The Demon King is unfathomable

Isn't it common sense that you can't move during the cutscene in Chapter 437?
Guided by the oracle of Saint Karen, a large convoy escorted by a thousand Salvation Army soldiers departed from Sparrowwood Castle and headed towards Wheatfield Village.

This team is mostly composed of villagers from Maitian Village, nearly 900 households, about 5,000 people.

Because the refugees in the camp had been assigned to different areas according to their identification numbers and lived together in entire villages, the departure of this group did not cause any disturbance.

Even when they left, it was the busiest time of morning in the refugee camp.

It is worth mentioning that when the Salvation Army soldiers first told them to return to their original villages, the vast majority of people were unwilling to go back.

Firstly, everyone wanted to be closer to Her Highness the Holy Maiden; secondly, there was visible wheat porridge in the camp, while no one knew the current situation of Wheat Field Village, and they might have to go hungry again if they went back.

Even Brennan found himself in a difficult position with these uncooperative villagers. They were no longer the bandits; he couldn't simply wave his hand and order his men to herd them over like sheep.

Fortunately, the merciful saintess stepped forward once again and persuaded them with a "divine oracle".

"This is the will of the gods. They said that next year, Wheat Field Village will have an unprecedented harvest."

I must say, the Oracle is a really useful tool.

Even Brennan couldn't help but believe that God had really said those words, to the point that escorting refugees home became a highly sought-after job within the Salvation Army.

After all, which rebel army that rises up is not a peasant?

Most of these people no longer have a place to return to, nor do they have families; they are completely unattached.

Since the gods have said that the land will have an unprecedented harvest, it is naturally a good place to settle down.

Old Hank was very lucky.

He used to be a villager in Maitian Village and knew the place so well that he knew the name of every single tree. Naturally, he was included in the first group of people to return home.

He couldn't remember how many years it had been since he left there. The Earl of Sparrowwood Castle had just left a few days ago, but his barons, knights, and nobles had moved to Twilight City long ago and never returned. Otherwise, the Earl wouldn't be hiding in the castle in such a sorry state.

Some of those who broke their oath simply fled to the capital, or to Thunder City in the southern Duchy of Campbell, taking with them the wealth they had plundered from their territories.

Nobles are usually not bound by land; only cattle and sheep are bound to the land beneath their feet.

Of course, this situation will no longer exist in the future.

They no longer have nobles.

It was still the oracle proclaimed by the saint: the son of Saint Sith, pitying the suffering of this land, permitted them to establish a kingdom without nobles, and the army of salvation would not be loyal to any secular king, but only to the devout people of the blessed land.

From now on, they will all be free people, and everything they grow will belong to them. They will only need to pay a tax when they sell to merchants, instead of having to hand over all their produce except for food rations to the lord as before. Only the fruits and vegetables harvested from the "intercropping fields" will truly belong to them.

Because the tax is collected directly from the merchants, it's equivalent to not having to pay any money!
Old Hank was full of confidence in the future, and he felt that even the wind blowing in his face was sweet.

He no longer had to worry about where his next meal would come from, no longer had to wake up hungry in his sleep, and no longer had to be afraid of those soldiers who had once been so arrogant.

Strange to say.

The Salvation Army soldiers who escorted them, many of whom were feared as "green ghosts" just a month ago, have now become a group of people with faith. Old Hank has even grown fond of these young men.

They no longer used foul language; instead, they listened to the saint's teachings.

They would even proactively help elderly people pushing wheelbarrows, women who were too weak to move, hand water bags to thirsty children, and chat with returning migrants about their hopes and dreams.

There is longing for the past, and also longing for the future.

"...I still remember when I was a child, during the best years, the soil along the Benliu River was so black and shiny that you could squeeze oil out of it! Potatoes planted in the spring could be dug up in a whole bunch before autumn! Each one was as big as a fist!"

"One, one nest?! Why can't we do that back home... We're lucky if we can harvest seeds in the fall." Watching his boastful old buddy, the young soldier couldn't help but swallow, his eyes revealing undisguised envy.

The old man smiled and continued.

"This is nothing in Wheatfield Village! Have you ever seen two raspberries as thick as your thumb? We used to be able to bring back a whole basketful after just one trip into the forest! We could never finish them all!"

"So, you're just going to eat raspberries and potatoes?"

"How could that be! When autumn comes, there are so many mushrooms in the forest that you can't pick them all. Every household is busy smoking pork, making sausages, and stuffing cabbages into jars... When winter comes and the first snow falls, our family gathers around the fireplace, stews a pot of sauerkraut and pork knuckle soup, and eats it with freshly baked rye bread... Hey, I bet Her Highness has never tasted that!"

