It appeared with a deep, rumbling roar.
A gigantic bird that blotted out the sky. It was only after everything was over that they learned it was the sky fortress ridden by the conquerors.
The villagers had fallen into a panic.
A sharp-eared young man had started shouting that he could hear something, and less than half a shichen later, it came flying in.
It tore through the clouds and approached with a roar.
Something was scattered from it in a clattering shower, and those falling objects descended onto the village breathing fire.
Gigantic spider-like monsters, each as large as a house.
They came crashing down into the village square with tremendous noise. Just before landing, they threw off fire-belching cylinders, and some of those flew into the church. Cylinders larger than a man’s height smashed the church apart.
The spider-like monsters showed no interest whatsoever in the fleeing villagers. Ignoring the people who had collapsed in terror and gone weak at the knees, they fired something from the tubes on their backs at the church.
The church at the center of the village was blown to pieces.
There was no need to even wonder what had become of the bishops who had been packed inside.
They had not shown themselves even once since that sudden invasion.
There was not just one spider-like monster.
In the end, a total of five monsters ran through the village. Their targets were the Holy Soldier Saldards.
With a single sweep of a leg, the Holy Soldier Saldards were blown away and eliminated.
The tubes on their backs flashed, and then the ground erupted in a massive explosion together with the cleric-soldiers attending them.
The ravaging of the village by those five gigantic monsters began suddenly and ended in the blink of an eye.
Only afterward did the villagers realize that an even larger ringleader than the monsters that had entered the village had appeared outside it.
And together with that gigantic ringleader, the invaders walked into the village.
“Elimination of the Holy Soldier Saldards is complete. Meaningless resistance will only shorten your lives. Cease all work and gather in the square.”
Like the voice-amplifying magic used by bishops, the girl’s voice carried across the entire village as she made that declaration.
Commanding gigantic, powerful monsters, attended by bipedal beings of human height, the girl walked forward.
“Hiding is pointless. All positions have already been identified. No harm will come to you as long as you do not resist. Gather in the square.”
Girls riding four-legged spider-like things somewhat larger than oxen called for surrender in front of the houses where the villagers had fled.
If the villagers came out obediently, they were guided straight to the square. If they kept hiding, the girls entered the houses and dragged them out. Some villagers tried to fight back, but they were effortlessly subdued by the girls.
Before long, every last villager had been gathered in the square.
Young and old, men and women, the sick and the injured as well. That said, no one there was in truly severe condition, since those too badly hurt to move had already been taken to hospitals in nearby cities.
“This village has been occupied by us, <Paraiso>. From this point on, you will live under the occupation of <Paraiso>. Basically, you will continue engaging in farm work just as before. We swear that no harm will come to you as long as you do not resist. Furthermore, rewards will be added in accordance with your labor.”
The girl who removed her head covering had animal ears on top of her head. She was small enough to look like a child, but no villager remaining there underestimated her.
That was because the biggest man in the village, who had tried to attack her when he saw an opening, had been subdued with a single twist. Perhaps his shoulder had been dislocated—he was pinned to the ground, letting out low groans.
“The surrounding towns have already been occupied in the same manner. The Gigantia that just passed overhead is watching everything. Resistance is futile.”
And so the village was placed under their rule.
Just as they had declared, as long as no one resisted, their previous way of life was guaranteed.
No, if they responded to requests, their quality of life actually improved compared to before.
The food distributed at regular intervals improved both in quality and quantity compared to before. The luxury goods handed out once a week—sweets and alcohol—were delicious beyond anything they had ever tasted.
There was no arbitrary violence, and their quality of life was improving. The villagers were quick to lower their guard. To begin with, they had always lived exactly as the bishops told them to. The people at the top had merely been replaced, and most of the villagers simply continued their farm work as before.
The problem was a certain group of villagers who had been especially close to the bishops and the Holy Soldier Saldards. They grew dissatisfied that the church officials had been eliminated without question.
That resentment was likely a reaction to having a certain kind of privilege taken away. Originally, they had served as intermediaries between the villagers and the church officials, and though they had privileges, they had also performed work befitting them.
However, that work had been wiped away without question together with the girls’ invasion. Unable to adapt to that, and with the added fact that the girls were not violent, they had begun loudly voicing complaints.
Naturally, they also grew more distant from the many villagers who disliked friction.
It seemed that the girls, the new rulers, were deliberately waiting for those unstable elements to finally erupt. Even when decent villagers warned them, they appeared to do nothing {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} beyond listening.
One night, those people rose up in revolt to eliminate the girls, and the girls personally, and very carefully, put them down.
Quite literally, they had apparently been unable to lay a hand or foot on them.
When the villagers who knew nothing of it showed up in the square as usual, every single person who had joined the revolt had already been bound.
Considering the mercilessness of the first day’s invasion, the fact that no lives had been taken was an act of mercy. The girls said nothing, but the villagers other than those who had been tied up understood that well enough.
Those who had rebelled against the rulers were punished in the form of additional labor. On top of their normal work duty, the luxury goods distributed to them were cut in half, and their labor hours were increased.
Even so, the ones most relieved that it had ended at only that were probably not the rebels themselves, but the people close to them.
Their parents, their spouses and children, their friends.
“Today we’ll be testing a new farm tool.”
That day, a villager chosen by one of the girls of <Paraiso> had been brought out to undeveloped land.
Behind them followed a cargo-carrying golem, also provided by <Paraiso>. It looked as though it was strolling along leisurely on six legs, but because its stride was so large, one of its notable traits was that it moved surprisingly fast.
After the dog-eared girl ruler explained how to operate it, the villager nervously began using the machine golem. It looked like a handcart with all sorts of tools clumped onto it, but its functions were fully effective.
The blade at the front bit into the ground, overturning the hard-packed soil while breaking it apart. If it encountered weeds or low shrubs, it simply tore through them by brute force.
The operation was simple too. Just move the lever to the positions for driving, tilling, stopping, or reversing. Anyone could operate it.
Of course, the same sort of work could also be done with oxen, but the number of oxen that could be raised was limited, and they could not be increased without limit. They also required great amounts of feed.
By contrast, according to the explanation, these tilling golems could be supplied in any number, and they moved automatically. If one broke, it would apparently be replaced.
With this, the efficiency of farm work would improve dramatically.
“It’s time for distribution.”
The giant fortress that traveled through the sky, which the girls called Gigantia.
This passed over the village roughly once every two or three days.
When it did, it dropped boxes filled with relief supplies. A variety of things were packed inside those boxes, but what the villagers most looked forward to were the luxury goods among them.
Sometimes they were sweet confections, sometimes rare preserved foods from the sea, and sometimes bottled alcohol. There were even times when squeezed fruit juice was provided for the children.
At distribution time, the containers descended directly into the town square. Once everything inside had been taken out, a gigantic six-legged golem would appear from nowhere, hoist the container onto its back, and run off with it.
There were many things about all this that drew curiosity, but their way of life had not changed from the days when they had lived as the church told them to. Some things were gradually changing, but life only kept improving. There was no room for dissatisfaction to arise.
