"Wait, explain your power to me!" Relia raised her voice.

Gaius decided to ignore her questions. He couldn't let others understand how his powers worked. In any case, he could tell his mana was recovering slower than usual because of her stubbornness. The weird thing about that was that she didn't want to know in order to understand its weakness. Gaius could tell that, considering her loyalty level. That was really troublesome in many ways.

While he could force her to keep her mouth shut, he didn't feel right controlling his minions that much. He didn't particularly hate them; he felt pissed at them since they threatened the safety of his parents, but they didn't have the chance to do so. It wasn't like he could just go with, "You have thought of wounding me and my family. For that crime, you will lose your life." He wasn't that thirsty for blood to kill people based on their thoughts alone.

As Silent Step leveled up, Gaius decided to test it around his parents and confirmed that they didn't notice his presence when he was walking behind them. In fact, Kaira almost had a heart attack when she suddenly turned and saw Gaius there.

"I need to increase my deck of options," Gaius rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Now that I have around twenty humans under my control, I can give them the order to hunt and bring me half-dead creatures to add to my summoning list. They will look quite shady, though."

It was about time for Gaius to come up with the next short-term goal, and it looked like he had the chance to ask for some advice.

"Good job in repelling the attack," Angela said once Gaius arrived in her domain.

"Thanks. Come to think of it, wasn’t this meeting supposed to happen yesterday?" Gaius asked.

"Yes, but you were too tired for the connection to be established, so it didn't work," Angela explained while nodding.

"I guess the signal on my end was weak since I worked during the whole day without eating," Gaius rubbed his chin thoughtfully, at least he imagined himself doing. "Anyway, what is next? I think that we will be fine for a while, and the next big event will take place in four years. What do you think I should do?"

"I would rather not tell you to do anything. I don't want to interfere in that world more than I already did by sending you there," Angela answered while scratching her left cheek. "Anyway, do you think that the village will be left alone for four years and only something will happen when it is your turn to be trained under Ekirenton's command?"

"That is right. Naturally, I will overthrow him… perhaps I should kill and summon him and give the orders while no one is aware that he was killed," Gaius said and smirked like a villain. "That will save me a lot of trouble, and I can get a good income while I am at it."

"What a shrouded color…" Angela said and then frowned. "It is a mix of pink and an ominous purple."

Gaius didn't have to hear that, but he still smiled in satisfaction. If he couldn't get some tips from Angela, he could only keep doing the same as usual.

"Putting that aside, it seems that you got someone interesting under your command now," Angela said, showing a visible smile of interest. "Relia wasn't fazed when she stayed here for several hours. She looked around restlessly as if she was looking for someone, though."

Gaius could tell that was why he didn't want to learn further. He didn't want to know anything that might influence his decisions.

"I will just keep her busy and make her give up on asking further," Gaius shrugged.

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"I wonder if it will be that simple… she looked like a very obstinate woman," Angela looked to the side thoughtfully.

"If that were the case, why did she give up on her life that easily?" Gaius asked.

"Indeed, I wonder why…" Angela didn't change her posture and asked.

Things were getting out of hand really fast, and Gaius didn't want any more troublesome thoughts in his head. Perhaps he should just tell Relia that he couldn't revive anyone that he hadn't killed. That should solve the problem.

While Gaius was thinking about that, time passed, and then he woke up in his room. He wondered how he should approach that, but as if she had some crazy instincts, Relia began to ask the same thing once he began to see her parameters.

"... I can only revive those that I defeated," Gaius said after a long sigh. "I don't know who you lost, but I can't revive that person. I am not a god."

"... Maybe there is some sort of way," Relia insisted, and Gaius could imagine her expression of total denial.

"It is impossible. I can't kill what is already dead…" Gaius said and then wondered if necromancy was a thing in that world and how his powers would work against it.

"I had a son around your age… I can tell based on your voice that you are six or seven," Relia said, and then Gaius sighed since he really didn't want to listen to that. "He died of a disease one year ago, and since then, I have been trying to reunite with him. Call me insane, but I don't have any reason to live without him."

That was some hardcore mother's love. Unfortunately for her, she was going to stay in that room with Angela until the day of Gaius' death, and nothing says that she will find her son afterward.

Gaius didn't know what to say, so he just left her alone with her thoughts. She needed to understand the situation on her own. While making her level up would be useful for him, he wasn't a demon to make someone undergo hell when she didn't want to live anymore. Even more so when her free will was limited.

A few days later, word about the village's victory reached Lord Ekirenton, and he sent some words of praise to the people. Not like anyone cared about that. Regardless, the enemies also began to spread the rumors that some sort of demon or spirit fought and stopped them, taking the lives of their Commander. Not like many people believed them.

Herac convinced him to send some materials to the village to help with the fortifications to avoid other situations like that. Still, he only did so because he assumed that he had underestimated the strength of the guards and wanted that strength in his next conflict. He also sent some people to help with the construction of the watchtowers and other facilities like warehouses that would store their supplies and weapons.

Gaius ignored all that since it was convenient for the village until Lord Ekirenton sent twenty male slaves and twenty female slaves. He wasn't the only one who got pissed at that. The people of the village also hated that since they ran away from wars because of that. The losers always become slaves while the winners keep losing their friends and family.

Unfortunately, Gaius couldn't be that pissed since, while he still treated his soldiers like humans, almost all of their freedom had been taken… like slaves.

"... How long do you plan on making me work for you?" Relia asked three months after she joined the Gaius army's ranks.

"I was planning to use you to gather information further west, but I am not going to force you," Gaius replied while wondering what he should do to substitute Relia. "You can keep working for three months, and then I will free you. You will have to stay in that place until the day I die, but it will be fine since I will force you to forget those days now and then."

"You can even do that, huh, little master," Relia said and then sighed.

Gaius was the one who wanted to sigh. Of all things that she could have called him, summoning her now and then still was an option as long as Gaius forced her to forget it.

In any case, Relia reached level fifteen, and she was fighting alongside the desert wolf, the archer, and the slime while hunting other desert wolves. Thanks to that, it had been a year since anyone in the village heard about their attacks.

Gaius returned the knife to Relia in order to make her more deadly, but he could take it back and use it for his plans once her employment period was over.

The animals were hunting other animals as they were hunting as usual, and the others who weren't that suited for combat began to travel the region to collect intel for Gaius while living relatively normal lives. They could work, use their money to drink, eat, and do whatever they wanted, but they had to do all that with the purpose of gathering intel.

Thanks to that, Gaius learned from the soldiers that he sent to the south that a lot of the enemy soldiers lost their positions after such a defeat. He also learned that the ally of the lord of that area, which was Lord Ekirenton's most troublesome enemy, had cut ties with them. Now neither side knew whom they were going to attack.