As I browsed my skills while I waited for the census to finish, something caught my attention. I selected it but I was a few thousand points short. I wonder where it’ll even get summoned in?

The whole census thing lasted up until the sun had already set, I even called the other vehicles to provide light. All the townsfolk had already been registered. The registration of the slaves will be held off for now, they'll have to wait until they've been interviewed and freed. There's just around 30 or 40 of them anyways, so I think the interview will only last for a couple of hours at most.

The townsfolk returned to their houses one by one after they finished filling up the resident information sheets. Once all the townsfolk are gone and only the slaves remain, the engineering platoon arrived right in time. It was good timing since we were already planning on going back to the mansion.

"Sir, 1st pioniere platoon has completed the task you gave us." The platoon leader said with a salute.

I returned his salute, "Good job, follow the others to the mansion and rest up. You'll have a lot of work to do tomorrow."

"Will do, sir. We'll be ready to take on whatever work you'll give us tomorrow." He replied.

The platoon leader hopped on top of the ARV and they followed the APC convoy back to the mansion. The rest of the engineering platoon hopped inside or on top of the empty APCs. The slaves also followed us to the mansion and stayed at the courtyard on the space we provided yesterday night. They already had tents set up on one corner of the courtyard. I'll have them leave the area once they're freed from those slave collars.

Once the plaza was empty, I also decided to leave. I hopped on the jeep and headed for the mansion. I still have so many things to do in order to keep this town running, I'll just leave everything to them once I finish setting things up.

+ + + + +

Johan's merchant convoy stopped on the roadside and proceeded to set up camp. The heroes tried to help, but Johan and his crew refused to let them help.

"We can do this alone, you heroes can just rest up in your wagon for now." Johan said.

"Okay. That's what we'll do then." Rika replied. “Well guys, you heard him.”

The heroes returned to their own wagon, but Cess stayed behind. “Mr. Johan?” She said.

“No need to add the Mister, you can just call me Johan.” Johan replied. “What is it?”

“I haven’t seen Tia around, where is she?” Cess asked.

“She’s having her, uhmm… period… So uhmm… “ Johan answered. “She said she’s uhmm… experiencing severe pain down there… “

“Oooh, I see.” Cess said, “I’ll go see her once she’s fine then.”

Cess went ahead and joined her fellow heroes in their wagon. Johan continued helping in setting up the camp. After half an hour, the camp was set up and some of Johan’s men started to make food.

Inside the heroes wagon, they were talking amongst themselves.

“Urgh, it’s hard bread for dinner again!” Mary Claire complained.

"Go pick some grass outside and eat it." Jose said jokingly.

Although it was said as a joke, it was still very offensive. "Urgh, you're such a jerk. You know that?" Mary Claire retorted.

"Oooh, sheesh. Chill out. I was just joking." Jose said in his defense.

“Cut it out Jose, let her be.” Richard interjected.

Mary Claire just harrumphed and got out of the wagon, “Look at what you did." Richard said.

"No point in pointing fingers now, ain't there." Rika added. "Just apologize when she comes back."

"Yeah yeah sure, oh wait. What about no? Who're you to give me orders huh Rika? When did you become our leader!?" Jose spat out.

"Wh… I am not the leader!" Rika retorted.

"Oh yeah? Then why're you always giving out orders? Always talking for our whole group?" Jose argued back.

Rika was starting to get frustrated with Jose, "Urgh! Then why don't you do those things and be the leader then!?"

Jose just managed to mumble, "Uhmm… "

"See!? You don't even have the balls to be the leader!" Rika said as an insult.

"What the fuck!? I'll be the damn leader then!" Jose replied as he stood up and puffed out his chest.

"Guys, please calm down for now." Chess said in an attempt to mediate. But instead of calming down Jose, she just made herself the target of his anger.

"Shut up Princess. If your damn friend Ian didn't kick us out then we wouldn't be in this fucking situation!" Jose yelled.

Rika got in between Cess and Jose, "Why're you taking out on her!?"

"Dude, not cool." Carlo added.

"Urgh, fuck this." Jose said before getting out.

After Jose left, everyone left inside the wagon remained silent. Kelvin stood up, "Why the long faces guys? This is a brand new world with no one to tell us what to do."

"Uhmm, don't you want to go back?" Rika asked.

"Go back to where? To Earth? Where there are 7 billion people and we'll just be a bunch of average joes? Not a chance Rika. If we stay here, we can be anyone we want with no one telling us what to do." Kelvin said.

"But what about your family?" Rika asked.

"It's been more than a week or so since we got summoned here, Rika. Even the police might've even given up on looking for us." Kelvin answered.

"Kelvin? It's been just a week or so. Why would they stop searching?" Rika protested.

