Chapter 191: Meeting with the Living

I looked at my living generals, and my rarely triggered conscience can't help but create tumultuous waves in my heart, well, I mean, technically, the living city is all part of the time loop as all of the Sophia Demiurges in any version of the loop will, one way or another have a tragic past that make them have this obsession of seeing living people follow them around, for me it's the destruction of my supposed to be greatest creation, the failure of bringing change to my country and of course, my mother of that life proclaiming her disdain to my very existence.

Others may be murderers before and wanted to change in this life, others might be Sisters that runs an orphanage and wants the ones that will get their habitat conquered during the heroes to be her next children, and of course, if it's her children, that means she can't kill them... among many others, that's why every other Sophias, or the Sophias that reached the point of confronting the Dictator of Time, Eris, will have to sell off these people, as they are living and will be overshadowed by soldiers that doesn't fear losing their lives and are just honing their battle awareness for the sake of redundancy and for the sake of the human ocean tactic to be their last resort.

But still, knowing all of this doesn't mean it's any less unpleasant to give away your people even though you knew that it's for their best interest, for them to grow bigger and participate in wars that considers them as pillars of the fighting force and not some random weak entry point of an otherwise strong nation, bearing humiliation unlike how they imagined their martial life.

But still, I have to do this for the safety of my nation, the world, and ultimately, the universe.

"Congratulations on your successful invasion of Indio and Stardust, Lady Sophia."

Upon seeing me, the living, as if their feet were animated by minds of their own, stood up, temporarily chucking their grim expressions and bowed to me with all the courtesy they can muster to the information I have deliberately leaked through [Guide], as a way for them to follow the script the time loop has given to me on how to handle this situation, honestly, the main "plot points" of the time loop is mostly random except for its "characters", but even then, those characters can have different souls, like me, so this "plot point" is the first one to be artificially recreated by me.

Remember that not all Sophias have noticed the time loop as early as I, so, you know...

Anyway, I smiled at this gesture of professionalism and loyalty despite their uncertain future with me.

"Thank you. Please sit down. Do all of you seem ready for the meeting I was about to call?"

I smiled as I have to act like I don't know that [Guide] has already tipped off my plans to them, this question of mine caused the generals to shudder, their expression became a mix of fear and more grimness as a painful bout of silence permeated throughout the meeting room they are too suspicious, I bet if it's true that [Guide] wanted to keep his tipping off a secret, they would have been sacked already, there is also the fact that Sipnayan is in the room together with Wokung, Jin and Saru that doesn't help their case any better.

"Did [Guide] tell you about the content of this meeting?"

I squinted my eyes, causing another bout of shudders to emerge in the bodies of my living fighters. I seem to be quite enjoying this, though, of course, my conscience suppressed any kind of chuckle I might have normally let escape. My silence and stare did not help the tense nerves of the generals and the chief in front of me, so I continued to speak as I opened the 4th dimension to the office of the mayor of the living.

"That damn spider..."

I muttered as I grabbed the bird Agilus and pulled him out of his office, causing him to be rattled in shocked.

"M-my lady!? I was sleeping!"

Yeah, how could you sleep if we were in the verge of a second war in a span of 5 days? Well, I did not bother saying anything and then released the mayor, who perched himself into my head.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter anymore, but still, you should have at least brought the matter to your mayor, right?"

Agilus, who is about to doze off in my head again, suddenly perked up, realizing the severity of our voices, he asked: "Huh? What do they have to tell me? Did something happen?"

Agilus, despite having almost no screentime and has almost no supervision from me is a very capable economic leader, he was able to sell paper in both local and continental markets despite the growing tensions between nations during the three months timeskip as well as the cloths made out of the spider web silks and made the product so in demand that even those living in the low class communities in the two empires in Genesis as well as the noble lands of Gjallarhorn will buy it willingly and invest on it for their long term packaging needs as well as ceremonial ones, it's as expected of a derivative of [Guide], thus it's normal for him to be worried if his subordinates (though strictly speaking they are from two different government branches) was hiding something from him.

At this question, Wokung, who have been silent all this time was about to open his mouth, seemingly was able to muster up enough courage to speak up and answer my previous questions, however, I also have to coaxe them to calm their nerves down and stop enjoying other people's suffering so much, all this sadistic tendencies have to be reserved for the divinussy I will be receiving after I end the time loop (among others), so I am the one who explained the matter to Agilus.

"Well, you see, as you all have been noticing all this time, the undeads are becoming more mainstream as their way of living stabilized because they don't need food, clothing and toiletries to maintain as citizens, making them more cost effective to become civilians and soldiers, of course, as an inherently strategic person and someone who wanted fair growth for both my living and dead subordinates, I have decided to offer a deal to the Queendom of Urduja to buy the city of Bulawan, of course all of the scientific advancements and industrial equipments will always be ours and until they were not able to purchase the materials from us as well as the rights to reproduce them outside of the city, they will not be able to use them economically."

