Beginnings

Following Seth’s eradication of the city dregs and subsequent fainting, the city fell into an awkward period of peace. With the only crimes now being acts of food theft and petty beatings, the constant fear that ruled over the ordinary population was slowly fading away, even as Seth was recovering.

The hunger, homelessness, uncertainty, and general low standard of life remained, but the city situation was slowly heading for the better.

Seth was sitting once more on the roof of the ‘king’s palace,’ gazing over his land with a pensive look. Maya was also there, holding his hand as she asked: “What are you thinking about?”

“A name.” Replied Seth, the same reflective look in his eyes.

“Name?” asked Maya with a tone of intrigue: “Whose name? Do you know any beauties around here from your past?”

Seth shook his head with a smile and turned to ask her back: “How come you’re hunting for girls more than I do these days?”

Maya giggled and pecked Seth’s cheek without giving him an answer, causing Seth to sigh and look back towards the lands beneath: “I was thinking about a name for me and this kingdom.”

“Can you even change the name of a kingdom?” asked Maya, knowing little about matters of politics but having not heard about any kingdom changing its name before.

Seth nodded and said: “Sure, you can. You can just call your kingdom however you want. Other kingdoms would still refer to it as Blood, at least for a while, but that would also change eventually.”

Maya pondered for a moment and asked: “Why not just call it the Kingdom of Destruction?”

Seth shook his head again with a smile. “If I were to name it like that, it would only instill more fear into people. That’s not the kind of kingdom I want to build.”

“I already told you that I am walking a slightly different path now. This place we’re going to build; I don’t want it to be a symbol of destruction anymore.”

“Then what? The Kingdom of Lust?” asked Maya with a raised eyebrow.

Seth suddenly moved his face to hers, playfully biting the tip of her nose as he said: “Why do I feel that name would suit a kingdom ruled by you the most?”

Maya looked offended as she grabbed Seth’s waist and poked it. “Hey, I’ll have you know that I’ve been abstaining from sex for a few days.”

Seth chuckled and said: “I don’t think you had much choice in that matter.”

“Doesn’t matter the reason.”

“Fine, fine.” Seth gave up on bickering with her as his face grew serious, and he said: “But I still need a royal name for our family as well as a new name for the kingdom. Names that are not tainted by the fate of destruction.”

The thought of stealing a name from one of the kingdoms in the future passed briefly through his mind, but he threw that idea away, wishing this to be something of his and not something stolen.

Maya also seemed to understand that it meant a lot to Seth and started thinking carefully about it. “Do you want to follow tradition and use the same name as your family name and the kingdom?”

Seth shook his head: “Not really, no.”

While the two were still talking about it, not finding a name they both approved of, Hollie flew in, landing next to them. Seeing the frown on her face, Seth stopped the name talk for now and asked: “Did anything happen?”

“The crime rate in the city has been reduced following your… you know… but there are still people worried about their fate. I can even hear whispers of people wanting to desert.”

“I think you should address the people to ease some of their worries.”

Seth lowered his head and looked over the city, a thoughtful look in his eyes as he shook his head: “Assuring them they are safe won’t work. It might even make them want to abandon the city quicker.”

“They would assume I’m only giving guarantees because I can’t take care of them now, after having cleaned up the city, so they would hurry to escape. This state of anxiousness and uncertainty works better for now, but we still need to address it soon enough.”

Looking at the cracked and broken roof tiles under his feet, Seth shifted his gaze to the huts built far in the distance before looking back at Hollie: “Can you please bring Pearl and Henrietta here?”

Hollie nodded and went to bring them up, returning not even two minutes later, both Henrietta and Pearl in tow.

Seth looked at them and didn’t wait for them to ask as he said: “I need you two to start working on building houses for the people.

Since it would be stupid to have 2 people create hundreds of thousands of houses, I need you two to start making large marble pieces. After you waste your entire energy on creating them, have Alexa help with splitting them into small brick-sized bricks, perfect for building.”

“Why not make them small directly?” asked Pearl with a frown.

“Because forming multiple smaller bricks would take more time than forming a large marble piece and dumping your energy into giving it form. Also, cutting in small, equal-sized parts using destruction energy would take less time and be a good control training.”

“Once you create enough bricks, we’ll inform the people and help them create their own houses.”

After Pearl nodded, Seth turned towards Maya: “When the blood race finally leaves, the underground waters will be free from suppression, but this doesn’t mean we have to wait until then. I want you to take Amen and Hollie and fly towards the largest open area directly south of the city. Once there, use his abilities in earth control to prepare the soil and grow as many crops as his energy would allow.”

