Lilith let out a loud sigh of relief, feeling the familiar, soothing warmth of Mina's magic spread across her wounded wings. She glanced at her HP bar, which was rising before her eyes, as the stinging of the wounds gave way to the pleasant tingling of regeneration.
Meanwhile, the room was filled with Kala's booming laughter. The succubus couldn't stop laughing at her Monarch's panic, her ample bust in human form bouncing rhythmically with each burst of mirth. Mina, focused on the healing, kept glancing at Kala's "attributes" and huffing with envy, clearly dissatisfied with the comparison of their sizes.
Lysandra, being the only one maintaining a shred of gravity, placed a cool hand on Lilith's shoulder.
"Calm down, Lilith," she said in a quiet, composed voice. "Beginner Anti-Magic is an active skill. For it to work, you must consciously invoke it at the moment of danger. Until you do, magic will affect you normally."
Lysandra smiled crookedly, adding: "Besides, the system rarely classifies healing as an attack directed 'against' someone."
Lilith felt her cheeks burn with shame. Indeed, she had acted like a panicked child who had received a new toy for the first time and was afraid she had broken it. She nodded, trying to regain her dignity.
"Done!" Mina squeaked, withdrawing her hands.
Seeing her big, puppy-dog eyes, Lilith couldn't help herself. She smiled warmly and patted the little one on the head. "Good job. You are a very good girl, Mina."
Mina squeaked with joy and immediately snuggled into Lilith, purring with contentment. However, the idyll did not last long. Kala snorted jealously, grabbed Mina by the collar, and unceremoniously pulled her away from Lilith.
"Hey! I wasn't finished hugg… !" Mina started to scream, but she didn't get to finish.
Kala quickly grabbed her tongue and pulled it hard, silencing the girl in a single second. "We haven't finished our 'regeneration' yet, brat," Kala murmured with a predatory glint in her eye.
Lilith, seeing this scene, felt her embarrassment rising again. The images she had encountered when bursting in without knocking returned with double force. "I... I'll just go now," she stammered, backing toward the door.
"You can join us, Lilith," Lysandra suggested with a devious smile, sliding her hand over her hip. "There's enough room for everyone."
"No!" Lilith blurted out faster than she intended. "I have to... uh... check the gold status! And the giga potatoes! The work won't do itself!"
She turned on her heel and almost ran out of the room. The last thing she saw was Kala, who was playing with the cheeks of a drooling Mina with wild satisfaction, holding her extended tongue, and Lysandra, who gracefully settled on Kala's lap, sinking her hands into her massive breasts.
"Have fun!" Lilith threw out, closing the door behind her and leaning against it in the corridor.
Her heart was beating fast, and her head was in a whirl. Owning an army of succubi was definitely more... complicated than she had assumed at the start of this game.
***
The next day at dawn, Lilith stood on the balcony of her castle, looking at the fields that were now more full of life than ever. The Giga Potatoes, fueled by the spirit fields, were nearly ready for harvest.
Because the Monarch had increased the number of used fields and acquired a gargantuan amount of seeds, the upcoming harvest promised to be more than double the previous one.
After building the powerful castle, evolving the Bone House into the Crypt of the Eternal Legion, and erecting the murderous Obelisks, Lilith's treasury was empty, causing her almost physical pain. However, the sight of the earth bursting with tubers improved her mood in the blink of an eye.
"There are two main sources of income," she murmured to herself, adjusting her black hair. "War spoils are flashy, but food sales are the foundation of my empire."
She quickly calculated the numbers in her head. If one ignored the rewards for killing heroes and counted the pure profit from raw gold, farming beat everything by a mile. The current total income from food alone was approaching a staggering 20,000 gold pieces. And yet, her spirit fields were not even fully utilized!
Lilith burst into a sudden, manic laugh as she began listing a new batch of goods on the market.
"Hahaha! This is business!" she called out, sliding the bars on the trade interface. "This time I'm selling batches of 40 kg, not 50 kg, and for 12 gold pieces! 10 kg less product, and the price is 2 pieces higher! The market loves me!"
It resulted from a simple, ruthless logic: other Demon Kings were also developing dynamically, building armies and fortifications, causing the demand for food to grow at an alarming rate. Lilith, as one of the few, understood that instead of just fighting, it was worth feeding those who fight.
She looked at her current gold counter. After paying all current costs and new investments, she had 4,783 gold pieces at her disposal to spend as she pleased - and that was before selling her largest batch of giga potatoes.
"My economic situation is simply great," she whispered with predatory satisfaction, observing the small green dots moving across the fields from above.
Those were her goblins. They worked persistently, unaware of how much value they represented to their mistress. Lilith leaned over the balustrade, and her eyes burned with greed.
"Who said goblins were the worst and ugliest creatures in fantasy literature?" she chuckled under her breath, covering her mouth with her hand. "They aren't monsters... they are my damn little green money trees! Every move they make is gold! Hahaha!"
She imagined how, with such capital, she would soon flood the market with more tons of food, becoming not only a powerful Monarch but the chief accountant of this world, enjoying tons of gold.
Lilith stretched lazily, feeling her spine pop with satisfaction, but after a moment her face hardened slightly as she looked at the operating cost summary.
"Development is a double-edged sword, though," she sighed, massaging her temples. "Once, maintaining my bony minions cost a ridiculous pittance, and now? The Crypt of the Eternal Legion alone devours 300 gold coins a day just to function."
She paused for a moment, looking out the window at her growing empire. Gigantic financial expenditures were the price for a power that no one could ignore. Every new skeleton, every obelisk, and every upgraded structure was like an insatiable beast that had to be constantly fed with gold.
If not for her agricultural gold mine, she would have had to declare bankruptcy long ago.
"Oh well, time to head down and discuss our next move with the girls," she murmured, putting on a confident face. "Since I have the funds, it would be a waste to let them sit idle in the treasury."
She walked out of the room with a predatory smile. She couldn't wait to meet Graaz. The sight of that loyal goblin handing over another gigantic batch of Giga Potatoes was now more beautiful to her than any sunset. Every bag of vegetables that hit the market meant more strength, more troops, and - most importantly - more luxury in her dark castle.
Walking down the stairs, Lilith hummed a joyful tune to herself, feeling that the Valley of Eternal Darkness was slowly becoming the economic center of this world, and she herself... its ruthless CEO.
"I should probably also find some subordinates to clean and look after this castle..." Lilith thought, looking at the empty corridors and the dust slowly settling on the frames of the great windows.
***
Not far from the Valley of Darkness, hidden in the dense forests, lay a small village inhabited by Rabbits. Although the race was famous for intelligence and agility, their physical weakness pushed them to the bottom of the food chain.
In many ways, their situation was worse than that of the goblins - while the green-skinned creatures aroused revulsion, the girls of the rabbit race were considered exceptionally beautiful. Their delicate features and slender figures made hunting them a low-risk, high-profit occupation for slave traders.
Elina didn't have much luck. Reborn in this world, she became an ordinary, defenseless rabbit. As the only Heroine in this nameless village, she fed on dreams of an epic adventure.
She thought she would lead her people to glory, defeat hordes of monsters, and eventually behead some Demon King, becoming a legend.
Reality, however, brutally verified those plans.