SS - Chapter 23 -  Vassalage

“So how many people is that?” Camille asked as we escorted the latest group of people out of the sphere chamber and back to the entrance of the Citadel. 

“Thirty one, with two more groups to go,” I replied, tapping the ‘Lock Sanctum’ command on my system window. Behind us the heavy stone wall silently slid closed, once again securing and hiding the Sovereign stone from the outside world. “You sure you’re not interested in undergoing the process, Selena.”

“Even though I appreciate everything you’ve done for me so far, I’m not exactly keen to bind myself to you and your little country,” the girl grumbled. “Besides, I don’t really get any advantage beyond access to a system. I don’t mind waiting until that gets rolled out to the entire kingdom.”

“It’s your choice, I’m not going to force you,” I replied with a shrug.

When we finally made it to the entrance the rest of the group was waiting for us. The citadel was still teraformming the surrounding land, leveling the surrounding hills and building up the artificial plateau in which the tower was standing on. It was now sitting about level with the surrounding hills, and I had no doubt it would soon dwarf them. 

Although I didn’t think the process was especially dangerous, it didn’t open any random pits or anything, but I still insisted that everyone travelled to and from the citadel in a group. The random ground tremors were more than enough to throw someone off their feet. Traveling as a group ensured that no one got left behind.

After we cleared the treacherous terrain we swiftly made our way back to the village. Everyone was busy preparing for the upcoming exodus, so I ducked into the village hall to check on the progress.

“How’d everything go?” Siegward asked the instant I stepped inside. The old man was bent over the table, making notes on the map.

“Good, we have another three people that immediately developed magic powers. That brings us up to a total of twenty three,” I reported.

The old man paused, glancing up towards me. “That’s an extremely high adoption rate, usually only one in ten people develop magic.”

“I know, and I can’t figure out why it’s so different here. Maybe the core has an excess of power, to bestow on people, or maybe the hoarfrost stone has more of a magical focus than the Iskel one. Maybe we just got lucky with who volunteered. We won’t really know until we induct more people,” I said, collapsing into a chair next to him. “How are things going here?”

Siegward looked up. “You know we’ve only been working on this for three days, right? And you checked on our progress before you left. We have crews out harvesting trees, and building the temporary storage buildings, but how much progress do you think they could have made in half a day?”

“What can I say? I’m inpatient, and we’re on a schedule,” I muttered.

“I’m quite aware of that young lady,” he chuckled. “Although I don’t have an updated progress for you, we won’t get an update until the teams get back, I can report that our progress is much faster than first expected. The wood cutting now has two people with nature magic, which means they can pull out stumps as they go, which makes the process much faster.” 

Siegward reached over and grabbed a book that was sitting next to him, and passed it over. “You should find this interesting, I talked to everyone who pledged their loyalty to you and recorded their specialities, you might want to take a look.” 

“Why? I was there when everyone manifested?” I asked suspiciously.

“I think you might be surprised,” Siegward prompted, pushing the book towards me again. 

Taking the ledger I flipped through it, until I came to the final page. As I scanned the list I felt my eyebrows slowly raise. We’ve had three different people manifest advanced specializations already? It usually takes years for that to happen.”

“Well, in fairness, all three of those people had magic back in the duchy. They only had basic specializations at that time, but they were skilled in its use,” Siegward reported.

“Jacob, Deirdre and Millie… three of our community leaders, and right after awakening. That can’t be a coincidence,” I muttered.

“It does lend credence to your theory that the Hoarfrost stone is either more magically charged, or has more magic available since less people are linked to it,” Siegward said. 

“We’re extremely lucky to have someone with healing magic already. We’ve gotten by with Deirdre’s potions and poultices. It won’t prevent anyone from getting sick, but it’ll definitely help in case anyone receives serious wounds. Honestly, we’ve been lucky to avoid injuries so far, considering we’re in the middle of nowhere,” I said.

“Extremely helpful,” Siegward agreed. 

When I finished reviewing the list I closed the ledger and slid it back to Siegward, “Any other updates?”

The old man shook his head. “Like I said, you’ll have to wait until everyone comes back before I know more.”

“Fine, I’ll go check on the maids. They were making good progress yesterday, I should see how far they’ve made it,” I groaned, pushing back from the table.

“I’ll be here,” Siegward replied. He waved at me as I left, without looking up from the papers he was inspecting.

When I pushed open the door I found Camille and Selena just lounging on the step, waiting for me. 

“I kind of expected you two to wander off, and get some food, or do something. You don’t have to follow me all day, you can take a break occasionally.

“Please, I’m your bodyguard, and even though we know everyone here, I take my job seriously,” Camille declared proudly, jumping to her feet. 

Selena just shrugged. “I don’t have anything better to do.” 

“Fine,” I chuckled. “I’m heading to the clear cut area to check on the maids. Follow if you want.”

The two silently fell into step behind me, as I quickly made my way to the edge of town. 

“They work fast, and duplicate faster,” Camille whistled as soon as we saw the area. It was completely covered in maids, there had to be several hundred now. There were so many that they’d managed to remove the vast majority of the stumps. They’d probably only need a couple more hours to finish. 

As we stood there, staring, one of the nearby maids noticed us, and the entire ground turned as one, saluting us.

“Hup!” they declared simultaneously.

“Ummmm…. Carry on,” I mumbled. The instant I did most continued their work, but the little head maid came running over. 

“Hup! Hup hup,” she declared.

“I have no idea what she’s saying,” Selena muttered behind me. 

I stared at the tiny leader for a minute. 

“You want to know what to do next?” I finally guessed.

“Hup!” she declared, nodding her head. 

“You actually understand what she’s saying?” Camille asked surprised.

“No, but it’s really not that hard to figure out what she’s thinking. She wants to be helpful, and they’re almost out of work,” I explained.

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to send them all off to do some other menial job, they’re meant to be combat constructs,” Selena muttered.

“But what we need right now isn’t combat troops, but extra hands,” Camille exclaimed.

“Both are good points,” I said. “But considering how fast the maids are replicating, we don’t have to have them all on one project.” 

I looked down at the tiny commander and cleared my throat. “From now on I want half of you on security duty. Split equally between this village, the citadel, and the campsite we’re preparing. The other half are to report to the harvesting and construction teams, and provide whatever help you can.”

The head maid snapped a crisp salute. “Hup!”

She just stood there, looking at me for another couple seconds. 

“Carry on,” I finally declared.

“Hup!” she announced, before running off.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get over how… well not human, but interactive they are,” Camille muttered. “I’m so used to the ones from Iskel silently standing around, just waiting for orders.”

“I like that they’re interactive, they feel less… threatening than the dedicated killers that Skyla had running around,” Selena declared.

“Looks can be deceiving,” I muttered under her breath. “But you’re right, their non-threatening appearance could be a real advantage to us in the long run. Both in security and combat.”

Selena looked at me strangely. “Is that really the first thing that went through your head, the best ways to take advantage of their appearance.”

“I have a feeling we’ll need all the advantages we can get in the long run. There’s a lot of hostile countries out there, and not a lot of us,” I sighed. “Anyways, now that we’ve seen how this lot is doing we should gather the next group of volunteers. The sooner we get through everyone, the faster we can pitch in and help around here.”

“I’ll go collect everyone!” Camille volunteered. 

“Don’t you ever relax?” Selena scowled at the other girl.

I just laughed.