Side: Yuki

「「「We are very sorry!!」」」

The men lower their heads in unison.

「Fuun」

However, only one person is wrapped in a bamboo mat and looking away, the one who fell down after receiving my single blow, the rabbit-eared dandy Zett.

「Hey, you!! What"s with you and that att.i.tude to our benefactor!!」

Is she his wife? What a good physique. That chubby woman swings down her fists at Zett.

*Gon*

A blow with all the power of her body-

Yeah, that should hurt. And it even sounded loud.

Sure enough, the rabbit-eared dandy rolls around in pain.

If you can"t press where it hurts, there is almost nothing you can do except that.

「I accept the apology. By the way, I wonder who may be the representatives of the village? I would like to hear if it"s possible 」

That"s right, is important to know as this will decide our future plans.

I don"t know about that Zilba empire but I have caught people from their side.

I haven"t decided what to do with them yet and that"s why first I need to hear the side of the villagers" story.

Although they aren"t so many, if I kill them, I feel that the empire will begin to move.

No, whether I kill them or release them, this village will suffer, so if the villagers could escape, then… That won"t work.

The dungeon is here, and in any case, I must protect it…

GahーIt"s getting worse by the second.

Let"s calm down.

If the villagers move, then I would be able to use the power of the dungeon to turn the whole terrain into an impenetrable fortress.

In the event that the villagers stay, I would have to fight with them on my mind and restricting many of the functions of the dungeon…

And if the villagers wanted to stay? In that case, should I send them to Weed?

While such thought crossed in my mind, an elegant and stylish old woman came out from the back of where the villagers were gathered.

「I"m this village"s representative and elder, Eteri-ja. Thank you very much for saving the village in this occasion」(TN: Her name is Eteri, the *-JA* is how she ends some of her sentences.)

The old woman said so while lowering deeply her head.

She has no fear especially when there is a human among us.

Or it could be that she is hiding that fear with her old age?

「You said that you were called, Yuki, is that right-nou? What do you want to hear-ja?」

「Let me see. We came from a different continent, from the place you people worship, a historical ruin. We are not familiar with the situation here. We don"t even know how should we handle the captured Zilba soldiers. Rather, they tried to escape, but we have captured them all. I believe the day when Zilba empire comes to this village is not so far away, don"t you feel the same way?」

「Fumu… It"s hard for me to believe the first part about the historical ruins, but it"s like you said, the Zilba empire will certainly head towards this village」

When the elder reaffirms my words, the surrounding villagers start making noise.

I can"t blame them. The Zilba empire"s vanguard may be coming periodically from now on.

「Silence!! I"m still talking to him. Whether abandon this village or protect it, depends on these people-jarou」

「What do you mean, elder!!?」

「It"s simple. With just ten people they were able to easily repel the attack of 300 soldiers completely. From what I saw, they didn"t even fight seriously-janou」

Oh my, this old woman has a terrific observant eye. This would be hard,

「Haa!! Something like 300 soldiers, even for us is easy!! Elder, we don"t need any help from such people!!」

「Zett. Said something like that at least when you can beat this respectable person completely. Were you not knocked out a moments ago just with one hit-nou?」

「Nugugugu!!」

Zett. Look at the reality. Although it"s not like I don"t understand your feelings.

「If what you said is true and you came out from the ruins, wouldn"t be bad if you can"t protect this place?」

「Yes, it"s like you said」

「I see. That means that you want to hear what would be our next move?」

「Correct. We planned to move around with the ruins as our headquarters, that"s why I wanted to avoid being deprived of it from any particular power. However, when I came here…」

「You found that a village was built around the ruins?」

「Indeed. Depending on what you do, our actions will also change」

「Oh? But I thought there were only these two actions, fleeing and perish or protecting this town to the end and perish?」

「You are not completely wrong. But you left these two out, building a country, or we hide in our base and live in peace, isn"t that right?」

When I said so, the elder stared at me in wonder and then laughed from the bottom of her heart.

