On the second day of the meeting the representatives were escorted to the same large building at Midnight and they were lead to the top where an open air party was happening.

They were to come in any outfit they wanted. The sanctuary representatives wore flashy monster clothing while everyone else wore normal clothing made from fabric. The music was being played by a rock band from Terrania and drinks and food was served.

With all the guests present, Lara said “This party is for those who want to socialize. Feel free to do as you like, just don’t leave the venue. There are private rooms for your private businesses” and the party commenced.

Lara immediately went to where the representatives of the High Sanctuary were, accompanied by her top officials and greeted them “Lovely night. I would like to purchase your armor and clothing and if possible, the knowledge and equipment used to make them”

Anita said “I am the resource administrator for the High Sanctuary. Nice to meet you, we would love to trade” and extended her hand for a hand shake which Lara took.

The other representatives were watching the conversation from the corner of their eyes as they discussed with each other. Lara said “I’m not the one who is in charge of the boring stuff of my settlement” She pointed at a man who was beside her, it was Emeka, he smiled and led Anita to a private discussion room.

Lara said to Jola “I was honestly surprised to hear that the numbers you spoke of were true. I honestly was expecting way less even with your advanced technology, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you motivate your people? Most of my children are just lazy bums because I’m very strong and can handle their problems” she said as she looked at a Joy who was beside her who rolled her eyes and looked away.

Jola said after some thought “If it’s anything it has to be the competitive nature of our society that gives us such a high number. I know we didn’t say our Rank 1 and 2s’ numbers but they are about half of the number of Rank 3s we have.

The sanctuary is a very competitive business society so many people want to get to the top since anyone can if they work hard, are lucky or talented. We also give various chances for people to improve without risking their life and we just started teaching the general population a lot of our skills so we recently had an exponential growth. I honestly don’t know what the other settlements did wrong”

Lara looked at him in surprise and said “The competitive society I can understand, but teaching your hard earned skills to the populace? Are you a charity?” Jola replied “You can call us anything but our style works for us and it’s not like we don’t charge for the education”.

Lara said “Even if you charge… now that I think about it, if you charge, many people would be encouraged to get more en-code and Rank up to get the education. Amazing, I’ve just been giving everything to my children on a silver platter; I should make them work for it. I get that, thanks for the advice”

Lara paused and thought for a moment before saying “Do you know why your results were so amazing compared to most of the others?” Jola shook his head and Lara continued “Your settlement, the High Sanctuary is very weird. All the other settlements were started by thugs and gangs and are still ruled by them. But the High Sanctuary was started by normal people like you. By the way, I also was a normal person. The way you and I think is very different from them.

The other settlements were built with a ‘The strong rule the weak’ mentality. They don’t understand fairness and love, all they know is greed, cruelty and selfishness. It has led them to a very terrible state as you’ve seen because they cannot allow the general populace of their settlements to be close to them and their subordinates in Rank. So they purposefully suppress the growth of the people to maintain their power”

Jola said “You are strong enough to stop them, why don’t you do that? If you also a normal person with a strong conscience” Lara laughed and said “You know nothing Jola Snow. I killing them would only do more harm than good, you’ll understand why very soon.

And besides, Lagos is constantly changing; they can only behave like this because only about one year has passed after the apocalypse. The aristocracy they are trying to establish can only be maintained by me, since I am way, way ahead of everyone else. There are two inevitable futures: Either the monsters overrun Lagos or the Human species reclaim Lagos.

If the monsters get stronger, only strong societies can survive in such circumstances. And if Humans get stronger than the monsters, only strong societies will have a say. Then their law of the jungle ‘Strong rules the weak’ mindset, which gives them strength but makes their societies weak, will turn on them and cause them to suffer at the hands of stronger and more organized societies.

In conclusion, they have no future unless they change”

Jola was shocked at her thought process he thought ‘She makes a good point, her first reason is weird but she’s right. I just wish she would save the people under them from their suffering instead of just waiting for their societies to fall apart by itself’.

Jola and Lara continued their discussion elsewhere as the party went on. Deji led the group to where the Martial Nomad representatives were the leader, Semilore, greeted them and said “Good evening, we were hoping to have a discussion” with a smile.

Deji said “Get straight to the point” with his usual straight face. Semilore laughed and said “I guess no one is trying to enjoy this party. Ok, we were hoping to purchase some of your clothing, weapons and armor” Deji said “What are you giving in return. Please don’t say en-code, we have so much of that”.

Semilore smiled and said “Don’t worry we got you. We have monster corpses for trade for your weapons and armor and if you can teach us how you make them and sell us some of your crafting tools, we will give you training of some of the martial arts we have acquired”. Deji said “Good. Let’s talk in a private room” and led Semilore to a private room.

After Deji left the group spread out to do their own thing Funmi bobbed her head and danced to the rock music while Mira sat at an empty table and ate some food with Bella and Gbenga. Mistura went to a dart board at the corner and started playing with some other representatives while Samad sat alone looking at the party.

Few people were bold enough to approach the representatives of the sanctuary; they had the common sense to know that the sanctuary didn’t lack anything they had.

But few people is not the same as none, some people lack common sense. Jimoh, the man with a dehumanized person for a pet and the ‘king’ of the Venuri Kingdom came to where Mira sat with his ‘pet’ and said “You are very beautiful. I could make you my queen, even if it’s just for tonight” to Mira with a smile.

Mira thought ‘I wonder what Jade would have done if he saw this. He would have probably gone crazy and started a killing spree… now that I think about it Jade can show a lot of empathy, I wonder if he has a lot of psychic energy like Bella’

Mira looked at Bella and saw she was having a very hard time being around the ‘pet’ so she said to Jimoh “You already have a queen” and she pointed at the ‘pet’ and said “Leave”.

Jimoh smiled he saw Bella holding back tears and how he was causing them to be uncomfortable, it pleased him. He said “What if I don’t want to?” Mira rose up from her seat and said “We will leave” and she took Bella and Gbenga into a private room.

If it was Bella or Gbenga in that situation they may have flipped and started a fight, but Mira wasn’t interested in drama and she had seen her own fair share of horrible people, Jimoh didn’t surprise her in the least, she could even imagine Jade and she doing such to people they hated.

When they got to the private room. Gbenga slammed his fist on the wall and said “We should have taught him a lesson, people like him should die for their crimes”. Bella burst into tears and wept.

Mira sighed and said “So emo. There is no point in doing that, this is a party not a slug fest. You can kill him all you want when you get strong enough to disrespect Lara and cause a fight at her party”

Gbenga gritted his teeth and clenched his fists; he couldn’t disagree with her argument but it didn’t kill the rage he was feeling inside. Mira said “It’s ok to be angry at people you don’t like. But you always have to think with your mind, not your emotions, especially when you don’t have complete control of what could happen to you”

Mira turned to Bella and saw that she was emotionless. The change in expression shocked both Gbenga and Mira and they asked with serious expressions “Is something wrong?”

Bella shook her head and said “I’m fine. I’ve accepted his suffering, there are some things we can’t control” Mira was about to console Bella but she couldn’t say anything now.

They stayed in the private room throughout the whole party which lasted for 3 hours.