Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-156

[Day 146]

Today in the morning I started the preparations to get going, due to the large army that I will bring as my mercenaries, we needed big caravans to carry all of them. Most of them will travel through the giant floating carriages that I've created recently, however, for the ones who will join the war at the start, we need conventional ones to not make the humans freak out over sighting a space ship or something.

The last war bought us a lot of those types of caravans, alongside the ones made from the Nomad Tribes and their horses, I made more than fifty caravans combining all these pieces.

I made them gigantic, being able to carry twenty people each with ease. I reinforced them with my Flesh and Slime minions and various traps that will release poisonous bombs or protection shields whenever the group inside it is threatened. Due to pretty much fusing them with my Flesh and Slime Minions, I decided to give them several Soul Cores too, as they became sentient beings.

These will be carried by Horses and Mounts being controlled with my [Taming] Skill, tamed monsters can be gifted with ease to a subordinate. I carefully choose the less threatening-looking mounts, like Two-Headed Crystal Horses and small Armored Bears, I hope the humans don't get as scared.

The remaining troops, which are commanded by the Wyvern Overlord, Redgaria, and Meiji will be waiting outside of the battlefield inside of countless floating carriages that I previously covered in countless Illusion coats, making them almost invisible.

At a fast pace, it will take us around half a day to reach Athetosea due to the monster and Nomad Horse's amazing Stamina. I've also boosted their capabilities by inserting my Flesh and Slime Minions inside of their bodies using [Parasite] alongside [Symbiosis], which greatly increases their stats and loyalty to me.

Most of the time was spent analyzing our strategies with my servants and wives. My children alongside Altani, Rimuru, and Brontes stayed at home while the others came with me. From all my wives, Charlotte is the frailest, so I equipped her with very high-quality light armor and several coatings of magic shields, alongside three Strong Flesh and Slime Minions, who will protect her from sneak attacks and such, and even heal her when she is in grave danger and I'm not close by.

I applied the same method for all my wives and close servants, the rest of the army was already well equipped with Illusion Fabric equipment, which already came included with a Flesh and Slime Minion.

Although the war was about to break out in the following days, it was as if the world didn't care, the wind went through the air at a slow and calming phase, as the sky was clean and bright blue, the sun was shining brightly.

As my long hair waved through the air, I looked were the Athetosea Kingdom was. With an unwavering conviction growing inside of my heart, I set myself to this one goal, to conquer this place.

Perhaps these actions will make others more aware of my existence, but I will receive everyone with bravery and wits, with the help of my people and my own powers, I will adapt to the situations and tackle down those who oppose me, for the ultimate goal of making a safe and peaceful place for my ever-growing family.

This is the only way to survive in this world, as harsh as my human past self would think it would be, I don't hold remorse either regrets for my actions… There are more precious things for me to protect now, I cannot doubt now, only keep going forward. As long as I have power, I can hold on to what's precious to me.

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As we reached the Athetosea Kingdom, we were greeted by massive gray walls, made of strong magic-reinforced stone, while carefully paved with ceramic. The door opening the walls was made of a beautiful dark wood that was decorated with several golden markings.

At first, the guards on the gate were alarmed by the massive group of caravans, and when they saw our faces, most of them yelled and freaked out, calling reinforcements. Some believed that we were an invading group from the faraway Demi-Human Kingdom.

However, as things progressed commanders arrived and told the soldiers and guards about us. They quickly understood that we were a mercenary group hired for the internal conflicts, and not an invading army.

I spoke with some of the commanders and generals in charge of the guards, after seeing my figure I didn't have to activate any skill before they would be completely in love with me. Male humans are easier to charm, especially if they are old men, their natural Charm Resistance is very low.

Using my charm, I easily manipulated them to let us enter with my entire army, as they happily obliged as if they were loyal dogs, some of the more skeptical guards looked with suspiciousness at the charmed generals, who did as I told them.

The center of the Athetosea Kingdom was a beautiful medieval setting city, with the classic houses made of gray bricks and wood ceilings, the entire floor was completely paved with beautiful ceramic and the city was overflowing with life and harmony, although most the people were only humans, you would see a demi-human from time to time, however, as slaves. There is rarely a "free" demi-human here, as we were the first ones, and such a big group, the people were naturally surprised. Even after camouflaging our original races with Illusion Magic and equipment into "conventional" races, we still attracted a lot of unnecessary attention.

Children would wave at us thinking that we were some kind of artistic group, other humans would throw rotten vegetables at us, others would insult us, and some would only look at us with pity or disgust.

Especially most of my army, which was composed of Trolls, Goblins, and Hobgoblins. These races are seen as very low, even lower to the beast folk that they usually enslave. Oh, and don't let me get started with the group of wolves and monkeys we brought…

Thankfully we registered all the wolves as "tamed creatures" and pets. The monkeys, even if humanoid, needed the same registration as well, with a few exceptions, like those who evolved into monkey folk demi-humans.

The caravans were stationed in the massive backyard of the Lomanie Family area, after making sure that my soldiers had their food and everything, they needed I went inside of the giant manor to meet with Alice, it has been a while.

As I entered the manor I was instantly greeted by Alice, who jumped over my body and tightly grabbed me with her legs and arms. As she did this, she immediately started to cry while smelling the fragrance in my neck and hair.

"Guuaaaaah! Master! Master! I missed you so much!"

"I-I did as you said! Everyone is brainwashed! Everything is ready! Past tomorrow everything will go according to Master's wonderful plans!"

As I tried to take Alice away from me, I glanced at the Maids and Butlers who stood silently at our side, like lifeless puppets.

"W-Well done... What did you do to these Butlers and Maids?"

