I have Nine Lives

Chapter 99: Mayor of the village

Landers waved his hand down at one of the female lions in the army of 100,000.

She got the message because he had also notified her with a mental ping before he waved at her.

She took the stairs to the top of the wall and quickly made her way to Landers where she saluted to show her respect to the upcoming general.

She was rather tall and her body was covered by the issued armor of the lion tribe which was rather low-key, painted camo green with a tint of dark here and there from the processed iron.

She had short-cut hair so it wouldn't get in her way when she was fighting and a scar running from her left eye to her nose.

She had a wild feeling to her as if she had gone through many life and death situations and the scar on her face was one of the first proofs of that.

Landers nodded as she stopped her from saluting and said:

"You have been selected for an important mission."

Her eyes started to light up, she always wanted to prove herself to the upper echelons of the army and now she was going to have a chance to do that!

She saluted again as she waited for her debriefing, Landers smiled as he told her about his plans:

"You shall become the new mayor's secretary and help him with all of the things he needs to do to keep this place up and running."

The woman's smile deflated like a balloon as she heard the mission she had been given, she wanted to fight on the frontlines and improve her rank in the army not work behind a desk!

She already worked behind a desk for quite a long while before and she got tired of it, that's why she joined the army in the first place! As a proud lioness, she wanted to fight on the battlefield to defeat the enemies of the tribe!

However, she didn't really have the guts to decline Landers, but she gritted her teeth as she closed her eyes and poured her heart out:

"Vice-General Landers, please I don't want to go back to that type of work... I have joined the army for one reason and that's to fight on the forefront of the battlefield! Why would I want to go back to that stuffy work?"

Landers knew that he couldn't force her to do something that she didn't want to do, he wasn't that type of person so he shook his head and told her:

"If you don't want to, I won't force you."

The woman let out a sigh of relief seemingly as if she escaped death.

But Landers wasn't done as he said:

"While I won't force you I still need you for something, could you tell me if there is anyone in the army that would like to take the job as a secretary, and we need someone who knows how the work goes, we can't take any amateur."

The woman shook her head for a few seconds before she said:

"There are no people that I know that would like paperwork, most of the people joined the army because they didn't like their jobs, well excluding the drafted people but even they wouldn't like to do such tedious work, after all, we are all lions here and if I'm honest we are all meant for action."

Landers sighed, while what she said was true that didn't mean they didn't need people to work the logistics, if everyone acted like this then a hole would appear in the whole society of the lions and they would collapse, there should still be people who would agree to Landers's job in the army but this woman just didn't know them.

"Then go and tell them that there is help needed for the secretary position under Felix as he is the new mayor."

The moment that Landers mentioned Felix the woman's eyes changed as she started to think more about the proposal.

Landers shook his head, she was reluctant at first but the moment she heard Felix's name her attitude took a 180* change.

Felix was rather looked down upon in the ship but after he easily took care of the beach barricade and seeing how well he did in the village opening the gates in a good time made the army respect him immensely.

After all, strength equaled respect in all societies, it only differed how strength was perceived.

She thought that she would have to be under someone unknown to her or someone that she didn't respect but considering it was Felix she could do an exemption this one time.

She looked behind Landers and saw Felix and how he was still cleaning himself, then nodded to herself as she said:

"I  agree to be Felix's secretary."

Landers smiled as he clasped her shoulder and said:

"You won't regret this Marlyn, I only called for you first because you are the most suited for this job and you will be rewarded accordingly for your work!"

She smiled as she asked:

"Could I talk with him?"

Landers laughed as he said:

"Sure sure."

But then he stopped her for a few seconds as he said:

"Just you know he won't be here to help you with your work, you will have to do the work alone, you have to consider he is our strongest weapon in infiltration and assassination and he will continue to come with us in the expedition while you will be left behind here along with some other people from the tribe so they can make sure there would be no riots, soon troops from the tribe will come and install themselves here making this our first base on the Sparron continent."

Marlyn knew what the first base on the continent meant, it would become the center of the hubbub from the reinforcements of the lion tribe and anyone who would take resources from here would have to pay, the taxes would flow directly into Felix's pockets along with any income coming from selling the surrounding resources as he was the mayor of the place.

It was practically a goose that was laying golden eggs!

Felix didn't look to be that interested though as he finished cleaning himself and he was now sunbathing at the top of the walls while also training in his breathing techniques at the same time, any time he was relaxed he would slip into his training mode.

"I understand vice-general Landers, but I still want to do this job."

She took a few steps forwards and looked down at Felix who was only as tall as her waist if he stood on all fours, she gave a small bow to him as she said:

"Secretary Marlyn here to help mister Felix."

Felix stopped his sunbathing as he looked at her up and down while smiling at her:

"I hope you aren't mad that I won't be able to help you with the mayor's work Marlyn."

"No, no sir I'm not, actually I wanted to work under you because I respect you and if my work will boost your morale on the battlefield it's all for the best, your strength is admired by the whole 100,000 recruits and I think any one of them would have jumped to help you in this type of situation but I think I'm the most suited for this job."

Felix nodded at her then said:

"Then I'll bother you to work for me for now."

"No problem sir!"

Landers came from behind and gave her an insignia with the words 'secretary' on it, it was golden in color and looked a bit imposing as for which building she will use for her administration Landers let her decide on that.

Felix looked up at Landers while Lindo and Manitola were chatting while keeping an ear open for anything that would include their names.

"Well now that everything had been settled what's the next job?"

Landers shook his head as he said:

"We will leave one day after the shaman tells us about the troop's arrival so the moment we leave there wouldn't be a void here, who knows who would attack the village when only a few of our leftover troops and the aboriginals will remain to defend, also there is the fact that the aboriginals would riot after they saw that their oppressors left and all of our work would be for nothing."

Manitola perked up as she heard how Landers was talking about her people and said:

"I can make sure they won't riot if you leave me behind."

Landers took a glance at her before saying:

"Don't be insulted but I still don't trust you completely, after all, you are one of them."

Manitola fumed and she wanted to retort but Landers's concerns couldn't really be dispelled if she argued with him, she was a fox and she came to the tribe in an unfavorable situation as a slave so it was obvious that she would be untrusted, Landers wasn't paranoid but even if Lindo got close to her in the time they were together who would she side with, her people that she lived for 19 or so years or a foreign boy of a different race than she lived with for a few months?

Landers shook his head as he said:

"You will move with the army, up till now you didn't have to do much as the army or Felix took care of things but as we move further the tribes will start mixing, the fox tribe isn't the only one on the Sparron continent am I right?"

Manitola sighed and nodded, she already told them how many tribes there were on the continent and their average strengths so she knew his question was only there as a warning for her.