Leveling Up by Seducing Milfs-Chapter 218. Rebuilding Meridia

Rick stood on what used to be the central plaza of Meridia Citadel three days after Cthulhu was defeated. Now, though, it was just an empty seafloor with foundation marks showing where buildings used to be.

The evacuation spell worked perfectly, moving the whole city to safety two hundred kilometers away. But now that the danger was gone, Nerissa had made up her mind to bring her kingdom back and fix it up the right way.

"So..." Nerissa said, floating beside Rick in her Ocean Empress form, "as the new Ocean Emperor, you have authority over the reconstruction."

"How do you want to rebuild our capital to be even more beautiful than the last time?"

Rick looked at her with big eyes. "Wait... w-what?! I thought you were going to make everything exactly the same as it was before."

"That would be the usual way to do things," Nerissa said. "But tradition is what kept things from moving forward."

"For six hundred years, I ruled the same way, keeping structures and systems in place without asking if they still helped our people, so... this is a chance to do better because you are the new emperor as well."

She pointed to the empty space around them. "Rick, you have a new point of view!"

"You’re not stuck in the past with ’this is how we’ve always done it.’ So, as my co-ruler and Spirit Bond partner, I’m asking you to help me design the new Meridia."

"That’s... a lot of pressure," Rick said weakly. "I’m not a city planner or an architect... I’m just a guy who used to work in IT support."

Sebastian appeared next to them with his usual shit-eating grin. "Oh, this is going to be fucking funny!"

"The gooner who couldn’t even keep his apartment clean is now in charge of designing an entire underwater capital city."

"What COULD possibly go wrong?"

Rick muttered, "You’re not helping this shit at all... get the fuck outta here!"

Nerissa pulled out a magical projection that showed a three-dimensional layout of the old Meridia. "Alright, let me give you some experience with this... we’ll start with the basic structure."

"The citadel needs defensive wards, residential districts, commercial areas, the royal palace, and public spaces. And the question is... how are we going to arrange them?"

Rick looked at the projection, his mind racing. "Okay, okay... so the old layout had everything radiating out from the central palace in concentric circles, right...?"

"That’s very traditional and hierarchical."

"That’s right," Nerissa said. "It showed that everything revolved around the royal family."

Rick said, "That’s kind of the problem, though," and he started to get into it even though he was nervous. "It puts a physical and mental distance between the rulers and the people."

"What if we used a more natural layout instead of circles? Like districts that connect to each other in a way that makes sense?"

"Hoh... I’m interested in hearing that." Nerissa’s eyes lit up with interest. "Go ahead, continue, my dear emperor."

"The palace should still be important, but maybe it should be higher up instead of in the middle? That way, it can be seen from anywhere as a symbol of leadership, but the city isn’t literally built around it."

"Also, instead of one central square... we could at least have several public plazas in each district. That way, people don’t have to go far to get to community spaces."

Rick was getting more interested in the subject now, and his hands were moving around a lot as he talked about his vision. "Oh...! And instead of putting up strict walls between homes and businesses, we could mix them naturally!"

"Like... for example, we could put homes above stores and markets to make real neighborhoods with personality instead of sterile zones! How’s that?" Rick smiled.

Sebastian said, "Holy shit... that’s actually genius," even though he didn’t want to. "The gooner might actually have a working brain cell to cook this all up."

"Well... Let! Me! Cook!"

...

Rick and Nerissa worked together on the design for the next few hours. They got help from Thalor, Myrissa, and some of Nerissa’s other kids who were skilled at oceanic architecture and ward magic.

Thalor said, "The defensive wards need to be stronger than they were before," and he used the magical projection to show where the wards should go.

"Cthulhu showed us that our old defenses weren’t strong enough to protect us from threats at the level of gods."

Rick asked, "Well now... can we at least stack them?"

"Instead of one big ward around the whole city, why not have many smaller ones that overlap? So that way... if one fails, there are backups."

Myrissa said, "That’s actually great!"

"It would also let us set different levels of protection for different districts. The palace and the Guardian summoning pools, for example, would have the most protection." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Speaking of the Guardian pools," Nerissa said, "we should make them bigger!"

"When you become Ocean Emperor, five new Guardians will be created, so... they will need proper summoning chambers."

Rick stopped. "Wait just one second there... what do you mean five new Guardians?"

"H-How does that work for a mere human like me...?"

Nerissa smiled, a real smile of happiness that looked strange on a face that had been blank for fifty years. "When two rulers with a strong bond make Guardians together, the number and power of the Guardians depend on how strong their bond is and how much authority they have together."

"Because we are now tied with the Spirit Bond... I can already tell that our bond is strong, Rick! Strong enough to make the best five protectors for the Ocean Empire."

Rick said, "Holy shit! Now that’s... actually pretty dope."

"What will they look like?"

Nerissa said, "We won’t know until the coronation ceremony."

"Guardians take on the forms of their rulers. Typhon’s power and my control over the ocean were shown in the first Leviathan and Kraken."

"Whatever we make together will show who we are now."

Rick had to make choices about everything from the style of buildings to the layout of underwater gardens to the location of commercial shipping routes as the design work went on.

After five hours of nonstop planning, Rick asked, "Do we really need to choose the color of the coral street lamps?"

Nerissa said, "Details matter," but she was smiling. "These choices will change how our people live in their city for hundreds of years."

"Okay... but it seems random to have to choose between ’luminescent blue’ and ’soft azure’ coral."

"One makes it easier to see in deep water, while the other makes the place look more inviting," Myrissa said patiently. "It’s a balance... between how it works and how it looks~!"

Rick rubbed his temples. "Oh my milfs... getting through all of this is harder than beating the Cthulhu..."

"All I had to do was punch things until they stopped being corrupted and then call it a day."

Sebastian said happily, "Welcome to real government."

"Take pleasure in the bureaucratic process, your Majesty."

Even though he was worn out and sometimes frustrated, Rick liked the process. It was gratifying to create rather than destroy, to construct a future rather than merely halting global catastrophe.

Rick pointed to a part of the projection and said, "The residential area needs more schools."

"And not just for kids! There are also places for adults to learn. Ocean dwellers live for hundreds of years, right? That means you never stop learning even if you’re old."

Rick couldn’t figure out what Nerissa was thinking when she looked at him. "I never once put more importance on expanding education beyond basic literacy and trade skills during my six hundred years in power."

"You’ve been working on the design of this city for six hours, and you’re already thinking about long-term intellectual growth."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Nerissa said softly, "It’s perfect."

"It’s just what this empire needs: a leader who asks, "What helps our people grow?" instead of just "What keeps things stable?"