“S-sir… There was a sudden huge blast that knocked off the tank and the other vehicles… By my guess, the blast originated in the plaza… “ Henry answered.

Dammit, is this what the demon lord said about us losing the battle!?

"Rest up for now, are there any casualties." I replied.

“None of the men were KIA but… “

“But?”

Henry didn’t answer back, instead, he just pointed his finger somewhere. I followed his finger and saw three bodies laid there. I approached the bodies so that I could Identify who they were.

I was shocked to find out that the bodies belonged to the three female adventurers I met during my first dungeon exploration. They were: Maria, Martha, and Marga. I might not have known them for long, but that doesn't matter because I know that they are good people and we might've even become close. But alas, that will never happen now.

I offered a silent prayer before purchasing three white cloths and covered them up, "Handle their bodies.with respect, they deserve it. 1st Platoon on me, 2nd platoon will guard the dungeon entrance and protect the wounded."

"" YES SIR! ""

I led the first platoon to the plaza, we made our way tot the plaza on foot since our vehicles have been blasted away and are either on their sides or completely turned upside down. I'll need to summon a recovery vehicle later.

The closer we got to the plaza, the more damaged the surroundings became. If the damages here are already this severe, then I can't imagine the plaza looks like now. WAIT! MY FRIENDS ARE STILL THERE! I ordered my men to run after realizing that my friends might've been caught up in the blast.

A few minutes of running later, we finally arrived at the plaza, or rather was the plaza. I was stunned to see what has become to it. The entire place has been leveled to the ground and scorch marks can be seen all around. But that wasn't all, in the middle of the plaza, burnt bodies lay scattered. No, No, No.

I ran to the nearest corpse to check whether or not they were one of my friends, but the corpse is already FUBAR and there's no way to check its identity. My men already began inspecting the plaza and the corpses. This doesn't make sense, why are there too many corpses. Unless… no they wouldn't… right?

As if answering the question on my mind, I saw my friends and classmates rushing over. They were being followed behind by a crowd of people, the evacuees we rescued. As soon as they saw me, they ran as fast as they could. Some of my other classmates stopped midway and hunched over to vomit.

Cess was the first one to reach me, "IAN! WHAT HAPPENED!? THERE WAS A LOUD BOOM AND-" 

"YOU'RE ASKING ME!?" I cut her off with a yell.

"Huh!? I… I… " Cess stammered.

"Ian! That's going too far now!" Rika said to me with a slap on my face.

"R-rika!?" Cess said.

My men who saw what happened aimed there guns at Rika. Rika took a step back and trembled in fear. "Rika… That one slap earlier was justified, sure. I deserved it, sure. But this time? What the hell did I even do, huh!?"

Rika, who was still trembling, had a hard time replying. Carlo was the one who replied in her stead, "Bro, chill. What happened here anyways?"

"Chill? What the fuck man. Who the hell decided to bring the townsfolk here?! This is still an active battlefield, dammit!" I said angrily.

Kelvin was the one to answer this time, "It's a group decision, we decided to let them in since it might be dangerous outside."

Their thought process is just messed up, I couldn't hide my anger anymore and ended up yelling louder. "FUCKIN HELL! YOU DAMN IDIOTS! YOU THOUGHT THAT THEY'D BE SAFER IN AN ACTIVE BATTLEFIELD? WELL FUCK ME! THE TOWNSFOLK YOU LET IN? WELL LOOK AROUND, THAT'S THEM. AND THEIR FUCKING BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS!" 

"T-that wasn't our intention… " Cess managed to reply.

I can't stand their excuses anymore so I decided to go in front of the crowd of refugees, my men followed behind with my friends and classmates in tow.

"THIS!" I shouted and pointed at the carnage in front of them, "THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE YOUR DAMN HEROES' DECISIONS! THEY DO NOT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU! THEY JUST WANTED TO EARN GLORY BY SAVING A TOWN! WERE THE HEROES THE ONE WHO FOUGHT THE MONSTERS IN THE TOWN!?"

"" NO! "" The townsfolk answered with a shout.

