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“Nothing major happened while I was gone, right? Is everyone okay?”

“We’re… fine. No casualties.” He answered sheepishly while avoiding eye contact with the lioness.

“That’s great. In that case, it’s time to head back to the hot spring inn. But before that, there’s somewhere we need to visit.”

I tactfully pretended not to notice his little exchange with the lioness, and had the lioness lead the way instead.

Naturally, the place I was referring to was the Shamanta Trade Center, where there were still some survivors I had to pick up before heading back to the inn.

With the lioness leading the way, any undead who dared to even show as much as a strand of hair on their head were instantly swatted to death. Whether they were skeletal beasts or zombies, none lasted more than a tenth of a second.

We travelled in a direct line towards the trade center, rescued the survivors holed up there, then left in the direction of the inn.

“I’m back!”

I called out excitedly while retracting my wings as I descended from the skies into the inn’s courtyard.

A green-haired girl was the first to look up and spot me. Bitong’s eyes narrowed for a second before she spread her hands out and ran towards me. “Welcome back!”

“Sis… you don’t have to pinch my face everytime we meet…”

“His Highness is back? Welcome back, your Highness.”

“Big brother!”

Upon hearing my voice, Lixiang and Qiaoqiao rushed out of the room they were resting in.

“You guys…”

“Hey, you two, behave yourselves!”

“Qiaoqiao is talking to her big brother right now, can those two older sisters over there have the self-awareness to give us some privacy?”

“Can’t you see that his Highness is in pain? Loosen your grip, right now, before his Highness starts hating you.”

“The one who should be letting go is you two! Qiaoqiao, let go this instant! And Lixiang, too…”

“But Qiaoqiao hasn’t seen big brother for a whole day, Qiaoqiao doesn’t want to let go! Why must sister Bitong always separate the two of us? Bad sister!”

“Hmph, harems…” Floater passed by us at that instant, then left after a derisive snort.

“Stop fighting for a second… I brought a lot of survivors with me this time… now be good, and stop tugging on my clothes!” I finally raised my voice. “We can talk about this later, but right now, I have important matters to take care of!”

“Okay…” Startled out of their willingfulness, the girls obediently, but unwillingly, let go of me.

Phew… saved at last…

Now that the girls were settled down, I began recounting what happened throughout the day.

“So we have almost a hundred survivors joining us?” Bitong was the first to grab the crux of the situation, as always. “Seems like lodging will have to be the first problem we solve. Thankfully, the inn has quite a number of empty rooms. But the night patrols have to be adjusted as well…”

“Your Highness, have there been any sightings of other alchemical factories?” Lixiang’s eyes glowed with anticipation, eagerly awaiting a chance to show her skills once more.

Unfortunately, all she got was a confused look from me. “Alchemical factory?”

“An alchemical factory is where you manufacture magical tools.” Lixiang answered seriously.

“So you mean a weapons factory where they manufacture exosuits…”

“An alchemical factory, not a scientific one.”

“Fine, fine.” While Lixiang might seem like an introvert, she was actually quite competitive. Her goal had always been to prove her worth and secure herself a leading position in our team. To be exact, she wanted to prove herself to me and secure her place in my heart.

“We can talk about that later, the survivors will be here soon.” I said to Lixiang while patting Qiaoqiao on the head. Ambushed by the legendary head pat, all the little girl could do was close her eyes and enjoy the patting silently.

I had the girls prepare the area for the survivors. In the meantime, I grabbed Floater along as a welcoming squad for the survivors who were barely a kilometer away now.

Upon arrival, the survivors were immediately greeted by a conspicuously large, black, and downright ghastly looking monster made out of bones. Which had the unfortunate effect of scaring some of the more timid survivors.

Naturally, I explained to them that it was already dead.

The arrival of new survivors was great news for everyone, in general. At the very least, it showed that other humans were still alive in the city… as long as one held hope, all was not lost.

The time now was nearing seven in the evening. Dinner was handled by the survivors from the cafe, and I took this opportunity to have the two officers, Ouyang Huiren and Sima Junmo, gather in the room I was staying in temporarily for a quick meeting.

Other than the three of us, Lixiang and Floater were in attendance as well.

Bitong and Qiaoqiao were busy preparing dinner and allocating the rooms.

“Ahem, I called everyone here to discuss the matter of night patrols.”

Ouyang had 26 soldiers under him, 27 if the count included himself. Sima Junmo had 4 other soldiers under him; those were the survivors left in his squad. Adding on Floater, the ace pilot, we had over 30 soldiers at our disposal.

They weren’t much in the grand scheme of things, but more than sufficient for the purposes of self-protection.

Those unpredictable ghosts were a problem, but with an unending supply of talismans, they shouldn’t cause too much trouble.

“Night patrols shouldn’t be a problem with our current numbers. I had a quick look just now. We have over 30 soldiers, and not that many survivors to look after. As long as we keep them all situated within the same vicinity, patrolling shouldn’t be hard.” Sima Junmo was the first to state his opinions. Having done that, he gave me a wink. “Lady Mo Ke, how should the teams be split up?”

“I have no opinions on this matter, do you guys have any suggestions?”

As I said, I had no experience in matters of the army, so it was best to seek their advice.

“Barring any need for exploration in the day, two shifts should suffice.” Of the two, Ouyang Huiren had more experience with my current strength, thus he made his suggestions accordingly. “The goal should be to ensure Lady Mo Ke’s rest time.”

Ghosts were afraid of daylight, excluding some special circumstances, their activity would be limited to the period from ten till daylight.

Patrols were just to ensure that there weren’t any other undead ambushes. The sudden increase in survivors was the main reason why we couldn’t just rely on talismans as we did before.

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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