Volume 10, Chapter 1 – The Demon Lord Awakens

The day after the new king’s coronation ceremony, the Duchy of Chloe, just entering winter, welcomed its first snow of the year. Although the Duchy of Chloe was located in the center of the continent, and by the continental convention that seasonal changes became less obvious the further south one went, Chloe’s winters wouldn’t become a frozen land like Pescia Territory. Even so, in this small, weak country without Alexia’s Tower to regulate the climate, whenever winter arrived, the cold wind mixed with sleet hitting one’s face still felt like a chopping block studded with knives, making the cheeks sting with pain.

And now, against the backdrop of a season with rooftops covered in white snow and “snow fairies” dancing in the air, Yisi was lying in front of a warm fireplace emanating the scent of applewood, reviewing the report on the duchy’s situation compiled by Atwood.

The tip of her pen tapped against the paper, making a thump, thump sound. Supporting her head with one hand, Yisi, wearing a troubled expression, let out a long sigh.

“This won’t do at all.”

She then pushed the spreadsheet, densely packed with numbers, to one side.

“I thought that after Shinku and Fran arrived, Atwood would at least be able to send over something concise and clear. But in the end, it’s still a report with no formatting at all. Although I can understand it by reading line by line, my eyes are going blind.”

Exhaling another puff of white breath, Yisi—like a Tiffany drained of magic—stretched out her arms and slumped over the wooden table, vexed.

Just as Yisi had said, although Atwood was now the king in name, she herself was the true king of the Duchy of Chloe. It was hard to act as she had before, merely tossing a few copper coins and leaving when she saw stray children on the roadside. As a ruler, one should strive to make the people’s lives better—this was the education Yisi had received. She was the true king of the Duchy of Chloe now. Even if she left this place after Tina woke up, during her term, she would not allow people to freeze or starve to death. Even if she couldn’t achieve it in the short term, she had to establish specific reform measures so that people would not suffer in the days to come.

Thinking of this, Yisi sat up straight again, pulling the report she had tossed aside back to read it.

“In terms of hunger, we have the food from the Empire as war reparations, so we should be able to scrape by this year without much problem. Ahh, is it mainly that the previous King of Chloe never conducted a census? Damn it. If I knew exactly how many people were in this country and what the daily expenses were, I could make more specific arrangements.”

Thinking of this, Yisi looked at Laxy, who was standing behind her serving as her secretary. As a meticulous God-Forged Angel, Laxy’s exceptional memory and assessment abilities made her perfectly suited for the role of assistant.

“Laxy, how many days did Atwood say it would take to complete the census?”

“According to Atwood’s reply, from data collection to compilation, it will take three years in total.”

“That’s too slow. By the time the results are handed to me, the population will be completely different again.”

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“My Lord, it cannot be helped. Most of the Duchy of Chloe’s territory is mountainous. Many people live in villages with rugged mountain roads, or no roads at all, making the census extremely difficult. Furthermore, just before you took over the Duchy of Chloe, My Lord, it had just annexed a neighboring country. This made the already difficult census work even harder. Even if all two thousand of our followers are dispatched, we are still severely short-staffed.”

“Mhm.”

The feeling of being constrained at every turn, completely unable to act, made Yisi frown. If it were just defeating an enemy, at level 427, she could get it done in a few minutes. But facing this kind of complex statistical work, even she felt a headache coming on. Even if she used teleportation magic to go door-to-door investigating, it wouldn’t necessarily be much faster than Atwood sending out a large number of people to do it. It was the same even with the [Omniscient Map]. When the number of light dots on the map reached a certain point, they would merge into one patch, making them impossible to count. The workload was terrifyingly large.

Although the Duchy of Chloe was small, it was still a country. For a newcomer like her, it was really too difficult to govern.

It was hard to imagine how Andrea and Evelyn managed such vast territories.

“I guess this is all we can do for this year… Ahh… Once we’ve recruited enough talented people from the populace and trained them uniformly, we can dispatch them in the future to become administrators specializing in small areas. That way, it will be much more convenient to implement all sorts of things.”

Although this other world had roles like village chiefs, they were simply respected elders in the village. They weren’t appointed by nobles, nor did they have an obligation to be responsible for the entire village. Not to mention, many elders were illiterate and couldn’t record the names, ages, and occupations of every household in a book for officials to inspect when collecting data.

