34 Moving Slow and Steady

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John had readily answered all questions he had been asked. The torture was quite thorough and the man himself was not that strong willed himself. While there was a certain probability that he was just a passerby who had gotten a tad bit too curious, Add could not place his bets on that option alone. While Leningrad itself was not something he wanted to hide, the industries which had been slowly building within it, most definitely was to be kept as far away from prying eyes as possible. The iron and cement factories and the many other workshops which sported technology never before seen nor heard of, were kept closely guarded secrets, their workers monitored by agents and informants of the KGB and the State Police stopped anyone trying to sneak inside. Even majority of the populace was yet unaware of what went on behind the five metre high walls of the Industrial district.

While the trade of metals and minerals had drastically increased, only a small portion of the total produce was set for trading. Most of the metals being produced in the factories were being stockpiled for future use in warehouses and underground storages. If wind got out that the Weismann territory had such 'magical' means and produced such large amounts of material, it was guaranteed to bring serious trouble at his doorstep. For this reason he was very strict with the security of the city as a whole and for that if he had to resort to cruel and inhumane methods, so be it. He had already used them plentiful in the army before and remorse and guilt were not emotions he was worthy of having anymore.

As a result of this mindset, till now the secrets of 'technology' had not been spread to many. The people who knew of it were mostly government employees and a relatively small portion of civilians who were involved with the production processes. In this age, where there were no cameras, internet or social media, truth easily became rumour and rumours were seldom taken seriously. While some drunk official may speak of miraculous machines, chances were that few if any of the listeners would even understand what he was saying. Still, Add knew that sooner or later things would be revealed, nothing could stay hidden forever but he would try to delay that as long as possible. All that the republic needed now was time, knowledge and science were his greatest tools, and he believed that given enough time there was no challenge that could not be overcome.

His decision this time was correct ass John was indeed a spy, while not quite a professional. He revealed that he was just a mercenary, hired to gather information about the Weismann territory. The economic growth of the territory in the recent years, had caused many people to pay attention to this previously neglected frontier of the kingdom. As the rich resources of the previously untouched hills and forests kept slowly, but steadily flowing into the wider kingdom through trade, the first to benefit from this were among the nobles in the surrounding territories. One of them was Hubert Denholm, current head of the Denholm noble house who had the hereditary title of a Count.

Add had some recollection of this name, the territory of this noble house was located on the southern edges of the great dividing ranges and bordered the SRR, but those borders themselves were a few hundred kilometres south east from Rigel. The Denholm county was among a group of territories which were large producers of food crops, thanks to vast stretches of fertile plains inundated by many rivers flowing from the great dividing ranges. Thanks to this natural boon, an appreciable number of noble houses had flourished, becoming richer and more powerful over the centuries. Add had visited a city in the Denholm county once before for some business, and at first glance he knew that the county was quite developed, when compared to his territory.

Though it was also a frontier territory of the Kingdom and its size was only around a fourth of the SRR, the county was well developed for a feudal era with a population reaching over twenty million. Aside for this general idea however, Add did not have any detailed information about the Denholm family itself, gathering information on other nobles had not been among his primary concerns. But now that one of them was actively sending spies into his state, things had become troublesome. There was little doubt that John was not the only spy sent, nor would count Denholm be the only people interested in this matter. However, for now it seemed that their inclining towards the SRR was of the inquisitive sort, as they sent just a rank 1 warrior who was not so specialised in the ways of spying.

*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*

After the interrogation was over, John was thrown into a prison cell, after some rudimentary treatments to make sure he doesn't die. Add and his two followers were currently in the office of the Warden, its original occupant was currently sent to make rounds of the prison. The young Marshal had a solemn look on his face as he deliberated about his future course of action. The room was silent, except for the sound of his finger tapping on the desk. Sylvia was gazing at the roof seemingly bored, while David silently stood before Add, waiting for instructions.

'For now, I will have to increase the frequency of patrols, especially around the industrial district. We also need to send a few agents into the Denholm county to conduct our own intelligence operations.'

The details would be left to the KGB to deal with, and David's workload had increased once again. This matter although not urgent, was definitely not to be neglected.