「Uhyahyahya!! I"m sorry. I never thought of finding something really funny that could make me laugh from the bottom of my heart-nou」

「It"s no joke, I meant it」

「I fully know that. That"s why I thought it was interesting-ja. I thought the village would not perish if you were to protect it, but it seems that I grow too old. I was too conservative-jana. Looking at your power, such an answer it"s to be expected」

Once she stopped talking, the elder looks at the face of each of us.

「Umu. No matter how I look at you, it"s not the everyday magic you see here. Certainly, it"s not impossible to create a country」

「You don"t have to force yourself. You can always live safely inside of our base」

Rather, that"s what I want for them too.

No matter how you think about it, they would be only a hindrance.

「No, the least we can do is lend a hand to you outsiders if you are going to protect this place. I mean, we still have the pride to have been able to protect this land so far」

As I expectedー. There is such a thing, pride.

Rather, n.o.body would let a stranger protect his village suddenly.

「For the time being, I will try to talk with the people about our next course of action. Besides, It seems like you people have things to attend-janou. I let you all be then, and I"ll give you a formal response tomorrow」

After saying that, the elder took her people with them and went away.

Though I said that, we are in the middle of the village, that"s why there is almost no one who has not partic.i.p.ated in the talk with the exception of the ones who started with the reconstruction of the village.

「Fuu, for the time being, we ended our talk」

Mauve sat down, saying he was tired.

「But you didn"t talk at all」

「But what shall we do from now on?」

Just when I tried to tsukkomi Mauve, Ria asks a question.

「For now, we"ll be postponing the matters about the village and the Zilba empire captives. At least until we get our answer tomorrow. Well, with how the conversation flowed, I"m sure we"ll have to protect the village」

「Right. I don"t like to leave them behind after we saved them」

「Me too. I think the same」

So, Riel and Tori are in favor of protecting everyone in that village?

Well, if you think about what we have to do in the new continent, human resources are necessary…

「…The problem here is how the Zilba empire will move」

Indeed, it"s like Kaya said. That"s the biggest problem.

「Tomorrow"s response will determine the movement of the Zilba empire. It will dictate how fast their army will come」

「Of course, that"s to be expected. We just need to blow away an enemy like that」

「…I don"t want to agree with Mauve, but yes, it will be like that」

「Well, I think the same」

Though Mauve said an idiotic thing, it"s like Raiya and Kasu said, either way, we don"t have any other choice but to repel the incoming enemy.

It"s not like we have no way to negotiate, but…

「Even if we want to negotiate, we have captured their soldiers」

「…Indeed. If they bring a similar force, then there is no room for negotiation…」

Shera and Labiris said that having negotiations are almost impossible given the current situation.

As I expectedー. If a soldier is caught in a village with no apparent power, they would use all their strength to crush it.

For the sake of their faces!!

Negotiations will only happen after a few fights…

In short, we have to make them realize our power.

Until then, we have no choice but to fight a troublesome fight…

「In that case, we cannot use the unlimited dungeon power supply at this stage, regardless of how the village responds… So, shouldn"t we rush the investigation we had planned and start gathering military power?」

It"s like Zargis said, to spread the dungeon and make a lot of traps and even to crush them with an army of monsters, first we must investigate the magic exhaustion problem and also how the attenuation of the magic power would affect our strength since such a thing it would cause problems later on.

「Does the preparation of military strength takes precedence over the investigation?」

「That"s right. Rather than investigating the magic exhaustion problem, it would be better to search for monsters capable of defending and increase our strength. Even bringing supplies is just a time-consuming task」

As expected~. I was thinking of making the monsters bring the supplies with them, but that thought stopped the first moment it crossed my mind since I don"t know what will happen to them with the exhaustion of the magic, but either way, I will have to move forward my plan and start gathering numbers.

Since it seems that there is going to be a war right away.

And I just wanted to live quietly in this new continent…