Night fell.

After giving soldiers houses and letting them rest briefly, I gathered my subordinates in the square again. We'd obtained Ras Vegas, but hadn't completely occupied it, and needed to prepare to counter a massive retaliation from the barony.

"Arthur, go to the forest, cut down trees, and rebuild the collapsed fence."

I fought while minimizing damage to defensive facilities considering siege warfare. Just repairing the collapsed parts would restore original function, and Arthur headed to the nearby forest leading his squad members.

"Percival, gather residents at the government office. Have them bring blankets and pillows from their houses, and make them sleep at the office for the time being. And prepare 'that' while they sleep."

Though I didn't plunder houses, it was difficult to let them sleep easily. Since there was no certainty residents were loyal to me yet, I herded residents into the government office. They were frightened even while performing the duty I assigned.

"Y-you're not going to block the office entrance and set fire, are you...."

"I'm not crazy to that extent. If I do that to you guys, I'll set fire to my lower half. Got it?"

Only after promising the worried residents did they obediently enter the office. I couldn't have all troops guard each house, and residents understood they had to be under our watch for now. I called Percival aside.

"Percival, don't forget. They haven't sworn loyalty to our legion yet. They're people who can flee anytime. Then let them go. Annoying to clean corpses anyway. But if they try to rebel...."

"Then I'll personally beat them to death."

"No, Percival. You have a sword now. Cleanly cut off heads. Strip all clothes except underwear."

"As the legion commander says."

Percival and squad members fully armed and surrounded the office. Inside the office, like a regular government building, there were facilities for thirty people to adequately handle bodily needs, and I ransacked part of the food storage in case they complained of hunger.

"The rest, first restore the watchtowers and gather equipment. And stand guard. Hold torches and watch for enemies coming for night raids. Eila, you lead the rest."

Eila left leading the remaining orc troops. What remained now was Lune's unit on constant standby near the mage, the only prisoner in the square. I entered the office with Lune carrying food brought from the food storage.

"Eek!"

The residents were gathered in groups of three to five talking about something. The conversation flow broke, perhaps they'd been talking about me. I held out food I'd brought in a wooden box to them.

"I brought it matched to headcount, so divide it yourselves. Dinner slash late-night snack."

"...Dinner? Late-night snack?"

"What, you guys don't eat snacks?"

"We, eat one meal in the morning and one more after midday...."

"People aren't on diets, you need three meals a day."

I called the guild master old man, the residents' representative, and put an armband on him. By age and position, he was now the residents' representative, and I granted him appropriate authority.

"You're responsible for dividing food. I matched the headcount anyway, so if you embezzle, you'll get caught immediately."

"...Alone?"

The guild master asked me back with a flustered face again. I checked the condition of food in the box. Rye bread about half a forearm's length, jerky and a handful of dried fruit. Since water was stored in wooden barrels inside the office, it seemed enough quantity to fill one dinner.

"Is it a lot? When I asked Eila, she said this much is enough for one meal."

"Enough.... Yes, yes! It's enough!"

The guild master bowed and thanked me repeatedly. I thought 'oops' seeing residents already drooling looking this way.

'That Eila.'

She showed noble sensibilities befitting a count's eldest daughter. To those close to commoners or serfs, this was undoubtedly a feast-level meal. My intuition was accurate at least when it came to food, nothing else.

'If I'd given milk too, loyalty would've maxed out today.'

I considered distributing some milk stored in the warehouse but decided against it. Knowing better than anyone that human greed has no end, if you treat them well at first, bad feelings arise even if you treat them slightly worse afterward. So I clearly declared.

"I'm only giving this specially today. From tomorrow, you'll receive food only if you work. Think of this as the last supper and eat."

Sorry to rush them while eating, but rushing was necessary to avoid backbiting later. I had residents line up and instructed Lune and the guild master to serve. When I tried to give it directly, it looked bad and residents disliked it too.

Residents stared at the meal given to them for a while, then slowly started chewing. And they burst into cheers.

"Oh, such soft bread!"

"You guys eat bread as staple food?"

"...We, soak very hard bread in thin soup to eat."

At the residents' too pitiful words, I even felt pity. When I wondered what they usually ate and told the most shabby-dressed man to bring bread from home if he had any, he brought some kind of brick. It was so hard that orc teeth could barely enter. Not like you break it with a hammer to eat.

Whoosh-!

I swung the bread they said they ate as staple food. It reeked and was so hard it wouldn't be strange to think of it as a blunt weapon. I forcibly tore off the end by hand and bit a piece.

"Mm...."

The outside was hard but the inside was crumbly. Though not quite like chewing stones, if soaked in water, it seemed like chewing sawdust level.

"At this hardness level...."

I left the office to test. Lune followed behind me, and the office door closed tightly. As soon as I disappeared, residents' whispering sounds flowed outside the door. I immediately ran to the square and struck the fainted mage's buttocks with the bread.

Smack!

"Kyah!"

The mage woke from my butt smash after being fainted. The bread was covered with semen sprayed by orcs, and I threw it in front of the mage.

"Eat."

"Th-this is...?"

"If you don't want to eat, throw it away."

I brought out some slime dragon bodily fluid in a bowl along with the bread. The mage's body was tied to the board, and if she moved her head, she could sufficiently eat the bread and slime bodily fluid.

"Th-this...!"

"You're not saying to kill you? Want to live?"

The mage lowered her head. I crouched to the mage whose head was caked with dried white powder and held out the bowl.

