17 Swear Your Fealty to me First.

No one arrived in the last thirty minutes, but Ernest was okay with it. After all, they might be busy working on something. This gave Ernest the time to plan how to create an iconography for the United National Socialist Party.

First of all, the banner. Those banners that were being carried when troops were marching, banners that were hung on the walls, banners that served as the flag of the party. Ernest contemplated, this work is just similar to creating a business logo.

He wanted it to be powerful and at the same time symbolizes the party's ideology.

He picked up a piece of paper and a pen and drew. His idea was a black banner, a roman eagle perched on a circle with an imperial cross inside it. Basically similar to roman eagle nazi but instead of a swastika, it was an imperial cross.

"Perfect," Ernest said as he stared at the finished outline.

Second, now that he has the symbol to go with, he needs a military or a paramilitary. Most of his troops under the protection squadron were former soldiers of the Kingdom of Crentis, he wanted them to look cool, badass, and radiate power and honor. But first, he needed to come up with a name.

Just like Hitler named his paramilitary organization SS or Schutzstaffel (literal English translation of Protection Squadron.) Or Soviet NKDP. He must have a name for his paramilitary that will serve solely under the United National Socialist Party.

However, there's one problem. He is bad at coming up with a name. He can't think of anything cool, he could go for Schutzstaffel but that's just copying.

Ernest propped up his chin, contemplating. After a little contemplation, Ernest decided.

Protection Squadron! This may sound simple but as stated before, Ernest is not good at coming up with cool names, so he'll stay for that for now. If an idea or cool name struck him, he'll change it in the future.

For now Protection Squadron.

Now that he has a name for his paramilitary organization, he'll now need a commander or general loyal to him to handle his organization, but he doesn't have one in mind for now so he'll skip it for now and decide that he'll be the one to handle them.

But as compelling as the right symbol can be, his real power is his people, and they need to be dressed for his success. That's right, military uniform.

This is where the exciting fun part, Ernest recalled his memories when he was watching The Man in the High Castle. The German uniforms look cool and badass. He wanted his forces to be dressed like them.

Since the United National Socialist Party doesn't have a proper army yet, he'll dress up his Protection Squadron first.

He opened his menu and went to System Shop Tab. He then swiped down and looked for the German uniforms. There a uniform of Schutzstaffel can be seen. A black uniform.

It cost around 1,000 per uniform.

Ernest purchased one and downed it immediately. The uniform consists of a full-length black german leather trenchcoat, an armband but instead of the nazi symbol, it's the symbol he drafted, a black Gestapo uniform, black trousers, and boots. And on top of his head rests a hat that has an insignia of Roman eagle.

He approached the mirror mounted on the wall and looked at himself. He looked like John Smith from The Man in the High Castle.

"This uniform will do."

Now the problem is how to reproduce it. Ernest knew that the technology to produce this uniform was not yet invented; he could buy one from the system but it'll raise suspicion. This is his secret power yet he needs to use it to complete his mission. There is a clothing store in Eighbury and they can produce this uniform if they have the necessary equipment like the loom machine.

Having no choice, Ernest decided to use his power to produce the uniform.

Now that he has iconography to go with and a uniform, it was finished. What he needs to do now is to resolve the current issues the city of Eighbury is facing.

Ernest waited for another ten minutes, rapping the table with his fingers, at last! They have arrived.

"Sir Ernest sorry for being late...." Sophia who entered stopped from her words as soon as her eyes met an unusual clothing donned by Ernest.

It was a cloth that she had never seen before but it was beautiful and fit Ernest perfectly. She stared at him for seconds until Ernest snapped her back to her senses by snapping his finger.

"Hey? How do I look?"

"You look, handsome sir." She said without hesitation.

"Oh...This is the first time I heard you being forward." Ernest teased.

"...You look handsome and cool in that uniform Sir Ernest."

Ernest's face blushed a little, he lowered his hat and said. "...Thank you."

Wait for what?

He shook his head, he was in a daze for a second due to Sophia's genuine praise, it made his heart skip a beat. 'Why am I getting flustered with simple praise?' He thought.

"Thank you." He said in a deep voice, "Now where are the representatives?"

"Oh, they'll be coming here in seconds. By the way, what are you wearing?" Sophia's eyes were still fixed to his uniform, her mouth slightly opened, struck in awe.

"Oh, this?" Ernest widened, giving her a better look. "This thing I am wearing will be the new uniform of our Protection Squadron. I'll discuss this later."

And so another minute passed, the representatives of each race arrived. Alwin, Wayne, Blackbelly, and Guilhem looked at him in awe.

"What type of clothing are you wearing sir Ernest?"

"Please take a seat first. We are behind schedule."

"I'm sorry for that, Sir Ernest." Wayne bowed his head with an apologetic expression.

The representatives took their respective seats around the round table.

Seeing that everyone is ready to listen, Ernest started.

