The girl who appeared in front of Tear and me was none other than Artemis.
I remembered the first time I met her. At that time, she was still the leader of an Esper organization that attempted to subvert human society, the boss behind the scenes of Olympus. She wore a loose black divine robe that looked awkward no matter how you looked at it, and her entire body gave off a sense of conspiracy. The second time I met her, she was the leader of a human survival organization in the apocalyptic world. She wore a faded work uniform that was too large to fit her body and was covered in paint. Her face had a stubborn look of confusion. If you didn't see her beautiful face and blonde hair, it would be difficult to associate her with a girl. Now, Artemis had changed her identity and appearance again. She was now one of the first residents of the new world of Avalon. She wore light green, light, tight-fitting clothes that looked like hunting clothes. Her bright golden ponytail was no longer stained with paint but washed clean, glistening in the sunlight of the forest. Until she fell off the back of the unicorn, she was as energetic and lively as an elf girl who came to the forest to hunt and play.
These three outfits perhaps reflected the three stages of Artemis's mentality.
Oh, that's right, speaking of female elves — it was only now that I finally realized why Artemis's outfit was so familiar. It was the tight-fitting adventurer outfit that the blood elf rangers and hunters often wore back in Silvermoon City. Of course, in order to conform to human clothing and aesthetics, it had been improved quite a bit, becoming more similar to the clothing of modern human society. However, that simple yet elegant design concept was definitely from the elves.
Needless to say, the only elf that Artemis and the others could normally come into contact with was Liliana. Now that the connection between the shadow city and this mounted space had not been officially opened, the blood elves and the elves from other worlds had not yet obtained permission to enter Avalon. Artemis's outfit could only have been obtained from Liliana.
"This outfit … is Liliana's idea?"
I raised my eyebrows and said in a strange tone. It wasn't that Artemis's current appearance wasn't good. The elven craftsmanship couldn't possibly be bad, but …
In any case, Artemis should be regarded as a human in modern society. If you ask an uncle selling donkey meat on the back street to wear full body armor and carry a battle axe out for a spin, it must be quite … Uh, this metaphor is a bit weird. I mean, a modern high school girl wearing an elven hunting outfit as her daily wear, it would look a bit weird.
Well, although it was indeed very pleasing to the eye.
"Because we have no other clothes to wear," Artemis smiled brightly. "The old world is all over, and we only have the old clothes from the apocalypse, so I asked Liliana, who often comes here, to bring a few new ones. I didn't expect it to be such a beautiful style. I've never seen your soldiers wear anything of this style — ah, is this some kind of strange attire in the Empire? That priestess seems to like playing pranks! "
As Artemis spoke, she suddenly thought of something very serious, and immediately exclaimed in a low voice with a nervous expression.
Ah, Chief Priestess of the Goddess of Life, Lady Liliana, it seems that you have thrown the face of your God — let's see what kind of impression you have left on our citizens!
Seeing Artemis's conflicted expression, I quickly waved my hand and explained, "That's not it, Liliana also occasionally has integrity … What you are wearing is actually the clothing of the elves, an ancient race in another universe protected by the Empire. Strictly speaking, Liliana should be considered half elf, so I prepared this clothing for you …"
"Elves?" This time, Artemis and Teardrop exclaimed together, "There really is such a legendary race?"
I smacked Teardrop's head with a karate chop, "What nonsense! You wander around the Shadow City every day, haven't you met those long ears? "
"I'm just setting the mood, hahaha …" Teardrop immediately rubbed her head and laughed dryly.
Teardrop was originally a very lively and enthusiastic girl, and Artemis hoped to make more friends at the beginning of her new life, so it didn't take long for the two of them to get into a lively conversation, as if they had known each other for many years. From Teardrop's mouth, Artemis understood the mysterious Xiling Empire from another angle. After all, Teardrop belonged to the 'disadvantaged group' that we had helped before, so naturally, her perspective was different from mine. Her experience of living among the Shiring Apostles from her perspective was obviously more reliable than my 'Citizen Guide' and Sandora's' Citizen Code of the Empire '.
Listening to Teardrop enthusiastically introduce to Artemis the lifestyle of the Shiring Apostles, the differences between living in the Empire society and living in human society, and how to become good friends with the seemingly fierce Empire soldiers, I vaguely realized one thing: as more and more inhabitants of different worlds and races came to live in this special space, how to coordinate their relationships seemed to be on the agenda.
Of course, I didn't mean that there would be any friction between the heroes of the various races. The Shadow City had already been seen as a place close to the realm of the gods among the worlds we "sheltered". Those who could enter here, even if they were just delivery workers who came to offer us the rare and mysterious treasures they had discovered, had to go through layers of selection. These chosen ones might not be sages, but at the very least, they had to be just and kind people, and their loyalty to the Empire was absolutely unquestionable. It was basically impossible for such people to gather together and cause conflict.
