deia slamd the car door as she got out of the damn jeep. She had driven around in circles more than seven tis, but her driving skills were still as bad as a five-year-old’s.
"How’s your driving lesson going?" Harry greeted her with a smile as he approached. He had co to remind her of the eting, but the sight of her frustration was too entertaining to ignore.
deia grunted. "What do you think?"
"Bad, isn’t it?"
deia didn’t answer the question, but Lucian, walking a few steps behind her, leaned over to Harry and whispered, "She’s a terrible driver."
"Lucian, I can hear you," deia said sharply before turning to Harry. "Have the people gathered yet?"
Harry nodded. "Most are already in the building. Just waiting for you two to get started."
The first floor of the base was still under construction, but there were a few rooms that could be used as a temporary eting hall.
deia nodded in acknowledgent, brushing her hair back as she walked toward the eting hall. She waved as she saw Richard and his n building the greenhouse at a fast pace.
She hadn’t invited Richard to the eting because he wasn’t part of the Alliance. Besides, he didn’t seem to care much about the Red Star Alliance’s internal matters.
"Lucian, catch!" deia threw him a Loyalty Amulet as Harry passed them. "I’ll use this as a token of our alliance. "What do you think?"
Lucian lowered his head just in ti to catch the amulet with one hand. His fingers brushed the cool tal. "When did you make this? Oh, is this from your mysterious source again?"
deia gave him a smile as she responded. She could tell that Lucian was growing curious about her mysterious source, but he wisely held back, refraining from asking any further questions.
How could soone not be curious about such a strange thing?
He was weird, a kind of weird that deia loved.
"Hey, they are coming." deia could hear the people chatter from afar.
When she entered the eting hall, people imdiately turned their head toward her, making deia a bit uncomfortable.
"Stop staring at like that," said deia.
Maybe it wasn’t the staring that made her uncomfortable, but because she could sense that they were holding back a lot of questions in their heads.
That was because they hadn’t had a chance to talk to her for so long.
"Miss deia, is it true that you’re our leader now?"
"How about Chief Eldric? Is it an that he is no longer our chief now?"
"Are the doctors really our hostages?" Soone asked, "Warstock really doesn’t exist anymore?"
"The base is more crowded now, should we rearrange our schedule and workload?"
"Winter is approaching, should we start gathering food and winter clothing?"
"deia, is it true that you and Lucian are a couple now?"
deia’s head almost exploded after hearing so many questions in less than a minute.
And why the hell were they questioning her relationship with Lucian as well?
"Stop." deia raised her hands and pleaded, "Please, stop banging with so many questions at once!"
deia stood before them, her hands raised in a gesture of peace, trying to calm the crowd.
The room fell silent as they waited for her to answer their questions one by one. She could feel their curiosity, their eagerness to know what the future held for the Red Star Alliance.
That was why deia hadn’t wanted to take on the role of leader.
When she was Queen of Hell, she could easily silence her minions if they began to question her rule. But in this world, the system would punish her if she used the dictatorship to rule them.
What a pain in the ass.
She sighed deeply and looked over at Lucian, who was leaning against the wall with a smile on his face. He obviously enjoyed the role of vice leader so much.
However, he had asked her before if she wanted any help, but deia had refused.
She would be ashad of herself if she couldn’t handle a bunch of humans in the eting room.
"All right, one question at a ti," deia said, taking a deep breath. "First of all, yes, I am the leader now. If you’re wondering why I didn’t consult all of you first, it’s because the situation was urgent at the ti."
"We needed to appoint a leader to convince Coalhaven to work with us. Why ? Well, maybe because I’m the one who brought you all here in the first place," deia continued. "So, yes, I’m sorry, Chief Eldric, but you’re no longer the village chief."
Instead of feeling disappointed, Eldric raised his hands in excitent. "Finally! This old man is really tired of organizing all you people!"
She paused, waiting for the murmur to die down before continuing.
"As for the doctors, no, they are not our hostages. I was only joking when I said that." She clarified, "They were brought here to help us, to monitor our health and take care of the dicinal herbs."
"As for Warstock ... yes, it no longer exists." She thought for a while before saying, "The reason they no longer exist? Well, let’s just say they’re in hell now."
"You really killed them all?" asked Morty in disbelief.
deia narrowed her eyes as the person who always caused trouble at the etings began to speak. "We’re in the middle of an apocalypse, Morty. The choice is simple: kill or be killed."
"And you know what? I’m thinking of training you all in combat skills," deia said. "I don’t care if your abilities are useful in combat or not, because combat skills are based purely on your physical strength."
If the system hadn’t given deia this mission, she might not have bothered to train them at all.
The hunters were already good at fighting because they often went to dangerous places like the Yellow Zone forest, but the rest of the villagers had always hidden in the village in the past.
There were also many won who had been locked in the cellar for years. After being deprived of sunlight for so long, their physiques must have weakened, and it took ti for them to regain their strength.
The elders ... Well, perhaps deia could ban them from the training ground. So of them even had trouble walking, let alone fighting.
[deia] No, Host. You should train the elders as well. Even if you can’t train their fighting skills, you can at least teach them how to use deadly weapons."]
deia groaned in her heart.
Why? Why did she have to suffer like this just to get a husband in this world?
But was it worth it? Yes, absolutely.
Her husband---no, boyfriend---was so perfect that deia would do anything to marry him.
deia let out a frustrated sigh but quickly pushed the thought aside.
If she wanted to be with Lucian and have a decent life, she would have made sacrifices, even if it ant dealing with all this training nonsense.
"Alright, starting next week, everyone is getting combat training," she declared. "That includes the elders too, whether you like it or not."
Dr. Rory raised his hand. "But not all of us are suited for combat, right? Can I just stay in the dical bay? I’m more useful there. Besides, this would give the chance to get to know the new doctors. We haven’t had a proper introduction since you ntioned they were hostages."
deia narrowed her eyes at him, noticing the subtle attempt to avoid the training.
Sister Jeanne had even helped them clean the dical bay yesterday, despite deia not having clarified the new doctors’ status yet.
"Let’s make it clear here." deia said firmly, "I’m not asking you to beco warriors. Just basic self-defense skills. Even if you can’t fight, you’ll learn how to handle a weapon."
"If this base becos more developed in the future, we’ll attract more threats from external parties, like bandits or other alliances. That’s why, if you can’t protect yourself, you won’t survive."
The room was silent, everyone processing the reality of her statent. However, they still felt hesitant to train their combat skills because so of them had never fought before.
"Your survival depends on your ability to protect yourselves and the base. We can’t afford to be weak." Lucian finally gave them a speech as he realized his girlfriend looked so stressed. "The world outside is dangerous, and if we want to thrive, we need to be ready for whatever cos our way."
Lucian continued, "Right now, maybe the hunters and I can protect you. But what if ... I repeat, what if there cos a ti when we’re not here, and the base is under attack? What will you do then? Just sit back and pray to whoever’s up there?"
"You’re right, we can’t depend on others to survive forever." Eldric spoke, "We experienced sothing similar when the spiders attacked our village. When the strong hunters left us alone, we were helpless."
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