“What about seeds?” asked Maya after a quick nod.

“There are some merchants on the way. Hollie should be able to hear them yelling out their wares. Even if the city relies on bartering and food is the most expensive, you can probably buy a decent amount for a few vials. Take a handful from the ship’s storage and trade them for seeds.”

“We need to fix the food and housing problem first, and we’ll move on to other things after that.”

Maya nodded again and stood up. Hollie took everyone into a small air bubble and flew away, leaving Seth alone on the roof again. With a small sigh, he disappeared from the roof, appearing in Caitlin’s room on the ship.

Caitlin was cultivating and opened her eyes when Seth appeared in her room. Seeing his wry face, she knew he had more work for her, and she sat up with a sigh: “How can I help?”

“I need you to start walking around the city and heal as many people as possible. Most of them suffer from starvation, so it wouldn’t waste much of your energy. At the start, there won’t be much work to do since people are still skeptical of our intentions, but things would ramp up quickly once you build some trust, so also make sure not to overexert yourself.”

Seeing Caitlin sigh again, Seth rubbed her head and said: “I really appreciate your help. You can also take Leora with you since I don’t have anything for her to do anyway.”

Caitlin surprised Seth by shaking her head as she said: “Leora is busy taking care of the two girls that were raped by the former king…”

Seth frowned and had the system give him a brief report about that.

“Fine, but I still need you to take someone for protection. Things are safer now, but not completely. Ask Rebecca or Lisa and see if any of them agree.”

After Caitlin nodded and walked towards the door, Seth disappeared again, this time appearing in Leora’s room, where she found her looking towards two sleeping girls with a lost look in her eyes.

Seth knew she was aware of his presence, but after she didn’t move, he came to her side and created a small chair to sit on. “Are you alright?”

Leora nodded, her eyes never leaving the two girls: “I just thought I used to be the same…”

Seth had the system check the women and said with a sigh: “They are fine, physically, after Caitlin healed them, but I don’t have to tell you what going through what they did does to someone’s mind.”

“Their minds fled from the pain and misery they experienced, and I’m not even sure they would ever come back…”

Leora turned towards Seth and asked: “Do you think it would be better if we killed them?”

Seth looked at the sleeping women. They were still young, not older than 25.

The thought of ending their misery also briefly passed through his mind, but he shook his head in the end.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way. If they wake up and ask me to kill them, I’ll do it, but for now, I still want them to have a chance at life. Just as you did.”

“If you want to, I can have someone else watch over them. I think I can easily find someone that came with us from the Oath Kingdom willing to do it, and you can focus on cultivating.”

Leora fell in deep thought as she looked back towards the girls before shaking her head: “I can cultivate and keep an eye on them as well. Do you need anything from me?”

“No.” Replied Seth with a shake of his head: “I just came to see how you are doing.”

After Leora nodded, Seth smiled and teleported away, arriving on the ship’s deck. Seeing Leora caring about someone and showing some emotion felt like a big win, so he didn’t mind letting her do her thing.

‘Let me know if they wake up.’ He asked the system before walking towards Aleena, who was reading a book outside.

“How long until you create a source?”

Seth’s voice startled Aleena, and her book almost fell to the floor. Her cheeks blushing, she started rubbing the back of her hand as she asked: “A month or so. Is it time?”

Seth frowned, not understanding what she meant, when their last conversation popped into his mind, causing him to chuckle.

“Well, you know that the space source won’t allow interdimensional travel until it reaches the ninth shell, don’t you?”

Aleena blushed even fiercer as she said: “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“You were so eager to get in my bed that I couldn’t ruin your fantasies.” Replied Seth with a teasing look, causing Aleena to throw her book toward him and rush into the ship’s hull, unable to contain the shame she was feeling.

Seth chuckled again as he caught the book and watched her disappear into the ship’s hull. Storing the book in his space, he looked down towards the city and started speaking with the system again.

‘How long until we can fix the housing and food problems.’

<The housing problem would be fixed in three months, while the food would take as much as ten months.>

<Host can reduce the time by employing the help of the local population.>

‘Yes, but we first need to gain their trust. I know the king was the one who held the general power, but there must be other people who have a lot of influence on the commoners.’

<Affirmative. There is a church where people go to pray to a god. It was initially built by people from the far north, but with time and some food donations, its influence has also spread to other poor people.>

<Most other people of influence were smugglers, slavers, or thug organizations, but the host’s cleansing has eliminated most of them.>

“A church, huh? An interesting place to begin.”, muttered Seth and disappeared from the ship’s deck.