Chapter Eighteen: The Calamity of the Green Demon

After shedding tears while finishing the first truly filling meal of their lives, the spirits of over a thousand commoners changed noticeably; their vitality surged instantly. Next, the soldiers distributed a set of blue worker uniforms to each person. As the people touched the somewhat odd-looking but high-quality fabric, they fell into a daze once again. They had expected that receiving clothes from the knights would be a tremendous blessing, but never anticipated such exquisite garments—the material was clearly not burlap.

On a platform one and a half meters high, the refugee nicknamed Mouse stood demonstrating the method of wearing these clothes, which he had just learned from the knights. "Everyone, look over here! First, unbutton the buttons, then put both hands in, drape it over your shoulders, and button it up..." Mouse repeated the process over and over, and the people below gradually learned how to wear the new attire.

So this was what it felt like for skin not to be exposed—warm and safe.

Soon after, the soldiers issued each person the corresponding tools, preparing to level the surrounding wheat fields, weeds, and thickets. "Your Highness, in a few months we can harvest the wheat—do we really have to clear the fields?" The commoners gazed at the wheat before them with reluctance; it was their lifeblood.

Olina waved her hand decisively. "These fields barely yield anything—clear them all." Truth be told, Olina's territory was extremely barren, lacking rivers, and even the soil was full of sand. Its only advantage was its flatness: no dense forests, no mountains, the highest being mere dozens of meters. The castle's surrounding wheat fields appeared plentiful, but yields were actually meager; otherwise, Olina would never have needed to become a monster hunter for income.

"Now that our territory has signed some treaty with the High Humans, everyone will have enough to eat, so we don't need these broken fields anymore," Olina declared stoutly.

"Oh!" At the promise of full bellies, everyone raised their hands and shouted excitedly.

"Do you all want to eat your fill?"

"Yes!"

"Then clear these wheat fields!"

"Yes!"

"Charge!" Olina brandished her iron shovel toward the fields, displaying none of the poise befitting a princess, but rather the air of an experienced foreman.

"Oh!"

Over a thousand commoners cheered, then carefully began to remove their new clothes.

"Huh?" Olina was baffled. Why were things not as she imagined? Why were they taking off their clothes?

"Wait, why are you undressing?"

"Your Highness, aren't we about to work? We’re just taking off our clothes so they don’t get dirty," explained a bare-chested commoner, carefully folding his jacket and shirt and placing them gently on the ground.

Olina looked thoughtful, while beside her, Emeya muttered inwardly: "These simpletons—aren't clothes meant to be worn?"

Just as she finished her internal complaint, Olina said with sudden understanding, "That actually makes sense."

Emeya nearly stumbled in surprise.

Minutes later, the Xuanlu soldiers witnessed a scene they would never forget: a crowd of naked adult men wielding shovels, swiftly leveling the wheat fields.

Was the local culture really this fierce?

...

Ten days later.

The once bare castle now boasted decorations and furniture. Following the renovations by the field camp soldiers, the entire castle radiated a brutal aesthetic, adorned with numerous steel artworks.

Among them were M24 heavy machine guns: caliber 11.43 millimeters, weight 27.2 kilograms, utilizing a short recoil (19mm) automatic mechanism, water-cooled barrel, and a maximum rate of six hundred rounds per minute.

Four heavy machine guns in total were mounted, one on each side of the castle.

The Xuantian anti-tank gun, nicknamed the six-pounder, measured 2.5 meters in barrel length and had a caliber of 54 millimeters. Designed to destroy tanks, it could also be used against personnel.

In these ten days, with the tireless efforts of over a thousand commoners and the field camp soldiers, all the mud-brick houses in this little village were demolished and replaced with prefabricated shelters made of composite materials. The surrounding groves were chopped down, thickets flattened by bulldozers. Iron wire fences encircled the area, towers rose, and anti-aircraft guns stood near the castle.

Olina's territory was no longer a rundown hamlet, but a rudimentary military base.

In the hall, a folding steel table held a map painstakingly drawn over these ten days by the commando unit as they scouted the entire territory.

Qin Le studied the map, his expression surprised—the results far exceeded his expectations.

Olina's domain covered at least ten thousand square kilometers, roughly the size of a major city. When Qin Le first saw the mountain village, he thought Olina's fief couldn't be more than a thousand square kilometers. According to Olina’s account, her territory consisted only of these thousand commoners and a castle, with no other villages or towns—so meager it hardly seemed fit for a princess. By medieval standards, this village would at best be a knight’s fief.

Yet the reality was ten times greater than anticipated.

"Olina, your territory is so vast—why so few commoners? I remember you’re a princess, so why is there not even a single knight, and why is this place so shabby?" Qin Le turned to Olina, who was munching on chocolate.

This princess seemed to snack whenever she had a moment free, as if she'd never been satisfied.

Olina stuffed the chocolate into her mouth, her cheeks working like a squirrel’s, and in a few seconds swallowed the large piece, wiping her mouth. "Uh... A lot happened."

Her beautiful face grew embarrassed; a princess living in a mountain village as its chief was indeed humiliating.

"A lot happened?" Qin Le pressed for details.

At first, he had followed her because of her royal status; even now, their cooperation was fundamentally based on her being a princess. In this ancient society, identity was everything, and a princess made it much easier for Xuanlu to interact with the new world’s nations.

Yet upon arriving at her territory, Qin Le immediately sensed something was off—too poor, too dilapidated, utterly a wretched mountain village.

