Overlord Blue Citadel Alternate

『A Golden Trumpet』

Jack felt as if he was going to regret asking the words which were about to come out of his mouth. He even sighed before opening his mouth, "You seem troubled...?"

Enri closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again, her big brown eyes engulfing him. "A small group of farmers and the village elder went out to check some herbs as the sun was rising and haven't come back."

Jack could hear the shakiness in her voice, even though she was trying to hide it the best she could. "Why were they checking herbs so early in the morning...?" He asked blatantly, though he sounded apathetic, her complexion noticeably became just a little better in health.

"One of them thought they saw a blight developing, the others went to check it out to make sure it wasn't..." Enri glanced aside towards the dirt a several paces away.

Jack frowned visibly as he was given this information. So a group of people had went out to the forest and surrounding area to check the known patches of herbs? While that may not be abnormal, he was sure there was definitely something more going on.

Perhaps there were goblins, or even ogre, nearby. Though what made him curious was that the Village itself seemed rather calm, in the sense that it wasn't being sieged or directly assaulted.

He drew in a deep breath, before releasing it in one go, looking her over. He was hoping to get something out of her, but that didn't seem like it would be the case just yet.

"And the Guards have seen nothing?" He'd ask as he looked towards one of the Honor Guard members which were walking around.

Anika raised a brow as she looked to each member as they were walking about the perimeter of the village main habitation area. All of them could be sighted at least once before disappearing behind other buildings. None of them were missing and they didn't seem all that worried.

Enri shook her head.

"Did you say anything to them?"

"No, I haven't spoken to the guards. I was waiting for you, as I wasn't sure they'd answer me." She raised her big brown eyes to look at him again.

His amethyst hues stared down through her for a few seconds before nodding, "Fair enough." He didn't sound amused, nor happy. Even though he made it sound like he understood, he didn't, considering Teetle hadn't reported disappearing villagers.

Could it have slipped the Overlord's mind? Or had the Overlord assumed it wasn't important information compared to the other developments? In a sense, it wasn't important, not in the long-term anyways. Jack would cross his arms slightly as he began to think to himself. The Village desperately needed a wall around it, or some form of protection.

It wouldn't take long for them to build a concrete wall around this place. At most it would take a few weeks as long as they could get a hold of the material. He was sure there was plenty of clay and rocks in the area, even water from the lake or the well.

However the one thing they didn't have an abundance of was sand, one of the primary ingredients of making concrete and glass. However there was also the fact that he could have them make a cement wall, which was even cheaper. Iron or Steel Cement made from the material found in the mineral deposits nearby. All they had to do was eliminate the current inhabitants.

The question was, how large was that wall going to be? If he squared it around the village rather then encircle it, he'd have access to plenty of the forest for expansion. He could also move the entrance to the underground city, into the center of the Village, like a hidden escape hatch.

He remembered that there had been some ancient walled cities which had underground passage ways for the inhabitants to hide while the city itself was being sieged. Though once their entrances were found, they were essentially trapped.