Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Finally! Some good ideas.

By 3:30 AM I had in my company precisely two royals, two dukes and duchesses, three marquises, and one portly little old pope to really even out the number of the hostages present, a nice big ten.

The good ol' one-zero.

He was more of a last-minute addition, to be honest, but passing by his residence I just–couldn't help myself.

Believe me, I tried.

Alas, the magnificent gold-encrusted walls and the peeks of priceless artifacts salaciously skirting the edge of my senses compelled me to take action. Never in my many years of existence have I witnessed such a marvelous display of splendor from a religion constructed around the virtuousness of abstinence and the depravity of indulgence.

Gringlanor would be ashamed.

There must have been an error in translation when he delivered their holy scriptures last millennia.

Someone should definitely do something about that.

You know, to lessen the burden they must feel for going against the core principles of their deeply beloved deity.

It must eat them up every night, living so lavishly on the hard-won offerings of their impoverished followers.

Good thing I'm here.

Always happy to help, that's me.

So I kindly tie up the pope with my nicest chains and handcuffs, patting his plump cheeks tenderly with benevolent affection.

'This,' I think, changing my gloves, 'Is an act of immense kindness.'

============

Okay,

While I wouldn't exactly claim the landmass of Cryla is alive, but-- the landmass of Cryla is alive.

I've mentioned it multiple times but no one really gets my euphuisms. I know I'm not subtle so really, it's everyone else's fault they think I'm joking when I tell them the county has already gained awareness.

A lot of things that shouldn't be alive are usually alive in Cryla. It is a very common symptom of aether poisoning so I'm baffled they find it difficult to believe the ground under their feet shares similar symptoms.

No one really has any privacy in Cryla, I included.

Even without my security runes or the NC's constant awareness of their neighborhood; anyone in your proximity could essentially understand your state of mind if it was intense enough or if they were close to you and tried hard enough.

Our divorce rates are almost nonexistent.

Why be private if you've got nothing to hide? Right?

And if you do, it's probably not as secret as you think since I definitely already know what you think you're hiding. So it's not really a secret anymore.

Everyone in Cryla is often very transparent, but as their leader, I'm partially obligated to hide some unfortunate occurrences for the general benefit of the public good.

Like why I have black horns that nowhere in our history of evolution has ever been present nor inherited by any generation of my spawns.

Although I personally wouldn't recommend them, considering the inconvenience they bring to my life in general and the numerous attempt of my foes to use them as leverage against me in battle.

However, anyone truly familiar with my way of fighting knows never to attempt something so stupid as it is not only ineffective but the chance you might lose an arm for even trying is also very significant.

Most species don't have skin resilient enough to withstand the damage of disintegration, I've come to discover.

And—I'm getting sidetracked.

I should really start those repairs before everyone starts waking up.

As a benefit of having a sentient landmass, repairs are essentially automatic if enough aether is imbued as an incentive in addition to platitudes for more in the future.

The houses would need a bit longer, but infrastructure such as roads and sidewalks or lawns attached entirely to the ground are often the first to get fixed.

After that, the actual difficult part of my day begins; paying a visit to every neighborhood in the city as I needed to update and regenerate my NC into a headspace matching my current state of mind.

This would've been made much easier if I could just hover above the location but I needed to share physical contact with every one of them in order to reconnect our memories.

There are tens of thousands of neighborhoods in the country so if I'm lucky I'll finish before sundown and start my other chores with time to spare. If I don't, my night shall sadly be spent in the company of my higher-leveled golems inside various factories and buildings around the country.

So there goes the rest of my day, I guess.

Actions have consequences, as they say, and I'm beginning to really feel those consequences at the moment.

=================

Right.

The outside world.

I forgot about the outside world.

I remembered I had a device for foreign affairs during a short break, and when I opened it hundreds of notifications just-popped up immediately.

I'm so popular!

Or I missed something important and they've been unable to contact me for past six days.

Probably the second, but I'll really like to believe it's the first.

…

Cylestine 001 @IgetisCyl

Hello, everyone! It's nice to meet you all again.

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You are reading story Dictatorship and Other Hurtful Labels at novel35.com

Here Comes The Sun @Solargirl

@IgetisCyl Hi!

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Here Comes The Sun @Solargirl

@IgetisCyl What happened? We couldn't reach you.

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Cylestine 001 @IgetisCyl

@Solargirl Hello! I believe we've met before. You're part of the hero team, yes?

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Here Comes The Sun @Solargirl

@IgetisCyl You don't remember?

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Cylestine 001 @IgetisCyl

@Solargirl Sadly, no.

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Cylestine 001 @IgetisCyl

@Solargirl When I sleep, my brain does this thing where it decides what memories it'll keep using the ratio of positive to negative events occurring in a certain period of time according to my personal perception.

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Here Comes The Sun @Solargirl

@IgetisCyl What?

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Cylestine 001 @IgetisCyl

@Solargirl If my positive index of that year outweighs the negative then it'll keep it, but if the negatives outweigh the positives it gets sealed.

The last five years have been largely negative.

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Here Comes The Sun @Solargirl

@Igetis Cyl So you went to sleep? then got amnesia?

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Cyestine 001 @IgetisCyl

@SolarGirl Something like that, though in far less serious terms. It's usually a scheduled decennial event but I missed the last few decades so it took a bit longer than I had expected.

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Here Comes The Sun @SolarGirl

@Igetis Cyl That… explains so much about you.

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Cylestine 001 @IgetisCyl

@SolarGirl Thanks! I'm afraid I must leave soon, though.

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Cylestine 001 @IgetisCyl

@SolarGirl Much of our infrastructure collapsed and it has been difficult trying to reconnect in such a short time frame. We even got raided multiple times by an interdimensional neighbor as the barriers were also temporarily weakened.

I hope to speak more with you in an appropriate time frame.

Cylestine 001 @IgetisCyl

@SolarGirl Have a wonderful day!

……

'There.' I throw the tablet back into my storage dimension. Typing on something so small and fragile had been cumbersome on nails.

Good thing that's over.

Now for the factory golems, should I upgrade them amidst the repairs?

If I do it now then I'll probably have saved time for something less tedious at the end of the year.

'Yeah.'

That's a good idea.

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