But the absence of conflict didn't mean that everything was peaceful. There were huge cultural differences between many races, and even cultural conflicts. Two races on Earth could oppose each other due to various reasons, not to mention races from two different worlds who had completely different worldviews. Right now, such conflicts didn't cause any consequences because of the small number of people and the control of their respective leaders. But as time passed, when the Shadow City and the higher-level "Holy Land" of Avalon were filled with heroes from various worlds, could you still expect them to rely on self-awareness to completely abandon such conflicts?
Even if these races could coexist peacefully under the same highest ideals, the various differences in ideals would likely greatly weaken the power of the allied armies. And our greatest advantage over the Fallen Apostles and the powers of the Chaos Abyss was the gigantic allied armies formed by many worlds. Any factor that could weaken the alliance had to be eliminated.
In ancient times, when the Empire was at its most glorious, the Shiring Apostles had also formed a similar world allied army. This was a gigantic and relatively loyal force. Although it couldn't compare to the Imperial Army in terms of combat strength, it was one of the most powerful weapons against the Chaos Abyss. I had heard from Sandora how the Schilling Empire's rulers had coordinated the various worlds. It was quite simple: with the Empire's leaders as the core, they would form a group of Archons with the sole right to speak. This group would only issue orders regarding the war against the Chaos Abyss, and would only deal with military matters between the various races. At the same time, the various vassal races of the Empire were also forbidden from interacting with each other in any areas unrelated to the allied armies. That was to say, no matter which world you came from, no matter what was popular in your world, after arriving at the allied armies' headquarters, the only thing you and I could discuss was "war." Apart from this topic, even saying something like "XX restaurant's potatoes are delicious" would be considered a violation of the ban.
Of course, the above example might be a bit of an exaggeration, but that was basically how the Shiring Apostles' world allied armies were like.
Of course, this method of governance wasn't very wise. However, you wouldn't expect a bunch of Shiring Apostles, who completely followed the standards of mechanized thinking and optimal actions, to understand what liberalism and humanism meant. They were ruling over the vassal races in exactly the same way they ruled over the citizens of the Empire.
Authoritarianism was an excellent way to avoid conflicts between the various races. But to be honest, an allied army created with such an iron fist would definitely weaken the advantages of being allied across worlds and having overall offensive and defensive capabilities. The vassal races would seem more like expendable cannon fodder rather than being treated as true combat strength. And it was obvious that such an allied army wasn't suitable for the races currently under our command.
What I wanted was to truly unite as one, forming an iron defense line. Every member of the Multiverse Expeditionary Army had to be as close as brothers and unconditionally give their all for the army, instead of acting blindly under high pressure and an iron fist. The moment the Empire's ruling power weakened, they would immediately scatter into a pile of cannon fodder.
Perhaps we could consider creating an atmosphere where all the races had to abide by the rules of the shadow dimension, or some other method that would allow them to communicate normally while avoiding cultural gaps. This was a very troublesome task that required those involved to deeply understand the habits of the various races. They also needed to be able to think about how to live under the Xiling Empire's rule as a "citizen". Currently, we had left this task to the Empire's soldiers — in other words, a certain regrettable "Empire's Town Security". Just from this unfortunate name and the composition of its personnel, you could tell how much of a pain in the ass they had tormented this task.
Now it seemed that perhaps a better choice was to let the vassal races form a similar administrative organization. What we needed to do was to appoint and dismiss qualified candidates from various worlds.
It should be noted that this administrative organization was only to manage the internal affairs of the vassal races, and its authority was limited to cultural exchanges and resolving conflicts. It couldn't have any influence on the shadow base or the Imperial Army. Sandora also didn't have to worry that this would weaken our control over the vassal races, and I guessed that this would also greatly improve the allied forces' ability to fight together.
I did what I thought. While Tear was still chatting with Artemis, I submitted my draft plan to the public channel, allowing the Empire leaders who were busy eating, shopping, and playing games to discuss it. In the end, apart from following Sandora's suggestion to add a few more Empire Senators who had absolute authority but didn't normally participate in any affairs, the entire plan was unanimously approved.
However, there was a slight disagreement over the final name of the new department. This department wasn't too big, but it wasn't too small either. It wouldn't participate in any military or administrative arrangements, but it was an important bond that kept the multiverse expeditionary army united, so it couldn't be named carelessly. Shallow Shallow immediately suggested no less than seven or eight names, but every time before we could say anything, she rejected it herself. Big Sis felt that it would be better to call it the Species Management Committee, but I felt that such a name was a little hard to pronounce. Sandora unconditionally supported my suggestion, but Liliana said that if the new department didn't have the word "Goddess" in it, she would cry in front of me. Bubble insisted that the new department should be called the "Guild Management Office", and if that didn't work out, "Adventurer's Home" would be fine too. And Pandora and Visca jointly suggested a name like "Imperial Army's Species Management Committee", which left everyone speechless …
In any case, none of them were reliable.
