[The Ghoul Evolution and the Baron's Wrath]
While the orcs were busy gaining combat experience on the front lines, I continued to funnel the leveling process through the sub-dungeon to specific individuals, using the majority of the magic stones we harvested to boost the monsters' experience points. Lime handled the leveling of my children, and with the help of two named monsters, she cleared the sub-dungeon repeatedly. Although my daughters' levels rose significantly, thanks to Lime’s focused training under my orders, I was able to bring the two high ghouls up to the appropriate level.
Now, there was only one condition left for them: to consume the corpse of a 'specific individual' required for evolution. Through this, they would transform into beings vastly different from other ghouls. Thanks to Gremory, I already knew exactly what they would evolve into. 'As expected of the undead, it’s Death Knight and Lich.' Harsus would become a Ghoul Knight, and Rastuzard would become a Ghoul Mage. The names were almost too blatant, and in reality, the ghoul evolution tech tree was a perfect replica of 'that race.'
It was said that all undead-type monsters—ghouls, zombies, and skeletons—underwent detailed differentiation at the ★★★ rank, allowing them to evolve into Knight-types, Mage-types, and the Demon-types I hadn't yet fulfilled the requirements for. 'Death Knight and Lich are enough, why bother with anything else?' Death Knight ★★★★. Lich ★★★★. I had given them those names just in case, and they actually evolved into those very things. It made things incredibly convenient.
"So, what I'm saying is that from now on, you two need to become the executives who guard this dungeon. Understand? You must never betray me." I seriously considered changing their names even now, but I felt bad about changing the names I had finally bestowed upon them. 'Surely they won't pull a "Succeeding you, Lord" on me, an orc.' Harsus, who was more loyal than any other subordinate, couldn't possibly do that. How faithfully had Harsus carried out my orders until now? And I hadn't been stingy with him either; I’d fed him plenty of corpses.
"You guys are only evolving like this because you met a master like me. Otherwise, you’d have spent your whole lives chopping wood, getting crushed, or being offered as sacrifices. So, you need to work even harder after you evolve. Got it?"
Kkeureureuk. The two ghouls raised their hands high, answering with their actions. The evolution needed to happen as quickly as possible, and I briefly scanned the main gate area. Kkeureureuk. High ghouls stood in the passage like couriers. I kept my senses sharp even while preparing for the evolution, just in case Las Vegas came under attack.
"Whew..." I placed the mustache knight in front of Harsus and the bespectacled mage in front of Rastuzard. Both were already dead corpses, and like true ghouls, they shifted their bodies, waiting for my command. "I'm going to Las Village for a moment." Both of them had enough intelligence to understand my orders. They would handle one each, and I rushed to Las Village, crossing through the portal. Running at full speed, it took less than five minutes.
"Whew, whew, did the Baron's army show up in the meantime?!"
"Master, it's peaceful. Where have you been?" Ryun, who was performing her duties near the plaza, handed me a cup as I panted. I gulped down the cold water she offered. The subtle peach scent was surely because it was water given by Ryun. Regardless, my thirst was quenched. "I went home to strengthen two of my undead."
"Are the orcs alone not enough to defend the city?"
"Obviously." In reality, the maximum number of troops Gremory and I could field was about 500. Ignoring affiliations and calculating simply by race, there were about 120 orcs, 20 slimes and ghouls, 100 harpies, and 15 humans. Including the residents of Las Village, the total capacity of 260 was already full. There was no need to calculate every little number. What mattered was what I filled the remaining space with.
"Ryun. Are harpies optimized for fighting?"
"...No? They looked a bit struggling."
"Right. The fact that their wings moved to their backs and claws grew on their hands when they evolved into Harpy Angels was to provide them with self-defense measures." Therefore, it was practically impossible to mobilize harpies on the battlefield. However, paradoxically, harpy eggs were the ones we could hatch the most of in our legion.
"I will mobilize as many Harpy Angels and adult Andras as possible, but since I have to rely on probability, there won't be a large number. But I can't leave that empty space idle forever."
"But there's no way to increase our forces in the current situation, is there? The only subordinates you can summon with magic stones are gargoyles, and you're using all the gargoyles for catapults right now. On top of that..." Ryun pointed her thumb at the main gate. "The rest have all built the wall as you ordered."
