge of the town guard is wise. Odds are you'll end up with an E-Grade ordering around C-Grades," I said.

Councilman Morris snorted and waved his hand dismissively. "Civilians should be in charge of the military and police. That's been true in practically every country worth noting."

While Councilman Morris might have been correct as far as Earth prior to the integration went, things had changed. I wasn't the best versed in pre-integration political structure, but I'd traveled the Arcadia Multiverse and seen how other worlds were run. Like it or not, people with high levels were always at the top, particularly when it came to military positions.

These sorts of career politicians would never ascend beyond being mid-level bureaucrats in the rest of the Arcadia Multiverse. Our new world was too dangerous and violence was too common for anything else. The long lifespans of higher levels also helped concentrate political power in the hands of the strong.

Despite my experiences and knowledge, I held my tongue and nodded along. No doubt Councilman Morris would arrange for some lackey to be appointed to the position he'd created. I weighed in here and there, but it was increasingly becoming apparent that most of the new council members were becoming certain that I was just an average guy who'd been at the right place at the right time and somehow wound up as the local emperor.

That wasn't all that far off from the truth. But I'd learned a thing or two since then, and I suspected Councilman Morris was going to be quite surprised one day soon.

<Note>

Secret plot by Carter!

Also, just writing down Councilman Peter Morris right here. Gotta make sure I get the first name in my notes somewhere in case I need it. He was just Councilman Morris in my outline. Not sure how or where the first name came from, but it felt right.

Also, I made some edits to some of the sea monster stuff in book 1. There's a little more detail and a few more scenes dealing with the tentacle monsters, but I trimmed things short and got rid of the radiation stuff since we just didn't have room for the kaiju battle I wanted. So if you've been waiting for that shoe to drop it's sadly been edited out, though Carter might still hear news of it happening secondhand for other reasons.