But if there were specially trained administrators, the census would naturally be much more convenient. Besides counting the population, things like distributing supplies, collecting resources, and even speaking up for the local area could be done. Of course, this was just Yisi’s initial idea. Rules that applied on Earth might not apply in this other world. The thoughts and customs of the people here were not entirely similar to those on Earth, and problems could arise in unexpected places. Therefore, Yisi had only mentioned it to Atwood; the plan had not yet reached the stage of detailed discussion.

The most pressing problem at the moment was still getting through the winter.

Setting the census issue aside, Yisi continued to ask.

“Have the fifth batch of food and winter clothing arrived?”

“Yes. However, this batch has very little grain; it’s mostly meat. Atwood suggests distributing it as soon as possible, otherwise the meat will rot and spoil when spring comes.”

“Don’t distribute all of it. In this world—in the Duchy of Chloe—it’s hard to get meat. Distributing it all at once would be too wasteful. It’s not that I’m reluctant to part with it, but many people, even if they get this meat, won’t be able to eat it properly. Meat in children’s hands will be snatched away by adults, and the homeless won’t even be able to find a place to cook. The meat will freeze as hard as iron in winter, and I don’t think that’s edible. Rather than waste it, it’s better to store it, in case of a bad harvest year when there’s no food for relief.”

Meat was extremely precious in the Duchy of Chloe. Poorer families might only be able to eat meat once a year. Even relatively wealthy households had to wait more than half a month to have a proper meal. Wasting it like this was simply too much of a pity.

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“But we will face many problems with storage. First, we don’t have a warehouse large enough to store it. Second, meat isn’t like grain, which can be stored for a long time as long as it’s kept dry. When the weather gets warmer, the meat will rot and spoil.”

“Don’t worry about that. For the warehouse, I can use magic to hollow out the ground, and then have Atwood store the meat underground. As for the long-term storage problem, we’ll freeze the meat. When Atwood needs to use it, he can just order people to chisel the ice open.”

Speaking of which, even Yisi herself couldn’t help but feel that magic was just too convenient.

Even in the quasi-utopian era she lived in, it was impossible for people to instantly freeze tens of thousands of tons of meat in just a few seconds, yet she can accomplish it with just a single thought.

Of course, magic wasn’t omnipotent. Even magic had things it couldn’t do. For example, producing food with magic. It wasn’t that Yisi couldn’t create things from nothing with magic, but she had never learned magic for producing food. Therefore, the handling of food supplies had to be done with extreme caution; she couldn’t just squander it wantonly just because she had it.

Laxy’s mouth fell open slightly in surprise.

“Is… is that feasible?”

“Of course it’s feasible. Have you forgotten my power, Laxy? With this, the only remaining problem for the Duchy of Chloe is housing. Even with winter clothes, we can’t let the homeless sleep on the streets, or they’ll freeze to death. Mhm… so it’s a housing problem.”

Just like with storing the raw meat, I can use magic to create houses or even palaces. But houses created with magic not only have a time limit, they are also extremely magnificent. If people who worked hard to buy their own homes find out that wanderers are getting good housing without any effort, it will foster a bad atmosphere.

“But in this season, it’s impossible to have people build enough houses in such a short time…”

“My Lord, what about utilizing the atriums ¹ the central area in a building; open to the sky. within the Divine Religion?”

Hearing Yisi muttering, Laxy lowered her posture and suggested. Her gem-like hair was so magnificent it was impossible to look away.

“Atriums? What do you mean, Laxy?”

“As long as we add railings to the dangerous steps and drive the undead and monsters inside to other atriums, you can settle the homeless wanderers and slaves there, My Lord. The atriums not only provide shelter from wind and rain, but they are also large enough. With people gathered together, it will be very convenient to manage them.”

“Mhm,” Yisi thought for a moment. “If Atwood agrees, it’s not a bad idea. Although the atriums are interconnected, as long as we have people block the passages with stones and magic circles, the ordinary residents won’t find out about the Divine Religion’s existence.”

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More importantly, the layout of the atriums is quite ordinary. Other than providing shelter from wind and rain, there is no personal space. It’s not a place suitable for long-term residence. It’s just right as a temporary shelter for the homeless.

Perhaps some people will think I’m not kind enough, but right now I’m not acting as an individual, but as a ruler. A ruler should, of course, be benevolent, but benevolence doesn’t mean unconditionally providing the best living conditions for just anyone. For those who have hands and feet but are unwilling to work, relying completely on me to give them a good life, I must mercilessly shatter their dreams. After all, even in the era I came from, it was impossible to do nothing and enjoy the same treatment as everyone else, let alone here in this other world where material conditions are scarce. For most ordinary people, just being able to eat their fill and stay warm is already a blessing.

