I looked down at the reports. Ever since things with the Duchess went down, things back home have been hectic. I wished that I had not had to recruit the Duchess when I did. It delayed movements and plans, and the Dragonic were clearly spreading rumors about the Duchess.
The rumors were stupid; anyone educated would quickly see through them, and the elites of our society clearly saw through them with just a thought. Anyone could see that this defection would do more damage reputationally to the Empire when they least needed it. It would hurt their core interests, especially after they just lost their invincible image.
The cut to the Empire was deep, profound, and would take over a century to recover from at a minimum, and it had inflicted harm that might never be recovered from. Losing the land was nowhere near the loss they made it out to be, especially with that damn spell continuing to turn Border City into a place where undead often roamed. They sent shivers down people's spines and created a sense of insecurity among the populace.
The Elite army was doing wonders with keeping them in check, and after the year that we had been at the border city, people were now trusting us more than ever. They would report the undead without fear of retribution. It was a fantastic change in circumstances that made protecting the populace much easier.
But the rumors back in the homeland were creating an issue because everyone could understand what a fake A-ranked defector could mean.
IT was an assault, suddenly killing an entire city before other A-rankers could respond.
Which meant you might be dead before you even know it.
None of that mattered because there was no way the Duchess was not sincere. The Empire would never do this kind of damage to itself, sending an A-ranker to us to stab us in the back. Which made me lament the massive issue with Education that the Beast-kin Empre lacked.
If this happened a dozen years from now, once I started to sink my teeth into the population and educated them on how to think properly, this would never be an issue. Instead, the Dragonic were looking to bite into my growing power and the increasing hatred towards their tribe from their lack of financial assistance, which the Bunny-kin had been spreading.
That made me think about how to deal with all of these issues. The time was coming to end this war. The Empire wanted to sign the deal, and people back home wanted their tribe members back. It was something that I would have to deal with soon. Delaying much longer would mean leaving an opening to the Dragonic that they could cash in on.
Isabelle was another who was looking to bring her people back. The barbarian army did not have anything to sink their teeth into, and if not for the Logistics army, they would have died standing here. Barbarian armies tended to continue sinking their teeth into things to feed themselves and keep up morale, but while sitting on their hands, they had nothing to do.
That meant also that a lot were sexually active with each other; if not for the Bunny-kin helping with birth control spells, things would have been dire with how many we would lose to maternity leave. But with that, morale was going to hit a cliff soon, and if I went back to war, I would be fighting a war that was not as wanted.
With us taking a massive chunk out of the Empire and slapping them across the face to the entire continent, people were satiated now and no longer AS blood thirsty.
They still wanted more blood, but they were happy with what they had gotten. People's minds had cleared, although they still hated the Empire for enslaving their people. But now, slaves and the families of abducted people were coming back to the Beast-kin nation.
But that also created another host of issues for the tribes, meaning I had to hurry up. Things would get progressively worse, and if the Empire developed its spine when our morale was shot, that would mean we would lose our front.
I had other things to stop that, but a Barbarian army was just unreliable for morale. It was something I desperately wanted to abandon as a military system. Although the greatest military conquest in my past world had used the Barbairan system, they were a plague, and the destruction it caused to civilization was one that went down through generations.
In fact, there was a very high chance that my previous body had been related to them in my past life.
I could only chuckle at that thought as I could see some ties to me in Gangus khan at this time, which reminded me of another reason that I had not wanted to pull back from the war with the Empire. It was supporting the growth and building of my City.
The city I was building back in the homeland was a pit of gold. It needed more and more poured into it, and a constant furnace of gold had stoked the flames of that civilization-building attempt. With the cessation of war with the Empire, the tailors and small military-industrial project I was building would come to an end.
That meant I would need to change over to a civilian industry model, which would be significantly beneficial. The problem was that I was developing under a Total War model with feeding bodies into the war model, and now, many of those things would no longer be needed. Or I should say not as needed. I would continue to insist on a military budget, and I was confident in talking the Bunny-kin Elders into keeping the Elite Army and the Logistics Army funding, although it would not be as much as it is now.
Still, the funding of that city would soon need to change models, and I would ensure the smoothest transition that I could.
If only a war between two other nations had happened.
Well, other than the war between the Northern Beastal Mountains and the Human Kingdom.
A momentary pause went through my head, and I wondered something which had nothing to do with anything else.
In this world, there was a form of Democracy, the Demon Lands, A Tribal one, the Nothren Beast-kin Tribes, and the Beast-kin Nation. Then there were feudal systems, which the Dwarves and humans adopted. Then there was the most problematic one: theocracy, which I had a strong aversion to as a logical person.
There were so many systems of governance here, and all of them were flawed, but each seemed to emphasize strength in some form.
I leaned back and remembered coming from a world where strength reigned supreme; it was no different here than there. It was just here that there were things that no longer allowed the populace to be the ones to dictate terms if they all gathered together.
An A ranker would simply wipe them out.
Which meant if I wanted to change the system that the nation was working with, I must have the A-rankers' consent and enough of them to force the others to agree. That and not attack it and undermine it.
A rankers were the true rulers of this world, although the everyday work was mostly delegated to the B rankers. Or at least in the Demon Lands and the Beast-kin Nation. I was surprised to learn that the Head General in the Empire was an A-ranker, and I knew I should spend more time with the Duchess, but the problem was that I could not show myself around her too much with the Rumors.
Soon, though, I was going to change that as I lived up to one of my promises.
I smirked with that thought, and I sighed.
"Supreme Commander," A Bunny-kin soldier entered, and I looked up at her pink hair and smiled at Florine.
"Hey, Florine, what is up?" I asked.
"Well, two things: the women who have been assigned to head back need you to finish them off before sending them with the Logistics army. You need to do at least twenty-four in the next ten hours so as not to slow down the deployment of the logistics carriages and wagons." Florine said, and my face blanked, and I stood up, remembering my end of the deal.
"Also, Duchess has been requesting to see you," Florine said, and I smiled as I had put Florine as the squad leader in charge of her protection, not that she needed it. It was more to protect members, just in case someone got stupid.
The Duchess Greenwald could have snapped her fingers and killed any would-be assailants.
That did not mean the headache that would come from her doing that would be worth me not just placing a protection squad with her. That brought me back to the reason that the Duchess was looking for me, and I nodded.
"Go ahead and tell her that I will be there tomorrow. I have to do work tonight." I told Florine, and she smiled.
"I would also like some of your time soon, I find myself looking forward to enjoying your company," Florine said, then twisted and showed me her little tail before swinging that ass away in front of me.
My eyes narrowed, but I opened up a rift, and a moment later, I walked through a building filled with human women looking at me with hopeful gazes. They had heard from letters or from people who had gone to the Beast-kin Nation that it was a paradise, and now they wanted that for their families.
I licked my lips and entered the bedroom, pulled down my pants, and a moment later, a beautiful woman entered, and I quickly brought her into a kiss, fixing issues inside her before I engaged with her. This was procreation, not love, and I had her screaming minutes later and cumming all over Doorknocker before sending her knocked up and retrieving another.
Then began the procreation assembly line.
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