Marina fidgeted on the spot, something rarely seen from her. She ventured her hand forward multiple times before taking it back right after. Her mouth slowly unsealing and then closing shop once again.

She knew about Jacob’s past and she had taken it in strides as the practical woman she was. But what she did not expect was the appearance of another man from the future; and this one was completely unlike Jacob. He was tall, handsome and talented. He looked like what people thougth a perfect human being should look like.

She sat on the humble chair to her back and simply kept listening.

Jacob had called her and all her subordinates to listen.

They had to form a stretched semicircle around him to avoid obscuring his short form to someone else.

“So, you have the most important parts of the story. We came back to fight the Dragons and the Hydras. Nothing changes, we just became stronger after adding Hektor to our force,” Jacob gestured with his head toward the other man.

To Marina it seemed like this Hektor was barely managing to keep quiet. He squirmed, twisted and turned on the spot; he buzzed. Even without saying a word, his energy vibrated in synch with every move he made, magnifying the effect of every smile and movement he made.

Even now, a warm smile and a slight rise of his eyebrows communicated much more Jacob even did.

“Hektor, if you want to say a few words,” Jacob spoke to his new subordinate.

“Thank you! Thank you both, Jacob and dear St. Peter’s citizen! I know one of you among this crowd fought with Charybdes, the most terrible scourge on the planet! Please, come forward so that I may shake your hand and congratulate your courage!”

Marina instantly felt every eye pointed on her.

I can’t act like a thirteen years old.

She coughed and composed herself before walking toward the man.

His smile hit her harder than a truck ever could.

“Oh! You are Marina, right? Do you mind if I take your hand?” Hektor spoke fast but with intent.

“What? Sure?”

Before she even finished, the man crouched a bit, took her hand and put that into the air, shouting at his full-lungs: “We shall celebrate in the future such an exemplary warrior! Look at her, people! If you haven’t fought the nightmares that haunt even me during the night, you have no idea what she had to face! But let me tell you, before anyone started thinking I’m exaggerating: I am the Vermillion Tyrant, and I was one of the strongest warriors on Earth! Few could even scratch my skin! And I respect and admire the courage of this woman! So, let me hear something for her, now!”

The Vermillion Tyrant did use Qi to enhance his voice at the last part and everyone cheered as a reflex. However, there was no weird Magic nor Qi nor trick at play; in a way, the crowd wasn’t conscious they were doing it.

That was just the Vermillion Tyrant charisma, plain and simple.

Marina knew some people in positions of power have a natural halo that commands respect even without their title. If you met an ex-President of a Country, you would still feel he had been there.

And the Vermillion Tyrant had been much more than a simply President, that was clear to Marina.

“Men and women of St. Peter,” he boomed again, “I came here to pledge my allegiance to Jacob, the greatest-bar-none hero humanity has ever had! He will succeed where I failed!”

This time, the Vermillion Tyrant didn’t even have to ask for it.

The small crowd went crazy and that was the end of the speech.

Marina had to think hard and long about Luis Albert to avoid having inappropriate thoughts about that meeting.

…

“You couldn’t help you, could you?” Jacob sighed.

“I think they liked it,” Hektor smiled to him. “And I’ll tell you more, I think you liked it too.” The Vermillion Tyrant tried to jokingly punch his shoulder.

Jacob took the joking punch and smirked.

“Telling them something more informative would have been nicer. They are going to be the one relaying the story to everyone, since we can’t possibly put together every single person now that we have, how many people did you say you brought?”

“I brought five thousand here, but I have saved many more and left those who weren’t ready to fight inside L’Aquila with some of my best warriors to protect them.”

Jacob had known that the numbers would be ridiculous, but this was beyond his expectations.

“You don’t have five thousand people here,” Jacob immediately rebuked.

“Right, we left most of our advanced force in the town before this one. What’s the name? Fort—?”

“Fort Oak.”

“Yeah, exactly. Fort Oak. I have stationed people there to roam around the region and see if they can find Ancient Ruins. Some of them started backtracking to clear off the roads to Marche. I had to avoid a large city on the border, but now I can finally go back and clean it up. From there, we can start expanding and maybe even cross the sea.”

Jacob started rubbing his forehead.

“Did you train Alchemists, Smiths, Tailors, Tanners, all the professions we need as soon as the resources from the Ancient Ruins start running out?”

“Nope. I was counting on you to do that. I know how good you are at crafting and you know I can barely write an Inscription Pattern!”

The Vermillion Tyrant said everything with the brightest smile.

“Listen, Hektor, I know you are not an idiot and your plan does make sense, but we have to act smarter. You have so many people and how are they providing for their food?”

“Hunting parties!”

Jacob almost started crying.

“Let’s go sit down and talk strategy,” our guy said.

“We can do it while walking, I don’t need to sit!”

“I do!” Jacob grimaced.