"DID THEY RESCUE SURVIVORS TRAPPED IN THE CITY!?"

"" NO! ""

"WHAT DID THEY DO THEN!?"

The townsfolk's previous shouts became quiet. Silence ensued for a couple of seconds until someone yelled out, "THEY KILLED MY BROTHER AND HIS FAMILY!"

That first voice broke the dam holding their emotions as they all shouted angrily at the heroes. "THEY KILLED MY FRIENDS!" "THEY KILLED OLD MAN SANCHO!" "MY FATHER… *SOB*"

The heroes' guilt became more apparent in their faces as they heard more and more complaints and dissatisfaction aimed at them. All the heroes except one, "YOU DAMN UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS!" Marvin yelled as he unsheathed his sword and charged at one of the townsfolk.

I whipped out my MP40 and fired a small burst at Marvin's leg, most of the shots missed and hit the ground. But a lucky bullet went through his armor and into his leg. He fell down and clutched his leg as he groaned in pain.

The already angry townsfolk who saw his action became angrier and started picking up small rocks and rubble. "You're not a damn hero!" one of them said as she threw the rock she was holding at Marvin. Several more followed her.

"Urk… Garh… DAMN Y-... Gruk… "

Marvin was continuously pelted by the townsfolk. The Heroes watched on in horror thinking that the same fate awaits them.

Marvin's face had already started to bleed, so I decided to stop the townsfolk from pelting him. I aimed my gun at the sky and fired. This got the attention of the townsfolk and they stopped throwing rocks. "Citizens of Nareña, do not soil your hands with the blood of this hero, nay, this trash." I said with a loud voice as I looked at the pitiful existence known as Marvin.

"D… mn… you… I'm not trash…" Marvin weakly replied.

The townsfolk calmed down after what I said, but they still looked at Marvin with hate and anger. The heroes still trembled in fear not knowing what'll happen to them.

I faced the townsfolk once again and decided to continue my speech, "Did the kingdom aid you in your time of need!?"

"" NO! ""

"If the kingdom has forsaken you, who then will protect you now!?"

The townsfolk looked at one another after my question. No one was trying to answer my question.

"IF NO ONE WILL PROTECT YOU, THEN WE WILL!!!!" I declared.

The townsfolk cheered after my declaration, but one old man approached me. "To whom do we owe our lives to, good sir?" he asked.

Crap, our group still has no name… The Protector? Nope, hell nah. People's shield? Still nope. Peacekeepers, hmm… Peace… For peace, prepare for war, right or something along that line? For peace… or for war… 

"Para bellum, this town has been saved by the para bellum." I answered.

"Parabellum, WE HAVE BEEN SAVED BY THE GROUP OF PARABELLUM!" The old man shouted and the townsfolk responded with an even greater and louder cheer.

"2nd Era has been unlocked… Building creation unlocked… Claim this land as your own… YES / NO… You have earned 50,000 points for advancing in the next era… "

Wait wait wait… 2nd era is the Korean War right? Then building creation is another function of my skill. By claim this land, what does it mean?

"Answer: Claim the town of Nareña and some surrounding land… Claiming the land will enable the placing of buildings from building creation skill… Without any claimed lands… Building creation will not work… "

I see, last but not the least. Holy cow! 50k points!? There'll be some upgrading to be done. Go ahead and claim Nareaña and its surrounding lands.

"Affirmative… Nareña and surrounding lands have been claimed… Total land area is 3 km2… Total number of people in the claimed land is 769… 855 if you include yourself and your troops… You are currently earning 855 points per day… "

There are only around 800 townsfolk left, didn't we start with 1000 or something?

"Negative… You started with 978 refugees… 194 refugees and 3 adventurers have died in the blast… "

Hmm, I see, may they find rest and peace in the afterlife.

"S...r… S...ir… Sir… " Christina said as she shook my arm.

"H-huh…"

I didn't notice what had happened in front of me since I was talking with my skill. I only saw Marvin getting pinned by several townsfolk and Leah. When I asked Leah what had happened, she said that Marvin tried to get up and attack a townsfolk but they managed to restrain him.

