NOVEL FROG Ch 34. Management Change
After <The Maggot> had her emotional reunion with her lost coins, we continued our journey to the town of Nomela. Nothing happened during the time we were traveling, so we arrived with no delays at the time the roosters were starting to crow.
Nomela was a medium sized town surrounded by wooden fence walls. Every town’s gate had two watchtowers so they would be able to see the incoming visitors, so as soon as we arrived, the town chief prepared to welcome us.
“Welcome Sr Butler, it's always nice to receive the people working under our Lady’s orders.”
I got down off the horse and gave the strings to a young man that came to take the horse to the estables. He was Julius’ son.
“It’s nice to see you safe and well Julius. How are things going over here?”
I stretched my hand so we could shake hands, but Julius did a reverence instead. Even if he is the chief of this town, right now this town is under the Demon Lord’s control, if we saw things unders that perspective, I’m somehow higher than him in the chain of command, so it’s only natural for him to make a reverence, but it feels really weird.
Julius, his secretary, <The Maggot> and I started walking to Julius’ house. It seemed like no one was able to see the ghost girl or the vase she was happily carrying, but she was there, walking at our side.
When we finally arrived, we sat at the dinner table. We started talking about the condition of the town, what were the people’s thoughts, about the kingdom posture, economy, and other topics related to the current relationship between the Demon Lord and the Humans living under her control.
<The Maggot> tried to pay attention at first, but halfway through she lost all interest and started playing with the vase she was carrying, then she moved to float around the house and pry over Lucius’ family belongings. Of course, no one was able to see her.
Most of the people were happy. They were getting the means to work in the fields or craft goods along with some level of protection granted for the Demon Lord vassals. But even if the town people have seen their living conditions improved, you could still feel the fear and sadness that came after what happened.
The kingdom itself hasn't shown any posture about what happened in the towns of Nomela and Contés. Some of the soldiers come from time to time to pester the citizens, but those situations get solved thanks to the actions of the town's guards working under the Demon Lord’s orders. Sadly, this isn't a definitive solution because harassment towards the townspeople still exists.
Summarizing, the economy is fine, living conditions are great too, but the mood and the harassment and silence coming from the kingdom could turn into a problem in the near future, so we must pay attention to those issues.
We made some clarifications on the exchanges of raw materials and products between the Demons and Humans and then we finished our meeting.
The next step is walking around the town, to see in first person how the people are doing after the management change, so after we said our goodbyes I called out the ghost girl that was accompanying so we could take a stroll around the town.
“Hey, Onii chan, I don't want to do this, this is really boring, you know?”
“I know, I know. But this is necessary, our Lady needs to know what people think about her rule methods, we don't need an uprising or start a fight against the kingdom itself, so we must pay attention to every detail.”
“But this is really boring! I want some candies!”
“I know, I know. I’ll buy some for you if you walk with me, as you said, doing this on my own would turn out really boring.”
“Okay Onii chan, I’ll go with you then!”
Her eyes started shining as soon as I promised her some candies, this ghost girl is really simple.