After receiving his compensation, Axel and Ethernina quickly returned to the frontline fortress. They didn't have any business with the queen left, after all.

Of course, their travel went without a hiccup.

Even the teleportation formation was set before they arrived, allowing for instant activation.

"We're back!" Nina shouted as soon as they reappeared on the other side.

"Salute to the Princess!"

As soon as they did, the new witches sent to the fortress—particularly those guarding the formation—gave a snappy salute.

"At ease." She nodded. "Any news while we were away?" she asked quickly.

"Yes, Princess. Actually…"

Just like that, Nina moved with the witches, talking in hushed voices. Axel wasn't sure why, but he simply moved on, ignoring the girls.

Right now, in his quest to fix three fortresses, he had already finished one.

Two more remained.

"Let's see…"

He checked the Map Function of the system, and to his surprise, it wasn't showing this place, but rather still the world where the camp was.

"And here I thought I could have it easy…" he sighed, disappointed. "…Huh?"

Just when he was about to close the map, he noticed something… weird.

The map displayed red, green, and yellow dots on it, allowing Axel to see nearby monsters or humans. The problem was that—

"One, two… five… twenty…"

He zoomed in on a green dot, counting carefully. "O-one hundred…" He stopped after reaching three digits.

Right.

Axel was out for barely three days, and within the premises of the camp, over a hundred people were now gathered!

"What? How did that happen?" Axel scratched his head, worried. "Navi! Explain!"

[Yes, yes~!]

The little penguin was now back to its usual irritating persona.

However, whenever Axel saw its nonchalant face, he always recalled the golden-eyed boy who had "borrowed" Navi's body to say a few words to him.

Although he was clueless about that boy's true identity, he was quite sure that he was related to the Harem Settlement System, at least. However, this curiosity was one he couldn't satisfy anytime soon.

[Regarding the influx of refugees, you mean?]

Navi continued, explaining patiently.

[Those people were present before, scattered all over the place. However, they were in such small groups that the map didn't display them unless you zoomed in to the maximum~!]

"Huh… so the map isn't all-powerful either…" Axel sighed, a bit disappointed.

However, Navi countered.

[No. The map knows everything. It's just a problem of resolution. Like Gurgle Map, for example. You can't see all the establishment names until you zoom in, right~?]

Hearing this analogy, he quickly understood what Navi meant. Although he was confused as to how Navi knew Gurgle Map when the last contractor came thirty years ago in Earth's timeline… heck, he couldn't even be sure if GPS was already a thing back then!

"Ah… okay, I understand." Axel nodded, scratching his head. "But with that many refugees, the number of zombies would be insane. Is the defense still holding on?"

Axel was aware of the Pouncers that appeared when over fifty people gathered. At one hundred, that meant at least two Pouncers. Furthermore, there should be a new type of zombie that appeared once the count reached a hundred, which was another headache entirely.

[The walls you made are holding well enough.] Navi nodded. [And with your Loli Mistress fixing the damages every day, they can last easily until you return~!]

"…I see."

Hearing that, he finally felt relieved.

Although hearing that Teruria was using the system without asking him first was a bit uncalled for, if it was just to fix their defenses, then he could let it go. It was just walls, after all. Fixing them wouldn't even reach ten million Colts a day.

Knowing that the defensive walls could hold on until sunrise meant that the girls didn't need to push themselves to clear out the zombies either.

They could simply keep an eye on the walls and ensure that no monster tried to climb over them, which was difficult, given the wall's angled, overhanging slant.

All things considered, the girls were still holding on quite well.

Axel kept watching the map, observing the distribution of the dots for a while. He could tell that most of the new dots were in the training grounds, being trained by Arianne and Beatrix. A select few were also helping Eve with the workshop, while the rest were just idling around.

'Looks like I need to make more jobs for the new residents fast…' he thought as he finally closed the map. "Anyway, for now, I should focus on my task." He brought out the Red Zone's map to check.

With them recovering this major fortress, a large portion of the Red Zone was now "freed."

Not only did it allow the witches to regain their foothold and push back the Red Zone, but it also allowed them to safely cull the surrounding enemies.

The bigger the fortress, the more fortifications and weapons there were—and the more witches were needed. With more witches, that also meant more curse casters!

If Axel could provide all the witches here with one set of equipment like what Nina and the others had, then it would undoubtedly become an impenetrable fortress!

"Speaking of…" He paused, looking back to where Nina should be. "I forgot to fix my bodyguards' equipment. They're battered after the Fenrir battle, after all…"

Just as he was thinking of asking Nina and the rest for their equipment to fix—

"Wait… Fenrir!"

Axel finally recalled one important "person."

He rushed toward the nearest observation tower, excused himself inside, and began looking for the familiar wolf-girl. She should have been patrolling the fortress since the previous afternoon without resting, after all.

"Damn, the fortress is too wide for me to see!"

Axel and the girls were basically at the southwestern corner of the fortress, with roughly five kilometers along each side. In short, Fenrir had to patrol a total of twenty kilometers for one lap!

There was no way Axel could see her if she wasn't near the southwest corner!

"No choice!"

Worried that she could've "escaped," he quickly took a drastic measure.

"Gleipnir!" he shouted.

The next moment, glowing golden chains appeared, still wrapped around his right arm. The witches nearby were surprised by the display, but he had no time to humor their curiosity.

"To the north!" Axel found where Fenrir was, at least.

However, she was too far away for him to see her figure, despite the golden chains acting as a guideline. Of course, he had predicted such an outcome.

"Fenrir! Come back to my side!" he commanded without much thought.

And the next moment—

The walls exploded as a gray-haired beauty headed straight for Axel… without deviation!

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