Wrapping up the aftermath

Misty Mountains, Orc Town.

By then, the Orc King had received word of the defeat. His broad, fleshy face was full of anger and resentment as he sat dejectedly on his throne in the center of Orc Town. Not a single half-orc dared come within ten meters of him.

He no longer had the heart to punish the bodyguards who had fled back. The defeat had cost him dearly, and he could already foresee plenty of trouble.

He wondered whether he should launch another attack to salvage his reputation, which had been trampled into the dirt.

He also knew that would be difficult. The returning half-orcs would spread stories throughout their tribes, exaggerating the enemy's terrifying strength many times over. Raising another army so soon would cost him dearly, and even if he scraped one together, they would have little appetite for battle. He was not Sauron; he had no magic that could drive his followers into a frenzy.

Besides, nearly two hundred wargs had died in succession, and the pack leader was already reluctant to cooperate with him. Forming another force of warg riders would not be so easy in the future.

Most important of all was the appearance of the great eagles. They and the Orc King were old enemies. The great eagles often attacked half-orcs in the Misty Mountains and disrupted their plans, while the Orc King could do nothing about them. But he knew the great eagles were on bad terms with the humans of Wilderland, so he had thought they would not appear this time. For some unknown reason, however, they had shown up yet again to ruin his plans, leaving him furious, resentful, and just a little helpless.

In the end, the Orc King abandoned his plan to attack Allen again. If he lost another battle, the situation would truly spiral beyond his control. Some half-orc tribes had already openly declared that they would no longer pay him tribute, and he needed to deal with that trouble first. At that thought, the corpulent Orc King shifted his backside after his long stretch of sitting and drew a deep breath.

Then a sigh echoed for a long time through the cavernous emptiness of Orc Town.

The effects of a war did not cease the instant it ended. There was still plenty of work to be done in its aftermath.

Allen collected many weapons and pieces of equipment left behind by the half-orcs on the battlefield. The ordinary half-orcs had carried nothing but absolute junk.

The equipment worn by the warg riders, however, was rather more impressive. Allen thought many of their weapons looked like dwarven work. They were all decent pieces of equipment.

Allen had everything gathered up. Once he had blacksmiths of his own, he would leave it to them to decide whether to repair the equipment or melt it down and forge it anew.

Leaving aside those who had no family, Allen promised that he would support the children of those killed in battle until they reached adulthood. He also provided their families with a large, one-time payment of grain and a certain sum of denars as compensation for the warriors' deaths. He even had this pledge inscribed above his seat in the lord's longhouse.

"For all who die fighting for me, I shall provide for their families. After my death, my descendants shall also honor this oath."

Somewhat embarrassingly, Allen could read neither the script of Calradia nor that of Middle-earth. Jeremus and Doris carved the inscription together.

Only then could the aftermath of the war truly be considered settled. The village finally enjoyed a genuinely peaceful life. With great eagles bringing news from time to time, Allen no longer had to worry about a large force of half-orcs suddenly attacking the village, and he had more energy to devote to its development.

Under the guidance of those in charge, the villagers settled into a thriving, productive life. Through everyone's efforts, numerous houses and roads were built according to Artimenner's plans. The lord's longhouse was finished, and the perimeter wall was extended considerably farther outward. The place finally looked like a proper village. After careful consideration, Allen discarded a host of elegant names and decided to call it Wilderness Village. Once it developed further, he could rename it Wilderness Town or Wilderness City, making clear his intention to put down roots here.

Soon afterward, Carl told Allen that she had learned from Doris that it was spring, with another month to go before summer. If they hurried, they still had time to plant a crop. Allen thought she made a good point. They could not afford to waste time developing agriculture.

So Allen ordered Carl to lead the villagers in clearing the surrounding wasteland. The forest dwellers had little experience with this work, but for the Rhodoks, it was very straightforward.

Carl first led the villagers out with sickles to cut a series of firebreaks through the land they intended to clear. They dried the cut grass, spread some of it over the grassland enclosed by the firebreaks, and set it alight. Wherever the grass resisted burning, they kept feeding dry wood and grass into the flames. Once the heat dried out the surrounding green grass, it naturally burned away. With the firebreaks containing the blaze, there was no need to worry about it getting out of control.

