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.”

Zaryusu fell silent, she was right.

The other party gave them time, announced the order of attack deliberately and didn’t get in the way of Zaryusu’s efforts to form an alliance. What if their plan all along was to gather all the lizardmen in order to annihilate them.

“I have many worries, someone who thinks as deeply as you should feel even more so. But no matter what, we will fight this battle with our foes… We can think about the other things after that.”

“They won’t give up even if we win. The chance of them giving up is abysmal.”

“That might be so, but what you said that night is true. Look—”

Crusch extended her arms toward the empty space before her. But Zaryusu understood that she was referring to the entire village.

"Look at all the lizardmen from the various tribes working towards the same goal.”

Indeed, the lizardmen from all the tribes were advancing together as one.

The image of the five tribe banquet surfaced in Zaryusu’s mind. The tribes were interacting harmoniously together without reservation. It would be a lie to say the survivors from the two destroyed tribe bore no grudges. But they displayed the will to swallow their grudge in the face of this incident.

The irony.

Zaryusu muttered. He always thought their divided worlds would carry on forever, he never thought the appearance of a mutual enemy would allow him to witness the unity of the lizardmen.

"We need to protect the possibility of our future, Zaryusu. The alliance of all the tribes would promote our development.”

Building walls with mud was a technique Zaryusu had never seen before. But now, the other tribes knew about this technique. In the future, all the lizardmen tribes would build such walls. With such strong walls, it should be able to keep the monsters from breaking in. That way, the chances of the weak young ones being attacked would fall, and the number of lizardmen would increase.

They could meet the increase in demand for food by using Zaryusu’s fish breeding farm.

Maybe in the near future, all lizardmen will unite into one giant tribe in these swamps.

“Let us obtain victory, Zaryusu. It is impossible for us to know what happens in the future, maybe everything would be over after this battle. If that is so, we can start developing a wonderful world without food problems and the need for lizardmen to kill each other.”

Crusch smiled. Zaryusu suppressed his emotion, if he allowed his feeling to run loose, he might not be able to reign in it; but he had something he had to say.

“You are an excellent female lizardman— After this battle is over, please tell me the answer to that question I asked when we first met.”

Crusch smile became even more brilliant.

“I understand, Zaryusu. I will tell you my answer after this is all over—”

♦ ♦ ♦

Demiurge was in a great mood as he hummed while he worked.

He picked up the polished bone, wondering where he should put it for the best presentation. Shortly after, he made his decision and sliced off the tip and place it within the item he was building.

The bone fitted in perfectly like a piece of a puzzle.

If building a house without using nails is known as ‘precision wood joint’, then what Demiurge was doing should be ‘precision bone joint’.

“That looks great.”

Demiurge caressed the bone with a smile on his face. If he continued to work on it, he had a feeling he can complete an outstanding piece.

“But… I am lacking the right femur of a man about 1.2m in height.”

He could complete it even if he don’t find that bone. But without it, it wouldn’t look as nice.

Usually, Demiurge would compromise and make do with this. But this gift was meant for his beloved master, so he had to make it perfect.

“It would be great if I can find something suitable.”

Demiurge, who was in a good mood, started moving.

Actually, Demiurge liked to create such items. His interest was not in using bones to make items, but in carpentry work. His interest in this field was rather wide, from art pieces to furniture, his skills had surpassed that of weekend hobbyist.