Rebirth: 100 Days Before Doomsday-Chapter 215: Making Alliances

By the time Grace entered Unit 2203, the long table in the dining area was already filled with plates of steaming food.

The warm scent of roasted meat, seasoned vegetables, and freshly baked bread greeted her, making her stomach rumble even though she wasn’t even feeling hungry before stepping inside the unit.

It was Rio who caught her attention first. As she made her way to the table, he smirked at her and teased. "Finally decided to grace us with your presence, huh?"

Grace just shook her head while a small smile bloomed on her lips. She had known Rio for just as long as she had known Davian. As King Parker’s most trusted man, Rio had always been there with Davian.

If there was anyone in that room who knew about Grace and Davian’s actual history, accept for the two of them of course, then it was only Rio.

"Let me guess, you all made Davian do all the cooking." She said while turning her gaze toward Rio once again.

While almost everyone in the team had learned to cook during the time of disaster, no one could still come anywhere close to Davian’s cooking skills. Hence, all it took was just one look at the table filled with dishes and she knew that Davian had done the cooking.

"What? Feeling bad for your boyfriend?" Rio asked, not bothering to lower his voice as he called Davian her boyfriend.

Though it had been over half a year since she started officially dating Davian, Rune, and Dr. Kian, the four of them never bothered to actually announce their relationship to the team.

But they also didn’t try to keep it a secret. Thus, there was no surpise that almost everyone in the team knew about the relationship, but no one still openly called them out on it... until now.

"Why? Can’t I?" She asked, not giving Rio the satisfaction of catching her off guard with his question.

The shock was clearly evident on the man’s face, and before he could have caught himself, Davian was there with a bowl of rice.

"Do you want to return to your unit and cook for yourself?" He asked, his gaze warning Rio about continuing with his nonsense.

Rio was quick to give up. He raised his arms in surrender and shifted his focus to the food. Davian, on the other hand, settled down on the chair on Grace’s left who was sitting at the head of the table.

"I made your favorites." He told her as he picked up the bowl of butter chicken. He started serving her, adding rice and side dishes.

"Thank you." She said before taking the first bite, noticing how he was waiting to hear her comment on his cooking. The moment she ate the first bite of the chicken, she couldn’t help but close her eyes and savor the taste. As usual... it was amazing.

When she opened her eyes, she found him looking at her with a satisfied smile on his lips. He no longer needed her words as her reaction had told him what he wanted to know.

"Gosh! There are other people here too." Rune muttered as he picked up a pice of chicken from Grace’s plate and shoved it in his mouth.

Ever since they began their relationship, he stopped sitting at the end of the table and took his place on her right. Initially, he used to sit next to Dr. Kian, but since the doc couldn’t join them for these meals most of the days, Rune had now taken his place on the first chair to her right.

"Feeling jealous." Davian commented, sparing Rune a quick look before shifting his attention to his own plate that still needed to be filled with food.

Before the two could have begun throwing their sparky comments at each other, Grace decided to step in and shift their attention to something else.

"So," she started, running her gaze across the long table, "let’s talk about the factions."

The table immediately shifted into business mode.

It was Davian who decided to speak first. "Greenstone has been holding strong so far, but we all know that won’t last if the other factions keep looking at us like a meal waiting to be devoured. We have resources. We have security. That makes us a target."

"We need allies," Grace said firmly. "It’s not just about defense anymore. It’s about longevity. If we want Greenstone to stand even after we are gone, we need to make sure it has a strong enough network to survive without them constantly having to fight off enemies."

It was Rune who asked the first question. "But which factions are we looking for?"

Since Kevin had been assigned to look into this matter, he finally spoke, addressing Rune’s question. "Two stand out the most - Blood Vultures and Royal Road."

"Blood Vultures are raiders," Seth continued from there as he was Kevin’s partner in this task. "They survive by taking from others. Not exactly the best candidates for an alliance."

"They might still be useful," Davian countered. "They operate on a code of trade. If Greenstone can offer them supplies they can’t get anywhere else, we can turn them into customers rather than enemies."

Grace exhaled, tapping her fingers against the table. "And the Royal Road?"

"They are somewhat neutral," Kevin supplied. "They don’t pick fights, but they don’t involve themselves in conflicts either. It seems like they have a stable food supply they got their hands during the starting of the disasters. But they do lack proper defenses."

Grace considered this. "So, in short, we can offer the Blood Vultures a trade agreement, and Royal Road security in exchange for long-term cooperation."

"It’s risky," Rio pointed out. "One wrong move, and we make enemies instead of allies."

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"That’s why we need to start small," Grace said. "We can’t offer these factions anything that Greenstone doesn’t possess. Of course, it’s easy to secure these deals with the supplies I have in possession, but these alliances are for Greenstone, not me. We need to make proper arrangements."

Rune chose this moment to add his humor in the tense conversation. "Good thing we have someone as devilishly charming as me to handle the negotiations, huh?"

Aleena snorted. "Right. Because people are so easily fooled by your charms."

He placed a hand over his heart in mock offense. "You can ask your Boss, I’m incredibly persuasive."