Yesterday, Irene woke up Luna only to let her put me to sleep. Today, as strange as it sounds, it was Irene who woke up everyone. I stood up, rested and calm. I couldn't remember when the last time I slept that well was. Amber and Luna woke up with bright smiles, and when Lavender and Irene explained how much they underestimated their burden, they bitterly acknowledged it. Cornered by Hestia and even Aoi, who kept her distance but still supported the Goddess-Queen, Amber and Luna quickly gave up and allowed themselves additional help. That was for the better, I think. After the shower, we ate breakfast and generally took our time. Despite a slow start, the rest of the morning went in a flash. Irene and Lavender were in complete charge of everything. They assigned to Amber and Luna a similarly extensive entourage of assistants as was now working for me. Of course, that meant we had to expand our office space. In the case of Luna and Amber, that shouldn't have been a very complicated problem since their offices were in the buildings of the Military Academy of Avalon and the Royal University of Avalon, respectively— at least their main ones, anyway, along with a few of the more official offices. Mine was in the Palace, so today was a day to address this problem.
"Hmmm... How about looking at our offices and expanding or rebuilding them if needed?" I asked, struck by the sudden idea. An idea that needed help deciding whether it was brilliant, mediocre, or poor.
"Why not?" Irene shrugged. "This would still count as a slow day."
"Well... My office needs some refurnishing anyway..." Aoi admitted and bit into her sweet roll.
"I have no idea what chaos rules in my office at this very moment, but I trust that Lanka and Gloria keep it contained." Amber grabbed her fruit tea and took a small sip. "So, if you don't mind, I probably need some help during renovation."
"Only Gloria. Lanka is working on Luna's office," Hestia corrected and finished her apple pie.
Luna simply sighed and slowly nodded her head. While Hestia and Lavender pretended that this wasn't their problem, I was curious to check their offices. We finished eating while having a small talk about nothing in particular. After my Queens put on some dresses that looked stunning as usual, we were ready to head out. I took Sebastian, who was in charge of taking notes, with us, and we boarded the Royal Carriage. The fact we can teleport anywhere in Avalon or any dungeon under my control wasn't a reason to always do that. Large trees adorned the road to the Middle Castle, casting shade over the smooth stone road. The Palace was in a fair distance from the gatehouse to the City. But once we crossed it, the calmness and quietness of our inner sanctum gave way to the hustle and bustle of the City.
The Royal City of Avalon, the capital city of the Kingdom of Arcadia, was teeming with life. Our carriage entered the broad street that led straight towards the main market and two of our targets. We stopped in front of the Grand Temple of Avalon, where Irene's and Hestia's offices were. We entered the monastery adjacent to the temple and followed Irene, who casually familiarised us with the layout of her power centre. The monastery was mainly the huge administrative centre that governed not only religious facilities in Arcadia but also a monumental network of health centres. Basically, each temple or church in Arcadia was a complex that connected a religious building with some form of a health centre, from small chapels connected with small treatment rooms to grand cathedrals adjacent to full-size hospitals. Irene held everything in her gentle but firm grip. The monastery's ground floor was reserved for classrooms and laboratories where the young priests and priestess were learning their craft. On the first floor were dormitories for those who couldn't afford or find accommodation elsewhere. From the second up to the fourth floor were offices where all the potential work of Irene and Hestia was processed and usually solved before even finding their way to the desks of those two. The top floor of this five-story building was occupied by the personal secretaries of Irene and Hestia, who ensured everything worked smoothly.
"As you can see, everything in my or Hestia's care lands here. We tried to separate, but even having Hestia’s office elsewhere momentarily led to more chaos and wasted time," Irene explained bitterly. "So we simply decided to merge our offices."
"Since my responsibilities are very similar to Irene's, people always mix up the departments. And well, not to mention, I am a Goddess. People will send their letters to the temple anyway." Hestia chuckled, but Irene simply shrugged her arms powerlessly as her goddess-sister continued. "At some point, we decided that the Department of Family, Labour, and Social Policy should have its offices in larger temples. The people who seek help always look for it in temples. You can even say we already cut costs," Hestia grinned, and I facepalmed. As if cutting costs had ever been my intention. "I also forced Zeus, Hera, Zephyr, and Verka to establish their church structures so we could pass them the letters from the people. Irene located their secretaries' offices on the second floor, and everything has been working flawlessly so far."
"Indeed." Irene nodded. "With only critical things reaching our desks, we have time to actually listen to the people."
The doors to one of the offices popped open, and we saw a familiar face walking out of it. Wearing a plain white gown of a trainee priestess of Hestia, Cahrona Ashes emerged with a massive stack of papers. Upon seeing us, she nearly panicked but quickly bowed to us and disappeared behind other doors. Everyone except for Irene looked at Hestia, who smiled disarmingly.
