Chapter 65: you earned this victory

Before we could discuss anything, the main office door open, and Toby came marching inside. The twelve-year-old was covered in dust from his hair down to his shoes, but his face was completely full of immense pride. He was holding his small wooden pointer stick like a trophy.

“The structural beams are fully locked into the foundation grooves, Barry!” Toby shouted, his high voice full of excitement. “The adult builders actually followed the alignment numbers correctly this time! The first row of twenty houses is completely finished! The mortar is set, the roofs are tight, and the families are already moving their belongings inside!”

“Let’s go look at the results, partner.” Suzy said

We walked out of the building together, heading down toward the newly built residential sector.

The transformation of the village was completely incredible. The old, rotting wooden huts with holes in the roofs were entirely gone. Standing in their place was a perfect, straight row of twenty solid new houses, built with the high-density blocks from Toby’s kilns and reinforced with the clean beams from our factory. They looked warm, stable, and completely secure against the upcoming winter elements.

Dozens of village families were standing outside their new house’s, tears of pure joy running down their face as they looked at their new homes.

The old village elder with the beard walked straight up to me and Suzy, his whole body trembling with intense respect as he dropped onto both knees right in front of us. “Queen Suzy… Master Barry… our people have not slept under a good roof in ten long years. You did not just give us grain; you gave our children a real life. Oakhaven will follow the you until the very end of our days.”

Suzy walked forward gently, reaching down with her smooth hands to lift the old elder up from the grass. “Stand up, elder. You do not need to bow to us. This village belongs to you and your people. Tomorrow, we start organizing the new farming rotation lines so you can grow your own independent wealth.”

The surrounding crowd let out a massive shout of pure thankfulness and respect, their voices filled

the entire valley. Victor was standing near the the new housing row, as he watched the crowd. His face remained perfectly expressionless and still, completely focused on his guard duties.

As the night came, the central square of Oakhaven did not fall into its usual quiet gloom. Instead, the village families brought out long tables from the storage barns, setting them up right in the middle of the open yard. Large pots filled with vegetable stew and roasted meats from the relief cargo were placed on the boards, their warm vapor rising into the cool night air.

This was the first real harvest celebration the settlement had seen in a decade. The people were laughing, talking loudly, and sharing food without a single worry about tax collectors or royal raids.

I sat on a bench as I watched the kids running around the tables. Suzy sat down right next to me, her outfit fitting her form perfectly. Her long hair was loose now, moving slightly in the gentle air. She held a simple cup of clean spring water, her eyes reflecting the bright glow of the central bonfires.

“They are actually happy, Barry,” Suzy said, She looked at the smiling faces of the farmers, a beautiful look of pure relief showing on her face. “Ten years of running to avenge my family… and I forgot that the real goal was just to let these people live in peace again.”

“A good queen always protect its people and kingdom,” I said,as I turned my head to look at her.”You did the most work at the gates . You earned this victory.”

Right across the table, Toby was sitting with a plate of roasted meat, his face covered in grease but his proud, arrogant expression still fully active. He pointed his small stick at two adult builders who were sitting near him. “You see that chimney stack on the third house? That was my alignment calculation! If I hadn’t adjusted the rear ventilation block, the smoke would have backed up into the bedroom! You old guys better double-check the mortar on the next row tomorrow!”

The adult builders just laughed heartily, putting more food on his plate. “We know, young manager! You’re the smartest brick captain in the west! Now eat your dinner!”

Further down the perimeter line, Victor was standing perfectly against a fence post,He didn’t have a plate of food, and his eyes were tracking the forest.

A young village woman wearing a clean linen dress walked up to him, holding a large wooden bowl filled with hot stew. Her face was completely red as she offered it with a shy smile. “Captain Victor… you haven’t eaten anything all night. I made this stew with extra mountain herbs just for the guards. Please take it…”

Victor didn’t even look down at the bowl. His face remained completely expressionles. “My internal energy levels are fully optimized by my early morning military rations. Food intake during a night watch reduces reaction time by four percent. You should focus on yourself.”

The poor girl stood there in total shock. She turned around and walk back to her family layout in total embarrassment, her face burning.

I walked over to his side, letting out a loud laugh as I clapped his broad shoulder. “You really are a hopeless machine, Victor. You could at least say thank you.”

“Appreciation does not stop a border breach, sir,” Victor said . “The guards are fully packed and the five-hundred-man squad is ready for the deployment lines.”

“Good,” I said, my tone turning serious as I looked toward the southern map coordinates. The feast was over, the families were safe in their new brick homes, and the third dead sector was waiting for our audit. “Let’s go wake up the queen It’s time to move.”

By midnight, the celebration fires were put out, and our five-hundred-man guard squad marched out of the village gates in a silent . Victor led the front rank on his horse, while Suzy and I walked right behind the lead scouts, our weapons ready.

The path changed rapidly as we moved south, leaving the village behind. The terrain turned into a rocky plain covered in old, ruined defense outposts from the old capital era. The ground was littered with broken stone walls and old rusty links that had been sitting in the ground for ten years.

As the sun began to rise, the trail opened up into a massive, circular mountain gap—the South Border Trade Outpost. The sight ahead was completely silent and eerie. A giant gate blocked the entire mountain pass, its doors hanging off their hinges. But standing in straight rows along the top parapet were not human soldiers.

Dozens of large Cursed Gargoyles sat on the stone ledgers. They were ancient statues built by the old dynasty, but their bodies were vibrating with a leaked, corrupted

core energy from the Prince’s old experiments. They were completely blind, their faceless heads turning slowly toward the trail as they detected the air pressure changes from our five hundred marching guards.

[System: Destination reached, Barry! You have entered the South Border Trade Outpost.]

– Entities Detected: 40x Cursed Iron Gargoyles (Tier 4 Armor Constructs).

– Attribute: Completely blind. They track targets using high-frequency air vibrations and movement lines.

I reached behind my back, my fingers closing around the handle of my new sword.

I looked at the giant metal constructs starting to stretch their stone wings on the wall ledge.

“Suzy, Victor, hold the guards back in a defensive formation,” I ordered as I stepped forward alone. “These things track movement lines through the air. I am going to use my snake form to scramble their sensory network before they can target the main squad.”

Suzy drew her sword, her eyes flaring with a cold focus as she looked at my back. “Be careful, Barry. Don’t push your core limits early.”

” Don’t worry” I said, my body instantly shifting into my snake form as I slithered straight into the rocky pass to open the final border line.