While Douglas and Ryuu handed over some of their less important but still onerous jobs to their offspring Frost discussed the upcoming arrangement with both Yuna and Calder.

Yuna was his secretary, his right hand person when it came to running the city while Calder was Niflheim’s merchant guild leader, the one in charge of procuring the city’s much needed resources.

"In the coming days you’ll likely come across new trade channels promising embargoed goods with slightly reduced prices. Feel free to take full advantage of this deal, procure as much as you can but make damn sure the quality is up to snuff." He would never accept subpar materials, not for his territory.

"Lord Frost....understood I’ll get right on it." Calder gazed upon his Lord with a look of awe and reverence, moved by the depths of his hidden connections. Even his grandfather would struggle to ensure a supply of embargoed goods during such tumultuous times.

With a weight off his shoulders and a spring in his step Calder left the office with a smile on his lips, finally he could make some worthwhile deals, no longer being seen as a sucker, someone who spends recklessly and without care.

"Seems I’ve put a lot more weight on his shoulders than I thought." Seeing Calder skipping as he left Frost couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. He didn’t have access to a lot of talent, so he ended up overworking those he had.

"I disagree, Calder seems to thrive under pressure, the more difficult the task and the more stringent the parameters the better his results." Yuna commented, holding a high level of respect for the man’s skills in the finance world. He helped her handle an array of problems during Frost’s trip into the Glacial mountains.

"Hoh, then maybe I should fan the flames instead of offering comfort."

"Perhaps wait until the current job is done first." Calder worked well under pressure, but he was still only human.

"Alright. How are we looking for accommodation?" Since neither Douglas nor Sedrick mentioned specific numbers all he could do was prepare for the worst.

"If it’s just basic accommodation we have three large dorms set to be complete and liveable within the next three days, 40% vacancy for the dorms currently in operation, nearly half the rooms in inns and hotels are unoccupied and in terms of private apartments and houses, a block is scheduled to be finished by the end of the week, and two houses are still in auction while two more are almost ready to be put on the market." Aware of the housing issue Yuna pre-emptively retrieved the written records from her files. Niflheim despite being a newly established territory kept very accurate and up to date records, a necessity for their fast and thorough development.

"We still have quite a lot of space." Such numbers were both good and bad news, good because it means they’ll have space for these temporary soldiers as well as the influx of refugees and adventurers flowing into the city in mass whereas bad because his current population was clearly failing to keep up with their rate of development.

"For now yes, with the war in the north and a civil war creeping in from the south we’ve both gained and lost those with temporary passes." Some returned home to avoid the coming onslaught, some were called back to be drafted while some came seeking harbour in the storm.

"The tide should only reach our gates after Douglas and Sedrick’s forces leave for Icethorne, our current rate of development should be fine, but we really need to know the specific yield value of our crops.

"Dakar says he’s on it, his report should be coming in soon." Dakar the head of the agricultural department promised a minimum of three harvests per year for their fields, but the exact quantity was still being processed.

"Have a copy sent to Calder and the labourers’ guild leader Rana as they’ll need to be aware of how much produce to purchase and then transport to the city."

"Will do." Yuna took note and ticked off another of their to dos but there were still dozens perhaps hundreds still left unfinished.....She should have asked for an entire week off rather than a pitiful three days.

"Increase the hiring quota for the garrison. I want two separate battalions, one for the outer defences of the city who will make up the frontlines during an assault and one for the inner defences who’ll control any dissidence among the populace and conduct regular patrols. The ronsos are all well and good but too few in number and too ostentatious to continue handling such work in the future. Transfer them to an elite security team that only handles threats that surpass late D-rank but have any newly summoned ronsos serves as officers in the garrison squads so as to improve relations between our monsters and the city’s residents." Seeing the ronsos running around dealing with drunks and common disputes made Frost feel as though their talents were being wasted. They were C-rank monsters, monsters he designed for war, his prime elites.

"The brothel can be pushed back until our guests leave for Icethorne, but we need to have that plan in place before the refugees and adventurers start piling in otherwise we’re going to have a bunch of pent up citizens with nowhere to release their urges." Such a situation would be a petri dish for crime and violence.

Frost went through his list while Yuna ticked things off, retrieved certain files and handed him documents to sign, his usual day to day activities since he returned. He spent all his free time lavishing Daki and Maya with love and interacting with Nanna and Loki that his training had inevitably fallen behind.

But after putting his nose to the grindstone for two days, resting for no more than an hour or two he made great headway, opening up some time to impress his lover.

"Alright let’s see how much you’ve improved young master." Maya with a pair of ice chakra hammers in her hands said while yawning, still in a state of recovery.

"Tsk don’t let your guard down Maya, I’m much stronger than when I left." Her act of yawning sparked irritation.

"Yeah, yeah come on I’ve not got all day." She taunted him with a derisive look in her eyes which caused a vein spanning Frost’s forehead to throb.

’Clearly I haven’t taught her enough during our nightly battles.’ He internally swore to up his aggression later tonight, perhaps making her suffer the same treatment she had him do to Daki.

Sensing that his anger was building Frost let out a heated breath, twirled his glaive, readied himself for battle and charged dead ahead like a rocket. His speed being quite agile even amongst late stage and peak stage B-rank’s let alone those in the mid stage but to Maya he was still akin to a snail.

"Too slow and too predictable. You may have more power but the way you use it hasn’t improved." Her feet lightly danced as she evaded a thrust and twirled her body to land behind him, the hammer in her right hand parting the air as it honed in on his legs.

Swoosh!

Surprisingly however her hammer missed, similar to her own movements Frost danced, moving with a specific tune as he evaded her attack and countered with his own, showing not even the slightest bit of mercy.

Dong!

The edge of his glaive struck the shaft of her left hammer as it was quicky brought up in defence, a solid blow one that not only knocked her off balance but also caused her to feel a numbness in her fingers.

"Hah!" Capitalizing on his advantage Frost pulled back his glaive, twirled it to build momentum then thrust it at her right shoulder, the piercing speed being so fast that the air literally screamed as the tip pushed through. His timing was excellent, his flexibility, technique and power inspiring, even his target was made in consideration of her point of escape....a beautiful strike.

Screech!

The glaive’s blade edge scraped and cut through Maya’s ice hammer as she hastily swung it upwards in an attempt to deflect the blow, alas while her reaction was noteworthy, the dipping and bending of her body mesmerising, she failed to avoid the blow perfectly.

Drip drip drip.

A small nick appeared on her right shoulder, a cut no more than a couple millimetres deep but enough for her to start dripping ruby red blood onto the floor beneath her.

Frost didn’t follow through, his heart beating a mile a minute, his eyes stretching open as far as they could go as his mind blanked, emotions of joy and triumph soon flooding in.

’I did it, I really did it. I wounded her hahahaha.’ This was the first time since she started teaching him that he managed to land a blow on her. Always the punching bag, always the student far beneath the master but today his glaive finally reached her, finally he was starting home in on her level.