"If you want to live, you should've stayed quietly shut. That's why you shouldn't have aimed at the elf."

"...Because the elf was the most threatening."

"Your eyes are pretty bad. Doesn't matter. If you tried to kill someone, you should naturally pay an appropriate price."

"Pfft."

The mage giggled whether my words were funny. The mage who raised her head had bloodshot eyes.

"Typical monster talking bullshit. Think you're different?"

"Of course I'm the same. If I try to kill others, others try to kill me—I know that's human nature. So...."

I grabbed the bread's end and poked it at the mage's mouth.

"If you don't want to die, eat. Doesn't matter if you starve to death."

"Ptooey. Food given by monsters...!"

"Then die."

I turned around mercilessly. Lune glanced back and followed behind me asking.

"Are you really planning to kill her?"

"If she doesn't eat, she'll starve to death. If she dies, there's use for that too."

I headed to Ras Vegas's main gate. The orc subordinate waiting at the watchtower watched outside upon my arrival, and after not much time passed, soon drew a circle overhead. I opened the main gate left and right.

"How did you match the appointment time so precisely?"

"I roughly calculated."

A red-haired woman riding a camel with three humps on its back arrived at Ras Vegas. On the camel's back were feathers and magic stones wrapped in slime dragon epidermis cloth piled full.

"Welcome. Gremory's avatar. Nothing happened in the meantime?"

"You'd have to ask the main body that. Huhu, you suppressed it cleaner than expected? Where did you pile the corpses? The sacrifices?"

"This is why demons won't do. I drove them all out. Except killing about seventy resisting guards, I drove them all out."

Gremory's expression turned vicious.

"Are you crazy? Then those guys will all go to the main castle and report the situation, right? Are you sane?"

"Anyway, massacre is a passive in demon genes. Lune, you must never become like that. Can you explain to Gremory why I released the humans?"

"Mm...."

Lune thought briefly, then clapped.

"Come back stronger!"

"No, that's someone else."

"Ah, was it? Mm.... I remember. Melon on the way back?"

"What kind of bullshit is that? You too, don't teach elves weird things. What's melon?"

"Just bullshit. Kuhehe. But it's not wrong."

I pointed to the orcs with bows in the watchtower.

"The expelled guys will now return bringing a subjugation force, and we need to eat them, right?"

And for that, I called Gremory, the avatar. I pulled out a mid-grade magic stone from the bundle Gremory brought. The mid-grade magic stones I'd saved and saved for someday when there's an important day. Maybe they'd be needed for upgrading the summoning facility, but when immediately necessary, I had to use them boldly.

"I trust you. Really do well without mistakes."

"Hmph, the avatar is as smart as the main body. No mistakes. Don't worry. It'd be weird to make mistakes at just this distance. So where should I do it?"

"Obviously the square."

I guided Gremory to the square. Gremory took out a book from her chest, then tore the book page by page with a sleepy smile.

"You know what's up after all."

"Portals in village squares are the standard, aren't they?"

Gremory dismounted from the camel and stood in front of the fountain, starting to place paper evenly on the ground. The small magic circle drawn on the paper began emitting light, and I nervously waited for Gremory's magic to complete.

"Master, then I'll prepare our kids."

"Yeah. Right. Kuh, to think I'd make this."

My chest swelled at the magic circle gradually filling with red light.

"Master, what will you call this?"

"This? Ahem. Right."

I cleared my throat and arranged my voice.

"Ah, this is called a nydus canal."

A portal connected between Ras Vegas and Ras Village.

"...Tunnel? It's just magic though."

"It's a metaphor."

We ended up just naming it a portal.

***

Zabiyaba was occupied by an orc horde.

A large number of refugees from Zabiyaba occurred at Spica Castle, and dealing with them made the baroness nearly get stomach cramps.

"...."

Should I quit? But fleeing while abandoning noble rank in a wartime-equivalent situation was absurd. How could the baroness who lived as a noble flee abandoning her noble title?

"...."

The vassals were all just watching the baroness's mood. The Demon King's army's vicious clutches finally reached the barony far from battles between the human alliance and Demon King's army, and they had absolutely no way to deal with this situation.

"...Is Sir Gray still completely silent?"

"Yes. Due to what happened in the capital, he's still recovering at the main house."

"Tsk. Here and there, orcs are the problem. Why are mere monsters so strong? Sigh."

The baroness sighed and stood from her seat. Holding a baton with white feathers, she pointed at the map spread on the table.

"First, accommodate Zabiyaba's residents at the temple and temporary barracks as much as possible. You request cooperation from the priest. Knights and territorial troops step forward to calm disturbances from refugee occurrence. I cannot forgive the entire barony falling into fear over a mere force of about a hundred orcs."

The baroness gave orders one by one, and slapped the baton on the table declaring.

"And tomorrow morning! Leading all territorial troops except standing forces, I'll retake Zabiyaba. At the vanguard...."

The baroness scanned the knights. Everyone overflowed with confidence, strongly appealing with eyes to be placed at the vanguard. The baroness pointed the baton at Ramatio, a veteran knight.

"Sir Ramatio. Please retake Zabiyaba. And we must rebuild positions centered on Zabiyaba."

"I will definitely retake Zabiyaba."

Ramatio laughed refreshingly, showing his teeth fully.

"About a hundred orcs is nothing."

At Ramatio's strong confidence, the baroness felt relieved.

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