Chapter 76 (1/2)

Homecoming

The expedition army’s return home started.

First was Casalia Kingdom’s forces. 50,000 troops led by Reyas traced their way back to Casalia.

There weren’t many of them, but some aspired to transfer into Ogress’ military, so there were also people that were accepted into it.

Ria bestowed young soldiers that had shown great efforts within the war and a few other men and women t.i.tles of n.o.bility.

Carlos was one of them. For him, who wanted to take a half-elf as his wife, Ogress’ way of things weren’t particular about social positions, so Ria felt it should be fine.

Next were the ogre and beastkin troops. The ogres, who had come and enjoyed themselves in the war, returned home with the ashes of their deceased comrades on their backs.

What would become more problematic was that, for the beastkin, Ria gave t.i.tles to those that desired it.

The Ogress and former Cordovan territories were unrelated to this.

The beastkin that had been oppressed for years suddenly became aristocrats. As for there being resistance to this from the human’s side, that was obvious.

However, this policy was one of Ria’s principles.

She would establish the Nyanfluffy Kingdom.

What there anything more important than that? No, there wasn’t!

Right now, Ria was able to crush any opposition to her policies too.

Strike while the iron’s hot. Her policy quickly became common knowledge.

Half of Manesh’s army returned home for domestic security purposed.

What was painful was that the golem soldiers all returned to Manesh for required adjustments.

Even though that was the only place that had the proper facilities to perform the maintenance, it was still painful as far as their war potential was concerned.

However, looking over the remaining number of soldiers, they could be said to be enough.

Manesh’s army that had achieved victory after victory and the ex-Cordovan army that had been overlaid with regulations.

Naturally, they revolted.

Even though the revolt happened immediately, Ria didn’t view it as a problem at all.

The policies that Ria came up with, particularly the ones concerning law, invited ma.s.sive opposition.

Cordova, after discriminating based on race for years, was being forced into a firm law.

They lost of course.

The beastkin that they had looked down on just the day before were now sitting with them in the meetings.

There were still some that weren’t able to tolerate it, however.

But Ria simply crushed those n.o.bles through sheer force.

The fools that had chosen to revolt at a time where Ria’s authority and military might had reached its maximum were still, in the end, not her enemies.

Ria used their revolts to sweep away her domestic opposition’s forces.

There was opposition that didn’t make reckless moves as well, of course, but those who acted on reason and benefits were just as easy to deal with.

Like this, Ria’s policy of beastkin discrimination abolition was particularly pa.s.sionately received amongst the beastkin. Many villages erected statues of Ria so that her appearance would remain there for many years to come.

*

And then the day came where Ria herself would also leave Cornada.

She needed to return to Manesh to handle various government affairs that had been acc.u.mulating.

She had decided to temporarily part with her comrades.

First was Maal, who wanted to visit her home, and Irina, who was attached to her.

Because they had no horse, Ria lent them Rudolph.

Gig also wanted to return to the ogres’ village.

It seemed like he wanted to see just how much he had grown and, in particular, he wanted to challenge the ogre king.

It was also for the deceased ogres’ funeral rites that he needed to return home temporarily.

s.h.i.+zuna would also temporarily be returning to Jaeburg through a caravan.

As expected, there was no way she couldn’t explain to her family that she had become a queen’s wife.

She looked pretty depressed about the whole ordeal.

It was decided that Carla and Serge would be remaining in Cornada.

In the event something happened, Ria felt these two could handle anything that might happen.

If anything happened, Serge could report it immediately with his s.p.a.ce-time magic.

And considering Carla’s strength, she could very likely settle any revolts immediately.

Of course, she was hoping that no such events would actually happen.

*

Ria’s remaining comrades would all return to Manesh together with her.

Carlos would be a formal Ogress knight, and moreover be receiving his peerage as a baronet. Before that, his wedding ceremony with Lulu.

Thinking about it, she knew Lulu since before she had popped her murder-cherry in this world. Thinking of her as both someone that was an older and younger sister to her, she was filled with deep emotion.

[Don’t take my daughter!] She thought about saying it, but she quickly stopped that kind of thinking after seeing the two be so intimate with each other despite their embarra.s.sment.

Fio would continue working for Ria as a secretary.

She’d get married to her because she did make the promise to, but she wondered if she should do the whole [Please give me your daughter!] thing.

She’d need to go back to Casalia, but that would be something for later.

She remembered it after thinking about marriage, but she had to look for a bride for Matsukaze, too.

The horse itself wanted it to, but it had to be a great horse. A lot of brides would probably gather for Ria’s favorite horse.

Wouldn’t a lot of n.o.bles want to try to garner attention through this?

Thinking about that, Matzukaze might fall into a harem situation.

*

Carla called out to Serge, who was watching Ria’s back from the rampart as she left.