All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 312: An Era of Peace and Prosperity

Bee cracked her eyes open with a groan as she slowly woke up. For a long moment, the comforting embrace of sleep wrapped around her, suggesting very kindly that she snuggle down for just a little longer. But then, she remembered. Today was a big day, even if she wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

The tradition was never supposed to have been a small one at most. Really, she would have preferred if everyone had just forgotten about it. Today wasn't supposed to be an important day, certainly not one for the entire Theocracy. But it was.

As much as she'd tried to get people to forget it, to rename it, and even move it to a different day, it was to no avail. People always remembered, even when she went through so much trouble to muddy the waters. With all the things she had accomplished, somehow, this was one of the few things she could never squash.

It was her birthday.

The thought made Bee grimace. The day should've been about honoring Void, as most of the other public holidays now were. That or cleaning or community service or something equally worth celebrating. But no. Instead, they celebrated her birthday.

She rubbed her forehead as she got up. It was still dark outside, but she didn't need that much sleep. Despite the early hours, there was a decent amount of noise coming from the castle as people set up for the festivities. Preparation had been going on for over a week now. Despite her slashing the budget for it and doing basically everything she could to divert attention from the event, it was still tracking to be several times larger than it was last year.

Of course, her inner circle didn't share her concerns. To them, her coming-of-age party was a big deal. Which made no sense to her. Sure, to most people, 18 was a big milestone, but to her? She was already the regent of a whole country.

Over the last few years, a lot had changed. Her master's constant stream of new inventions had improved lives, though they'd also made them more complicated in some ways. They'd also had huge effects on the culture she used to recognize. But some things had stayed the same, much to her chagrin.

She had a sinking feeling about this party in particular. When she'd turned sixteen, the matchmakers and more forward-thinking politicians had come out of the woodwork to test the waters. The whole fiasco had sent her into hiding for weeks. Now? Well, she could only hope that a party was the only thing that came out of today. She would have believed them when she said that if their response hadn't been the same when she turned 16, and the host people looking to matchmake had sent her into hiding for weeks. Really? They were just looking to throw a party.

With a long sigh, Bee flung aside her covers and got ready for the day. Looking out her window, she saw the scurrying forms of the Nighty Knights helping to assemble stages and move boughs full of floral decorations at the palace in the far distance. It was hard to call them children anymore. Now, most of them were young teenagers, and scarily mature ones at that. Something about getting so many levels early had made them physically a little bit older, just like her. Bradley looked to be 18 himself, rather than the 13 he currently was.

They were even more excited for Bee's birthday than everyone else. To them, getting older was a huge thing. Once they turned 12, they were allowed to participate in some more complicated adventures, rather than just simple monster hunting and leveling up others under careful supervision. Of course, many of them didn't have the patience to wait that long. Still, it was the age where they no longer had to be so careful about sneaking behind their parents' backs and getting themselves in trouble.

Now, the older Nighty Knights had been inducted as a proper military regiment. They only had four members currently, as most were not quite yet of age. But more could join soon. Especially since nearly everyone, including their parents, had given up trying to force them to still be children.

Obviously, no one had sent them on actual deadly missions where they had to engage enemy combatants, and no one would ever allow them to fight another person.

Bee stepped closer to the massive windows of her personal suite. She normally stayed in the palace, but those rooms ended up being more trouble than they were worth. She was liable to have people looking for her at all hours. But here, in her penthouse? This impossibly high tower made it very difficult for most people to climb up to see her, and there was only one entrance to boot. As much as she hadn't wanted to accept it, her aunt was right. The place was awesome. And besides, the view up here was amazing.

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As she stepped into the kitchen, she spotted the familiar floating black disk of her master near the stove. Void beeped happily as she waved in greeting, zooming over to her and presenting a plate of freshly cooked eggs and bacon.

She smiled at her master. As many world-altering inventions as it had come up with, it had also displayed some rather strange inclinations lately. Specifically, an interest in cooking. She supposed it only made sense after its obsession with cleaning and gardening and other housekeeping-related tasks. And besides, she had no reason to complain. It had been a rocky start, but it cooked really well nowadays.

Void took a little colored paper hat off of a stack balanced on top of his back. It placed the hat on top of her head, securing it with a little elastic strap underneath her chin.

"Thank you, master." She bowed her head and made her way to the small breakfast nook with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the city. As soon as she sat down, she took the paper party hat and set it off to the side. Why Void insisted on them, she didn't know exactly. But at least she knew why her plans to curtail this event had never worked. She had considered if she was walking on the edge of blasphemy, going against her god's wishes, but Void had never reprimanded her. That didn't mean it stopped providing wondrous gifts of great power for many of the competitions. Besides, Void himself generally helped the state bankroll the whole thing with resources pulled out of thin air, which had made it rather hard to oppose. Not that the Theocracy couldn't afford it.

As Bee scarfed down her breakfast, her thoughts turned to the other, more important matters she had to attend to. Specifically, the trade delegations coming in a few weeks. Anyways. With the removal of a lot of the laws that had disproportionately protected noble and royal businesses, the economy boomed. The technological inventions from her master had increased worker productivity tenfold, not to mention created demand for these new technological marvels.

The Theocracy was now an exporter of nearly a single major good and resource to all of its neighbors, as well as many places across the sea. Places that they hadn't even known about were now trading with them. There was apparently a tribe of yeti-like creatures that Aunt Bellatrix had recently entered negotiations with, somehow.

Even their standoffish neighbor Barleona traded with them, though mostly through smuggling and unofficial channels. And that was even with the Practitioners of Purity, working against their image in many ways in those cities. Gold and riches were piling into the kingdom No, not the kingdom, Bee reminded herself. It no longer went by that name. It was the Spotless Theocracy now. A name that Void itself had agreed to. Though she was still fairly certain, her master found something humorous about the title.

Gold and riches were piling into Spotless Theocracy so fast that they didn't know what to do with them.

Anyway, the influx of good tidings wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. She had to work incredibly hard to prevent inflation from making the precious metals nearly worthless. And a lot of that involved public spending. Many of her aides had been calling for an expansionist movement that would solve a lot of their problems of abundance. Still, Bee wasn't quite ready for that. The church was already spreading well past their boundaries. Still, the neighbors were already wary enough of them as they were, and invasions just seemed like a waste of resources to her.

Besides, Void thought they'd be messy. Her master had counseled that once enough people had faith in its holy vision, those neighboring states would become one with their country with no bloodshed or mess. She seldom argued with her master about that, as Void was almost always correct.

The main worry that still weighed on her mind was the Lieutenants. Seven of them were still alive, likely on the loose somewhere. And they had no idea where. Archibald and Daedalus came back every couple of months to report on new leads they had followed, but so far, they had been eluded.

They knew the Lieutenants were here. At least, some of them were. She couldn't dismiss the possibility that they had returned to the demonic plane out of fear. That would be the best-case scenario. Otherwise, they must be planning something, but they hadn't figured out what.

All her time spent leading the kingdom meant she couldn't join in the hunt herself. Void also seemed content to improve things for their people rather than focus on the demons. Susan, Harold, and the Warden had been running intelligence services, which had helped to stamp out lots of small demon cultist organizations that somehow spontaneously popped up everywhere. But even they had failed to locate where the real support was coming from.

Bee turned away from the window. She was expecting the dragon and his rider to arrive sometime today. They hadn't missed any one of these parties so far, so maybe she'd be able to get another report out of them while they were here. Maybe they would actually get something productive done today rather than just a bunch of silliness.

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