Not Again Lucius!

The Xun family and Liao Hua all introduced themselves, where as those from Riverside did the same. The key exciting points of the conversation where when the Xun duo of Xun You and Xun Yu discovered that Shang Yang was really the Shang Yang of Qin that they had imagined. They were also impressed when they discovered that Gan Ning was from the same place as them. Historically they would all have met at some point or another, however they were all from a slightly earlier period and hadn't crossed with each other yet. 

"Based on Xun Yu's statements, I believe that he would be a good candidate to replace me as the Mayor of Riverside." Lucius said, causing both Shang Yang and Subutai to shake their heads at him with a smile.

"Not again Lucius!" Dom replied. "You are the Mayor, I don't think we have a candidate to replace you yet."

"I'm pretty sure that Xun Yu will be a great candidate!" Lucius replied seriously.

"I am young and I also do not want to overstep my boundaries." Xun Yu added, "I'd happily work beside you to help grow Riverside into a Kingdom in the future however."

"I suppose that will have to do then." Lucius grumbled. "Lord Lazarus, don't forget your promise."

"I won't." Dom replied with a laugh. "Now, moving on I have a couple of changes I want to make with our new arrivals."

At this, everyone sat forwards. Except for Uriah and Abubakar that were both still standing. Meritamen was eating some fruit, where as Gan Ning had his feet up on a nearby foot cushion and seemed to be listening but relaxing at the same time. Tomyris was also eating some fruit and was watching through a glass of wine that had been provided for her.

"Xun Yan will take over the city defences from Uriah, and will directly become the Commander of the Forbidden Guard who are our primary defence." Dom started, "With this, Uriah will join Tomyris as her second in command on the Western Front."

"As you command my Lord." Uriah said with a bow. 

"The young scouts have been dispatched with some Spartans." Tomyris said, "There is a lot to cover with the mountains and the forest, as well as following the river to the west. I'm grateful to have Uriah join me."

"That's great to hear Tomyris." Dom replied, "And I promise I will take you with me on the next special quest."

"I'll hold you to it." She replied with a smile, before taking a sip of wine.

"Next, Liao Hua will work with Gan Ning in the south. This will allow for one force to travel to the south west whilst the other travels to the south east. Hopefully this will give us more strength towards our eight pronged exploration that we wanted." Dom continued.

"Great idea." Subutai said giving Dom a thumbs up. "We can dispatch some of the Thebans with them to increase the southern troop numbers."

"I'm more than happy for the support." Gan Ning replied, "I look forward to working alongside you Liao Hua."

"And you brother." Liao Hua replied, grateful to have been put with someone who knew his culture. He currently felt as a stranger in the group, a defeated general who had just arrived. He felt he was less exciting than the Xun family and wanted to prove himself.

"Xun You, I will appoint you as the War Advisor and Strategist. You will work alongside Subutai on our expansion plans as well as our overall strategies on upcoming Military excursions." Dom stated. 

"Thank you!" Xun You said, "I have already seen a minority of your forces and they are impressive, but I look forward to inspecting the rest and helping Commander Subutai strategies our attacks and defences."

"Glad to have you!" Subutai said happily. "We will head out to the East tomorrow where we plan to start our military campaign from. Abubakar has been setting things up and things are in a good place."

"I try my best." Abubakar replied, wanting to say more but stopped when he saw Meritamen shake her head at him.

"Xun Yu, I hope that you can join Shang Yang as a chief advisor for now until a specific role arrives." Dom continued. "Lucius is our Mayor and has final decision on things after me, Meritamen looks after our Diplomacy, where as Crassus who is not currently here looks after our Finances. I believe with your arrival you can help unify everything. Crassus has been dispatched to recruit mercenaries and experts to help grow Riverside."

"Of course." Xun Yu responded, "I also saw that you had some gaps within your administration, especially with your new arrivals. I'll happily take over that task in the meantime and help create."

"That would be great!" Lucius exclaimed. "We have set up a process, but have had to rely on the teachers to manage the administration. We are bringing in people to support, but we have had lots happening all at once."

"I am more than happy to get that process working. I also look forward to learning from Shang Yang." Xun Yu continued, "I look forward to seeing your Laws and seeing how we can implement them."

"I would be glad for your involvement." Shang Yang replied seriously.

"About the sleeping arrangements?" Lucius asked.

