"In the future, I want far more notice of the council deciding it's time for another meeting," I said to Grant as soon as I returned and found him waiting in the dining hall. I had left Dean with Maud to get situated. Karlinovo and Elody could start sorting through what we scavenged, since apparently I had to have a talking to with Grant.

"I'm sorry, but I told you the moment I learned of it myself. If you want to take this up with anyone, you're going to have to fight with them about it. Once they learned I had a core, I couldn't do anything to stop them," he replied, looking unhappy at the situation.

I sighed before I spoke again. "Alright, fine. I'm sorry. I get that this isn't your fault exactly. This isn't even why I wanted to originally meet with you here when I got back."

"Oh, what was then?" he asked, running his hand through his hair as he spoke. Was Grant nervous? Had he actually been worried about our meeting?

"So, we found a kid alone in a nearby town, apparently they had been trying to survive since the Orc invasion, and they weren't doing great. Obviously, we brought them back. Can you get a few people you think can handle themselves from the Reltleons and take one of the transports out and start checking out the nearby towns for any other survivors?" I asked. I wasn't sure how big of an influx we could handle, but I also wasn't about to leave anyone out there fending for themselves with an upcoming Alaskan winter.

"Shit, I really should have thought of that already. Yeah, absolutely. I'll make that my new priority. I'll talk to the mayor, he should have some people that aren't great at the other tasks, and I'll whip them into shape as search and rescue, then we can just start expanding how far out we go in circles," he replied, his earlier reaction gone, instead he had a look of planned focus.

"Thank you. Anything I should know for the upcoming meeting?" I asked as the door to the room opened and Pryte walked in.

"Yes, what Dave said," he said, echoing my sentiments if not the exact words.

"As much as I may want to have the details there, I don't. It is likely in response to the Reltleon refugees and the fact that I now have a core of my own. Beyond that, I can only speculate, which I'm sure you two can do as well," he answered.

"Yeah, fair enough. Alright, go work on the new search and rescue project while I talk to Pryte," I said, not happy about this meeting, but determined to prepare as quickly as I could.

"Any guess how long until they're here?" I asked him the moment Grant had left the room.

"Yes. That's why I'm late getting here myself. I sent Glorp to find them. We've got about thirty minutes," he replied. While I was glad Glorp could spot them, we needed some sort of long-range detection to go along with our defenses. I wanted alarms. Mostly, though, I didn't want the city to be taken by surprise.

"Not a lot of time, what's the best play here?" I asked. Anger at them showing up like this seemed like a good idea, but I wasn't the one best versed in this area.

"Good hosts. Make them think we aren't surprised. John should be back in the kitchen with some of the Reltleons in a few minutes, which, considering his new skill levels, is enough time to whip together something. Rabyn is going to lay low for now, even if they do know about him, it's best to keep them away from him. Glorp is grabbing Glunderlin, Trolke, all three of Olkerfins, Connie, and Alex," he answered.

"I think I'm following, trying to make them understand just how many non natives of Earth we already have here?" I asked. Though that didn't explain the lack of the brothers, now that I thought of it.

"Yes and no. I actually want to highlight possible future alliances as I bet I have an idea for some of the questions they are going to ask, and I don't want Cecile here because we don't need the Twinoge situation to come up," Pryte answered. Yeah, that was for the best. They didn't need to even consider what the end game was with that world. Hell, I didn't know yet.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Within minutes, we had everyone Pryte had asked for in the room, and I could smell food cooking in the kitchen. I was more impressed with the man than ever. But, even if we were playing this out as good hosts I was still pissed that there hadn't even been a call. Alex had confirmed that. Zero communication attempts seemed to have been made, so this was entirely meant to catch us off guard.

Pryte had just finished briefing everyone on the topics he wanted them to stick to when Glorp appeared at the door, letting us know they had arrived. That was John's cue to begin setting up the table, and mine to go great them alongside Pryte. I stood up, gave Alex a quick nod, and followed Pryte out of the room.

"Hello, Mr. President. We've been expecting you, and we've got a meal prepared, so please follow us." Pryte's tone had an air of welcoming that his glare didn't match.

"Glad to see you could make it on such short notice, Laura," I added, not nearly as good at Pryte in sounding welcoming, but considering how I had spoken to the president previously, it was better than that. Plus, I wasn't sure I could lie in a way Laura couldn't see through anyway.

"Will Grant be joining us?" the president asked as we headed back into the dining hall. He hadn't brought as many people with him this time. Only Laura, one of the senators and one of the Canadian representatives, had accompanied him. I thought the senator's name was Irwin, but I wasn't sure, as for the representative, I had no idea. Hopefully, Pryte did.

"No, he won't be able to make it. I just sent him out with a few of our new residents to check in on any surrounding cities. We're finally at a point where we can least help our neighbors," I answered, as I sat down. Had I accidentally made a power play there?

"Only the four of you this time, I see. Welcome back, Irwin and Mary, and of course, Laura as well," Pryte said, formally greeting the other three as they took their own seats.

"Yes, thank you. Not to skip the pleasantries, but as we discussed last time we were here, there is a drastically increased issue of geopolitical stability since the Orc invasion. The more we investigate, the more infrastructure we've found they destroyed in some fashion or another. This has led to one of the largest-scale reorganizations of nations the planet has seen in modern times," President Roberts said.

He was fidgeting slightly in his chair. Had he been doing that the last time he was here? Actually, for that matter, why was I noticing that at all? Had I been getting better at reading people as a result of my attribute investments? I'd need to add that to my list of things to test.

"And how exactly does this affect us?" Pryte asked, calmly taking a bite of bread after his question.

"Well, I now represent several nations. And it's come to our attention you are apparently forming a city of aliens here. The American-Canadian alliance is not happy with that at all. This wasn't something you mentioned as a plan in our last meeting." His fidgeting increased, and I was getting the distinct feeling he didn't actually want to be here. Which left the question, why was he?

"That's because it wasn't planned. We happened into a city that needed help, and Dave was not willing to leave them behind. It should be noted that this has zero bearing on your alliance, as we will handle all resource management related to their move ourselves," Pryte answered, matter-of-factly.

"While that may be the case, this is still territory within the alliance's purview, and we can't just take on several thousand refugees in the middle of the crises we are already facing. You must understand our position here," Laura replied, unlike the president, she was perfectly calm. Knowing her as well as I did, though, that didn't mean it was true inside her head. She was great at hiding her anxiety.

"I do, and you make a good point there. It's actually something we planned to discuss during your visit. The Empire of Dave will be claiming a twenty-square-mile area centered around this building we are currently in. We will be constructing the capital city here, and as we are going to be working on alliances with several other species and worlds in the future, this is not a request," Pryte said.

Even knowing this speech had been coming, I still almost spat out the soup I had put into my mouth when he had started speaking. It was one of the few times I had ever seen my ex-wife look so surprised. That almost made this whole Empire of Dave thing worth it, almost. The truth was, she didn't deserve my enmity, and in the future, her skills were likely to be incredibly useful.

"I was actually hoping you'd say something like that. It makes this all much easier," President Roberts said. His fidgeting had entirely stopped, and now he was smiling. What had we missed?

One of the problems newly integrated worlds face is their inability to understand resource management. It's a common problem in the uneducated masses that occupy many worlds, but it is much more pronounced in the newer ones. They come with their own ideals and a complete lack of understanding of sensible philosophies. This is why we often have to go to the levels we do in order to bring them into an age of enlightenment. Some people may see this as cruel, but that's because they refuse to look past their own bias and see what is actually needed. Once everyone properly learns their places, society runs much better.

A Proper Place For Everything and Everyone by Prince Ghalad

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.