32 Chapter 32 – The Council

Year 2, Spring, First Month, First Week.

The meeting with the elders continued, the next important topic was the new village’s organization.

Since they would get more free hands, they would need to redistribute the work in the village. Again, Karl reminded them of the need for more resources. For now, their only option for gathering more materials was to expand their hunting parties.

At this time, Omero stepped up and offered an organizational plan, even Karl was surprised by the boldness of the plan.

Currently, they had 2148 villagers, of which 36 elders, 50 babies, 60 kids, 733 teens, 1240 healthy adults and 30 sick adults. The Chief was proposing the new organization:

1000 Adults working in the magic fields;

300 Teens working in the village fields;

90 Adults in fixed positions;

150 Rotating adults;

100 Teens helping Karl;

150 Teens hunting and training (Including the former hunting team);

150 Teens crafting;

32 Teens in odd jobs.

The 150 rotating adults and the 32 teens would help in different jobs around the village, like cooking, taking care of children, help sowing and harvesting.

From the 90 adults with fixed positions, 60 would be placed in the hunting team, 20 would help with crafting tools and weapons, six would help Karl and the other four would hold management positions.

Before the meeting participants could digest the unexpected plan, the Chief made another proposal, even bolder. The creation of a Council, which would be responsible for making important decisions and managing the village.

Most of the villagers present were a little shocked by Omero proposing something that would reduce his power, but Marlen and Bill understood what the Chief was doing.

First, as soon as the villagers’ lives started improving, power struggles would also appear, and one way of dealing with it was to give everyone a chance to strive for a position of power.

Also, in Omero’s opinion, centralized power was something that would result in disaster, sooner or later. So, he chose to divide the power in the village from the beginning, the decisions wouldn’t only weigh on him and he could still maintain the position of leader. In a way, he was gathering support and solidifying his position.

After discussing, they decided that the Council would be formed by 16 members, who would vote on the village’s important decisions. Other than voting, some Council members would also hold management positions.

The management positions would be necessary to supervise and carry projects in the areas of farming, hunting, crafting, and Alchemy.

The Chief proposed that these four management areas should be handled by four members, preferably adults, which would stay permanently within the village. Although the elders were more experienced, it was an unspoken truth that they could die at any time.

Regarding the Alchemy and hunting areas management, Chief Omero asked Diana and Karl with they would accept the position, however, both of them didn’t want to be held by supervising and planning tasks, instead, they promised to work closely with the managers.

He suggested that the 16 Council positions, should be held by him, the hunting team veterans, the four adults from the management areas and five other elders. They discussed it, thought it was fair and agreed.

To choose the elders they would hold an election. Of course, Omero planned for Bill and Marlen to get into the Council, but since they were popular among the villagers, it shouldn’t be a problem for them to win fairly.

The other four members would be appointed once the election was over, by vote and decision of the 12 Council members.

Before electing the Council members, they decided to select the villagers that would enter the hunting team or help Karl. So, they would use the next three days to do a selection and held the election the day after.

The elders were pleased with the delay, the three days would be a precious time to gather more supporters. They finished the meeting and everyone left excited to carry their tasks. Caiset was becoming a new village and they couldn’t wait to see how it would be like.

.........

“Move out of the way, Slave”.

A Fighter soldier pushed Akino to the side while glancing at him in disgust.

Akino didn't mind him and continued to stand in line to get his meal portion. He knew better than reacting to the bullying treatment, that Fighter could have a lot of friends only waiting for a reason to beat him up.

Akino spent the last three months fighting in the front lines and he was getting better by the day, which would arouse envy among the other Fighters, especially the recruits that came from well-off families.

Winter came and left while Akino was battling the Sandines, but he didn't felt much difference in the temperature except some cold breezes at night. The southern region of the Serion Kingdom bordered the Sandine Kingdom, which was located on top of vast arid and sandy lands.

Even without cold and snow, winter wasn't a favorable time in the southern borders. The dry climate made for another new torment, especially on the battlefields.

