Chapter 12

Before I realized it a couple of hours had passed. A servant came and informed me that the first interviewees were ready. But first I decided to check the progress of my swarm.

Time: 1,894

Resource points: 279,939,457

Nano Cores: 793

Nano Drones: 527,334

Nano Fabricators: 793

Nano Factories: 1

Purchase Swarm Mental Connection (100,000,000,000 Resource Points Required)

It had been over three hours since I had last checked and things were progressing steadily. I’d be able to purchase my second nano factory in around two and a half hours. Of course it was still a bit disturbing to see that I still had less than one percent of the resource points needed to purchase the mental connection. Long term using my cores to purchase nano fabricators was unwise. So the only thing I could do was wait.

With that done it was time to start interviewing the people that would become my servants and staff. For some reason I felt a great deal of trepidation about the idea. If you had told me a week ago that I would have servants I’d have laughed at you. Of course that was nothing compared to the idea of interviewing for my harem. I wished that I could have Faye help me with the interviews. Unfortunately I knew that the assembly master and his servants would view this negatively. I still may have done it except that she had told me she was heading back to our rooms and gave no indication she wanted to be involved in the interviews.

I was actually surprised by the interview process. I wasn’t interviewing individual people. Instead I was interviewing various groups of people that would be in charge of all of my staff. They would be in charge of everything from the maids to the administrators that would manage wherever I was assigned to rule.

All of them were frighteningly competent and intelligent. In addition many of them already had experience under other swarm knights. In many ways it was like interviewing and hiring the entire C-level suite of a company. Except that they had all been trained to work together and had already hand picked and trained their departments.

After interviewing my fourth group I realized that it didn’t matter which group I picked. All of them were trained and experienced enough that they were unlikely to fail me. Even if they were, I wasn’t experienced enough to tell based on a series of interviews. Also no group seemed significantly better than the others. Anyone unfit for the position would have been weeded out in training. Anyone exceptionally talented would have been offered a position working for a swarm lord instead of a knight.

Even the training process was similar for every group. They would spend a decade in school learning and being tested. They would then be formed into groups and placed under the staff of a swarm knight. They train in that position for around a decade. Then they would be sent to an assembly to recruit the lower levels of the staff and be assigned to a swarm knight. After a couple hours I finally gave up. In the end I just went with my gut and picked the group I felt the best about.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Next up I’d be interviewing for my harem. I felt nervous enough that I delayed until after I purchased my second nano factory. I then spent a few more minutes looking over my swarm numbers despite the fact that there wasn’t much to see.

Time: 2,101

Resource points: 407,462,083

Nano Cores: 999

Nano Drones: 712,806

Nano Fabricators: 0

Nano Factories: 2

Purchase Swarm Mental Connection (100,000,000,000 Resource Points Required)

With a sigh I realized that I couldn’t delay any longer. I got up and followed the servant to another part of the assembly. Apparently all the women that met the criteria of the forms I had filled out had been gathered. Right now they were just waiting for me to come and pick out a few dozen of them. As I entered the rooms that housed prospective harem members I couldn’t help but stare in shock. Yet at the same time something felt wrong about the entire thing.

The women were shockingly beautiful and scantily clad. All of them could have been supermodels on Earth. Instinctively I felt like all of them were out of my league. Of course the fact was none of them were. It was a heady feeling to realize that I could pick any of these women out and they would gladly jump into my bed.

Then they noticed me and I instantly felt distaste. I could tell that none of them cared about me personally. They only cared about me being a swarm knight. It didn’t help that their reaction to me was basically the same as a bunch of prostitutes. Some crowded around me, others made lewd gestures or noises, a few even started to strip off their clothing trying to gain my attention.

Turning around I hurried from the room. The servants seemed to be shocked for a moment before they hurried to follow. Luckily none of the women did. Probably because they knew that pursuing me when I clearly didn’t want to be followed was crossing a line. None of them cared enough about me personally to risk being punished and losing the chance at other swarm knights.

If I had been a teenager or desperate for companionship I knew that I wouldn’t have been able to resist that type of situation. I wasn’t though. I had Faye and I was old enough to see through the women in that room. Despite that I was still attracted to them and would have enjoyed having sex with any of them. But the idea of having a child with any of them filled me with dread.

I couldn’t help but wonder if I was being hypocritical. Afterall it would be tough for me to put into words why Faye was different from those women. For some reason I felt like at least part of her cared about me personally.

After a few minutes I realized I was lost. Luckily I hadn’t lost the servants and they were able to direct me back to my rooms. When I arrived I found Faye sitting in one of the couches looking over a bunch of papers.

“What are you reading?” I asked her.

“The assembly master delivered the file containing the information about your planet. I’ve seen some of this but a lot of it I didn’t have access to before. You don’t mind right?” She said looking a tiny bit worried. I could tell she was pretty sure that I didn’t mind. Still it was always possible that I would mind. We had only met yesterday so she didn’t know everything about me.

“Of course not. I like that you want to know more about my planet.” I said with a smile.

“It really is fascinating. The people of your planet have managed to do things many thought were impossible without magic.” Faye said.

I nodded and then frowned. “Unfortunately most of that will no longer work once Earth is integrated with the swarm.”

Faye shrugged. “Besides for your computers, cell phones, and internet there isn’t a lot that magic can’t do as well or better. After integration the average person on Earth will be better off. Besides, there is a chance someone will be able to replicate some of what you have done with magic.”

“It’s unlikely. From what you have told me there are billions of galaxies worth of mages. If it hasn’t already been done then it probably can’t be done.” I said, shaking my head.

Faye looked disappointed. “You’re probably right. Maybe we can visit Earth before the integration though?” She said looked a bit excited about the idea.

I nodded in agreement. “If it’s possible we should definitely do that.”