A village. A country was basically a giant company, an organization. It was what Jian had told him once during their lunch break.

“You see, Xuan,” he spoke while stuffing his mouth with food, “this is basically a mini country.” He pointed at the floor below and the company at large. “You and I are not only its employees, but citizens of this micronation.”

“Yeah, first eat, then speak, buddy.”

He smirked and gulped down the mouthful before chugging down a glass of mango shake.

“Ah, now where were we?”

“Company, micronation,” he reminded.

“Yeah, right. So, this company is basically a little country. You and I are its citizens. You can view me as a local mayor of this small country. The security and guardsmen are its defense force and stuff.”

“And the CEO, your uncle, is the king.”

“Absolutely!” he continued. “And the board of advisors and paper pushers below him would be his little ministry.”

He'd then proceeded to list five of the multitudes of ministries that made up a nation. When he'd asked why only five, he'd said the following with much confidence.

“The ministry of finance, defense, justice, internal affairs, and foreign affairs are sufficient to run an efficient country, or a company for that matter.” He'd leaned back on his chair with a bored annoyance mixed with a hint of frustration. “Though, for a company, these straightforward names can turn pretty vague.”

He was going off of these. But since this village was already part of a country, he'd have to turn those titles a little more tame. Otherwise, the country might suspect them of treason and launch a reclamation campaign.

“So, we have these seats to fill. Give your opinions as to who'd be suitable.”

Both Akupara and Slynera took on a thoughtful look.

“I'd be naming the position, and you guys could go ahead and recommend the one person from your respective races for the position.” He thought through which role to mention first. Above all else, though, the thing most essential for a village to run was money. “So, the first role to be elected for would be the chief of finance.”

Currently, Slynera herself with her assistant manages most budget-related stuff. But seeing the number of spirit borns that have joined the village and the kids that these people are going to have, the village's population was certainly going to grow at speed. That meant more facilities would have to be built, more resources would have to be extracted, and that meant more stuff needed to be financed and the management of the budget wouldn't be able to be handled by a few people.

This was a village they were talking about. Even in his company, with only a few hundred staff, the finance department was made up of at least twenty people.

It was Akupara who first came to a conclusion on whom to pick. He raised his right hand.

“Yes, go on,” he said.

“I'd like to select Medus for the role. She's a sharp one, and I believe she already has the experience of managing her tribe's resources.”

Slynera nodded to his decision. “Indeed, as the head of her tribe, she has excellent management skills.”

Well, that didn't need much back and forth. Though, he'd hoped more along the lines of putting her as the chief of home affairs of this village. Her people had an excellent relationship with the elves, so certainly that would've helped. But then if he did that, there wouldn't be many candidates to go for this finance role from among the spirit borns.

From Slynera's expression, it seemed like she also had decided on someone.

“So, who'd you decide on, Slynera?”

“I'd be going with elder Naevhara.”

That was an interesting pick. He'd thought that she'd pick the old man for the position of chief of home affairs later on.

“Why's that?”

“My lord, it's mainly because the elder already helps me out on multitudes of financial matters. Being a formation master that he is, his mental faculties are rather sharp.”

“Ok, then, that solves the financial management role.”

“Now we need to decide on people for the chief of defense role. Any suggestions?”

“I'd like to suggest Sarnoth for this role. He's pretty intelligent and has the necessary strength to push around most spirit borns.”

Xuan nodded. That was a good choice. He'd also thought of him as most fitting for this role. The bear was calm, precise, and restrained most of the time. And that restrained trait was invaluable for this role. He wouldn't really want the chief of defense to go around picking fights with neighboring villages or even the kingdom's army.

“And who's going to be from the elven side?”

Slynera gave him a smile. Yep, it didn't even need to be asked.

“Okay then, Rovan and Sarnoth will be the joint chiefs of defense.”

Next was the selection of candidates for the chief of justice role. Akupara picked Sun, and Slynera was still conflicted on whom to pick.

“What's troubling you? The lack of potential candidates or the excess of them?” he asked her.

“The lack, to be precise. I can't really think of many people suitable for this role at all. Naevhara would've been a good match maybe, but…” he'd already been selected.

And at his age, Xuan didn't think the man should juggle two roles by himself.

“Well, for now, let's manage it jointly. You and I could look after this job until someone suitable is found,” Xuan offered.

He didn't have much experience mediating stuff and dishing out judgements like Sun, who had acquired it from managing his monkey group, or Slynera, who'd done it alone so far. But dumping the whole work of it on Slynera alone felt wrong. Plus, after all this, all he was going to have was free time. So it wasn't exactly a bad way to use the excess time.

The chief thought for a second and stood up. “I'd be happy to work with you, my lord.” She bowed and sat back down.

Okay, that left only the chief of home affairs. For that, Xuan had a very good set of candidates in mind.

