Unbending 3 (Patreon)

Unbending 3 - or ‘I shall not be King, but Emperor of the Earth' (Pre-ATLA, SI)

The matters of a realm are quite complicated without a proper bureaucracy to handle the fine details behind each duty and chore.

Reorganizing the administration had been a big step to secure a less-corrupt decentralized system that still relied heavily on me. No democracy- not when the large majority of the population making up my Empire was illiterate and quick to be swayed by fake promises.

That didn’t stop me from pursuing quick welfare programs meant to actually handle the many grievances that came with such a great but backwater nation: healthcare, education and law enforcement.

The first one was relatively simple as I introduced a ‘sanitation campaign’ meant to raise awareness of cleanliness as a deterring factor for common sickness. Hence why I used some of the budget to see the construction of public baths at a reasonable price to allow small families with economic issues to be able to handle that service at a reasonably cheap price.

There was also an interest to expand clinics and a push to create three major hospitals within three months while also pursuing the attention of important medical figures to apply and be selected for the formation of a healthcare committee to further analyze the matter.

Education was a bit more complicated as the presence of school was indeed a thing and I knew many middle-to-upper-class citizens would have opposed a lessening of the requirements for poor people to enroll their children to the existing schools.

Which is why I started a program meant to create ‘boarding schools’. Rather than just invest in a faulty public school service, I knew that I could actually rely on something more trustworthy for the needy: an unfocused set of semi-schools created around tutors, retired men of society and others that were willing to teach new generations of workers.

I couldn’t elevate them through education, not yet, but I could give them the tools to find peace in their current status quo and gain the means to do the many ‘humble’ jobs around easier and with more understanding of it.

Finally, there was the matter of law enforcement. Guards existed, but those were drawn from the army pool and it wouldn’t work properly. People needed to know that we weren’t sending soldiers to deal with ‘small’ crimes.

The Dai Li had the ‘elite’ basis of a Law enforcing organization, so I took a note from their rulebooks and created a ‘diluted code’ inspired by it but shaped in a way to resemble a proper police organization.

The ‘Police Introduction Law’ was passed together with many others, and trustworthy messengers were sent with funds for the cities to use in raising police units. I was going to wait for progress in the next months as my 15th birthday came and… the Counter-Offensive Campaign soon began.

After months of sharpening the new armies into a formidable force with a ‘better-organization’ compared to its previous iterations, the ‘New Model Armies’ were meant to be the shining beacon of a modernization of the ground forces.

With brigades, divisions and other elements used to further classify the various decentralized groups within large elements, the leadership of officers was put within a chain that was as strong as it could get.

War games had further allowed the troops to grow accustomed to some scenarios that they could possibly find in the field while also getting familiar with tanks as their purpose became clear to all of them.

The exercises also allowed for any potential issues in regard to the track to be fixed as those were reinforced to handle the harsh terrain the cannon-wielding vehicles were going to deal with.

The order of attack was quite simple: tanks would stay static early on to target structures and large formations of enemies during the first hours of the assault, providing cover as the main offense tore through already shredded defensive lines and secured a path into the frontal bases.

In less than a week, several kilometers of land were retaken. Then, in two weeks, the push managed to further destabilize efforts of the Fire Nation’s army of preserving most of their gained lands but the push was so punctual and so precise that no rapid thought or orders could be raised in time to prevent a full collapse of the front.

The main factor that was attributed to this major victory was that the Fire Lord had been moving his efforts mostly towards the Omashu area. From what reports coming from the front were able to gain from interrogating the many prisoners that they captured, Azulon had planned to capture Omashu and thus encircle Ba Sing Se before planning one last offensive.

Considering how entrenched that position was, it was a fool’s idea and one that was met with some ‘chiding’ in the form of a devastating campaign for the Fire Nation as the newly-reported map put a smile on my face as two months went by and… yes, we were on the verge of something very grand.

The reports spoke loudly, the major success in this offensive would finalize by the next week and… then that’s where a lot of issues were going to appear due to the naval border we had on the next region.

We needed ships we just didn’t have in that area at the moment but… it could work. We just needed a bit more time, to find out their potential weak side by the other section of the river and then strike forth to encircle their troops in Omashu.

But for now, the most that could have been done out of this circumstance was done and… it was time to focus on the smaller details to get the rest of this military success going until the deed was done- until the Fire Nation Army was kicked out of the country so I could then bash my school over what to do with the Fire Nation’s colonies.

Fuck, that’s going to be a pain in the butt.

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Laziness doesn’t befit a high spirit.

That’s something that had been repeated so many times to the one bearing the name of Yunlong. Not without merit, obviously, but also not without sense of context within her own mind.

Sure, a high spirit does not seek to be lazy, but boredom is hardly a feeling sought out by her in this platitude of peace. She was just aimless, without a goal or a reason to do more than what her simple life was all about.

And while that would be the beginning of the question of ‘I wonder what my life really amounts to if I don’t do something big’, in truth Yunlong loved it. The boredom was a pain, yes, but it wasn’t enough to make her really regret the pleasant nature of this realm.

Heck, the alternative was the human world and… yeah, that’s not happening.

Yunlong may be curious at times of what it looked like, but with humans being so belligerent to the point that there was a war still unfolding after five long decades of uninterrupted battling there was just no point in crossing to check it out.

Even for a quick holiday trip.

And sure, one would call this as ‘daring destiny’ but this was not the first time she entertained this thought. Over and over again she pondered over this notion- to be facing some of those ‘mystical trips’ meant to ‘enlighten’ mortals and show them how spirits were the best and that they were bad but… there was the romantic factor that worried Yunlong the most.

For some reasons that no one ever explained to her despite asking so many times, female spirits had a tendency to fall in love with humans far more frequently compared to male spirits. Some called it ‘cute human factor’ which utterly made no sense to her.

Humans weren’t cute. They were hairless apes that loved to murder each other. Also, they were rather superfluous when it came to people’s appearance. Cute girl? Sure. A powerful-looking high spirit with blue scales and fluffy pink fur? Nope, that’s going to cause a panic.

Lastly, and perhaps the most important thing- Yunlong had a preference and it was about spirits. So, that’s not an issue to her- never will she face that risk of falling in love with a human. Nope!

Actually… Why am I having this specific thought?

Shifting better in her bed of bushes and flowers, Yunlong could tell something about these thoughts was odd. The bad kind of odd at that as she felt in her flexible bones that something was super wrong.

And just like that, her worry vanished as a taller spirit appeared in the sky and approached her. Large, red scales and grumpy face-

“Uncle Fang! It’s been so long… how are you?” Yunlong was quick to shift out of her current perch, dropping the lazy posture and appearing ‘dutiful’ while watching… the ‘flowers’.

Fang was spirit far older than she was, having served as the Avatar Roku’s closest friend to the very end. Very kind, still strict but… a good ‘step’ uncle to Yunlong. She knew most of the world around her through his teachings and-

“Yunlong. I am afraid my visit is not one of just courtesy.”

Oh…?

—--------d-d-d-d—------

AN

Who’s ready to see some expectations subverted? Because this is not a simple case of romance hurled out of the blue. Oh no, this is going to be quite ‘tame’.