The old man spoke with a nostalgic look on his face, making the young men around him drool, and even the wheat porridge in their mouths lost its flavor.

However, the old man had a melancholy expression on his face when he said this.

That was a long time ago.

In a place where even people can't get enough to eat, how can you find pigs? Not to mention livestock like pigs, cattle, and sheep, even dogs that guard homes and help with hunting are almost extinct in the Duskwood.

Listening to the old man's words, Old Hank's stomach churned, and he couldn't help but miss the taste of the meat soup. He felt his rusty legs regain their strength.

He had been starving for so long that he almost forgot what it was like to live.

However, his initial enthusiasm was quickly dampened by the harsh realities that followed.

They arrived at Maitian Village.

What came into view was not the hometown I longed for, but the devastated ruins.

Half-meter-tall thorns and weeds frantically devoured every inch of land, and the foundations of burned-down houses could be vaguely seen on the black scorched earth. The idyllic pastoral scene seemed to exist only in a dream.

The starving people passing through ate everything edible, and even the inedible was taken away and used as firewood. The only things that survived were bones and thorns that even wild animals would find hard to swallow.

"...Is this Maitian Village?" Standing on the edge of the village, a young man in the returning group muttered to himself in a daze, his hope gradually replaced by despair.

He had been confident that he knew his hometown intimately, but he never imagined that it had become a living hell.

Old Hank remained silent, squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil, rubbed it carefully with his rough fingers, and then let out a sigh.

The land has been abandoned.

As an old farmer who has spent his whole life working the land, he understands what this means better than anyone else.

To replant on this land, they had to first pull out the waist-high weeds, dig out the stubborn roots, and then use animal power... no, they had no animal power, so they could only use their own strength to swing hoes and turn over the rock-solid land little by little.

Only then can the seeds be sown.

This is not a task that can be completed in one or two months. Usually, they need to save enough food for three years before they start cultivating new wasteland.

While restoring these farmlands won't be as difficult as land reclamation, it certainly won't be a task that can be completed in a short period of time.

"too late……"

The old man who had previously described the braised pork knuckle with sauerkraut also sighed, gazing at his hometown so close at hand and muttering to himself, "If we had started preparing last autumn, we might still be in time now."

The Salvation Army soldiers' spirits also sank to rock bottom.

Last autumn...

Back then, the city was still under siege, and whether we could survive was uncertain. Who would have thought about what would happen next year?

What weighed heavily on their hearts was the memory of another divine message the Holy Maiden had given them before her departure—

“You will live and eat with the villagers who are returning home. You must treat them as your brothers and sisters and clear away all obstacles for them. If we miss this year’s spring planting, the promised harvest will not only fail to happen, but we will also face even more serious problems than this year.”

Everyone felt the weight on their shoulders; at that moment, they carried not only their own fate, but also the fate of everyone around them and behind them.

No one wants to go back to the hellish conditions of weeks ago, neither the starving people nor the soldiers...

Just as everyone fell silent, a commotion suddenly came from the distant forest.

They were a group of people wearing dark green cloaks, their faces obscured by the hoods, making it impossible to discern their identities.

The first to spot them was a sentry, who was wondering what they were doing when he saw them take out vine-like canes from their robes and point them toward the sky.

"Halt! Who are you?!" the Salvation Army sentry shouted, about to step forward to see what was going on, when he saw the sky change color.

"...Fire spirits dancing above the molten lava, I beg you for a rain of fire from the heavens..."

The mysterious figure at the head of the group seemed not to see him at all, raising his slender arm and uttering ancient and obscure incantations.

That's Elvish.

The next moment, the gray sky suddenly became even darker, and countless sparks fell from the sky, like burning arrows scattering across the overgrown land!
The sentry was startled and ran back as fast as he could, shouting "Enemy attack!"

He thought he was going to die, but something unexpected happened!
The burning arrows seemed to have eyes, precisely avoiding his escape path and instead landing in the weeds, thorns, and bushes in the fields!
The arrow not only avoided him, but also the crowd not far away. The boiling flames were like a giant, scorching scythe, burning everything in their path to ashes!
The returning migrants screamed in terror, thinking the end of the world was coming, and the uneasy crowd retreated and tried to escape.

The centurion leading the group drew his sword and shouted loudly to the panicked people behind him.

"Do not panic! They are spirits from the River of Rushing, friends of Her Highness the Saintess, divine messengers sent by the divine son 'Flame King' to help us!"

"Their flames won't harm you! They've come to help us!"

The Holy Maiden told him about this "reinforcement," but he never expected that his allies' assistance would come in such a sudden way.

