historical

After having a full course meal, I settled down on the chair with a satisfied smile. All around me, the other monster leaders also sat on their respective chairs heaving sighs of contentment as their bellies bulged shamefully.

Well, none so much as Qog, who was busy cleaning his teeth with a bone he picked from the leftovers.

"This was delicious. What kind of meat did you use?" I asked the orc leader, who grinned at me while patting his enlarged belly.

"Glad you asked, Boss. The meat used here is from wolves, deer, and some pigs, while there was some human meat mixed with it." Once he finished his words, I stared at him in shock. Looking at the empty plate where the manga meat I devoured ravenously once sat, I gagged slightly, but didn't let it show towards the monster leaders, who seemed unphased by the mere thought of eating human body parts.

Well, it technically isn't cannibalism since they don't share the same species, even though they move and act like humans, but that's the same for any sentient being that could form coherent thoughts.

I was just a little surprised that the delicious food I was eating was also comprised of human meat. Being a former human, I was, of course, anxious about it.

Nevertheless, though..

'The people living in the Human Town cannot know about this..' I mentally concluded. That was just a disaster waiting to happen if word got out that the monsters here were eating human meat.

Of course, they wouldn't put my residents on the course menu. The monsters cannibalize themselves all the time, but if the humans or demi-humans learned that the monsters were eating meat that was related to their species, it would put them under duress and fear for their safety, thinking they would be next on the chopping board.

Digressing from that thought, I stood up from my chair, my slightly bulging belly due to our feast earlier jiggling slightly, I glanced at each monster in the room, all of them lending their attention to my towering figure.

"As much as we would like to praise Qog's orcish cooks, we need to get back to the matter at hand." All of them nodded and leaned forward, their attention now fully directed at me. "This raid would be highly different from the last raid. On their last raid, my primates and the reinforcements I called in were able to annihilate them to the last man, some of them being captured and sent straight to the prisons in the Human Town."

I opened the Dungeon Menu and showed them a live feed of the prisoners' lifestyles currently residing in the Human Prison.

It showed one casually chatting to another prisoner, who was also chatting back, a neutral smile on his face. Next to them, some other prisoners were busy playing with the phones they had been provided with as they lounged about lazily.

The prison there was more like a giant boarding house than a regular detention center.

This was to ensure that when the time came, they would willingly switch sides, thus increasing my viable workforce. I can't trust inmates to not make a mess of things when instructed to do a job.

First, make them happy. Show them that living inside my Dungeon shouldn't be feared. Second, put them to work, where they would contribute to the growing society nestled within my Dungeon. It might take a while, maybe a few weeks to a few months, depending on the person, but in the long run, all my efforts to make them happy would've been worth it.

"Excuse me, Jionni." Aratella piped up from her seat, her eyes glaring at the humans with anger bubbling within. "But isn't it better to execute them instead? Those fanatics cannot be reformed."

I looked at the arachne with a raised eyebrow and considered her opinion.

"Well, you're right about one thing. Fanatics cannot be reformed." Her spider legs ceased skittering for a while, a smile blossoming on her face as she looked at me. "But the prisoners currently staying in the Human prison aren't. We killed all the fanatics when they raided my Dungeon. I would've killed them with my own hands as well, but these humans.. I noticed that they are just normal soldiers roped into this religious war their higher-ups started."

I chuckled madly, a mad glint appearing in my eyes as I glanced at each monster leader, all of whom were starting to sweat nervously, my inner psychopath raging within at the thought of letting the leaders of this hypocritical movement suffer.

"So, I thought, why not convert their soldiers to fight for the other side." This got all of them to ponder the thought, all of them arriving at the same conclusion I did in just the span of a few seconds. "During this raid, our objective isn't only to repel the invaders; we are to capture any one of them, seemingly forced into this fight, and kill all the others. We will not let anyone escape."

I sat back down on the chair, the silence in the room deafening. All the monster leaders stared at me, before all of them nodded together. As one, they raised their hands and yelled into the heavens.

"For our Lord!"

"For the Chieftain!"

I smiled at their enthusiasm. Once this raid blows over, I'll be sure to give out rewards to each of them.

Leaning my head on the backrest, I smiled while facing the ceiling. All these monsters, willing to sacrifice the lives of their tribe to ensure that my Dungeon, and in turn, their new home, stays safe.

'I've come a long way from just a single room..' Reminiscing the memory of the first Hunter party that invaded my Dungeon, I frowned. Those nameless adventurers.. Perhaps.. If I had chosen a different approach..

I shook my head. There's no use in dwelling on the past now. Focus more on the present and the future.

Standing up from my seat, I let out a sigh and regarded each monster leader with a serious face.

"Ready your tribes. This time, you'll be joining the frontline. I'm afraid even my primates won't be able to handle this alone. The last raid was enough of an example." I grimaced at the memory of the complete stomp against my primates. If it weren't for Drake, Wulfstan, and Tigre interfering at the right time, then they would've easily made their way to the wall of the Monster Town.

Which would've been a disaster.

If my primates, those who could easily beat goblins, kobolds, orcs, and some others on their lonesome, lost that badly against a well-trained company of human soldiers, then what would a ragtag bunch of monsters, all of them differing in size and strength, do when faced with a foe that not even those stronger than them could do in a group?

"Our enemy is coming at us with marching horses. They won't stop until all of us are dead. If we lose this fight, we will all die, so put your backs into it!" I yelled, and all of them shouted at the same time, giving me their own version of a salute.

Although the part where I would die was something that would be next to impossible, seeing that the second and third floors were next to impossible to penetrate with unprepared items, but it would be a pain in the ass to rebuild.

And it would also cost me all of the hard work I had done. Gathering the monsters, ensuring their safety, the humans, the demi-humans, all of them, gone..

I was not about to let that happen.

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~ Third Person POV ~

"So.. This is Kazanpan.. I'll admit, for a town bordering the Slakaston Empire, they are surprisingly lax in their security."

"Well, it's because of Erika taking some of the soldiers to assist her in chasing the heretic she was pursuing. Due to that action, the security of the town was crippled, but the governor wasn't really worried since Erika was leading them. That ended up backfiring, though."

"Ah, true.."

The man smiled as he eyed the scared gazes of those cowering in their houses. Riding atop his horse, followed by a veritable army of well-trained knights devoted to the cause, and the rabble of common soldiers, cannon fodder, really, they marched through the roads, filling every corner of the street with their advance.

They had already notified the new governing head immediately after replacing the Shaiydons who fled, so their march proceeded smoothly.

Arriving at the exit leading to the forest, which housed the Dungeon where the heretic was currently staying, the mounted man gave a grin.

"I wonder if they would give me a challenge?" The man unsheathed his sword partly, its blade glimmering under the sun's rays, his reflection showing a twisted smile on his face. "Or would they fail to satisfy me. Only time would tell.."

The man sheathed his sword back as he glanced slightly at his army, a number of 1000 marching through the streets without any problems.

He sighed; the cost of this was too high. He argued with his superior back-and-forth on this, but the death of Erika had him spooked.

'Oh well.. Most of them would die, that's for certain.' The man cackled as he gripped the reins of his horse. 'If they were able to kill Erika, then it's not a bluff to say that only about 20% would live to tell the tale of this venture.. Not that I mind though. More blood equals more fun!'