After a whole night of celebration, Helena and her men slept soundly inside the Dumont City's training grounds.
Morning came.
Helena and her battalion commanders woke up early to check the living conditions of the citizens inside the city.
Most of the citizens' doors were locked due to the war and most of them were still scared to come out.
Helena doesn't mind though, she understands that this is the aftermath of a war and she believes that sooner or later, they will appreciate Blanc who is a kindhearted and reasonable ruler.
After hours of walking around the city, Helena was surprised. Dumont City was actually smaller than their Resonance City!
Although the city was a little bit more developed, the residential areas were in shambles. In addition to this, some shops looked dilapidated and the streets were rough compared to Resonance City.
Due to this, Helena and the battalion commanders started to appreciate Blanc even more. It seems that their city lord is extremely capable compared to other rulers.
In addition to this, the living conditions of their citizens could be considered luxury compared to the citizens of Dumont City.
After checking the living conditions of Dumont City's citizens, Helena immediately assembled her men to proceed with phase number two of their plan to conquer Dumont City.
As ordered by Blanc, Helena divided the silver coins that Blanc provided to them among different divisions of the army.
Each division is tasked to go to one part of town and give three silver coins to each citizen as remuneration for the war.
There were around fifteen thousand citizens inside Dumont City so in total, they gave out 45,000 silver coins.
Although this sounded like a huge amount of money, this was nothing to Blanc and the Resonance Chamber of Commerce.
If 45,000 silver coins could be exchanged for the loyalty of most citizens inside the city, then it would be extremely worth it.
After half a day, the soldiers finally finished giving remunerations to each citizen whether they were young or old which means that the more members a family has, the more money they get.
Blanc's plan was a success.
Because of the remunerations, the citizens quickly started to accept them as the new ruler of Dumont City.
Although there were a few exceptions, they were too few to cause waves.
Overall, at least 80% of the population already accepted Blanc's rule and they were even happy that their new ruler was benevolent and generous.
Compared to the incompetent Duke, this new ruler seemed much better.
Unfortunately, there were still those who refused to accept their new ruler.
It's not because they were loyal to the Duke but because they hated their conquerors for killing their loved ones who were members of the Dumont Dukedom army.
Helena understands where their hate is coming from and there's nothing she can do about it. This is the harsh consequences of taking many lives.
Among those who refused to acknowledge Blanc as their new ruler, there were around a thousand who started small rebellions all over the city.
However, how could their measly resistance do anything against Helena and her well-trained men? The rebellions were quickly quelled.
Since most of the rebels were only farmers and militia, Helena and the others were able to subdue them without killing anybody.
Helena chose to subdue them and lock them up in prison because more deaths would lead to more hatred.
Whenever they could, Helena and her men chose not to take lives. This is also an order from Blanc. These people will be their new citizens so they were ordered to treat them nicely.
After the remaining citizens learned about how Helena and her men handled the rebellions, the citizens started to like their new ruler more and more.
The soldiers are a reflection of a ruler's nature and seeing how benevolent Helena and her men were to them, the citizens started to trust them a little bit more.
A few more hours passed.
More and more citizens were willing to come out of their homes. Those who were from the same districts grouped up and talked about the current state of their city.
Finally, they gathered enough courage to form a large group. They walked towards the training grounds in hopes of asking the general to learn more about their new ruler.
After a few minutes of walking, the large group finally arrived at the training grounds.
An old bald guy who seemed to be the leader of this large group of citizens mustered up his courage and approached Helena.
Seeing that the citizens were willing to approach them, Helena was happy.
She patiently explained who they were, who Blanc was, where they were from, Blanc's new policies, and the benefits they would get upon submitting to Blanc.
The old bald guy's expression changed from nervousness to happiness after hearing everything that Helena explained.
The new ruler is actually so kindhearted towards his citizens!
The old bald guy quickly thanked Helena and returned to his large group.
He started to tell them everything that Helena said and by the end of his explanation, most of the citizens had a wide smile on their faces.
Although some were skeptical about Helena's promises, they had no choice but to submit anyway so they might as well believe it.
Helena was observing the large group as the old bald guy explained everything to them.
Seeing that most of them were happy, Helena was also satisfied.
"Seems like our work here is done!"
Helena said to herself.
She then went to find Alexander to discuss something regarding Blanc's orders.
"Alex, as per Blanc's orders, you shall remain here to stabilize the situation and train new soldiers."
"Here are bags of silver coins that Blanc allocated for this city. In a few days, Arlo will arrive to take over the Duke's castle."
"Blanc also sent men to the surrounding towns and villages to implement his changes."
Alexander's expression looked a bit sad after hearing that he was tasked to remain in Dumont City. He was excited to go on another date with Adelaine so he couldn't help but be sad.
Helena didn't miss the subtle changes in Alexander's expression.
"Oh??? Is my little Alex sad? Why? Is it a girl?? Huh?? Come on, tell me…"
She teased Alex just for fun but she was surprised to see that Alexander was panicking after being teased.
"OH! Did I nail it?!"
Helena said excitedly. Alex just seemed so honest to a fault. She tried to goad him into revealing who it was but Alex firmly refused to say who the girl was.
"How can I say to you that the girl is your little sister?!"
Alex thought to himself.
After a few more failed attempts, Helena finally gave up and just continued with the important conversation.
"Tch! How secretive! Anyway, back to the topic, aside from the earlier arrangements, my little sister, Adelaine, is also on the way here to establish a branch of our Resonance Chamber of Commerce."
Hearing that Adelaine was coming, Alexander's mood visibly improved.
Unfortunately for him, women were sharp. Helena captured the subtle changes in Alexander's facial expression and after a few moments, the gears finally clicked in her head.
"Hohoh?? So that's how it is huh? Adelaine huh??"
Helena cracked her hands as she walked closer and closer to Alexander.
"G-G-General! C-Calm down! Let me explain!"
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
"Oh, I'll let you explain all you want later so don't worry. For now, let me test how strong my little sister's "suitor" is…"
Helena said as she chased Alexander all over the city.