The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

The remnants and, more or less, the intact head of Jensen were put on display in Everlight before he was buried in the graveyard. The people didn’t see his death, but the testimony of Ian has been sufficient for them. They had a chance to see and remember Jensen's face twisted in fear and pain, and with the rest of his body looking even worse, it left nothing for their imagination to fill. Most of them had seen, many times over, people eaten alive by goblins or at least heard the stories. They heard or saw rescued women raped and broken for life, who told stories about the horrors of goblin dens and breeding pits. Testimonies of women who most often chose to commit suicide when they heard the goblins voices in their nightmares. The information that Jensen would be buried in the unconsecrated graveyard additionally shocked the people. The message was delivered; don't do crimes kids: while other monarchs would only kill you for your transgressions, this one can bind your soul and torment it forever, barring you from the afterlife and any possible reincarnation.

The code of laws needed time to be written down, but right now, the main theme among the people commenting on the case was that it was simply a stupid idea to fuck around and find out what is and what is not considered a crime. People agreed that it's better, and safer, to just be a decent person. Having that in mind, I could simply create, hmmm...open code of laws; everything is legal until it's not. It's far from perfect, but, hey! A few key points are already covered; for petty crimes, you will be sentenced to forced labour on farms or during construction efforts, but for serious crimes, you would serve a life sentence in the prison mines or be outright executed. The simple banishment from Avalon was also a dreaded concept, so for the time being, unspecified punishments for some crimes were working as well as any fully codified law.

Luna moved my entire office to the first floor, and I saw a few new faces, as she was assessing people who would like to work for me. I pondered the idea of helping her, but a single warning glance was enough for me to return to the paperwork. With Luna's help, and her decision to designate people to keep the mundane and petty cases off of my desk, I was finally seeing the light in the tunnel. Hopefully, it wasn't a train...

God damn it... It was a draisine...

I finally focused on much bigger problems, and immediately I identified the most annoying one. The infrastructure of the Cridian Kingdom sucks. Their roads... No, I refuse to call them roads. I don't know what they are, but they threw a wrench into my plans. Or even an entire box of wrenches and a few wheelbarrows of sand. In their defence, I must admit their choice to use rivers and canals as their main transport routes was very reasonable. By utilizing large, heavily guarded cargo, they countered the problem of merchants being ambushed on the roads by monsters or bandits. Waterway transport also maximised the amount of cargo carried. Even if some settlements were far from the waterways, merchants used crude cart transports, often utilizing simple move assist runes to reach them or just forcing prisoners to pull them. The presence of the soldiers also meant tax collectors, so merchants' visits were solidly secured. The Cridian solution was effective and, to some degree, efficient, but simply slow. Of course, waterway transport was expensive, so it was unavailable for the majority of people in the Kingdom. However, no one could explain to me how their army moved in case of an emergency, which was frustrating. This was one of the most important pieces of information for my plans.

In this situation, however, all the land routes were simply useless or broken beyond repair. In times before the fall, as locals call the time of war with the dark empire, the wide and properly maintained roads connected every city and village in a much more convenient way. But the roads themselves were much older, created in forgotten times by unknown creators. No matter who built them, right now they were in ruins, making using them not much different from wandering through the badlands. For moving my armies, I could use the shadow realm. My denizens were immune to the pressure and constant fear of the shadow realm. But regular people are not; Lanka, to this day, has nightmares about that trip, when I sent Marie to bring her to Avalon after the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Amber and Irene's lives. She was exposed to this land for just a few minutes, but it was enough to take its toll. Even my residents had it hard after a few hours in Avalon in the shadows.

On the other hand, Marie and Auburn were unaffected at all. Having a shadow wolf familiar gives you resistance to the shadow land's terrifying aura. The stupidest idea to solve that problem would be to give everyone a shadow wolf for a familiar pact. The unrealistic idea made me at least chuckle. 'Welcome to Avalon, this is your company shadow wolf.' Anyway, using shadow land for the transport of people is not an option. I needed roads.

I started looking over the source materials I had in my private library but I hadn't found much about modern highways and roads construction... Waita second. I quickly opened my extensive materials about ancient Rome, which so far laid useless. If someone knew how to build a fucking road, it was them...

•••

While Theon was thinking about something, Amber was in the middle of solving an unexpected problem. Wendy and Aurora were sitting in front of her with sour faces, as the report she received was not optimistic at best.

"So it's impossible?" Amber asked, doodling something on the sheet of paper with her fountain pen.

"For now..." Wendy looked as if she wanted to add something, but after a while, she just shrugged.

"To be precise, we are unable to reproduce the materials of some dressing materials, baby diapers or sanitary napkins. This material is absolutely fascinating! But unfortunately, when I asked King Theon about its specification, he was unable to help." Aurora poured a glass of water over the trauma bandage, which absorbed it instantaneously, swelling delicately. "Its anti-bleed effects are on par with the great healing magic. Providing it to our adventurers could save many lives in case of the absence of any capable healer nearby."

Amber looked at Wendy and they tried to stay serious. Yes... This is totally the main application they had on their mind...

"For now, I think I will ask you, Wendy, to sell these products for their full price. I don't think Theon would mind selling them cheaply, but having in mind how many people are going to use them soon, he will use most of his mana just to replicate them." Amber brightly smiled. "Fortunately, we can keep this small operation as our little secret."

