The castle is now bustling with activity. The women designated as cooks, waitresses and those in charge of cleaning are now preparing for their work today.
Not long after, the soldiers staying in the castle also wake up and the lucky ones who spent the night outside enter through the door with a smile on their faces... perhaps they noticed that I'm envious of them since they quickly left from where I am sitting with Saeko
Finally the other girls in my room also came down, so Saeko and I went to the dining room along with them. As we sat down, the others in our group also started arriving one by one and sat at our table.
The following hours continued as a normal day for everyone, Kurisu, Saya, and Shizuka went to their respective departments to work. The others in the group also went to do their jobs, so when Hirano intended to leave in order to repair the military vehicles, I go along with him to fulfill what I had said to Yoshioka before. I leave a few vehicles for the mechanics to focus on while I store the rest of the vehicles in my inventory in order to move them.
Then I go to the parking lot of the castle and place them in the most colorful and orderly way I can so they would give a great impression to our future guests.
It seems that Yoshioka gave the soldiers the carbon nanotube suits which we took from the military base yesterday… Seeing all the people wearing those suits really gave a sense of unity and the feeling that they belonged to only one group.
By an agreement between the leaders to create a better order among the soldiers, the military green carbon suits were given to the normal soldiers, while the black ones obtained from some police stations were worn by the captains and people with a high range inside the camp.
The only exception to this is my group which kept their old black uniforms, although there is probably no complaint since they had a higher level than most captains and performed very well killing zombies, so they would be like a Special Forces unit in the camp.
It is a pity that most of the equipment obtained from military base would have to remain stored, as the population had not grown so much in recent days, we could not afford to promote people to the rank of soldiers. It was better to have the equipment just in case we need to increase the soldiers rather than having no equipment while needing more soldiers.
We continued arranging things for a few hours until the scheduled time for the meeting arrives.
"No one has arrived yet... I wonder if they will come."
"I don't know if all the camps we asked will agree to it, but I think many will attend... fufufu, but they will probably arrive later than the agreed time so they would feel more important"
The four leaders stayed at the entrance door of the camp waiting, then the Takagi couple talks to each other. At first, I was a little disappointed not to see any of those group arrive, but after listening to what Yuriko-san said, I must agree with her words.
These leaders are rulers of their own territories so they probably think they have the right to make us wait. Although that bothers me a bit, I can't be as childish as they do if I want the next plans to be easier to make.
While we were looking at the road the first group shows up... seeing the patrol and police cars, we recognize who they are immediately.
The cars stop in front of the walls and a group of men dressed in police uniforms descends from them. Then a man in his 50s or 60s with a thick mustache and a little overweight directs his team to where we are.
"We've come as you asked, what did you want to talk about?"
"Old man, let's wait a little longer for other groups and then we can talk"
"…all right"
After waiting a little longer another group of cars approaches MLDW. This time the ones walking towards us is a group of women... then Rina, positioned at the front of their formation, stops a few meters away from us.
"Boy, we have come but don't think you can make us work for free just because you helped us last time, if what you have to say is not convenient for our group, we will leave immediately"
"Do not worry, what we'll discuss is something that will benefit all the groups of survivors, but if you do not want to participate in that, your group are free to do so"
"Hmn! We'll see."
She snorts with her nose and answers me.
After the passage of a little more time. More groups arrive at our camp and upon seeing them, I can say that there is a great variety of types of people among their leaders.
The ones that catch my attention the most is a young man in his 20s with a sword at his waist and a beauty on each arm talking happily with him... well, I don't care about him... haa, it's a shame that he probably already ate them.
"His group was initially formed by people from a university... what I know of their leader is that he was the Kendo captain of this university. Their camp is located in a large mansion on the edge of the city, they have about 500 people, but…
I have heard that it is a very promiscuous group... all the leaders of this group have at least 10 to 20 women. It seems that the girls were not forced or mistreated so that's a good thing."
