A whole week passed since the kidnapping incident. In a sense, they completed the mission as Renna, the young elven girl, was brought back safely...but not without casualties.

Originally, King Adrian would have a major event 2 days after the rescue in order to announce to the citizens the next step of the kingdom. But ever since the incident, King Adrian has locked himself up in his study room for an entire week.

"Is King Adrian still eating well? What is he doing..." Grant said to Braum. They were currently outside the study room's door.

"He's working. For the entire week, he has been working. He told me and General Tobias to tighten security along our and the elven border while he is rushing to create various reforms to develop the kingdom faster. *sigh* I am worried as well but the King just had a traumatic experience so this might be one way to deal with it...How is it going on your end?" Braum asked Grant.

Grant replied. "These mercenaries are not simple. We are having a hard time finding any more traces of them, even with the help of Detective Bedford it's taking a while. Well, the mercenaries themselves are not that strong and intelligent but..."

"Slaven. That person. He's probably the brain. Without him, we would've already dealt with the mercenaries long ago. How many people do you think they have?" Braum asked.

"Hard to tell for now. But he said his goal is to enslave the entire elven race. Knowing that he could be hiding thousands of mercenaries in our region. With that number, it's reasonable to believe that they probably have multiple bases." Grant answered.

"Well, keep trying...the only thing that struck me weird is that one of the elves seem to know who Slaven is," Braum said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Grant's voice showed surprise.

"You weren't there. The King and I reported what we witnessed to the high elders of the elves and Chief Kylantha. When we mentioned Slaven's name, one of them reacted to hearing the name...very subtly. One of the elders...But I can't really question him since he's so high up in the elven tribe." Braum answered.

Braum stared at Grant for a while after saying that.

"I got it. I'll investigate." Grant replied. "What about the elven girl? King Adrian specifically requested the elves that he would take her to this castle and raise her personally after hearing she did not have any family members left...I wasn't sure if that was a good idea." Grant continued.

"Renna is doing fine. Sometimes she cries without any warning but the presence of King Adrian, her survivor, always calmed her. I think leaving her with the elves would've been worse since it'll make her grief about her brother even more. She's probably in there right now." Braum looked at the study room's door before turning back to Grant again. "Well. I'll get going now. The King had me working extra hard as well....let me tell you, the direction he's going to take this time is quite unique." Braum continued.

"I'll get going too. The event is tomorrow. I'll need to make sure everything is secure." Grant replied before disappearing in a flash of light.

Braum looked at the disappearing Grant before also walking the opposite direction.

--

A young girl was laying on the floor reading a book. The book seemed to be aimed towards children as there were colorful illustrations with the texts being less pronounced. The girl's ear was long and her beautiful blonde hair was scattered on the floor. She was Renna, the young elven girl.

"King Adrian...let's play again." She looked up from her book towards a man who was busy writing documents on his desk. King Adrian was out of his suit but he was still wearing the white shirt underneath with his upper part unbuttoned. The current season was summer so it was quite hot and moist, even indoors.

King Adrian stopped writing and looked at Renna on the floor while smiling. "We'll play after tomorrow, okay? After the event tomorrow, we'll take a tour of the whole city!" King Adrian said cheerfully.

"Yay! I want to see the city!" Renna replied.

King Adrian flashed a bittersweet smile. 'I am glad she is starting to recover....the first few days she was here, she couldn't stop crying about her brother's death at all. I had to calm her down on my lap while I was working. I'm glad...' King Adrian thought.

'Slaven...In the name of Vathria, I'll hunt you down.' King Adrian said in his mind.

Renna stood up from the floor and approached the desk.

"King Adrian, what are you working on, anyway?" Renna looked at the desk with curiosity.

"Well, here's the list." King Adrian showed Renna the list.

1. Military Reform-Establishment of ranks and divisions,

2. Trade Reform-Innovation and startup incentives

3. Education Reform- 12 years of basic education and re-establishing universities

4. Mages Reform- Establishment of a Mage Academy and towers

5. Agricultural Reform-Crop rotation, pesticide, mass-production

6. Manufacturing Reform-Establishment of factories and mass-production lines

7. Finance Reform-Establishment of banks and the new cashless card.

8. Homeland Security Reform-Establishment of formal identifications and passports

9. Foreign Relations Reform- Establishing trade cooperations with other nations

10. Domestic Security Reform-Establishment of the Police force.

11.

12

The list went on and on.

"Whoah.....you worked on this for the whole week? Alone?" Renna's mouth was wide open.

"Well...not just this week. Here." King Adrian handed Renna a book. The book was titled 'Contingency of Losing The War: Rebuilding Vathria in a New World'.

"What is this?" Renna inspected the book. Unlike other books she had seen, this book was made crudely and did not seem intricate.

"I made that 10 years ago when I was 15. You see, I had come up with a plan to re-establish the kingdom if we lose the war....which happened. That's why I'm here right now." King Adrian replied.

"Can I read this?" Renna said with starry eyes. It seemed she was fascinated by it.

"Of course." King Adrian replied.

Renna started to open and skimmed through the book. "Are you sure you're able to do all this?" Renna said with an amazed face. She did not read everything yet but she got the gist of it.

"Well, I don't know yet. Truth be told, many of the reforms will not be completed for a long time and may take years...but...our population is limited and our kingdom is still small. We're sitting ducks if we can't compete with other kingdoms and threats....let alone the evil forces." King Adrian replied.

"Can't we elves help you? Perhaps if we all come here you can do it faster!" Renna said happily.

King Adrian snickered. "I wished it was that simple. We're still two distinct groups and although I made a blood pact with your chief, it doesn't mean everyone trusts one another yet. But sure, if all the elves help with our development, it would be much faster." King Adrian replied.

"We should!!! I'll tell Chief Kylantha next time! We elves are too suspicious about everything! Even when people like you come to help us! My brother was also—" Renna started rambling but stopped when she mentioned her brother.

Renna's face started to tear up again. "My brother...."

King Adrian got up from his seat and pulled Renna to his lap. He put Renna's head on his chest. "Sshhh sshhh. There there. C'mon. I'll play with you now."

"Hic hic" Renna cried on his shoulder. This was something usual for the last 7 days. She would suddenly start to cry when she remembered her brother, even after she tried so hard to take her mind off it.

King Adrian and Renna stayed like that for a while.