Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

As Negris cast a glance at Ange and the one-eyed soldier, he murmured, “You’d better not mess around. Otherwise, the eyeball you have left might be burst, and you shouldn’t have brought the little angel. It’s more noticeable than me. You should’ve let it in.”

Negris had stated earlier that the little angel was adorable and royally dressed, it didn’t even match up with any carriage with less than four white horses.

But it was useless. The little angel wouldn’t listen, and so Ange did not enforce it. See? Now there’s a problem.

Just as the one-eyed soldier was about to raise his dirty hand, a tremendous shout echoed, “Miss!”

Accompanied by earth-shaking footsteps, a Minotaur girl, at least twice the size of an average Minotaur, rumbled over. She ran over to the little angel, heaved her stomach, and pushed the one-eyed soldier to the side.

“Miss! You’re alright! Thank the light, I finally found you! The viscount will be thrilled. I’m the cook, Vania Cook. Do you recognize me?”

The Minotaur girl finished speaking, she glared back and roared, “What, do you intend to touch our viscount’s lady with your dirty hands?!”

The one-eyed soldier flinched and repeatedly shook his head, “No, no! Don’t talk nonsense.”

“Hmph, I didn’t think you’d dare. Miss, let’s go.” And with those words, she took the little angel’s hand.

It’s likely that the little angel had grown accustomed to being around Minotaurs in Witch City. Oddly enough, she quietly let Vania take her hand and they walked towards the city gate.

Negris breathed a sigh of relief and urged Ange to keep up. They hadn’t gone far when they quickly overheard a scream from behind. Looking back, they saw the one-eyed soldier covering his crotch with an embarrassed and angry expression, a wet spot on his trousers.

A moment later, sensing Rogge’s return, Negris hurriedly inquired, “What did you do?”

Rogge calmly replied, “Just chopped off one of his ‘hardening’ tubes.”

They reached the city gate, a pillar shone with a red light, and each person entering the city had to pass through the red light.

Negris muttered, “The Light of True Eye… No wonder they can accurately screen people. Just as I thought, could a simple pat down detect any parasites? Aren’t they afraid that a bug incubator may sneak in? Wait, can you trick the Light of True Eye?”

Rogge replied, “I can’t. It looks like I’ll have to stay outside. You and the lord, take care.”

If it were any other city, Rogge could have snuck in from somewhere else. But this city had already activated its protective shield, so even if Rogge transformed into smoke, he wouldn’t be able to get in.

“Heh, you should tell this city to be careful. Oh, as long as you don’t demolish the city, that’s okay.” The Purple Skeleton Titan was installed in the Temple of Rest and, along with the guardian deity Petersburg and the Ultimate Transformation Technique, was capable of either transforming into Steadfast Locke or Dragon God, both of which could shatter the protective shield.

Every person who passed through the red light, the Light of True Eye, emitted a ‘drip’ sound. When it was Ange’s turn, the light made a dripped sound, but the mage operating the machine behind the pillar peered out and took a serious look at Ange.

Noticing nothing unusual, the mage retreated. Then, catching sight of something, he again peeked out, before finally waving Ange through.

A companion couldn’t help but ask, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. It’s just that this person’s bones are clearer than others’, as though they have no flesh.” The Light of True Eye could see through the flesh, exposing one’s skeleton, and under the Light of True Eye, everyone is a skeleton.

“I see, maybe they’re just skinny. I thought you found a bug or something. Don’t scare yourself for no reason,” the companion said.

Ange and his group entered the city without incident. Vania let go of the little angel’s hand, ruffled her hair roughly, and said, “Alright, little miss, within these walls, you’re safe. You can go find your family now. Be careful. There’re many bad people here. I need to go now, goodbye.”

Having said that, Vania waved her hand carelessly, turned around, and walked away.

Negris said with a sudden realization, “So it turns out she was just a kind-hearted Minotaur girl. Here I thought the little angel was the daughter of some viscount, and she had mistaken her identity.”

After sighing, he found that no one was responding to him. He became downcast and spoke to himself, “Alright, we’re here. Let’s go and deliver the grain first. Anthony has bought a thousand tons of grain, destined for the Anthony Knights. Kvada, what a name…it sounds like his private army. Let’s go. Let’s find the Anthony Knights, deliver the grain, and then collect on Hammer’s bounty.”

At the Anthony Knights’ base, Anthony scratched his thinning hair, sat for a moment, then stood up, pacing around uneasily.

The Knights were facing a food shortage, as they hadn’t anticipated encountering an insect plague when they set out and thus had not packed enough food. Here, they were just guests; there were no preparations made for them, hence no food provided to them.

Despite their pleas for food, they were met with two words: No grain.

There was no budget allocation for them in this city, so being denied food was reasonable. Anthony was preparing to risk a foray outside. Their troops consisted of 400 men but had 500 horses. People could survive missing a meal or two, but horses needed their food.

To his surprise, when he contacted the boss, he was told to wait since the food would be delivered tomorrow.

At the time, he felt like shouting. He did not believe it, though. Could it make it tomorrow?

The nearest grain storage alone was over three days away. Even if one could fly, it was impossible to deliver food for 400 men and 500 horses that quickly. Not to mention the road was full of insects, the food might end up being feed for the insects instead.