“So the housing problem is temporarily solved, too? But there’s still a mountain of other problems to deal with! Argh, damn it! Why doesn’t this place border Ymir Territory? I should just merge the Duchy of Chloe into Ymir Territory, make it an enclave like the Niru and Xilu Dioceses. Let Evelyn deal with the headache!”

“My Lord, escaping reality is not a way to solve problems. As a monarch, you should have the bearing of a monarch.”

“Gunununu…”

A resentful groan escaped her throat. Yisi, slumped over the table, rolled her eyes to look at the time display on the [Omniscient Map]—one day left until her day off.

“Well, whatever. That’s enough for today. I need to go prepare some gifts.”

“Yes, My Lord.”

The so-called day off referred to a day she spent with either Andrea or Evelyn. Last time it was Evelyn, so this time it should be Andrea. Of course, having said that, Yisi rarely made a special point of separating the two. In most cases, she would directly use teleportation magic to bring both of them to the Blood Clan’s territory or Ymir Territory to tour each other’s lands together. Sometimes Yisi even wondered, since Andrea and Evelyn, as leaders of two different places, could get along so harmoniously, perhaps one day their two nations could set aside their racial and religious views and merge. If so, the Blood Clan’s mineral resources could flow into the human world, and the human world’s technology and food could be transported to the Blood Clan. It would be a good thing for both sides.

Laxy began to tidy up the desk Yisi had messed up, while Yisi leaned back in her chair, watched the dancing flames in the fireplace, and gave a long stretch.

“Is Lin still in the atriums distributing food?”

“Yes. Lin is currently learning from Shinku and Fran about the logistics of distributing supplies.”

As more and more supplies arrived, and with the Divine Religion being extremely short-staffed, Lin had no choice but to join the ranks of those distributing supplies. Although it was tedious and tiring work, Lin didn’t seem to find it difficult, and even gave the impression of enjoying it. In Yisi’s opinion, it was probably because Lin felt that, compared to killing people, this was the kind of work a savior should be doing—work that could bring joy to people.

Furthermore, with Shinku and Fran acting as general managers, the work of distributing and recording supplies was proceeding in an orderly fashion. Originally, Yisi had just mentioned it in passing, but Fran became extremely interested in this country under Yisi’s control, seeing it as an oversized “Margaret.” She quickly packed her bags and came to the Duchy of Chloe with Yisi.

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As for Yisi’s companions, Camilla and the others were downstairs warming themselves by the fireplace. The snowy environment was simply too cold; even Mary didn’t want to go out. Andrea and Evelyn had also changed into beautiful, warm clothes.

Yisi hadn’t yet told Andrea that she had become the Pope of the Divine Religion. It wasn’t that she didn’t have time, but rather she was worried Andrea would become too invested in the Duchy of Chloe and do something foolish like diverting resources to it. As a queen, Andrea shouldn’t mix too many personal feelings into political affairs. The current Duchy of Chloe couldn’t bring any benefits to the Blood Clan, and baseless aid would only cause all sorts of trouble for Andrea.

Thinking about these things, Yisi looked up at the ceiling and let out a long sigh.

“Huu, and then there’s Tina… she still hasn’t woken up—Hmm?”

On the [Omniscient Map], the light dot representing Tina no longer had the ‘Asleep’ status.

Tina’s awake.

Yisi shot up from her chair. Laxy subconsciously asked.

“My Lord, where are you going?”

“I’m going to Tina’s room.” Yisi recalled that Laxy had been wanting to ask Tina about the whereabouts of the ‘Land of the Gods’, so she continued, “She’s awake. Laxy, come over too after you’ve finished tidying up.”

Laxy’s hand, which was organizing documents, trembled for a moment. Although her expression became exceptionally nervous and her face stiffened, Laxy suppressed her inner excitement and replied in her usual formal tone.

“Yes.”

Laxy’s reaction made Yisi smile.

This angel clearly wants to know the whereabouts of the ‘Land of the Gods’, yet she insists on finishing the work at hand first. I don’t even know if I should praise her or scold her.

“Haah. Laxy, tidy up the desk later. Come with me to find Tina right now.” Considering Laxy’s serious personality, Yisi added another sentence, “This is an order.”