Ahmu, The 28th, 10,391

Six was taking a fifteen, reclined on a particularly comfortable pile of rocks. He smelled the steaming bowl of whatever Jebbedo had sent the crews, some egg grain mixture, kinda like fried rice. Hearty but simple. Life was good. They were progressing steadily and the people were being housed and fed.

Six managed to enjoy a few bites before he was interrupted by a grumbling Gatbark appearing from nowhere.

He usually spent all his time at his ever expanding works yard. Overseeing and managing his growing workforce.

The squat ashen skinned dwarf shouted at Six, “what do you think you are doing?!” He was angry.

Six sat up, confused. “What do you mean what am I doing?”

Gatbark kicked a rock. “I mean providing housing for most everyone. Providing food for them! You are preventing the economy from forming. From growing!”

“I am providing for those newcomers that I manage to keep busy.”

“And when those people realize that food isn’t enough?”

“I hope to pay them properly soon.” Six paid the original settlers but the subsequent ones were still being compensated in terms of food and shelter. Six knew it wasn’t fair or right, he’d taken advantage of a crisis to secure choice labour and he needed to start compensating them properly.

Now that his mine was scaling up production and the occasional merchant passed by there was more money to flow about Mountain’s End.

The service crafts that came from the prisoners were also a small but steady supply of income for the settlement. It was time to start paying beyond sustenance and protection.

“That would be even worse!” Gatbark grumbled.

Six glared at the dwarf in confused irritation. “Oh? So I’m terrible for not paying them and it would be terrible if I did pay them?”

“The point is that you’re taking away people's motivation! The clever and industrious will find a way but we all need motivation to work!.”

“I’m not interested in cultivating a culture of desperate merit.”

“Then you waste resources on the unworthy.”

Six laughed. “It is no waste to take care of your tribe.”

“I said the unworthy.”

Six winced. “We are all worth something.”

“Hah! We both know you don’t believe that, you try Six but I’ve seen the steel in you.”

Six nodded but shrugged his indifference. “While everyone is different, the ideal stands.”

“Ideals are not realistic ways to go about governance.”

“This is true in most cases. If basic decency is something I can provide, I shall provide it.”

“They get free housing, free food, and a wage?”

“I have ordered Jebbedo to cook for scale and nutrition, not taste. I have made the barest minimum of cubicles. They are not living in luxury Gatbark. ”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I won’t be able to compete with you Six. It's completely unfair. If you keep adding jobs like you do, providing like you do, no one will work for smaller interests.”

There it was, the true crux of the issue “Sounds like you need to keep things shitty to attract workers.”

“No one wants to work.” Gatbark said evenly.

Six largely believed that statement. There were a few people for whom work was life but most people would prefer to just be.

There was nothing wrong with that, but even Six wasn’t feeding and housing these people unconditionally. He wanted them to work and had placed strings onto these necessities. Six knew that mining must be pretty hard work, but he needed it done, and he would leverage people into getting it done.

Gatbark represented a potential growth modifier in Six’s eyes. An associate that could double the settlement's ability to scale its industry.

“Aight,” Six began. “Foods free. Housing if you have a job. Any job. Essentially a government subsidy for you in the form of government provided housing.”

“Couldn't you just give my people a rental stipend? That would make things fair and the frugal could save some of it for future interests.”

“Yea, but I fear you would find a way to suck it right out of them.”

Gatbark grunted in displeasure but just nodded and took his meager victory. “You know this isn’t sustainable.”

“Hmm?”

“All this wealth that you are just giving away? It will be destroyed within the year. Those who do not earn what they have, do not know the value of it. Not to mention you should be fighting more than you are, you’re gonna have to be stronger if you want to protect what could grow to be here.”

“Yea,” Six sighed. “You’re probably right.”

“I know I’m right,” Gatbark said. “I was a slave. Already the crime that was in those slums follows the people to your mining project.

“Crime, eh?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Gatbark nodded gravely. “Robbery and murder mostly. Not inside the village, just between the outside people. For now anyways.“

You have been offered a quest: Establish Order

There has been an increase in lawlessness and criminal behaviour in your domain. Left unchecked crime will continue to rampage. Do not allow your settlement’s crime rating to climb above moderate for the next 90 days.

