"...then, I would say let's go to the vote. Who agrees to start the first attempt to grow fruit trees in our fields?"
Haku smiled as the Council carried on yet another discussion of the day. Even though he still found the meetings excessively long, he no longer had the urge to finish quickly, so he was willing to wait as long as it took to convince other people of his ideas and let them vote. After all, many things had changed in recent times, and he could finally proceed as slowly as the others wanted.
Three months had passed since the end of the epidemic; exactly ninety-three days, and if they hadn't been in the desert they probably would have begun to sense the arrival of winter. But since they lived in an oasis in the middle of an expanse of sand where it practically never rained, seasonal variation was minimal, materializing only in a change in wind direction due to changing sea currents further north. However, such an absence of variations was not a problem at all, on the contrary: for the village of Iluvatan, which by now had been renamed Iluvatan City, this had been a panacea, given that the absence of seasonal changes also meant stability for crops and therefore easier to grow plants.
Just as Haku had foreseen, once the epidemic was over, the Council had agreed to use the new arable fields for something other than medicinal herbs; part of the fields had obviously been reserved for them, but all the others were now dominated by rows and rows of spinach, lettuce, corn, wheat, barley, carrots, courgettes, green beans, aubergines, peppers, corn, and many other vegetables and edible plants which, thanks to the greater sunlight, the absence of excessive rainfall and the practically non-existence of parasites or diseases given the isolation of the oasis, grew extraordinarily well and with greater speed, replenishing the village's food supplies more and more. This abundance provided jobs for thousands of farmers, who employed about 80% of the population of Iluvatan City which was finally no longer unemployed; thanks to this it was also possible to finally create a commercial system. Official coins had been minted, wages and prices had been created, and eventually the economy had kicked off. Now walking through the streets it was possible to see stalls selling all kinds of food. The economic recovery was also the reason why Iluvatan had gone from being a village to being considered a city: beyond the very large population, the streets and squares had been improved to make way for markets and stalls, numerous bridges had appeared throughout the city to allow people to pass the canal more quickly, fountains had been placed everywhere and numerous new infrastructures had sprung up, such as a huge building that would serve as a healing place for all kinds of diseases that were still coming built. With all these innovations, Iluvatan now resembled a city in all respects, so it was useless to continue calling it a village.
The creation of a functioning economic system and the passage from a simple village to a city could only coincide with a change at the political level. Now that not only a few houses had to be managed, but larger and more important infrastructures, the members of the Council could no longer do everything by themselves; this had led to the creation of the so-called 'neighbourhood administrators', or just administrators in lesser words. Virtually every district received a person designated by the Council who had the task of supervising the situation and maintaining the infrastructures and who had certain powers aimed at maintaining order, such as the possibility of summoning and, if necessary, being obeyed by armed patrols, the have a minimum budget aimed at paying the necessary costs for each construction company, the ability to appeal to the Council at any time, have the power to act as judge during disputes, and so on. Obviously, they still had to inform the Council of their every action or decision, but with this system the members of the Council could concentrate on the problems that concerned the community as a whole, not on the smallest and most futile disputes. The adoption of such a political system could only coincide with a major judicial reform: before then, in fact, it was the members of the Council who administered justice, but since now many disputes had to be handled by other people, it was necessary to draw up a system of laws and rules that was valid for everyone. These laws should not be complex or too specific, they should only establish the cornerstones on which any administrator in resolving a dispute would have to base himself in order to carry out his decision. For example the prohibition of discrimination, the prohibition of theft, and many others. Each trustee was required to know these laws by heart, and forgetting one of them in a trial would cost that person his position.
In short, Iluvatan City was now starting to have a stable economy, laws valid for all, work, political offices; it began to look more and more like a new homeland for all beastmen. No longer just a refuge, but a real home, a place to belong and where one could get all the necessary life experience. There was still a lot to do, but at least the situation was moving towards the better future. And obviously the Council was continuing to try to make the best of that situation: given the success they had had growing vegetables in the desert, now everyone was pressing to increase the arable fields and use them in other ways. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that until a few months ago, many had strongly opposed that idea, and now they seemed to want nothing more than to exploit it more and more. Now the feud was no longer between those who wanted to farm in the desert and those who didn't, but between those who wanted to create new fields to grow crops and those who felt it was necessary to give priority to livestock. For the moment, both factions were achieving small victories: the first had managed to get approval for the cultivation of some climbing plants such as tomatoes, while the second had managed to have some land converted into meadows surmounted by various scaffolding which cast shadows where necessary to graze animals such as cows and pigs. Haku didn't care much which of the two factions won: for him the important thing was that new sources of food were created, so he generally chose at random which one to support. That day, the question had turned to whether they should prioritize cultivating fruit trees or building an area suitable for hosting numerous sand worms, which now thanks to the abundance of food they could feed and then raise to exploit the their ability to survive and regenerate. Haku had voted for the former, since he didn't feel that beastmen still possessed the knowledge and skills to raise those animals safely... and of course, a well-known person voted for the latter knowing full well that it would annoy him. When Haku met the defiant gaze of Tzegorn, who by now had turned into his true and proper opponent and had almost become the spokesman for all those who had it in for him, he limited himself to reciprocating in the same way without giving him the satisfaction of a reaction.
