Elections

  It's been 3 months and a couple of weeks since the end of the Ters-Ly War. Northwest of Zyckevele, in a random café in one of the influential cities.

  A white, brunette woman sat on a small table, drinking coffee while finishing watching the last bits of what her laptop showed. She sat with her back against a wall, but the window on her front left showed her face, although not her laptop's screen. The only angle to see what her screen had was from the right, which surprisingly made everyone dizzy when trying to look, only managing to get blurred vision from it.

  “Ma’am, can we bring you something else?”

  Just as she was finishing the last bite of her snack, drinking from her cup of coffee still, a waiter walked to her and spoke in Zyckevele’s overall small tongue. She looked up and shook her head, “That will be it.”

  The waiter nodded before leaving for another table. After finishing her last bite, the white woman constantly drank her coffee but began working on her laptop, donning a serious expression as she looked around the shop from time to time.

  Drinking some more coffee, she looked around a bit more, searching, before pressing her lips together and continuing her work. Her screen showed some green glints in her retinas, which they studied with ample consideration, completely engrossed and dedicated.

  “Ah!-” Suddenly, from behind her, a black latex-like sack covered her head. There was a commotion as 6 armed people with NBs, the northeastern continent’s emblematic assault rifle, entered from the front. Another 3, all masked, rushed behind the white woman, forcing her out of the café and grabbing her stuff with them.

  The people were too afraid to move, even to call the authorities, but as soon as they left, bringing the woman and her stuff in a big, thick, seemingly armored truck, the clients grew restless. Only some, beside the employees, made calls to the police…

  ***

  Lymoca, Sargonde. Early morning. 1,026th year, 9th month’s 6th day.

  Fox woke up in a hotel room, sitting up with the thin white sheets and white mattress with their matching pillows contrasting his skin color a bit. He stretched, yawned, and pinched the bridge of his nose while holding a small cup of plastic below his nostrils.

  Blood came out, with some black bits, which were becoming more recurrent. Afterwards, he placed it in the box in one of the drawers for the doc and stood up, caressing golden-pale white skin with an arm sent backwards before standing up.

  The owner of that skin lied on the opposite side of his bed, her legs picked up and squirming a bit from his touch. She was completely bare, with her back feeling the warmth that was there just a moment ago dissipate. Fox covered Nala’s body with the blanket before going to the bathroom, bare.

  20 seconds later, an eye-narrowed Nala walked to him while he was still before the toilet, she smiled and went in, caressing his lower back with her fingertips. She stopped a little and held him from behind, making Fox smirk a little before she went to the shower, getting it ready for both.

  After ‘helping him’, Nala relaxed under the slightly hot shower for a few tens of seconds, until she turned her head to the side to watch her man looking at her with enjoyment. She was the only one getting wet, so she gave him her natural eyes.

  Fox immediately stepped in, grabbing her from behind to move her hair, helping her shower. His hands roamed and roamed, until she turned around after feeling a foreign object rub on her back. Nala looked down then back up at him, her face inquisitively. “So, all night is no longer enough?”

  “It’s your fault.” Fox replied like he was waiting eons for her to ask. Nala tilted her head before placing her fingertips on his abdomen, more defined, but nothing showy, purely solid and efficient. She licked her lips and then up at him, their bodies getting warmer than the shower allowed.

  Nala knelt, holding his waist and forming an enchanting, devious thin smile on her lips. Fox looked down and asked, already gulping, “You don’t mind?”

  But the beauty was already occupied, not caring about his concerns or gentlemanliness. Not like she ever did, anyway. Fox accommodated himself, spreading his legs in a few more movements, and relaxed. He was pampered to no end…

  … After the honeyed morning and a quick breakfast, which Nala cooked, a more common occurrence, Fox went out to do his job as a businessman, his worst nightmare. Before that, he walked to Miros’s van, built by Colmillo for her beloved baby boy. Their situation was complicated, but they were in no fight or dissidence.

  The van was exquisite, able to even hold up to 2 drones of both types, Viper or IS, Insect Snake; among all his other tech, engineering, and genius cyber equipment. Fox opened the backdoor, to which Miros didn’t even bother to see who it was, engrossed on something.

  “Did you discover what it was?” Fox asked, not entering the boy’s sanctuary. Miros nodded, mouthing a dull ‘aham’, before turning to him with a thick table with a thick layer of protection.