Rewards for Accepting: None

Rewards for Completion: Voluntary Spiritual Energy

Relationship

Fame

Clout

Time Limit: None

Penalty for Failure: Rewards sent to criminal elements. Loss of relationship with villagers.

Do you Accept? Yes or No?

Gatbark noticed Six’s expression slacken. What?

I just received a quest to investigate the increase in crime. He accepted it.

Quest Received: Establish Order

Gatbark chuckled. “See? Even the world thinks I'm right!”

Six waved it away. “I don't give a shit who thinks what. I'm making sure people have their necessities. Food, shelter, safety, fucking… internet if I can manage it.”

“Internet?”

“Just wait Gatbark. You are in to see some shit.”

“I'm eighty. I've seen things.”

“True, true, but I got plans buddy. You’ll see.”

“Maybe. But right now I'm furious, By Kynairos. You gotta stop it.”

“No.”

Gatbark threw his hands in the air, grumbling, frustration evident.

“You will never recover financially from this?” Six asked teasingly.

Gatbark threw a rude gesture, spat, then stomped off.

Six could understand the frustration of the dwarf. He was ambitious and didn’t value life as Six did. Of course their ideals would clash.

Six went to go back to enjoying his lunch but once again it was interrupted.

Kathy tentatively approached and Six waved at her. He hadn’t checked up on her in a long while, being busy with the infrastructure work. She looked nice and settled. Less harried. Having traded the furs of Lhorn for the medieval leggings and tunics of Mountain’s End. Smudges of dirt and coal gave her a weathered appearance. She was an oddity as the only sun elf but that was meaningless when in reality she was an american and a fellow threadling. She was an outsider much like Six himself and he made sure to consider her as such.

Six analyzed her.

Katherine

Sun Elf

Level 1

Still level 1 after a month here. That was a little disappointing but getting level 1 itself was an accomplishment and hitting level two required gaining 1000 experience. Getting 1000 without combat would be the equivalent of getting ten skills to the apprentice rank or two skills to the journeyman rank.

Possible by all means but it would take time. The emperor tree would reduce that time for many who sought to train their skills here. The faster skill growth translated directly into faster experience gain, scaled over the population there should be a small bump to the median level of Mountain’s End.

Anyway, he gave Kathy his attention.

“Six,” she began in Zleenish, “I’ve tried a lot of the jobs here.”

“We can speak English, it’s cool.”

Kathy’s grasp of Zleenish had clearly improved but there was something about speaking his home language that brought a nostalgic peace to Six’s heart.

She nodded and continued in English. “I’ve tried a lot of the jobs here, Six. I don’t like them.”

“Oh?” he asked, a bit of sarcasm in his voice.

Kathy nodded resolutely.

“Tried 'em all?”

“Yes.”

“You work with Franklin?”

“Yes.”

He put his bowl down and crossed his arms, leaning back. “Worked a farm?”

“Worked as a farmhand.”

“I see you’ve been mining.”

She nodded with a sour look on her face. “That sucked.”

Six pondered. “Mmm, tried hunting?”

Kathy hesitated. “No.”

“You tried the army?”

She sniffed. “I'm not joining your nonsense personal military. I won’t support dictators.”

“I’ll make you a noble.” Six offered.

She hesitated.

He chuckled and pointed “There it is! You considered it for a second there!”

She grimaced at him. “I don’t want to fight.”

Six shook his head, no. “Gotta fight. We all gotta fight. Fighting is the only thing holding this together. It's the only thing that held our world together. The peace we lived in was made possible by bigger bombs. You should know that, you were doing political science yea? Im just a fucking goon with a chainsaw.”

“I know Six. But I’m not a fighter. I’m not. I can do other things. I’ll work the mine if I have to but I just don’t want to.”

“I understand. Well I’m just glad you wanna pitch in. I’m assuming you have some ideas?”

She smiled. “I wish to open a public boarding school.”

Six leaned back in the minecart and pondered this.

Kathy was familiar with a modern education setting, right now his town’s education ranking was Minor Magical. This could be a chance to diversify the education streams and improve the population in another area. It would ultimately be an incredible long term benefit in almost any outcome.

