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A week has gone by since the crushing defeat of Oggoth's armies by the hands of Ervas and Veronica's allies, and now the pair of split souls were creating small homes made out of stone and dirt through their Golem Transmutation Skill for more people to fit in the large village.
?
After adding on the two tribes of Raccoon-kin, even when both of them moved all the houses to the squirrel-kin area, they were not enough to house most of the people, as many were living in tents.
So Ervas and Veronica decided to do some quality of life changes with the village, creating welcoming homes made out of hardened stone through manipulating the earth and the stones underground by transforming them into golems, shaping them, and then transforming them back into the pure elements.
They also paved some areas of the village so it could look cleaner, and now every tent was replaced with large buildings made out of stone and hardened dirt.
They had already raised large walls, enclosing the village in four walls similar to those of castles, at each corner of the territory there were also four towers of around forty meters, where anyone that sat there would be able to see the entire Devil Forest, and if any disturbance were to occur.
These walls and towers stayed as golems, and many gadgets using Veronica's clones and cursed weapons were added as 'traps' for self-defense measures. All of this in a week.
Although Ervas and Veronica were not planning on staying in the Devil Forest forever, they decided to invest some time and effort into making everything more secure for everyone living inside, so they could feel more comfortable with their new lives.
Protected by the natural environment of the Devil Forest, which extended for several kilometers of dense forest and deadly monsters roaming everywhere, while also having many natural dungeons to bring on resources, it could be said that the entire village was ready to slowly transition into a large scale city or perhaps a nation of its own… but for that, the greater expansion would be needed and a larger population, alongside making some kind of governance system.
Although most of the inhabitants already called the Ervas as the King or Prince, while Veronica was the Queen, they didn't want to do anything of the sort for now, especially because all of these measures were only temporary until they finally decided to move forward to the Demon Continent, away from humans.
Ervas and Veronica knew deeply within their hearts that in the Duchy of Sapphira, the humans were slowly building resources and people to move towards the Devil Forest and hunt Ervas and his allies down. This was mostly because they had seen and heard what they talked through the undead insects they sent there, and also through the dead spirits that came from there.
Ervas found it rather comical that he was being called the 'Demon King' by some of the people, as the father of a certain knight family had spread strange rumors of him as if his entire existence was some kind of fated enemy of the world.
There was also the extremist faction of the church of Bestellen, who had recently known about the existence of Ervas and had reprimanded the Duke of Sapphira for his irresponsibility but decided to further cooperate with its efforts on building an army to move against the Devil Forest in search of the Half Demon boy that massacred a whole battalion of mercenaries by itself while being bare of two years of age.
Ervas and Veronica assumed that perhaps one of the gods that served Bestellen had left oracles to the priests of the church, giving them the divine task of slaying the boy no matter what, so the human race could prosper.
However, even with the support of the biggest church in the human continent, it would take around half a year to finally have everything ready for the invasion, so Ervas and Veronica still had plenty of time… and were actually planning on leaving many traps behind when they finally leave.
As of now, Ervas was being carried by Lilith while being accompanied by the other three Blood Human women, Eisheth, Agrat, and Naamah as he raised more inhabitable buildings made out of stone for the large population, which now broke into the four hundred by combining the population of the three tribes.
"Thanks a lot, King Ervas!" said the father of a family of Raccoon-kin, who had over four young children and a mother who was pregnant of yet another.
"No problem… would you like me to make it bigger? Your family is quite large" said Ervas.
"Well… I would appreciate it if you could make it at least three times bigger" said the Raccoon man.
"Very well," said Ervas, converting the house once again into a golem and then extracting minerals from underground, expanding the building with three more floors.
"Is this fine? Furniture will be brought promptly after, alongside food rations and other things… for bathrooms, you can go to the ones at the street behind the house" said Ervas.
"I see, thank you very much," said the Raccoon father, as her wife nodded her head with a smile and her children thanked Ervas.
"Thanks, king!"
"He's very little like us!"
"But he's very strong!"
