Devina turned to sit down on a large sofa while looking down and admiring the ring she was given. When she looked back up at Ben her expression darkened.
Her brows slightly creased, Devina said, "I have learned it one should not wise to judge a person before getting to know them. To tell you the truth brother I was both afraid of you and angry when I heard you had blatantly crossed our borders with a small army of well outfit soldiers."
She sighed and continued to say, "I was thinking who is this arrogant king treating our Varene Dynasty as if it wasn't worthy of his acknowledgment. We had no warning of your arrival until the city guards spotted your army marching toward the city and making camp. Here we are under constant threat from the three northern kingdoms and now we thought another kingdom had come looking to bully us."
Ben embarrassingly laughed after hearing what Devina previously thought of his actions.
He stood before her and lowered his head to her saying, "Please forgive brother for this unannounced and disrespectful intrusion upon the sacred lands of the Varene Dynasty. I am was well-informed that the dynasty is a closed border society, and yet I still strong-armed my way across your lands."
Ben raised his head to look Devina in the eyes and continued. "Due to the Varene Dynasty not having much contact with the outside kingdoms this was the best option I could come up with to personally meet the Priestess Matriarch without being turned away."
"You may have not heard but there have been many changes to the surrounding kingdoms in the past few months."
Devina looked at him with a curious and unknowing expression without responding.
Ben noticed she had indeed not yet heard of the changes, so he continued to explain. He went on to tell her of what had occurred with the cultivators and his store in the Caegon Dynasty and how he helped defeat the Rodara Invasion.
She looked astonished to hear he had marched his troops into Rodara and conquered the kingdom.
He then told her of how the other kingdoms sent diplomats to threaten him into continuing sending them food for free and how they had invaded Rodara. When she learned Ben had swept across the three northern kingdoms and took them for himself she jumped up from her seat with a gasp.
"Brother, did you truly beat those powerhouse kingdoms to the north?"
Ben nodded and said, "This was one of the reasons I rushed here to tell sister this news. The Varene Dynasty has been freed from the forced duty of providing those kingdoms with a large amount of food from this day forward!"
Devina dropped heavily back onto the sofa. Her emotions were in a whirlwind of chaos. She had always felt a huge weight on her shoulders having to kneel to the other kingdoms and force a large portion of her little sisters to work the farmlands so they could keep up with the food demand sent up north.
This young and gentle king before her who honestly calls her sister had freed her from the years of regretful prostration. She always had felt humiliated before her people having to bend a knee and submit to those continuous threats from arrogant northern diplomats who never gave her the respect she deserved.
Ben watched the flurry of expressions plays out across Devina's face as he gently stepped forward to sit beside her on the sofa. As she was quietly lost in her thoughts Ben gestured for his officials to take a seat across from them.
He looked back to Devina then and said, "These here are my top officials from my home Kingdom located on another continent. They have become indispensable to me and handle many of the issues that would forever belay me without their support."
"Pay your respects to the Priestess Matriarch" Ben whispered.
They all stood up to kneel before Devina. Rayner spoke for his subordinates and said, "We pay our humble respects to the Varene Dynasty's Priestess Matriarch. We are at the service of our majesty's sworn sister! Please command us!"
Devina smiled to see how respectful these Avalon officials were to her. She had almost become used to being talked down to by the simple diplomats sent from the north.
"I'm pleased to meet my brother's most trusted servants please continue to look after him. Now each of you please take a seat."
"As they Avalon officials retook their seats Devina whispered, "I can't believe it so much has suddenly changed. So many of my little sisters who have been sent off to work farmlands for so many years will no longer be needed to work them. This is going to change our Varene Dynasty in many ways now. I will have to come up with new ideas for the future of these little sisters."
Ben smiled and said, "This is another reason why I have come to meet sister, Devina. I would like to become allies with the Varene Dynasty. I can offer the dynasty protection from aggressive kingdoms and also offer trade deal to help rebuild the Varene Dynasty's treasury which I'm sure has been hurting from the losses incurred due to the northern kingdoms."
"If sister Devina agrees to ally with my Avalon Kingdom I do not intend for you to change your religious beliefs. If you choose to continue a closed border policy I will have no problems with it."
"Brother Ben has an interesting idea. I'm intrigued what are these trade deals that you mentioned and how can they benefit us?" She asked while looking at Ben beside her.
"I have heard the Varene Dynasty has what I would call a gender reversal issue. In other kingdoms, men will pursue women and women are more concerned with financial security and providing their families with a safe and stable household. From what I hear the Varene male is more concerned with advancing their professions and creating a stable life for themselves, while the women pursue them in hopes of finding a mate who can provide them with a male offspring."