Most importantly it would give the displaced youth of his domain a place to be gathered and cared for.

That being said it represented a long term threat as well. The ability to mold the minds of the upcoming generation was in itself a power over the people. He didn’t entirely trust her and he wasn’t sure about giving her a responsibility that required Six’s brand of impartiality. It would also be a large investment on his part or else she wouldn’t have even brought this up to him, she would have just done it. Six decided to lean on that idea for a bit.

“You can do that if you want, yeah. I'm not gonna stop people from opening up schools as long as they teach tolerance. I'm expecting several religious schools to eventually pop up.”

She was silent for a moment.

Six went for his lunch.

“Would this not be a public initiative? A school like mine?”

Six left his bowl sitting, and sat straight, ready for what came next. “It could be a public initiative, a public school. But, that would come with more regulations and mandates attached.”

“What do you mean mandates?”

“At its most basic, nationalism as a part of the curriculum.”

Kathy gasped and seemed shocked but Six was pretty sure she was pretending.

“You want to brainwash kids?”

Six nodded. “Yea, I want to create a culture where people feel proud helping each other.”

She was mad. ”You want to brainwash kids!”

“You don’t have to put your kids in my schools.”

“My schools? Don’t you hear how fucked up that sounds?”

“As compared to?”

“Our schools! Our schools!”

Six paused. “You want a school with a community guided charter?”

“Yes.” She looked at him with disbelief. “Why is that so hard to understand?”

“It's not, and I’m not preventing you from going about and creating one yourself.”

“I got paid little to build, little to farm, and nothing to mine. This place sucks and I have no money to build fucking anything. There's no bank here so I can’t even take a loan!”

“You want government money?”

“You are not the government!”

“I am. Now, I will build this fucking school myself, I will cram in as many amenities as I can think of. You can appoint a council of whatever community leaders you want. I don’t care as long as we are teaching the youth that we are on the same fucking team. Propaganda, brainwashing, I don’t fucking care. I want people who care about our home.

She sneered at him. “Then I guess you want critical thinking cut from the curriculum. Can’t have the worker ants thinking outside their box.”

Six laughed. “I’d consider it if I didn’t want a highly educated people. But I do.”

Kathy gestured at the village at hand. “Coulda fooled me.”

Six snorted, her judgement meant nothing to him. “What the fuck do you think I’ve been doing with my time? You are really not helping your case.”

She sighed and relaxed. “I know you’ve been busy with other things.”

“Yea. I could be training but instead I spent two weeks making sure our shit flowed downhill. Just doing bullshit.”

“Helping people isn’t bullshit, it's why I came, to ask for help.”

“My help isn’t free, I’m the boss, in exchange for my help I want some input. You want a school, I want indoctrination. Tradesies. Proper indoctrination mind, I’ll audit you to make sure.”

Six could see the minor signs of frustration as she thought his demand over. He knew Kathy would indoctrinate the children with whatever agenda she had, some soft power nonsense. If he was to invest time and resources into this he needed to make sure his agenda had a voice.

“Fine,” she agreed in clipped acceptance. “I’ll… push your fricken god complex on them.”

“Hmmm,” Six sat forward, steepling his fingers and pretending to seriously consider the thought.

“No way,” stated Kathy.

“Ahhhh, I'm just messing with you.”

She was not impressed.

Six explained that he wouldn’t be building the school for a while but he could make a covered area for her to begin, give her a pool of positions to fill to help as she saw fit. Leoka would see to finding some funding for the school to work with.

He needed to get off the construction for a while and pursue improving the security of his lands. Charles was overwhelmed between the defense of the village and the control of the surrounding lands. Six didn’t trust Kathy entirely but was delegating some power to her. Gatbark was complaining about crime and the quest had clearly indicated that it had risen. It didn’t matter that Six had not yet seen the crime, it was here and needed to be dealt with. Interesting that it counted the people outside his walls in that equation… he assumed anyway.

Several tasks had been percolating in his mind during the long work hours and now was the time to implement them.

But first, Six reached down and picked up his bowl of eggs and grain. He needed to finish his lunch.