( Cervantez, Luke, and Amanda's POV )
Cervantez felt a mix of delight and concern at Amanda's sudden arrival at the DarkSky Camp in Silverpine Barony. While he was happy to have her there, her unexpected arrival ahead of schedule posed a unique challenge for him.
According to Cervantez's plans, Amanda was supposed to absorb as much knowledge as possible from the old Granny before moving to the guild. However, with Granny kicking her out ahead of schedule, Cervantez was left with no choice but to take Amanda in ahead of the expected date.
"Look, of course, the DarkSky guild is your home, and we did intend for you to come here eventually. However, at this moment, the guild doesn't have a forging room ready for you yet. So, while you're welcome to stay here, you will have to be patient for your own Smithy," Cervantez explained, trying to manage Amanda's expectations.
"Oh, come on, Guildmaster! At the current rate of construction, the Smithy will still take over a month to complete. What am I supposed to do until then? Please divert some resources from other projects and have them complete the Smithy in under a week. I'll make sure to recoup the Smithy's production cost within the first three weeks of having it ready.
I won't let you incur a loss," Amanda pleaded, but Cervantez immediately shook his head in denial.
"Amanda, please try to understand. I cannot divert the guild's resources currently as we are already on a very tight timeline for all ongoing projects, which are equally important and financially constrained.
You can either join the Smithy of a local blacksmith temporarily or be patient for a month and wait for your own workstation to be ready. But I cannot accelerate the process just because you showed up here a month early," Cervantez reasoned, explaining why he could not grant her request for additional manpower.
Puffing her cheeks, Amanda turned her head from facing Cervantez to facing Luke, as she hoped that her status as Luke's roommate would help grant her some favor.
"Vice Guildmaster…." Amanda said sweetly, giving Luke a knowing smile as she tried to charm him.
"Please help me" she said, batting her eyes repeatedly, as she tried her best to look cute and gullible to help with her request.
"No-" Luke replied coldly, as such childish tricks simply did not work on him.
"Cervantez is right Amanda, you need to wait for a month.
Also, let me make this clear for you today itself, so that you don't harbor false hopes in the future.
The forge that the Guild is making for you is not for you to make expensive pieces that sell for astronomical values in the open market.
We are not looking to make money from you or your creations….
What the guild needs from you is mass produced armor and weapons that are reliable and can equip our army.
As of now, we have decided to not burden you with a daily production quota and give you a free hand on how you want to work.
However, if you can't produce enough pieces for the guild, we will start giving you a quota in the future." Luke said coldly, as listening to his words Amanda only puffed her cheeks wider.
"You are a meanie and you are useless" Amanda said, pointing towards Luke first and Cervantez later, before storming out of the room.
For a moment after she stormed off, Luke wondered whether he had been too rude or too cold, however, after introspection he realized that he did nothing wrong and that it was Amanda who was behaving like a spoiled kid.
"No wonder my younger brother has feelings for Amanda…. The two of them have the same temper" Luke murmured as Cervantez nodded in agreement.
"PinkLotus also has a cute temper–" Cervantez murmured, slipping momentarily, as Luke immediately questioned his statement with a "Huh?"
"Huh?" Cervantez repeated, realizing that he had slipped as he tried to write-off the topic by pretending that he never spoke those words.
Although Luke did not press, he realized that Cervantez was a loverboy who was secretly in love with someone named 'PinkLotus', however, he decided to keep that information to himself like the gentleman that he was.
*********'
( Meanwhile, The Uprising, Council Leaders chat. )
"It's with great regret that I inform you all, that all attempts to make contact with the demons have seemed to end in resounding failure.
The demons are a race of savages who only view humans as we view livestock.
Our executive's that previously tried to make contact with demons have now been enslaved in their camps and are reporting witnessing pictures of unbelievable brutality and barbarism.
It is their and the information collection department's joint conclusion that the demon's cannot be chosen as future allies to bring down the Empire, for they are not a force that can be reasoned with" The newly appointed information head of the Uprising said in the council leaders chat as he informed all other members that choosing to side with the demons was not an option.
"Are you sure the demon's cannot be reasoned with?
Our goal to carve open the Empire would become much easier if we can ally with the demons who possess a lot of muscle power to defeat the Empire's forces.
However, without them it will take us a longer time to achieve the same results" The head of human resources department said, as his reply reflected the sentiment of many.
"I would like to clarify the goal of the upper council for all once again.
The goal given to us by the upper council is not to ally with the demons or any other faction to bring down the Empire, but for us to LIBERATE the citizens from the oppressive rule of the Emperor.
To push them to suffer from the tyranny of the Emperor to the tyranny of the demons is not a solution" ChaosBringer said, as he conveyed the motivations of the non-existent 'Upper Council', whose sole member was 'he' himself to the Lower Council consisting of the various heads.
Thankfully, ChaosBringer had the good sense to not ally with the demons if they were truly barbaric and unreasonable, as he did not seek to secede the control of the Empire from one tyrant to another.