The Calm Before the Storm
- Things are always calm before a war.
Book 4-7.1
Pareia’s Meeting of Greatest had started.
The goal of this meeting was to share the results of three years worth of development so that everyone was aware of just how much has changed.
Yulian, Grace, Runa, and the individual oasis chiefs, all of Pareia’s movers and shakers gathered together for the first time in a long time. It had been a chaotic three years for everyone.
Everybody at the meeting had joyful expressions on their faces. It was because everything they had planned and prepared for were progressing well.
The individual chiefs all took turns sharing the developments of their oases, before discussing different issues they could use the advice of the other chiefs to get their ideas.
Once everybody finished their report, Runa wrapped it all up and started to share the plans for the future.
“Next year, once with the birth of 5,000 new warriors, the total number of Pareia’s warriors will be 100,000. It proceeded much faster than expected because of the foreigners joining our tribe, but we have determined that the most important task right now is to instill a belief that they are all people of the desert.”
“This should not be a problem as the Greatest Warriors are working hard and those people themselves feel like our tribe is a nice place to live. Let’s take the term foreigner out now. They are now all people of Pareia.”
Runa nodded at Yulian’s response.
“I think that we should put the new desert warriors to work with Greatest Warrior Thriger. No matter how much we train them, it is difficult to train people who have become used to riding pirmas from a young age.”
“You want to have them work on the Desert Runner. Greatest Warrior Thriger will be happy. He keeps telling me he does not have enough people.”
“The effectiveness of the quicksand river will start to go up in the future. I think it would be good to start training with that in mind starting now.”
“We will do as you have planned. Next.”
Once Yulian gave his approval, Runa brought up the next topic.
“It is becoming more difficult to bring in iron, food, and other materials. I presume that the continental war in the Eastern Continent is getting closer. Edwin is working hard, but it is true that the amount of materials is becoming smaller.”
“That is a problem. We will only need more materials from here on. Maybe if people didn’t know about it, it would not be a problem. But the people are starting to use more and more. It was one of the things we were worried about, but since it reduced the labor force quite a bit, it is not like we can tell them to go back to the old ways. I presume it is the same for all of the other oasis as well.”
The other oasis chiefs nodded their heads at Yarumaha’s response.
“We cannot do anything about it because the ratio of men and women as well as the fact that all men had to become warriors was abnormal to start. In a normal country, if there were one million people, only about 30,000 of them will be warriors. However, in the desert, even though the total population is less than 5.5 million people, there are over 600,000 warriors. They were needed to hunt for food and protect the tribe.”
Runa paused for a moment before continuing to speak.
“It is something we cannot change because of the needs of the desert. But the problem will change once the desert is unified. All men will not need to become warriors once the desert is all one tribe.”
He was right. It was not something they could resolve right now. Everybody knew that to be the case, but they had asked because Runa always seemed to have a response for everything. Runa of course answered as if he had thought a lot about that issue.
“I need to take another look at the situation to accurately make a decision, but everything will be resolved once that time arrives. Our men of the desert will be able to take on other jobs. Once they learn how to produce materials, it will no longer be a problem. Once we unify the desert, we will reduce the proportion of men who become warriors and increase the proportion of material producers.”
“I guess we really don’t have any options right now.”
“Yes. The only thing we can do is tell people to conserve.”
Runa brought up the next issue while everyone was nodding their heads at his response.
“The construction is moving slower than expected, especially because of that situation with the assassins. I would like to hire some more workers with your approval.”
“There are a lot of places for us to spend money right now. Is there a reason to urgently push this construction right now?”
Runa sternly answered Yulian’s question.
“We would not need a castle if we were going to just stay in the desert. However, if we want to get our revenge on our nemesis, the Silence Empire, we must absolutely build this castle.”
“Mm.”
As many of the chiefs started to contemplate Runa’s words, Runa continued to speak.
“The feeling of war is getting stronger in the Eastern Continent. That is the only chance for our Pareia to aim for them. That is why we need a base close to them. We also need a castle that can defend against the potential attack from the Silence Empire. Most importantly, it will be the symbol of Pareia for the continental powers.”
“It will probably be better to leave that in your hands.”
Nobody could offer another suggestion once Yulian gave his answer. This definitely had to be one of the first things Pareia needed to take care of.
“Everybody has been doing their parts and we have discussed all the parts we need to work together to accomplish. All that is left now is the fine-tuning.”
Yulian looked to the left and right before starting to speak again.
“We will conserve our strength until the end of this year. But next year, we must make sure to conquer the rest of the Eastern Desert. Please keep that in mind and act accordingly in the upcoming months.”
“We understand, Glow.”
Yulian’s parting words ended the meeting and everyone started to head back to their paoes.
Yulian and Grace walked side by side as they headed back to their paoe.
The sun was up in the sky when they started the meeting, but it was already night time.
“Are you hungry?”
Grace linked her arm with Yulian’s arm as she asked the question.
Yulian responded by nodding his head.
“Now that you mention it, I am very hungry. Let’s hurry back.”
As Yulian started to walk faster while still linking arms with Grace, Grace started to frown.
Yulian was confused at Grace’s expression and tilted his head. Grace had more stamina and abilities than most warriors. There was no way she would frown because he pulled her just this much. Grace pulled on Yulian’s arm to get him to stop before starting to speak.
“Honey.”
“What is it? Are you ill?”
Yulian lightly grabbed onto both of Grace’s arm with concern as he made eye contact with her.
“That’s not it……”
Seeing Grace, a woman who bluntly stated anything she needed to say and did not even mention a peep about something she shouldn’t say acting like this, Yulian felt his heart drop. He felt that something was wrong.
“Are you really sick? Did you visit Tuma Takaka-nim?”
Seeing Yulian not even giving her any time to respond, Grace put her hand up to caress Yulian’s face.
“Are you worried about me?”
“Why are you asking such an obvious question. Hurry up and tell me. What is wrong?”
Grace felt extremely loved seeing Yulian worry like this. On one hand, she was even sorry for making him worry for now reason.
“To be honest with you, I have something to tell you.”
“Hurry up and tell me.”
“I...I’m pregnant.”
Seeing Grace shyly speak, Yulian flinched for a second before cautiously asking again.
“Grace, what did you just say?”
Both of Grace’s cheeks turned even redder as she answered once more.
“I am with child.”
“Is that for real?”
“Yoo~hoo!”
Yulian jumped up and down in place while shouting out loud enough for the entire desert to hear.
“The entire tribe is going to hear you.”
Yulian was about to hug Grace tightly as she warned him, but she looked at her stomach for a moment before just lightly hugging her.
“Let’s announce it right away tomorrow morning. Everyone will be extremely happy to know you are with child. No, let’s immediately call for a celebration for the entire tribe.”
“Stop making such a big deal out of it. I took so long to do something everybody else has already done.”
“Making a big deal? You are the Mother of Pareia. Your child is the child of everyone in the tribe.”
Yulian was extremely excited. How long had he been waiting for this news? Even taking Violet as his second wife had been on his mind because of Grace.