  “I can see there was a lot of discussion. For example, this info is all about biotechnology. Remember that guy talking to you a lot? He was probably…” Miros darted his eyes between Fox and the tablet, “A biotech’s experiment. From what we saw, it- the experiment was made by Scarlet Houndhood, but this tablet… it has more advanced points and selective fields…”

  “Oh, like what?” Fox asked, somewhat disinterested. The information was something Fox found after the war, from the spoils of the SAs’ battle, probably from one of the two, Joshua or Minita.

  “Something like… breeding…” Miros frowned, unsure of what it was for, but who could?

  “Whose advancement is this one?” Fox frowned a bit, becoming a bit interested as he asked. Miros looked up at him, “Huh? You mean country? Or secret world? Uh… I can’t tell you.”

  “…?” Fox tilted his head a bit to those words. Miros added, slightly pouting a corner of his mouth, “This technology is something I’ve seen before, but I’d… rather not tell you, you know?”

  “However you see it fit. Just don’t hide any crucial fact to me, or…” Fox stood in the middle of the back of the van. Miros looked at him, frowning in suspense. Fox carried on, “I know you have a pact to keep your body for Colmillo, but I’ll show her she should be more cautious when making verbal contracts.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.” Miros narrowed his eyes and clenched his buttcheeks. Fox widened his eyes, “Oh, I wouldn’t?”

  “Tsk, like it’s a threat anyway.” Miros shrugged, swinging his chin in the air like a diva, and crossed his arms with a brief huff. Then, he looked at Fox with the corners of his eyes, and Fox looked back, before both…

  “Puchi- bwahaha!” - “Hahaha…” Miros burst out laughing, while Fox danced his eyebrows and smirked, shaking his head. Fox stepped backwards, about to close the backdoors, when he reminded Miros, “Prepare this month’s report for your Raging Blood, heard?”

  “Yes, boss.” Miros nodded and reassured before returning to his tablet. Fox nodded before closing the doors, looking at the time through his WID before moving to the meeting, which he was a little late to.

  Still in the van, Miros frowned, pondering. ‘They wouldn’t make this for something like breeding animals. Besides being against GHH, it is unnecessary. Preutians? Their stamina and endurance, physical exhaustion or pain and injury tolerance rate has become known a bit, and it is already in the eyes of other hoogs… But they wouldn’t do that, it’s not needed, and Fox knew nothing about it, so boss wouldn’t do it without boss’s knowledge.’

  ‘It’s in the air, so it would extend over Lymoca first, which is already contended. Fox also knows it… How does he even know that anyway? I’m still a bit far from giving him my complete guide.’

  ‘Could it be…?’ Miros was stuck in his thoughts once again, shrugging and deciding to keep investigating. It was something new, and while he could barely understand it, he became interested!

  This Miros was completely unlike the one from before the war. How many lives did Miros take before joining Fox’s crew? In which ways? The war was a completely different scenery, especially when considering he was fighting beside a large army.

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  Although it was only considered large during the Great Revolution and Smeared Century, in the first war since hundreds of year, it wasn’t a small matter. Furthermore, the battle Miros participated in truly made a number on him. He didn’t have Colmillo to protect him anymore, and he fought besides those stronger and better aligned for the battle. It made him understand, and want… to become a 1st Grade special agent in Piya Sanctum District.

  … Fox went into the neighborhood he knew, still the same, if only a bit more calm and peaceful at any time, after crossing the avenue. While the country wasn’t perfectly peaceful and without crime, it had lowered to insane levels after the OCs were taken down, and the war was won.

  Fox walked to the pizzeria, which had expanded to beyond a medium restaurant, seemingly wanting to turn into a 2-block establishment. Quite the conglomerate move, so to say.

  When he walked around the entrance, which was still small, and with 1 bouncer checking the new entering clients, greeting them with a nod, Fox smiled a bit, before dissipating in less than half a second.

  The guard looked at him, widening his eyes and watching him enter, while the owners he remembered so well were waiting, standing by a table prepared for their meeting. The restaurant opened not too long ago, but it was already overall half-packed, with more clients entering.

  They greeted the owners with a smile, wondering why they were there. But they were more pressed to get their pizza, snack, and tea. It was all impossible-to-miss products the pizzeria now sold to each client every day.

  “Phesx!” - “Caolia!” - “Phesx Caolia!” - “Oh, Phesx Caolia!” The noticed met Fox when he took a few steps inside. He stopped and looked at them, wondering what they’ve lived through since their last meeting. He smiled politely and stepped up, grabbing a few documents in his jacket.

