Several weeks had passed since Fishy started his training with Ziu. After only a few days he was able to hold his own against Ziu's "easy mode", as he only got cut 100 times instead of 1000. By the end of the first week, he could use magic at will and easily combine it with his fighting. Even as each day ended with bleeding and bruises that won't heal for weeks, it was clear that Fishy was a genius.
"Let's stop for today…" Fishy panted as he rested on the side of a hill, staring at the setting sun with a gentle wind being enough to force him down.
"You're a natural," Ziu said sitting next to him. "I'd expect nothing less from my lord."
"Ha.." Fishy let out a tiny laugh as he played with the grass at his hands, sitting up to look at Silmor leading the other villagers that were able to work. The construction of additional houses was going better than Fishy could have ever imagined. The Destroyer nest that was underneath meant that the area was left alone for almost thousands of years. Luxury minerals were found underneath when Silmor went to explore. Thanks to the rich land they were living on, their tools improved and so did their housing.
"It's starting to come along…" Fishy said to himself before standing up and dusting the dirt off his plain trousers.
"Indeed it is, my lord."
"Come on, let's go back, we have a meeting to go to."
"Right!" Fishy said as he began the meeting with his executives and a few others that wanted to sit in. It was the first time they were using the tea room in the house built for Fishy. After it was rebuilt from the ground up, Fishy gave it the all-clear and even put it through a stress test with wind magic.
"We are making excellent progress." He said at the end of the table, "Morale has never been higher, not that it was high to begin with."
"Indeed," Clara said as she stood up to speak. "The introduction of clean water thanks to the aqueduct was a key role in improving morale. We are also seeing a decrease in illness."
Fishy listened to the report alongside the other executives. Clara spoke and debriefed everyone on current affairs within the area and with other nations. This meant little to Fishy who had no idea about any of them and chose to just sit back and ignore what was being said.
"Alright, let's get on to something more important." Fishy interrupted causing Clara to kick him in the shins before she sat back down. "I'm expecting a large influx of people soon. Well, we should have new visitors soon."
"What do you mean?" Ziu asked.
"We are a village at the moment but one day soon will be a city. The number one reason for success in places like this is tourism."
"Tourism?" Tin said as if never hearing the word before.
"Exactly, tourism. We are going to make Fintan village known to the world and eventually be referred to as Fintan City, then the nation of Fintan."
Everyone was pleased with Fishy's eagerness to expand the village. The ideas of the future bounced around the room with everyone having higher hopes for Fishy than before. Something he wishes they wouldn't have on him.
"But how do we do that?" They all said, greedily ready to get started.
"I don't know. Anyone got any ideas?"
The room all stopped talking and closed their eyes to come up with an idea that would put Fintan village on the map. Seeing as only Ziu and Fishy had knowledge of any world outside Fintan village it was clear they weren't going to make progress.
"I think we should have a large nightlife," Fishy said, trying to get the room talking. "I'm not talking casinos and gambling but more like a friendly community where the streets are still awake no matter what time of day. We could hold festivals and banquets and make people from all over want to experience our nightlife."
The other's listened to Fishy's dream the same way they've been doing this whole time. They listened to his words imagining it all in different ways, but the one similarity between them is that everyone has a smile on their face.
"Any objections to this," Ziu said for Fishy who appeared to have lost everyone in the world of dreams.
The room was silent as no one wanted to object. They each wanted to see what plans Fishy had for the village and started working on their first festival.
# # #
"We don't have many of you, but we'll assign roles now," Fishy said as he was faced with the few villagers in the village that had no roles.
He assigned them jobs based on what they said they enjoyed doing. He made a list of everything he needed to create a festival that reminded him of back home and tried to divide the workload as much as possible.
He handed down some new blueprints to Silmor and his builders for small wooden stalls and party games. As they were handed it their eyes beamed with excitement. It was so bright that Fishy was worried they'd shot out a Destroyer beam.
Fishy returned to his training with Ziu and continued to be bested at each attempt. Fishy tried to defend against Ziu's quick mastery but found himself being outdone at every turn. Ziu was quick thinking and saw every opening that Fishy was exposing, never missing a single chance to strike.
Fishy assigned the triplets and their mother the role of gatherers. It was up to Tin to create a menu and prepare a feast for everyone and make sure that there were options available. The triplets would hunt small rabbit-like animals whilst collecting various berries.
Fishy would visit them down by the ever-growing fields to hand them seeds he had found himself. He was forced to only observe as the villagers felt he always does too much for them but found himself sneaking in ways to help everyone.
"I found some barley," Fishy said handing it over to Tin who snatched it and was already planting its seeds to grow more.
"Say no more, my lord." Tin said as her passion was creeping out the triplets and Fishy. "I know what you wish to make, I will have it done in time."
Fishy's eyes awoke like the building team as Tin was on the same wavelength as he was.
"I tried this really nice ale in Va, I even hear that she'll try and come down for the festival, see if you can get some information."
"Yes, my lord!" Tin saluted as she was excited to be able to brew beer that will have the whole village excited.
Each day, Clara runs around the village hanging off of building's roofs, hanging colourful decorations that droop over the path and illuminate colour into the village's somewhat bland colour scheme. She created candles from wax she obtained from a tiny wax bug and used it to make candles. Thanks to the materials under them, she was able to get some magical metals that permanently change the colour of the fire. From bright orange to dark purple. Hundreds of paper lanterns filled with candles passed you as you walked down any path in the village. The colours lit up your path with the clear sky above creating a flickering rainbow street. But, of course, at night when Clara had tons of free time, she stayed up late with Fishy coming up with tons of clothing designs that she wished to see.
The spirit that was brought to the village was something that any nation would rival for. Even with the festival still being a week away, everyone couldn't wait.