Shit! That guy has been living every man's dream! ... Easy, Alexander. What matters is quality and not quantity, each of the girls next to me is worth 10 of theirs, so I win.
"Hahaha, what's up little girl. You want oni-chan to hug you too"
"Hiii"
A shiver runs through my back at his words and I instinctively prepared my weapons. Seeing my movements, Saeko who is next to me quickly grabs me by the back, but all this goes unnoticed because another leader who was next to that young man shrieked and moved away from the young man quickly.
"What's wrong with you?"
"D-don't talk to me! We don't know each other... you're just a fool who doesn't know anything... you'll probably die without knowing what happened"
"W-what do you mean?"
The young man asked
The man who shrieked didn't even bother answering him and continued to move away from that place... I think I've seen that guy before ... while I was trying to remember, Yuriko-san who is close to me solve my doubts.
"He is the leader of a camp of one 300 survivors... last time, he witnessed how you killed the Bakasan group..."
"Who?"
"... the guy with the suit you argued before"
Oh, now I remember, he was there when my Venus ate that guy... that explains the reaction and the words of that man, but he exaggerates a little, I won't kill the young man just because I feel a little envious of him.
"You are a fool... the person you spoke to is one of the leaders of this camp, he probably only need to send a group of his men and all your team would be annihilated... also I have heard that he is a man, so instead of flirting with him, you should be more worried about he not taking your women away from you. "
The leader of another group that was also nearby the young man tries to clarify his doubts
"E-eh? Is he a man?"
He was surprised to hear this and looked at me wtih disbelief...
Well, now maybe I'll kill him ...
"The leader wearing glasses who spoke just now had a food company before the apocalypse. Through it and his good head he was able to gather many people, his camp is the factory that is located on the edges of the city, they have about 700 members there "
Yuriko-san who was in charge of interacting with other camps gives me the information she has...
Just by looking at him, I can say that this guy looks quite smart.
After waiting for about an hour after the agreed time, I decided to start the meeting with the people who came. I look at all of them outside our camp and raising my voice I speak to them.
"Well, we will start the meeting with the people who attended... if someone else comes later, we will decide whether or not to integrate them into the future plans that I will tell everyone.
Because there would be too much disorder if all of us were to participate in the meeting, only the leaders and two companions can come. Others will have to wait for their leaders outside"
Many of them frown at my words, it seems that several of the leaders are uncomfortable about the conditions. A few seconds later one of them complain.
"How can we be sure that you don't want to eliminate us?"
"That is very simple to answer... if I wanted to eliminate you, we wouldn't need to resort to this kind of tactic as we can do it directly"
I answer that guy while smiling
I can see that many of them didn't like what I said but they still accept my words in the next instant. Well, they are leaders who have survived so long with their groups after all, so they are not dumb. Most of these groups fight using sharp weapons, so they immediately accept that what I said is true.
Without waiting for more complaints or words from them I turned around continued walking. The ones from my camp immediately follows me and seconds later, other leaders also walked behind them.
The doubts about what I said were all cleared once they see all the military cars lined up in the castle parking lot... these vehicles may not work but they do not know that. They also see the two rows of soldiers on each side of the road that leads to the castle. Each one of the soldiers are holding a rifle and on their waist is a handgun as a secondary weapon. It is certainly a great and intimidating sight for all of them.
What they probably feel now is the same as what the kings from ancient times felt when they visited even greater kingdoms.
In the meeting room of the castle that had been prepared previously, the four MLDW leaders took the main seats located at the end of the table, leaving the sides for the other leaders.
After everyone had taken a seat, the first to break the silence is Rina who doesn't seem to be very affected by what she saw in the castle's courtyard.
"Was a show of power necessary?"
"Fufufu, we just wanted to receive everyone respectfully"
Yuriko-san tries to relax the tense atmosphere that formed after the words of Rina. Everyone knew that what she said were only excuses, but they agree not to continue with the subject.
"Those should be the equipment from the military base of this city... do you know that stealing it is a very serious crime?"
"I don't care. I found that on an expedition, so now it belongs to me."