"No idea." Dom replied, "Does anyone have any thoughts?"

"What is the situation?" Xun Yu asked.

"Well, we don't have enough bedrooms in the Heroes Hall, and we only have a couple spare here." Dom replied, "We want to create an area for the Nobles and Heroes, but have been busy building up our defensive wall instead."

"I can get my Guards to help with construction and we can build something temporary for the night, I'm sure I can work with Lucius to have the Noble area built in no time."

"Great, well thank you everyone!" Dom said, "You are all dismissed to continue with your tasks, I hope to see you all in the Tavern this evening. I am sure you all want to go and see your families that have arrived and get settled in. Make sure to take some time for yourselves as it has been a long few days."

Everyone left the Living Area one by one, leaving Dom behind with Meritamen who hadn't left. She was lay on a chaise lounge and was eating some fruit as everyone departed. 

"How was it?" She asked him, sitting up slightly and resting her head on her hand. 

"It was interesting." Dom replied, "We first arrived on an empty road in the late evening, aware that we had to find the Xun Family, but not sure where they were. Chen Lu and his brother scouted and we soon heard the cries of battle and charged to the scene. We cleared the enemy away and met the Xun family. We ended up on a guard duty for the rest of the quest and were ambushed the following day. The Forbidden Guards were great, but more importantly the Sabre Tooth Tigers were a great addition."

"How were the others?" She asked him, sitting up and slowly eating some grapes from a platter.

"Shang Yang is a surprisingly capable warrior, he had his sword drawn and charged like the rest of us!" Dom started in an excited tone, "Subutai was as usual, a cool head and directing things from his saddle. Tomoe was also her usual self, at the front and decapitating enemies every where she went, she's terrifying on the battlefield."

"Did you get in to any fights yourself?" She asked, getting herself up from her seat and calmly walking over towards Dom who was sat down still.

"I did." Dom replied, looking up at her. "I fought in the front line in both battles, the first one wasn't a huge challenge as they were ill-equipped, we quickly made them retreat. We did discover that one of the Sabre Tooth Tiger's has a keen interest in taking enemy legs as a trophy. The second battle was more difficult, we ended up loosing a couple of the Xun Family Guards, and I ended up fighting against a talented warrior."

"Oh did you?" She asked, leaning over Dom, who didn't know where to look as her loose clothes showed of more than he was expecting to see. "How did that go?"

"I recruited him." Dom replied with a shrug as Meritamen sat down on his knee and wrapped her arm around his shoulder.

"Liao Hua?" Meritamen asked.

"Yes, he's a capable Warrior." Dom said kindly, feeling slightly uncomfortable as Meritamen pushed her body against his.

"To be honest." Meritamen started, resting her forehead against Dom's. "I don't like you risking yourself in these situations. You are a Lord and shouldn't be risking your life at the front."

"I understand." Dom replied, "But I have to lead from the front."

"Hmm." Meritamen replied, leaning in to kiss Dom, who had started to give in to this game characters persistence.

"Lord Lazarus!" Lucius shouted as he headed up the stairs, interrupting Meritamen. "You need to see this!" 

"Not again Lucius!" Meritamen shouted back as Lucius walked in and saw the situation. 

"Ah, erm, sorry!" Lucius said with wide open eyes, whilst a red flush went up Dom's cheeks who was sat in the chair.

"What's up Lucius?" Dom asked, calming himself down.

"Nothing important." Lucius said, looking away and beginning to head back down the stairs.

"No, what is it?" Dom said, as Meritamen got off Dom's lap as Dom stood up and walked towards Lucius.

"We have peaches!" Lucius said, showing a peach that he had been given from the peach tree. "I am going to plant the trees, but I wanted to share, they are the juiciest peaches I have ever eaten."

"Ha, I'll have to come try some then!" Dom said, patting Lucius on the shoulder as he new that Lucius was always excited when it came to anything in relation to farming. "Erm Meritamen, I'll be back later, I should probably go and inspect all of our rewards and level up the Town Centre."

"Fine." Meritamen grumbled, "I have things I need to do as well."

"Erm, sorry for interrupting." Lucius said to her, waving good bye with the half eaten peach in his hand as they headed down the stairs. 

"You could have had a tastier peach." Meritamen grumbled quietly as Dom headed down the stairs with Lucius.