My Kingdom Building Done Right!

After the meeting ended, Troy ordered his men to retrieve thirteen out of the fifteen Fire Catapults they had surrendered to the Aslan Tribe.

Leone had no issues returning the Fire Catapults since Daedalus had been successful with its reverse-engineering and had even designed a more powerful variant of the siege weapon.

The young man also opened the granary of the Aslan Tribe and gave the Darkmane Tribe enough grain to last their entire army a week.

They had also received hundreds of barrels filled with water, which they all took to the fortress Leone had built just for them.

Upon entering their own fortress, Troy, Jafar, the Elders, and the warriors of the Darkmane Tribe instinctively knew that the place where they would stay for the next few days had been built extremely well.

After all, it had the same height and thickness as the walls they had failed to take down during their short-lived war against the Aslan Tribe.

"These walls are more impressive than what we have in Darkmane City," one of the warriors said. "Can we really stay here?"

"Where do you think we should go then?" another warrior replied. "Do you really want to fight monsters on an open plain?"

They had already been informed that a monster stampede would come in a few days, and they had felt extremely anxious ever since.

Their morale was already quite low after losing against the Aslan Tribe, so this news was like the final nail in the coffin that broke what little hope they had left.

Fortunately, Troy and Jafar told them that the fortress that appeared out of nowhere would be their temporary home until the monster stampede came to pass.

"We will defend this place together with the Aslan Tribe," Troy said to all the warriors who had gathered and were listening to his speech. "According to him, the monster stampede will arrive two to three days from now. Tomorrow, all of you will be busy hunting for food and doing maintenance on your weapons."

The fortress Leone had built for the Darkmane Tribe was a little over a kilometer away from their own fortress.

This way, the Fire Catapults Daedalus had developed could target the monsters that would attack the Darkmane Tribe’s fortress from a safe distance.

In simpler terms, the Darkmane Tribe would serve as the tanks and bear the brunt of the monster stampede, while the Aslan Tribe provided support fire.

Troy understood that this was the best compromise they could get from Leone. Reluctant as he might be, he still felt thankful that they at least had some fortifications that allowed them to defend themselves.

While the members of the Darkmane Tribe familiarized themselves with their temporary accommodation, Leone held another meeting with the other chieftains, as well as their Elders.

"Tomorrow, I will provide a hundred Fire Catapults," Leone declared. "The Aslan Tribe doesn’t have enough shamans who can operate them, so we plan to give the rest to the other tribes.

"Each catapult requires two shamans and at least four strong warriors to operate it. These weapons will help us thin out the ranks of the monster army that will travel by land. As for the flying monsters, the repeating crossbows and the ballistas will handle them. These weapons will be operated by the Aslan and Ravage Tribe."

Hagen sighed after hearing Leone’s statement. "Why am I not surprised to hear you casually say that you’ll have a hundred Fire Catapults by tomorrow?"

"Frankly, coming up with a hundred Fire Catapults sounds more believable than erecting a fortress in just a few minutes," Malik replied.

Everyone nodded in agreement before glancing at Kael, who was calmly stroking his beard.

The shaman clearly enjoyed all the attention, which was a good thing since it diverted everyone’s gaze away from Leone.

"When the war starts, we need a unified chain of command," Leone stated. "Though I’m sure doing that right now will be impossible. Which is why I have a proposal. Each tribe will be commanded by its own chieftain.

"However, if I give out a command, the chieftains must prioritize it over their own orders. Though allow me to explain myself first, so there won’t be any misunderstandings. I don’t plan to use the other tribes as cannon fodder. If you think my order is unreasonable, you may reject or ignore it.

"But if you believe I’m right or you trust my words, then please collaborate with me to ensure our survival. That is all I ask from everyone gathered here today."

The chieftains glanced at each other before nodding in agreement.

"Very well," Hagen replied. "We will listen to you."

Hagen, Duncan, Oswald, and Garen nodded as well.

Ragnar and Wayne, who represented the Warclaw Tribe, also agreed with this arrangement.

"We will provide everyone with ammunition, weapons, and food during their stay here at the Aslan Tribe," Leone added. "With that said, if you have any requests, please coordinate with my vassals if I’m not around. Are there any other questions?"

"I have a question," Wayne replied. "Will we have enough food supplies to last us until the monster stampede ends? I hate to say this, but the Warclaw Tribe’s food supplies will only last for five more days.

"We can stretch it to seven days if we try to ration it. However, if we get stuck inside the fortress during the monster stampede, we won’t be able to hunt for food. You mentioned you will provide us food, but how much do you have in reserve?"

Although they didn’t want to admit it, the other tribes also worried about their food reserves running out. They knew the Aslan Tribe wasn’t a big tribe, so imposing on them for food made them feel a bit ashamed.

"Don’t worry about the food." Leone smirked. "The Aslan Tribe has enough food to feed everyone here for a month."

Actually, food was the least of Leone’s worries. At the moment, the tribe had tilled 150 hectares of farmland.

On top of that, anything planted on his plantation grew five times faster than normal. However, it didn’t end there.

When buying seeds from the Arcane Shop, he could purchase seeds that could grow two to three times faster than normal, further decreasing the time before harvest.

The funny thing was that harvesting the crops was also a breeze.

All Daedalus needed to do was to fly over the plantations and collect everything inside its pages.

When that was done, another cycle of planting and harvesting would start once more, giving the Aslan Tribe more than enough food to feed everyone for a few months.

Although no one said it out loud, they had already concluded that Leone must have a plantation somewhere, hidden from their sight.

"Now that I’ve assured you that food won’t be an issue, all we need to do is ‌survive this calamity," Oswald commented. "With all of us working together, I’m sure we’ll be just fine."

Leone liked how positive the chieftain was.

Still, he couldn’t help but feel worried, thinking that his preparations might not be enough.

The only saving grace was that tonight he could talk to his mother again using the obsidian crystal.

The thought of talking to his family helped him calm down for a bit.

Though since he had to introduce Yuni to his mother, he might also need to introduce Ulric as well.

As for Aria... Leone still felt a bit conflicted about his relationship with her.

’I’ll just cross that bridge when I get there,’ Leone thought while listening to the strategy Kael had devised to divide the forces of each tribe for the upcoming monster stampede.