Meanwhile with Kya and Others
They were taken to the servant quarters in the ship. There they were ordered to bath and wear the clothes provided, a skintight version of the clothes they previously wore with skimpy undergarments. Their original clothes were burnt in front of them. Than collars were attached to all of their necks.
"Now listen well, you only have one task and that is to please His Majesty. Now these clothes may hide your best assets but since you are not benders we have to bear with it. We will be teaching you the etiquettes of slaves, starting tomorrow. Any questions." They explained
"Are...are you also his sla-slaves." Kya asked hesitantly.
"Hahaha, no His Majesty would never make a waterbender or any bender a slave unless they tried to harm him or his. No we are his personal bodyguards and head of staff. We wear these clothes because they are comfy, work as decoys and His Majesty likes how we look in these." They answered while giggling, not looking like they could be anyone's bodyguard but there eyes told a different tale.
"What is our duty, I mean you said we have to keep hi... His Majesty pleased but how do we do it. Do we clean his room and residence for him or perform some tasks." This time it was Kanna who asked.
"No you will not be cleaning or doing any such things, we use the novices in bending for that task. The only work here is cooking and we have chefs for them. No you will have to do just as His Majesty or those higher in standing than you, like us, orders you to do. Whether it is to entertain him, serve him, have sex with him, it's upto His Majesty's discretion. Now if you don't have any more silly questions get some sleep, you have a long day ahead of you."
They did as ordered and went to sleep, clinging to each other as life support.
Next day they were woken up by cold water being poured on them. Though, they were immediately dried once they woke up. Katara was immediately sent for her bending training, meanwhile Kya and Kanna were taken to be trained, first there attitude needed work. There spirit needs to be broken. Than they will use brainwashing to make them compliant. It is not hard to figure out Dai Li's technique if you have roughly seen it being done and have the copy of it from Wan Shi Tong library. Than they will taught etiquettes needed to work as maids / slaves. Than they are to be taught self defense, personal maids of the King need to know how to defend themself and the King, though the King didn't need protection, he doesn't need to be annoyed by assassination attempts if any.
Like this month's passed while they trained and served Tulok.
Meanwhile Outside
Supply ships started coming in two days. For the first time in months, the village had enough food to have three full meals without having to worry about future. As the ships kept coming in, waterbender and engineers also kept arriving with them.
Tulok invited them to his ship to discuss the Southern Reconstruction Project.
"Here, I have some plans on how I want you all to develop this village into a full fledged city." Tulok said showing them the map and designs he had. "I want you to draw inspiration from the old Southern Tribe Capital City, for cultural aspects shown in house designs, fountains, etc. We don't want them to feel like we are colonising them."
"Your Highness, these plans are very detailed and could easily be achieved with enough benders, but if we are to draw upon the cultural aspects and take inspiration from the old capital city, we will have to go there ourself and take notes." One of the engineers said.
"Okay, take some waterbender and warriors with you for protection and take some locals to guide you there. Pay them well for there efforts. Meanwhile we will lay the foundation here, so that the work can start as soon as you come back." Tulok ordered.
"Now remember, we need wide roads, big markets for trade, the fish, leather and other such market that creates unpleasant smell need to be far away from main streets and residential area but easily accesible, communal baths in the hot springs, seprate for male and females and covered to stop cold winds, canals, sewage, proper schools, hospitals, community centers, police force, courts and every other necessity. The population is small currently so we don't have to build too many of these structures currently, but as the population increases we will have to scale them. So leave space for them. Remember, our city should not be less than North's Agna Qela in any expect."
"It will be done, Your Highness." The lead engineer says.
"Also send some engineers to Omashu to study theirMail Delivery System and see if it could be integratedin our city plan. Our city is not built on a mountain slope so it may not be feasible but we could try." The lead engineer nodded at that.
"We also need to start a breeding program for Arctic Camel and Snow Leopard Carribou for the military purposes. We will also trade a herd of Arctic Camels to North for a herd of there Buffalo Yak. Buffalo Yak and Arctic Camels can also be used for civilian use as well, so we need to specially focus on them. I know we don't have anyone fot for that job, but ask people here if someone is skilled in raising farm animal. Or we may just have to invite someone from Northern Tribe." Others nodded.
"We also need to take back our overseas territory, Shimsom islands. For that, we first need to take over the northern region of the Pole first. We will reconstruct the Whale Harbor City and use it as a staging point to take back those islands. Those islands will work again as our trading and naval outpost and lumber mill. We don't have trees here, we will grow them on Shimsom."
"Once Fire Nation learn that we have taken over the Southern Tribe, they would start their guerilla warfare with us again. Our small fleet wouldn't cut it any more. We need robust navy to stop them in the sea itself before they start attacking. Specifically target lone Fire Nation ships and seize them. We would use Fire Nation own ship against them. Learn from the newly captured prisoners how to operate their ships and use them."
My captains gave a blood thirsty smile and nodded.
"Put all our slaves on 3 shifts of eight hours in the gold, silver and copper mines, we have to introduce a form of currency to properly trade with other nations. The coins would have a circular hole in between and would have a wave pattern on one side and a snowflake on other. The weight shape and size will need to be centralised. We will need a mint and institution who will convert foreign currency into ours based on weight of the currency. A bank."