The Soichiro-Messiah says something meaningless, so I only answer with an excuse that first came to my mind.
The Soichiro-Messiah frowns even more and no one continued on this topic and just kept quiet.
"Hahaha, he is right, the rules our world is now different so whoever finds something gets to keep it. Probably many of the groups here tried to go for those weapons with that idea in mind, but since that was a region full of zombies, they weren't able to do it."
The young man who hugged two girls before enters the conversation while laughing cheerfully. The other leaders agreed with his words and even I could not deny what he said. It was something already known to all the people that the laws to which the policeman still clung to stopped working long ago.
"Let's talk about the important things for which they called us, I don't think we're here to discuss about our beliefs and values."
The leader with glasses speaks
"That is right, we should start with the issue of why everyone was invited to attend this meeting. As everyone knows, a few days ago a zombie emerged and destroyed the Gloterus camp and was about to repeat that with the group of Rina"
"...it was not certain that the same thing happened to us... although I cannot deny that this zombie made us go through a bad time"
Not wasting any more time I start exposing what happened recently as an introduction. Most leaders nod as they had received that information from us and heard of the attack on those two groups, but they didn't really know the risk and can only assume what happened at that time. The only ones who witnessed the danger of this kinds of zombies are Gloterus and Rina.
Gloterus nods to what I say, but Rina probably not wanting to appear weak tries to keep her group from looking as bad as I say.
"Unfortunately I don't think that those kind of zombies are an isolated case and won't happen again as everyone has seen them evolve. For each day that passes, there is a higher chance that those types of zombies will reappear... or maybe the next one to appear will be much worse.
That is why I called all the leaders, we cannot afford to give more time for the zombies to evolve because if we just leave them be… All of us and all of our camps will be at risk. "
I get to the main topic and all the leaders listen to me with serious faces, as the evolution of the zombies is something that everyone has witnessed, no one is unfamiliar to this and understand the risk.
"Yes, we all understand what you say, since with each expedition that we do to collect rescources, the number of evolved zombies are greater"
"That is true, and if we all focus on collecting the things that are on the edges of the city, these resources will be depleted much faster. So the only alternative is to go deeper into the city... but the risk is much greater"
"If it weren't because of your camp deciding to help us by selling food and other necessities in exchange for those useless crystals of the zombies, many of our groups would experience heavy casualties because we had to go deeper inside the city."
"Yes"
"He is right"
As expected everyone has similar points of view and immediately speak with words of affirmation to what I say, even some leaders do not forget to try and get to my good side by praising us and expressing how much of a humanitarian we are.
"But is there anything we can do to prevent zombies from evolving?"
The young leader goes straight to the main problem, it seems that he not only uses his hip but also his head. Well, if it were just someone lustful, he probably wouldn't be the leader of his camp.
"... there may not be a way to prevent zombies from evolving, but there is a way to control and reduce the appearance of these, but doing so is still very difficult..."
The leader with glasses answers the young man's question and the other leaders look at him with interest waiting for him to continue, but he looks towards my direction instead as if he is waiting for me to say so. The others also put their eyes on me, so I have no choice but to continue where he left them.
"Glasses is right, the solution to keep the number of evolved zombies from continuing to increase is very logical. If the number of normal zombies decreases, then the number of those who evolve will also do so.
And this would be the reason why I called you to this meeting, I want to attack the city center in order to decrease the number of zombies "
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Written by:
Drack
Edited by:
Vyrphax
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Hello everyone!!
Thanks to everyone for your support and reading SES, now there are 25 people who support the novel. Remember to visit my (p-a-t-r-e-o-n) so this novel can continue, no matter the amount of contribution Alexander and I will be very grateful and you will have the benefit of being able to read the chapters before the others.
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https://www.patreon.com/Drack21
Is seems that WN is baned the word (p-a-t-r-e-o-n), so "*******" is (p-a-t-r-e-o-n) without "-"
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Thanks for reading SES, see you in the next chapter.