"Well done, Ryun." A deep moat had been filled where the main gate of Las Vegas should have been. Using the Slime Dragon to dig the ground, we filled it with river water and stacked gargoyle statues to create a trench.
"It's still lacking in many ways. It's a distance that cavalry can easily jump over, and if the humans are a little more calm, they'll climb over with ladders, right? Or they'll smash the wooden fence like we did. What happens then?"
"It could become urban warfare... wait a minute." Ryun perked up her ears and twitched them. I briefly considered pressing Ryun's estrus switch that was flickering before my eyes, but I suppressed my desire at her serious expression. "...I hear horse hooves. The number is roughly... five."
"A scout party."
Clang, clang, clang, clang!! The orc on the watchtower frantically struck the iron plate. I ran to the watchtower with Ryun and climbed up. Sure enough, five light cavalrymen were scanning us from beyond the wooden fence.
"Should I snipe them?"
"Of course." As soon as my permission was granted, Ryun pulled back her bowstring. Perhaps they saw Ryun pulling the bow from afar, as the scouts hurriedly turned their horses and began to run north. Ryun held her breath and fired a wind arrow at the moving scouts.
Whoosh——!! The wind arrow pierced the horse's knee. One scout tumbled from his horse. And because the horse with the injured knee fell on top of him, the scout was pinned down by the weight of the horse.
"One." Ryun calmly pulled back her bowstring for the second time. Twang! With a cheerful sound, the wind arrow flew toward the scouts again. A comrade with strong loyalty hurriedly turned his horse to save his friend, but unfortunately, leather armor couldn't stop Ryun's wind arrow. Thud. The scout who came to save him fell onto the horse with a hole in his chest. He came to save him, but ended up adding weight.
"Two." Ryun took a deep breath and raised her bow again. However, it seemed difficult to expect any more effect. To signal that that was enough, I grabbed the back of Ryun's ear with my fingers. "That's enough—"
"Hiyat?!" Whoosh. Just as I was speaking, Ryun fired her third arrow. Perhaps because her concentration was slightly disturbed by me, the wind arrow grazed the shoulder of the scout who was lagging behind at the rear.
"I'm sorry, Ryun. I disturbed you."
"......No. It's okay." Ryun smiled and shook her head. Because she was trying to act like it was fine, I sent a hand signal to the orc guarding the watchtower to go down. "The two of us have something to talk about, so go down."
"Yes, Legion Commander." The orc immediately went down the watchtower, and only Ryun and I were left in the narrow tower. "I didn't trust you. You've become stronger in the meantime. Hehehe."
"Of course. Hehehe." Ryun turned her back to me and placed her hands on the railing. I lifted Ryun's skirt in the exact position she wanted. As expected, she was commando. "You rascal, you definitely put something in the water earlier, didn't you?"
"......I put a little bit of my heart into it. Hiyat?!" I pushed the robe aside, took off my pants, and inserted my member right in front of Ryun. It stung like sandpaper because I inserted it immediately without foreplay, but it was obvious it would be wet from the inside soon, so I just kept thrusting.
"Ryun, do you see that wide road? The path that starts from the south and goes north along the wooden fence."
"Hnn, yes, I see it." Ryun was focusing on my glans, tightening only the entrance of her vagina. To ensure Ryun wouldn't be in pain, I took out slime mucus from the canteen I always carried and smeared it all over my member. "Master, it's a bit troublesome to do this in the middle of the day."
"I gave Harsus and Rastuzard a lunch break, so I should have one too."
"That's true. I should eat too... Hehehe. I'll eat well." Ryun shook her hips and tightened her lower lips. As expected, she started to get wet from the inside. We often did it outdoors as always, but doing it in a human city like this felt different.
"Someday, I hope we can do this in Spica Castle, or rather, in the capital of this kingdom where people pass by."
"Hnnng, but Master. It seemed like it would be quite difficult to capture Spica Castle." Ryun rummaged through her bosom and took out a piece of paper. I pushed my waist forward and received the paper Ryun was offering. As I moved forward, Ryun stepped back. My glans soon touched the end of her vagina.
"What is this?"
"It's something I had kept to give you when you came. Eila said she found it while searching the guard post." The paper Ryun handed me contained instructions stamped with the Baron's seal. It was an order to conscript at least 400 able-bodied men from Jabyaba. "Eila said that if it's 400 from here alone, the main force will easily exceed a thousand. So, the human unit we caught yesterday might be just an advance party..."
