Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 6

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero 6

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Commissioned by Shaderic

Wordcount: 2500

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I wanted to call the place Hachimanland, but Roseanne shot the name down, and put it up to vote. Ur’s Territory thankfully got shot down, since she would’ve gotten all her friends and companions to vote for it, but in the end Roseanne submitted three names from which she picked herself. As expected of a Demon Lord/corporate tyrant, she rigged the system so that she could win with ease.

Anyway, I was placed back where I’d held the line for half-a-decade, where I was captured, and where I put ten thousand men through a slaughterhouse was given the name Ylstu. Yep. Though Roseanne said it was one of the names of the most famed Demon Lords, I saw the truth. It was just “lusty” but with the letters scrambled. Kill me. The place where I became a warmongering maniac with little regard for human life is some filthy doujin author’s attempt at being clever.

All those lives lost, given, and taken for a land that will forever be recorded in history as an attempt to make a cleverly concealed innuendo. 

I should’ve expected it from this dimension full of monstergirls, but it was an underhanded maneuver of the highest caliber. I cared less about the fact that the last five years of my life was just an introduction to a shitty premise. In the end, those years passed by in a single paragraph or chapter. What the heck was the title of this anyway travesty? “After Fighting All My Life, I’m Now a Lord!?” That’s not even three sentences. Whoever you are, author, you need to talk to Zaimokuza. You’re not writing a real LN if your title isn’t also your summary, dammit!

What was I talking about again?

Right, my new territory with a sad excuse for a name.

It was springtime in Ylstu. It was a region between two mountain ranges that was split into east and west by the Ylstu River. The land used to cover by swathes of forests filled with flora and fauna, but all the battles that occurred within it had some areas cleared out, burnt out, and chased away most of the things worth eating. The Empire’s supplies for us were for suicide troops, not full-strength battalions, so foraging had been necessary to supplement our raiding and “supplies.” Even with the relatively small force I had, soldiers needed a lot of food, especially ones that needed to keep up with monster girls.

People who can swing around giant weapons required humongous amounts of food.

I accepted this fact and didn’t question it, even though it didn’t make a lick of sense since they were exerting more than they were taking in no matter what. 

Still, all those years of feeding black holes let me have some semblance of knowing what needed to happen first for my fledgling territory.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to start from scratch, but choosing where my new village/future staging area against the Empire was of the greatest importance. 

Location was a strategic advantage that I’d never give up.

Having the town beside the river was only reasonable.  Not only did my troops know how to make use of the fish, but it also served as a source of water and hygiene. I’d also waged a lot of fights around the river, since I never wanted to fight monster girls on even ground, and that cleared out a few spots here and there. I picked the one that’s closest to a sheer, mountain cliffside. Therefore, my new town would be flanked by two natural barriers, both of which provided resources in their own way.

A water mill, some stone walls, and a decent irrigation system can come later, but for now I appreciated simply having protection and food. 

Thankfully, those were all the executive decisions I needed to make.

Everything else could be handled by Roseanne’s subordinates.

Or, rather subordinate.

…

The compromise that both Roseanne and I hated was simple. I would make a town that will benefit the rest of the lands she ruled, but she’d support my efforts to fuck over the Empire. Why wouldn’t she do the latter anyway? Well, because she’d rather have me father a generation of humans with the Not!Amazons in my retinue, while prodding my mind for anything vaguely useful. Returning to the old territory I protected, which she had planned to turn into a staging area for more incursions into the Empire, was biting the metaphorical bullet for her.

My part of the compromise was the right to refuse orders, in exchange for things like logistical supplies, weapons, and soldiers.

Roseanne obviously wanted to put everything under her control, rendering my command over the town nothing more than a title, and limiting my movement. I countered with being useless and doing nothing to help if I wasn’t in charge. She relented, but put forward another idea. I had to give ground. Blah, blah, blah. Politics. Thrilling intrigue. Backstabbing. Chips being eaten. Etc. Etc. Etc.

