Chapter 225: Construction
The days passed one after another, and everyone stayed busy tending to their responsibilities, attending to their duties and affairs. During these days, Vaelor gave every instruction he could possibly give, taught Ayat all she needed to know about the process of establishing the banks, and left the rest of the matters to the engineers and experienced professionals to carry out. After that, he went into a long seclusion and hadn't emerged from it for nearly three weeks now!
"Heavy transport team, over there — Zone Three needs ten tons of building materials!"
"Air support team, raise the ceiling of Zone Five!"
"Construction team, the third floor in Zone Two needs to be finished as soon as possible!"
"Array-mastery team, Zone One is completely finished, and all that's left is engraving the arrays onto it — we need it done as quickly as possible!"
The voices of supervisors and engineers rang out from every corner, directing the workers, craftsmen, and array-makers with precision and harmony, all working to finish the bank project as quickly as possible.
The abilities of the various races had all been put to use in this project, each race contributing what it excelled at.
The Golden Lions handled transport and heavy labor, thanks to their immense physical strength and bodily power compared to the rest of the races.
The Silent Ravens and the Falcons had their flight abilities put to full use.
The Elves, with their immense abilities and great skill in using the Law of Formation for construction and array-crafting, especially the Spirit Masters... even experts of the fourth Sage level had been employed in this project.
As for the number of elves who had reached the fourth level, it was now estimated to be in the thousands, ever since the catalyst production line had begun operating a little over two weeks earlier... specifically, more than ten thousand fourth-level elves, and that number kept growing every single day... until the elves' standing among the other races had become unshakable.
At this very moment, one of the bank's branches was being constructed in the Golden Lion Kingdom, and at the same time, nine other branches were being built in other regions, namely...
Six branches for the six kingdoms that had joined King Vaelor, in addition to four branches being built near neighboring kingdoms.
.......
At this moment, near a kingdom called the Black Dragon Kingdom, numerous dragon men stood atop the kingdom's walls, staring in bewilderment at the massive construction being erected roughly ten kilometers from their kingdom's walls.
"My Liege, are we just going to let those elves do as they please near our kingdom and within our own land?"
Inside the throne hall of the Black Dragon Kingdom, numerous dragon men stood before a half-dragon man with black scales, seated on an imposing throne in the middle of the hall.
"The problem isn't that they're building on our land — they already bought that piece of land and paid for it. But haven't you noticed how strange it is for five races to gather together like this, especially thirty fourth-level elves!" one of the men said with tension and fear. "Has the Tree of Cradle returned from the ancient ages or what — otherwise how did the elves gain such power?"
Everyone fell silent after these words, and they looked toward the king, waiting for his reply... After some time, and after much thought, he finally raised his head and looked at his subjects. "For now, we'll let them do as they please. They've shown no sign of hostility, and they've promised us as well that they won't attack us. All they want to do is establish a trading post, and as long as they keep their word and don't move against us or harm us, we won't move against them either."
The king spoke in a deep, commanding voice, and his voice echoed in the ears of everyone present, projecting the strength of his authority... but in truth, this strength wasn't born from any real power — it was born from the weakness of his position and an attempt to conceal that weakness.
Standing up against that power the elves wielded and stopping them... that was a joke!
He had no idea where they'd come from or from which kingdom they hailed, and the nearest elven kingdom was several months' journey away from him. Not to mention that his own kingdom barely had four fourth-level people to its name... while they had thirty fourth-level elves.
.......
City of Light.
Many things had happened over the past three weeks, but the most noticeable thing was that things had become extraordinarily loud and busy... busier than they'd ever been before.
What had happened in these last three weeks hadn't happened in the past six months combined... The elves had thrown themselves fully into building the rest of the High Councils, selecting administrative staff, and classifying and distributing the elves each according to his own ability and skill.
The factories had begun operating at several times their usual capacity, and work had piled up on the Administrative Council until it had become several times what it once was... and all of this because the official opening of the banks was set to happen just a month from now!
....
"What do you think King Vaelor is doing right now!" In the main administrative office, Olivia sat at one of the side desks and asked Ayat, who was sitting at the main desk, around which towering mountains of paper had piled up, filled with a staggering amount of information and documents concerning the kingdom's affairs... and had it not been for the strength of her soul, which had reached the fourth level and succeeded in opening the first Spirit Gate, she would have already fainted from sheer exhaustion many times over!
"His Majesty King Vaelor has already given us the instructions and the path we can follow, and we cannot ask any more of him, nor do we have any right to do such a thing. It would be a shame and a disgrace if we couldn't rely on ourselves and meet his expectations after he's blessed us with all these things and all this bounty... besides, King Vaelor went into seclusion two weeks ago, and no one knows when he'll come out," Ayat shrugged her shoulders, then looked at Olivia slyly, as though reading her thoughts, before returning to sorting through the documents once more...
"His emergence might take a few more days, or even a few more weeks, so it would be best if you toned down your eagerness for him just a little!"
The moment she heard Ayat's accusation, Olivia's cheeks instantly flushed red with embarrassment, and she lowered her head, saying in a weak voice...
"I'm not like that!"