In the end, after a heated discussion, when all the troublemakers had had enough, the name of the new department was finally settled. You would never have guessed this glorious name:
The full name was: The Goddess's Protection's Subordinate Species Adventurer's Guild Group Militarized Species Management, Residential Affairs, and World United Business Planning Committee.
In short, the Neighborhood Committee.
We discussed for nearly half an hour and came up with such a ridiculous result, you bastard!
As for the Neighborhood Committee … This name was just too ridiculous. As for the main members of the Neighborhood Committee, they would naturally be chosen from the first batch of Azeroth heroes who entered the Shadow City to reside there. It was impossible for a leader like Cirvanas to leave behind the affairs of his own country to become the Neighborhood Committee's Auntie, but they would definitely have many talents suitable for such a job, and it should be enough to maintain the balance of the various species in the Shadow City.
But on Avalon's side, it seemed like it should be a little more special.
This space meticulously created by God would be a place of a higher level than the Shadow City, perhaps it could be used as a holy land or something like that. Only the leaders of the various species could come here to discuss matters, so there was no need to set up a Neighborhood Committee or something like that. My plan was to let Artemis be responsible for managing and arranging the visitors of this special space. Firstly, this was the world she lived in, so it was only right for her to be a customer manager (…). Secondly, I had complete trust in Artemis's abilities, and even her companions — don't look at them just because they looked like students on the surface, but in reality, every one of them was older than me, and considering their experiences, their minds might even be more mature. These people in charge of receiving and arranging the visitors of the various species would definitely be a hundred times better than those simple-minded Empire soldiers.
"Sister Artemis is really amazing," Teardrop suddenly jumped in front of me, interrupting my thoughts, "The leader of the human apocalypse organization … How amazing!"
"Not at all," Artemis, who had always been very mature and calm, was a little embarrassed by Teardrop's exaggerated exclamation, "It's just that in order to survive, in order to fight against that absurd world, they had no choice but to gather together, that's all. The truly amazing one should be your Emperor brother, right? He saved a world after all. "
"That's right!" Teardrop immediately raised her little face proudly, as if she was the one receiving the praise, "Big brother is the best! Big brother is definitely a good person! "
Me: "…"
Girl, you just gave me a card.
"Teardrop, you're really not simple. You're only fourteen years old, but you've already become such a powerful officer," Artemis looked at Teardrop's proud look, amused, "You're so young, you must have had outstanding military achievements to obtain such a military rank, right?"
Teardrop's proud expression suddenly stiffened, and then she scratched her head embarrassedly, "This … Ahaha … How do I say this …"
Artemis, you'll soon realize how much of a pain in the ass the mysterious and powerful Shiring Apostles are in your eyes.
After chatting with Artemis by the lake for a while, our topic gradually shifted to the future plans of this new world. I briefly mentioned my own ideas to Artemis, mainly to make this place a holy land of all worlds, and Artemis would be responsible for arranging the reception of the heroes of the various races who came here. Towards this sudden suggestion, the girl seemed a little uneasy.
"I … Can I really take on such an important role?"
"What's wrong with that?" I smiled, "You can lead an organization like Olympus, and you can also lead the human survivors organization, why can't you be a customer service manager now?"
"But … Those aren't ordinary 'guests'!" Artemis said bitterly, "You said it all, human emperors, war heroes, great sages, race leaders, these important people …"
"No matter how important they are, they're still soldiers here, and I'm their commander. The people I appoint, they must support unconditionally, it's that simple."
There's one more thing I didn't say: No matter how powerful the residents are, there are very few who aren't afraid of the neighborhood committee aunties!
Seeing my determined look, Artemis also knew that I wasn't joking, but she still said worriedly, "But … Letting us' outsiders' take on such an important role, will Her Majesty be dissatisfied? She's very strict … "
"Of course not." I finally understood Artemis's worries, "You guys don't participate in military or political affairs, you're just Avalon's receptionists. As long as it doesn't affect the Imperial Army's administrative system, Sandora will never care."
Only after receiving my guarantee did Artemis finally relax. It was obvious that what made her worried wasn't the 'heavy burden' I had given her, but the possibility of Shadora's dissatisfaction. I really didn't know what kind of psychological trauma that good-for-nothing girl from my family had left in Artemis's mind. I think that even Artemis's gaze would change at the mention of Shadora.
"Oh … Boring boring boring boring!!!" Perhaps it was because she saw that Artemis and I were busy talking about topics that she was completely uninterested in, Tear, who had been ignored for a long time, finally muttered unhappily, "Brother Director, bring me to see the interesting places here!"
Tear in her spoiled state was really lethal, I immediately surrendered, then suddenly thought of a good place, "You guys come with me! I actually know that Avalon has recently completed a project that you might be interested in. "
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