"David, arrange for a team to depart to the Denholm county immediately, I need every information which they can get. And another team to sweep through Leningrad and Rigel, its highly likely that there will be more rats lurking around. Find all of them."

"Understood sir, I will arrange it immediately."

"Alright, you may leave…"

David saluted and left, followed by Add and Sylvia who returned back to the Secretariat Building.

As the pair was entering the building, Add signalled to one of the guards who quickly came to him.

"Welcome back Lord Marshall!" The man saluted. Although his official Title was only Marshall, his subordinates had grown a habit of calling him Lord Marshall, to which he did not pay any attention.

"Hmm. You go and find Miss Corra and tell her to come to my office."

"At once sir!"

The man scurried off to do the task he had been assigned. Back in his office, Add once again returned to reading the various reports. While Sylvia looked up at the roof seemingly bored, the Lord Marshall was busy ruminating over the various matters of his territory. A staff member arrived shortly, bringing with him tea and cakes and served them to Add and Sylvia. There were no maids in the official buildings, and special staff were there to take on such roles.

"What are these ?"

The Arachne asked, sniffing the hot tea and looking at the slices of cakes. Add looked at her and kept the papers away. Picking up the tea cup, he gently blew on the surface and gracefully took a sip, a rare silver of satisfaction appearing on his face for the briefest of moments.

"It is called tea, a type of drink made by boiling leaves of some plants in water. And those are cakes, a type of food made from wheat. Try them I am sure you will like them, but be careful though, the tea is quite hot…"

Add had grown a habit of drinking tea at least twice a day. While he was no English tea connoisseur, it was one of the few things he enjoyed even before coming to this world. Sylvia looked at the tea cup in front of her and then at Add who was leisurely drinking his tea and munching on the cakes. She slowly copied his actions, but it being her first ever experience, nearly burned her tongue when she sipped the tea too fast. However, that wasn't even superficial damage, even in this form, she was after all a King class Arachne and such trifle was nothing to her. She quickly grew accustomed to drinking the tea and eating the cake, even asking for seconds to the staff member, it seemed the queen of spiders was enjoying her first taste of human food. Add looked at her and thought that it was rather funny.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

A sudden knocking at his door broke him away from his thoughts.

"Come in"

"Sir, you called me ?"

The one entering the office was a woman with a neat and proper appearance. She was dressed a white shirt and a black long skirt, in her hands she had some papers and a pen. With short brown hair, she had a pleasant appearance over all.

"Yes Clara, thanks for coming here at such short notice. I know you are quite busy."

He then signalled the staff member to leave the room. Clara shook her head and smiled. She was currently acting as the chief logistics officer of Leningrad, overseeing the various departments and ensuring that everything and everyone was working as per order.

"That's my job sir. Anyway, what did you need me for ?"

"I wanted to introduce you to someone," he said pointing at Sylvia who was also looking at Clara, "she is Sylvia, I met her during my trip to the forest and from today onwards, she will be working alongside us. Sylvia, this is Clara, you will be seeing her around a lot, so I hope you get along with her."

Clara looked at Sylvia and gasped. She had noticed her when she had entered, but hadn't looked closely, since she was talking to Add.

'Oh my? What a beautiful girl!' those were her first thoughts.

Although she herself was quite good looking, but Sylvia was on another level. She had a cold look on her face, yet it only served to highlight her appearance even more.

'Sigh the world is so unfair…Wait, pointed ears? Is she an Elf? But elves don't have white hair… maybe she is an albino? Where did he find her I wonder? No, better not ask to many questions now…'

Shaking her inner thoughts she smiled lightly, "Nice to meet you miss Sylvia, I hope we get along."

"Likewise."

Sylvia gave a simple answer in return and went back to enjoying her cakes. She didn't seem very sociable to Clara.

"Now then," Add continued, "Clara, take her with you and have her take the basic education course in the Learning capsule. Also make sure she is well versed in the basics regarding human culture and ways."

"Understood Sir."

Sylvia looked at him with a questioning gaze to which Add replied, "Follow her, she will help you learn about the various rules and ways of the humans. Once you have learned all that, I will assign you a job."

