Recruiting New Members
"Are you an idiot? Why didn't you change your clothes when you transformed!"
"Because what you're wearing is magic equipment. If I have to disguise even that, it would use up a lot of mental power and magic. That's a hassle."
Celia wrapped Pelam with her cloak, fortunately farther away from the crowd.
"Don't save magic like that!"
"Alright..."
Pelam spoke reluctantly, then her body transformed and produced clothes identical to Serea's.
Seeing this, Serea breathed a sigh of relief, then withdrew her cloak.
"What an amazing ability,"
Celia said, watching the newly transformed Serea. If she hadn't witnessed the transformation herself, Celia would never have realized this Serea was a fake.
"Unfortunately, it's the only ability I have, so don't expect anything else from me,"
Pelam said lazily, and just as Serea finished fastening her cloak, the blush on her face still lingered—after all, she had nearly...
"I can't figure it out. How can you have weird thoughts about your own body?"
"Who's having weird thoughts! Hurry up and change back."
As Serea spoke, pelam's body began to melt, and a white, semi-transparent slime dropped to the ground.
Picking up the slime and holding it in her hand, Serea looked over it with curiosity once more. But Pelam said,
"I'm going to sleep now, so don't call me for a while, okay?"
As she spoke, pelam's body shrank further and finally became a silver bracelet.
"Suddenly, it's hard to tell who's the owner..."
Serea joked as she placed the bracelet on her wrist. Just then, Lola walked over.
"Have you finished the treatment?"
"Yes, but..."
Lola hesitated and glanced behind her. Serea followed her gaze and saw trolls and various other races who had followed Lola over. The others seemed hesitant to speak, but the troll leader stepped forward.
He approached and knelt directly before Serea.
"Thank you, queen Serea. You saved our 'warhammer' clan and allowed us to take our revenge, so we are willing to follow you."
"We are willing to follow Queen Serea!"
The trolls, with their massive bodies, knelt before Serea, and upon seeing this, the other races also knelt on one knee.
"Pl-please take us in as well."
"Our tribe has nowhere to go. Please grant us refuge, Your Majesty. We are willing to serve you."
Looking at these kneeling strangers, Serea naturally understood what they wanted.
Augustin's thoughts were simple; as a troll, he was loyal in both gratitude and vengeance. Since Serea had saved them, they would follow her.
As for the others, it was easy to guess their thoughts too. They were wandering tribes—either passing through or exiled by Maregof. In the vast forest, looking for their own people was incredibly dangerous; settling in and joining a powerful tribe seemed the better option.
Some tribes were highly isolationist, but Serea's multi-racial tribe didn't look at all like the kind that excluded outsiders, so they decided to give it a try.
Dogsius saw all this through mind-reading.
Luckily, none had unsavory intentions. The tribe wouldn't mind twenty more members and, since this was a period of construction, labor was badly needed. So...
"You may join my tribe, but all I can provide are food and simple shelter. You must obey my orders completely and work for me."
"My people accept,"
Augustin replied first, and the other races hesitated no more.
"We accept as well. We are wanderers now. If Queen Serea is willing to take us in, we are extremely grateful and will obey her every command from now on,"
said a beastman. The fact he represented the other races so quickly showed he was quite influential among them.
"Alright, have Maro come here."
Serea instructed and had someone call Maro over.
"Your Majesty, you asked for me?"
As the captain of the blood slave unit, maro was a top student from the Central Magic Academy of the Holy Dragon Empire and had received formal knight education, so his leadership was solid.
"From now on, you'll be in charge of them. Let them work with you."
"Yes."
With that, maro began assembling the outsiders, while Serea summoned Augustin alone.
"Chieftain Augustin..."
"Your Majesty, just call me Augustin. The warhammer clan no longer exists."
"Alright, augustin. Does your tribe still have any important supplies left?"
"We've been plundered of everything. All that's left is an empty camp. But there are some human goods gathered by Shortie—perhaps Your Majesty can use them."
"Alright, have your tribespeople take whatever they consider important and bring those human items along as well. If you need help, go find Maro."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Augustin consented and left to gather supplies in the camp. Next, he would follow Serea back to the Darkmoon clan's territory. As for this place...
Augustin felt no nostalgia for it; a place stained with the shame of the 'warhammer' was better left to fade away.
They gathered the goods quickly, but Serea did not expect to find exactly what she needed...
Cement!
Perfect for building the camp.
With the battlefield cleaned up and supplies organized, Serea led the grand force back to camp—along with their new 'tribe members.'
From the distant woods, a pair of eyes recorded everything that had happened.
But for safety, he made no attempt to track Serea and the others further. With the intelligence in hand, he immediately returned—and judging by his small stature, he was a goblin!
......
Unaware, Serea and her party returned to camp. After settling the new 'tribe members,' Serea immediately rushed to the 'blood elf tree nest.'
By her calculations, her 'seeds' should have finished nurturing. Serea was really looking forward to what they could do.
She hurried to the blood elf tree nest, where Doluka was busy with other elves at the elf king tree. The tree had changed a bit—it now sported a vine staircase that spiraled to a massive hollow in the center of the tree.
(To be continued...)