After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

"It's very simple... before the meal."

"Before the meal?"

"My children, just as we need our cooks to take food from the granary before we eat, the Romans, while on garrison duty, certainly wouldn't let their cooks carry rations for hundreds of people... They would eventually have to go to the granary to get the food, and the two places they would travel to and from the granary would be either the kitchen or the granary."

We only need to have the harpies harass one of the most frequently visited areas—after all, there may be many kitchens, but only a few warehouses that can simultaneously supply large quantities of food for the kitchens.

Now, our concern is actually the weather... Sunny days are fine, but rain might disrupt the harpies' activities. We can only pray for clear skies from now on. That's all.

Khuttoq Khan confirmed the next steps. His army was stationed not far in front of the defensive line built by General Dreshka. He knew he could no longer leverage the advantages of nomadic tribes, so stopping to test the feasibility of new tactics became his best option.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the tunnel excavation work in Isugard was progressing smoothly.

Before noon, they successfully excavated about twenty meters into the mountainside. The excavated flesh and blood were stored at the rear as emergency rations or feed for the griffins. The entire tunnel appeared exceptionally smooth due to the effects of the flesh and blood magic; it was so smooth that touching the rock walls with one's hand felt slippery.

This can be considered a key characteristic of flesh magic in a sense—parts corroded by flesh can be easily peeled off, leaving smooth cut surfaces where no flesh has been corroded. The only problem this causes is that when the soldiers in the rear reinforce the area, they have to roughen it to increase friction and stability, but none of this matters to the Sirens.

Having finished their arduous work, they are now resting in the rear. Based on their less than an hour of actual progress this morning, they expect to be able to carve out a tunnel through the first mountain in two days—but they are unsure whether the current magical energy in the entire region is sufficient to sustain their efforts.

Kino's biggest worry was running out of magic power mid-construction. But after careful research, she discovered that not only did the continent of Elusia have a higher magic power reserve than Isgard, but its magic power recovery speed was also much faster.

"Perhaps this is the lingering effect of the magically rich continent. I now understand why Miss Margarita was so determined to invade this continent."

Miss Kino pouted, sat on the stone bench corroded by flesh magic, and muttered something while picking at the noodles in her bowl.

"If those old folks at home came here, they'd probably be so excited they'd immediately use magic to create life-size dolls for their amusement... But then again, didn't anyone notice anything wrong during the work?"

Kino's question made the sirens, who were eating, shake their heads:

"No, not at all. It was much smoother than in Isgard."

"The only problem might be that no man takes advantage of me while I'm working to reach behind me and roughly grope me—"

"Shut up! This isn't the time to be lewd! But seriously... the abundance of magic here is really great, isn't it? I almost over-exerted my magic and ended up covering that rotten flesh in front of me outside of my plan..."

"But the magic here doesn't seem as powerful as it is in the United Nations. If I could turn an entire house into rotten flesh over there, here I can only turn a small room into rotten flesh at most..."

The sirens chattered and laughed, and aside from one little girl who occasionally uttered frivolous statements because she longed for a passionate love like that of a wild beast, the others all offered their own insights to varying degrees.

Kino diligently recorded the key information that might be useful—especially the information about [magic purity]... In her eyes, the magic of the continent of Elusia had clearly been divided into different grades.

The magic of the United Nations is naturally of the highest quality. To use a metaphor from the younger generation of Sirens, it's like a strong young man in his twenties who goes to the gym every day. He is powerful and vigorous, and is considered top-quality by the Sirens.

Furthermore, the magic power in most parts of the Roman Empire is moderate, giving the Sirens the impression of an ordinary, healthy male human—though he might ruin his health in a year or two, it's better than nothing.

As for the magic in Isgard...

...

It wasn't what Kino said.

Her own country was so incredibly rotten. She didn't even know what to say. But then she thought that after the Roman Empire became a colony of Isgard, her own country would also gain a region rich in magic resources...

Hmm...it's actually not so bad, is it?

She muttered to herself. Just then, a Siren girl suddenly said that if the President hadn't established Isgard back then, perhaps the Sirens would never have had the chance to travel to this magically powerful continent.

