As it turned out, Chalm had been overtaken by Elaya. It would be nice to blame her entirely, but I had already made that mistake with Astria and I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions again. When all of my bonds were cut, that was all of my bonds. That included my existence as the Dungeon Master to my dungeon. It made sense that all of my tamed monsters would be freed, and the calm miasma that had once served my populace would run amok.
I decided to stay the night with the fairies. We returned to the old town of Chalm, where I brought back all of the children and volunteer workers and then made an announcement.
“Those who wish to work on completing the palace will be paid handsomely,” I announced out loud. “I will also be officially naming this town Chalm’s Crossing. You will become the bridge between Aberis and western Aberis.”
Technically, because of the shape of the wilderness, Chalm’s Crossing was farther east than Deeksville. It was technically on the very border of the area given to me by Prince Aberis as part of my promotion. That was because it was on the border of Aberis. Technically, the wilderness wasn’t claimed by Aberis, and old Chalm had been built distinctly outside the border of Aberis.
By giving me the wilderness, Prince Aberis had done nothing except offer the support of Aberis should Dioshin on the opposite side pose a problem once we started settling the west. In truth, the land given by Aberis was only a small sliver in the southwest. Even the area north in Alerith, where Lord Reign was still in charge, wasn’t mine yet. That was another threat that had been delayed two months. I’d deal with it when I had time.
After making my announcements, the people only clapped weakly. Many of them had been drained of lifeforce by the fairies for the last few months, and those were the ones that weren’t forced to work around the clock on the palace. They were a beaten people who lived in fear. After Astria apologized to them personally, it still was a bit much.
That was until I broke out my Cook job and began to make food. Food was a good pick me up in this world too. Since I was pulling out spices from my world, the food was even better. We had meat, potatoes, and vegetables. It was probably the most luxurious meal the people that had lived out here had ever seen. Chalm had slowly begun to adopt a more sophisticated diet under my influence, but Chalm’s Crossing was still too isolated.
After eating, the people grew more relaxed and even began talking with me and the fairies. While listening in on their conversations, I learned that their plight wasn’t all bad. The Nymphs had been sucking people dry of mana, but they were Nymphs. They pulled out mana from humans while they were asleep. This ended up giving the people vivid erotic dreams. I finally learned that their suffering wasn’t from exhaustion but embarrassment. Relationships were ruined as the men and women no longer could satisfy each other.
They were sexually exhausted from night after night of sex dreams! They were too embarrassed to hang out with those they had likely fantasized about during such dreams. Even with the fairies promising not to do it to anyone unwillingly anymore, many of them volunteered to continue to be harvested with bright excited eyes. I wanted my righteous anger back.
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