Chapter 215: My Stance


    The Colony, City Hall


    The corners of ke''s mouth twitched when he looked at the three VIPs from the Isles looking around their surroundings with gaping mouths.


    Sherene gave him a yful pinch at the side and a stern look and whispered. "Don''tugh at our guests!"


    ke looked at the Princess and smiled, wrapped one arm around her slim waist and squeezed her to his side, "Did I tell you that you look gorgeous today?"


    "N- no..." Sherene blushed before she gave another pinch on his hand. "Don''t change the subject!"


    ke gave an evil wink and walked up to the three Inders still gawking at their surroundings. After the call with Commander Ford, ke had immediately roped in the Airforce and Marines for some "help".


    When Master Sergeant Pike found out about the purpose of the escort, he immediately turned out an entire battalion for support while the Airforce sent over a Valkyrie and a squadron of Cobras.


    The word that the Inders are here to court the Princess''s hand for marriage spread rapidly and when ke appeared at the flight decks, he paused in surprise.


    An entire fully armed battalion of Marines with all their organic support had formed up in parade formation with two dragons hanging around at the back.


    Master Sergeant Pike''s voice roared out, "BATTALIOOON... ATTEN.. SHUN!"


    The storm of boots echoed through theunch deck. Even the techs and support crew stood at attention following Pike''smand.


    "Sir! First Battalion, reporting for duty, Sir!" Pike''s parade square powered voice shook ke awake.


    "Damn, Top," ke walked up to the Master Sergeant. "Is there a need for all this?"


    "Sir! The enemy is already at the gates!" Pike grinned.


    "If the Earth Command knew that I mobilized an entire Battalion to show off for a girl..." ke grinned, "Ah fuck it, let''s show those what happens when they to hit on my girl!"


    "HORAAAAH!"


    "Blue Thunder! Why are you here?" ke asked as he looked at the dragon with a silly toothed draconic smile pasted on his face.


    "Eh, Captain... I- I heard that the Princess is.. ahem- in trouble!" Blue Thunder muttered out quickly. "Ie to offer my services!"


    Rastraz on the side rolled her eyes up dramatically and said, "He means that he wants to go see the love drama that''s happening with you and the Inders!"


    "Wha- What? Nooo!" Blue Thunder panicked and swiped his wings to cover Rastraz''s serpentine head. "No- no! We are here to give you our full support!" He thumped his puffed up chest. "Go, Captain ke!"


    Rastraz''s voice came out muffled under Blue Thunder''s wing, "And he promised me cheese fries!"


    keughed and shook his head as he walked up the ramp in the Valkyrie, "Weird dragons."


    -----


    "So what do you think of my city?" ke asked the three Inders.


    "It''s unbelievable!" Fleet Master Megan cried out. "How did you built all these? Are those ss? How much ss can you produce? How did you rise those buildings to be so tall? What are they for?"


    Megan spewed out a torrent of questions. Her initialposure had disappeared when she first saw this strange short ear appeared from the strange flying construct.


    What happened next threw her mind off as they rode onboard the flying machine. A goblin dressed in an oversized shirt yelped at them to buckle up tight and use the "puke bags" should they feel the need to vomit and not dirty his decks.


    Dijon had to restraint himself from chopping the head off the foul mouthed goblin while the spotted green blue uniformed soldiers snickered at the side.


    They had flown before on a dragon but this was totally unlike flying on a dragon. They sat strapped down on seats facing each other and the sudden vertigo from the taking off of the Valkyrie incited a yell of fright from Dijon, making the soldiersugh more.


    ke and the Princess disappeared through a door to the front and they were not seen throughout the whole flight.


    The tiny windows offered a view that showed the terrain skimming away rapidly and after a while, suddenly they felt themselves falling as the Valkyrie did a rapid descent and pulled up sharply before touching down on anding pad.


    As Megan and the rest exited the scary flying machine to see themselves inside a massive cavern. To their amazement, the cavern looked man made and was brightly lit by globes of bright white light.


    Hundreds of simr uniformed soldiers were formed up before them and they saluted as one when ke and the Princess appeared behind.


    After that, they were given a quick tour beforeing out to the city in a simr magic wagon they had ridden earlier and stopped before the grand looking building overlooking a huge fountain and za.


    -----


    ke waved her questions away, "It''s hard to exin about all the details, but yes we built all this with everyone''s help and power."


    Mentally, Megan calcted with her merchant mind, and estimated that it will probably need a quarter or maybe even half the Isles''s entire treasury to build this city with the type of materials used!


    She darted a nce at Dijon and sighed, thinking about how he offered his wealth to the Princess. How could he evenpare to the wealth this person has!


    She frowned as she wondered if the Empire''s rumors that the Princess has allied or stole her soul to the devils where true after looking at all the strange and amazing contraptions around her.


    As for Dijon, he was dumbstruck on the entire journey. He had wrongly assumed that the whole of the Princess''s people were all living in Far Harbor but upon reaching the City, he was totally wrong.


