Chapter 3: Glorified Major

1. Whats your favorite super class?

2. How many Enas is a barren planet worth? (like an average)

3. What was you favorite part of TLM?

.....

In front of Greenhaven City Hall

"Please repeat after me," an elderly man, dressed in dark blue traditional robes with golden edges, said to me.

"I, Elrin van Vril'okai."

"I, Elrin van Vril'okai," I repeated after him, my expression serious as I wore similar ceremonial robes.

"Swear on my bloodline, life, and honor."

"Swear on my bloodline, life, and honor."

"To act only in the interest of Greenhaven City, Planet Vril'okar, and the Eozarith Republic."

"To act only in the interest of Greenhaven City, Planet Vril'okar, and the Eozarith Republic," I repeated.

Clap

Clap

Clap

Thunderous applause erupted from the crowd as I completed my official pledge of loyalty, which every member of the government and state-employed super had to take.

This was in addition to the system popups, which I was currently trying my best to ignore. The ceremony was sacred, and appearing distracted or disassociating during it could seriously damage my reputation.

Despite this, I was still quite happy, as I had been concerned that this wouldn't count toward followers, especially after my advancement quest failed to be fulfilled by my father's orders.

The old man and I bowed to each other before he exited the stage to the right, and I went straight from the stage into the City's Government building.

"Sir Elrin, congratulations on becoming the governor," said a middle-aged man standing in the hallway.

"Thank you."

My walk from the entrance to my office must have been 100, maybe 150 meters. It felt much longer, though, as various lower-level bureaucrats congratulated me. Some of them weren't content with just offering their congratulations—they tried to extract promises for this or that from me.

Bang

I slammed the door to my office shut and looked around for the first time. It was smaller than my father's, of course, but still quite large—about 10 meters in width and 15 meters in depth.

My new desk was 2 meters by 1 meter, made of dark, almost black wood. The desk, along with the other decorations in the office, suited my taste perfectly. It was relatively dark overall, with a lot of wood used for the floor and walls.

I walked up to my desk and sat in my chair. On the desk sat a keyboard. You could probably write an entire book about this keyboard—it was such a work of art. From its outline, I could tell it was designed for writing in Eozarithian, but it would work for the universal language as well, as there was a 'Switch Language' button in the top-left corner.

Apart from the keyboard, the desk was bare, but to my right were a few buttons labeled 'Home,' 'Summon,' and 'Emergency.'

I guessed that the "Summon" button would call my new assistant, whom I hadn't met yet, and "Emergency" would likely summon some supers through the door.

If I had to guess, I'd also assume that my new apartment was connected to this office, and the third button would open the way to it.

Man, that old City Governor must be really pissed—out of a job and a place to live all on the same day.

Bzzz

I pressed the "Summon" button and didn't even have to wait a few seconds.

Knock Knock Knock

"Come in," I said, slightly amused at the thought that my new assistant had probably been waiting outside for me to call him in.

In came a young man, dressed in a black suit. The funny thing was that, as a human, this man would have looked basically the same as my current body—or my father's, for that matter. But now, as an Eozarithian, I could perfectly differentiate his facial features and would easily be able to pick him out of a crowd.

"What can I do for you, Master?" he asked, bowing as he arrived in front of my desk.

"Introduce yourself," I commanded.

"My name is Verdalis. Your father's assistant, Adrin, is my father. I am 18 years old and awakened as an E-Grade Psycher two years ago. I will be in your service from now until the day I die," the young man responded, with what I could only describe as a hint of joy.

It wouldn't surprise me if Adrin had waited to have children until my mother became pregnant, just so that my future servant/assistant could be the same age as me. He is a very dedicated man.

It also wouldn't surprise me if that hint of joy I detected came from the fact that Verdalis likely knew about the whole drama regarding my reluctance to become governor. This must have been stressful for him, especially since he had probably been trained for this position his whole life.

"Very well. I assume you know about the city of Greenhaven and the governor's position?" I asked him. "Oh, by the way, you may stand straight for this," I added, receiving a nod in response.