"Your Highness, what is a bank." One of them asked.
"Bank is a financial institution that stores and keep your money safe, give some interest over it, lends it to others at affordable interest rate. This institution will also convert foreign currency into ours for a small fee per coin. Additionally, anyone, even from other nation can deposit their money in our bank, no question asked about how they earned it. The only one asked will be our own citizens. So we will be able to use the illegally earned money of others for our purposes. And it will work as a safety net for us. These people would not want our nation and bank harmed in fear of losing there money." There eyes widened at that.
"That's ingenious, Your Highness."
"And last thing for the time being, transportation. These are the designs of sledge and ski. The sledge can be pulled by a group of polar dogs, buffalo yaks and Arctic Camels, and can be used as carts to transport goods or people. The skis are used for individual transportation, downwards a slope and you can only carry what can be fitted inside a bag on your back because your hands will be filled with these sticks. But we will need wood to make them, so we will be using the few trees that grow in coastal areas. They may not be fit for ships but are good enough for this. In future we will build a whole path of ice on which waterbenders can pull carts." Tulok said passing designs of skis, snowboard and sledges.
Everyone looked apprehensive at this but decided to go along with it.
Soon everyone got to work. Within a week hundreds of waterbender and thousands of men arrived. The waterbender soon got to work, first a dual wall was raised for protection. Walls are not a big deal for us water and earth benders. We could make and remake them over and over everyday. So building a temporary double wall as we start planning the city from the center and moving outward is not a problem for us.
Than the engineers started planning the city. Proper streets for different purposes, food on one street, clothes on another, weapon and armor on another and so on. Festival grounds, where thousands could gather, parks (fields of ice) where winter sports could be played. A proper canal and sewage system, similar to Agna Qela, with fountains and artificial waterfalls.
All the spots were marked, the ground was compacted into ice by waterbenders. Snow was being collected from all around to be used as construction material.
Soon the engineers sent to old Southern Capital returned with their designs and the work begin earnestly. Within a month a whole city carved from ice came into being. That's the power of a group of benders (earth and water mainly). Non benders couldn't even compare. Something that would have taken decades and thousands of workers for non-benders was completed within months.
Next step was building the royal palace. If I had an army of earthbender like I have of waterbenders, than I would have built it on top of one of the surrounding mountains. But since that's not the case and the few earthbenders under me had gone on a crusade to takeover the Earth Kingdom from Earth King Kuei, just like Kuvira, I had no choice but to build it near the city.
It was a grand thing with traditional Water Tribe architecture, made entirely out of metres thick ice, often showcasing intricate carvings and large, arched structures. In the center of the throne room is a single, elevated throne carved from ice, and covered in furs and pelts, with three large moldings of the Water Tribe emblem on arches behind it. Down below are two tables for the ministers and different tribe elders / leaders (can't ignore them currently). The courtroom contains large ice pillars, multiple chandeliers, and public seating benches for when I will hold court.
Once this was complete, we finally set out on our plan to conquer this tribe. With the help of Bato and his hunters, we have a map of the region with the location of all the villages known to his village.
Winning over these villages was not a problem, according to Bato, these villages were not any bigger than his own, specially the coastal ones, with only a dozen or so warriors in each of them. I sent 50 warriors with a couple benders to each of them.
Most of them agreed after seeing the forces sent, some were stubborn and needed to be defeated first to see our strength, but the rare few needed a greater show of strength and only agreed after their leader's head was chopped off. We learnt the location of more villages from them and went there. Most of them agreed to move to cities and towns that were being constructed or reconstruced, and those who did not were forced to, if the location didn't provide anything useful, that is.
But as the population of the capital city grew, a glaring problem showed up. Food. Other things could be managed for the time being until new hunting grounds are discovered but food is a problem, specially because of lack of fleet, even fishing boats.
I was pondering over this while looking at the map. Water tribe used leather and whale bone to make their canoes but it wouldn't do on such large scale. I was thinking about this when my eyes fell on the Patola Mountain Range.
My fleet is already hunting down Fire Nation ships in South Sea and if things continued would eradicate Fire Nation presence within a year or two. Between this time, I could send some people to the mountain range to cut down the wealth of timber there and maybe start some small mining operation there.
The Avatar boy is not going to come out of iceberg for some years or maybe never, because Sokka has been sent to Kaiyo Archipelago and will be sent to frontlines from there. Katara is under my watch currently. But anyways, till the boy comes out if he comes out, I can use the timber and mineral wealth for my own purposes. If the Avatar later finds out, what is he even gonna do. I will just frame it as a need for survival and with Air Nomad's peaceful, non-confrontational attitude he will drop the matter if I stopped the activity.
Why do I fear the Avatar boy so much? It's not fear but survival. I could fight many benders at once but the Avatar state, that's another thing. For example, take Pakku at his peak. Now add up the power of hundreds of Pakku in one. Could you counter it, no you can't. And that's taking only one bending style. An Avatar could learn all four, not to mention the immense energy reserves he has.
So, I wouldn't shy away from using his naivety but wouldn't go around antagonising him.