"Wha...What's all this?"
In the early morning, only 3 hours after being put back to sleep, Fishy stood outside the elder's house looking at all the faces he could just about remember from last night. Everyone had managed to wake up and journey with illuminated expression to the house at which Fishy was staying. A rather worrying experience when a large group of 300 people gather outside your house. Flooding the road.
"WE WOULD LIKE TO STAY HERE FOREVER!" They all screamed at a hungover Fishy, waking up Clara who claimed she felt the whole house move at their yells.
Fishy faced the people but was unsure of which action to take. He wanted to take the action that would mean he wouldn't have to do much work. And taking on 300 people would mean they need to build 200 more places for people to live. A task that wasn't going to be easy. Unless…
"Actually… 300 people will be great for manpower." Fishy thought to himself.
"ALRIGHT!" He quickly agreed.
"Everyone will be interviewed by me!" He announced, suddenly becoming soberer. "You will live here in exchange for your labour. I will interview you all and assign a role based on what I decide. Should you wish to change your role at a later date, you'll have to talk to my secretary about it."
Fishy gently spun around to a half-awake Clara with bed hair that poured down her face like pink lava. She was equally as confused as Fishy was at first but quickly understood that another task was being thrown on her.
"Whatever…"
# # #
"Phew…" 300 interviews later, Fishy and Clara had just managed to sit down for the first time since they were rudely awoken the second time.
"Still, It's impressive…" Clara said, holding a bucket close to her still slightly green face. "Interviewing 300 people… analysing their strengths and weaknesses… then assigning them a role based on that… Do you ever run out of energy?"
"I'm used to long nights," Fishy said as the PTSD of his university cramming was inviting itself back in his head to make friends with his long-term memory.
"We now have: Traders, Farmers, builders, hunters, military, researchers, adventurers, and others." Ziu listed, standing by the door causing Fishy and Clara to be confused as to when he arrived. Picking their heads off the table to make themself presentable. "I would expect nothing less, my lord."
"Yeah, yeah…" Fishy said. "It'll only get harder from here. The population will grow at an exponential growth… although we can hope for a logarithmic growth, I'm assuming the worst."
Fishy continued to talk about terms that weren't common to the people around him. Clara and Ziu were impressed with whatever knowledge they were listening to and praised him for his intelligence of the matter.
"Basically, the population will grow quickly." Fishy explained, just to make sure they were all on the same page. To which Ziu and Clara nodded.
"I suspect that we will reach 1000 people quickly. It may float around that number. Travellers will come in and out but ideally, we need some sort of office to deal with the influx of people. All good leaders get others to do their work for them."
Fishy thought to himself out loud. Even if it wasn't accidental, he did it as he wanted opinions wherever they felt it was necessary. He didn't want to take charge and force his thoughts on others without hearing for the others to question him.
"What about crime?" Clara asked. "With more people crime will surely increase. What can we do?"
"That's what the executives are for and the army. Although ideally, the executives will be able to handle every crime. We can use the army should something bad break out."
"I see!" Ziu said admiring Fishy even more, even if Fishy didn't understand why. "You made the executives with that in mind. The executives are meant to be the strongest and although they help run this place they also deter crime. What a genius!"
Fishy couldn't help but get flustered when he hears someone call him a genius. He tried to hide his blushing by weirdly squirming his body back and forth as if he were a child.
"Correct," Fishy said after calming down. "Although Tin isn't a fighter, we will still require to train her in basic sword combat and potentially magic. I want to give everyone the opportunities but we also need to make sure to monitor those that are geniuses in their fields."
"You fear someone becoming too strong?" Clara asked.
"It's not an impossibility."
# # #
Several weeks have passed since the end of the festival. Fishy announced everything to the other executives and returned to training with Ziu whilst some of the new military members are helping to teach Clara and Tin the basics of self-defence. Meanwhile, the triplets are spending their time out with the adventuring team, teaching them about the area whilst sharing knowledge and learning all about the world they live in.
Ziu and Fishy spend several hours a day clashing swords with each other. Ziu's movements became readable to Fishy who used magic to help sense the movements and aura of those around him. He could feel how strong Ziu was based off his aura but never backed down. Even after training together for several months, Fishy couldn't match Ziu's skill in the sword.
"If you used magic you'd easily win!" Ziu said screaming over the barrage of Fishy's fire magic that, if uncontrolled, would burn down the entire village they spent almost a year creating.
"Such amazing magic!" Ziu said as he rested on the floor, staring at the cloudy sky with Fishy.
"Thanks…"
"You are the strongest mage I've ever seen!" Ziu repeated.
"I don't understand what you mean…"
Fishy and Ziu's conversation was cut short. The two of them only managed to rest for a bit before hearing screams come from the village. The screams reminded Fishy of what he heard when he first arrived, except back then they were filled with bravery, this time they were filled with despair.
The two of them jumped up to see a giant shadow dominate the village. Fishy's first instinct caused his face to lock to the sky, where he saw the cause of the shadow. A butterfly, big enough to be its own miniature country. Watched over the village with its mesmerizing pattern that was as unique as the clouds that it broke apart. Its wings were a vibrant pink that was practically glowing from the sun that burst through.
"What is that?" Fishy asked as he looked at the aura that was being created from the creature.
"It's the butterfly celestial…" Ziu said as his hands began to shake and his sword dropped from his hand. "Some people don't even believe in them… Some churches say they are a myth and others worship them… they are said to be monstrous beings, capable of destroying and recreating this world."
The two of them stared at the creature that gently flapped its wings. As if it was aware that it could easily trample them all in one flap.