NOVEL SIMPLE E110 – Tell them to quit, I have no use for such lazy brats in my army.
As the villages began to really come alive, Ares had the units of soldiers that worked together, the various squads, to form together into larger squads. Though he would eventually want to combine six of them together, that would be far too many to really join together for each village, and just under one hundred soldiers per village seemed to be a good idea. Having a village be one-sixth part of his army would foster enough military presence for everyone to be inspired. At least, he hoped they would be inspired and not frightened.
His city of Rivea had an entire company to look after it, which was a little over two hundred soldiers. That would increase in time, but many of the soldiers were placed at the fort in order to help increase it’s construction speed, and many more continued to help monitor the slaves and create the wall. Ares didn’t check on the wall’s progression, instead allowing each Squad Captain become responsible for informing him if anything was wrong.
On a particular evening when Ares was speaking with the representatives, which had swelled with the new oxfolk, a large number of the representatives complained. Their complaints had come from the various soldiers, who felt as though the manual labour was too much, and was far too low for their station.
Ares waited to hear if there was more, but when that was the extent of the complaints, Ares nodded. “It is simple. We are currently not under the threat by another army as of yet, and as such, each soldier must keep active. If they are sick of construction and heavy lifting, then they are not fit enough to be a soldier. Tell them to quit, I have no use for such lazy brats in my army.”
The air had grown cold around Ares. His eyes were narrowed, and he was glaring down at the table ahead of him. “Since we have too many representatives, and now that everyone has begun settling down in their villages, I will ask for the villages to vote for their own representative. There shall be two from each village, whoever leads the soldiers within the village, as well as one of the people’s own choosing that is outside the military. That individual will then become the same rank as the commander, though with the prefix of shire. This individual will be expected to lead armies if the time is required.”
The representatives had fallen into an uproar, but Ares’ eyes found Rori’s. He then raised his voice to silence the shouting. “What say you, Rori-kin? This is the first you have heard of such a policy, what do you say?”
Rori remained silent for a long moment. Ares knew what he had said was going to bring upon much pain, after all the powerful hated giving up their power. However, with everything that had developed recently, he couldn’t allow the villages to fail.
“What is the meaning of this? We were promised a voice in such matters.”
Ares threw a look towards those that had stated such sentiments and he bowed his head. “This is fundamental to our democracy. I had given you the privilege of allowing you to speak in such meetings, but now you will have the right to. I cannot take away such a right, though with each new town or city, there shall be a shifting of such things. Each village will have a right in such matters. Right now these are the rules. However, there will come a time when this will shift to envelope a larger scope. Right now each village will be granted much power, however, eventually this will change to the towns, and then perhaps, the cities. Though, this is only in relation to the army and the representative, each village will always have a representative within the newly formed council. It is the representative of the village, as well as the leader of the army within the city, to be responsible for the defence and the application of the laws within their borders.” Ares then sighed.
“This is all rather complicated, and I am afraid I cannot quite explain it all to you completely. I don’t have such an ability. This is all new, even to myself, and as such, we will have to implement it and then fix it as time passes. However, the power that will be codified in law, shall remain until another law will prevent such a thing. That is essentially what will occur in the future, but for right now it shall remain like such, both the King and Consul shall hold executive powers. As the Consul keeps the King in check, and the King keeps the Consul in check, the council… the assembly…” ‘Hah, ass.’ “The senate will keep us in check, as well as the people, and the people will keep the senate in check.”
They all seemed somewhat confused, but Ares just shrugged. “You’ll see once we’ve implemented it. For now, this has become too bloated, so please do pick your representatives.” Ares smiled and then clapped his hands. “I do hope everyone is satisfied with the discussion, I have some labour to do as well. After all, it is the King that should be the one who works the hardest, hence why I hold so much power. Isn’t that the case?” Ares cocked his head to the side as if daring them to speak out against him. “After all, isn’t it I who led the soldiers to war? To help the various oxfolk, and of course, wasn’t it I who went after the captured Riveans right after I fought a God, and had yet recovered from the fatigue of conquering the Dragon’s Spine, which again, I led onward with Lana here.” Ares turned to face her. “Isn’t that the case? I did not quite recall many of the representatives there, though perhaps my memory is failing me. Did you see them?” He asked Lana.
Lana raised her brows to Ares. “We understand, Ares…”
“Ares-kin, if it would please you.”
“Lana-kin, if it pleases you.” She replied back.
Ares flushed. “I am very sorry.” He said sheepishly to her. “Well, I shall return around nightfall, good bye.” He said, quickly leaping up and transforming into his phoenix form and then flew off to continue terraforming.