The cloaked figure glanced at the fleeing figure and the noisy crowd in the distance, a mocking smile curving his lips, which were painted with purple lip gloss, before his eyes turned cold as he continued to weave his incantation.

Too weak—

I really don't understand why the Demon King would help them. Is this kind of ally really worth that lord's time and effort?

However, despite being filled with many questions, Helen Moonblade did not take the mission entrusted to her by His Majesty lightly.

Thanks to that emperor, she was able to break through the innate bottleneck and become a gold-level night elf no less powerful than her father, Tyrael!
The flying fire rain was still raging across the vast land, and the noisy heat waves rose up in layers!

Under the combined chanting of 120 adamantite-level night elf mages, the vast expanse of withered yellow surrounding Wheatfield Village faded at a visible speed and was once again stained with black!

After the flames swept through, the earth was plunged into darkness, and the air was filled with the acrid smell of smoke and the stench of grass.

Before everyone could recover from this incredible sight, the night elves, who had all unscrewed the potion bottles and gulped it down, caught their breath, raised their wands again, and began the second round of casting spells.

This time——

They brought down a torrential downpour!

"...Water spirits floating above the atmosphere, I pray that you transform into continuous rain and shower the earth with sweet dew!"

Purple lightning shot into the sky from Helen's raised wand, and a shimmering silver dragon seemed to pass through the dark clouds.

Everyone seemed to hear thunder.

Before long, a torrential downpour came down from the sky, catching everyone completely off guard.

The night elves are fine.

They were well-prepared and came wearing raincoats.

In fact, the Salvation Army and the refugees were also fine; what they longed for most at that moment was undoubtedly the rain that would fall from the sky.

The torrential rain extinguished the last embers on the ground, turning the ashes into muddy water that seeped into the scorched earth.

That was not ordinary rain, but "carbon dioxide-rich rain" infused with air magic.

This is one of the masterpieces of the magical researchers in the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Through in-depth study of the so-called periodic table of elements, they imbued ordinary spells with incredible power. After the rainwater seeps into the soil, it releases the gases contained within, thus loosening the hard earth to some extent.

While this cannot completely replace hoes and plows, it can at least make land reclamation work easier.

The spell has ended.

The land outside Maitian Village has been completely transformed.

Helen put away her wand, nodded to her sister Sherry standing beside her, and led the night elves behind her back into the shadows of the forest.

They had practiced this spellcasting process countless times on the continent of Gana, and using it was as easy as breathing.

Soon they would ride the elk to the next village and repeat the same thing.

This is a mission given to them by the Demon Lord; they need to represent the Great Tomb of Nazarick and ensure that the Salvation Army's spring planting plan proceeds smoothly...

"They're gone..." Old Hank murmured to himself, gazing in the direction the river spirits had left.

The spirits of the rushing river... He had always thought it was just a legend, but he never imagined they really existed!

Just as he was so moved that he couldn't help but shed tears, another clattering sound came from the forest, as if bones were colliding.

Upon seeing the situation in the forest, the expressions of the people who were just immersed in joy changed instantly.

The centurion, in particular, stared wide-eyed and cried out in alarm.

"Dead, undead?!"

Generally speaking, undead will only march in groups when a necromancer is nearby.

They usually roam the mountains and fields unconsciously, and are not even as dangerous as jackals.

The centurion couldn't help but swallow hard. There were at least two thousand undead coming from the forest, and many of them exuded an extremely terrifying aura!

Even disregarding the necromancer lurking in the shadows, he didn't have much of a chance of winning with his men...

Just as everyone was in a panic, a small, green thing suddenly jumped out.

He looked exactly like a goblin, sitting on a metal machine that was emitting black smoke.

When the crowd saw him, he was waving his arms and shouting at them.

"Put down your weapons, and don't point them at your allies! They are not undead! They are... holy spirits summoned by the Holy Light! If you don't believe me, shine the Holy Light on them and you'll see!"

The visitor was none other than Oak from Oak Magic Workshop, a goblin that Miss Mia had bought from the slave market in the Demon City a long, long time ago and given to the Demon King.

However, since the greener the goblin's skin, the nobler it is, and the purer its bloodline, the gray-skinned goblin is like an anomaly. It is only because it understands rune technology that it is sold at a higher price.

The crowd paused for a moment, lowered their weapons, and exchanged bewildered glances.

"Holy, Holy Spirit?"

"what is that?"

They had never heard such a bizarre claim before!

Of course, this was the first time they had ever seen goblins in the Dusk Province, so much so that they couldn't be sure if these were actually goblins.

In the Wanren Mountains, ratmen and dwarves are the most common alien races, and further towards the Duchy of Campbell, there are also lizardmen.

Goblins are commonly found in the Kingdom of Rhodes, the northern wasteland where the Academy is located, and the New World, among other regions.

