After returning, Din was busier than ever. This was by his own volition. There was great restructuring to be done. Schedules had to be changed.
The village shifted from a budding militaristic movement to rampant production. To instill people with a sense of urgency they had to think of new ways to motivate.
Unlike fighting in a war, producing items required a different motivation. They weren’t fighting for their lives. Thousand failures were expected. This could be demotivating.
To adjust efficiency Din’s advisors created small divisions, these division would work amongst each other to a goal. They’d either work side by side or together.
It was obvious that a simple quota for production was impossible to set. Some products took minutes while others days or even weeks. Instead they’d have to write their progress.
This change was unpopular. People didn’t understand why this had to be done and many felt pushed into it. But many felt it was better than the constant fighting and training.
Another grand change was the moving of the shop. It was isolated and guarded, to make sure people didn’t sell materials. Selling fleshed out products was still allowed.
People had to be managed. There was also a need for organizing the data from all the reports.
There was already a group of people tasked with collecting all available data and categorizing it. Similar to the managers that upheld the rotations, they were allocated more people.
Din was thinking about the issue with the tier one village that had cropped up. After they had absorbed all nearby resources, only this tier one village was left.
He didn’t want to send just anyone to talk with these people. After mulling it over and some advice he decided only he, himself, could do this right.
Din wanted more than just a takeover he wanted all the people, preferably unharmed and alive. What he needed most was people.
A lot of people were strictly against sending their leader, when they could crush any resistance with a storm of arrows.
Din thought over his other conquering. He even went so far as to talk to First. First had surrendered without much resistance. He had been compensated and could be considered a powerful force within Din’s domain.
But First just shrugged and said he went with his gut feeling. He was ashamed to say that he had felt a kind of trust towards Din on their first meeting. It was too embarrassing, even for someone as brazen as him.
In the end, Din felt he was wasting time and just tasked an sizeable force dedicated to the military aspects of the village to join him. First requested to join, which is how First became the new commander of this excursion.
Jao didn’t go this time around, it was too unpredictable. This was an unprecedented situation.
It didn’t take these disciplined troop too long to arrive before their target. They were allowed to arrive directly in front of the bustling village.
To achieve a tier one village, one needed little other than enough manpower. And they certainly had that. Their weapons were lackluster, mostly broken branches with sharpened ends.
Din’s troops couldn’t help but feel disdainful. What savages. They were even dirty. Even the disorderly sheds left them dissatisfied.
It was hard to miss the group of a few hundred strolling into the village and before long a mass of people had gathered, looking at Din and his people with caution.
Din stood in the front. His bright blue eyes scanned the crowd. A few unlucky people were caught in his gaze and couldn’t help but feel safe even with the noisy surroundings.
The leader of the this tier one village was within the crowd. She had a grim look on her. She had been shocked when she got the announcement about a tier three village.
Unlike Din, she acted quickly once she had military power and gather as much land as she could. She was smart and passionate.
It was true that this village wasn’t the prettiest. Yes it was messy. The people weren’t disciplined. But she did hold firm hand over the people.
She wasn’t originally from this village and had been wandering about with her group of fighters when she found it. Similar to Din, she found it easy to take control.
Since that day everything began improving, earning the respect and appreciation of the residence.
The last thing she wanted to was relinquish any control. She was going to fight. She had prepared for this arrival.
When Din and his men had strolled in they missed all the people in the trees ready to huck down rocks and other stacked up projectiles.
But now that she saw them she was questioning the tactic. They had bow and arrows. Every last one of them had arrows in the tens. How would they fight this?
As she was formulating a counter plan, Din locked eyes with her. She was dazed, while Din was sure she was the leader.
This was because she didn’t lose her composure. Her strong will made her like a lighthouse in the storm. She did feel odd. This person was a good person. This was what she felt.
Din finally smiled a reassuring smile, telling her this was all okey. Instead of being enraptured she frowned. What was this? She had never met this kind of threat.
She took two steps back but held eye contact. She didn’t realize she did but Din saw. He was surprised. He knew not everyone would be influenced by eye contact alone.
Many people in the Laq Docte house were resistance to his pleading and persuasions. But never since he arrived in this place had he met this kind of resistance.
He had been warned about people like this. These were strong people. Strong enough to be considered a threatening enemy or a powerful ally.
Closing his eyes Din cast his thoughts towards the great word. He needed the holy doctrine in this situation.
When his eyes closed. His enemy, this mysterious strong will leader of a tier one village, was released.
Once she had her bearings, she felt cold sweat running down her back. She felt an itch, as if tens of insects were grazing on her skin.
‘What was that!?’
It was hard to describe this feeling. If anything was esoteric, it was this. Only by experiencing this type of manipulation could you understand it.
This was because it was a very natural sensation, like sensing the heat of the sun or the chill of the snow. Even without touching them it, you know what it felt like.