"Oh? They were brainwashed! Because I was so hungry, I sucked them dry! They're now completely dry, like zombies! Hehehe"

"Oh…"

It seems that she converted them in some kind of Dhampir or Zombie, or something in between, I honestly didn't know that this was possible. To create zombies, I would usually kill them off and then use [Raise Undead]. This was an interesting way to produce Undead Servants. They still looked rather fine, but pale, and lacked emotions, while having an empty stare.

When I managed to get Alice off me, I noticed that her beauty has increased quite a lot. She was wearing a beautiful Noble's dress, which was purple and black colored, with decorations resembling roses and their thorns.

Her eyes turned in a bright scarlet, and her skin became bright white. Her ears became pointed and the fangs on her upper jaw became larger. Her hair has also completely turned silver colored.

According to her, she has gone through some more changes as she drank more human blood, although it's not an evolution, it's more like she has fully become a Dhampir now. She has leveled up too, by killing humans and transforming them into these zombies.

I've been checking my surroundings and indeed, there are a lot of spies, which were killed immediately by my Flesh and Slime Minions, the pile was up to twenty spies. I was not able to catch any alive as they detonated a poison bomb on their hearts, instantly killing them. I devoured them without leaving anything.

The Champion of Psychic Eyes probably already knows about our mercenary group, but not I am the Realm Menace of Lust, however, she may be suspicious about me working for her. She hasn't met with me, so she cannot discern my identity yet.

It was already quite late in the night, so I went to a separate room with my wives, and Alice ended up sneaking in. She has worked a lot for me so I found it was the right thing to compensate her with the thing she desired the most, which was passing a night with me.

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[Day 147]

After having a delicious breakfast made by Noble Chefs, I trained my troops on the massive backyard of the Lomanie property. The training was just simple sparring between my soldiers and workup, to keep them in form and ready for anything.

Today I also met Alice's little brother, her older brother was sent to prison after "killing" her father. Alice's little brother is around 13 years old and is a beautiful young boy, with blonde hair and golden eyes, he has a cute and innocent appearance. This kid was partially brainwashed by Alice without her sucking his blood, it seems that even after transforming into a Dhampir, she holds feelings for him, which I don't mind as long as he doesn't do anything funny…

The boy seems to have some affinity with swords and Fire Magic, so I let him spar with some of my soldiers, of course telling them to go easy on him. He's a fast learned and in half a day, he learned three techniques from the sparring.

Just for safety measures, I checked his mind after making him fall asleep with my Sleeping Fragrances. He doesn't seem to be any type of spy or something like that, I suppose I was being too paranoid.

After having lunch, I met with most of the hypnotized Nobles on our side of the conflict, all of them were fascinated by my appearance and kneeled, worshiping me like a goddess. With them, I began our plans, while contacting the brainwashed and hypnotized Nobles of the opposite side.

Due to having so many brainwashed Noble slaves, things went very easy and I planned a perfect place for the war. Instead of being in the middle of the Kingdom like it usually happens, both sides will fight it off on a "Noble War" in the outsides of the Kingdom.

A lot of the non-hypnotized Nobles didn't agree with this decision when the most influential Houses commanded them, but they were so little that they couldn't say much and ended up accepting this.

The same happened for the opposite side, as much as the Champion of Psychic Eyes didn't agree with this, she holds little power against more than fifty Noble Houses, so she gives up at the end. Hmm, I can already imagine the plans she had on mind completely shattering before her… It would be a beautiful sight.

And like this, a weird and unexpected treaty between sides was agreed upon, most of the civilians couldn't believe such an unorthodox way of doing everything, as they were accustomed for the Nobles to slowly raid each other's territories without wasting many resources. Instead of that, they will go "all-out" in a massive war on the outskirts of Athetosea.

Everything is going smoothly.

Before going to sleep, I decided to travel around the entire Kingdom and happened to get a sight of some of the Champions and Elemental Knights, they seem to not have discovered my presence, as I was using countless Illusion Magic Coatings fused with my Illusion Fabric Thread and the [Shadow Wind Concealment Coating of Presence Nullification] Skill.

Even so, if I were to attack them, they would quickly notice my presence with their skills powered by their God Blessings and I wouldn't be able to hide anymore. And because all of them were together on a minimum of four per group, I give up on the idea of killing all of them this night.

I also got a small sight of the Half-Dodomeki Woman, Nanako Maki, who is well known as the Champion of Psychic Eyes. Her beauty was quite unique and enchanting. She had long pink hair and pale pink skin, with scarlet eyes, she had three more eyes on her forehead and one in each of her palms. She was wearing a beautiful pink kimono with Sakura petals decorations. Her presence held a strong conviction and security and was quite vast.

When I tried to Appraise her, it was blocked immediately, as she glanced to where I was. Before she could find me out, I used [Light Speed Flight] to get out of her range. That was close, I shouldn't have been so greedy, tomorrow I will be able to inspect and see her as much as I want…

The Hero of Raging Winds was also going around, I saw him on the skies, although he didn't notice me it seems. He resembles a handsome young man with brown skin and dark brown hair, which covers his emerald eyes. He has an indifferent face most of the time, but I bet that he got a creepy smile. He was wearing a very high-quality Archer set, with leather boots, a white shirt, and a cape that had black and green colors. His pants were completely black. I think he had the aura of some kind of [Legendary] Relic, but he was camouflaging its appearance with his own winds, to the point of making it invisible, an amazing technique.

After knowing all these delicious preys, I could barely hold on my hunger, so I went to Alice manor and had a big dinner to satiate my hunger. I devoured several spies too.

This night was also very active, and now that I have bedded Alice, she was also included in the menu. I decided to impregnate her this night, which made her extremely happy.

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