50 More Progress

Our deal goes something like this,

The upper echelons of the clergy remain obstinate to the dwindling faith and trust from the exorcists, and so there is no shortage of those that have begun looking for their own answers. Many find nothing, but some do, and they are rewarded with exile.

Dulio would sweep in then. Trusted and friendly, he'll then shepherd the recently exiled refugees away from Italy, bringing them all the way to Kuoh. If he feels that there's a high chance the refugee might be interfered with during their move to Kuoh, he'll come along as well.

I, in turn, would make sure there is space for the incoming refugee. I will return back to Kuoh, and I will post several high-reward tasks for Sae and her company to help build secure houses around town. I'll start with twelve houses, capable of housing more than forty people, but I have no doubt that we'll need more.

And I was right. We did need more.

A week goes by since Akeno and my vacation ends. We fly back, and I immediately go to work. Tasks are posted, missions are rewarded, and in just a week twelve new houses sprout out in the town like magic.

In such a short time, the first refugee arrives. Ines Milani is her name. A young woman with flowing white hair and striking red eyes. Even more than that, her ears are strangely pointed; a side effect caused by her past and her synchrony with her Sacred Gear, Twice Critical.

She was quite nervous when we first met, having basically hid behind Dulio's slightly larger frame as we talked. Although she seemed more afraid about her ears, having hidden them under her outfit's hood.

Dulio didn't say anything about why she's here, but my eyes are more than happy to provide. Ines is one of the many sisters who've begun questioning why her prayers to the Lord have yet to be answered. She tried to ask, but was denied at every corner. Eventually, she came upon a man called Vasper Galilei, and he promised answers if she followed him.

She did. She found out about his experiments. Horrified, she tried explaining to the clergy, but was instead exiled. That was when Dulio found her and brought her here.

I have to say though; what is the clergy thinking? I mean, I get wanting to keep your darkness hidden, but come on. Exiling someone just makes you more suspicious.

Ines settles in fairly quickly after that. I gave her one of the twelve newly built homes, though after warning her that she might be sharing it with others in the future. She happily agrees.

A day after, I come to her home, and I begin explaining what this town is. I don't bother hiding anything. The Devil heirs, Sae and her team, my job, my connection with the Youkai; I make sure to tell the young woman everything.

And to my surprise, she just…accepts it. I initially expected that she'd feel conflicted about the fact that she's living in the same town as Devils, but she isn't. I suppose what she saw just days before had made her question a lot about what she learnt.

Anyway,

Time passes quickly after that. Days turn to weeks. And weeks into months. I barely feel any of it though; from the moment I came back from my vacation, I was swamped with work, and I still am.

Refugees from the Vatican begin flooding in. It's slow at first; maybe one every two weeks. Then, slowly, more and more refugees begin showing up.

I realized pretty quickly that I was running out of space in Kuoh, and I can't just offload it all to Sae and her company. My contractors are already swamped with their own work, and I finally decide to let them rest a little.

So, two months later, I begin Kuoh's expansion.

Residential districts, commercial streets, parks, hotels, entertainment; I burn through my quickly building savings to have them all approved and expanded. More houses, more shops, more local parks, longer streets, bigger infrastructure.

Naturally, I have Sae and her company help me in the construction, but some of the refugees also chime in to help. Some Youkai even appear, having been sent by Nurarihyon after I shared with him my plans for my hometown.

Then, before long, my first expansion is done. Kuoh has grown bigger, and has over a hundred new houses. Granted, only a small number of those houses are actually open to the public. I just labeled those saved for the refugees as already being bought.

It's a month of tedious work, but I'd say it's worth it.

Because just two weeks after most of the construction ends, a major conflict occurs in the Vatican. A power struggle between two cardinals came to an end. A head rolled across the floor, and those that worked under him now found themselves being gated by the Vatican.

Now, the man that had been slain was not a kind man. And many of those that worked beneath him had used his name to commit hideous things. But a few of them had worked under him unwillingly, and Dulio was quick to sweep in and bring out those that desperately wanted to escape.

In just a day, over fifty new refugees appears in Kuoh. Ines, acting as a leader for the refugees, is more than happy to show them to the houses I've prepared for them.

Suffice to say, I earnt some massive brownie points that day.

…I just wish Dulio didn't exaggerate to the refugees as much as he did. I mean, what he's saying about me isn't wrong, but he's painting me as some sort of saint.

Although, I have to say, trying to get so many legal documents in such a short time was not fun. Creating new identities, faking past histories, and preparing job opportunities for fifty people in under a week is not a task fit for a human.

