Waking up next morning, Zaxton realised that something was amiss.
Or, more the other way around. Someone has appeared before him.
- -Your excellency!
Two people stood before him, and the sight immediately woke him up completely.
And while he knew that he had never met them in real life, he knew very well who they were.
-Mark? Emily? What's going on? Why are you here?
The pair before him were his closest and most loyal subordinates.
Mark. Head of the Ministry of Defence and General-Fieldmarshall of his country, second in military command only to himself, a talanted war master who leads all of his army in the defensive campaign against Beasts, and the second person he "summoned" into his dream, with first one being...
Emily. His deputy and de facto leader of the country, thanks to his interest laying fully in designing variations of Z-S-M, but, with her being a great leader, understanding what her subordinates need from her in order to achieve needed goals, it was a blessing.
Mark and Emily, who considered each other siblings, when combining their efforts held as much authority in the country as he did, since he basically split between them all of his responsibilities before secluding himself withing the building of Engineering Bureau.
As such, this pair of siblings were, in fact, real rulers of his country, Engania, with him only setting major goals for them.
And he was totally fine with that, since he knew basically nothing about governing a country, aside from knowing that safety in all aspects is the most important factor, be it medicines, military safety or laws and their enforcement, all of them had to be fair and were essential.
As such, he was more of a brain of the country, with the pair of siblings being the Executive powerhouse.
And so, Zaxton was very confused.
The two of his ubordinates appeared before him, and while in the dream it wasn't something new at all, in real life this was the first time, and for that to happen...
...there was no realistic explanation he could think of.
Mark was first to break the silence:
-We have no idea, your excelency. Everything was going as usual, with nothing out of ordinary, when seemingly everyone has simultaniously lost their consciousness, and when we all came back to senses we were... here. Well...
Emily chimed in as he turned his head towards her:
-All of us appeared outside of this city, at the outskirts of the forest. We have no idea what happened, but once we regained our consciousness the two of us could feel the direction leading to you, and so we came here.
Zaxton hesitated a little.
-Have you... Encountered my parents?
Emily smiled and nodded.
-Yes your excellency, we have. We decided to introduce ourselves as your aquaintances, since they themselves asked whether or not we were looking for you. But let's get to buisness. Our people are still confused by the situation, since we appeared here with nothing but our clothing and whatever personal belongings anyone had on them at the time. As such, we organised people as well as we could to set up as good of a camp as possible, but now we are struggling a little. Do you have any instructions?
In responce he supported his chin with his hand, thinking about the situation.
[We have people from Engania here, and since the situation turns out like this we have a few primary goals to achieve. First and foremost, we have to provide our people with shelter, at least a temporary one. The next step would be to find out wether or not we are able to produce Zegrahael, since it's the only unrealistic thing that I came up with in Engandia, once we have the answer to this one we will have to make a disicion which way we should go. Alright, we have no time to waste, let's start.]
Finally, Zaxton broke the silence:
-How many of our people are here?
Once the two heard him responding they felt much more relieved. And so Emily responded:
-The entirety of the Oblahroad capital was transported.
Zaxton shuddered.
-E-everyone?! All the 500 000 people?!
Emily lowered her head.
-Yes your excellency. The entirety of the adult and teen population of Oblahroad city were transported here, and are awaiting our return close to the forest.
Zaxton was stunned.
[I have definetly enderestimated the incident. Simply finding shelter on our own is now basically impossible, as such we have very few ways to deal with this. And the only plausible way seems be contacting the government, although... he might also be able to help...]
-Do you have either a list or a general understanding of what the "personal belongings" are?
-Yes. We have heavily generalised the term, but we considered anything people had with them, aside from clothing and pocket watches, as personal belongings. As such, almost every person has a Mark II revolver with them, along with 30 rounds on average, and almost as much people carry a multi-purpose knife.
-Then, specialised tools are a lot less common, and people carrying them were generally the ones on a shift at the factories at the time, among the specialised tools there are sets of wrenches, around a thousand people have those, then we have plumber wrenches, even less common with about 500.
-Next, aside from tools, we have general utensils people had with them at the time. Those range from newspapers all the way to empty bullet cartridges. Although, since it was evening at the time, quite a lot of people also have kitchen knives with them, around 4 000 people have those.
-Finally, some of the scientists from the Engineering Bureau were researching Zegrahael at the time, and managed to save the research papers. In total there are 15 scientists, 7 of which had research papers on different aspects of the liquid, and, miraculously, we are able to get the full research from the seven pieces, although some were duplicates.
-Research on Zegrahael was saved?! That's incredible! Very well, this will aid our further development. Okay, that's great. Now, what is the general situation among people?
[With this, he will have more motivation to aid us as well! But what's going on among people is also important and mustn't be cast away.]
-There's a bit of unrest, however it's already better then what was before we regained control over masses. Some people were hungry, so we formed a few squads centered around people with knowledge about different kinds of plants produced by the forest, and before we left to find you some have already reported on discovery of edible plants, bringing along some of them.
-Some people were hesitant to eat, however hearing that currently it is the only option we have they gratefully accepted it. As such the situation in the camp is quite good despite the early unrest and confusion. So, do you have any instructions?
-Yes, but first, is my pocket watch still with you?
Emily smiled.
-Yes you majesty, just as you asked I kept it with me at all times, here you go. It's already wound up since I serviced it just like mine ane Mark's.
Both Zaxton and Mark answered simultaniously, although Mark was a little embarassed:
- -Thanks Emily/sister.
Afterwards, Emily drawn the watch out by its chain. Unlike her and Mark's, which were gold plated, this watch was made out of brass. It was the very first watch to be made in Engandia, by the factory built there. The VERY first watches belonged to Emily and Mark, as they were there before even the capital itself was established.
Zaxton took his watch, a symbol of progress of Engandia, and took a look at the engraving on the inside of the cover plate. Made by his people without his knowledge, this engraving was the thing that reinforced his emotional ties with his people, and so it became the coat of arms of the capital, and the whole country.
An opened pocket watch hanging by it's chain, showing 5:00 with it's arrows, symbolising dawn. It's surrounded by two factory chimneys spitting out clouds of smoke, and under the watch there's a cross out of two cannons, with the two pairs symbolising factories and workers of the country and it's military respectively.
And finally, behind the watch, there was a faint outline of balancing scales, symboliing equality and fair judgement.
The watch factory was one of the last to be built in Engandia at the time, and so, sitizens of the capital and the entire country wanted to show their appreciation, and just like that, this watch was born.
Zaxton took a look at the time on the watch, and at the time on the clock on the wall, surprised by the fact that the time was equal, 7:12 AM.
He quickly asked the two to wait for him outside the room, and quickly dressed, putting the watch in his left breast pocket, with the chain going over to the right one.
Once he finished dressing, he opened the door and said:
-Very well. It's time to visit someone, come with me.