The Beauty Collector

It has been one week since the Liberty has taken over the Miseri Do Mar island. Now things are starting to calm down on the island, and the nation's name has been officially charged to Freedom Island by Zeno, as the flags that were designed by Himiko herself were raised all over the island to remind the citizens that a new government is now in charge.

Zeno was initially clueless on what he wanted his nation's flag to look like and spent his time all day thinking about it until Himiko came to his rescue and presented him the flag design that he liked. Himiko, of course, received quite a pampering that day from her contribution; Zeno even made the baby Ziah pout with jealousy seeing her Papa showered Himiko with affection.

In the capital city of Freedom Island, the fluttering red flags with intricate patterns that look like the sun in the middle of the red background could be seen clearly in various places as the citizens start to return back to their homes and continue their daily lives with complicated feelings while they are very wary about their new ruler, Zeno Zavior, whom they don't know very well. They are all waiting with trepidation for what he might do next.

Amidst the worry citizens of the Freedom Island, many ongoing construction and reconstruction could be seen in many places as the "civil servants" in a white bodysuit and a full head helmet were now working with the Geborgs to pay for their crime with physical labor. And for those that are too old, disabled, or just too weak, they will be shoved inside the newly created healing chamber immediately to get a more youthful and healthy body so that they can work like everyone else without any exception.

No one among them dares to protest or complain anymore as they are being forced to work by the Liberty. For those that are too stupid to compile like a good little slave, they usually ended up turning into a mindless doll just like the Servitor in the Warhammer universe that can only follow the orders of Liberty's personnel until their sentence is over.

Seeing the fate of what happens to those who keep resisting, the will of defiance in the civil servants can only commit suicide honorably and comply unconditionally with their new status as criminal slaves. The disregard for human rights of the Liberty really frightened them, it seems.

On the side of the Freedom Citizens current situation, many of them feel helpless as they have lost their jobs because the Liberty decided to shut down all the government-related jobs and close down the island border from the outside world after they declared the island annexed while still allowing people to leave unimpeded. This resulted in many business owners and the wealthy few who were not being marked by Zeno leaving the island en masse, paranoid that the tyrannical government might come for their money next.

But fortunately for the not-so-wealthy Freedom Citizens, Liberty surprisingly kept their promises and generously provided all the people of the island with free food, clean water, electricity, health care, education, and, most importantly of all, no more tax!

The low-class citizens that make up 98% of the population feel relief as they will not starve for the time being, even if they have no money or job. They, however, are not naive or optimistic enough to think that Liberty can keep doing it for them forever, as they don't know that it was quite possible for Liberty to do it forever with the night-omnipotent Godblood. So the citizens start to boldly open their own businesses and focus on job seeking since they don't have to worry about their basic needs, gangsters, and the corrupted government lackeys anymore.

This would result in an economic boom in the future as the citizens have more money to spare for other things that they didn't need previously.

What about the reaction of the other mundane countries, you might ask?

Well, they barely had any reaction on the first few days, as Miseri Do Mar is a third-world country famous for its sky-high crime rate and corruption, so nothing much was being said other than the usual PR speech about peace and righteousness, you know the usual.

But after many footages and videos of how technologically advanced the new government of the Miseri Do Mar was spreading on the internet, the big countries and the UN immediately turned rabid as they tried anything they could to put pressure on the Freedom Island through economic sanctions or the "military exercise," which was ignored by Liberty since they were just making noises uselessly outside of its national borders.

There's also some countries that tried to contract the Liberty in secret to offer various benefits for its technologies but were promptly ignored just like the rest.

Zeno sure they will probably try to do something drastic in the future after being thoroughly ignored. He was looking forward to it, as he would enjoy messing with them.

The question is... who would be the first?

÷×÷×÷

On the red light district of the capital city, Kalawarna in a formal black suit with high heels could be seen walking out of the Fallen Star casino with two female fallen angels that were sent here by the Grigori to assist her since she had been assigned as the ambassador of the Freedom Island's Grigori embassy by Azazel to the recently emerged faction that suddenly came out of nowhere.

The Governor General was quite intrigued with the uniqueness of Liberty's force, and after he knew that the leader was the mercenary he met on the peace conference, he immediately contracted Zeno and asked him some subtle questions about his motive in doing this and his willingness to trade as he was interested in some of Liberty's gadgets.

Zeno, of course, has not missed this chance to present Azazel with his green herb medicines and some of the gadgets that he doesn't mind selling to other factions, such as the Lasgun and the battery. He doesn't mind if they want to replicate it since he doubts that they can produce them as cheap as literally dirt like his faction.

