Overlord: Start from the Goblin Lair.

"Still no response this month?"

Even today when natural disasters are approaching, spring will still come, but it will come several months later than in previous years.

Ron stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window in the conference room, looking at the newly sprouted buds outside, which added some bright glow to the gray grass and trees.

But looking at the time when spring has arrived this year, the summer in the delusion land should have disappeared.

"Yes, sir," the dwarf Rurik stood behind Ron and responded in a low voice, "Ever since Khalga and Evender escaped two and a half months ago, the ones who came to trade with us have become the devils of Avernus, that is, the subordinates of the famous Grand Duke Zariel."

No matter what, Yuanyin is very important to the devil. Even if there are some unpleasant things on Gracia's side, Jiuyu will not easily give up this strategic resource.

Ron needs this transaction to provide a transfusion for the territory. This is a huge sum of money, enough to maintain the operation of the territory and support several high-level spellcasters to do research.

"So the matter is over?" Victoria was a little dissatisfied. "They broke the agreement, and then just pretended that it never happened?"

Yelena sat on the windowsill, fiddling with the thorn chain in her hand with her back to the light. "What else? Do you expect them to apologize? Even the Heim you believe in may not have such cultivation."

"And if we follow their terms, it's unclear who is right and who is wrong."

"Of course it's Gracia's fault, or it's Khaoga's fault," Ron turned his attention to the factory not far away. Unlike most of the factories that people usually know, this small factory in Green Swamp Town did not have billowing black smoke covering the sky. There was not enough coal to burn it. "The emblem of the Lord of the Nine Hells really appeared on Constance that day. Gracia is not wrong. Could it be that her 'father' is wrong?"

Hearing Ron mention this again, Constance, who was sitting with Ivy, couldn't help but shrink her neck. Although everyone deliberately pretended that nothing happened afterwards, the half-elf girl felt very sorry for everyone.

But she was also a victim in this matter - she didn't even know when she had any connection with that existence! Could it be that her adoptive father...

Constance didn't want to think about it anymore, but the situation was obvious now: she was no longer just herself, nor even just representing her spice merchant father or the Rose Council of Rose City. A pair of eyes, a pair of eyes from the deepest part of hell, were looking through her perspective, peeking at everything in the material world.

No one knows what the devil god, who is so cunning that he can deceive the gods and even extremely lawful creatures, is planning. Maybe he is just monitoring his not-so-careful daughter, or maybe he has other plans.

But at least up to now, He has not shown much malice, and everyone can only comfort themselves in this way. After all, the Delusion Land is not a crack that penetrates the abyss, so it should not affect His grand plan to rule all the universes.

"Next report." Ron sighed softly. The sudden appearance of the emblem of the Lord of Hell scared away the change-minded Khaoga, but it also made them suspicious for several months. Even the threat of disasters in the north seemed less urgent compared to this. "I'm the next one," Gillianis stood up. As the magical energy gathered at her fingertips, Ron turned around and saw one of the three ash runes he gave to the moon elf for research. "Sir Ron, Mr. Elden and I have made some progress on the ash rune."

Gillianis changed her hands into several positions, and the runes immediately changed accordingly. After switching back and forth between several forms, they finally condensed into a group of runes that Ron had never seen before.

This was the Ash Rune, Ron was sure of it, but it was not one of the three he could use. When he retrieved the memory of expelling the runes from Exuri's body, he was surprised to find that there was no similar shape there.

"Its core is still based on the principles of the Ash Rune, but it does not belong to its system," Gillianis explained. "After some testing, we found that the power of the Ash Rune is not suitable for frequent use. It may attract the attention of its true owner. In order to reduce unnecessary trouble, we have re-'copied' a set of runes with similar effects as a replacement."

"Since we used common language systems such as Common, Elven, and Dwarven when describing its profile, its power will be slightly weaker than the original runes, but please believe that they are still very useful. You can confirm this after the meeting."

"Of course I believe in your and Elden's achievements," Ron nodded. In the past two months, he had begun to learn higher-level spells and principles, but this did not bring him much joy of "becoming stronger". On the contrary, as his strength grew, he became more deeply aware of what kind of person his teacher was.

Ron even suspected that even if he could master nine-ring spells such as the Wish one day, he would still not be able to see Gillianis's death. The accumulation of time in centuries could not be measured simply by combat ability.

However, compared to her, another senior senior was different. Elden seemed to have been troubled by the depigmentation disease for a long enough time that even though his life might be longer than Gillianis's, his actual knowledge and strength were much weaker than the moon elf. Ron felt that he still had a good chance of surpassing the dean in his lifetime - of course, this lifetime refers to the life experience as a normal human being.

The Last Lawmaker, the master of the realm of death, seemed to have some goodwill towards Ron. He probably would not want to see Ron transform himself into a lich or other creature, and Ron did not dare to even think of trying it.

Shaking his head, Ron forgot all these things and looked up at the others: "What about the others? Is there anyone who hasn't made a routine report? If not, then disperse and complete the next stage of the task according to the established plan."

The coldest winter has passed, and the construction of the territory will naturally start again.

"Yes, yes," a fat man sitting in the front stood up hesitantly and gave Ron a slightly awkward smile, "Sir, I have two more things to tell you."

This is Victor Fromm. After Evander was taken away, he and his fellow townspeople were naturally taken to Ron's territory to start their lives again. The mayor, who no longer had a town, naturally became a member of Ron's "parliament".

"One is that the City-State Alliance has approved the proposal to have you replace me. There will be news in a while. You may need to go to Rose City and attend a meeting to confirm your position." (End of this chapter)