"What? She can be useful." Then, she turned towards Amber and exchanged 'the look' with her, at which my red-haired beauty briefly nodded.
I just sighed and pretended that I saw nothing. After all, this was supposed to be a slow day, and the last thing I needed was another pointless argument. Besides, Hestia was right. If I wasn't going to kill her, I should use her, and using her as Hestia's secretary wasn't that bad of an idea. The problem with sentencing Cahrona of anything was pretty complicated. She never killed anyone herself; she never kidnapped anyone herself, and so on. Yes, she was guilty of compliance with everything above, but she was deeply convinced that she was saving the world. I myself wasn't any better than her at that. My Legions killed thousands, and the only person guilty of that was I. I can admit that during my internal monologues or while talking with my wives, but if asked by anyone else, I am as good of a hypocrite as the next person. While my wives started a discussion with Irene, who created this highly efficient bureau, I observed the people working here. As we climbed the stairs, it was apparent that some rules forbade men from advancing above the third floor. I was totally fine with that; as Irene explained, the third floor was the main recruiting ground for all independent positions anyway.
After asking a few questions and making Sebastian write an almost complete manual about the organisation of the department headquarters, we returned to the carriage. Our next target was located just across the main square: the City Hall. We could take a stroll there, but Royalty shouldn't do that. That was kind of stupid, and I dedicated a moment to thinking about how to change the rationale surrounding the idea, but ultimately, I gave up. While I wasn't afraid of my people, you could never rule out the presence of Bernan or other enemy agents who would try to use such an opportunity. Having come to terms with the fact I couldn't do much about taking a ride during ridiculously short distances, we arrived at our destination, which only proved a point. I weakly smiled, realising that my inner sarcasm was working more or less correctly. I entered the City Hall of Avalon. Aoi's Department of Internal Affairs was located on the top floor of a fairly big building intended to take care of the various businesses and typical formalities of people living in the city. Aoi quickly led us upstairs through a sea of people, most of them bowing awkwardly as they tried to conduct business with the officials tending to them. The top floor wasn't any better. It was a cramped space, but let's be fair; it was neatly organised into an almost XXI-century-style box office, full of officials and secretaries doing their work the best they could.
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"Our space is slightly limited, as you can see..." Aoi started, quickly blushing, as she led us to the largest room on the floor. However, that description was grossly misleading, as the room was no bigger than fifteen square metres. "But we do our best."
"Aoi..." I started, but Irene just put her hand on my shoulder.
"You should have told us much earlier, Aoi!" Irene's voice was surprisingly neutral. "However, now I understand why you insisted on Annika's help organising the mess hall..."
"Well, if my people have to squeeze, at least they can grab a free meal..." Aoi smiled awkwardly, and I covered my face in shame.
The organisation of this cramped place was at least close to perfection. The people sat in a manner that allowed them to pass documents to their co-workers directly 'just over' the privacy screens of their small box offices. The place was brightly lit and full of various flowers, some growing only in the greenhouse in our garden otherwise. After taking rounds and asking people multiple questions, we agreed that Aoi needed at least one more floor. However, that was like a small rock moving an avalanche. A vague plan began forming in my head; it was still shapeless and crawling deep inside my mind, but I could already tell it was there, doing its thing. Once we were done here, we decided to teleport to our carriage to not create another awkward wave of nodding people on our way downstairs. While heading towards the Military Academy, Luna and Amber quietly discussed something with Aoi and Irene. I allowed my thoughts to wander aimlessly, tackling the problems waiting to be addressed but never focusing on anything in particular.
The people who trusted themselves to me thrived on the opposite side of the carriage’s window. It wasn't a careless utopia or dystopian state, but something in between. Judging by how late it was to start any serious delve into the dungeon by this time, the adventurers were probably taking the day off, spending the day window-shopping instead. Various other people were entering and leaving the shops, restaurants, taverns, and myriad other establishments along our way. The city of Avalon was alive; it was my City. But only a few hundreds of kilometres away was war. My people never forgot about the war but managed to separate themselves from it. After all, the Kingdom of Arcadia was not sending its sons and daughters to war. That was most likely to change once the airships started to be delivered and they needed crews. Yet, that was something different than forcing people to go there personally and kill. My people could live in relative safety provided by the indisputable might of my Immortal Legions, but without them, I would be powerless to do anything. Unbeknownst to them, we had created a symbiotic bond. They provided me with their mana, and I protected them...
We arrived at the Military Academy courtyard and followed Luna, who seemed perplexed. I knew that the vast halls of the administrative building were only a convenient excuse for Arcadia's entire intelligence and counterintelligence agencies. The building was bustling with busy quietness, which worried Luna. She led us towards her office, which seemed to be the source of those sounds. After we entered the first of many, many rooms that made up Luna's office and her Department, Lanka's angry voice pierced the air, and someone replied in kind.
