Chapter 220: Now I'm here

I walked outside the tent. My head was filled with a mix of strange and volatile emotions.

From the complete relaxation after the nightly escapades with Daerie and a proper night's worth of sleep to the guild of sleeping with another woman and doubts about my current situation…

To say that I was a mess, would be a little bit too much, but not that far from the point. Sadly, as much as I would love to take some time to figure myself, I had no other choice but to push forward.

The battle at the pass largely concluded. My exploits at the camps and enemy headquarters surely threw a wrench into the plans of the northern imperialists. But that wasn't the end of the trouble at all.

"Dang, it will be a day full of work, won't it," I raised my voice to the sky, hoping for an answer. 

Sadly, no answer came.

"Okay," I slapped my hands against my waist, looking in the distance where all my daily tasks would take place. "Let's get this shit going!" I shouted, jumping forward at full force.

First off, the separation.

As soon as I arrived at the former battlefield, I kidnapped three entire divisions from the forest folk, moving them to reinforce the passes that we just managed to reconquest.

This mission was arduous without any doubt. The casualty rate wasn't that low either. But thanks to this sacrifice, a huge chunk of the army of both the northern oligarchs and the central kingdoms was enclosed in the valley.

A single trip to the earth to resupply was more than enough to stabilize the situation and cut any attempts at retaking the passages.

Secondly, pacification.

With the trapped force of the enemy squeezed between the mountain passes and the still-growing army of the flying folk, it didn't take long before their morale reached rock bottom.

From the moment the first enemy surrendered, it took entire seven minutes before an entire unit did. In measly three hours, what amounted to at least a third and maybe a half of the wingless forces, gave up.

My idea to offer pardon and measly five years of forced labor to anyone who gave up his weapons appeared to do a great job in speeding the decomposition of the enemy forces.

Thirdly, recompensation.

All the way to this point, I didn't have any real power base in this world. Even in Ayda's place I could have a meal or invade a city. Yet here, I could only rely on the external forces that only aligned with my own interests.

That's why, as soon as I received a massive pool of prisoners to manage, I curbed the entire treasury of the winged folk to obtain supplies. Two kinds of them to be precise.

First off, living necessities.

And I had to do it. The winged tribes were far less populated than the fertile plains where wingless folks prevailed. Such a huge amount of humans that would have to suddenly move into winged people's territory would require nearly a third of the entire supply of the winged nation.

As such, not even my relationship with Daerie would solve this problem for me.

By strategically releasing key prisoners that managed to survive the onslaught, it took me only two weeks to make a deal with them. Using the stolen treasure and prisoners, I managed to dismantle the entire central kingdom into a network of willing subsidiaries. Two weeks later,  the entire central plain where the kingdom once stood started to supply the war effort of what came later to be…

A united front.

While I was dealing with the situation outside the strict borders of the winged tribe, Daerie did the opposite. By generously providing a war-aid to the civilians of the few cities that surrendered and were annexed, she managed to turn the image of the winged folk around.

Their resources were limited, yet they did their best to help. Because they couldn't stand the poor lives of the humans living just beside them.

Or so was the official motto of the organization that Daeire created to unite both of her tribes.

By the time my time freeze ended, the small patch of the occupied land already became a willing part of the rising empire, while all the remaining cities craved to do the same.

And here, my genius came to play.

During all this time that I took to frantically provide all kinds of resources and supplies, my mass of free workers didn't sit around. Ever since the beginning of the negotiations, I secured a right to a single camp amidst the deep lands of the former central kingdom.

Within just two months, this small military outpost turned into a massive fort first, before transforming into a thriving center of trade.

By using the leverage of the massive orders that I threw in every direction, by the time my stolen treasure ran dry, the income from the common trade could bring that sum in a single week.

And it happened right in time. Sadly, this was a portion that I couldn't really take credit for. Because in the middle of the dismantling of the central kingdom, something strange happened.

It was around the time my workers finally got to producing something useful rather than building the basic infrastructure of the massive camp I envisioned. And in one way or another, a certain hidden persona turned it into a massive hit.

By turning the massively produced 'ring stones' into a new kind of currency backed by the winged people into a sign of resisting the fall of the kingdom…

To say the least, this hidden persona sold half of the country for a massive delivery of a toy.

And it was around then when the time freeze ended. And roughly two minutes later, Ayda made her way into this world to inspect my progress.

"It's been a while," I uttered while standing at the top of a small hill. The season already turned into winter, forcing both of us to wear warm clothes. Not because we were cold, but because we would look weird otherwise.

"Yeah. I can see how hard you worked," Ayda admitted. Yet, there was something slightly strange about her.

"Dear, what happened?" While it seemed obvious initially, that she just didn't feel right with me sleeping with Dearie, but it was actually not the point.

"Hey, from what I can see, you are basically on the verge of conquering this entire world, right?" Ayda raised her eyes at me, making the face of an abused puppy.

"Don't tell me," I gasped for air, finally noticing what could be troubling the girl.

"Yeah," Ayda turned her eyes away, clearly embarrassed by the situation.

"I get it," for the first time in a long time, a smile appeared on my lips. "Once I'm done with this place, I will mop up your world as well." My hands reached forward, grabbing the girl by her arms and pulling her into my tight hug.

"I missed you, you know?" During the end of the time freeze, I would take weeks between taking the trips to the real world. I was THAT busy. But for Ayda, the entire thing only lasted an instant.

"Yeah," Ayda patted the back of my head. "But now I'm here," she added, placing a gentle kiss on my forehead.