Mathew lay down on the ground. Free from the burden of any comforts, he was down directly on the rubble that covered the school's courtyard.
Only his head was in a bit more comfortable position, resting on Leila's lap.
The girl's hand caressed his head, running up and down his hair and gently massaging his scalp.
They didn't exchange a single word for the longest ti, simply staring into the distance at how the sun slowly made its way across the arch of the sky.
'A bit of peace is what I need,' Mathew thought, lowering his eyelids as he felt slowly falling into a shallow slumber.
Right now a short nap was exactly what he needed. A way to detach himself from all the emotions and stakes of the recent events. A mont of respite from all the problems that continued to stack into infinity.
How do we get more cores? What's the move that minimized the risks but increases the possible gains? How should we proceed?
Being the de-facto leader of a huge faction of survivors, Mathew's mind continued to be plagued by questions like those.
And under the constant stress of pushing everyone to take the next step… Mathew finally grew tired.
Too exhausted to care. Be it about the other survivors, their future or even having fun with his wives.
He was too tired for any of those things to hold any aning. And on top of Leila's lap, Mathew found his escape.
The air gently brushed against his face. It caressed his skin while carrying his consciousness away, to the land of rest and rejuvenation.
Yet, as soon as Mathew got even close to falling asleep…
His body would jerk awake, forcing all the doziness and sleepiness aside.
The events of the past few days turned him into a monster of action, a man who couldn't rest easy unless it was necessary to keep on pushing forward.
And right now, Mathew's desired nap would make him stay in place. He wouldn't progress anything over the course of his nap. He wouldn't grow stronger or find any answers either.
No, resting right now would be treason to all those who risked their lives to keep this entire thing…
Going?
'Wait a second,' Mathew pulled his eyebrows together while still acting as if he was struggling to just fall asleep.
'Why do I even try so hard?' Mathew asked himself, stunned by the sudden discovery he made.
There was no reason for him to do everything all on his own!
Rather than that, didn't he gather all sorts of people to bolster the strength of the survivors? And if such was the case, why was he stuck on picking the group's focus so much?
'It's not like I'm the only one who can contribute, thus limiting our options to just a single focus,' Mathew realized, his eyes slowly opening up.
This ti, it wasn't his anxiety that forced him awake. This ti, it was his motivation to finally change sothing.
"Matty?" Leila asked in a soft voice, flicking a wild strand of her hair away before moving her hand over to caress Mathew's cheek. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I will manage," Mathew groaned, struggling to get back up from the girl's soft lap.
Contrary to how the situation appeared to head towards a more sexual scene before, Mathew ended up keeping the mont relatively peaceful.
'I guess she simply noticed I was bothered by sothing so she opted not to distract too much,' Mathew quickly realized when the girl didn't pursue intimacy.
"No, seriously," Leila continued, outright ignoring Mathew's unsatisfactory answer. "What's wrong?"
Mathew raised his eyes up to the girl's empty face. Save for so bits of affection, there was no single other emotion in her eyes.
Not even curiosity to back her question up.
"I'm thinking it's high ti for us to stop sheltering everyone," Mathew finally admitted. Or rather, he used fancy and nice words to communicate a pretty dire ssage.
"We did the heavy lifting so far, but it's ti to let others join in on the fun. Right now it doesn't matter if they are students or not. We don't have the luxury to just leave everything to our group of few."
Mathew turned silent after muttering his passage.
'I've created hunters in hopes that one day, they would take over keeping the fortresses safe,' Mathew thought as his eyes wandered over to the massive school compound.
"So, why do you feel so damn tense?" Leila then asked while leaning her head over to the side.
Mathew turned his eyes and stared at the girl for a second.
"I'm about to sentence quite a few people to their deaths," he pointed out.
"And?" Leila angled her head even further. "It's not like you are going to kill them. You will just give them missions and it will be up to them to fulfill those missions for you."
In theory, it was a valid strategy.
If they had no more magic cores left, Mathew could simply send his n to gather so instead of going to hunt them himself.
If there was a small horde forming in the vincity, Mathew wouldn't be forced to deploy his wives and most important allies if he had so soldiers he could throw at the zombies instead.
"It still feels like practically leading their execution," Mathew muttered as he turned his eyes away from the school and towards the deep, dark-blue sky. "Because they will need to gather so stones before I can even give them a system or two."
This was the crux of the problem. The reason why I didn't rush to create a private army on my own. And it all started with a lack of cores.
With absolutely no cores on hand, I couldn't purchase even the most rudintary system for my hunters. On the other hand, they all had to be ard with a system to even stand their ground against anything stronger than the weakest possible zombie.
Or, in other words, I had no other choice but to gather my friends and most important allies before going for one more raid, one last excursion before I could retire from the role of an explorer and pass the torch to soone who I would gift with a suitable system!
I took in a deep breath.
"It feels like you figured sothing out," Leila comnted from behind in a relaxed voice.
"Yeah, I did," I nodded my head forward even though the girl was behind my back. "And in short words, we are going to gather up and storm the castle!"
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