Regarding Unity [council Thread]

Lagi called for another council meeting, it certainly has been a while since he called one. He wondered how everybody was doing since then? It would be nice to hear from them today, today was the day that Lagi would pitch off his Unity Corps, something that he always wanted to do. It was different from Octavius in a way, and he would hope that the other council members would see it his way as well. This was something that didn’t have any sort of selfish gains, looking back to Shylock's demise and the Kou representative; he wondered if it could have been prevented with the unity corps.

“There is no telling what would happen, there’s a chance that the assassin was Lily. It would of added more dead bodies to the count. But at the same time, it could of provided enough of a distraction for the council members to escape.” Hidan stood next to lagi, holding a few files in hand. “ I wonder what they would say.” Lagi shrugged, it really depended on his approach.

The council filed into the room, Roark, Cassandra, and Wei Tenji now the only members remaining. There had been whispers about what Lagi had called the meeting for, but nothing definitive. Wei worried about the chance of Lagi asking for more funding. The country was still in dire need of repairs, the war had put a massive dent in the taxes used to maintain the Empire. Several towns were still in ruins and the Treasury was doing everything it could, working with Opportunity Hall to try and rebuild homes and repair the damages. The once mighty Empire of Reim was struggling, the battles with Kou nearly bringing them to their knees. Wei had opted to remain in the country at Yoshiro’s request, the new Emperor of Kou had done his part, sending over as much financial support as he could, despite not having caused the damages himself. He was now paying for the mistakes of his father and had not heard so much as a hint of thanks from Reim, despite the fact he had prevented much more damage than any citizen could ever imagine.

The Councilors filed into the room, Roark speaking to Lagi.

“What would you have of this council, son?”

“First, I would like to thank you all for coming. I know that our schedules have been a bit busy over the course of the month, but there is something that I wanted to discuss with you all. It’s about the future of Reim of course, and tying up the loose ends. Such loose ends involve the security that we have from within our own country when it comes to the political figures that reside here or visit. What kind of protection will you have in case of another invasion. You did hear about the incident with the Heliohapt representative and the crimes that he committed, correct? They offered a hand of peace, along with another hand stained with the blood of our spy masters in order to cut us off from any potential information that we might gain. I also almost allowed this man to meet with you in order to discuss things between the two countries of Heliohapt in reim if they wanted to move on from the past grievances, but I almost put you in danger instead.

Lagi swallowed hard as he went to the point of this. “ That is the background reasoning behind what I will ask of you. I would like funding in order to start up a new corps that handles the internal affairs of our country. A group of mixed races, Fanalis and immuchakk alike, creating a tight ring around Reim. They would be doing what the fanalis corp can't .

Wei arched a brow, Cassandra had a troubled look and Roark had no expression whatsoever as he listened to Lagi spoke. It was obvious to all three that he was sincerely concerned for the safety of his Council, which was touching. But he was asking for something they simply did not have much of to spare. Wei glanced over as Cassandra stood, the Reim native had a hard look on her face, though it was not directed at Lagi. Cassandra’s voice betrayed nothing about her personal feelings as she spoke.

“Lagi… the intent is a good one. It would have been invaluable before the war, to help protect our other Council members. But who will train these people? General Octavius has his hands full with the Fanalis Corps. He has been using them to help in the rebuilding while out on patrols. And where do you expect this money to come from. While your own personal finances did not take a hit, the Treasury is struggling to provide the damaged towns with the funds necessary to rebuild. And that is with the help of our new… allies from Kou. What is not being used for that is being used to keep Opportunity Hall stabilized and to push into the final stages of the Education Reform. We no longer rely on Ambassador Niraj’s donations to keep these programs running, though he has been providing a great deal still. We simply cannot afford to fund this new military group you wish to build.”

Roark patted Cassandra’s arm, the woman sitting down as he rose, his voice booming out in the room.

