"Haaaaー I didn"t feel alive." Those were my frank thoughts after the audience with the Maou.
"What"s with that Ike? It"s not your character. Were you nervous?"
"Out of character you say. I"m like this. You should know that."
"Unfortunately, with your mask on I can"t confirm your expression."
"I was sweating a lot you know."
"Then when you return to your post, you can take a bath. If you wash away your sweat, your mood will also calm down."
"Post?" I ask reflexively.
"What? You didn"t hear what Maou-sama said earlier?"
"No, I did. She said the reward was about 1000 gold coins."
"Fool. She wouldn"t just give you such a large amount of money. That was money for the town"s feudal lord and it includes military funds."
"Town"s feudal lord? Me?"
"It"s not that strange. The one who contributed most to Asenam"s fall was you. Promoting you to a feudal lord is obvious."
"Is that so. But to suddenly become a feudal lord. Not to mention that it"s one of a large city like Asenam. Can I do it?"
I have piled up experience with battle and war but I"ve never done anything related to politics or domestic affairs. This also includes the area from my grandfather. I"ve received education but studying and actually doing it are very different.
"No, your new post isn"t at Asenam." She say broadly grinning.
"Usually, for us demons, we say "Steal immediately." The city you guys have s.n.a.t.c.hed away will be managed by you guys. But Asenam is an important point. It will be presented to and managed by Maou-sama."
I think that"s a wise decision. From now on, that city will become a key point to the Maou Army.
n.o.bunaga… no. If it"s Maou-sama then she will certainly be able to manage it and make it give a lot of wealth to the Maou army. And with it being a stronghold in the center of the continent, it will surely become a central pillar to strategies.(TLN: )
For now, I felt relieved that I wasn"t being made to rule a large town. However, as if ridiculing me, she informs me of my new post.
"Ike your new post is to the south of Asenam. A town called Evaris."
"Evaris is it? I haven"t really heard of this town."
"That"s because it"s a small town. Your mission is to protect the town and double the revenue. That"s your current objective."
"Double…….? In the middle of the war? Not to mention a town on the frontlines?"
"What? Unsatisfied? If you want then we can make it triple instead."
Although I"m discontent, in the Maou Army, a superior"s orders are absolute.
With a face that say "I"ll do it. If I do it, it"ll be fine right?" I return to my subordinates waiting in Asenam.
Beginning for the trip to Evaris is my Undead Brigade.
We"re about 300 warriors composed of orcs, goblins, trolls, and skeletons. A typical Maou army brigade.
Normally in the Maou Army, you would be grouped with your species. Vampires with vampires. Werewolves with werewolves. But the undead brigade was not organized around undead races.
In the first place, I their leader am a human.
Also, although they expect this of high grade undead, my body hasn"t rotted and nor have my meat or skin fallen off. In the first place if it was like that, more so than magic against ghosts, attack magic would be better. The main force has a skeleton unit received from Sefiro. However, because my appearance is that of an undead king, my group became called undead brigade.
If I was a Corps Commander like Sefiro who no longer needs undead races, then If possible I would at least like a demon with intelligence a.s.signed to me.
We"re going to Evaris but first we have to greet the former lord. A middle aged n.o.ble.
Unarmed and completely submissive to demons, his name is Edward. He greets us as the new rulers prostrating. He came to try and flatter me but I ignore him and immediately give orders.
"First I want to repair the ramparts."
Repairing the gates destroyed during Evaris"s capture is an urgent task.
Next is the a.s.signment from Sefiro to defend the town and double the revenue.
The latter is fine for now but the former is a pressing matter.
I inspect the gates.
"Yea it"s been splendidly destroyed."
Certainly this town should be one that Sefiro personally took command of to capture.
"…….because she doesn"t restrain herself. She doesn"t think about things like after the battle."
Although after the war, she doesn"t commit slaughter, the idea to repair the gates don"t come to her mind.
With《Meteor Strike》,the highest cla.s.s spell she has, she struck the gates.
No it would be fine if it was just the gates.
The force of the magic extends farther and I let out a sigh at the sight.
The orc officer Jiron also lets out a sigh. Looks like we"re in agreement on this.
