With the invader situation resolved, it was time to deal with the town itself. After unbinding all my new minions, it was now time to deal with their ex-captain. I still planned on upholding their choice and letting him go as he made it quite clear he was not going to join me for the moment. Of course, I had to make sure to confiscate his [Magic Steel Sword]. I’m no fool after all, he would for sure attack me otherwise and right now I’m pretty well spent on my mana, so it’d be too risky for me. Besides, I was curious about the inner workings on how the magic on it works.

  As soon as I released him, he started to react as I expected. “You all are going to pay for this, the king will not tolerate this betrayal you hear me!!” He just kept on ranting repeatedly as we escorted him out of the town.

  One of the townsfolk voiced their worry over this decision, “Are you sure that’s wise? They might bring a bigger force than before in retaliation.”

  “I did give them the choice, how he chooses to use it I will handle it afterwards. Besides, I’m not exactly done with that kingdom just yet. Veehahahahaha~” I responded, showing little worried about him.

  One of my new soldiers seemed rather concerned when I chuckled to myself, looking at my monster minions for answers. “…is he alright?”

  Multiple of my fellow kobolds and goblins simply nodded, having a look of exasperation. The three stooges being the only ones to comment on it.

  “….. Yes”

  “Trust us this is normal….”

  “He does this all the time….”

  I simply rolled my eyes as I now confronted the townsfolks, I held up my end to our agreement and now it was up to them to decide what to do. They all looked at each other silently, wondering what to do. They probably were skeptical that I would succeed in repelling the hostile takeover and now that we are here, they don’t know what to do.

  After some time, the mayor came forward, “You have done what we have asked, if the rest of the townsfolk can accept then this town will be yours…. sir.”

  With his proclamation many of the citizens nodded, as they slightly bowed towards me.

  I took a moment to check on the notification. Hmmm, forty-two huh, interesting. I smiled, satisfied with the results. ~

  With that matter settled I have now expanded my overall territory! The first order of business will be to do some needed reorganizing. I’d have to reconsider where to place everyone. Though if I just simply expand the border walls that should leave a lot of empty land for everyone. The matter of importance would be to figure out where to put everyone. I doubt my new human followers would immediately be comfortable with the idea of living so close to monsters unfortunately. For the moment it’d be best for my monster minions to stay in the home base I had built for them.

  As for the soldiers from their old kingdom, since some of them didn’t even want to fight I could have them transition in or near the town. For those who are willing, well I should build them a few barracks to live in, placed outside of town so they could do some patrols on the borders.

  The townsfolks are simple enough. I mainly left them with what they have already been doing. So long as they understood that the town was mine, I didn’t mind what else they did. Many of them were confused and skeptical about my decisions. They seemed on guard but otherwise tried to go back to their daily lives as best they can.

  Of course, I would meet up with their mayor every now and again to discuss any important matters that needed to be resolved. The two biggest issues that would require my immediate attention would of course be dealing with the possible threats of the Mivtic kingdom, that I was working on keeping the new arrangement of my new town stable before I could do something major to deal with them.

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  The other issue would be what to do about visitors and merchants, the main draw of the town was after all its location away from the territories of other kingdoms’ squabbles with each other. The idea of having monsters mixed in with the citizens would probably put off many of them. I pointed out that we could use that as an angle instead.

  The idea of a town that accepted monsters that are not hostile to humans would at least gain a few curious visitors. The mayor reluctantly agreed to it though he didn’t look entirely convinced it would work as there was the issue of the humans being uncomfortable with the idea of living with monsters.

  That would probably take the longest to resolve so I decided that for the time being I was to be the only one to freely enter the town. If I could at least get them used to me first it would make it easier for them to accept the others as well.

  *

  It’s been over a week since I took over the town. Things have been slow but steadily progressing in my favor. As promised, I made sure to leave their daily lives in town pretty much the same, with only the occasional visits from me to check up on how the town’s been held up. Both in my normal outfit and my Dimir disguise. Despite the stares they would give me, I was able to do this with no problem, in fact it was easier for them to accept my Dimir persona quite easily. And the whole time no one figured out my disguise.

  Well… except for one. That blacksmith I had made my new sword confronted me on the first time while I was Dimir after the invasion.

  “Kid… I know that you’re the new ruler of this town.” He flat out stated, with no lead up to it.

  I was taken aback. I was about to feign ignorance, but he stopped me before I could even say a word. “No point in denying it kid. I can recognize my own weapon from far away. I did craft it after all.”

  I was silent, there wasn’t a way for me to get out of this mess. Another small blunder I had unknowingly made.

  “Now don’t you worry. I haven’t told anyone else, and I don’t plan to. No point in doing so, now I don’t know why you feel the need to disguise yourself nor do I care to know. It’s your town now so you can do what you want with it. But I suggest you keep using your old swords when you’re in disguise before anyone else notice.”

  I agreed and followed through wit it since then. He surprisingly treated me the same as usual even when I wasn’t in disguise. It was honestly a nice change of pace of either being mocked, feared, or even fawned over every now and again.

  I made sure to check up on the former soldiers that had invaded the town, at first there was some discomfort between them and the townsfolks. But since I reassured both sides that they could freely bring up complaints about each other to me, there haven’t been any real issues.

  Those who didn’t want to fight made good on that claim and had since transitioned to the town and found work that they felt more comfortable with away from the danger. The rest who would still fight took their new patrol jobs seriously, though I could still see the fear in their eyes whenever I passed by. Probably worried I would treat them the same as their pig of an ex-king. That’ll take some more time before they can get over that.

  As for my fellow monsters, well they mainly kept to themselves, keeping up the routine I had set up before. But after some urging from V, who expressed their desire to visit the town as well as others, we decided some of us would come with me from time to time. Their enthusiasm was just too hard for them to ignore despite their fears.

  We started off with just me and a few of the kobolds and goblins who were instructed to stay with me at all times, which they happily agreed to follow. Good thing too because it took most of my attention just to keep V from wandering off too far. They couldn’t stay close for long enough as V found most of what they saw in town new and exciting. From all the various buildings and the people there. Many of the adults were rather scared seeing them come up to them and speaking to them but luckily the kids were a lot less reluctant. We had to stop a few times just so V could play with some of the kids.

  Oh well, I’m glad they’re having fun at the very least and the positive energy they gave off was helping to calm both the townsfolks and my monster minion’s worries. Soon enough, both sides started to feel more comfortable around each other. Not to the point where I wouldn’t have to keep an eye on them yet but we’re getting there.

  Overall things are progressing well enough, once things around here are stable enough, I’ll be able to continue my conquest. ~

  Now during one of my daily walks around town, V began to tug at my clothing as I bent down to listen to them whisper to me. After listening to what they had to say I decided to take a bit of a detour while instructing everyone to follow V’s lead. There was something I needed to do.

  They seemed confused at first, but my minions have since learned not to question me as they did as they instructed.

  Once everything was clear I walked to an unoccupied alleyway. And as soon as I was out of public view, I found myself surrounded by multiple humans. They each had a weapon in their hands and the look on their faces meant that they were quite ready to use it on me.

  Despite the danger, I didn’t show a hint of surprise as I was expecting them. A smile formed between my lips as I began my next move.