It was a busy few weeks after attacking Clayman. After killing Clayman, fighting still continued. Even with most of our army recalled, they still made fast progress. Despite the initial confusion of the enemy, slowly, they were able to piece together what was going on. After that, fighting quickly died down with many choosing to surrender rather than fight. Of course, there were still some small pockets of fighting, but they were shut down quickly.
Fierce fighting continued for a few more days after Clayman's death. It took another few days to stop all fighting, including the few small groups that held out. After that, we were to integrate the territory into ours and see the spoils of war we got. That part is what takes the longest. Luckily, there were many people willing to help. They all seemed dissatisfied with Clayman and some gladly helped us out to make the process faster. I just wished all of them were like that, a lot of lives wouldn't have needed to be killed, but what's done is done.
Even though the castle was destroyed due to some…mysterious reasons, we still got a lot of treasures, valuables, and whatnot. We even got the little fox that Clayman had, I think her name was Kumara if I remember right. I decided to name her the same thing as Gabiru. I also did the same with Adalmann.
Adalmann's reaction to the cathedral was as expected. It made sense after all, the cathedral was the biggest building in this whole town and it was eye-catching 'cause of the architectural style. It was imposing, demanded your attention, and was probably the most important building in the entire place if you asked the opinion of the residents. He praised it and said it was a building "worthy of me". I have to make sure he doesn't go off too much to the deep end. Anyway, he was now a priest for the cathedral. The guy has experience so what can I say?
There wasn't any mandatory worship or anything like that. It was optional and he would organize religious events and gatherings that our residents could attend if they wanted to and a lot of them did, so there's that.
Not much on Kumara, she's still getting used to our town after being freed from Clayman, so I'll just give her time.
As for the news getting out, I'm sure it's already made its rounds, especially the demon lord council, but again, I don't have to worry about them. Milim, Frey, and Carrion can back me up they also didn't really care all that much. Milim was already playing along with him, Frey was already hostile to him, and Carrion just held his "might makes right" attitude.
As for Gazel, he did have his questions and concerns, but once I explained to him what Clayman tried to pull off and backed it up with evidence, he became much more understanding of what we did and just let the situation go.
Anyway, things were going very smoothly on the Clayman front. For all practical purposes, it was over at this point. Now we could put our focus on Falmuth and their eventual invasion. I don't plan to invade them like we did Clayman. There were other circumstances to consider here. They were a human nation and if we invaded them, even with the evidence we have against them, that would only be used to make us look bad and justify even more aggression against us and I'd rather not plunge the world into a potential "humans vs monsters" war. We were monsters in their eyes and we would always be "wrong" and "bad" no matter what.
For now, that is. After what we do to Falmuth's army, it'll send a good message to everyone out there.
Soeui has dropped by on occasion to update me on what he's gathered and it's what I expected. They still want to launch an attack and all that nonsense. I call Clayman's squad clowns and being part of the circus, but Falmuth must have the Cirque du Soleil over there or something.
Whatever Soeui is doing, it's working.
/\\//\\//\
(Kingdom of Falmuth)
King Edmaris and his advisors have been through an…unusual change of strategies multiple times. They have seen the town of monsters and the threat they have posed to them economically. With a road being built between Dwargon and Blumund through them, it would severely disrupt their main source of income.
King Edmaris and his advisors all agreed that they needed to attack them and get rid of them. That and they could get all the resources they have for themselves and make more money than previously possible.
Fortunately for them, they seem to have caught a lucky break.
Kings Edmaris and his advisors had recently gotten a tip that the nation of monsters had just gotten into a war with the demon lord Clayman.
Everyone immediately pounced on this opportunity presented to them. Plans to attack them while they were distracted, plans to take over the city and everything for themselves. They all gathered and advised for a few days about it, but what they thought was a lucky break came crashing down on them.
"I have urgent news, your majesty!", A messenger went into the room where the king and his advisors were. He was panting, showing tiredness from the speed at which he traveled.
"What is it? It better be important. We can't waste time.", one of the nobles said.
"It's about the monsters. The news about them being in a war is old and outdated! Their war ended already!", the messenger said to everyone in the room.
Fists came crashing down on the table. There was no shock in any of them. Only frustration and anger. It had been like this for a while recently. Just when they think they have something to work with, something comes up and ruins the moment, forcing them to come up with something different.
"This means we'll have to change our strategy. Why are you just now finding this out?", this time it was Razen who asked the messenger. He knew something was going on, but he just couldn't find out what. Every time he seemed to catch someone he suspected of being a spy or traitor, things would stay the same. Delays, missing documents, critical information that seemed to arrive too late.
"We just now found the information. There was an issue with the distribution and storage of news and other sources of information.", the messenger told Razen.
Razen was suspicious, but he couldn't find anything concrete. No matter how many people he replaced and the times he investigated certain problems, something would always pop up.
"At least we found out now. This means they must be in a recovery period. They're probably focused on the demon lord's territory after the war. They must be in a state where their focus is still on that demon lord. It's okay, we don't need to worry too much then. We just need to use more soldiers along with the help of the church. You can leave.".
"Yes, sir!", the messenger shouted and left the room quickly while closing the door. Instantly, the tiredness that he showed along with the slight panic, disappeared, replaced with a calm, collected, and smiling face.
"Man, we sure are getting worked big time. I thought that court-mage guy was supposed to be smart or something. He doesn't seem like that to me.", the messenger talked to himself while walking through the castle.
"Sounds to me like you want to do more work.", the messenger paused as he heard a voice behind him.
"Oh, bossman, I was just joking, please don't make me do more than necessary.", the messenger pleaded to his "bossman".
The bossman, who was Soeui, just looked at this "clone" of his a little irritated. They all followed his orders, but sometimes their personalities would get on his nerves a little.
"Just keep doing what you're doing. We already control their flow of information.", Soeui told the clone of his.
"You got it, man.", the clone told Soeui as he merrily walked away.
Souei just let out a sigh. He would stick to regular clones, but these ones were just better.
/\\//\\//\
We are so ready for whatever Falmuth does. That was the conclusion I came to after spending a day looking over the information I'd been sent by Soeui. He was playing all of them like a fiddle.
I was in my house just resting and calming down after a long day. I could just work as much as I want without getting tired, but that's no way to live. I got a lovely partner to spend time with. It's like I get more and more attracted to Shuna every day.