"Ike-sama this will take half a year to repair won"t it….."
"If it takes longer than half a year, humans will invade."
"That"s true. Then thinking about it another way, should we just leave it as it is? If we get attacked during the time we repair it we"ll be at a total loss."
Certainly, there"s also that thought. But the Maou army"s advance would probably affect here.
There are two reasons.
The first is to develop a supply line away from the home country.
The second is the human resistance has become more tenacious.
Currently, our Maou army is invading the county of Rosaria. Half of the land has already been taken over but as the above mentioned reason, the speed of our advance has been slowed.
The closer we get to the royal capital, the more intense the resistance gets. It appears that the kingdom of Rosaria has made an alliance with various rulers. The kingdoms neighboring Rosaria have been successively sending reinforcements.
It"s something demons won"t get but to the ones called human, they will struggle together in a crisis.
They"re living beings that combine their power and attack.
The surrounding kingdoms could abandon Rosaria.
After all, it"s someone else"s problem so it can be ignored.
But what about after that?
After Rosaria falls, next is themselves.
Of course they would guess that and extend a helping hand.
That"s different from the demons that are always fighting.
――My opinion is that the Maou army should stop here for now.
Basically here would become the foremost line in the battle with humans.
Thinking that, the option of not repairing the gates was impossible.
I order the Jiron "Begin repairing the gates. Gather labourers and engineers."
"Understood." He replies and goes obeys my order.
"Then we"ll get them from the town" he says in an extremely normal manner. That"s not good.
"No. That"s no good. It"s inefficient."
"Huh? You mean for us to work and sweat?"
"The trolls with strength will at least help with transporting stones. Just that, well, we"re not their servants. We"re rulers."
There"s no point in forcing humans to work.
Though it keeps repeating, there"s no more inefficient ruling method than fear.
Till the very end, if humans or demons aren"t doing the work voluntarily, they won"t be able to exhibit their abilities.
"First recruit the townspeople that willingly volunteer to cooperate. Promise to properly pay them. If you feel like it you can use my name, no Maou-sama"s name to swear on and write on a board."
"……..haaa"
Blankly looking at me Jiron says
"We can probably get half of the labourers and engineers. The portion that we can"t get will be hired from residents. People who fail to work will definitely come."
I add on that he has to say the part about the reward.
"I said this earlier but later get guys from the brigade with strength. I"ll let the trolls work."
Trolls are large scale battle demons.
Their intelligence is about the same as an 8 year old but to compare their strength with the modern age then it"s comparable to a dump truck.
"When you"ve gathered the labourers and engineers, make a 24 hour work system."
"A 24 hour system!?" Jiron asks with his eyes wide open.
"B-but Ike-sama. Like you said humans are an important workforce. No one would want to work under such conditions."
"Fool. We"re only making them work for 8 hours. They can"t be made to work any more than that."
"Ha? Just for 8 hours? Didn"t you say to create a 24 hour system?
"We"ll make shifts."
"Shifts?"
It seems Jiron doesn"t understand. Well that"s natural.
The demons wouldn"t of course but the humans also wouldn"t understand this way of thinking. Normally, the people of this world wake with the rising sun and return home as it sets.
The demons have the opposite pattern. But in an age without illumination being developed, this way of living is natural.
However, we need to urgently repair the gates.
Therefore we making a 24 hour system is indispensable.
A larger group than normal was gathered and split into 20 groups to alternate in order.
But their work time in 1 day is 8 hours.
I don"t want the Maou army turning into some shady company. Overtime is not allowed and we properly give days off. There are also arrangements to compensate for any injuries during the work.
Using this method, the repairs of the gates should speed up by 3 times.
More labourers than normal are necessary and at night, there needs to be a large amount of fire. At this time, I wasn"t going to be stingy.
I also have the gold from Maou-sama.
There"s no problem with having a large feast either.
That fact is conveyed to Jiron who still has a blank look.
He"s a fool but he"s not stupid.
It doesn"t seem like he understands my intentions but he still faithfully carries out my instructions.
"Understood" he says and respectfully lowers his head. The preparations have begun.