'To learn about humans….indeed this queen has little knowledge about them…'

Thinking such, Sylvia agreed and left with Clara but not before finishing her tea and cakes, which gave the impression that she had really liked those. Once they were gone Add sighed, managing a territory was too much work. While he had a lot of officials and clerks now many major decisions still needed his consideration and approval. He left his seat and went to the window, as his office was on the third floor of the building. he could see the entire central square from it. The place was quite empty currently, but if everything went to plan, soon it won't be as such.

'Once Sylvia is done with her learning, I will have a strong ally and the safety of the city should be assured.'

A King class Magic beast like Sylvia was a great force multiplier. Even in her human form, she was equal to a tier 8 warrior in terms of raw strength, and while she did not have any martial techniques, those could also be learned from the Learning chambers. With her around he could rest easy in case they came under attack from some surrounding noble houses. It had to be noted that in the entirety of Reinglief, tier 8 warriors were not very rare but they weren't common either, so it was unlikely that such a force would be sent against him anytime soon, but it was not impossible as well. Since the nobles were starting to show interest in his territory, that time may arrive soon

'I can only deal with it when the time comes. For now, I need to build up my forces as much as possible…'

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After a while, he left the office accompanied by a few officials and clerks and made his way towards one of the few completed residential districts. They used a horse carriage as most people in this area were common people who still hadn't been told about the miracles of science and technology. The knowledge about technology was heavily guarded and KGB agents kept watch making sure that anyone didn't spread information that they were not supposed to.

"How is the work with the orphanages progressing ?"

He asked an official from the Ministry of Child Protection and Development, a organization dealing with various issues related to children. Chief among them was the State Orphanage Department which oversaw the construction, operation and maintenance of the state run orphanages. There were a lot of orphans in his territory, some were abandoned children whose parents had to leave them due to extreme poverty, many also lost their parents to monster attacks, attacks from bandits, diseases etc. Such children often ended up as destitute beggars, being exploited and many died.

After Add took over, he immediately instructed the creation of government funded orphanages, to take care of such children. While they weren't any havens of plenty, the children had roofs over their heads and sufficient food to survive. While it was an additional expense on the treasury which always stayed dangerously close to the red line, it was something Add wouldn't give up. He was an orphan as well, and he knew the suffering that came with that title. The children in the orphanages received general education from government schools free of charge and once they had reached 16 years of age (which was considered being an adult in this world's culture) they were given a temporary place to stay, a monthly stipend for two years and support to find jobs. This was the best Add could do with his current resources.

"We have already completed construction of three orphanages in the city, while seven more are ongoing and should be completed by the end of this year. The orphan children from Rigel were all transferred to the completed ones and more are waiting for the others to be completed…"

The official replied somewhat tensed. He was worried that the Marshal might be dissatisfied with the progress. Add had ordered it to be done as fast as possible, and cutting no corners at that. However, those worries were for naught as Add was content with the speed of the work. While they discussed further details, the carriage finally reached one of the micro districts which had only recently been completed. People had just began moving into the area and gradually the empty buildings were coming to life. He had come here to inspect the construction and see if there were any problems.

'They did a good job…'

Add noted as he looked outside the carriage. The layout of each micro district was compact and concise. Once inside, the wide roads of thee city proper were replaced by narrow one way roads, which were just wide enough for a single carriage to pass with some gap on both sides. On each side of the streets, wide pedestrian walkways were present, and there were also trees planted in the middle of them, providing shade and a relaxing feeling to travellers.

The streets were lined with buildings, which were mostly 2-3 storeys tall, with some single storey ones as well. The ground floors were mostly comprised of shops, cafes, restaurants etc. The other floors could be used as offices, as residential apartments and much more. While most were currently unoccupied, they were slowly filling up as the slightly well off from Rigel migrated to Leningrad in hopes of a better future. This was facilitated through low interest government loans which helped the people buy their property. Of course all of was originally owned by Add. But he chose to sell off some land to earn money and also boost the economy.

And it was working out. He could already see some shops open and selling various items, he also saw a restaurant and while by modern standards it would be little more than a roadside stall, for the current populace it was a great place as many people could be seen eating inside. Nearby, a bakery was operating in full swing and one could smell the faint scent of bread in the air. Children were running around, and the police made rounds ensuring no one was making trouble.

"So long so good…" the Marshall whispered as he continued on with his inspection.

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