Chapter 32: Chapter Thirty-One: My Motto is ‘Do It Yourself’

            Leo was awoken by Lily sticking her head into his tent. “Wake up! I’m going to go roust our dragon friend. Please try to make sure that you actually get up, huh?”

            Leo tried to roll over, got a face full of fur, and rolled back away from Wolten.

            Lily giggled.

            “Yeah, I’m up, swear.” Leo managed to get out of bed, get dressed, and put his backpack on. Then he went and waited for his turn to use the fancy new outhouse. He joined the ever-growing crowd that Meryl was yelling at, trying to get everyone in some semblance of order.

            “All right, ya maggots—sorry, not maggots. Citizens,” Meryl said to a few laughs.

            ‘One-Hand’ yelled out, “After last night, I feel like a maggot.”

            Amid the chuckles, another elf whom Leo didn’t recognize yelled, “This hangover is the first time being free has really felt real to me—couldn’t get enough booze before to get one.”

            That got a bit more laughter. Overall, Leo’s new citizens seemed a lot happier and a lot more rested than they had last night. Which, of course, had been the goal.

            “Enough chitchat!” Meryl yelled. “Lord Evans has decreed that we’re all to be part of a special ritual with him, at the old palace. My men, Cavendil’s Coterie, will make sure nothing bothers you on the walk, but it’s still two miles, starting from here, going over the newly rebuilt bridge to Calasti proper, the wharves of the central district, and then down the main way past the Grand Plaza and to the Royal Palace. Follow Vito here, who was recently promoted to commander of ten and made Level Three in the service of Lord Evans.”

            Vito, the soldier who had known orcish, gave Leo a quick wave and smile before marching off. The elves and human soldiers all followed, nearly thirteen hundred people. They passed over a beautiful, intricate marble bridge—except for a hundred-foot span in the middle, which had clearly been melded back together hastily by the Earth users. Leo’s mind barely noticed everything else despite its grandeur, although he was aware of the oohing and the aahing of the elves around him.

            Although, he did notice when roughly eight wolves attacked the soldiers. Few soldiers were injured, and healing handled them, but it was a stark reminder to Leo’s people about why the main city was currently off-limits.

            When they reached the palace, Leo expected a lot of oohing and aahing, but he was reminded that many of the elves had lived here before when they pointed out things they knew, and a few wept at seeing the old grandeur of their lost city. The Grand Plaza, the statue of the first Stardew King, and the first sight of the spires of the main palace all inspired nostalgic commentary.

            Finally, they reached the site where Leo intended to place the seed.

            He took off the backpack, reached into it, and drew forth the seed. He held it above his head, feet spread, feeling more like a popular Nintendo elf receiving an item than the ruler of a true fantasy empire.

            The milling crowd behind him seemed impressed.

            Leo projected his voice as much as he could, silently wishing he had a microphone and PA system. “Citizens of Averia! Our people were once the envy of the thirteen continents. But we were brought low. We weren’t brought low by orcs or dragons, no matter what many of you might think.”

            There were mutters in the crowd.

            “We were brought low by our own failings. Our own moral failings. We failed to make ourselves better, and our families stronger. We failed to protect our allies and uphold our agreements. If our nation was a great tree, this was the rot at the center of it. Blame the pests if you want, but the tree was diseased and hollow before they could even start feasting.”

            Leo paused and glanced out over the crowd—his people. He tried to catch a few eyes.

            “A nation’s destiny comes from two things—geography and demography.”

            Although Leo didn’t have any great experience on Earth being a leader, he had thought long and hard about everything he had ever learned. The words of his speech were chosen carefully.

“We’re gifted in the geography department. A great river, fertile lands, seas, and lakes for access to trade and fish, and multiple powerful magical nodes in the realms that were once ours.”

Their environment was a boon. He would endeavor not to waste it.

“The second element is demography—our people. You. Some of you might think ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘I’m not educated’ or ‘I was only a slave before now’ but none of that can be changed. That's all in the past. It’s now just fact.”

Silence overtook the crowd.

“But you can change. I can’t change you. Only you can change you. A thousand hardworking people, improving themselves and their families, extending help to their neighbors, and fighting to defend that which they’ve built with their own hands—that is a people who will prosper. A people with a bright future.”