After the fire died out, they used hoes and other farming tools to loosen the earth, mixing the soil with the ash left by the burned vegetation. Finally, they planted wheat in the newly cleared fields.

Carl also assigned people specifically to collect everyone's daily waste and pile it together with green grass and soil to make compost, which could be used on the fields the following year.

Of course, Allen had no hand in any of this. He wandered around the village every day, with most of his work consisting of issuing orders and making decisions. For someone with his extensive theoretical knowledge, such tasks posed almost no difficulty. As a result, he had so much free time that Ymira was tempted to hand him some of her own work.

With Otta having set a good example, people from three more villages came to seek Allen's protection in the period following the battle. Allen happily agreed. He called a meeting specifically with the leaders of all four villages, including Otta's, to explain the obligations and responsibilities of both sides.

Several matters were settled at the meeting. For their safety, everyone would have to move into Wilderness Village. That would make it easier to gather their strength when danger arose and resist threats from half-orcs or anything else.

As for everyday administration, Allen would not interfere with their internal affairs for the time being. In cases such as brawls or petty theft, they already had traditional rules under which they could impose punishments they themselves accepted. As the village developed, appropriate laws would eventually be introduced, but not anytime soon.

As for their obligations, they would give Allen one-quarter of all their income and answer his summons when needed, whether to address security concerns or carry out construction work. In return, Allen had to ensure that they had the basic necessities to survive natural or man-made disasters-in short, that they would not starve.

Of course, there were many other details. For example, although Allen would not pay them wages when he called them up, he would feed them. He would also provide plenty of farming tools free of charge so they could clear land, though they would have to compensate him for any they broke, and so on.

In short, Allen did not seize all authority for himself right from the start, nor did he want to. He believed that if he did well enough, the villagers would naturally obey his orders. If he did not, what was wrong with them seeking a better place to live?

Besides, there were not many people for him to govern. For now, they could do little beyond farming and hunting; even commerce was lacking. Did they really need such precisely defined laws and regulations?

If he established a town in the future, he would naturally put appropriate laws in place to govern it. For now, Allen decided not to bother.

And so, the population under Allen's authority rose to over a thousand. When necessary, he could recruit a little over a hundred additional warriors on top of his existing force. Although they wore armor more than a century old and wielded crude weapons, they were skilled with great axes and bows, and all were excellent hunters, so their fighting ability was not particularly poor. Of course, they spent most of their ordinary days hunting or working in the fields.

Allen's daily routine now consisted of exercising and chatting with the Nord Royal Guards, going on patrol with the Swadia Knights, and working alongside the villagers in the fields to keep abreast of their needs. Sometimes he climbed Carl Rock to take in the surrounding scenery. It was worth mentioning that the Lonely Mountain really could not be seen from there.

Recently, while chatting with the soldiers, Allen learned that many of them wanted somewhere to drink and talk. At present, they had nowhere to spend their wages. They hoped he could open a tavern or something similar, where they could enjoy a cheerful conversation and unwind when they were off guard duty.

After giving it some thought, Allen also felt it was time to establish a few businesses and recover some of the denars he had paid out.

For this purpose, Allen sought out Artimenner to discuss where to put the tavern. With a restrained smile, Artimenner led him straight to the edge of a large vacant plot and explained that the entire area had been reserved for commercial buildings. A general store, tavern, clothing shop, and inn could all be built there. Because of its particular requirements, he had placed the smithy elsewhere.

Allen praised Artimenner lavishly, doubled his wages for the week, and asked him to organize workers to build the tavern, clothing shop, and inn as soon as possible. He then found Doris and asked her to select some honest, reliable villagers for Ymira to train, so those women could eventually manage the shops.

Whether it was Allen's imagination or not, many of the soldiers seemed exceptionally enthusiastic about building these shops. Plenty of them worked extra hours to help with the construction. Allen did not understand what had come over them, but the three establishments were soon finished.

