ocean-life Volume 3 Epilogue Part 1: Triumphant Return
Volume 3 Epilogue Part 1: Triumphant Return
Volume 3 Epilogue Part 1: Triumphant Return
I finally returned to Erucy after nearly two months.
First I headed to the Chief House to receive any information I had missed in my absence. I had messaged that I would returned today, so I was frankly a little disappointed that no one came out to greet me.
I had received some information about the situation back home through letters, but there was plenty to worry about. Both I and Roleau had to leave the village for this plan, so I had chosen a secondary representative and trained them over the winter. They were fairly open and honest so I didnt think theyd do anything weird.
We were late coming back because we needed to thoroughly crush any supply lines that approached and it took 2 weeks for all of the soldiers to starve. After that it took us 3 weeks to empty out the base and gather refugees to live there.
As I had expected, the soldiers who escaped on the way, the soldiers from the supply base, and the soldiers that had arrived there all turned to banditry and went wild creating quite a large number of refugees.
Their evil deeds spread around and I managed to gather around 300 people who were willing to listen to me and come to the base to start a new life.
Some of the refugees food was covered by the things we robbed from the incoming supply chain. However, that wasnt enough and I had to use 1 ton of wheat that I had bought from the city Erin as emergency supplies.
After Kuu had burned the grain in the supply base, we divided the members of Nettle into two teams of 9 elves and 1 Fire Fox that took weekly shifts returning back home. They were all at their mental and physical limits so they had to rest.
Unfortunately, as I was the one negotiating and leading the refugees, I had been unable to go home even once.
The supply transports had no guards at first, but after the second time they started to have escorts. Thankfully there werent a large number so we could deal with them. Perhaps the status of the invasion force and the supply base hadnt been properly conveyed back to the Empire.
Ah I might cry, Im so happy. Its the same old Erucy, but after being away for so long it feels so heartwarming
Cyril, thank you for your efforts. You never returned even once did you
Lucy said as she walked beside me.
Its already spring huh
Mm, but Cyril is still kind. Those terms are fair and honest I think. Youre even giving them free food.
Its just like Lucy-chan says~ Theres lots of places that would have said give us 5 times the amount of food back!
Kuu and Lucy are well educated amongst the others in the village so they were probably right about that.
As they said, I could have definitely squeezed them for morebut
I needed to create a bond of gratitude. If I went this far, they are very unlikely to betray us..normally. Plus like this we can squeeze more money without actually squeezing them.
Exploit?
From who?
They didnt understand my intentions? I thought of the mark.
The one weve caused so much trouble for, the loser Empire of course.
But theres no way theyll ever pay us.
Certainly shes right. In order to get war reparations we would have had to take land from the Empire or set things up for a third partyboth of these were impossible for Erucy at the moment.
If theres collateral then theyll gladly pay for it. So well have them buy the things from the supply base.
Cyril are you talking about their equipment?
Thats exactly right. Their Iron equipment. Rather than making new equipment they would much rather purchase it back from us.