"Tell me everything you deem important," I said, knowing full well that I had already done a lot of research on my own. But I had to test him before I could trust him with more important tasks, especially unsupervised ones.

"Greenhaven is the third-largest city by population, with 13,564,300 inhabitants, based on the last count three months ago. It is one of the oldest cities on the planet, being built just 15 years after your ancestors officially colonized the planet."

"The taxes at the city level amount to XXX ena on average. Combined with the XXX ena of planetary taxes, the city has the fourth-highest tax yield, which supports its economy."

"Regarding the budget the previous governor created, it covered all necessary sectors satisfactorily and achieved a surplus for 15 consecutive years, leading to an accumulation of XXX ena in the city's reserves."

"Your position as governor will pay you 1,000 ena per month and comes with many freedoms. I do recommend keeping the schedule of the previous governor, though."

"This would include two meetings per day, where department heads report directly to you, as well as various public appearances or small improvement projects whenever you want. That should cover your duties while still providing plenty of free time on an adjustable basis."

"What happened to the old governor?" I interrupted him.

"He got very, very unlucky. A student at the First Republic School in Greenhaven City awakened as a Mechanic a month and a half ago." My eyes went wide at this info, not quite understanding how that could be considered bad luck.

Not every race was as lucky as humans. If you looked at the supers of the human race, there would be about 20% Mechanics, 20% Espers, 20% Psychers, 20% Mages, and 20% Pugilists.

This is generally the case for Star System Grade civilizations, in which every one of those types had all the resources and knowledge to awaken. So, if we ignore planetary civilizations—where Espers are almost always the most common type of super—the equal distribution humans get is very desirable.

Unfortunately, Eozarithians were not so lucky, with the following distribution:

~50% Espers

~25% Mages

~15% Psychers

~10% Pugilists

~less than 1% Mechanics

A lot could be done with magitech, but far from everything. And even with a lot of 'hired hands,' there was still a great deal of crucial infrastructure that could only be built and maintained by mechanics of one's own blood. Or, why do you think all virtual mechanics guarding the universal civilization's most secret data were their own people?

In other words, a mechanic of our race was a precious discovery, and every one we lost was absolutely devastating. This was a bad situation for our civilization, but it could always be worse. After all, there are many civilizations that can only have one type of super. These hard cases were usually mechanical lifeforms or the descendants of Beyond Grade A Supers.

My assistant smiled a little, as he could see my skepticism.

"The thing is, the First Republic School of Greenhaven City is the best school in the city, which the previous governor's son also attended. Let's just say that not disciplining his son more strictly may have resulted in some unnecessary hardships in his life."

"In good news, the previous governor is very optimistic about regaining his position once you inevitably get a promotion. After all, this is only a 'show' punishment, meant to avoid alienating that lucky young man. He should do his best in his new advisory role," my assistant explained.

"Leaving the governor aside, what factions do we need to be aware of, especially regarding supers?" I continued to inquire, curious since the previous city governor had been removed from office after a super-related offense.

"The biggest super-related organizations are a few schools in the city, along with us, the city government. Occasionally, a new super awakens and founds or joins a gang, but that is quite rare. Other than that, there aren't really a lot of supers here."

"Most of the few hundred that awaken each year will either join training institutions on Eozapter 1 or work directly for a government institution, as you are likely aware. So all supers in the city are either teachers or law enforcement."

"In other words, they are registered and not above D-Grade," he finished.

I could definitely say that he passed my little test. He had gathered more information than I could, and the pieces I could verify were true.

"Please handle the schedule as you suggested, but I want to have a meeting with all the department heads tomorrow, first thing in the morning."

"As you command. Do you have any other tasks for me?" Verdalis asked.

"Yes, dig into the department heads a bit more. See if there are any that will become a problem in the next three to five years," I answered, planning to make my job here as easy as possible.

"If we are alone, you may address me by my name. You won't have to bow either," I said, before gesturing for him to leave.