    Like Megan, his merchant''s mind automatically took in all the cost and rarity of the materials used to build the city and he was stupified by the amount of gold and manpower needed to build such a city!


    The first sight of the towering walls had him in awe and fear, wondering what monsters are there here that needed such a tall and thick wall. The scale of such a project will be enormous and time consuming, not to mention arge number of workers will be required but when he asked about it, the Princess just said it took them only four months to fully construct it from base up and another two months to full furbish it with zero deaths in the workforce!


    Zero deaths and within a season to build such a massive undertaking were totally unheard of to the Inders. The marvels and surprises keep showing up one by one the more they looked around. Even the normally quiet Akron had an expression of shock and he was even more excited when he saw lorries carrying goods moving up and down the roads.


    "Those wagons! They carry goods yes?" Akron excited asked ke when they were touring around the city. "Can we buy them?"


    -----


    After the exciting afternoon, the trio had lunch with the Princess and the Captain inside the City Hall. Several exotic dishes were served to the Inders who found the dishes very different from what they had ever tried. There was even sweet dessert at the end of the full course meal where Sherene happily chowed down a cup of chocte pudding.


    ke waited till everyone had cleared their tes and the waiters filled their sses before he said, "On the topic of an alliance between the Isles and the Princess, I believe there is a small misunderstanding here."


    "First, the Princess is not the ruler nor the final decision holder here," ke looked at each of the Inders. "Second, this nation is also not under her rule, it is under my direct rule and she is part of my people."


    ''Thirdly, she is my fiance," ke stated this out pointedly and gestured to Dijon whose face thundered. "So there will be no alliance by marriage."


    "Fourthly, while we appreciate an alliance between our two nations, it doesn''t mean I need an alliance with you," ke bluntly pointed out. "I have enough military strength to defend my people and if required, to wage war directly at the Empire should the need to do so rises."


    "And thest point," ke continued. "I am sure Fleet Master Dijon has informed you all that we, ''short eared people'' are not really demons, we are just people from another ce. While we wee the trade between the two countries, it doesn''t mean we can''t survive here without your trade."


    "I hope that can help ease whatever thoughts and questions you have in your mind," ke smiled and stood up. "Now I must leave you all, I have a shit ton of work to finish. I will let Sherene take over as host for your stay here. I hope you enjoy your stay here, good bye."


    With that, ke kissed Sherene at the cheek and leave the room, leaving behind an awkward silence. Sherene rolled her eyes at the way ke had delivered his stance to the Isles and had even earlier in the morning told her to try to not strain the Inder''s rtionship with them.


    This was like telling them to fark off and don''t touch my things! Sherene sighed inwardly. But she felt a bittersweet and happy inside her heart as she thought of how he came immediately to assert his authority and dered that she was his. Hehe!


    Sherene''s personnelmunicator beeped and she saw a message blinking. After reading it, she smiled and said, "Well, my people have arranged suites for your stay here. I will have my people direct you to your rooms. Feel free to ask my people for any assistance that you require. If you need to talk to me, I will be inside my office."


    Sherene stood up and smiled before leaving the trio alone inside the dining room in silence.


    -----


    Surprisingly, it was Akron the quiet one that broke the silence. "It appears we are underestimating the people here."


    "Whether if they are working with demons or angels, their abilities and strength are far greater and beyond our understanding." Akron gave his thoughts. "The Empire might not be their match after all."


    "Yes," Megan nodded and sipped the sweet wine before her. "In terms of goods and production," She twirled the wine in the ss before flicking the wine ss with her finger. The ss chimed with a sweet tone, "It appears to be of very high quality!"


    "They appeared to be very strong economy to be able to build whole towers with ss," Megan continued. "The people here also appeared very motivated."


    "Their navy is very powerful as I had reported," Dijon added next. "Those sailless ships and boats of theirs can urately destroy ships at the distance the eye can barely see with those thunder weapons of theirs."


    "It will be wise to have a good rtionship with them," Akron said. "If we can get those thunder weapons and also have a monopoly over the trade with them, it will greatly benefit our kingdom!"


    "I agree," Megan nodded and finished the wine. "Poor Dijon, you best give up your idea of marriage with the Princess. It''s best if you apologize to the Captain too. He has already stated his stance with us. If we go against him, we will lose out on a lot of things with all this strange, "tek no lo gee" of theirs."


    Dijon growled and said, "Damn the gods! He has embarrassed me!"


    "Calm down you fool!" Akron barked. "You want to start a fight here? In his territory?"


    Dijon grabbed the wine bottle on the table and drowned the whole bottle in a single gulp. "Damn! This wine is not a wine for men!" He tossed the bottle on the table and sat back in his seat in a bad mood.


    "Actually, I quite like this sweet wine," Megan retorted and picked up the bottle, ignoring Dijon''s ck face.


    "I wonder if they will sell us some?"