Bab 5: Alexi

"First item on the agenda: every power save for one has officially joined Henosis." Cheers and applause broke out in the meeting room, killing the serious atmosphere. The fact that Xasha came home early was a bad omen for most. Everyone had braced themselves for bad news.

"Calm down, don't celebrate too much. The larger provinces have already begun expanding their territory. Smaller provinces are actually packing up and moving now that they are no longer tied to a mana vein source. They are moving to places where they can expand unimpeded. The size of the west coast has almost doubled, especially with that Dan Avon, who has all but conquered the entire black plains that are almost as big as the original west coast itself. There is a truce amongst provinces as they expand their power and influence. Energy beasts are no longer a threat. Almost every province has a Thorium Realm mage and the Emerald Realm mages are the new elites in large provinces."

The council's eyes shone brighter the longer Xasha spoke. Their hearts were feeling content as it seemed everything was working out perfectly.

Xasha continued, "many discoveries were made in the last three years and were all shared with the member states. Including this Time Fruit discovered 2 years ago in the Lou War Province. Now that it's available, I bought quite a stockpile and even got a few seedlings that I've already passed to Verra. In a few years, we will have a time tree forest and the problem of our younger generation being stuck at the beginning of puberty for hundreds of years can be alleviated." He chuckled, remembering what happed with Xeik. "A few radical guys also came up with an interesting magic device. It performs calculations at unbelievable speeds. Its speed and efficiency impressed me. I bought a few. Maybe our guys can gain a bit of inspiration from it."

"Which province hasn't joined Henosis has yet?" Boman asked impatiently.

"I will answer all questions at the end of the report," Xasha stated absentmindedly and continued, "we are now under fire, kind of. It upset some provinces that we have benefited most from the creation of Henosis. Financially and otherwise, we've become too rich and too influential and they have banned us from recruiting in other provinces."

Xasha paused after saying this. "I understand where they are coming from. We have basically taken all the lower class, or rather working-class, people from the continent. This created a brain drain and skill shortage for other provinces, especially those with leaders who have mistreated their citizens in the past. To this day, we get a million new residents daily. If this continues, we will have the entire population of the west coast living in Stardust province within a few hundred years. When it was proposed, I didn't fight against it. Hope you guys can understand why."

The council all nodded their heads. They were not unreasonable people and understand the other patriarch's concerns.

"Good news is, due to the peace brought about by creating Henosis, many people have begun starting families, as you all know. So, this problem will not persist forever and the population will replenish in other provinces as well. The population of Stardust province will keep growing in the future without immigrants."

"Next item, we made a decision as to how we will colonize the wilderness. Through the black plains owned by Dan Avon and the Great Divide owned by us as the Endless Tundra is impassible for an entire army to traverse. The other powers, including the Devos Province, will gain access to the wilderness by marching their armies through our province. There is the issue of their territory being split between large swaths of land, making it impossible to be managed by a single person."

"So, we had each province pick out territory on the map. They will create an outpost in that territory from which they will expand. Each province has a limit to how far they can expand." Xasha used his mana to carve out a place on the map laid on the table and stated, "this is the territory allotted to Falling Stardust. The good thing is our territory is connected to the great Divide mountain range, so it does not mess with our plans. My concern is that the council members only care about their own benefits and are not considering everything else."

Xasha sighed in disappointment, "they seemed to think that they are going to capture uninhabited land or that the energy beasts, beastmen, and the environment there are no more powerful than what they've seen on the west coast. Their overconfidence will lead to their deaths several times over and this might lead to a butterfly effect for the rest of our efforts, as the beastmen will team up and expel us from the wilderness."

Everyone's faces became serious, Xasha may have said it casually, but everyone understood how big of a threat this was for the west coast. The overconfidence of those provinces might lead to the destruction of the west coast.

"What can we do about this?" Asked Bilimo in a nervous tone.

Xasha looked up at his council with a stern expression, "I don't know yet. With most of the member states biased against us, it will be an uphill battle convincing them because their minds are made up. I will think this over and I hope you all will brainstorm and come find me with your ideas."

"There were a few other things discussed and debated during the last reverie, but what I've told you are the most important ones. You can read about the rest in the written report. Now you can go ahead and ask your question regarding everything I've said. And Wanton, the province that is still refusing to join, is the White Tiger Mountain. They say they are not interested in invading the wilderness and will never allow outsiders within its walls or reveal any of its secrets to outsiders for any reason."