The night had passed and the sun rose back up again. From today, everyone would be immensely busy for a while. A big change was going to happen.
And at the epicentre of it was Caster.
It was dawn currently, sun had barely rose. But Caster already started moving to the camp at the outer settlements.
He was nervous.
He had done the riskiest part already, yet right now... he felt more nervous than ever.
[The first fragment, 'The fourth wall' has grown thin due to increased immersion.]
It seems Caster was viewing the world as part of it, not someone with the perspective of a god.
However, on the surface at least, he calmly walked over to the outer settlements. He couldn't afford to look weak, ever.
And it is not like he had some tall task. He just needed to give another speech, like he has in the past.
Still, he was sort of worried, he didn't know if revealing that he overtook Gunlaug already was a good idea or not. It could create some variables, potentially, Harus' being the main one.
Soon, he was at the camp. He needed to gather everyone around him as soon as possible. But the first person he went to was Effie. She had not left yet, she'd probably leave sometime today or tomorrow to pick up the original trio.
Before reaching the hut Caster summoned the cloak and removed it from his shoulders, and just held it in his hands.
Upon reaching it, Caster entered Effie's hut after knocking once, Effie had allowed him to come in any time. And Effie was naked as usual.
Caster simply covered her with the cloak he summoned and shook on Effie to wake her up.
After a lot of shaking, Effie finally opened her eyes and with a yawn, she stretched her hands above her head and sat up. The cloak fell to her lap.
"What? You're back already?"
"Yeah."
"So what happened? Did you win?"
"Of course, loosing with the puppeteering abilty would be embarrassing."
Effie chuckled, still not summoning clothes.
"Effie."
Caster gave her a glare.
Effie made a weird face before summoning her armor.
"Uhh, can't you simply enjoy the view? People would die for it."
Ignoring that, Caster continued.
"Moving on, I overthrew Gunlaug, became the king, and his lieutenants are now mine."
"Whoa... No retaliation?"
"No major one at least. He gave me the echo infront of them, so they simply had no choice but to trust 'his' word on it. And I'm the strongest now anyways."
Effie simply nodded.
"Yeah."
"Well anyways, I now have a shit ton of work to do. The first of it is to migrate the people from the outer settlements to the castle."
Effie seemed slightly shocked. She didn't seem to believe that the lieutenants would just allow for it. It would mess up the order a lot. But it seems that Caster convinced them.
She let out a proud smile.
"Guess I'm getting a better bed."
Caster chuckled.
"That's what you are excited for?"
After a slight pause he continued again.
"Well, in short, I need to make an announcement to everybody here. Mind gathering up the lot for me?"
Effie slightly glared at Caster.
"You only come to me when you want something from me. Hmph. And here I thought you came just to update me on things. Way to ruin my mood!"
Caster didn't make eye contact with her and let out a nervous chuckle.
Effie let out a laugh and slapped Caster's back 'Lightly'.
"Gee, I'm just kidding!"
"Ow..."
After that she got up and stretched a bit more. Following her, Caster got up as well and walked out of the hut.
The two split up. Caster went and simply stood on top of his own hut and waited. He was simply looking at the rising sun with crossed arms and a serious look.
Eventually he heard really loud metallic banging and a screech that could have been mistaken for a nightmare creature.
"WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UUUUUP!"
It was god damned Effie.
'Noisy... but it's efficient.'
The entire camp readily woke up an got out of their places hurriedly, anticipating an emergency. However, what they saw was different. There was no emergency, just Effie calling out everyone. But soon, everyone gathered themselves when they saw Caster calmly standing atop his hut.
They knew this could only mean one thing, an announcement.
After all of the five hundred people gathered here, Caster finally spoke up, easing the tension in the crowd.
"Good Morning everybody. Before, I used to greet you all as the leader of this settlement. But today! I will greet you as the new Bright Lord."
It was an outroar. They could not believe it.
Some people shouted in excitement, hope and in anticipation of a new era for them. A new and better life.
Some people shouted in disbelief.
And some people shouted in doubt. After all, no matter how strong, how could someone who has been on the shore for just a few months defeat the immortal bright lord?
But many were simply too stunned to speak out something.
Seeing this Caster held his hand forward, signalling them to quiet down. And they did.
Just a few seconds later, the entire settlement was dead quiet.
"We all, will now be able to live in the Bright Castle, and bring peace and stability to our lives for at least a moment."
With a slight pause, to increase the dramatic effect, Caster continued.
"For the next week or so, I will bring near hundred people everyday from the outer settlements to the Castle, until the entire settlement is empitied. So I want all of you to start preparing to leave."
Effie was looking at Caster with a smile on her face, seemingly happy with the outcome.
"I will set a priority order to enter the castle. Those who are more vulnerable and weak will leave first. My combatants will stay here the longest, and protect the others while I am taking the others to the castle. Obviously, if I could, I'd let all of you enter at once, but we'll need to take a little more time. But..."
The entire settlement was focusing on Caster's next words.
"...Whether or not you are weak or don't have skills, or anything like that... you all will need to work at the bright castle. When you enter, you all will immediately be in contact with the lieutenants of the bright castle. They'll assign you work based off your skillset."
Caster paused again for a moment, considering his next words carefully.
"I wish for none of you to be liabilities, I wish for all of you to be responsible. So please, try living upto my expectations. I wish the best for you all, for all of us! That will be all."
The entire camp cheered. The tremors from those sounds echoed far beyond just the settlements. They reached the castle and the dark city.
'So excited... these ones.'
Caster couldn't help but let out a quiet chuckled.
After the crowd calmed down a bit, questions started pouring out of them regarding a lot of the complications.
Most of this was discussed with the lieutenants but the people didn't know. And they needed concrete answers to settle down.
The most common question came out to be related to food. Regarding how the food will be collected, will they be provided food or materials and similar stuff.
The second most common question came out to be if they needed to pay tribute.
Caster completely denied that. He said no person will need to pay tribute as long as they work at the castle. And even if they didn't start work immediately, they can live for now.
They'll be provided with work after all people settle in.
So no one needs to pay tributes.
This eased a lot of the worries that many people had.
Following that Caster started sorting the people who'll leave for the castle today. Preference was given to the weak as he said before.
It took a while but the people for the first day were decided. Caster immediately sent them to start packing all the little things they have here.
In the meanwhile, he started sorting out the other people.
For the first day about eighty people were selected. For the second day another eighty people were selected.
They were all in a rush so as soon as they got selected, they went to pack their stuff.
The combants of Caster were told that they'll leave on the last day. There were about eighty of them as well.
And like that, every person was sorted and given which day they'll leave this place.
Everyone was hyper and excited.
Effie would be one of the last ones as well, since she will be out for a mission. She might even be the last one together with the original trio.
'I hope she doesn't feed them weird lies about me...'
While that would be funny, its not something he'd want to happen...
When Caster was done with all this, he finally noticed the murmering. The outer settlements used to never have moments as lively as this. But bringing life to such a place... it felt like a miracle.
Soon the first batch of people had gathered up. Caster looked at them with a slight smile before turning away, and moving forward towards the Castle.
"We leave this place today!"
With another cheer, the people started moving with Caster.
And Caster felt good.