Thankfully, I'm not a normal human.

I mean, hey, my sanity might've slipped here and there, but what's done is done.

Inevitably, Rias and Sona eventually find out about what I've been doing for the past months. They were surprisingly okay about it; hearing that they were neutral to Devils probably helped.

So, after some deliberation, I allowed some of the refugees to meet up with the Devil heirs and their peerages.

The result was explosive. In a good way. There was some initial conflict between the two, but after one of the refugees happened to recognize Rias' Knight, things went a lot more smoothly. They got to know each other, the refugees realized that not all Devils are evil, and things were well.

Yet, still, Rias refuses to add new members to her peerage. "None of them feel right," was what she said when I asked, and Sona could only give me a tired shrug.

Oh well. It's her decision.

Time continues to fly by. More and more people come to take refuge in my town. All of them are given new identities to hold, though not all of them are willing to change their name. I'm fine with that; their new names would just act as codenames then.

Some would try hardest to integrate into normal society. Some do so quite well. Others not so much.

Thankfully, I always have a need for supernatural workers. Those that came from the Vatican are varied in their talents. Some are pure exorcists, while others are sisters who worked to purify and bless those heading for battle. And some are more like scientists, working in artifice to create tools and weapons for the Vatican.

They all work for me now.

Funnily enough, that little forest I used to frequent turned out to be the perfect source of materials for my new artificers. After some consideration, I decide to infuse the forest with my Ki and Primal Energy, turning the wood and leaves into potent catalysts of magic.

Again, Primal Energy is such a cheat.

My new artificers gaped when they first tried using the wood, and I had to physically stop them from cutting the entire forest down to get more. Instead, I turned the wood and leaves of the forest into a commodity. Like everything else, they'll need to pay money to get it, which they can earn by doing odd jobs around town.

This…did not go entirely as planned.

Their enthusiasm far exceeded my expectations, and they gained the money to purchase the materials in bulk. I actually had to physically alter the forest to continually grow, just so the trees can grow back overnight. Just in case.

It did mean I had to create a permanent 'Growth' Ofuda to keep the forest afloat. Which meant I had to use my ground up bones as a catalyst once more.

The end result of it all is a semi-constant flow of tools and weapons, created using the enchanted wood and leaves from the now-mystical forest. Unsurprisingly, these tools and weapons are eagerly purchased, either by those that now guard the town or by Sae and her company.

Of course, these new tools and weapons are carefully regulated, and only sold to those that live and work inside Kuoh. Just as a precaution.

And through it all, the wood and leaves even got new names; Lagana and Foglia respectively. I quite like those names, to be honest.

Due to all this, Kuoh Town now has a self-sufficient economy in the supernatural world. Which is nice, if still a little weird to think about.

I wonder how everyone else would think if they saw what's happening now. I mean, it's not like I'm trying to build a new empire or anything. This is just how everything went down.

That aside,

By the time things have somewhat calmed down, nearly five months have flown by. Fall season has just come. The leaves have begun turning orange, and the air is cooling.

Despite all the work, it's been fairly peaceful. For the past months, my life simply consisted of school, training, and work. I don't hate it by any means, but I can't deny that I'm…bored. The tedium of it all is really getting to me.

So it's a blessing when something finally happens.

It's late at night, and I'm lying on my bed, staring emptily at the ceiling of my room. Akeno's right next to me, mumbling incoherently as she sleeps. As per usual, she's clinging onto my arm, hugging me with strength that would've crushed the bones of any normal person.

Then, suddenly, I feel the 'Alarm' Ofudas activate. Immediately, I activate my eyes, and my sight zooms towards what it was that my Ofudas pinged me on.

What I find is…interesting.

On the western edge of town, a battle is happening. On one side is Sae and her company—Slash/Dog they're called, and their opponents are a man and a woman. Yoshito Ike and Marie Delphine, they're called, and they're part of a group called the Abyss Team.

A team that just so happens to work under a renegade cadre.

Hmm. I'm glad Akeno's asleep right now.

Their purpose for being here doesn't really matter. Because what matters is that those two are here on the behest of Augusta, and that means that this will be Sae's second encounter with the witch she wishes to defeat.

A small smile comes onto my lips.

I won't interfere. This will be their battle. This conflict doesn't quite involve me just yet, and it'll be the perfect chance to see just how far this group has come since they first began working under me.

Unless, of course, those two are dumb enough to try and involve the citizens of my town. And if they do,

Well, I won't say.