“Well, no one’s stopping you from going back. Do you know how to get back though?” Kelvin asked.

“That’s a… “ Rika replied.

"You don't, right? So why go home now when you don't even know how to?" Kelvin stated.

Rika couldn't answer back so Carlo came to her rescue, "Hey guys, we'll deal with it when we get there right?"

"Sure, but you're not there yet. So let's enjoy this new world for now." Kelvin replied.

"Yeah, maybe we should." Carlo said before turning to Cess and Rika, "What do you guys say about that?"

"Okay." Cess answered.

 "That should be fine with me too." Rika answered.

Kelvin turned to their other classmates and asked the same thing. The others also agreed. After everyone's agreement, Kelvin stood proudly in the middle of the wagon. “Since you all agree with me, then I guess I’m the new leader, right?”

“Didn’t we agree that Jose is the new leader?” Richard said.

“Shh shh shh, I’m the new leader, well not yet. But I will be.” Kelvin replied.

“Okay?” Richard said.

As they were finishing up, Mary Claire peeked inside. “Hey guys your ‘Food’ is ready.”

The heroes all got out of the wagon and gathered around the campfire. There they had their dinner, hard bread and dried meat.

As the heroes and Johan’s crew ate their dinner, Cess excused herself saying she needed to use the restroom. She went out of sight of the group and searched the wagons. On her second wagon she found something.

I better tell this to Ian. She thought to herself before pulling out her phone. I hope this still works. She turned on her phone and to her delight, it still worked. She then took a picture of what she saw and sent it to Ian.

+ + + Ian + + +

I opened my eyes and woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling. No, not really. I’ve been sleeping in this room for a few days now. I walked to the washroom to wash my face and put on my uniform. I went out of the room and as usual, two guards greeted me. I went to the mess hall and had my breakfast.

After finishing my breakfast, I went to the courtyard to check on the slaves. Leah saw me on the way there so she tagged along.

The slave's area was guarded by a few soldiers and the slaves gathered at the center. They seem to be cooking something.

The soldiers guarding them gave salutes as soon as they saw me. The slaves were to busy cooking their meals to pay any mind to me. Them ignoring me didn't sit well with Leah, "You maggots! The commander has arrived and yet you dare ignore him over some food!?" She shouted.

The slaves all stood up in surprise, some of them even dropped their bowls. Oof. I'll make sure they'll still get some food later.

"No need to shout at them Leah. They're civilians, not soldiers." I said.

Leah got down on her knees and bowed her head, "I apologize for my actions!"

"Woah, get up. Apology accepted." I replied and offered my hand.

"I am not worthy of your magnanimity." She said and refused to take my hand.

I didn't want to reply anymore so I just took her hand and helped her get up. "There, don't just go down and kneel on the ground. Look, that made your uniform dirty."

"I'm so sorry sir! Punish me accordingly if you want." She said and even tried to get down on the ground again, but I managed to stop her from doing so.

I summoned a new M36 officer's uniform and handed it to her, "Here, some fresh new uniforms. Have someone wash your old one. I'll also summon some spares for the other soldiers."

"You didn't need to sir." She said.

"You're all my subordinates, and as a good leader I must make sure that your needs are met, right?" I replied.

Leah just saluted before leaving, but her steps seemed a bit lighter. After Leah left, I turned to the slaves, “We’ll begin the interviews after you eat. Non-criminal slaves will be freed and the criminal slaves will be executed. If you are a criminal slave but lie about it, you’ll get something worse than death. That is all.”

As I left them, I heard several things fall to the ground. There was even a wail, but I ignored it. They probably got scared by what I said. Well, it’s not like I’ll instantly execute the criminal slaves. I’ll try to learn their crimes first before giving out punishments. If their crime is murder, execution. If their crime is stealing, I’ll have them work until they pay for what they stole. I believe in the saying ‘An eye for an eye.’ so I’ll punish the criminals in my town based on what they did.

I went to the study and called for Leah. She came in some time later wearing her brand new uniform. “Sir! You called for me?”

“Yeah, I need a headcount of all our personnel, it’s for the new clothes.” I said.

“Yes, sir!” She replied with a salute. She turned to leave but I stopped her.

“One more thing, tell the slaves to gather in front of the mansion after they’ve finished eating.” I said.

“Will do, sir!” she replied then left.

Now how can I make sure that the slaves won't lie? Well, there's the polygraph machine. But it can be countered. Hey, can you make a skill that can tell whether a person is telling the truth or a lie?

"Answer: Yes… The skill: Truth Seer fits your description… acquire skill? "

Yeah, go ahead.

