Novel Full Chapter 1955 Meeting 2
Chapter 1955: Chapter 1955 Meeting 2
— Kat —
The conversation devolved into a lot of specifics after that, with numbers from their various specialties coming up as proof and… most of them meant nothing to the three girls. Eventually, they reached the conclusion that it might be worth doing in some limited capacity, or rather, Wheth and Stad thought that, with Malory still being quite against the idea and Steel not having much of an opinion.
“With that in mind… is there anything you might want to add to sway us one way or the other?” asked Gravel while looking at Hedera and Kat.
Kat shrugged. They already seemed to be on the side of ’we should do it’ so wasn’t sure what needed to be added. Hedera shook her head for a similar reason. It seemed like even if they didn’t really want to go through with this, it might be necessary. “Hmmm… how goes the diseases in the outside world?” asked Gravel.
Kat shrugged. “We don’t have any great knowledge of that but I do not recall meeting any sick people. Some injured ones, but nobody who was sick at the time. Though we didn’t exactly go looking for them either.”
Gravel ran his fingers through his beard a few times. “I think that’s one of, if not the greatest concern for me at this current moment. Even if the outside world is no longer beset by plagues on the regular, the fact we are so isolated could mean our immune systems have suffered…”
*I’m surprised you guys know about that.*
“It was something the royal family made sure to investigate… admittedly most of the investigation happened after we already closed everything off but I stand by the decision my ancestors made. It saved many people of the city,” answered Gravel.
“Err… did I say that out loud?” asked Kat.
“No, but I would be a poor King if I could not even read such an obvious message upon your face,” explained Gravel.
“Right… um… yeah I’m not sure how to comment on something like that,” said Kata with a shrug.
“Indeed, and the previous minster for health recently passed away. Old age, he was actually my Grandfather’s advisor first and managed to keep up with the job so it isn’t entirely unexpected… but it does mean we’re currently short three advisors one of which is quite vital to this conversation…” mumbled Gravel.
“Um… who are the other two?” asked Kat.
“The first is the minister of education and he’s currently teaching classes. I had no originally considered this a big enough deal, or one that was at all relevant to him and decided not to interrupt his day. I’m regretting that decision somewhat but it means he isn’t here. The last advisor is the minister of entertainment and he works quite closely with Weth. He is also currently sick himself, so best not to call him out of bed when Weth can keep him up to date,” explained Gravel.
Kat gave a nod. “Right so that’s all sorted then?”
“Somewhat. We’ll still need to discuss it a bit more but it seems we will be accepting your offer to open a tunnel to the city. How widely we announce it is another matter but… that’s not something you have to worry about for now,” said Gravel.
“Great, so… I guess we’re done then. When did you want to meet back up to finalise things?” asked Kat.
“Not quite I’m afraid,” stated Gravel. “While it’s true making use of the tunnel is something we’re probably doing you seem to have forgotten the whole thing that started this. Your citizenship. So… what can you bring to the table for that?”
Kat glanced at Hedera who didn’t seem to know what to say to that… so instead, Kat turned it around on Gravel. “Well… why would we want to stay here? We know nothing about the city and we can survive in the cold,” *Even if Hedera struggles with that.* “so it’s no great hardship for us if you immediately exile us. Why would we want to stay?”
Gravel gave a begrudgingly approving nod. “Indeed, well, we have a system for free food of a minimum standard that you can pay regular instalments to upgrade. There are always jobs for people. We’ve developed a method of endlessly re-using orbs and can swiftly refill them. We have a good school system though you both seem a bit old for that. Housing… we usually have a good system to make sure everyone has shelter and I think there are at the very least some smaller abodes available at the moment though I won’t promise anything to you just in case… that’s already quite a lot and I’m sure there are more things I could offer,”
Kat sighed. “Alright, the orbs at least sound good… but I don’t think either of us really plan to remain in the city long term. Does that change things?”
“I’m not really sure…” mumbled Gravel.
“Of course, then you shouldn’t be citizens,” said Malory at the same time, while Stad and Wheth shared shrugs with each other. Gravel looked over at Malory and gestured for her to explain. “If they’re not going to remain then they don’t deserve to be citizens. I don’t know if I agree with anything else, but at the very least if people do leave, and we still allow them to return? They’ve been citizens their entire life. Why should we even offer anything to someone not planning to stay?”
“Because it’s part of our laws,” interjected Stad. “It is one of the oldest laws still on the books. One of the few that has NEVER been touched, and certainly the oldest completely unedited law. Not only that, but our culture has always respected the Trapmaster, to the point that clearing multiple trials is how we are meant to select a new king or queen in the event of a succession crisis.
“To throw all of that away simply because we are… not entirely pleased with how new individuals have decided to become part of the city is disrespectful. Those laws have served us well. Just because the title of citizen is more precious, does not mean we should deny it to those who earn it.”
“Well…” Wheth began. “What if we make sure to add to that then?” Malory and Gravel looked at him. “I’m just saying, if Malory’s main complaint is that they don’t add anything… why not have them add something? I’m sure there are plenty of tasks that they could take on. I don’t know how serious you want them to be… but we could make the offer.”
“What would that mean though?” asked Gravel. “Many benefits of living here will be useless to them if they simply leave once the tunnel is set up, or if they simply find a way to leave before then. I will not be a tyrant that makes unreasonable demands.” Kat shrugged and raised her hand. Gravel nodded in her direction. “I’m a nearly immortal demon. I’m somewhat strong,” Because of the damned restrictions! “but exceptionally durable. Not only does it take a good amount of effort to hurt me, but I can regenerate to recover or turn into water and avoid the attack entirely so if there’s criminals you want me to catch or monsters that have snuck into the city I could deal with those.”
Gravel nodded slowly and turned to Steel who shrugged. “I believe there is a few criminals that fit the description… but we don’t really know who they are. I likely would’ve done something about it myself had we already known. That being said… if Kat is willing to act as the vanguard we can take a few more risky actions in the investigation. As for monsters, as far as I know there are none.”
Gravel looked to Malory. “Can you accept that,”
“I don’t see why it matters. It seems I am quite outnumbered in this meeting room,” grumbled Malory. Gravel rolled his eyes and glanced around the room hoping someone else would say something.
So Stad did. “Malory, why are you so against this? From my understand you’ve never even interacted with any outsiders so where does this dislike come from?”
Malory sighed. “I suppose I just don’t feel like they’ve done anything to deserve it…”
“And does clearing the Trapmaster’s trials not count as deserving it? Considering that was the whole reason the rule was put in place?” asked Stad.
“Maybe? I… I just feel like we’re going to change so many things by doing this…” admitted Malory.
“Change is always happening Malory, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing,” offered Stad.
Malory nodded, “I know that. I get that… it just… I… maybe I just wasn’t ready for it but I just have a bad feeling. That whatever happens things are going to be so complicated and there’s going to be so many problems. I mean… do we really NEED this?”
Wheth stepped in to say, “Yes. Yes I think we do. Just… the problems we’re having with people’s desire to leave have only grown, some of our rarer supplies for keeping things running are basically out. It might not be something we need right now, this week, or year, or even decade… but we aren’t going to make it another fifty years without a change like this.”
“Fine,” spat Malory.