Akino was grateful for the opportunity to improve in the frontlines but he was growing tired by the constant battles and accumulate wounds. Even though they had access to a healer, he was always last in line for the treatment, another courtesy of his poor upbringing.

Fortunately, the Sandines stop attacking in these last two days. Akino made use of the unexpected pause to sleep and recover. One of the perks of being in the Fighter’s regiment was to be the second line in battle and thus not have to stay alert all the time.

Akino started eating the plain-tasting soup served with a piece of bread happily. He heard his comrades complaining about the food quality but just made a mental remark that eating the slave food for one day could get them to straighten up.

“Ahhhh...”

Before his neighboring comrades could put their food away, Akino already stood up with his sword drawn prepared to respond to whatever made the soldier scream. More screams made to their ears but nobody could see anything.

Akino started to absorb magic energy and circle it towards his legs and hands, which made him grasp the sword even tighter. The anticipation was nerve-wracking, fortunately, it didn't take long for their Captain to start yelling orders.

“Soldiers in line! I want teams of four to stay together... Move! It's a night attack... Probably, some Origin forsaken nocturnal Beastmen...”

Akino couldn't help but swallow dry and look wary at the dark sky before moving near to the other three Fighters. In the stories that circulated in the camp, he heard about all sort of strange Beastmen attacks that would leave behind a massacre.

The rumors, of course, were exaggerated. What actually happened was that some Generals got surprised by an attack that they didn't expect due to it being impractical for Human soldiers to execute. Like a water attack from aquatic Beastmen or a sky attack from flying Beastmen.

“Ahhhhh... Hel...”

An army slave came running from the front line direction, screaming something incomprehensible. Before he could get to the Fighters camp, he was picked by a dark silhouette and dragged to the sky.

Even in Akino's scared mind, he couldn't imagine that they would be attacked by some nocturnal flying Beastmen.

“Arrows! Pick up the bows and start shooting”. The Captain ordered.

Akino pushed the fear away and started running towards the weapon’s barrack. Unfortunately, aside from the archer's unit, the other soldiers would only keep their swords near, the few bows they had would only be used in specific and pre-arranged situations.

As usual, most of the other soldiers hesitated to follow the orders or even pretend to not have listened to them. Only Akino and a couple of soldiers charged into the barrack at the risk of standing out and being attacked.

The Fighters could use a shield right now. Unfortunately, it was heavy equipment, not suitable for their high mobility in battle, only specific units or strong Knights would use it in the war.

Soon, another scream was heard and a Fighter was dragged up between the slashing struggles of his group's comrades. Another one followed, being dragged from another group, however this time, a fellow Fighter successfully slash the enemy.

The Beastman screamed and ended up dropping the Fighter a few meters further. The saved soldier screamed in pain from the fall but managed to run to another group.

At this time, Akino and other soldiers exited the weapons barrack with drawn arrows. However, they still couldn't see the enemy. Akino saw that his comrades were also having problems and decide to ask for help.

“Captain! Anyone! It's too dark, we can't see them... We need fire!”.

The confusion and unwillingness spread through the Fighters, some even shout back insults to Akino, but fortunately, the Captain heard and started giving orders.

Another Fighter was picked and some attempts were made before they finally started a big fire, revealing the scary form of bat-like Beastmen circling in the sky.

Akino and the other bow-armed Fighters started shooting, not aiming too much and not sparing arrows. Akino tried to conduct magic energy to his eyes but couldn't get the vision-enhancing technic to work, he could only give up and moved to empower his shoots instead.

He wounded a Bat Beastman and killed another one before they started to retreat. Later he discovered that these Beastmen weren't very strong and would only keep attacking if they had the cover of the night.

Akino hoped that after his performance in tonight’s attack, they would improve his treatment. He didn't care about the bullying and eating cold food, but he could use timely healing and someone teaching him how to better use magic energy to fight.