"So today's agenda is about the party, the industrial, economical, agricultural, and infrastructural reforms of Eighbury, and the age of the winter demons."

"By that number of topics we will discuss, it'll take us hours to finish. Ernest, I'm amazed." Alwin said.

"Don't worry, it'll just take a brief moment. I already finished drafting the plan so it'll end in like thirty minutes or so."

…

Ernest initiated.

"The United National Socialist Party was created three weeks and due to our common grievances and suffering from the Empire. We blamed each other because we think one of us is responsible for our demise, but the truth is the one who caused our suffering is the Empire. I stood in front of the stage and gave a speech that unifies us and thus the United National Socialist Party was created. So, what is the aim of the United National Socialist Party?"

Ernest glanced at the representative, one of them raised his hand and answered.

"It's to bring pain to the Empire!" Wayne answered.

"Death to the Empire!" Blackbelly added.

"Liberating our people!" Guilhem added.

Hearing their response, Ernest nodded, indicating that they are correct, however, they are missing something.

"All of your answers were true. But there is still this something. Dwarves prayed for wisdom from the God of Forge, Elves prayed for protection from the God of Forest, humans, and beastman prayed to the almighty; however, are your prayers answered?"

This bold question could've got him in trouble but Ernest needed to know this. He lacks information about this world's religion and by asking that, he'll have access to that information. In every world, there is a God. Ernest thought. Hardly speaking, religion is a pain in the ass in the path of tyranny.

But the question he let out caused the inside of the meeting room to fall in silence.

"No…" Guilhem said. "We do have God of Forge yet we haven't received his grace. As a dwarf, we can only create what we can imagine and we prayed to the God of Forge to give us wisdom and yet we received nothing." Guilhem expressed.

"During the war, we asked for protection from the God of the Forest...praying that our people would not fall from the Empire, but what happened is the opposite. Our people got exploited, some became slaves, others were raped. At that time I grew resentment from the God of the Forest. Why did they abandon us in times of need?"

Listening to Wayne's story, Ernest felt pity for him. When faced with circumstances beyond their control, humans or any other species often bemoan their lack of power, which will turn to hopelessness and despair as the faith they had cemented to the omniscient crumbled. This is what's happening with them.

"Hearing your answers, it seems like you don't like your Gods," Ernest said and stood up.

"I think the point of my question has been answered. The reason why I formed this party is to give what you pray and what you hope. I will be the one who will end your misery and tragedy and help you forget the bitter past." Ernest eloquently said. "As the head of the United National Socialist Party, I will be the provider!" Ernest declared, spreading his arms.

Everyone in the meeting room was shocked at his declaration.

"Guilhem, you prayed for wisdom right? Perfect, I will give you wisdom about the hidden mechanism of the world. Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Metallurgy, and Technology. I will give it to you all as long as you serve me." Ernest peered down at Guilhem, who became enamored hearing it. He has a reason to believe, after all, he gave him knowledge about modern weapons and showed him a glimpse of his power of summoning otherworldly machines.

Guilhem teared up. "Oh...Sir Ernest...I will give you my all." He prostrated.

Seeing that, everyone except Ernest was surprised at Guilhem's behavior. Like how can he believe Ernest's words as easily as that?

"And Alwin, you said that you prayed to the God of Forest for protection of your people, and yet it wasn't provided. Why is that? Does your God abandon you, are they worthless ants to you? I'll tell you, it's the latter."

Alwin was silenced at his words. Ernest continued.

"You seek protection for the better good of your people and what happened? All those prayers, all those sacrifices. None!"

Alwin clenched his fist, recalling the painful memories of where he saw his kind getting killed and raped by the Empire's forces during their occupation in the Kingdom of Crentis. God of Forest did nothing, even if the Empire's forces left, the scars on the heart cannot be rejuvenated.

It was at that time he grew to hate for the Empire. They shall pay.

"Those who live in the divine realm don't care about us. But I am here. Comrade, I may not be there in times of your suffering but I am here now. I can offer you protection. I will liberate the people who are being currently exploited in the other parts of the kingdom.

Sophia, who was listening ever since the start of the meeting, was getting concerned about Ernest's sudden change of behavior.

Ernest walked around the table as he delivered his words.

"This is a new era, the United National Socialist Party will bring the utopia the Crentian people deserved. I will be the one to achieve it and I will be the one to lead you to it. Trust me, comrades."

Ernest stopped on his tracks, turned to them, and placed both arms in his chest in a cross pattern.

"Before we start the real meeting I want to hear you again, swearing your fealty to me. No, swearing absolute loyalty to me. I have the power to get us to where we wanted and I will absolutely not fail. There are still people that need liberation so help me."

The representative rose to their feet and saluted by placing their hands on their chest.

"We are the people you've liberated and we swear our undying fidelity to you." They swore in unison.

"Very well." Ernest beckoned them to sit down. "Now it's time to move to the real meeting. It's time to brand our movement."