"If Miss Margarita hadn't established Isgard back then and been willing to accept us, a small number of aliens who were basically useless in Isgard's low-magic environment... perhaps we would never have had the chance to escape to this place and return to our carefree lives? Of course, I read that in a book..."

"...What's recorded in the book is correct. Don't forget what the old ladies thought of Miss Margarita, okay?" Kino shrugged. "After all, Miss Margarita is a legendary figure in a sense... Even in Ysgard today, you simply can't find another character like Miss Margarita, can you?"

"Kino, what do you mean?"

"That kind of convincing personal charisma, the ability to achieve practical results, and the vision that is ahead of its time."

"Oh, I see—there was some anecdote in the book, wasn't there? It seems that decades ago someone proposed the importance of [industry] and [standardized production], and it was Miss Margarita who personally overcame the dissatisfaction of those small workshop artisans, which led to our country establishing the standardized industrial processes we have today?"

"To be precise, the artisans instigated a rebellion—and then Miss Margarita used her personal charm to bring the rebels back to their knees, transforming them into the elite workers of today's industrial system..."

"I thought they were all killed."

"How could that be?"

Looking at the girl rolling her eyes in front of him, Kino smiled, but in his mind he recalled all the things about Miss Margarita, the president.

As a vampire capable of countless transformations, she has no fixed form—when Kino first met Miss Margarita, she was a noble, tall, blonde beauty. The second time they met, however, she had become a silver-haired, red-eyed little girl.

Margarita's appearance was ever-changing, which made it a painstaking task for the government painters of Isgard to paint her portrait every year. But more than her ever-changing appearance, her personality was the true symbol of the progress of Isgard as a whole.

As Cino said, Margarita's appearance in this era was an anomaly.

Who exactly is Margarita, the vampire president? This is probably a question that confuses every traveler or foreign merchant.

But in the hearts of the Issugardians, they could give a positive answer.

"She accomplished what no one else had done during the centuries of chaos—unifying the continent and establishing a unified nation.

"It enabled previously isolated city-states to communicate with each other, allowed hostile foreign tribes to live in peace, established a spider web of commercial exchange along the dangerous coast, brought enormous resources to the country, and spurred several reforms in a society that was still dominated by handicrafts and the priesthood's monopoly on knowledge."

"She was the one who spent a great deal of wealth and manpower to cleanse the continent of cannibals and terrifying aliens that were roaming the entire continent."

"But is she a good person?"

surely not.

Kino sighed.

"She was the one who wiped out the village on the only mountain range on the continent of Isgard. Apart from those who were trafficked, more than 8,000 people, regardless of age or gender, were burned to death in the mass grave."

"Anyone who resists the constitution of Isgard will be brutally and mercilessly slaughtered. In order to prevent them from rising again, she will even order her vampire guards to kill all their relatives."

"In order to promote her policies, she even dared to push down the statues of gods in front of believers, and then send the believers and pastors to the execution ground together."

"Just like her ever-changing appearance... her emotions are also ever-changing—one moment she's like a close friend, the next she's cutting off your head is commonplace. But even so, Miss Margarita has countless loyal followers, and these followers are willing to believe in Miss Margarita's promises."

"Making Ysgard an unbreakable promise."

In the eyes of the people of Issugard, Margarita is an advanced and enlightened president, or rather, a monarch—because every year her votes far exceed those of the second-place candidate by hundreds of times. The people of Issugard only accept Margarita's rule, and can only accept Margarita's rule.

But in the hearts of others who had been purged, Margarita was undoubtedly a tyrant. In some ways, she was no longer even human.

Even the most ruthless murderers are bound to feel compassion when faced with young infants.

But for the sake of Isgard, Margarita is willing to abandon all her dignity and emotions as a human being.

...This is also a major reason why Miss President has that kind of charm and a large following.

After centuries of chaos, the people of Isgard had come to realize one fact: a nation must have an advanced and enlightened ruler. They could no longer rely on the rule of nobles as they had in the feudal era. They should not be divided individuals, but rather compatriots of one nation.