“That is not to say we do not support this idea, we do. But I am afraid we can only provide the most trivial financial support. If you wish to build this group, you will need to donate your own funds to the effort, at least until the country has finished rebuilding and we can free up more funds. On top of this, Cassandra brings up a valid point. Who will lead these men? Who will train them?”

Lagi nodded his head,  he knew that the case of money had become a thing, a separate entity to take care of. “ You are right about it, my personal  wealth has not taken a hit in all of this, and perhaps I should provide some of my own support if we are to get this separate entity on track.   I will use my personal wealth in order to see this through.” Lagi would take a sip of his wine glass as he continued. “As for training them, it’ll be me for the time being. Until I can find a fitting individual that can take over for me so that my presence wouldn’t be spread too thin,  ill hand the clans power back over to my father while I continue to run Reim and the unity corps.” Lagi would then look his father in his eye. “ I am not neglecting my duty, you know what Octavius asked of  me, trying to see if he could make this a republic of some sort.  Do you know how many “Council leaders” and “Representatives” we would have in order to prevent corruption since by his knowledge; it would make a better reim.  For me to even consider something like this,  we have to make sure that these people aren’t easy to get to.   Notice the words “if”.
“Afterwards, Lagi placed his cup down and looked towards Cassandra.  “[color=#0033ff]The Unity corps will protect those people if that day should come, even though it would stand as an obvious point of elitism. There are also retired military officials that I saved a while back; they were kidnapped by the remnants of the brotherhood of ash.  They are retired from active combat, but a favor to  give some wisdom based off of their experience and give me a  hand in training these men shouldn’t  be impossible to ask for. “ The Ravenous smashers can assist in the rebuilding  upon request of this council, you already know what they are capable of. However, Reim   will save time on the rebuilding process, as well as money.  The Smashers are privately owned by me and the EL Nagi clan, we can consider the added assistance as part of the payment. The less people we need to pay for the rebuilding services, the more money we save. It is a double edged sword, but if we look towards the future, this Unity Corp is something we need.

Roark arched a brow at his fellow Councilors, getting a silent sense of their feelings on his son’s idea. Wei finally cleared her throat, having remained silent up to this point, standing up as Roark took his seat.

“The assistance of the Smashers would be of some use, but most of this is rebuilding homes, not simply slamming a few posts into the ground. But, it will free up some of the workers. Very well… assuming you are willing to fund the start of this yourself, then we can approve of pushing this through. Please know that the Treasury will not be able to give much to the effort, though. We are no longer receiving payments from Imuchakk, as we have no supplies to spare to send them.

One more thing, we must insist you speak with General Octavius about this as well. You will potentially be pulling some Fanalis from his Corps and you lack military leadership or training. You will need his guidance on how to begin establishing this.”

Cassandra stood then, arching a brow as she crossed her hands over her chest.

“About the Smashers. Why did you not volunteer their services earlier? This is the country you are currently ruling, you should have volunteered them without a thought as soon as the battle had settled, not waited until you could use them as some sort of bargaining chip.”

Roark glared at the woman but grunted in concession. It was true that Lagi had fallen down on providing support in any way he could. While his son had personally assisted in some of the recovery, as the ruler of the country, he should have seen to it that whatever resources were at his disposal were given to the efforts. The El Nagi clan were part of Reim and though they had escaped much of the bloodshed and destruction, it did not give them an excuse to turn a blind eye to the needs of the country. He should have brought it up with Lagi far sooner.

