"H-hey Ume, how you doing?" I blurted, instantly turning back to where Ume stood, her arms folded.

"What were you just calling me?"

"Little fox!" Jambavan declared. "Yer Majesty, this kid was callin' ya a little fox. Ya must punish him for this impudence."

"I didn't ask you, Jambavan!" Ume growled.

"Yer Majesty, even though he is yer betrothed, ya mustn't show partiality towards him or he'll become spoiled," Jambavan protested, his butt rising even higher.

"Hmm, you are right. As a goddess I mustn't be partial," Ume said, and then nagged me, softly pulling my ear, "you shouldn't call people by names behind their back. It's bad manners."

I grabbed Ume's hand and replied, my face lowered, "But I called you little fox because small foxes are so cute and adorable. I didn't mean it in a negative way."

"Oh! I-is that so?" she stammered, her face blushing. "It's fine then."

"That's—that's so unfair," Jambavan muttered under his breath as I mocked him with a secretive smirk.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you all," I said. "Ume, may you lift their punishment? I think they've realised their wrongdoings."

"The kid's right, Yer Majesty."

"You may punish me for as long as you wish, Your Majesty, but I have also learned my lesson," Vyaghra added.

"Alright then," Ume sighed. "Come inside and have dinner."

"Many thanks, Your Majesty," the duo exclaimed, instantly rising to their feet.

---

"So how many employees do we have now, and who is managing them?" I asked, sitting at the head seat of the dining table filled with all kind of dishes.

"After ya declared...num-num...that they could leave freely and would even receive gold coins, over five hundred of 'em left, so...munch-munch... we are only remainin' with one thousand four hundred and fifty-two employees," Jambavan explained, sitting on the chair to my left gulping down the dishes in one go. "Daniel is lookin' over the Grade 3 mines, while...burp... the Grade 2 and Grade 1 mines are bein' managed by the allies Ay had gathered."

"So, we are short on labour now. Should we spread the word for recruitment in the city?" I asked. "Now that I think about it, what happened to the city? Did the Mayor create any problem after learning his son died?"

"Slow down and ask one question at a time," Ume sighed, sitting on the chair to my right before continuing, "In the course of my investigation, I learned that the Mayor met his end at Victor's hands five years past. Victor was the one ruling over the city behind the fake mask of his father."

"He killed his own father!?" I gasped. "How could someone harm their own family for some riches?"

"You're underestimating how far a person could go for the greed of wealth, fame, or power," Ume said. "And as for your previous question, first tell me what you want to achieve by mining so many Soul Stones. I doubt you're planning to sell them for gold."

Her doubt was genuine. The gold coin currency was only used by non-awakeners—or if I should be more precise, by the people of the Abandoned Land.

In the Main Land, Soul Stones were used for trade and exchange of goods.

And unlike gold, which was valued in numbers, Soul Stones were valued by weight.

Ten kilograms of low-tier Grade 3 Soul Stones were worth the same as one gold coin, so the value of gold exponentially dropped as the grade of Soul Stones increased.

The reason was simple. The Abandoned Land was deprived of Soulforce, so the only way Awakeners could increase their realm was by using Soul Stones, which increased their value. However, there were very few Awakeners here, and most of them were banished from the Main Land. So this country was filled with regular humans—the reason gold coins were still in practice.

Also, it wasn't that Soul Stones were useless in the Main Land, which had abundant Soulforce. Unlike regular meditation, which increases Soulforce very slowly, the Soulforce stored in Soul Stones could be directly absorbed by Awakeners to increase their power. So even in the Main Land, the demand for Soul Stones was always high.

And how did I learn all that? It was all thanks to Daniel. He told me about it when we mined the stones in the cave.

Returning to Ume's question, I replied with a smug grin, "There are two things I wanna achieve by mining these stones:

First, as you are aware, I will sooner or later leave for the Main Land, and Soul Stones are the primary currency there, so I don't wanna reach the place like a beggar. And secondly..."

I took a brief pause as I declared, "I wanna create a secret army of Awakeners specialised in gathering intel and working in the shadows."

Both Jambavan and Ume gave me a surprised look upon hearing my plan.

"If I have to guess, this secret army must be to protect these mines from outer threats and to gather information about this new era that we are all unaware of," Ume answered, putting a spoonful of food in her mouth.

"You're the perfect example of beauty with brains, my fiancée," I replied, giving her a thumbs up.

"But how ya gonna find and train this army?" Jambavan asked, finishing all the plates in front of him.

"What do you mean by find?" I chuckled. "We already have them here."

"Y-ya mean the people o' the mines?"

"Exactly! And I also decided on the man who will train them," I said, giving a look to the figure sitting beside Jambavan, silently eating his dinner with no care in the world.

"Me!?" Vyaghra asked in a high tone, finally speaking up.

"None here is as accomplished as you in stealth skills," I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

"I won't do it," Vyaghra refused. "I cannot even converse with mortals. Training them is completely out of the question. I always stayed alone in my prime years; you may ask Her Majesty if you don't believe me."

"I won't ask you to do it for freely—"

"No amount of wealth can change my decision, Raj," Vyaghra firmly refused without even hearing me out.

"You are currently as strong as a Late-stage Greater Soul Beast and need Soulforce to enter the realm of Mid-Tier beasts, right?" I asked.

"You are correct, but Low-Tier Soul Stones cannot help me, so—"

"What if I offer you Mid-Tier Soul Stones? Will you still refuse?"

"Mid-Tier!?" all three of them gasped at the same time, clearly not believing me.

"There are no Mid-Tier Soul Stones here. If there were, I would have already absorbed them."

I pushed my chair back, rose from the seat, and asked, pulling out the lotus-shaped Soul Stone crystal from my inventory, "Will you do it or not?"

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