Again, for the third time, all of us in the meeting room fell silent and everyone could observe the slight tilting of the head of Agilus as several veins started to bulge from his beck up.

"WHAT ARE YOU, CRAZ- ARRGH!"

Agilus shouted as he pecked my head, however, that head can endure nuclear level shockwave, so it came with no surprise that the beck of Agilus was shattered upon impact and started bleeding, he started shouting and then rolled around on top of my head, I dumped him to a clinic using the 4th dimension, said "fractured beck" and then went back to business with the generals and the cook in front of me, they were still taken aback by the bizarre display of comic relief in the middle of my war briefing, making them more relived.

It's a good thing that I kept that bird as a mayor all this time.

Anyway, because of this charade, the nerves of my generals calmed down, allowing them be able to finally speak out their minds.

"My Lady... are you... Will you really sell us off? Is it because we're living?"

Wokung asked, his expression, even though already relaxed had a hint of sadness, this person is the one who made it a point to convince Agilus to not make me order them turn into undeads, which is something I wouldn't do because of my deep seethed family complex, thus he is the one who feels responsible for this debacle.

Sigh... heavy is the head of the one who wears the crown.

"No, of course not, why would I even keep all of you alive at that time if I would grow disappointed in you just because you are breathing? This is the fruit of my selfishness... as you all know, my mother has been negligent of me, abandoning me in this forest, and if not for the owner of this land, then I would be dead long ago... I wish to have a genuine family, people that will smile everytime I arrive in front of them, people that will cook me my foods and among others that I never get to experience during my short childhood... however, it's also my wish for living people to do these things for me, that's why even though I have the unique skill [Necromancer] I have sidelined it to the point that all the times I used it can count by my 10 fingers..."

"There is also the fact that I am strategically sound enough to know that you will be outpaced eventually, yet I stubbornly made all of you stay by my side, but don't worry, I have a proposal for you and Urduja for the trade to be fair."

I paused for a moment and then put my index finger up.

"First, all of the soldiers of this city is well trained, they are so well trained in fact that they can go to war against the whole of Urduja, barring her children right about now and have a draw, both sides suffering heavy losses, but for a rookie military this is such an unprecedented feat. Thus, I will make it a point that the buyout will only happen when Urduja agrees that Kamatayan obtains all of Apolaki's land and it's territorial waters, also, spies from my side will be set up in Bulawan to know of any mistreatment, upon knowing any kind of discrimination, I will personally raze the whole of Gjallarhorn down to its single atom... well, I'm sure that, that will not happen, but still, I have to make this matter a point so that I, or you can have the rights to do anything you want to any human that even tried to look at you funny. Of course, it's normal that Urduja will also use her means in an off chance that you exploited the liberties given to you."

I smiled at this, pausing to let my soldiers absorb the information, and as they did, Sipnayan frowned.

"But... would the god of the sun and his hero agree with this proposition? Apolaki is formerly the territory of Gjallarhorn. I know you are emphasizing our worth with this one, but I think you will risk a second war right before your door the moment you say these conditions, My Lady."

After hearing this, I chuckled a little and then replied.

"Don't worry about that... and you know, I think that the god of the sun and Urduja will be giving this piece of land to me whether I like it or not..."

I smiled mysteriously, and such a smile is a symbol of reassurance to my people, causing these generals to ease up, however, they still have some questions.

"But... how will this be fair for us?"

Indeed, such is the question; after all, the first clause will be fair only to me and Urduja, so I replied, whilst also using my illusion.

"As I implied, there will be an attempt for the invasion of Apolaki by Gjallarhorn, Kamatayan and Mayari, this is for me to get the land of Apolaki and be able to surround Mayari and force them to submit "peacefully" to Gjallarhorn, making Genesis only have two rulers if I successfully conquered Valentine, even if I didn't, there will be a two in one situation with two on two in terms of ancient calamity counts... anyway, in this invasion, I want the whole living army to be my delegate and represent the might of Kamatayan."

"In this war, I will give you freedom, any one of you generals and the normal soldiers who will die will become my undeads, and the remaining who are breathing will be the ones that will accompany the city in turning over their ownership, is that a fair deal?"

I smiled at the unsuspecting generals who never noticed the illusions I had put them into, making them agree after "much contemplation".

This will also make them abandon any notion of committing suicide or soliciting suicidal attempts from the normal soldiers. This is not part of the time loop, but rather just a selfish wish of mine, I want all of them to remain breathing and live their lives normally, not becoming undeads.

_Man, that's so stupid of me, but whatever._

I decided to also make this matter known to the public with illusion ordering them to not disagree or not be afraid, I already did it, so I might as well go all in.

After I finished all of this painful stuff, Sipnayan suddenly knocked at my city office, and as she entered, she said.

"My lady, I bear with me is a gift."