"He can make houses! He made a house!"
Ervas could not help but smile after seeing the youngling's happy expressions while being carried inside the house by their parents. Behind them, there was a carrier-type Veronica Clone, which resembled a metallic spider of the size of a cow.
Over its back, it carried many of the things that this family owned, alongside some rations of vegetables, fruits, seeds, and dried and fresh meat, there was also a whole barrel of pure spring water made by Aqua.
"Of course, Lord Ervas is the most impressive of beings in this whole forest… no! Continent! Isn't it right, my sisters?" asked Lilith with a proud smile.
"Indeed!" said Eisheth.
"Lord Ervas, will you keep making more houses?" asked Naamah.
"Hey, how about we go train at the dungeons?" asked Agrat.
"I think a few more houses should be made, even if this was the last family that needed one, we will be receiving a lot more citizens sooner or later," said Ervas.
Ervas was planning on making even more houses, as he and Veronica had decided to visit the Ghoul territory and ask this evasive demon race to join them as well.
It was necessary to unify the tribes in the Devil Forest if possible, as Ervas and Veronica wanted their prosperity, which could only be achieved in the Demon Continent, away from Human territory that would constantly chase them down and seek their deaths at all cost to fulfill their religious oracles.
"Oh? Is it for the Ghouls, perhaps?" asked Lilith.
"Indeed, I heard from Ismene that they're a rather stubborn race… I don't remember interacting with many of them in my previous life because there weren't any around my territory in that time…" answered Ervas.
"Stubborn? Well, they will quickly learn that following you is the right thing to do, Lord Ervas" said Agrat.
"And if not, we'll teach them a lesson until they understand!" said Naamah.
"Yes, they'll have to understand they want it or not~ Fufufu" laughed Eisheth.
"No… I would prefer if we would not resort to violence to make them understand… I do not desire their harm but their prosperity… if I cannot gain their trust through words, I will show it through actions, there are many ways to convince people without forcing them to do so with brute strength… There should be other ways," said Ervas, remembering his previous life as Anastacia and how he gained the trust of many demon and beastmen tribes through his actions, by teaching the people how to take care of farming lands, how to craft, and many other things, while also giving them food and shelter when they needed it the most.
"Very wise words, my lord," said Lilith.
"Indeed, we shall be with you and help you as much as we can," said Agrat.
"Leave it to us!" said Naamah.
"Indeed…!" said Eisheth.
"I'm glad you girls can understand… and Lilith, can you put me down, today is quite hot and I am sweating all over, I need to go change clothes or take a bath…" said Ervas.
"Ah! Very well then, lord Ervas, let us accompany you in the bathroom" said Lilith.
"I shall wash my lord's long and silky hair," said Agrat.
"I will wash your back," said Naamah.
"And I can wash your arms," said Eisheth.
"No, you can stay outside…" said Ervas, rejecting the girls as he preferred to wash alone if possible.
The sun was shining brightly atop the sky, but its light did not seem to affect Ervas non the Blood Human Sisters, as this was due to them not being true Vampires and not possessing their weaknesses. Dhampirs were known to usually not inherit the weaknesses of the Vampire parent, while Blood Humans were a completely new race of Humans, not Vampires.
"Ah, my son! You're here, why don't you come with the rest for lunch?" said Jason, who was passing by carrying a large Demon Boar that he had just hunted.
"Oh, father, sure, but I will go take a bath first," said Ervas.
"Oh, I'll go too! Good thing that you set up that bath by using an underground spring! It's even separated by genders, how convenient" said Jason.
"Yeah, it took some effort, but we can wash with fresh spring water, and even warm it up through an artifact if we insert mana into it," said Ervas.
"Just how do you come with all those ideas, my son?" asked Jason.
"Probably from experience, in my previous life I played a lot with magic items and gadgets," said Ervas.
"Oh, I see!" said Jason.
Lilith and her 'sisters' glanced at father and son walk away, desiring to see the wonders of the male's bathroom, but they would not dare to disobey their lord's words.
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