She foisted upon me a logistical advisor in the form of Tanis and I had a few weeks leeway to get other, capable individuals to help me, before she sent more of her compatriots in to support/seduce me. 

At the very least, Tanis was actually useful.

“The first shipment of seedlings have arrived. Laborers are setting up fields as we speak. The lean-tos, huts, and supplementary tents you’ve proposed are holding for the meantime, while the laborers are constructing residential housing.” As far as Lamia went, Tanis was rather small. Unlike the monstrous, massive Lamia that came into battle dual-wielding and covered in armor from head-to-toe, she was apparently of a smaller subspecies known as the ‘Secretary Snake.’ Yep, that’s what they’re called. The glasses she wore was clenched into her hands from the moment her eggshell cracked. “The fishing traps have also been erected, but our supplies of salt and storage space are low. I’ve elected to shut it down for now, as to not waste the local supply.”

As far as Lamia went, she was my height if she was somehow able to stand on the tip of her tail, meaning she was on the small side. Her hair was pure white and her eyes red. As she slithered across the ground on her tail, she barely left behind an indent on the dirt road. Light, small, smart, and bespectacled, Tanis was definitely someone who just screamed “I’m smart and knowledgeable to escape bullying.” It was obvious to me that Roseanne found her, recruited her, and thus the Lamia was firmly on the Demon Lord’s side.

And, whoever controlled the food controlled the country.

I had to admit that there are worse ways to try and take away my independence besides giving me someone who was really, really good at their job. Heck, I didn’t want to fight her. If I let her do everything, I could focus on planning, fighting, and doing other important things to prepare for my plans against the Empire. However, in the end, the fact remained that I couldn’t let her be as effective and capable as she could be, because Roseanne obviously had her under her thumb.

“No. Keep fishing. Start putting the half the dry goods and rations into dry storage. Half of the diet is now fresh fish.” I was tempted to make some shitty point about it being good for morale, but she knew me well enough I didn’t care about that. Sure, people were going to appreciate not living off of preserved, jarred food and milled grains, but I wasn’t about to lie to her. I just did it to make sure she knew her place. Below me. Huh, those words are more lewd than I thought. “What about the chicken coops? Any eggs yet?”

If Tanis was irritated, it didn’t show on her face. Now that I thought about it. Why did Lamia have long ears and petite, small feature one their faces? Well, I suppose it’s a step up from what Westerners think of when they consider animal-based monsters, but it’s still disconcerting to think that I have some white-hiared, red-eyed elf secretary clad in purple and white, then looking down to see a meter-long tail. Then again, I haven’t met an Elf I’ve liked. They’re all Yukinoshitas the lot of them. My life is better without any Elf. In fact, my life would be amazing if the Empire had Elves. I’d get to get rid of two things I disliked with justification! 

Oh, right, I was in charge of a town.

“The poultry houses you’ve had made have proven effective. The feed you’ve allotted them has resulted in large batches of unfertilized eggs.” Ah, chickens. The animal kingdom’s equivalent of a middle-finger to alchemy. Equivalent exchange? Forget that shit. Put in grains and bugs into a chicken and they give you eggs by the bucketful. Glorious, delicious, and nutritious eggs… and when they can’t give eggs anymore: chicken. “I have forwarded these findings to Lady Roseanne, as well as your future plans to utilize their manure with fish scraps to make a fertilizer for crops.”

Ah, the old, quiet threat. 

I go after her decision, she reminds me she reports everything I do, and so we hate each other without saying a word about it.

Classic.

And weak.

Why?

Because I didn’t care.

The thing is I’ll use Tanis, her genius, her wit, and whatever unresolved issues she has to my advantage. Roseanne could get whatever she wanted from whatever I did to setup my staging area faster. Heck, I’ll gladly teach whoever she sends my way whatever they want. It’s only if they get in my way that problems will occur. Not problems for me. Problems for her advisors. It won’t be killing or anything bad, naturally, but making people ineffectual is something I’m good at.

Yep.