Azazel was doubtful at first hearing about the ridiculous green herb healing power, but after he saw the effect of the medicine from the video record of Noa spraying it on the bruised face of Kalawarna after her return to inform them about her appointment as the Grigori's ambassador on the island and got punched in the face by Noa again because she got annoyed at Kalawarna's smug face as her injuries were healing almost instantly from the first aid spray and how low the price of its was, Azazel instantly bent over and begged Zeno to sell it to his Grigori.

( AN: Noa is the clone of Raynare. )

After that, they made a couple of trade agreements more with each other, as the Liberty will sell the green herb products, Lasgun and Laspistol, to the Grigori in exchange for all kinds of raw materials as payment. Azazel then congratulates him for moving up in the world, and then he promises that he will visit the island when he has free time to talk with him in person, which Zeno is not quite sure what Azazel wants to talk about with him.

"Ms. Ambassador, this way, please."

One of the Geborgs that stands near the back of a God-Taker on the road called out to Kalawarna after they saw her coming out of the casino as they gestured for her to get inside the vehicle through the back entrance.

Kalawarna nods her head with a smug expression as she enters the GT together with the other two fallen angels. She was quite proud since she had been appointed as an ambassador by Azazel despite being just a glorified messenger in actuality.

After Kalawarna and her entourage settled inside the GT, the armor vehicle then began moving out immediately towards their newly built embassy in the supernatural zone of the island.

Along the way, a long line of people could be seen in various places around the city where the distribution center was set up as the Freedom citizens went to receive a food and necessity item package that will last one person for a week per package from the civil servants that were working there under the watchful eyes of the Geborgs who maintained the order.

This will be a common sight on the island for a while before the people will eventually decide to be more productive and find a job to get more luxury items since the food and items in the package are just basic stuff, but it's still far better than the usual things you can get from this kind of package.

Twenty minutes later, the GT has arrived in front of a three-story building with tall concrete walls surrounding it. The embassy building is next to the two exact same-looking buildings. The two buildings are the Embassy of the Devil and the Church, as they are the only factions that decided to stay on the island since they can be considered to be on friendly terms with the leader of Liberty from his and his group's contributions on the peace conference at the Kuoh Academy.

Kalawarna and the two fallen angels then came out of the GT with their luggage and briefcase as they looked around.

"What an eyesore..."

Kalawarna and her entourage display a displeased expression as they see that they are right next to the Devil and the Church Embassy buildings. Well, they can only suck it up and bear with it since Azazel already warned them to behave themselves; otherwise, he will leave them to the mercy of Liberty.

"Let's go!"

They can only pretend like the two buildings didn't exist as they walk inside their embassy while the GT is moving away from the front of the building.

÷×÷×÷

Meanwhile, inside of Zeno's office in the newly built palace on top of the place where the old naval base used to be, which is also both the residence and workplace of all the Liberty's high-ranking members, Zeno in a black unbuttoned dress shirt with folded sleeves, gray dress pants with a black leather belt, and black dress shoes could be seen sitting while leaning his back on a black office chair lazily behind a large white desk with futuristic design as he looked outside of the windows to the calm blue sea with a relaxed expression.

On top of the desk, there's two items placed near each other. One of the items is a golden gauntlet called the Infinity Gauntlet, and the second one is a scroll of the Shadow Clone technique. Both of them are his Gacha rewards he collected from the last two weeks. Zeno was quite busy in those two weeks, as he has a lot of things to take care of, so he doesn't have the time to look at what he got from the Gacha until now.

The Infinity Gauntlet is not that useful like now, so he decides that it will be just a decoration on his desk, but the scroll of shadow clone technique, on the other hand, is quite interesting and super helpful for his faction, as he taught it to his girls and the Geborgs after he modified and improved it so it can be used with all kinds of energy and is more durable than the normal shadow clone.

Now it's becoming quite a bit of a problem as the lazy girls keep using the shadow clone to do all the work for them while they just laze around.

"Hah... I guess I have to discipline them a bit, huh?"

Zeno sighed as he remembered Leila complaining to him about it. Well, to be honest, she was just annoyed that the nightly schedule with him was messed up, so she has to share her turn with more girls.

( AN: Leila is the clone of Kalawarna. )

"What should I say so I don't appear like a hypocrite..."

With a wry smile, he turned to see the shadow clones of himself reading the reports of various things on the island at the couch with a bored expression on their faces...