World Conquest Online

Dom looked around the room to see the reactions of his Heroes at Meritamen’s comment. It was key that he gave them some structure in his first absence of the game since he started playing. He found it strange how these game characters made everything feel so real, and he didn’t want to disappoint them.

"I am sure we can create a working group who can make any decisions." Shang Yang replied evenly, wanting to reduce the pressure from Dom as Meritamen’s eyes glared at him.

"That may be so, but I assume I am to make the final choice?" Meritamen stated seriously as she stared at Dom.

"I am not sure that anyone other than Lord Lazarus should have a final say." Hatshepsut said calmly, which calmed Meritamen down as she had a lot of respect for her fellow Egyptian, someone who had actually led the mighty nation. "But a structure does need putting in place where key decisions can be agreed on in his absence. I assume that Lord Lazarus has some thoughts on this?"

Everyone turned to him and he felt Meritamen’s eyes on him the most. Most of his Heroes had little care in their eyes as they knew nothing would overly change or impact them, however the senior Heroes looked on with expectation.

"I have put some thought in to this, I hope you all agree, but I am open to feedback and better ideas." Dom began seriously. "I think with the mission to reform our government and the earliest ideas mentioned, this could be the first step in that. I think we should split the Leadership it in to three divisions. The Military Division, the Central Government Division and the Local Government Division. This is just for the day to day running whilst we work on the rest of things, and is in no way a final way of doing things. This is just whilst I am gone, but I think it is just firming up what we already do anyway."

"And how would they look?" Shang Yang asked, his hand stroking his chin as he listened, a proud smile hidden.

"The Military Division will be very similar to how it is ran now, with a Senior Commander and Senior Strategist, with Commanders, Deputies, Strategists and others in key functions." Dom started, "As it is currently led by Subutai, I don’t see the need to make any changes here, with Xun You as his deputy and the Senior Strategist."

"I don’t see any issues with that." Xun You replied, "We are constantly changing and reorganising our forces as we grow and we will continue to do that."

"I have full trust in Subutai, Xun You and all of our other Commanders. Especially those in this room." Dom explained, looking at Tomoe, Tomyris, Gan Ning and Liao Hua. They all nodded at his comment, showing a sign of respect to their leader. "We do need to re-organise our areas of priority, and we have gained a large amount of new Military Heroes over the last couple of weeks who need to be organised in to those forces. But I will leave that to you lot for now."

"Lord Lazarus will always be the top of this structure." Subutai commented, "But in your absence I am happy to step in."

"We will make sure that Riverside is safe in your absence." Tomoe declared.

"What about the Central Government?" Shang Yang asked.

"Central Government is Government related issues that impact all Civilians within our Kingdom. So the Laws, Diplomacy and Trade Agreements with other Nations, Financial Management and others." Dom replied, "This will currently be led by yourself Shang Yang, with Xun Yu and Crassus as your deputies."

"I am not sure if I am able to perform this for you." Shang Yang replied, it was a rejection out of respect, but he had every intention of doing the role for Dom and Riverside, to make sure that they flourished and became a worthy Kingdom and not a corrupt one that would fail.

"I think that is a great option." Crassus countered, "Shang Yang should definitely lead and myself and Xun Yu are happy to support."

"I agree." Xun Yu smiled, knowing what Shang Yang was doing. "We will support you Shang Yang in your role."

"If that is the case, then I must reluctantly accept." Shang Yang stated with a bow. Meritamen gave Dom a look, having expected her name to have come up in this section, but he ignored her and continued.

"Our final area is the Local Government." Dom continued, "This is in control of the important day to day running of Riverside and our wider Kingdom once it has grown. This will manage things such as population, construction, food and health care. This will be lead by Lucius with Hatshepsut as his deputy."

"I assume I won’t be retiring to a farm any time soon?" Lucius asked reluctantly.

"No, but at least you will have me to help." Hatshepsut replied with a flirty grin, that everyone noticed, especially when Lucius blushed slightly. Dom then turned to Meritamen before she had chance to speak.

"Each of the three Leaders are to agree any decisions between themselves if it has an impact on the future of the Kingdom in my absence, with the wider group if it is a major decision." Dom began, "The fourth member of this group will be Meritamen, who is my deputy in my absence. However just like me, she will listen to the advice of our Heroes and trust in their judgement. By having her as a fourth member, she has the power to pause anything from happening if she disagrees with a two vs one vote."

She seemed taken aback by this comment, not expecting to actually be made his deputy. She had been working towards it and the other Heroes of Riverside already looked at her in that way, but the acceptance from Dom had made her extremely happy and focused. More and more she felt like she was becoming an actual partner to Dom.

"Thank you." She said warmly, struggling to hide the smile on her face. He hadn’t given her full control like he had, but she was still placed in an extremely important position.

"Ok, we all know what we need to do!" Dom exclaimed, "Celebrations will be starting in a couple of hours and we have lot to do before then!"

....

The Group had soon departed to manage their own tasks, some with the celebrations that would take place later in the day, whilst others had important tasks to do around Riverside. Xun Yu would do the daily spawns as usual in the Civilian parts of Riverside, a task that he normally welcomed, but now added additional work to him as the Tongpai Town members took up most of the new housing that would be allocated.