Cross the line and I’ll render upon you the most horrific of Japanese punishments:  being given a dead-end, worthless job.

…

The town was a simple affair. It was just a layout with a few areas set aside for industry, merchants, and other things that would come with time. I wasn’t planning on having too large of a city. Not with mages able to cast massive spells around and devastate towns without very expensive defenses. My plan was to have multiple small towns interconnected throughout the region that had their own specialities, instead of going all-in on a single city. The benefits of a city are obvious for humans, but not for monstergirls.

It’s undeniable that cities are incredibly convenient, that they let a lot of work get done over a short amount of time, but that’s only if humans are the average. Monstergirls can fly, make light of harder terrain, and even require more space. The Capital had been a massive city, catering to dozens of races, and so it was a bloated mess. Better to have specialized towns that play to a races strengths then connect everyone with a system of messengers. Hopefully, a system that’s mostly staffed by Harpies or Cell Phones-chans.

But, again, that’s for the far off future.

For now the idea was solely for the sake of getting resources put together and shipped into my project as much as possible. 

Ylstu’s roughly forty kilometers of valley, between two mountain ranges, and with a singular river dividing it perfectly in half. Past the westerern mountain range was the territory of the monster girls, while the eastern mountains were that of the Empire. There were plenty of passes and trails between both mountain ranges, so there was no chokeholds to be found. Anyway, the western side has a larger amount of land than the eastern portion, which had suited me just fine when I defending it. The less land I had to hold the better, but now I was glad to have the western side, since it had far more to work with. 

Still, the fact remained that there’s a lot of land to cover for just shy of two hundred people.

So, while I could solve quite a few things by implementing some logistical tricks like warehouses, stocking up, and supply routes that did as much as possible with flight as as possible, the main issue was that I didn’t have enough bodies. I needed miners, wood cutters, and other skilled laborers. The issue with food was handled, but before I start calling for Roseanne to send troops in, I needed to be able to house them, feed them, and pay them. So, that meant people to work for me, to be taxed for the privilege of working for me, and to enjoy that privilege. 

This is the part of the story where I magically figure out how to mass-produce a critically-important potion of healing or something, like a certain, reincarnated slime. Then, I’ll use those magical funds to rapidly gain immigrants, money, and power. Again, like a certain reincarnated slime. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the cheat ability to mass-produce everything I wanted and win the game before it’s even begun.

I had to go the old-fashioned route.

Ur entered my room and presented to me the information she gathered. Most of it was just scouting reports, but there were a few tidbits of information here and there from the Capital and the towns that we went through on the way there. Most of it was worthless, just tidbits that told me that Roseanne hadn’t set everything up and that the monstergirls weren’t secretly just another nation of enslavers. Nope, they were generic monstergirls that were the dreams of men. Boring. However, there were a few that I was interested in and had Ur look into and verify.

People with talent, no obligations, and independent. 

Preferably ones who also had grudges against the Empire and wasn’t content with Roseanne’s slow, attritional, and pragmatic approach. I didn’t have enough clout to approach the wealthy and influential, but the dregs of society and the outcasts were more than enough. Eventually, I’ll find someone rich, wealthy, and pissed off enough at the Empire to risk their necks to fund me and my ambitions, but I could pursue that path while gathering allies of lesser status, but with important talents. 

Such as the Lich that’s been waging a one-woman war for centuries in the Empire. She wasn’t doing a very good job, mostly just raising Undead and scaring a few villages, but the fact that she’s lasted for such a long time, kept up against the Empire’s advancements, and had a grudge against the Empire was more than enough. Whoever she was, whatever she was doing, I wanted to get her, fill up the slot that Roseanne wanted to fill with one of her own, and use her against the Empire.

If I manage to get her, not only do I get someone well-versed in magic that’s not under Roseanne’s thumb, but also, possibly the short-term, free workforce that I needed to speed up my construction efforts. 

There were plenty of bodies throughout Ylst.

I helped bury them myself. 

Good thing I had a very capable secretary to look after my work, while I did?