“Yes, that is great. Any problems, Zaryusu?”
“I understand. Any objections, Zenberu, Crusch?”
“I have no objections.”
“Me too. It’s a pity I can’t fight as I please, but I will follow the will of the victor.”
“Well then, there is still four days before they attack us, right?”
“Correct.”
“Are there anything we need to prepare for?”
“We need to stock up on throwing stones and strengthen the walls. Also, we need to interact with the other tribes and set up a chain of command, ensuring that all of the tribes can function as one.”
“As for the allocation of work, we, the ‘Small Fang’ tribe wish to leave that to Shasuryu like before.”
“We… okay with that… what about… you two?”
Crusch and Zenberu nodded in agreement too.
"Then I will take over the command. Next, we will decide the details of all the work we need to do in the next three days.”
♦ ♦ ♦
After the work for the day was done, Zaryusu walked silently in the noisy and lively village. Several lizardmen greeted him with respect when they saw Zaryusu’s mark on his chest and Frost Pain on his waist.
It was a bit irritating, but in order to raise morale, he had to answer them. Zaryusu thus answered them with a serious, proper and confident expression.
Zaryusu maintained this attitude as he headed to the outer walls of the village. They were rushing to construct walls over there, many lizardmen were concentrating on their work.
First, they bound the stakes that were some distance apart with vines. Mud with low water content was then smeared on. The druids then casted some magic to remove the moisture, and the wall is complete. There were some cracks on it, probably because not all the water had evaporated. They then repeated the same steps in another place.
“Ara, what is it, Zaryusu?”
“Nothing, just wondering what you were doing.”
Walking with splattering noise in the wetland, Zaryusu made his way to Crusch who was dressed like a vegetative monster and pointed at the work that was being repeated in front of them.
“What is that?”
“Mud wall. We don’t know what type of enemy will be coming, but I wanted to make it hard for them to move in… But there is no time, we are not even half done.”
“Is that so… But isn’t it easy to destroy things made from mud?”
“No problem. If the mud is thin, it is easy to break it. But thickening it will make it tougher. Because this is a rushed job, and there's shortage of sufficient materials and it will weaken if it rains. But it won’t break down so easily."
That is true, no matter what material it is, it would be hard to destroy if it was thick enough.
In front of Zaryusu who was thinking about that, dozens of lizardmen were working as fast as they could, but progress was as slow as a tortoise. Even if they worked on it for three days, it wouldn’t be much wider. But it was better than nothing.
“For now, the parts the wall couldn’t reach would be covered by fence that would be hard to tear down.”
In the direction Crusch was pointing at—
The stakes over there were pulled out, and planted some distance away, forming a triangle with the two other stakes besides it. Between the stakes were vines loosely bounded together, forming ropes blocking the passage between them. Zaryusu thought for a moment, and recalled that the fence around the ‘Red Eye’ tribe looked like that too.
“What is that?”
“By placing something heavy there, the fence won’t fall even if it were being pushed or pulled. As for the ropes, they are meant to prevent enemy from getting through. If the ropes are pulled taut, it would be easily cut by swords or knives, that’s why we left some slack on it.”
Crusch answered Zaryusu’s questions excitedly.
During their short journey, Zaryusu was always the one teaching her. Being able to teach something to Zaryusu made her happy. Apart from this, there was another feeling involved.
“I see… it is harder to destroy it that way.”
These impressed words made Crusch felt proud.
Zaryusu nodded deeply.
The plan to turn the village into a stronghold was progressing steadily. It couldn’t match up to the defensive structures of humans and dwarves, but for the wetlands that were hard to traverse on, there was no better way.
“By the way, Zaryusu, did you tell the warriors—”
As Crusch was saying that, the cheers of the warriors were carried by the wind into their ears. It was an intense and hot blooded noise.
“What is happening? This sounds familiar… I know! These are the cheers when you guys battle. Could it be a duel between your brother and Zenberu?”
Zaryusu nodded and noticed that Crusch looked worried.
“... As the commander in chief, wouldn’t it be troublesome if your brother loses?”
“I don’t know, but my elder brother is strong. If he had the chance to use his druid powers, he will become even stronger, even I might lose to him.”
Shasuryu who casted several buffs on himself was very strong. He would probably refrain from using offensive spells in a mock battle, but if he does, Zaryusu won’t be a match without Frost Pain.
The reason why the original owner of Frost Pain didn’t use its special ability that could only be used thrice in one day against Zaryusu was because he had used it up during his fight against Shasuryu.
“That’s great…”
Zaryusu was wondering whether he should show Crusch how strong his brother was in a fight, but he remembered something else that had been worrying him.
He hesitated, but decided to voice it out in the end.
It was despicable to say this after all the plans had been set in place. But he couldn’t hide this from the one he likes, that’s how pure and strong he felt about Crusch.
“I am worried about one thing—”
Hearing Zaryusu’s anxious voice, Crusch smiled. That was a deliberate smile, something that was not her style — an expression that didn’t fit the situation — stopping Zaryusu from continuing. The one who spoke in place of Zaryusu was Crusch.
“— You mean that thing you didn’t bring up during the conference right? If the enemy already anticipated this, and was waiting for us to form an alliance.”