On the streets of Cold Bay Fort, the orange afterglow of sunset was fading.
Squads of Demon-kin soldiers who had laid down their weapons were escorted by Mushroom Fortress soldiers, gathering from various intersections. Each captive had a Puchi wrapped around them; if they snapped the tentacles, it would self-destruct.
After witnessing a few prior examples, these Demon-kin soldiers all dejectedly accepted their current situation.
Deep within the city, magical fluctuations from spellcasting and sporadic shouts of killing still occurred from time to time. Those were small pockets of enemy forces still stubbornly resisting after the city fell, but they could no longer affect the overall situation.
Norris walked down the main road, looking around.
"So this is the Empire..." he muttered, a hint of emotion in his tone.
Before joining the Mushroom Garden, he had never been on a real battlefield. But in the tavern, he had heard too many stories about the Empire from the mouths of adventurers who had traveled far and wide.
Although he knew there was a lot of bragging mixed in, there were definitely true stories as well.
They would poison the water sources of human settlements, use the lives of relatives to threaten nobles into acting as inside agents, and snatch people away to be blood livestock...
In these stories, the Demon-kin of the Empire were sinister, cunning, cruel, and almost invincible.
And now, he had occupied an Empire city with almost no effort. Those invincible Demon-kin had either defected over or been herded into the plaza like pigs and sheep awaiting slaughter.
Although they had won against the Empire's army in field battles before, and it was a major victory.
Defending and attacking felt different.
Repelling enemies while standing on a city wall, and walking into the enemy's city watching them surrender, were two different tastes.
"The Empire seems..." he paused, "not all that formidable either."
"Of course!" Ming, beside him, replied extremely quickly, taking it for granted as if saying the sun rises in the east. "The Boss is the most formidable!"
"Behave, walk faster!" A group of newly surrendered Demon-kin escorted two people, surging out from a side alley, pushing and shoving through the crowd until they finally stopped in front of Norris and Ming.
The face of the leading Demon-kin was piled with a smile. Norris was very familiar with that kind of smile; it was the kind of sycophancy that wished it could split its own face smiling when facing "higher-ups."
"Praise the Boss!" The man shouted loudly, his voice somewhat deliberately booming, then bent down deeply, performing a bow that almost touched the ground. "My Lords, we have caught two traitors, brought here especially to be offered to Your Lordships for disposal!"
Norris looked at him without speaking.
He didn't like this Demon-kin's conduct. It reminded him of some guys he had encountered in the past who fawned on their superiors and bullied their subordinates, back when he was the "subordinate" being bullied.
This guy probably didn't even know what "Praise the Boss" specifically referred to, merely treating it purely as a slogan of the Mushroom Fortress.
But subsequently, Norris felt relieved.
In a group of Demon-kin newly joined to the mycelial network, naturally there was a mix of good and bad; it was normal to have all sorts of people.
When those tribesmen first joined, they also had all sorts of flaws, but now they had all been corrected.
As for those who couldn't be corrected, the Boss had suitable places for them to go as well.
The Mushroom Garden was different from all other factions; sycophancy was the most useless ability.
If this guy couldn't realize this in time, sooner or later he would suffer a massive loss.
His friend Little Ming next to him didn't think that much at all.
He "uh-huh"-ed and asked what crimes the two had committed.
One of them was the servant who had killed the Vampire Lord a step ahead of time.
It was worth noting that his face was perfectly clean, not parasitized by mycelium.
"Why did you do this?" Ming asked.
The man was pressed to the ground, but he grinned. That smile contained no flattery, no fear, but rather a kind of... exhilaration.
"I helped you," he said, his voice hoarse but clear, "just to slaughter that animal!"
Being held down, he struggled to raise his head, his neck stiffening perfectly straight, his eyes staring at Ming.
"Heh, anyway, I've already done it. Whatever you want to do with me, go ahead."
After speaking, he lowered his eyelids and no longer looked at anyone.
Ming then looked at the other captive. It was a Demon-kin with obvious traces of mycelium on his body.
Ming asked: "Is he an accomplice too?"
The Demon-kin holding him down replied: "My Lord, no. This guy is named Ke. We found him using the chaos to let another Demon-kin escape."
Ming stood up and looked at Norris. He obviously didn't know how to arrange the punishment.
And Norris, very familiarly, planned to contact Spark in the mycelial network. He was familiar with this aspect.
Actually, contacting Sister Blood was also possible, but Sister Blood should be commanding the main force right now; it wasn't very suitable to disturb her.
However, Norris ultimately didn't contact Spark.
He raised his head and looked around: "The Boss says... he will handle it personally."
Ming immediately perked up, standing ramrod straight.
But those surrendered Demon-kin looked around in confusion. They didn't see anyone who looked like the Boss, until a Puchi that looked like a piece of torn rag squirmed in front of the servant.
"Gerhard, assisted in breaking the city, but privately executed the Lord." The voice wasn't loud, yet it was like the whisper of a nightmare.
Everyone present, except for Norris and Ming, couldn't help but shudder.
The Voice Puchi continued: "Given that you destroyed precious material, contribution points will be deducted from your merit."
There was no other punishment. This left both Gerhard and the Demon-kin who caught him stunned.
The Voice Puchi then squirmed in front of the Demon-kin. Ke revealed a frightened, bitter smile: "Boss..."
Just as he was waiting for his verdict, he heard the Voice Puchi say: "Let him go. He didn't commit a crime."
"Eh?" This time, not only Ke and the surrendered Demon-kin were startled, but even Norris and Ming revealed looks of confusion.
Lin Jun explained: "Their previous identity has always been 'assistants'; they haven't formally joined the Mushroom Fortress yet. Merely letting a friend go doesn't count as treason. Let him go."
The Boss had spoken; the others naturally could only release the two.
Ke, who originally thought he was doomed, lay on the ground thanking them profusely.
Gerhard said nothing. He merely rubbed his numb wrists where he had been held down, stood up, and looked somewhat incredulously at the Voice Puchi that was currently climbing up Norris's thigh.
The Voice Puchi climbed onto Norris's shoulder.
Norris remained expressionless: "Boss, you can actually just speak directly to me in the mycelial network if you have something to say."
The Voice Puchi leaned a bit closer to his ear: "Not just them, release those captive Empire soldiers too! For those who want to join the Mushroom Fortress, Norris, you arrange for them to stay. As for the others who want to leave, let them depart on their own."
"Ah?" Norris endured the discomfort in his ear. "No need for labor reform?"
"Of course not!" the Voice Puchi said, striving for a tone of compassion. "Only those who attack us need labor reform. This time, we are attacking them! These soldiers were merely defending their homes; there is nothing to be overly critical of. Release them all!"
For a moment, the surrounding Demon-kin all cast sidelong glances—Although the Boss's voice is terrifying, is he actually very merciful?
Some Demon-kin were somewhat moved, while others began to worry about their future. They felt that, for a ruler, being overly merciful was not a very good quality.
Only Norris had a bizarre expression, asking quietly in the mycelial network: "Boss, are we supposed to... 'treat' them first before releasing them?"
"Of course we only treat those who have injuries! Those who resisted stubbornly and fought until now naturally must have their injuries treated before being released. Those who surrendered quickly and weren't injured naturally don't need treatment either."
A few days later, the several cities behind Cold Bay Fort looked at those routed soldiers—who, after being released, had fled all the way south and finally gathered outside their city walls, some parasitized and some not—and found themselves in a difficult dilemma.
(End of Chapter)
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