"It's been a while, Lord. I heard you called for ."
"Hmm."
Justin looked over the man standing before him from head to toe as he greeted him.
It was Logan, Nathan's older brother. He had beco a pioneer after participating in the monster wave defense and was now one of the few pioneers who had successfully started a family.
'Now that I think about it, I should have thought of this guy first when the topic of pregnancy and childbirth ca up,' Justin thought. After all, Logan's decision to beco a pioneer, abandoning his previous stance as an egalitarian, was for the sake of his future family. But because Logan was a relatively minor figure, a low-level pioneer at that, Justin had montarily forgotten about him.
Given that Logan had little reason to et with Justin unless it involved Nathan, it was understandable that they rarely crossed paths.
"I'm sorry, but can you tell what this is about? No one explained anything to on the way here...." Logan's face showed uncertainty, as if he didn't fully grasp why he had been summoned. Along with that uncertainty, Justin noticed a faint trace of fear in Logan's eyes—sothing that hadn't been there before.
Noticing this, Justin couldn't help but smirk.
'When he was just a regular citizen, he stood in front of without any fear. But now that he's a pioneer and understands levels and skills, he's finally starting to realize the gravity of the situation,' Justin thought to himself. Or maybe, Justin considered, it was simply that Logan now had sothing to protect—sothing that made him more cautious than before.
In either case, it worked in Justin's favor. Whether it was fear or a sense of responsibility, this shift in Logan's behavior would make it easier to get answers from him now, compared to when he had been so needlessly confident.
Seeing Logan's increasing tension in response to his smirk, Justin spoke up.
"It's nothing serious, so don't be so nervous. I called you here because I have a few questions."
"Questions...?" Logan asked.
"Yeah. I heard your wife is pregnant?"
"...!"
Logan's face imdiately went pale. He seed to misunderstand the intention behind Justin's question.
Justin clicked his tongue and quickly continued, "I'm not threatening you or anything, so don't jump to conclusions. I'm just asking because we've been running into issues with childbirth lately, and I wanted to see if you've made any arrangents that we could learn from."
"Oh, I see..." Logan finally exhaled, visibly relieved now that he understood the situation. But that relief was short-lived as Logan's expression darkened again.
He hesitated for a mont before speaking in a low voice, "Actually, I don't have many options. The only thing I can rely on is natural childbirth. I've stocked up on potions and made sure there's soone with healing skills present, but that's about all I can do."
"What about an obstetrician? Did you find anyone among the citizens who used to work in that field?" Justin asked.
"I've been asking around with my wife's and my family for over a month, but unfortunately, no luck. We couldn't find anyone who worked in obstetrics."
"Wait, hold on. What do you an by 'other fields'? What fields did you find?" Justin sat up straight, suddenly interested.
Until now, healing skills had made the presence of doctors feel unnecessary, but with the ergence of unexpected problems like childbirth, it wouldn't hurt to know if there were any dical professionals in their ranks.
"Well, we did find a dentist and a plastic surgeon..."
"For God's sake!" Justin exploded in frustration. "Those two aren't going to help us at all!"
Both fields, useful as they were, required modern equipnt—sothing they didn't have in this world. There was no way they could be put to use here.
Startled by Justin's outburst, Logan stamred, "S-sorry... Those were the only ones we found. There were no other doctors."
"Ugh. I was foolish to even hope," Justin muttered, clicking his tongue in disappointnt.
Ethan, who had been listening in, spoke up with a bitter smile. "There's nothing we can do about that. The population's too small to expect every specialty to be covered. The more people we bring in, the better our chances of getting soone with the expertise we need."
He was right. Doctors were already a rare part of the population, and in this small territory, the chances of finding exactly the right kind of specialist were slim.
Justin sighed, laying back again. "Looks like we can't rely on Earth for this. We'll have to solve this problem through the system from now on."
"Isn't it a bit early to give up?" Rachel chid in. "We just had the second migration, and a lot of new people ca in. With a population of 30,000, I'm sure there's at least one obstetrician among them. Since we're going to reintegrate all the territories anyway, we could check while doing that. And if that doesn't work, we could request help from one of the other large territories."
"Request help?" Justin asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. From the other leaders we've t in the territories. Now that we've got the portals set up at the midway points, your brother could take Fafnir and visit them quickly."
"That's it!" Justin slapped his knee, his face lighting up. One of the problems that had been weighing on him felt like it had just been solved.
Surprised by Justin's sudden enthusiasm, Rachel flinched. "B-but we might not find anyone, so don't get your hopes up too much."
"That's not the part I'm excited about. It'd be great if we found an obstetrician, sure, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is we now have a reason."
"A reason? What do you an?" Rachel asked, tilting her head in confusion.
Grinning, Justin replied, "We now have a perfect excuse to search through all the other territories openly."
Inside the round table, a sharp voice cut through the air, filled with anger.
"What exactly are you doing!?"
The voice ca from Adrian, Damian's right-hand man, who was in charge of internal affairs for their territory. His face was flushed red with fury, veins bulging on his neck as he glared at Grayson.
Normally, Adrian was known for being cold and calculating, to the point where people often referred to him as a "cold-blooded" figure. But even he couldn't hide his anger today.
"Instead of doing things that benefit the alliance, why are you doing things that hurt us!?"
"Who said I'm harming the territory? Everything I do is for the territory," Grayson retorted, feigning nonchalance.
"Lies!"