"What's the meaning of this?" Luna demanded coldly, creating a quickly expanding bubble of silence.
"My Lady!" Fjorla, a Wolfkin woman who had survived being captured by the Winter Beast, beamed with a smile. She now wore the Guardsmen’s uniform and the badge verifying she was a personal secretary of Luna’s. "Lady Lanka is trying to introduce many people to "help us" with our work. However, I can't agree with such reckless actions! Most of those people don't have any clearance at all!"
Lydia was another Wolfkin woman who had survived the encounter with the Winter Beasts. She stood nearby, wearing a similar uniform and badge. While she tried to calm down her friend, I could see in her eyes that she fully supported Fjorla. Lanka, however, remained quiet and unprovoked but once we entered the office, her tail swirled in a manner I learnt to read as deep satisfaction.
"Fjorla, Lydia. Inform other girls that our office will be expanded. Each one of you will receive helpers. However, I must agree with my secretaries, Lady Lanka. No one without a special clearance is allowed to even touch the documents in this room," Luna informed everyone, and I almost chuckled, seeing how the ears and tails of all gathered Beastkins reacted. While Fjorla and Lydia almost steamed with satisfaction, Lanka laid her ears in disapproval.
"I believe that Lanka should be allowed to learn at least the scope of work you do here. She requires at least that much to assess the number of people needed to help," Irene explained very carefully. "Then, after preparing an improvement plan, Lanka will leave the actual recruitment of helpers for Miss Fjorla and Miss Lydia."
"Yes. I agree." Luna turned towards Irene with relief painted on her face.
It looked as if that solution was a good compromise, making Lanka, Fjorla, and Lydia less hostile towards each other. After that, the work progressed smoothly as Lydia gave some papers to sign for Lanka, explaining to the Nekomi everything that the latter needed. Fjorla, in the meantime, followed us around the office space, and I realised that once the additional people joined, it would be worse than it was at Aoi's office. The random thought in my head started crystalizing into a proper idea. Maybe I should build some kind of government building? As that thought manifested, I started working on it, disinterested in the details of how Luna was not doing as great as we both thought so far. Yes, the academy building was vast, but in the end, it was an Academy, not a dedicated office building that could facilitate all the needs of actually running a country.
"Theon? Are you all right?" Aoi took my hand and snuggled herself to my side. "You seemed to be absent-minded."
"Thank you, my Sunshine, but it's all right." I smiled warmly at her, appreciating her concern. "I started realising that we all have many problems that must be addressed sooner rather than later."
Before Aoi could respond, we reached the end of Luna's limited office space, and Aoi wanted to ask some questions. While still snuggled to my side, she asked about the clearance levels and how exactly Luna enforced the system. My thoughts again started to wander, and I stopped paying attention to what was said. I began planning the Government building, which would facilitate multiple departments. It was clear from the start that it couldn't be a single building but rather an entire complex of buildings connected with each other. We left the Academy and took a ride towards the University. My mind was still consumed by the project of a flexible structure that could be expanded freely above and even underground. Such a building would take up a lot of space, but frankly, it was something reasonably easy to achieve. In the worst-case scenario, I would once again expand Avalon. I smirked. 'You can't build an elastic city!' 'That's where you are wrong kiddo.'
In the case of Amber's office, the situation was similar to how it was in my office after Lanka and Gloria were done with it. Desks and people were everywhere, guided by Gloria, whom Maya closely observed. At the same time, Qirún, Blithe, and Nami guarded Amber's desk. Surprisingly, I noticed Eva standing near Qirún, but I quickly recalled that Amber had ordered her to learn from the young Elf. As I turned my head around, I quickly concluded that Amber had even less space than I suspected.
"Are you sure you are fine?" Aoi asked once more, snuggling herself to my side again.
"Yes, Aoi. It's just that the more I learn about our needs, the more I am sure that instead of expanding an already existing space, I should build a brand new building."
"That's..." She began to frown, but then she seemed to rethink whatever she wanted to say and smiled. It was slow at first, but then her smile quickly widened. "That's a great idea, Theon."
"What is a great idea?" Irene asked, grabbing my other arm with a grin.
"I started wondering if we should even expand the existing buildings. They were created for other purposes and adapted to your needs. Maybe we should stop trying to barely improve the situation and build a new building from scratch." I very slowly explained my idea. It wasn't a thoroughly thought-out plan, so I wasn't sure if that idea did not hide somewhere in shame.
"You know what...?" Irene hummed after resting her head over my shoulder. "That actually is an excellent idea."