"...How about we try using Holy Light?"

"Good idea, can you do it?"

"Are you kidding me... If I knew that stuff, would I be here swinging a hoe at you?"

Several Salvation Army soldiers exchanged glances and whispered among themselves.

Their centurion didn't speak, but just stood there with a strange expression.

Could the reinforcements Her Highness mentioned be these guys?

Holy Spirit...

That sounds really weird.

Seeing that the humans still seemed unable to accept it, Oak patiently continued to shout.

"Alright, to tell you the truth, they are your ancestors! They saw you suffering, so they begged the Divine Child to let them return to the human world. Don't let their good intentions go to waste!"

"Anyway, never mind what they are, they'll help us plow the land and use the machinery!"

If it weren't for His Majesty the Demon King's request, he wouldn't bother wasting so much time talking to these humans.

Ancestor, ancestor? !
My grandfather??
Old Hank was startled, and his gaze towards the group of skeletons instantly changed.

He remembered that his grandfather was also named Hank, and he inherited his name from his grandfather.

So... there's an old Hank over there too?
It's not just him.

The surrounding villagers were the same, their faces showing a mixture of joy and fear. They were joyful that their ancestors still remembered them, but fearful that these ancestors would break them apart while working.

That's incredibly blasphemous!

The centurion looked hesitantly at the short man in front of him, feeling that he resembled a goblin, but he was too embarrassed to ask.

But what matters now is not what he is, but what they need to do right now.

He walked up to the guy who looked like a goblin, stared at him, and whispered something.

"...This is a task assigned by Her Highness the Holy Maiden. Can we really entrust it to them?"

"Saintess?! Ah... No problem, it'll do!" Oak's mouth dropped open in astonishment.

When did Miss Padridge suddenly have another rival, and a saint of the Church at that?!

But wait—

The Demon King has even corrupted the Church's saintess, doesn't that mean... the corruption of the Great Tomb of Nazarick has spread to the Holy City?!

Oak was instantly thrilled, even more so than when he heard that his young lady had become the mistress of the Great Tomb.

This is fantastic news!
Looking at the somewhat abnormal little creature, the centurion hesitated but still nodded reluctantly.

There's nothing I can do if you don't nod.

His soldiers were good at dealing with ordinary bandits, but he wasn't so sure they could handle this group of undead.

Besides, if they really had ill intentions, there would be no need to waste words with him; they should have made their move just now.

"Since Your Highness is aware of this matter, I will not inquire further..."

Oak: "That's right, that's right, shut your mouths, humans! You have so many questions! What you need to do now is send your people to follow our tractors and sow the seeds! Also, send some men to the riverbank; our engineers have been waiting there for a long time! You should have arrived yesterday!"

The centurion was completely dumbfounded by the rebuttal, and it took him a while to finally manage to utter a single sentence.

"A tractor?! What's that...?"

"You'll find out what that is soon enough! Forgive my bluntness, but the humans in Thunder County are much smarter than you!"

Oak doesn't hold back his sharp tongue.

As a pet even weaker than Alakdo, he could only find a sense of superiority from these even weaker human creatures. Back in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, he didn't even dare to mess with Alakdo.

Just as he turned to leave, the human centurion suddenly called him back.

"Wait a moment."

Oak: "What's wrong?! What's wrong now?! Can't you just finish what you're saying?!"

Ignoring the noisy voice, the centurion stared at him suspiciously and asked in an uncertain voice.

"You are... a goblin?"

Oak's eyes widened.

Of course he is.

But the Demon King forbids him to be one.

The first thing that person said when giving him instructions was—he must not let the people of Twilight Province see through his goblin identity, or he would be in big trouble.

"Goblin?! Which eye of yours saw me as a goblin? I...I'm a gnome!"

They were goblins.

The centurion breathed a sigh of relief, smiled at the furious Oak, and apologized.

"Sorry... I thought you were a goblin."

"Hahahaha! You're really joking!" Oak laughed awkwardly, cursing the damn human in his mind.

"My name is Luke, what's yours—"

"Ook! By the way, your name is awful!"

The centurion looked at the irritable little thing with a strange expression.

There's no difference...

It's just one syllable short.

Not far away, the ghost sitting on the tractor yawned, looked at his good brother beside him, and made a creaking sound.

When can we start?

"I don't know! I just hope these NPCs hurry up and stop dawdling!"

Just as the two were talking, another undead brother standing not far away muttered a curse.

"Damn it! Why can't I move my legs?"

A veteran player standing nearby made a joke.

"Are you new here? Isn't it common sense that you can't move during cutscenes?"

"@%#!"

(End of this chapter)