...Of course, it's not like no one has considered the possibility of a conspiracy. Margarita made Ysugard so good; she must have had ulterior motives—but then again, would you accept a saint who sincerely doesn't have bad intentions towards you, but can only make you suffer a meager existence?

Or would you rather believe in a schemer who might ultimately lead you to some kind of conspiracy, but who can also make your life better and better and eventually make you the one who benefits?

The vast majority of people would choose the latter.

Therefore, it wasn't just Miss Margarita who chose Ysgard.

Ysgard also chose Miss Margarita.

Just like the Sirens' current mutual choice—Margarita believes the Sirens can bring positive changes to Ysgard, so now it's the Sirens' turn to reciprocate.

But then again...

(If His Majesty the Regent of the United Kingdom had been born in Isgard, he probably would have been turned into an immortal by Miss Margarita long ago, right? They look so alike... except their starting points were different, weren't they?)

Kino muttered to himself.

Thinking back to the history of the founding of the Roman Empire, it seems that it was indeed too smooth.

She felt that the Romans deserved to be ignorant of the importance of a nation.

.............

Then, until May 15th, the Sirens continued digging tunnels for the Issugard colonial army, tunneling through the heart of the Roman Empire's mountains. Thanks to their efforts, they successfully breached the first two mountains, allowing tens of thousands of troops to cross them in a single day. They were also nearing completion of the third mountain range.

The Sirens weren't just digging tunnels; the byproducts of their flesh magic—the piles of flesh and blood—did indeed enrich the colonial army's food and supplies. Humans might not be able to directly enjoy the delicacies from the Sirens, but the griffins could!

In a sense, the colonial army had enjoyed a period of relative comfort before the battle. But for General Piss, their troubling problems were only just beginning...

"The only problem is... the dragons... they've eaten too much."

Although the flesh and blood of the sirens could fill the griffons' bellies, the dragons refused to eat that food.

After all, dragons are also human and need to eat human food—but this means the colonial army's food and supplies are truly going to run out.

Not every dragon can control its appetite like Lady Nia. It's also possible that not every dragon spends at least three hundred days a year in human form like Lady Nia.

The dragons' daily consumption is simply too great... Dozens of cows today, dozens of pigs tomorrow, and if they eat flour, they might need dozens or even hundreds of bags? General Piss really can't let the dragons eat indefinitely; he must launch an attack as soon as possible, otherwise the colony army of Isgard might really encounter a problem of food shortage on the front lines.

After all, the grain stored in the warehouse is only a guarantee.

Whether or not the food could be transported to the front lines was another question.

Not to mention that the tunnel's current transport capacity is problematic... Although it can accommodate horse-drawn carriages, General Piss was prepared for the tunnel's limited capacity, given that wounded soldiers at the front also needed to be transported back through the tunnel.

Moreover... no one can guarantee that the Romans' warehouses have enough food to support the colonial army's continued advance.

...

General Piss covered his face with cold sweat.

He looked with considerable difficulty at the magic mirror placed not far away, and then looked with considerable distress at the reports and statistics on food and supplies in his hands.

After much thought, even being devoured alive by Lady Nia is better than the soldiers starving on the front lines...

He gritted his teeth and decided to do something that might infuriate Lady Nia...

"Perhaps we can ask Lady Nia to seek help from the United Nations..."

General Piss muttered to himself as he reached out his hand toward the mirror.

Meanwhile, in the United Nations, witnessed by many, Lord Lalumia sent a ball of divine power towards St. Petersburg, thus concluding the United Nations' poisoning operation.

They will have to wait a long time to get a result, but before that, they have a lot of work to do.

"Artificial magic reactors have been gradually laid out within the United Nations, and the underground network system is also under construction in an orderly manner... The [Magic Network] issue that we need to pay attention to next will become the top priority for future development—but before that, are the Colossus Weapons ready for construction?"

Yang Hao nodded to Elena on the other side of the round table, and Elena responded with a smile:

"affim."

Recently, the synthetic dolls have been behaving more and more like a normal girl.

It's unclear whether this is a genuine change in her or the result of careful calculation—but for Yang Hao, it doesn't really matter.

However, it seems that my two wives have recently been taking their anger out on Lord Lalumia...

What on earth happened here?