He was still struggling, so I ordered one of my men to silence him with the butt of their rifle. As soon as Marvin was knocked out, the townsfolk cheered again. With one distraction out of the way, I now turned to the heroes.

"What do you want to do now?" I asked them.

"I uhmm… "

"We…"

They couldn't form any coherent replies and just mumbled to themselves. Even Rika couldn't find something to say.

Since they still won't answer, I decided to answer my own question. "If you don't want to give me an answer. Then I'll be the one to decide your fate. I hereby banish you from the town of Nareña. I declare this as the leader of Para Bellum."

"Y-you can't just do that!" Jose protested.

"I can, if you don't like that I'll give you two options." I paused and went in front of Jose, "Exile or Death, you choose."

"N-... "

Jose was too scared to answer, the other heroes widened their eyes after hearing what I just said. "I guess you all have an answer now, am I right?" I asked and they answered with a trembling nod. I faced the townsfolk once more, "The heroes will now be banished from Nareña and this town will now be under the protection of Para Bellum."

"" ALL HAIL PARA BELLUM! ALL HAIL PARA BELLUM! ""

I guess they don't have any problem with the new ruling power, which is us. I'll have to show them that they made the right decision.

I ordered the heroes to gather the corpses and arrange them in rows. They protested at first, but a single gunshot was enough for them to comply. Some of them, mostly the girls, vomited as they pulled the corpses. This is the result of their decision, they must be the ones to at least lay them to rest.

It took the heroes a few hours to organize the corpses into rows. The rest of my men and 3 vehicles arrived while the heroes were organizing the bodies. The vehicles that arrived were 2 APCS and the ambulance. As the vehicles stopped near the plaza, I saw that the ambulance wasn't the only vehicle carrying injured people. One of the APCs is also carrying the wounded tankers while the ambulance carried the 3 dead adventurers and Tia. Thank God she's still alive, I probably missed her at the dungeon entrance.

I had my men unload the bodies and they laid them in the plaza along with the dead townsfolk. After all the bodies have been laid, I bought a sheet of white cloth for every corpse. It took another hour to cover everything and by the time they had finished, the sun was already setting.

I let the townsfolk enter the plaza to offer a prayer for the deceased. I also ordered my men to do a gun salute for the three adventurers.

After the offering of prayers and gun salute, the townsfolk started to leave the plaza to return to their camp outside the gates. One old man approached me, "Good Sir, May I ask that you burn the bodies? It pains me to let them experience getting burned twice, but it is the only way for them to reach the afterlife."

"If that is the custom here, then we will do it." I replied.

"Thank you, good sir." He said before waving goodbye and joined up with the rest of the townsfolk.

Guess we'll need some flammenwerfers. I won't summon new soldiers though, the upkeep is just too much for me right now, actually I just earned 50k. Buuuut still no new soldiers, I don't need a huge army right now anyway.

I summoned 5 FmWs and distributed them, afterwards, I gave the order to burn the bodies. The smell of burnt flesh intensified.

As I watched my men burning the bodies, the two adventurers in the heroes group approached me. "Hey kid, you know where Maria and her party are?"

I just pointed at the bodies at the corner of the plaza slightly away from the rest of the bodies. One of the adventurers, Tristan was his name I think, ran to the bodies and fell to the ground crying as soon as he reached them. The other adventurer and I soon followed after him. Tristan just knelt there crying beside the three bodies.

I left the two adventurers to mourn and went to the heroes, "Can you now see the results of your decision!?" The only replyI gotwas silence and some sobbing noises. "Men take them away, bound them and blindfold them." I said to my men before purchasing ropes and blindfolds from my skill.

They protested at first, but my men are stronger than them. After that was taken care of, I sent the 2nd platoon and an APC to check if the Baron's mansion in the northern district is still safe. I was planning on billeting my men there and the townsfolk can also camp out in the courtyard since it looks wide enough to accommodate 700 or something people.

I guess that's enough for today, I have a lot of things to do tomorrow though.