You are completely right; I should speak to Octavius soon about the matter. “ Lagi would say with a definite nod. He would then answer Cassandra’s claims of using the ravenous smashers sooner. “ That is entirely true, my father can vouch for the fact that I have intended in using the Raveous Smashers in aiding reim when I was speaking to Yoshino, it was mentioned and planned.   “However, there were other towns that were  among the wreckage, some of these towns had bigger farms, farmers who invested in the boufer cows and the pentax.  It might sound selfish to you that I prioritized in protecting my investment, and utilizing the ravenous smashers in rebuilding those  holding stables  that had special specifics that can support the pentax and boufer cows.  However,  our investment does include a sum of gold , and a bountiful supply of food that is distributed among the people of reim. This is something that can’t be done  if these stables aren’t rebuilt and the animals  wander off somewhere and are killed by animals, such as the report of coyotes carrying a heinous disease that can only be healed by magic currently, no medicine  that we currently have can support their bite.  Imagine if I ignored that,  all of the pentax and boufer cows would have been useless to us, and we would of lost those gains as a country. I call it our gains, because there was never a time where I didn’t have the country of reim in my mind as I made my moves, I made sure we all benefited from this during this crucial time, ALL Of US. Not just the El Nagi.”

Hidan would  then place the reports on the table and lagi pushed it off to the middle. “ Here are all of the reports of the coyote attack that I handled, the dead flesh infected them somehow, I needed to reinforce all of the  farming houses in order to provide a solid defense that they can’t break through, as well as kill a few in the area. As for the faster distribution,  another holding pen for the ravenous manta so that they could quickly distribute all of the excess fruit and vegetables a lot faster than we can on horseback, especially to the citizens of the country who can’t make it to Reim right now. “ Lagi continued to maintain his gaze with Cassandra, he didn’t back down.”  I prioritized what I thought was necessary,  and utilized the smashers to the best of my ability.  The interference of heliohapt was a wakeup call, this corp needs to happen now, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you guys.  I hope you can now understand why I made those choices. Hidan composed all of the reports in alphabetical order, everything I was doing with the boufer cows, they are free for you to browse. Rebuilding became alot slower because of the temporary absence of the smashers, but we don't starve, what about that cassandra? Is it really just a bargaining chip? “

Cassandra snorted and waved off the reports with a flick of her hand.

“If you had questions about what to prioritize, Lagi, you should have asked. If you are too proud to ask for direction, then you have no place ruling.”

Wei Tenji had a harsh tone as she spoke to the other female Council member.

“That is quite enough Cassandra. He did what he thought was best. However, as ruler of this country, you need to ask for guidance in what you do not understand, Lagi. While you protected an investment for the country, your citizens see only you protecting a personal investment and leaving them stranded. We are here to guide you, please utilize our help. We have much more experience in running this country than you do. We are all twice your age and, at least Cassandra and myself, were in politics since long before you were born. Stop acting like you are doing this alone. You are not. No one rules without the help and guidance of others. Not even the deceased Emperor Zou. And I guarantee his son does not rule alone, either.”

Roark silenced the other two, standing.

“You have the support of the Council for your little venture. I will not have this fall into some argument on semantics. Go seek out Octavius, Lagi. We will do what we can to push the paperwork through here. And remember Miss Tenji’s advice. The Council is here to support and guide you, so use that support.”

Roark dismissed Lagi before the Council members filed out of the room, each moving to do their part in securing what financing they could and contacting the appropriate governing sectors to begin establishing the Unity Corps.

“Lagi took in a deep breath and allowed the insult to come in. “Ok, I’ll take that. “ It hurt just a little bit, it wasn’t necessarily about pride. Lagi wanted to feel that sometimes there were decisions that he himself can make without running behind the council all the time, which would turn out beneficial in the end.  Maybe it was a case of proving his worth, not to anyway, but more to himself.

He nodded his head when Wei explained that he wasn’t alone. “ I know, we are all in this together. I’m not going above your heads to do anything crazy. I had every intent to talk to you about heliohapt before I made any instant  decisions,  so you could see that those bad habits are slowly disappearing.  I still have a long way to go, but things will get better around here. “
With what his father said, Lagi would get up and snapped his fingers. Hidan collected the documents and followed behind him. [color=#0033ff] “Alright, that’s my next destination. Hidan, be ready to handle the paperwork. [/color

-Exit