Adrian's shout echoed in the room, but Grayson kept his composure, pretending not to care. His face showed calm confidence, but inside, cold sweat was trickling down his back. He couldn't afford to back down. If he did, Adrian would surely use any excuse to have him expelled from the round table.
'...That can't happen. I have to hold onto so semblance of power until Justin arrives. Even if it's a small amount, I need to maintain so influence if I want any chance to make a move.'
If Grayson lost even the smallest piece of leverage now, he would be stuck working hard for nothing, with little reward in return. Swallowing his nerves, he launched into the defense he had prepared.
"Think about it. At the very least, we need to know sothing about our enemy, right? Imagine if we knew nothing, and suddenly our enemy swooped in riding a dragon. Wouldn't that cause complete chaos?"
"So you're saying that's why you've been telling the citizens how terrifying and strong the enemy is?"
Adrian scoffed at Grayson's explanation. If Grayson had been warning the pioneers, that might have made sense. But why scare the civilians by constantly talking about how strong their enemies were? It only served to heighten fear and panic. There was no benefit in that.
But Grayson wasn't about to back down and stubbornly nodded his head.
"There's a reason for everything. The pioneers are used to fighting because they're always on the front lines, but the civilians? They've never been in a proper fight. So who do you think is going to cause the most trouble when things go south? It'll obviously be the civilians!"
"So you're saying you told them how dangerous the enemy is to help them 'prepare ntally'?"
"Exactly!"
"This is ridiculous...!"
Adrian was trembling with frustration. Grayson's twisted logic was infuriating, and his calm deanor only made things worse. Adrian looked like he might just fire off a spell at any mont—it was an intense, tense mont.
But just as things were about to escalate, the other mbers of the alliance stepped in to calm things down.
"Let's leave it at that. Pushing too hard isn't good for anyone."
"Yeah, he's a mber of the alliance. He must have had his reasons for what he did."
"Exactly. If he had sothing to hide, wouldn't he have kept quiet?"
Grinding his teeth, Adrian held back his anger. As expected, several of the forr leaders, who had once held positions of power, were now defending Grayson. People who hadn't even been particularly close to Grayson before were suddenly speaking up for him. It was obvious what they were thinking.
'They're just trying to stir up more confusion in the territory so they can grab power for themselves.'
These were the sa people who had been groveling and scraping by during the monster wave, desperate to survive. Now that things had settled down, they were already plotting to beco leaders again, waiting for the right mont to betray the alliance.
'These filthy traitors!'
Adrian barely managed to swallow the curses that were on the tip of his tongue. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't start a fight with the others. He had a rare opportunity to get rid of Grayson and he couldn't afford to waste it.
Even though the other leaders were defending him, Grayson had clearly made a mistake, and Adrian intended to push this as far as it would go. He needed to bring it to the breaking point.
Just as Adrian was about to press further, another voice interrupted.
"That's enough."
"Hyung!" Adrian turned in surprise.
It was Damian, the head of the alliance. If there was anyone Adrian couldn't afford to have against him, it was Damian.
Why was he stepping in now?
Ignoring the bewildernt on Adrian's face, Damian addressed Grayson calmly.
"Your intentions may have been good, but your actions have certainly caused unrest among the civilians. Please be more cautious moving forward, Grayson."
"I keep telling you, it was for their own good...." Grayson grumbled but nodded in reluctant agreent.
Seeing that the issue was about to be pushed aside, Adrian tried to speak again, but Damian was quick to shut him down.
"Let's move on to the next topic. What's the status of the recently arrived immigrants?"
"Three territories have already been integrated. The rest just need to relocate their people to our territory," Adrian answered through gritted teeth. There was no point in dragging out the issue any longer if Damian was determined to sweep it under the rug.
But as soon as they moved on, another objection ca from across the table.
"About that... I'm afraid it might be a bit difficult."
"What do you an?" Adrian asked, narrowing his eyes.
"The immigrants seem too anxious about the sudden relocation. I think it would be best to keep them calm by making sure they don't encounter any monsters for a while. Luckily, I've managed to soothe them sowhat, but they still need more ti."
Adrian's hand twitched with barely contained rage. It was all too clear what the other man was trying to do. He was using every excuse to delay the integration of the territory, all so he could fortify his own power base in the anti. That particular territory had been his stronghold when he had been a leader, and it was obvious he wanted to secure it again.
What made it worse was how the other mbers responded to his excuse.
"Well, if that's the case, we can't rush it."
"Yeah, they've had a tough ti on Earth. They need ti to adjust."
"This reminds , I should visit the territory I used to manage. It's been a while."
The forr leaders were practically drooling over the prospect of rebuilding their old territories and restoring their power.
Adrian's patience had reached its limit. He opened his mouth, ready to shout in frustration.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
"...What?"
Adrian was stunned into silence by Damian's next words.
"Since you're the ones who managed those territories before, you're best suited to oversee their reintegration. I trust you to take care of it."
The room went silent as the other forr leaders exchanged shocked glances.
It was an incredibly generous offer, practically giving them free rein to rebuild their power. Even the ones who had been most eager to seize control seed uneasy now, unsure why Damian would suggest sothing so advantageous for them.
"Is that... really alright?" one of the forr leaders asked cautiously.
"Of course. After all, you know those territories better than anyone else."
"Hmm. Alright, then."
The forr leaders hesitated, but in the end, they couldn't resist the opportunity. Damian's offer was too good to refuse.
It was suspicious, but the reward was just too tempting to pass up.
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