D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 1991: Chapter 1991 A Rock and a Hard Place

--- Kat ---

”The advisors are going to be a bit of a problem...” Steel explained.

”Tough, fucking, titties,” countered Gravel and Kat burst into laughter. She hadn’t expected the King to say ANYTHING like that. ”I’m the king, and while I like and appreciate all the work that my advisors do, this isn’t a democracy. They are not a ruling council. They have privileges and some ways to put checks and balances on my power but if the city is about to be in such serious danger I have a huge amount of leeway.”

”They will likely say that Kat is manipulating you in some way,” Charles added from the side. ”Especially if they’re aware she was here for this meeting. A mistake on my part, it seems.”

Gravel shrugged. ”Too bad. They can deal with it or be replaced. Honestly, the fact I have to make this call instead of them already working on the problem is ridiculous. I want a room set up and secured TONIGHT. First thing tomorrow I want that tunnel opened and then we can do a few tests before an announcement about it. The specifics can be argued over, and we might have some riots... but I want it factually ready for two days’ time.”

”Your jumping straight to replacement?” asked Charles.

Gravel shrugged, ”I’m not unwilling to re-hire them. If things calm down swiftly and I need someone for the position once again they can certainly earn it back... but the fact they think it’s time to play games while I’m out of commission and risk the greatest civil unrest the city has ever seen? Then they need their priorities checked.

”I get this was a big decision, but frankly, after we agreed to go ahead with it the fact we were still arguing AS A COUNCIL about the safety precautions was ridiculous. Either one of you two should have simply taken the reigns at that point. The fact they were still trying to wheedle their way into delaying things enough to basically cancel the project, likely when Kat left, is ridiculous.

”Perhaps if things had been less serious they could’ve kept the it all rolling until you put your foot down and left. The fact that even now we still have to take two or three days, depending on your counting, and that it would’ve been worse had you simply decided to leave in a day or something? That would’ve caused all sorts of problems,”

”Ah... I totally would’ve done that,” admitted Kat.

Gravel nodded, ”I had a feeling. Now, what needs to be done to implement everything?” said Gravel as he turned to the other two. ”Are we better of with a building in the gardens or inside the palace? Or somewhere in the city?”

Charles and Steel looked at each other for a few moments. ”I don’t particularly want to set it up in the castle,” admitted Charles. ”The safety concerns would be a massive pain. It would provide an easy invasion point from the outside and the foot traffic would quickly get annoying. The gardeners also likely wouldn’t be happy if it was there and we don’t really have space for such a building. We could MAKE the space but once again... the gardeners wouldn’t be happy.”

”But they can’t take the palace,” countered Steel. ”If we put it in a renovated warehouse, which is what we’d need to do to place it in the city in a reasonable timeframe... then there’s a massive chance of a siege. Even we’d be open to allowing some people to leave it will still be easy to rile up the extremist before we allow them through. If we even want to or can...? I don’t know that I’d want to dump them on anyone else that’s for sure.”

”There is plenty of places to dump them that aren’t immediately lethal,” Kat added with a shrug. It might not be a NICE thing but if they wanted to go that far... well not killing them was one thing, but not saving them from their own stupidity, well out of sight? That was another. Especially in the tournament. Kat felt, no shame in this one.

Charles and Steel looked at each other once again, before turning back to the King. ”Alright I see both options have major issues... is there anywhere right on the edge of the gardens then?”

”That essentially just has all of the same issues as a different city location would have,” sighed Steel. ”Better chance for strong backup sure... but it’s more likely to cause a lot of other problems, especially with the defence of the castle and any spatial warping. While so far only conventional explosions have occurred... we really only have a sample size of one.”

Gravel clicked his tongue. ”Is there any easy way to sort this out?”

”Not as far as we can tell,” admitted Charles.

”Indeed. While it might seem like the security of the castle would prevent issues... we’re far more likely to encounter sabotage instead of direct conflict in the immediate future. It’s possible that without the initial... release of a major riot we could still be dealing with explosives,” sighed Steel.

Gravel rubbed his temples. ”This was a bad day to be stuck in bed. Ok, so all of the options are bad. What about... if we brought the Halebloom in on this? If we gave them a stake in the tunnel would they be able to call of the idiots?”

Charles shrugged and looked to Steel. ”Probably... not? I’m unsure if they’d just let it happen but a huge chunk of their... let’s just go with ’military’ are at the point of not listening to them. It might make the fighting less severe... though I am unsure by how much. The concessions would be a nightmare though, and I don’t really want to give them any more power in this situation then we have to,” Steel complained.

”Well frankly, the other two options seem pretty terrible so I’m not that fond of them either. What about underground?” asked Gravel.

”Same issue as the warehouses really... but probably with even less security. While a tunnel might seem safer the Diggers are better at navigating the underground then us and surely have their ways to break into a location like that. Better we force them above the ground and reinforce the floor. Make it less of a hassle to just charge in. Nowhere near ideal still, but likely more feasible in the long term,” explained Steel.

”Riots it will be then?” asked Gravel with a sigh.

”I can’t see any way around it at this point,” admitted Steel.

”Do you think, if we’d immediately gotten to work on the setup it would’ve been different?” asked Gravel.

Steel considered the question. While he was doing so, Gravel looked over at Kat, as if asking for her answer. ”Oh... um... I’ve got no idea? I’m not THAT familiar with the city and it’s been a crazy... let’s just call it a week. Things haven’t really stopped. I... I don’t know really. Maybe? I think if it was ’rushed’ you guys would’ve done it a bit more properly in terms of defences and stuff...”

Gravel sighed and nodded, understanding what Kat was getting at. ”Yes, that’s quite likely. Especially when it seems my advisors are subtly delaying the entire thing. Even if it was for the city’s best I can see them considering the safety to be a high priority. A worry about what was coming in as well as going out. At this point...” Gravel shook his head and glanced over at Steel.

”I can’t say my liege, but evidence does point to... issues regardless,” admitted Steel.

”Alright, in that case, how do we deal with the idea of leaving? Do we use it as a soft exile? Any may leave but most cannot return? Make returning a big process? Ban it entirely? Free travel isn’t something I want to introduce but what are your thoughts, both from a security standpoint and not,” asked Gravel.

”From a security standpoint... I’d really like to just send anyone and everyone who wants to leave away and then allow essentially nobody back in. It would be rough, and cause more problems later on but it would help deal with the immediate pressure. After some time we could set up a system for letting people back inside without the same security worry. Different ones sure, but not the same.

”From a more personal standpoint I’d want to provide a way for people to come back inside before they leave. A limited number certainly though I’m not sure what I’d cap it at. From there, we’d work on allowing those who want to leave and never return to go, while working out a system for people who want to rotate or something similar. Though even that should result in a large loss of privileges in the city. And working out what to do about new citizens, even just the spouses or children of such people will be an interesting challenge,” Steel explained.

”Well get on it then!” grinned Gravel. ”Come see me if you need more specifics but I’ll be leaving that all with you two for the moment.”