Subutai had deputised Tomoe to do the Military daily spawns instead of himself, as he would join Dom with his tasks. She was an imposing figure that set high expectations on any of the new arrivals. Whilst they had been at Tongpai Town, Xun Yan had been the more welcoming face to new Military arrivals.

Hatshepsut had been given the cubes that would be spawned in Riverside, the Mines, Blacksmith and the Arena, which they had agreed they’d spawn just before the games ended so the venue could be scouted first. Dom felt sorry if anyone spawned with the building, as they had done with buildings like the School, as they would be in for a shock.

Dom had taken the Beast Hall Cube, Shang Swordsmen Warriors Hall Cube and the Merchant Shipyard Cube. He left the other Cubes and the Clone Cube in his chest at the bottom of his best. He had decided he would choose if to use the Clone Cube on the Shipyard or the Clinic, depending on what the Shipyard gave him.

Meritamen had departed to finish her final plans for the Celebrations, and had dragged Shang Yang reluctantly along with her. Normally his stern demeaner would have made him less approachable, but he had a soft spot for the Egyptian Princess.

Dom had brought Subutai and Lucius along with him, their first stop was the house of Atzi and Tayanna who had been looking after Gan Ning’s Red Snake’s. Gan Ning had gone ahead of them and Dom was excited to see how they had grown. As they walked, Dom’s guard flanked around them as they headed towards the south of the Town Centre where the related houses were built.

Riverside was bustling as they headed through, with Citizens happily chatting to each other as they went around their day. The buildings had flowers attached to their doors and lots of colourful arrangements had been placed everywhere. Dom could tell that Jacob the Florist had been busy doing some actual flower related tasks, rather than working on what local fauna was safe, edible or usable for medical purposes.

Morale seemed high, as their conversations made the whole place seem much louder than usual. There were lots of new faces, some of who were from Tongpai Town, who all stopped and bowed at Dom as he walked past with Lucius and Subutai walking a step behind him. He didn’t ask them to, but they had done it on purpose to show who was in charge to the newcomers, not that Dom minded them walking beside him. He had two Hoplite in their new armour walking slightly on the outside, these being Gregorios and Hector. Further behind them were four Forbidden Guard who were heavily armoured.

They soon reached the house of Atzi and Tayanna, who were often seen fishing by the river’s edge with Helena and her daughters. They both looked much healthier than when they had first arrived, the only survivors of the first successful attack by Riverside on a nearby foe, the Gluttonous Chief’s Village.

"Welcome Lord Lazarus!" Atzi said excitedly, giving Dom a large hug which surprised a lot of the newer members of Riverside that were nearby. Dom gave her a hug back and then gave Tayanna one as well.

"Hey Subutai!" Tayanna had also said happily, to which Subutai rolled his eyes.

"I didn’t know you two spoke much?" Dom asked Tayanna with a laugh, wondering what the story was there.

"I have been teaching her to shoot arrows." Subutai replied with a shake of his head, "Gan Ning mentioned that she wanted a career change. I spoke with Banas and we are training her when we get chance, with the possibility of join the Horse Archers in the future."

"That is exciting Tayanna!" Dom replied, impressed with her drive.

"It is, but she wants to abandon me." Atzi exclaimed with fake hurt, before turning towards the house. "Come, I expect you do not have long before you having somewhere else to be."

Dom didn’t disagree and looked over the House. The House was a single storey, but had a small yard to the back of it that had a high fence built around it. You couldn’t see through the fence from the outside, and looking at the house you could tell that Wang Shu and Lars had put a lot of effort in to building this place for the sisters.

The guards stayed outside the house, whilst Dom ducked under the low doorframe and headed in to the house within, followed by Subutai and Lucius. The inside was surprisingly well lit, as the light passed through the open windows that had open wooden shutters. The floor was tiled in a light brown shade, and the walls were painted a warm rusty orange. To the left was the bedroom, whilst they were currently stood in a small living area. Gan Ning was stood at a rear door waiting for them with an unsure look, whilst Atzi beckoned them on.

"They are growing very big." Atzi replied joyfully "I would be careful when you come out, they can be a bit protective of their mothers."

Dom took her advice as reached Gan Ning who was stood leaning against the wall, the yard was rather large and inside were two small Red Snakes who were curled around some plants and foliage that had been placed inside the yard, there was a small pool that had been dug, and another two small red snakes were lay inside, their heads high above the water as they stared at Gan Ning. They were smaller than Dom expected, but they were only a couple of weeks old.

"Here they are." Gan Ning stated from the wall, watching at Atzi moved around the snakes comfortably. "They are big aren’t they."

"They are big Lord Lazarus." Atzi commented as she fed a small fish to one of the snakes in the water. She looked very comfortable with them and they seemed to follow her basic directions. "You may think, these are small snakes, but I think that would be because your mind would be comparing them to their mother. These are only a couple weeks old and they are already bigger than most snakes you would find in the wild."

Dom agreed when he thought about it, they were about a metre long already and Dom wondered what Atzi and Tayanna had been feeding them.

"If you are wondering why Commander Gan Ning is not getting closer to them." Tayanna stated as she appeared with Subutai and Lucius, "They are a bit obsessed with him."

"I can’t get any closer or they wrap around me and won’t leave me alone." Gan Ning said with a laugh, "I think they believe I am their mother, or at least part of their family."

"System, can you give me more information?" Dom asked, laughing at Gan Ning’s misfortune.