She was too shocked to feel fear. But she wasn’t too distracted to abandon her plan. She glanced up. This was a mistake, First wasn’t a simple man, maybe his intentions were, but he wasn’t.
One near imperceptible glance and First saw it. He didn’t crane his neck. He assumed danger was present above, and wasn’t willing to disrupt Din’s plans by acknowledging it.
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Instead First stepped forward and in a low voice whispered it to Din. Din didn’t move and only kept his smile.
‘If I let her wait any longer she might signal an attack.’
Din was trying to figure a way out of killing everyone here. He treasured people too much to kill them all. But in the end, his own people were more valuable.
His own people had grown accustomed to the way they did things. Order and discipline was more valuable in the long term.
If he let too many of his people die here. This new influx of people might not measure up. Perhaps it was worth to gamble on it, looking at the grand scheme of things.
“Miss.”
He’d have to see if he could just talk his way out of this. It had worked before.
‘Even if it fails, it’s better to try.’
She knew he was talking to him. But should she respond? She thought to the moment where their eyes met. She couldn’t help but frown again.
It wasn’t much but it was an easy tell. She frowned. This meant he was right. She wasn’t exactly oozing femininity. Her hair short and her clothes more fitting on a bum than a woman.
In Din’s eyes it was clear she was a woman. She had shorter eyelashes, she has a narrow jaw and a small chin. It wasn’t enough to call her a woman but Din was sure.
She herself wasn’t sure how to feel about it. She was often mistaken for a man, or to be exact a young boy.
Perhaps in the real world it would be harder to identify women by things like shorter eyelashes but out here in the twilight, it was easier. They had no mass produced makeup items.
By the look of this woman, it wasn’t really definite that she’d even use them if she had the opportunity.
She couldn’t help but look down, did these give her away? But then she shook her head.
‘Impossible.’
No matter the explanation, she couldn’t figure it out. And like any person, she was curious.
“How about we sit down and talk about this, miss?”
Din gave her time to respond, but seeing that she was in deep thought he pushed on.
“I can explain some things to you.”
Din didn’t need them to physically join his village. They were in his span of influence and would contribute to his village eventually.
The issue was that this tier one village had only one way to expand and that was towards a budding tier three beast nodes. They would never be able to expand.
If by some fluke, a beast invasion occurred near here and clashed with this tier one village, there is low chance that they could fight it off.
Din was looking at her and the people beside here were looking at her. Only Din’s people didn’t look at her. These people were calm and ready to attack, and wouldn’t let themselves be distracted.
She felt pressure. She held command and her words would decide life and death. The fighter in her wanted to attack, but she wasn’t like Din.
She wasn’t callous. To her this village didn’t mean too much. She was a fighter and she was ready to fight. Yet, now she was responsible for thousands of lifes.
Understanding the weight, she didn’t see any other choice but try her hand at negotiation. Whatever that was.
‘Worst case, I kill him.’
She was confident in one thing. If she had to fight this temptress. This blue eyed manlet. It wouldn’t be an issue. This was what she felt and thought.
It was harsh to call Din a manlet, he isn’t lacking in his physical prowess. His role as a temptress however had its merits.
In all ways but few, Din was a seducer. Everything about the way he conducted himself was meant to appease the viewer.
This wasn’t something he was born with, it was something that was ingrained into him. It was taught, and taught with the persistence of a river carving its path through stone.
The talks were held in an open area. Their forces far enough away that they wouldn’t hear what they were talking about.
Initially she wanted Din’s army to back off. It wasn’t until Din reminded her of her guerrilla army above them that she agreed changed the venue.
‘Do they not have a river near here?’
It sounded like a reasonable question. But Din was quick to remember that he had a map of the area.
A river could be considered close and far away. Too far to do lavish things like bathing. Instead they bought all their water from the support node.
This was exactly how they bought materials for the sheds and the generic clothing. Din’s camp did this as well but did not depend on it.
“You can sit.”
Din looked around. There were no chairs here. He was confused for a moment before sitting on the bare wooden floorboards.
“I am Din Laq Docte.”
There was no hiding the pride in his tone. Din always pronounced his name with what seemed like infinite pride.
“Omer Kark Ka Re Mo. I’m called Ome.”
Din felt slight headache listening to her long and oddly pronounced name. He was used to it, but he still found it annoying.
Majority of people had names like these. Long and hard to pronounce. Some sounded more like spitting than talking. He wasn’t sure what to make of it.
The simplest explanation was that names are not translated. As names are their own entity and have no synonym.
Din could only nod. He had a soft smile on. He looked around with curiosity. He was certain this was her shed.
She didn’t like the way Din was scrutinizing things.
“What are you looking at?”
She regretted the words when they came out. She shouldn’t be like this, who cares if he looks at her things?
“I want you to join me.”
Instead of answering her question, Din asked her to join him. This could be considered rude, but it was him being polite.
“Join you what?”