A country with nearly five million square kilometers and at least twenty million people, according to scientists, had its princess assigned to this miserable patch. If not for the previous earl confirming Olina’s royal status, Qin Le would have suspected he’d been deceived.

The elf young lady beside him explained with a cold sneer, "Why else? This idiot, if she’d just returned to the palace and apologized to her nearly buried father, we’d probably be living in a grand castle tomorrow."

"Olina and the king had a falling out? What could have been so serious that he banished his daughter to this godforsaken place?" Qin Le asked.

It seemed the situation wasn’t as he’d imagined—a princess of the slums, scorned by the king, assigned a broken village and thus relegated to a chief’s life.

Thinking further, if that were really the case, the king wouldn’t bother summoning Olina back to the palace; he’d simply ignore her. Why go to the trouble of recalling her and making trouble for himself?

"It’s all because of those foolish commoners. A dignified princess, constantly sneaking into the commoner district, disregarding her royal status. Once, she even stood up for the commoners, beating the son of the knight commander and the daughter of the internal affairs minister black and blue." Emeya gestured a thumbs-up at Olina, her face full of mock praise.

"At ten, she became a princess. Over six years, she beat up every noble heir in the Dawn Kingdom, from princes and princesses to lesser nobles. Truly impressive, Your Highness."

Olina scratched her cheek sheepishly and whispered, "That’s not true! Don’t exaggerate. I just accidentally bumped into them, yes, that’s right! I didn’t mean it!"

"Heh," Emeya rolled her eyes, continuing, "In the end, the old man with one foot in the grave couldn’t take it anymore, demanded Olina apologize, and when she didn’t, sent her here."

Qin Le understood and asked, "Olina, do your eight siblings have fiefs?"

"They all do. According to the Dawn Kingdom’s tradition, after turning eighteen, each prince or princess leaves the capital to their fief to learn governance, management, and such. Eventually, the king selects the heir—the so-called royal selection," Olina replied.

Royal selection? So this world doesn’t have primogeniture, and gender isn’t a limit. Supernatural powers have erased any physical difference between men and women.

Qin Le continued, "Olina, what’s the key to winning this royal selection?"

"The prosperity of the fief. Simply put, how much money you can make, how many people you command, how many knights you have. I don’t stand a chance," Olina said, fully aware of her situation. Compared to her siblings, with their ducal grandfathers and King Xian uncles, she had no background to compete.

She barely had a handful of followers and couldn’t even feed them.

"Olina, people need dreams, or else they’re no better than salted fish. Who knows—you might be the most promising one! And since they can use outside help, why can’t you?" Qin Le hinted.

Xuanlu would get involved in this royal selection.

Olina’s ascension to the throne best suited Xuanlu’s interests—they needed the legitimacy of a king. Then, with the power of thirty million people, they could build roads, mine, and construct infrastructure, sending vast resources back to Xuanlu, breaking the current blockade, and perhaps even dominating the world in turn.

As for whether the other nobles would agree, the cannons would answer for them.

Olina looked puzzled—she had no powerful relatives, where would she find outside help?

Unlike Olina, who didn’t quite understand, the elf maiden beside her tilted her head slightly, clearly grasping the implication.

"More importantly, let’s discuss the Green Goblin Disaster," Qin Le changed the subject.

Emeya replied nonchalantly, "That’s not our concern. In a few days, the kingdom’s knight corps will come to clean up. And between us and the Dead Swamp lies the Daina fief—no rush, no rush."

...

North of Olina’s territory, east of Daina City, near the edge of the Dead Swamp.

Over a thousand knights clad in heavy armor and mounted on warhorses formed a phalanx. Their armor gleamed coldly in the sunlight. Behind them stood countless militiamen bearing long spears and cloth armor.

In front of them lay a sea of green, an ocean formed by countless Green Goblins.

"Brave knights, for honor and justice, for the inviolable sanctuary of humankind! Slaughter these despicable Green Goblins!" Count Daina stood at the head of the knights, brandishing his sword, an invisible aura surrounding him as a terrifying presence erupted.

"For honor and justice, for humankind!!"

All the heavy-armored knights roared in unison, invisible energy appeared on their bodies, intertwining and merging until it gathered upon Count Daina.

Howl!

With a wolf’s howl, a spectral gray wolf appeared above the knight corps, its eyes as large as houses, gazing coldly at the diminutive Green Goblins ahead.

"All forces, charge!"

The world was reduced to earth-shaking war cries—of knights, of militia, of humans, and of Green Goblins...

Humans and Green Goblins collided, flesh and blood flying—Green Goblin blood. Hooves crushed bodies barely a meter tall, spears skewered goblins like shish kebabs.

Where the knight corps passed, Green Goblins fell like wheat before the wind.

The civilian army behind, shields in their left hands, spears in their right, formed a wall, thrusting their spears relentlessly. Green Goblins barely touched the shields before being pierced.

It was a one-sided slaughter; the feeble Green Goblins were no match for humanity. Under the human army’s massacre, the goblin sea retreated at a pace visible to the naked eye.

Not because the goblins fled, but because those in front were dead.

Ten minutes, half an hour, an hour—Green Goblins retreated again and again, but the attack did not cease.

Their retreat slowed, finally halting, and the two sides became locked in stalemate.

Another half hour passed. This time the Green Goblins advanced, and humans began to suffer casualties; the battlefield was no longer littered only with goblin corpses.

Humans tired, so did goblins, though goblins succumbed faster. Most had not even reached exhaustion before they died.