"Of course. Even if it's a barony, they wouldn't have sent just one knight." With the entire continent at war, there wouldn't be a single madman in this world who would refuse a conscription order to go and subjugate the Demon King's army. There might be another thousand soldiers left besides the thousand we beat up. It would be better if it were less than that, but unfortunately, the Baron had voluntary supporters.
"Adventurers could be mobilized. The Baron can coolly form a large-scale subjugation party. A thousand people have gone missing, after all. Ugh, they're still damn tough." No matter how much I poked, it wouldn't pierce. I just thought of it as a shallow vagina by nature, and I swayed my waist gently, considering the end of the vagina as the limit. Doing it as intensely as at night was good, but doing it while chatting in a place where the wind blew gently was also quite atmospheric.
"So Ryun, I'm going to entrust you with a really important mission, is that okay?"
"What is it? Master's broodmare?"
"That's important too, but it can be said to be the most important mission in war." I grabbed Ryun's pelvis and bowed my upper body. It was still difficult to bow completely because our flesh was touching, but Ryun tilted her head back on her own.
"Reconnaissance." I whispered in Ryun's ear, biting her earlobe.
* * *
At the same time the orc in the robe was having lunch on the watchtower with a high elf, a meal was also in full swing at the Spica Castle lord's mansion. The meal, consisting of nothing but soup, bread, and a few vegetables, was a measure that could fully show the financial state of Spica Castle. Scrape, scrape. The knights eating with the Baron could not hide their uncomfortable expressions. The quantity was woefully insufficient, and even the quality was not good.
"I didn't know I would end up complaining about side dishes as a lord, but I must do it today." Baron Virgo grabbed his knife and stood up from his seat. The Baron, who stood up in the middle of a meal, walked over to the butler, spinning the knife around. "Butler. I clearly told you to pay attention to the meal. I even increased the budget a little. So why is the meal so poor?"
Baron Virgo aimed his knife, covered in breadcrumbs, at the butler's neck. The butler gulped, thinking the Baron had finally gone crazy because Jabyaba was occupied by orcs. Even if she was a crazy woman, she had the status to cut his throat with just one word.
"Th-that, the food ingredients that were supposed to come from Jabyaba..."
"Are you calling that an excuse now? Monsters from a dungeon I hadn't identified occupied Jabyaba, so the ingredients didn't come? No, that's not it. Isn't there another ultimate reason?" The Baron's knife slightly pricked the butler's neck. The tip was blunt, so there was no way he would get hurt, but she was clearly threatening to kill him openly.
"My Lord, even so—"
"It's because you embezzled it in the middle, isn't it?"
"......Yes?" The butler was dumbfounded. He couldn't understand the words that popped out of the Baron's mouth.
"To think that you, who have worked since the previous generation, would secretly embezzle the family's wealth. I am very disappointed. But thanks to you, I have gained great power. Sir Gei."
Shing. Gei drew his sword and aimed it at the butler's neck on behalf of the Baron. A sharp, real sword, clearly different from tableware, slightly pricked the butler's neck. "Your wealth is confiscated. And that wealth will be used to hire mercenaries. It is truly ironic that your ugly greed is now being used for the territory's people."
"I am innocent—"
Thwack. A fountain of blood sprayed in the dining room. The Baron wiped the red blood that had splashed on her cheek with her sleeve, then turned around and bowed to her vassals. "I'm sorry. It's a situation equivalent to wartime, so I didn't have time to explain in advance. Sir Paiz, go to the butler's house immediately and search it. He must have collected gold coins and magic stones, so he must have hidden them somewhere."
"My Lord, what on earth is this...?"
"Shouldn't we take revenge for Sir Ramatio? The wealth of our territory you find will be used to hire mercenaries. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"......Yes!" Knight Paiz jumped up from his seat. The other vassals also realized that the meal was over and all stood up. Baron Virgo placed his hands on the table and declared.
"I will scrape together all the power of the barony to recapture Jabyaba and subjugate the dungeon. And..." The Baron took off her glasses. "As soon as the reconnaissance team returns, I will form a Jabyaba recapture army. I will lead the expedition myself." Following the Baron's strong will, a massive number of territory residents began to gather one after another.