Aurora nervously fixed herself on the special chair she was comfortably using, and looked at Queen Amber with confusion. "Why do we want to keep this a secret, my Queen?" Keeping anything in secret before her Master didn’t feel right. She quickly added, "I don't think we are doing anything wrong..."

"Of course, Aurora. Theon wouldn't be against it, but that's simply not worth disturbing him. Would you like your nagas and lamias to report to you on every little thing they do?"

"Ohhhh... I understand now. Lady Luna gave us the order to report only important things or things we believe to be important." Aurora nodded her head and paled a bit, thinking about mountains of reports her helpers prepared that one time she asked... "Since there will be a fair exchange, and the King's mana reserves will not dwindle, there is no need to bother him."

No matter how bright and similar to people, Theon's denizens had a long way before they could understand the people of the world. But the effort was made, and Amber many times caught herself thinking about scions in the same way as other people.

"Yes, Aurora. If you are uncertain about anything, just ask me, Irene or Luna. Sometimes even residents might be helpful. There is no need to bother Theon with everything." Amber looked over the other points she had written down. "I know this is more Irene's specialisation, but she is currently busy with producing scrolls for the settlers we are going to send to Wolf Manor. Tell me what's going on with this 'children's health'. Is something wrong?"

"No, no! There are already newborn children in Avalon and the women noticed that they are much stronger and healthier than any children born outside. We wanted to ask if Avalon is somehow buffing them or if there is another reason. However, my lamias and Stella's fairies responsible for providing healing services in Everlight have a theory that this is how it should be." Aurora took out her notes and showed them to the Queen.

"Hmmm... I think they are right, Aurora. Most people are healthier than before; they can eat full meals all the time, so I guess that expecting mothers are stronger as well... But I will pass that question to Irene. And the last point... Wendy?"

"The last problem is the growing needs of the people. Nadi and I barely manage to craft enough clothes for the people, my Queen."

"Oh, God! Wendy!? You should have told me earlier!" Amber quickly took out a piece of paper and gave it to the master seamstress. "This is a list of all people with aptitudes. Please, employ as many of them as it suits you."

"Thank you, my Queen!"

After Wendy and Aurora left her office, Amber sighed and leaned heavily on her chair. How had Theon been managing everything so far!? She moaned after taking care of a few more things when a timid knocking interrupted her work. She looked at the dark oak doors with annoyance and nodded to the slime maid who opened the doors, letting inside four young girls. The girls were wearing similarly looking, comfortable blue and white dresses, with cute, fur-lined coats.

"Your Highness, Lady Luna sent us here as your personal aids." The tall Elf girl bowed to her with grace.

She gave a sealed letter to the maid, who quickly passed it to Amber. It was more of a longer note than a letter where Luna gave her details about the girls she had sent her. Amber smiled with relief and looked at the girls with attention. "What are your names, girls?"

"My name is Qirún, my Lady." The Elf nodded her head, nervously fixing her shoulder-long brown hair.

"I'm... mmm... I'm Blithe, my Queen!" The human girl blushed and quickly lowered her head, making Amber smile. She was a cute girl with long blond braided hair.

"I'm Nami, your Majesty!" One of the similarly looking Nekomi girls gracefully nodded. According to the note Amber received, the Nekomi girls were sisters. Both sisters have beautiful and shining golden blonde drill hair.

"My name is Maya, my Lady." She bowed as well, and Amber watched them all straighten up in unison.

Amber stood up and pointed them at the bigger table. According to the note, the girls were orphans that arrived in Avalon with Sigismund, however; they were unfit to be adventurers for various reasons. Luna found them fit for office work and quickly took matters into her hands, making Theon prepare her sufficient quests for a secretary class. They were young, fifteen and sixteen years old, but very eager to work. Amber thanked the heavens for this small blessing and started explaining to the girls their new duties.

•••

Irene and Lanka were busy preparing the scrolls for Zirna. Zirna was excited about her new assignment, but she was checking her notes to be sure she had everything. She recently advanced to the Bishop class and was a fairly powerful healer... Except not. It was true that as far as healers' capabilities outside Avalon went; she was much more powerful than the head bishop Justinian in the Cridian Kingdom capital. But currently, she was in a room with Lady Lanka whose powers already were legendary, and, of course, there was Queen Irene. The Saintess of Eriar, probably the most powerful healer in the world, was a woman of unmatched beauty and seemingly endless power. You could get a complex in such company.

Zirna, however, was proud to be here. She nodded, pleased, and put the small book into her luggage, as not everything would fit into her ring of holding. It was her personal diary containing all of her important memories and notes. With reverence and solemnity, she placed a large book gifted to her by the Queen into her storage space. It was a medicine book and manual; a book that could be used and read only by Eriar's faithful. This one was protected by incredibly potent runes and countermeasures, so it could never fall into unworthy hands. Zirna rubbed her hands on her robe, sweating a bit. She started realizing that she was going out of Avalon, back into an unforgiving world.

"Don't worry, Zirna." Saintess Irene's voice was calm, but she was not looking at her. "The Wolf Manor Town has mighty walls and will be protected by the legion detachment until its own forces are ready. Demesne will be protecting you as well. She was even more excited than you, when she learnt you will be living there."

"Yes, my Lady. I'm just anxious."

"It is normal..."

The loud knocking interrupted Queen Irene. When the doors opened, Gloria ran inside with a serious face.

"My Queen! The survivors from Gorn! Something is wrong with them!"