"The votes speak for themselves. The motion to start growing fruit trees is officially approved!" Thora declared after counting the votes. "The session of the Council is adjourned!"
The members of the council got up and left, even those who were not happy with the result; Tzegorn let out a peevish noise and glared at Haku angrily, who retorted with a mocking smile, but neither of them did anything more. Since the day's session was over by now, Haku got up as well and left. As he walked through the streets of the city some turned to look at him, but they were very few; most people had become accustomed to the presence of dragons by now. The fact that they had helped them so much had matured a certain sense of gratitude in almost all of them and constantly seeing the dragons roaming the city had made them almost a normal thing in everyone's eyes. They were still a little reluctant to strike up a conversation with them, but at least they no longer reacted with hostility to their presence. For Haku, those were huge steps forward given the short amount of time he had made them.
Once he was out of the city he went into the forest, and then thence he went down to the lake and sat down on the edge of it. After just ten minutes, there was a rustle and Tzegorn appeared behind him. But unlike before, he didn't seem angry or hostile; on the contrary, he looked at Haku in a somewhat complicit way. "Nice meeting today, brother"
Haku smiled and returned that look. "You can really say that, Keita" he said. "You went hard trying to get others to support the project not mine, sister"
"You're the one who wanted me to act like this asshole tigerman" Tzegorn replied, but this time in a different, more feminine voice; Keita's voice. "Now you can't complain if I continually oppose you. In fact it was what you wanted, wasn't it?"
Haru laughed at his sister's joke. "Yes, you're right," he admitted with a smirk. That was nothing but the latest plan that he had started just before the end of the epidemic. Tzegorn had to die: that was a decision that could not be discussed. The moment he dared to put his family on the line, Haku had decided that the tigerman shouldn't see another day. However, he had no intention of making it disappear. Tzegorn could be useful to him to have more control over the part of the city that didn't tolerate the presence of dragons: having a strong and important figure like Tzegorn, whose hostility towards Haku was well known, would have allowed Haku to find out who all the subjects who were they could really harm his family. Furthermore, controlling Tzegorn also meant gaining control of a large part of the Council's opposition, thus allowing him to pass the laws he deemed essential and wasting time arguing only for the unimportant ones. Luckily, as he'd told the tigerman the day he killed him, he didn't need his whole body intact; in reality he only needed one thing, namely his vocal cords and his respiratory system, so that he could imitate his voice. At that point it was enough to insert these organs into an avatar and then make it possessed by one of his sisters, precisely Keita, who had therefore become his infiltrator in the opposition. As for the rest of Tzegorn's body… well, there was no point in mentioning it, since now the tigerman could no longer harm anyone.
During the first weeks the searches had been fruitless: Keita had impersonated Tzegorn very well and deceived all the members of the Council, often staging false quarrels with Haku to make everything more convincing, but he had not discovered the existence of accomplices or in any case of allies . Tzegorn unfortunately did not keep a diary and was very secretive; this was to be expected, as she was a very careful person and would not leave evidence of her misdeeds lying around so easily. But after a few weeks Keita had managed to find some of the people Tzegorn used as spies; it was hard to tell which were innocent informants and which actually knew of his plans, but either way, it was something. Haku was patient: he knew that over time more and more belligerent people would turn to Tzegorn, since he was the living representation of hostility towards dragons, and therefore sooner or later he would have all the names and faces he needed.
"I talked to Yuko recently" Keita told him. "I've looked into him thoroughly, and I don't think he was involved in the attempt on your life... but he certainly is hostile to you, and it wouldn't surprise me if..."
While she was talking, they suddenly heard a sound of moving water, as if something big had just jumped out of the lake not far from them. The two dragons looked at each other, and then ran towards the source of the sound. When they arrived, they were quite surprised.
A person had appeared on the shore of the lake... but he wasn't a normal person. Up to the waist he had the body of a very light-skinned man, but from the waist down his body was transformed into an abdomen from which six long legs extended; added to his two arms, they made a total of eight, just like the legs of a spider. The man had two very conspicuous eyes, but there were six other smaller ones, and his hair was quite strange, similar to the hairs some spiders had on their legs. He wore a strange brown dress full of embroidery... many of them resembling rampant dragons. But the strangest thing was that as soon as he noticed the presence of the two dragons he didn't get scared, but on the contrary he smiled as if he were a child who had just been offered his favorite sweet. "I never thought I could receive the honor of existing in this glorious moment to be able to witness you. Being in your presence is a source of great joy for me, great Haku"
Haku was somewhat surprised. "How do you know my name?" he asked. "Who are you?"
"Just a humble servant who has been waiting a long time for his master to arrive" that strange spider-like man said, and then, to both Keita's and Haku's surprise, he bowed until his forehead touched the ground. "I am at your service, my king"