Devina nodded and said, "It is just as you say, brother. We struggle to increase our male population which continues to dwindle, but the Varene male simply does not want to be concerned with it. I feel they are hounded by females throughout their lives to the extent they wish to simply separate from them for some peace."
"I have some ideas that can help both the Varene males and females get what they wish for." Ben said as he looked to Rayner.
Rayner passed a folder over to Ben from his storage ring and Ben laid it on the short table in front of them. He opened it to reveal an overhead view of what looked to be an overhead architectural design for a fortified town.
'Now this project will be completely funded by my Avalon Kingdom. I want to be given a section of land near the western border of the Varene Dynasty. There I want to build a fortified town that will have three zones sectioned off from one another by walls. In zone one of the city, I want to build workshops. These workshops will be freely given to any Varene males who agreed to work with this project. They will be given a free workshop and will be free of taxes. They will also be provided with any resources related to their profession for below market prices."
"These males will use these discounted resources and free workshops to advance their careers and skills. Any products they create can be purchased at market prices by my Avalon Kingdom unless the Varene Dynasty wishes to purchase them at the market price. This will allow the Varene males to fulfill their dream of advancing their career and improving their skills."
"These exceptional benefits will come at another cost to them. Every Varene male who works in this town will be provided with a seven-day schedule. Every day, they will be required to close their workshop at sunset and spend the night with a woman who they are scheduled to be with that day."
"The women on those schedules will live in zone two of the town. The women in zone two will be prevented from entering zone one where the male's workshops are located. This way the men can work without distractions from the women."
"Of course these men cannot simply visit the women on their schedules. They will be required to perform sexual relations with each of the seven women. The women will live nice temporary homes in zone two until they become pregnant. When a woman becomes pregnant she will be moved to Zone three of the town which will be known as the Maternity zone."
"These pregnant women will be reassigned a new home in the maternity zone and their house in zone two will be given to another woman who will then take her place on the male's schedule who impregnated her. In zone three I want to build a large hospital and staff it with highly skilled female Avalon doctors. There will never be any Avalon males who are permitted to enter this town. These skill female Avalon doctors will live in the maternity zone of this town and perform routine checkups on the pregnant Varene women to ensure they have a safe and healthy delivery."
"All the food, tools, items, resources and any other things needed for the town will all be given freely to anyone who lives in this town. The Varene Dynasty will be completely free of all financial or bureaucratic needs to this town. I think many of the younger Varene males who wish to set out on their own but do not have the finances will be willing to work with the project, and I am sure there will be no shortage of willing female participants."
"I believe this project will be beneficial in many ways. It will increase the birthrate Varene males. Offset the cost of having to support the females who will no longer be needed at the farmlands and the products made in the workshops will help to bolster the trade market for the Avalon and Varene Dynasty. It will create jobs for people who have to ship those goods from one kingdom to the next and, also provide further employment for the people who will guard those trade caravans."
After having flipped through the detailed explanations and diagrams in the folder for Devina to follow along he closed the folder and handed it to her.
Having talked for a while Ben paused to bring out a bottle of wine and pour a glass for everyone. He quenched his parched throat while Devina sat thinking over what she was told.
"I am very interested in this project. It seems a little unfair for you though. Your kingdom is paying for everything while we have first picked at any products made by the males, and we also solve our decreasing population problem." She said while looking earnestly toward Ben.
"It may seem that way but I rule over seven previous kingdoms including my original kingdom. I have many ways of obtaining resources and food for next to nothing prices. The peace of mind knowing my eastern Rodara region and southern Aithereal region borders are safe due to the location of my sister Devina's dynasty and the extra goods provided through the project to increase my kingdoms markets make the investment into the dynasty well worth it." Ben explained.
Devina nodded seeing what Ben was saying could be beneficial to both of them and her Varene Dynasty would not need to change its customs or lose out financially.
Devina then held her small hand out to Ben and said, "I love your project idea brother and, also wish to join hands with your Avalon Kingdom. You need to remember that my dynasty is mainly made up of women. Even though we are to be allies I can't really provide you with military support in times of war."
"Sister Devina doesn't have to worry about this. One thing my Avalon kingdom is not short on is military might! I have over twenty thousand full-time soldiers who are trained by veteran generals every day on how to fight on any battlefield. The only way we could lose is if we were outnumbered with ten to one odds against us."
Devina smiled and said, "Then it is settled our goddess and your god are brother and sister. It would only be normal that we should also be sister and brother. I welcome this alliance with the Avalon Kingdom and look forward to hearing other ideas that brother Ben may have to help our alliance prosper!"