  Fox walked to them and threw the documents on the table, looking at them afterwards. “It’s been a bit since we saw each other. Sorry for not showing up earlier, I had things to do, and then I had some extra work to do that I couldn’t deny.”

  “I- we know,” the fat owner gestured to himself and then to the others. “The war was a pressing matter, indeed. Haha. Whatever you had later, I’m sure it is important. All you do is make us, and the country, impressed every time. No matter what you did before.”

  “I guess so, and I promise you, the ‘next thing’ will impress you, and the world, too.” Fox looked down at the man, nodding before shaking his head. Helpless with his situation. He gestured to the seats, “Shall we?”

  “Oh, but of course!” - “We should begin right away.” - “We won’t take much of your time.” - “Can you give us a hint to what are you going to do now?” - “Lymoca supports you and the President!”

  Fox smiled, showing them he understood. They grew silent, but before it could become completely silent, he started. “Let’s first focus, then, we can ‘talk’… I have someone to show you, if you’d like.”

  Seeing them nod, Fox returned the gesture and looked at the paper, which he hated. “I know you’ve been busy remodeling this place, and that it is perhaps the maximum you consider in the near future, or perhaps a few generations from hereon, like your ancestors did.”

  “Well, I want to give you the opportunity of finally expanding it.” Fox laid it out bare. “I’m not looking to turn you into mainstream, at least not like ‘that’. This pizzeria was an enormous help to me in the past, and it now means something to me. I want to help it grow, and see its beauty shown everywhere, not just Sargonde… or Lymoca.”

  “This is going to be the largest project I could have ever done, but I already have a good, solid backing funding this ‘expedition’. For example, you know how well-beloved you were after the war, no? I heard you had to hire multiple cooks to satisfy the returning soldiers for 2 months straight. Well, I want to expand the use of selling to the people.”

  They became engrossed, letting Fox speak mostly because they knew him to the point they gave him a place to return to should he face troubles in life in the future, although they never imagined this would happen.

  “I want to expand that, the money that this family business will create, and its accessibility like never before, perhaps first in the world, not just in Lymoca.” Fox paused, letting any of them grow their doubts enough to ask them, which one of them did. “Accessibility how?”

  “You know how Terka was annexed to Lymoca, although it is still in the process of its cultural integration and acceptance, we’ve already been successful by not being thrown off the moment most of the military left. That would be the first step, to ensure Terka knows we’re planning to use their land, yes, but also welcome them more and more into Lymoca. A lot of their population are Lys, after all.” Fox paused, seeing them already considering and feeling complex.

  “I have to say… Fox,” the fat owner grasped his chin and commented. Fox looked at him as the owner continued, “You sound like a businessman now, you’ve changed quite a bit. Life has truly made you mature, hm?”

  “It has… especially lately,” Fox nodded, cocking his head a bit. The owner nodded, then, he looked at the others before looking at the documents, all made for each of them, with an extra one showing Fox’s signature. The owner then asked Fox, “How will this… initiate?”

  “…” Fox looked at them, a bit surprised. These were really people he knew, just like this. He gestured to the documents and spoke in a clear manner. “You’ve granted me partial ownership over the pizzeria. I have signed mine there, as long as you do here with yours, my assistant will do the rest to begin operations next week.”

  “Next week?” An old lady asked, surprised with wide eyes as she grabbed her document and took a pen from the side. Fox nodded, “It takes time for these to be processed, but after some southern business left, especially all those from Torka and Cerka, among a few others from other countries… Lymoca is desperate to reintegrate food chains in the country.”

  “So… who is your assistant?” The others took the documents as one of them asked. Fox looked at them, feeling grateful for their direct cooperation… They trusted him. Fox then looked at the owner who asked, “He is… a boy, actually. Almost as genius as I am. A good fellow.”

  “Really? That’s good then, we can be sure of this.” The old lady commented, returning the document to Fox’s side of the table. Fox nodded, and then, they chatted…

  “… Thank you, for this trust. I value it a lot, especially… as I’m growing and… well, things for life.” Fox read their documents, chatted with them, and said after piling the documents together. He had left them on the table in case they wanted to take it back, not being in a hurry, and just spending time with them.

  They looked at him in silence, some smiled, others saw the grown boy they once helped. And when they were still thinking of him as a boy, not knowing how else to talk of the past that didn’t include some… factors. The door was walked by the one sole attraction the entire restaurant on both sides of the street had, a beauty of immense looks and attitude.

