Ben moved to take the key to open the safe, but Michael intercepted him and motioned for him to stay where he was. He then proceeded to insert the key, slowly turned it, then looped his belt around the handle before pulling the door open while staying away from the opening.
Nothing happened.
He shrugged and waved Ben toward the safe, who grinned at his cautious friend.
Ben took a quick glance at the contents of the safe, which was filled to bursting. The bottom two rows were full of cash—useless in Ben’s mind. There were lots of gold bars and jewelry, which were mostly useless, but maybe could benefit some of their crafters. Finally, there were Energy cores—how many Ben couldn’t see right away, but it was a significant amount.
He nodded, closed the door, locked it, and then turned to his teammates. “Let’s free some people.”
They quickly went downstairs and waved the rest of their people into the building to systematically go through it.
Their focus was to extract the slaves as quickly as possible to get them to safety—everything else was secondary.
About half an hour in, Jamal came up to Ben with a grim look on his face. “You need to see this, boss.”
He led him down the stairway to a basement that Ben had not seen before. To his horror, it consisted of cells that held more, mostly young, people in horrible conditions—likely waiting to be used in the establishment above them.
Ben questioned whether he had let the Warriors off too easily, but then he remembered the dozens of dead criminals they had produced over the last three days and moved on.
His mother took charge of getting the understandably confused and fearful men and women out of the building and into another one nearby. After freeing everyone—ninety people in total—she gave a compassionate speech explaining their options and the purpose of the Protectorate.
To Ben’s surprise, the vast majority decided to join them—maybe because they had already lost their family or for other reasons he could not tell—but he was determined to help them however he could. Some asked whether they could join with their families later, which was accepted as well. Either way, their healers, therapists, and meditation experts would be busy in the near future—and he hadn’t even taken the children and elderly they had taken in just three days ago into account.
One team would lead those committed to join them toward the Warrior compound to unite with those who had been freed there. They could freshen up and get some food in their stomachs.
Meanwhile, Ben and his team would finalize things in the city.
First, he returned to the office and cleaned out the safe. The items inside would be used to strengthen the Protectorate and thereby help the people who had been abused here. In the end, he counted almost 25,000 Credits worth of cores. That would allow them to build apartments that could house their new joiners.
Next, even though it was late at night by now, they walked toward the council building, hoping to find somebody holding a night watch there.
As they walked through the night, Ben shook his head. “This all felt too easy, somehow. I think I’m slowly starting to understand how big an advantage the ability to live and train in a high-Energy-density area truly is… But it’s also scary thinking about how the billions of people out there need to fight for their lives without these advantages. We need to accelerate the growth of the Protectorate so that we can help more people more quickly.”
The others nodded solemnly—it was a privilege and a responsibility.
Unfortunately, they didn’t find anybody at the council building. The doors were open, but they didn’t find anyone, so they decided to rest with just a minimal watch until the next morning.
A few short hours later, people started to stream into the council building—most eyeing Ben and his team with suspicion.
Allison handled conversations, and soon they were led to a large office where a bunch of desks were moved together to allow half a dozen people to work without cubicle walls separating them.
Two of those people were the women they had met on one of their last visits to town—Councilwomen Amherst and Metcalf.
Ben looked knowingly at the desk that remained empty, it likely being Stemberger’s.
After a brief introduction to the other councilors, Allison waved for Ben to take over.
“Good morning. I apologize in advance for making this brief. The last few days have been exhausting.
“The Warriors are no more. They attacked us, and as a consequence they have either died or fled. Let me assure you—those who fled will not return.”
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That got everyone’s attention, but before they could interrupt with questions, Ben continued.
“It might or might not be a surprise to you, but Councilor Stemberger was heavily associated with the Warriors, if not their leader. He has decided to leave Simonston and will not return, either.”
Nothing could stop the councilors’ exclamations of surprise, but Ben just wanted this over with.
“I have good news for you, however. We have taken over two warehouses operated by the Warriors. Those warehouses are full of food. If you have a couple of people, we can guide them there and have you take responsibility for all of it.
“The majority of the people who were held as slaves by the Warriors have decided to join us in the Protectorate—to be clear, that was their own free choice. We will take care of them to the best of our abilities. Some have chosen to return to their families in the city, to the extent that they still exist. The red-light district operated by the Warriors has been cleaned out. I would suggest that you take measures to ensure no one ever follows in the Warriors’ footsteps again.”
At the end, he had been a bit more forceful than he had intended, but he was tired—less physically, more mentally. He wanted to get back to the Protectorate, build, plan, and finally explore the inspiration for replacing [Frenzy].
The councilors looked stunned and had calmed down.
