Ruler Of Iron And Flesh

Barry took the automatons and left the city. Alaric felt reassured that his first real city was that much more reinforced. Sarah kept a few of the automatons to strengthen her defense along the Southern border of his kingdom.

Alaric's mind was racing; it seemed like the growth of his kingdom was happening far too slowly, when in reality, it is growing at an unprecedented speed.

The canal was dug up, and clean water was brought to the city. It saved a lot of effort and time, having the water quickly available.

The streets of his new city are clean, and traders came in, bringing supplies and furniture as well. The people cheered when they saw entire shipments of mattresses come in.

Farms had been started along the Northern border, with a thousand people tending them. They didn't have to worry about the threat of monsters anymore since Alaric has ordered all monsters to stay away from the Reark Kingdom's citizens. This allowed them to farm in open space, without the need to build up walls or find a hidden location away from monsters.

Elden Hold was strengthened with automatons and human guards. When Eli went through the streets asking for volunteers, many offered up to serve as soldiers for the new Kingdom.

Eli was standing next to Alaric, "I think a mix of black with red and purple will be a good set of colors for our Kingdom. Purple represents royalty, while the black and red represent power. It will let other nations know that we are not a kingdom to be messed with and that our growth is inevitable."

"I like the colors, but not the meaning. Say that those colors will represent the peace that will sweep over the world. This is for the people, not for other nations or leaders."

"Okay, I'll get that done, Alaric. The new soldiers will get a standard uniform, and I'll make something special for you too."

Alaric was only half-listening, "okay."

Eli sighed and dropped his pen and paper, "Alaric, what's on your mind, man?"

Alaric was suddenly brought back to reality, "huh?"

Eli sat down across the meeting table, "You're absent-minded all the time. Your mind is present one minute, and then somewhere else the other. What are you thinking about now?"

Alaric chuckled emptily, "nothing gets past you. I thought that there have been no reports of an attack on our Eastern or Southern border. Are we missing something? Do the Empire and Irigia not even consider us a threat?"

"You're overthinking it, Alaric. We are a threat to their power. However, they've failed to kill you several times, so they're going to play it carefully now that you are a legitimate ruler, and you have Weton on your side. Rudor is almost yours as well. I'm sure they both feel the threat of war coming."

Alaric nodded, "I've created about 10,000 more automatons. Although they are all only model one. We've been trading with Rudor to get some mid-tier airsh.i.p.s as well as mid-tier and high-tier mechas. We also have that behemoth level airship we stole from Irigia. Our military is expanding, but our funds are almost out."

"Don't worry about that. Ranid and Trostan were rich in natural resources. We've had people volunteer as miners and foresters. Many people also started doing the jobs they had before Inian's monsters swept over Trostan and Ranid. Our funds are slowly increasing again."

Alaric stood up, "okay. I want to check on our Southern border. Barry has his hands full trying to guard the Eastern border, but I don't expect an attack anytime soon from the Empire. I am worried about an attack from Irigia, though."

"Okay! Take a few hundred of your automatons with you, in case you're attacked. Also, I should have your special outfit made in about a week."

Alaric clicked his tongue, "fine; I'll take some automatons. But I won't be happy about it."

Alaric walked outside the keep to find a couple of hundred Reark soldiers patrolling Elden Hold's grounds.

They waved at Alaric when they saw him come out. Alaric waved back and jumped into the air, unfurling the wings on his back.

The people clapped and cheered when he did that, and Alaric chuckled. They were surprised and shocked when they first saw him do that, but now they see it and become excited.

He flew to the West first, where he saw his ten thousand automatons being overlooked by a few selected commanders.

The selected commanders used to be a part of the army for Ranid or Trostan but were selected as commanders by Eli when he interviewed them.

Alaric landed, and the nearest commander bowed, "your majesty, how can we help you?"

"Eli wants me to take a few hundred automatons as a guard. I'm going to check on our Southern border."

"Understood, your majesty." The commander overlooked the machines and barked, "company's one and two, fly up and guard Alaric with your life!"

Alaric jumped into the air, and around 400 automatons followed him.

'This is such overkill,' Alaric thought. But he made Eli his logistics commander, so he'll defer to him on some things, even though he will always have the final decision.

He flew for a little while and eventually made his way to the Southern border, located at the border of Irigia and the now Reark Kingdom.

Several defensive structures have been constructed, and a command center had been set up a little ways back, so Alaric landed just outside the command center, and the automatons waited outside for him.

Walking inside the center, he could see a dozen people talking and moving maps or papers with numbers listed on them around. Sarah was at the center of it all, pointing at a massive map laid out on a table.

Several of the military administrative assistants stopped and bowed when they saw Alaric, "your majesty! Welcome."

Sarah looked up, "King Alaric! I was just about to send a messenger to get you. There's some trouble."

Alaric walked over and raised an eyebrow, "what kind of trouble?"

Sarah answered, "we sent a model three automaton to scout and reported back, but they didn't come back. So we sent a few human scouts, and they gave a report that is...bad news."

She pointed to the map on the table, "Irigia has a massive army that is gathering here, and they have two behemoth level machines, and several hundred mechas and airsh.i.p.s. That's not even the worse part."

Alaric could feel his heart racing, "there's more?!"

Sarah nodded, "the scouts also reported soldiers wearing bright colors that didn't originate from anywhere on this continent." Her tone grew dark, "Predo has gotten involved in this fight now."