“That’s everyone.” Henrek declared, looking down at the trail leading to Dryholm from atop the recently constructed watch tower. The final lot of arrivals from Kolob and Wigga were greeted by Utarou who gave them the usual spiel about Monster Girls and Consolidation.
“Yeah… Is everything alright?” Hope asked, noticing the gloomy look in Henrek’s eyes as he surveyed his village.
It used to be a couple of houses in a large ravine, surrounded on all sides by tall hills, with a waterfall feeding the river that flowed through the town, plentiful space for farms, trees and sparse population.
Now with Utarou’s plan in full swing, it was stuffed to the brim with people, every tree had been felled and most of the agriculture had been moved to outside the walls thanks to the monster population being aggressively hunted by Barney and the people of Nihola, all being ‘cooked’ by May.
Turns out the limitations of her skill were quite loose, so long as she had any part in the cooking process the edibility increased 10 fold, and if people prepared the monsters correctly they ended up being completely safe to eat.
So the famine was over, Barney was building hunting lodges in the various caves that used to be infested with all sorts of creatures.
The population was booming.
And Henrek felt conflicted by the changes.
“Nothing… Hey I need to see Mum and Julia still, want to come with?” Henrek asked with a somber smile.
“Absolutely.” Hope said, following Henrek down the ladder.
All the while, Utarou was leading the new villagers to their temporary housing.
“Hey?! Temporary? What the hell! You moved us here without even a house to sleep in?!” One of the men from Wigga shouted, many of the other men folk shouting back.
“I’m the Duke of Dracons, unless you want to leave then it’s Dryholm or nothing! I require more babies to be born so I may locate more useful Legacy Skills for the Monster Girl pla-” Utarou was stopped as he saw May walking around with Barney Junior in her arms and Rhiney at her side.
A bright pink Rhiney.
“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HIM!?” Utarou shouted, running towards May and the baby wyvern.
“I was thinkin’ he’d look cute in pink, plus he had one of them experience points to use so I-” May began before being cut off by Utarou’s screaming.
“NO! Absolutely not! I need you to save every last one of those! AND YOU WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Utarou shouted as one of the elderly people from Kolob wandered towards the graveyard.
“Oh, well I figured I’d see where I was being buried!” The elderly man laughed.
“GRAVEYARD IS OFF LIMITS! It’s filled with ghosts!” Utarou chastised.
“My god, you people are not respecting the plan…” Utarou sighed.
“You ain’t told us a lick of the plan yet.” May huffed, the 5 month old BJ let out a sound of agreement.
“Yeah in’t that right lil Junior…” May cooed, Rhiney letting out a huff of jealousy.
“Left hand doesn’t need to know what the right hand is doing.” Utarou declared.
“You’re just a makin’ it up as you go ain’tchu.” May sighed.
“No!” Utarou retorted indignantly.
…
“H-hi, I’m sorry I haven’t visited much…” Hope gulped as she sat down at the dinner table with Julia, Henrek’s very sickly sister.
She had a gaunt look to her, anorexic, pale white and covered in blankets, her hair was messy and covered much of her thin face.
“Itsh fine… You’ve been busy with my brother right?” Julia smirked as she took a spoonful of Wyvern soup to her mouth, shaking the entire way.
“I told you, we’re not dating…” Henrek groaned.
“Yet.” Hope and Julia said at the same time.
“I don’t like this joke.”
“I’m not joking.” Hope smirked.
“She’sh not joking bro…” Julia added in meekly as Henrek rolled his eyes, Gertrude arriving with some bread she’d baked with the little flour the people of Kolob had been willing to share.
“My goodness all this meat isn’t good for my constitution, I don’t know how those freaks from Nihola lived like this.” Gertrude grumbled, slicing the bread for the table.
“Hey mum, they're helping us out.” Henrek said defensively.
“Honey I know you’re working for that wretched duke but he’ll be busy showing those new invaders around…” Gertrude hissed, grabbing a slice of bread to dip in her meagre portion of wyvern soup.
“W-we found a doctor!” Hope added, desperately trying to change the topic. Julia looked up, dry eyes glimmering slightly.
“Yeah that’s right! Apparently he’s really good.” Henrek exclaimed excitedly.
“Thanksh guysh…” Julia said, avoiding getting her hopes up.
She’d been born sick and she expected to die from sickness.
“WHY DIDN’T YOU PICK THE EXPLOSIVE ENTRANCE LEGACY SKILL?!” Utarou shouted, heard faintly through the walls.
Though with what Utarou may have to change that prediction.