The silence somehow intensified.

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“A thousand people who maintain the mindset of slaves, fearful of work, and distrustful of others—that is a people who will fail and be enslaved again. Because if each of you is great, we’ll all be great. And if too many of you are weak, we’ll fall.”

Many of the elves’ brows were furrowed in evident confusion. Leo was pretty sure this wasn’t a speech normal for this timeframe and socioeconomic structure.

“You are the secret to a great nation. Learn. Strive. Innovate. Grow. Aid those around you to do the same. If we have a motto, that motto would be ‘The whole is made better by individual achievement.’ We will make ourselves strong, for our own reasons. We will accept others who wish to join us. And if necessary, we will combine that strength to defend ourselves from everything the world throws at us.”

The elves glanced around, as though evaluating each other.

Leo smiled wide. “As the first step to that improvement, I offer you all the magic of the planting of Ygg’drasil—aid from me to everyone else on their individual roads to greatness.”

Leo plunged the seed into the small depression he had built before and accepted the trigger to start the bond.

It was like the bond with Freyvir, only more so.

Leo was locked in agony, his body taut as magic poured into it… and back out, to the seed. The seed sprouted, growing rapidly, roots digging into the earth and a single sprout leaping upward. Over a few agonizing minutes, the magic poured outward from the seed, through Leo, and then back into the seed, with the leakage flowing out into the world. Small, amethyst crystals grew on a lot of the surfaces around them, and every single person was standing with their hair on end. Leo could sense power entering them.

The tree kept growing, sprouting four massive leaves. Eventually, a thin stalk about a hundred feet high with four giant, almost sixty-foot-long leaves out the top, stood before Leo.

The agony stopped, and Leo pulled his shirt out and stared down at his chest. The image of a purple tree with a door in the trunk was now center on his chest.

“I’m Level Two!” an elf cried out from the crowd.

“I made Level Six,” Hugh said, walking up to Leo, his eyes wide. “I’m considered a Level Ten being now since my race storm dragon provides four levels.”

Leo dismissed his own notification that he had made Level Eight and held off checking his new perk for a moment to stand and face his people, the Ygg’drasil tree behind him.

“What should we take for our level?” someone cried out.

“I won’t tell you that,” Leo said. “I would say to follow your dreams but be wise about it. The ruins here need to be cleared of corrupted beasts, so you might take a combat ability if you want to try to level and are willing to risk death to do so. We will also need lots of farmers if your abilities can go in that direction.”

Leo walked down to the elf who had called out, and the crowds parted, almost reverently. He put his hand on the shoulder of the tall, gold-haired elf who had spoken.

“But everyone should take time, talk to neighbors, seek opportunity, and think of their futures. Then make the best choice for you so that you can be as strong, in the way you want, as you can be. That’s the whole point. Seek your destiny, work toward it as hard as you can. But make sure it’s your destiny. Your strength is our strength, so long as you join us, no matter what form it takes.”

            The man fell to his knees. “I will join you, my lord. I will swear myself to you.”

            “No,” Leo said, taking the man gently by his arm and raising him up. “Not to me.”

            The man’s face was slack, and his eyes were wet.

            Leo had thought about this quite a bit. “You should not swear to me. You should swear to each other, an oath of all to all. You should swear to the country, and your fellow man. Only from those who enter my direct service will I accept an oath.”

The man nodded, his eyes rapt on Leo.

Leo continued. “For everyone else, place your right hand over your heart, your left over your head, and state the words I do now, replacing my name with your own. ‘I, Leo Evans il Stardew, swear by heart, mind, and soul to conform to the laws of the Averia. I swear to remain honorable and to hold my fellow citizens’ rights as sacred as my own. I swear, within the bounds of the law, to work to make myself stronger, and to provide for those I take responsibility for. I swear to defend the kingdom and my fellow citizens from external enemies should the need arise. I pledge myself to the great nation of Averia in sight of man and gods.”

Leo let his hands drop and chuckled. “Assuming, of course, that you wish to stay a citizen here… in the new capital city of Averia, Star Port.”

The response was a series of cheers and affirmations, by a people wide-eyed and newly exuberant for the future.

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