“I want you and your people to come under my rule.”
Din let the words hang for a moment.
“I don’t want to kill your people. How about this? We’ll fight for it. You versus me, you can choose how to fight.”
It was her turn to be confused. He wanted to fight her? This manlet wanted to fight her? Was he underestimating her?
Anyone that knew her would know she was a fierce fighter. No one in the camp was a match for her. Impossible.
When she had thought this far, she became suspicious. She thought, maybe he has some secret ability?
She had seen many counter attack abilities that were terrifying. Some would daze a person for a moment. And for many fighters, that moment was everything they needed.
After thinking it through thoroughly, she decided maybe it was better not to risk it.
She gave Din another detailed look. Her eyes scoured every surface. She was becoming more and more sure she could easily defeat him.
She had been avoiding it, but eventually her gaze turned to his eyes.
Din’s eyes felt bright even in this poorly lit shed. He smiled with his lips closed.
‘She is not bad.’
He had no idea what she was thinking but he did admire her patience. She appeared to be choosing her words carefully.
It is fortunate for Din that he couldn’t hear her thoughts. Being repeatedly judged as weak and frail. Woman like skin and so on.
“My village has running water. We have schools for children.”
Din stopped her for a moment. He wanted her to understand that children were well taken care of.
He didn’t make too many assumption about women, but he did make the assumption that women care a great deal for children.
“Everyone has a job to do. We will no longer be warring after this. The next few years we will be focusing on empowering ourselves.”
He was listing positives. But he knew that maybe it wasn’t all positive for her.
“We will still need to defend ourselves from beast invasions, and require talented commanders for this.”
He paused for a moment. Seeing if she was going to respond.
“We need talented people to train our people. I feel these things are suitable for a capable person like yourselves.”
For the first time in a while it looked like she was going to respond. Din in returned gave her a small gesture, indicating he would listen.
“I will not be someone's woman!”
Din was expecting many things, but this left him hesitating.
‘What does she mean?’
It wasn’t that Din didn’t understood the words. He just didn’t understand why she would even think about speaking them.
He was entirely lost. His smile didn’t fade, but it did look less charming.
“What do you mean?”
Left with no choice, Din just asked her for clarification. But it looked like she took it in a strange way. She let out a small puff of air and looked at Din in disdain.
“What do you mean, what do I mean? I won’t become your woman.”
Din was even more confused at this point. But he had the inkling that she was misunderstanding his intentions.
“You can be your own woman. I will assimilate your people into my society.”
Din paused for a moment. Allowing her to digest his words.
“I have a few rules, but for a person like yourself, they are there for your benefit.
What I want is for you to continue controlling this village, eventually connecting it with my own.”
She still had a suspicious gaze but she was liking what she heard.
She was still suspicious. But that was because she was narcissistic. She didn’t even consider that he wasn’t after her beautiful self.
In her mind she was a powerful, smart and beautiful. It was impossible for Din not to be enticed.
She didn’t at all consider that her current appearance was that of a filth covered boy.
This made it so that any flowery promises Din made, made her more suspicious of his intentions.
Ome, as she was, has tremendous willpower. Her thoughts were her own. She wasn’t easy to influence, but Din was still making progress.
Every moment they spent discussing, she felt more at ease. The thought that he was trying to entrap a beauty like herself never went away, but she did feel Din’s conditions were good.
Soon her thoughts turned around. Of course he would offer this much. How else would he win her over?
He was a bit handsome, sure, but was that enough for a treasure like her? Ome didn’t think so.
The only conclusion was Din was trying to win her favor. She could only laugh at the thought, she wasn’t that easy to ensnare.
When the two walked out of the shed, Din already had control over the village. Ome was smiling a victorious smile.
Every person waiting in the trees came down. Din explained what would happen in the future. What their responsibilities would be.
His words weren’t detailed, he would let others explain their rules in depth.
When he was going to build some buildings he became conflicted. He felt it would be a waste to build out here. These people didn't have much.
The land was not valuable. It had generic resources, which they were already extracting back at the village. In the end he felt nothing here was worth keeping.
After a night's rest, Din decided he would take them all back.
This was moving thousands of people. This included young children and pregnant women. It would take a long time.
Din cared about people. He cared about them in the terms he cared about a scarce resource. He wanted even more people.
His farms were outputting more than they could reap. They lived in great abundance. It is easy for them to make room for thousands if not tens of thousands of extra people.
On the way back, Din’s mood was exceptional. He enjoyed the long trek. He carved along the way.
The carvings were shoddy because he was moving. But they were made in a way that allowed him to add detail to them later on.
Multiple small statues began accumulating. Some he gave to young children, children old enough to walk around.
This action humanized him. But only Din knew that those statues were all flawed and he considered them ruined.
It was too difficult for him to carve while walking. Most of the statues would end up having a cut that was too deep to mend. This meant if he kept whittling away, its integrity might fall apart.