“How about we go with Akupara and Elhem managing that role alongside Luna?”

The two elders took a second to process the information. And even though Akupara seemed like he'd object to the inclusion of Luna, he quickly understood why Xuan had included her.

Basically, the home affairs department would function like some village police. And police needed to get to the spots of conflicts in time. There were no cars or motorcycles, but there were a whole pack of wolves numbering in the hundreds that had all evolved following the evolution of Luna herself. They were all now Luna Wolves, basically having evolved into the same species of wolves Luna herself was from.

They were now individually at level 150 at the least. They could run fast enough to rival a car, too. This trait of theirs would make it far more efficient for Akupara and Elhem to manage the village's security and peace.

He also wanted to add a chief of foreign affairs to the village's management. But that would be pretty unnecessary considering they already lived in one country, even if the country itself couldn't care less about its people.

…

The village was changing, and had, in a lot of parts, already changed. Ehlara could feel unnerved by this change. This feeling of acute anxiety always tended to arise when things around her shifted from their original place.

But at the same time, it was necessary. She walked the freshly constructed main street of the village. It was made with a slightly darker kind of stone, with roughness at its surface. If one slipped on it, which was barely possible considering it's not such a smooth surface, they'd probably get bruised badly.

But there were also intentions behind this design. In the previous form of this road, which could hardly be called one—it was basically just hard soil—whenever it rained back then, it would get super hard to walk, and slipping and falling over wasn't even considered strange. Phaeron in particular used to fall over a lot and come back home with wet and muddied clothes.

In short, the roads weren't good. And within days of the spirit borns' arrival, the roads had turned good. It was surreal. Because before, she'd heard of the massive cost that would require hiring stone and earth mages from the adventurers' guild in order to build a decent road. But now, it was completed just like that.

After the lord had fallen unconscious from treating the spirit borns, it had rained intensely. And yet, people, kids, everyone who has walked and run across it did so without slipping and falling over. Though, she couldn't say she didn't miss the memory of the previous one.

But things tended to change. Their small little village of a few hundred had grown after the tide. Quite the absurdity that was. Now the spirit borns, which were supposed to have murdered them, had built their homes and roads instead.

And based on the freshly received news from one of the close aides of Grandma Slynera, in the central building, the lord and representatives of both their race and the race of spirit borns had decided on electing four more chiefs for four different roles.

That meant more changes were going to come through, and meant more anxiety for her in the short term. But hopefully that would be followed by more stability in the long run.

Stability is like the house in front of her. It wasn't a stone building, nor a stonefied version of the wooden building. She'd worked with her brother Phaeron to reforge this house with the exact kind of black wood that gave off a slight minty smell. It smelled fresh, like the morning air, except the freshness within this triangular house didn't fade. It was simple to reconstruct when destroyed, too. It was basically two huge boards of wood stacked into a triangular shape. Simple enough to be made and maintained.

She touched the doorknob. In it, the elder Sharon, a Lamia, had inscribed some runes. She poured a bit of her mana, and the knob lit up with patterns that glowed purple before aligning into a star shape. And with a click, it opened up. She stepped inside, and immediately the freshness within hit her face. She took in a deep breath and entered further inside.

The atmosphere of this room was a little bit chillier than outside. The bluish runes carved atop the ceiling ensured a constant fresh intake of cool air from outside and expulsion of the warmer air.

Elder Sharon was truly amazing. She'd learned a good amount about the spirit borns, but she'd never heard of them specializing in rune craft. Though, according to the elder herself, she was only proficient in these homely rune crafts; they were handed down to her from her forefathers.

The house was a single-room house, with flat wooden floors and a few lanterns of mana. The blue light of the lanterns fell over the pearl-like eggs stacked over each other on the table that sat at the far end.

Ehlara went towards the side table, where she kept her clothes and other necessities. She picked up a small piece of fine fabric from it, soaked it in water, and started wiping the eggs' outer surface. The eggs were all of a variety of colors and patterns. Though, she loved collecting them for the sake of it now. The interest had mainly sprung from the source of financial decisions. She'd heard from grandpa Elhelm that monster pups sold for a good chunk back on the markets of Thanevros.

Hearing that, she'd begun collecting monster eggs in the hopes that some might hatch someday. But apparently all the eggs she collected were dead eggs. She cleaned them up before and rewashed the dirty towel.

She went to the door and twisted the knob.

Crack, crack.

The sound was repeated. She checked the doorknob, wondering if she'd broken it by twisting too hard.

She opened the doorknob again to relock it, while the sounds of something cracking still came. And the sound felt increasingly more familiar, until something clicked in her mind.

“The eggs!”

She immediately stepped down and ran for the table.

There, amongst the many eggs, a single one throbbed, the intensity of it cracked apart its shiny outer shell, revealing something she'd never hoped she'd see.