“Jacob is looking out for humanity,” Juliet said, “and I don’t think you should blame him for it. Moreover, I can assure you that he doesn’t have any intention of hurting you. You know about the Ancestral Bond, so you know that I can tell what his intentions are.”

Helena was left temporarily without a comeback.

“Plus, he has only done nice things for you so far. And he has not made any move, right?”

Juliet was trying to calm down Helena and make her see reality.

“He still put a sword to my throat,” Helena mumbled.

I’d put you on a skewer, alive, over a nice fire, for what’s worth it.

“But you tried to strike him in the first place, and you tried suppressing him with your aura,” Juliet pointed out.

Which must have been the most moronic thing someone could ever do to the person whom fu**ing taught them how to use auras, she thought.

“He’s still a freak!” Helena started losing her cool again.

You are at the 7th level of the Mantis realm, and you tried to hurt a guy at the 5th stage of the Cockroach realm. So who’s the freak, wh*re?

If it had been up to Juliet, she would have already pummeled Helena’s angelic face. But, instead, it would have given her immense satisfaction.

It was hard to tell what Helena was going to do. Juliet thought she was halfway between crazy and calm now. And that was the only reason why she hadn’t already dismembered her alive: Juliet wanted to smooth things over because she knew Helena was an asset to St. Peter and Jacob.

“I… What should I do now? I can’t go to the dinner,” Helena said.

“You should, instead. Act as nothing has happened. Try to keep a low profile. I’m sure Jacob wouldn’t do anything to make your life harder. Plus, we are leaving tomorrow.”

“Right, you are leaving,” the most beautiful woman in St. Peter said.

Juliet remained silent, choosing to avoid making the situation worse. Helena now needed a bit of time to reflect on what had transpired since no one had ever treated her like Jacob had, unfortunately.

Juliet got up and started walking toward the villa where Jacob had prepared the dinner for the team.

“Juliet, thank you,” she heard Helena say from behind.

Juliet waved a hand in the air and kept going without turning.

…

Everyone was sitting around the table, with Marcus and Lucius bickering about their subordinates.

“You need more people, Lucy,” Marcus said.

“I don’t need people who are going to be a problem for us. I have two capable Mages and one talented Warrior with me, and that’s all I need to be effective.”

“Bah, I have fifteen people!” Marcus said with a roar, proud to be the one with the largest team so far.

“My team is made of twenty-five people,” Juliet said casually while biting a piece of the weird purple lasagna.

“It’s not a contest,” Jacob said, trying not to stare at Helena.

Juliet said that she took care of her. But then I’m surprised Helena is not bloodied.

Jacob felt a kick to his shins from the lovely girl in front of him, the one with whom he shared the Ancestral Bond.

“We have made sure that there are still plenty of people capable of keeping up with the construction of the walls and guarding the city,” Marina added.

She and Luis Albert had gone over the teams that people had formed to ensure that St. Peter wouldn’t be left too open to attacks from Demonic Beasts.

“Well, our first stop is going to be Blacksoil,” Jacob announced, “the scouting teams said that they didn’t suffer many Demonic Beasts attack, but they are running out of food and water. Some people have become violent, but we have distributed some Cultivation Techniques among the general population, and it helped curb the muggings and crimes. There are around 400 people over there, more than St. Peter’s inhabitants. I’ll go make a list of the more unsavory characters, and we will take in the rest based on our Contribution System. You make the announcement, I’ll try and blend in with the crowd.”

“It’s hard to blend in when all these people know each other so well, Jackie,” Aunt Linda said.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m going to say I’m one of the few survivors from Fort Mountain. I’m going to try and stir some trouble and see how people react to that. If I catch any troublemaker, we can put him down for some hard labor and give him a negative score inside the Contribution System.”

“When you say ‘hard labor’, do you mean forcing these people to work against their will?” Marina advanced the question warily.

“Either that, or we have to kill them all before taking them in. St. Peter is small, and just taking in Blacksoil will cause many problems. We need to make sure we know who’s dangerous and who’s willing to help. Empower those willing to contribute to surviving the apocalypse and punish the ones trying to disrupt it.”

“This sounds an awful lot like a fascist idea, Jackie,” her aunt gave voice to her worries.

“Well, it is not going to be a democracy. We do not have a set of rules yet. But when we do write down some, I will be doing the writing because of the experience I have from my… ability.”

“And what if you go too far?” Helena’s voice appeared among the others for the first time that night.

“Sic semper tyrannis,” Jacob winked at her.

“I think that Jacob has a point,” Marcus said with a serious expression, “democracy never worked! Even when it did, only the crooks got the power. We better have one person with brains giving out orders and rules. So far, he has made the right calls. If he ever tries to hurt mankind, we make spaghetti out of him.”

Jacob nodded with great interest to those words.

“I actually agree with Marcus. If you ever think I’m going too far, you can always try and take me down,” Jacob said with some suspense in his voice.

There was going to be a big – huge, even – but.

“If I had not forced you all to fight the Charybdes, everyone in the region would have died. Then, possibly, everyone in their country. Remember that the things I can see thanks to my ability give me a superior understanding of the risks and what’s necessary to do. One of our main priorities is to avoid civil wars, and if I have to act like a goddamn new Mussolini to do it, I will. Saving lives and surviving is our number one priority; freedom of speech, thought, and all the rest can come after we save the goddamn word from the apocalypse.”

Everyone looked stunned by Jacob’s bluntness.