“Oh, one final point. We will do our best to deliver some of our excess food to you in the future—it’s not going to solve all your problems, but it might help. We will also offer some goods for trade. One of our people will come in time to negotiate if you are interested in weapons and armor. We take Energy cores in trade.”
With that, he waved at them, turned around, and left the room. He heard Anne snort, Jamal and Michael fall in beside him, and his mother start apologizing for him.
He understood that he should have played this differently, but right now he was out of energy.
“All good, boss?”
He sighed. “Yes, mostly, just tired. Like you must be too. I’m sorry.”
“No worries, boss. That was efficient, and Boss Mom’ll handle the rest. We’re all keen to get home. I prefer fighting in a dungeon to fighting other humans.”
Ben nodded wearily as he sat down on some stairs outside the room they had just left.
“I couldn’t agree more.”
A few minutes later, Allison left the room together with Councilwoman Amherst and waved at them to follow.
The councilor quickly collected a few other people, and they made their way to the warehouses. The councilor and her people were stunned at the amount of food stored there and promised to use it wisely.
She approached Ben. “I understand that you are exhausted and not interested in talking with me, but I think you need to hear this anyway: thank you! You and your team have done something amazing for the people of this city, and we are very grateful. We will spread the word that it was the Protectorate that extended its strength to us and helped us when we needed it.”
Ben nodded. “You are welcome. I apologize for my behavior earlier.”
“No need to apologize. You know… we are currently largely leaderless. We remaining councilors are trying to keep things together, but it’s not easy—our legitimacy in this new world is limited. I’m sure that if you wanted to, all councilors would quickly agree to yield to you…”
Ben stared, unsure how to respond. Anne, who stood with them, spoke up. “Thank you for your kind words. The [Knight Protector] and the Protectorate Council will get back to you.”
Ben nodded decisively at this non-answer, shook the councilor’s hand, and left the site.
He wondered what had triggered his unusual behavior and thought that maybe having killed dozens of other humans had left its mark. He needed to [Meditate] urgently and extensively.
Now all they had to do was pick up the rest of their people and then safely guide close to a hundred terrified young people home.
Hard as it was, in that moment it still sounded preferable to spending another needless hour in the city.
***
It was the next evening. They had made good progress over the day and were halfway up the mountain, despite their large group.
They had managed to catch two boars, so Ben had decided to stop a bit early so they could have an impromptu barbecue.
His mind had settled over the last day. Being back in the forest, with no demands beyond watching their surroundings, had helped him calm down. He had even experimented with [Meditating] while walking. It hadn’t worked perfectly, but it helped him process his feelings nonetheless.
Finding peace with his own feelings also helped him better understand those around him. Many were angry, many were afraid, some stoic. It was fair to say none of them were in a good place—and how could they be?
Wiping his hands clean of boar grease, he stood.
“For those who haven’t heard my name, I’m Ben. I founded the Protectorate, the place we are going to. We have created a tradition for new arrivals called The Retelling. It’s about preserving the Protectorate’s history and spirit, because we believe it is—and can be—a very special place. Let me tell you why it means so much to me and why I thought it would be worth preserving through Arrival Day.
“My parents—you met my mother already—had this lumberjack business that they had taken over from my grandfather, and it meant everything to me. Of course, I had to go to school in the city, but every weekend, every holiday, every summer, I would spend in that little camp with just fifteen other people. It felt like family—no, it was family. My parents had chosen to bring in people who had stumbled at some point in their lives but wanted to change things. That takes enormous willpower, and it impressed me deeply.
“After school, it was clear to me that I would study forestry to enter the business, and once I was done, I moved to the camp full-time. For years, it was everything I’d hoped for.
“Until… one day…” Ben struggled to continue. “One day there was an accident. I won’t go into the details, but… my father died, and I ended up in the hospital for weeks with a spinal injury. I’d nearly given up on ever returning to the life I loved, but my family—my mother, my sister, and all the other people I had grown up with or who had joined us over the years—did not give up. They didn’t let me give up.
“So instead of spending months in rehab, I moved back into our little camp, and everybody there helped me, trained with me, motivated me. And over time, with the help of an exoskeleton, I learned to walk again.
“A few weeks later, I found myself in this forest as Energy hit us, and I thought about having to give up our community up here—losing my family—and I didn’t want to do that. Fortunately, the System offered an alternative—keeping my family together and growing it with new people.
“I hope you will feel that community—that family—and that you will feel as much at home as I do.
“Thank you for listening.”
Except for an occasional night-active bird and the wind in the canopy, there was silence. A few wept, coming to terms with their emotions, while others looked more hopeful and curious about what awaited them in the Protectorate.