  Nala wore an elegant, formal black dress with dull red edges, showing below her knees and outlining her body, albeit humbly, so to speak. Her short hair needed no formal style, and even though long hair was recommended for such matters, she was untouchable by customs.

  Nala walked to their table and sat beside Fox. The owners stared at her wide-eyed and mouthed, now knowing who that ‘someone’ was, and felt glad they approached another chair beside Fox after he mentioned it. She looked at Fox, her, man with twinkling eyes, intertwining her right hand with his left hand before facing the pizzeria owners.

  “A pleasure to meet you, I’m Nala, Fox’s woman.” She said with a polite, thin, half-a-second smile, blurry but noticeable to the owners, who were flabbergasted and growing joyous.

  “Oh, I’m so glad…” The moment was halted when the fat owner cleaned his eyes after lifting his chin, crying some tears. Everyone looked at him, even Nala. The owner felt embarrassed, bringing his chin back down to explain, “I just… I’m glad you could find someone after you left… We were so worried about you, Phesx. I mean, Fox.”

  “It’s good you have such a good life, little Fox. Don’t ever waste it.” Another owner said, tilting his head and looking at Fox with a softened gaze.

  Fox nodded, then shook his head, “I won’t ever— sirs, madams. It’s the opposite. Contrary to my expectations, I’m finding more and more reasons, things, and… duties to never want to.”

  “Even if he does, I’ll be there to force him back on track.” Nala lifted his hand, showing their intertwined fingers, and looked at them, saying those words in a stern manner. The owners looked at her before exchanging a glance, smiling, and then bursting out laughing when facing Fox and Nala again. “Oh! Haha, these kids…”

  … Fox and Nala walked out of the pizzeria, which would change name soon, but not its people, its most recent additions to their menu, nor anything that once made them what they are today.

  “They are lovely,” Nala commented, cold, indifferent, and aloof, as always. Fox impassively nodded, “And their rooftop was comfortable, too.”

  “They talked so sweetly about Pheli,” she said, looking up at the late morning sky. Fox lowered his eyes. Nala looked down at this and just looked at his profile face. Fox lifted it and said with his chin slightly up, facing the front, “They are glad to know I didn’t become lost.”

  “Hey,” Fox looked at her and grabbed her right hand with his left, “Let’s meet the farm. They have twins, and they should be old enough to recognize your face in the future, when growing…”

  “Mn, let’s.” Nala blinked with a flutter of her eyelashes and hugged his upper arm with her arms, walking forward with more intention than he did. Fox smiled and followed up, heading to a little tour to let his woman be known to his past acquaintances. He felt proud.

  Nala knew not to ask of other things, such as the Ruva family, and the Forzt family back in Proteros. Thus, they went off to meet, his old acquaintances. This time, Pamela and ?o?o.

  ***

  A day later, in Proteros.

  Fox returned to the capital city before the first rays of the sunlight descended. The capital seemed more bustling with even more buildings, taller or recently built, residential or business, built in the now organized crime-free city with progressive life and abundance.

  The Blackflower Boutique had become more flourishing, but that wasn’t Fox’s sole business now. There was the 9th Order Restaurant, which he bought before going to war.

  As a medium restaurant in its first year, it had good enough popularity since it was not only new and built amidst the Ters-Ly War, although less than expected. It was also known because it was built by Fox, the Chief Secretary of Security, and everyone knew how good that young man was in business.

  It had monthly gross sales of 1,078,000 credits, with Fox’s profit of 30%, for 323,400 credits, quite close to the 357,300 he made a month from the boutique before the war. It had run until the end of the war, with a total net sales of 161,200 credits. With a monthly cost of 593,400 credits.

  It had monthly tax/resupply of 240,000 credits, mostly from the resupply. Its services didn’t include the pizzeria, as it has been teasing without being direct or blunt. Instead, it specialized in teas, snacks, and fast food. These were from the already successful fifth floor in the Blackflower Boutique, which were used as a smokescreen before striking the deal with the Sargonde’s pizzeria, known worldwide.

  It had 52 employees and one manager, which was Miros, for now. There were 8 janitors working 8 hours a day for a monthly salary of 4,500 credits. 32 general employees working 8 hours a day for a monthly salary of 4,750 credits. Lastly, 12 waiters/waitresses working 8 hours a day for a monthly salary of 4,800 credits.

  …

  This is the beginning of Volume 6 — Door Fully Open.