"Affirmative… Truth Seer acquired… Truth Seer is a basic but rare skill… Therefore the energy required to acquire the skill is higher than most basic skills… But there are no negative side effects since it just took 1.3% of the total stored energy… "

I see. Thanks again… I still don't know what to call you. It doesn't sit right with me that all I keep calling you is, Hey. What should I call you?

"Anything… "

I guess I'll call you Wendy then, it's the name I gave the personal assistant I programmed.

"Wendy registered as my new name… "

Good.

I checked what I can summon with my skill again to kill the time. My eyes just went to what I previously saw. I really want to summon some of these bad boys. But oh well, I’ll still need more points, a ton of points. 

After a few more minutes of browsing, Leah knocked at the door. "Sir, they have already gathered in front of the mansion."

I stood up and opened the door, "I see, let's go then."

We arrived in front of the mansion and saw the slaves lined up. Once they saw me, they tried to rush to me but they were stopped by my men.

"Go back in line if you don't want to die." One of the soldiers shouted as he shoved away a man clinging to him.

The other slaves went back in line after seeing the man get shoved to the ground. I stood in front of them, "I'll now start separating the non-criminal slaves from the criminal slaves."

I asked the slaves one by one and separated them. The criminals are to my left and the non-criminals to my right. I just asked them if they’re criminal slaves and all of them answered no. So I used my skill to separate those who lied. 23 of them are innocent and 13 are criminals.

I beckoned Leah to come closer so I could whisper in her ear, "The ones to my right are the non-criminals. Bring your whole platoon here. Half of them will take away the non-criminals on my signal. Bring them to their area in the courtyard then tell them that they're the innocent ones."

"Yes, sir." She said before running off to assemble her platoon.

A couple minutes passed and her platoon has now finished assembling. The platoon split into two and flanked the slaves. As I raised my hand up, the soldiers to my right apprehended the slaves they were facing. The slaves resisted and wailed, but my men continued to apprehend them. The girl I freed last night was also among the non-criminals so she was also being apprehended. She looked at me with tears in her eyes. Sorry, but I want the criminals to feel some joy before experiencing pain.

Some of the criminal slaves had wide grins plastered on their faces. Grin all you like, I'll make sure those will be gone later. The other criminal slaves looked at the non-criminal slaves with pity.

"Now then, if you'll follow me." I said to the remaining slaves and led them inside the mansion. The rest of the soldiers also followed us inside. I guided them to the wine cellar, "To celebrate your freedom, take any wine you want."

The slaves became even more happy and took a bottle each. They were all laughing and cheering. Some have even begun to drink the wine straight from the bottle. As they were all having fun, I took one of them with me and led him outside.

As we were walking in the courtyard, I asked Wendy to create a skill that’ll let me know someone's crime. Such a skill already existed. But just like the Truth Seer skill, it is also a basic but rare skill. And just like the Truth Seer skill, I acquired it immediately. I immediately used it on the man.

[CRIME AND BOUNTY
NAME: Marlon
CRIMES:
Rape - 3
Murder - 5
Theft - 15
Assault - 27
BOUNTIES:
2500 Pisas
]

What the fuck!? I immediately pulled out my Luger and fired at him. Rapists must fuckin die. Alarmed by the gunshots, several soldiers rushed to us only to find a dead man laying in front of me. Leah came from the slave’s area and saw the dead man, “Sir? What happened here?” she asked.

“That man’s a rapist so I decided to kill him immediately.” I replied as I looked at the man’s body coldly.

I ran back to the wine cellar immediately, Leah followed behind, and used my new skill on everyone in there. Out of the remaining 12, 7 had murders, 2 had rape, and the other 3 just had theft. I ordered Leah to call the town rep and gather the townsfolk in the plaza. I then ordered a squad to take the 7 slaves with murder and had them bound, gagged, and blindfolded before putting them into an APC. I also ordered a squad to be equipped with Kar98ks instead of their regular AK47.

We went to the plaza and unloaded the slaves. I had my men put them on their knees and line them up. We waited for half an hour until all the townsfolk had gathered.

“I have gathered you here once more to watch the execution of these murderers.” I spoke in a loud voice. “This town which is under our rule will have a new law, punishments for crimes will be eye for an eye. This is what will happen to murderers.”

Seven soldiers stood behind the seven murderers. The murderers tried to get up, but couldn’t since their hands and feet are bound.

“MAKE READY!”

My men all unshouldered their weapons and loaded a bullet.

“PRESENT ARMS!”

My men aimed their guns at the murderers.

“FIRE!”

A volley was fired on the murderers and they fell on the ground.

The townsfolk only watched on and didn’t react as badly as I thought they would. Since they only reacted lightly, I ordered my men to clean up everything and return to the mansion. What to do with the two rapists? I asked myself as we headed back to the mansion.