Buffer Period

Late July, Year One of Sigmund I, the newly enfeoffed territories of the Southwest Peninsula.

The clamor and chaos on Giant Island finally gradually subsided as the last shipload of refugees was transferred to the coast of the Southwest Peninsula.

More than eight thousand lives rescued from the blood-and-fire purgatory of the Iron Islands received the most timely treatment and the most basic ration supplies under Carnford's efficient administrative system and unsparing allocation of resources, and were temporarily stabilized.

Although more than a dozen gravely wounded people, their injuries too severe for even heaven to reverse, ultimately passed away in sorrow not long after arrival, compared with the horrific casualties on the Iron Islands, this was already a survival rate close to miraculous.

On the shore of Giant Island facing the Iron Islands, people dug a communal grave for these compatriots who had ultimately failed to set foot on the land of new life, and erected a rough granite stele.

An old stonemason who had escaped on one of the ships carved a simple yet heavy inscription onto the stele with trembling but steady hands: "Souls of the Iron Islands return here; the living go on."

After the simple ceremony, the hope of life overcame the grief of death, and the main body of people began moving inland on the Southwest Peninsula, where there was greater development potential.

As the final group of refugees was escorted to their respectively allocated new fiefs, Giant Island and the coastal areas of the Southwest Peninsula, which had been noisy for nearly half a month, finally gradually recovered order. In their place rose cooking smoke from new frontier clearings across the interior, the work chants of felling trees and building houses, and the scent of freshly turned earth.

More than eight thousand mouths to