Allen bought a large quantity of goods from the simulator and stocked the shops, selling them to the villagers of Wilderness Village at a quarter above their original prices. For villagers who had no denars, he discussed the matter with Ymira and asked her to use her knowledge of commerce to set up a purchasing station. There, the goods villagers brought in could be appraised, making it easier for them to buy what they needed.

This was something he could only work out with Ymira. Ever since the village was established, she had gone straight from being Allen's personal maid to his chief administrator, and by now her role was beginning to resemble that of a village head. She was responsible for practically every aspect of daily life for over a thousand villagers.

Ymira did not complain to Allen, because she did not want him to think she was someone who retreated at the slightest hardship. But when she reported on her recent work, the look she gave him was full of grievance. Her eyes were badly bloodshot, and the dark circles beneath them had not faded for a long time.

Seeing how haggard Ymira looked, Allen felt remorseful. Since the battle ended, he had focused only on inspecting the village's construction and learning about the lives of its villagers and soldiers. He had never considered just how busy the people closest to him were. That was truly inexcusable.

To address the problem of Ymira's dark circles, Allen summoned Otta, Carl, and Doris and formally laid out the structure of authority for civil administration. Allen himself would nominally serve as head of Wilderness Village, while Ymira would officially oversee its day-to-day management. He did not want her spending every day attending to him; that would be a waste of her talents and abilities.

Carl, Doris, and Otta would each help Ymira shoulder some of her responsibilities and authority according to their respective positions, reducing her workload.

Ymira was not particularly happy with this outcome, but she did not disobey Allen's orders.

On the military side, Allen made no major changes. He remained the actual supreme authority, with the right to command every soldier in the village. Firentis, Bunduk, and Alayen continued to manage their own troops, while Gondin was given the position of squad leader of the Nord Royal Guards.

Some time later, Allen noticed that many single Rhodoks soldiers had begun taking unmarried women from the village to buy pretty clothes. Some bought everyday necessities at the general store, while others drank and ate at the tavern. Sometimes, when they ran into Allen face-to-face, they became too embarrassed even to greet him. Allen began to understand why these soldiers had been so eager to build the shops. He was rather surprised; it had been less than a month.

Some even approached Allen directly, hoping to clear fields of their own around the village. They were preparing to start families and wanted a cozy life with a wife and children. As far as Allen was concerned, that was no bad thing.

Allen did not know whether all the soldiers felt this way, so he began chatting with them privately, hoping to understand their plans for the future.

After asking around, he found that almost all the Rhodoks soldiers wanted land of their own. They were willing to give up their weekly wages, because most were paid at the rates of Rhodoks Crossbowmen and Rhodoks Spearmen. That money could not provide a comfortable life for them and their families, but farming now could. Allen's policy was that whoever cleared land owned it. Once the land was cleared, it would be registered with Ymira. With fields of their own, whatever they produced would depend on the work of their own hands.

The Swadia Knights and Rhodoks Sharpshooters who had followed Allen from the beginning, along with the Nord Royal Guards recruited later, had no such desire. They thought farming was far too dull. Besides, their wages were high enough to provide a very good life on their own, even if they had a family to support.

Allen then gathered all the soldiers willing to give up their weekly wages in the square before the lord's longhouse and granted their request. His exact words were, "I would never stop those who follow me from pursuing a better life. Since you have a better plan, why would I refuse?"

Immediately afterward, however, Allen laid out his conditions. Like the forest dwellers, they would have to hand over one-quarter of all their income and answer his summons when needed. They would also have to train once every two weeks and return their weapons and equipment to Allen for centralized safekeeping. They could, however, retain their melee weapons to protect themselves and their families in everyday life.

Allen promised that he would continue to provide them with food and clothing until their first harvest. He also told them that, until the end of their lives, he would continue paying their former wages as a reward for their bravery in the last battle.

The matter concluded amid cheers, and Allen truly came to feel that these soldiers were not like units in a game, content to ignore everything else so long as they had food, drink, and pay. They were flesh-and-blood people with needs of their own, living human beings.

As these soldiers laid down their arms and took up farming, Allen's village developed even faster. Everywhere around it, people could be seen clearing fields.

The days passed peacefully in this stable yet busy life, until one morning, a person came drifting down the Anduin River.