Nightmares smothered his rest like a blanket over his face. He woke up multiple times through that night. Every time, it was visions of ‘General Risitro’ and his army swarming into the city, slaughtering the townsfolk while they kept him alive just to make him watch.

Sunrise was still hours away when he decided to give up on sleep. Well Rested did not come that night.

Ronny sat cross-legged on the side of his futon for a while. He wanted to stay in that room for the whole day but knew that he couldn’t. He couldn’t let Inn’s other residents know how pathetic he thought he was.

He dressed himself in his work clothes and went downstairs. It was too early for Theo to be practicing his magic, so the kitchen was pitch black. He didn’t bother lighting a candle.

After eating a bland meal of stale bread alone in the dark, he left the Inn for work. Ronny wanted to get there early so that he could be alone when he got there. He didn’t want anyone to see his reaction.

He arrived to the construction site as twilight set in. The corpses had been removed—at least the ones that were easily accessible—but people who had done it were careless. Ripped cloth, dried blood, and even stray limbs weren’t hard to find. The wall was gone and in its place was messy pile of rubble. It would take months to get the wall back to the way it had been before it fell, and at least another month after that to finish it.

Ronny was surprised to find that he didn’t cry at the sight of all the destruction. All he could feel was emptiness. A void where his emotions were supposed to be. There was no sunken feeling in his chest or tensed muscles, just a blank stare.

Staring at the dark forest behind the fallen wall, Ronny considered just leaving the city and not coming back. He understood that it was a stupid idea but pondered it all the same. With no knowledge of the world outside of Barnock’s walls other than the fact that the ‘Dural Forest’ was considered a death trap, Ronny understood that he stood no chance against it.

He snapped back to reality and once again directed his attention at the rubble. He had no idea how long it would take to clear it. A week or two? Maybe even a month? It was a mystery. All he knew was that he wasn’t looking forward to it.

It took a while for anyone to show up, but when they did, Ronny frowned. All but a few were wood-ranked adventurers. Most were poor-looking teenagers, both genders. Ronny was also in wood, but by now, the classification didn’t apply to him. Thanks to System, he’d outgrown his incompetence just a few days after starting his job and by now, he was earning more than what most silver-ranked adventurers could get. Examining his subordinates more closely, it became apparent that they would be useless—a fact made clear by their skinny frames and dull eyes. A far cry from the veteran team he’d been a part of just a few days before. With them, it was hard to imagine that the wall would get done at all.

Because Ronny was by far the oldest, strongest-looking person there, the recruits didn’t take long to realize that he was The Boss. As they started gathering around him, Ronny took a deep breath in and spoke as loudly as he could, “Good morning. I’m Ronny McKitty, The Boss around here.” His tone was very impassionate, “You’re here to work on the wall, as I’m sure you all know. Follow me.”

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The crowd followed him to a pile of unused bricks and watched as he heaved one up onto his shoulders. Next, they followed him to the wall where he spread some mortar and placed the stone.

“That’s how it’s done.” He added, “I won’t show it again, so for your sake, I hope you were paying attention.”

A louder, deeper voice than Ronny’s came from behind the crowd, “Sorry sir! I had trouble finding this place since I just moved here yesterday. Sorry I’m late!” The person who had jogged up to the group was Enzi Etungsta, a Demon.

Ronny ignored the Demon’s pointless apologies and continued with what he was saying, “Before we can build this wall though, the debris will need to be dealt with.” He sighed, “I wasn’t told where to put it, so for now, we’ll just dump it into the forest.”

One of the Woods spoke up, “B-but sir, the forest is dangerous! Even when it’s this close to the city, monsters are never far. Wood missions are supposed to be safe!”

Ronny laughed, “Wood missions are supposed to be safe? That’s what you think?” He laughed some more, “Tell me, boy. Do you know why you people are here?” The guy was too scared to answer, “I’ll tell you then. It’s because everyone who worked here before died two days ago. Everyone but me. The Demons killed them all. Now tell me, does that sound safe to you!?”

“N-no sir.” The kid backed off, positioning himself behind some of the others. There were about fifty people there in total, so disappearing into the crowd wasn’t hard.

“That’s what I thought. Now let’s be clear. This work isn’t safe. Not in the slightest. Safe work dozen kills a hundred men, does it!?” Ronny was talking more to himself than his audience, “If you’re worried for your safety… leave immediately. That’s all there is to it. If some of you die… that isn’t my problem, and I won’t be held responsible for it. Are we clear?”

Nobody dared leave.

“Good. Then get started.” Ronny turned from the crowd and got to work, cursing at himself for speaking the way he did. The words just sort of came out without thought behind them, and he regretted his harshness.

The process was simple enough. Pick up whatever you could and carry it about a hundred feet into the forest. Ronny, his resilience increased by angst, made quick work of the bricks. The others… not so much. They couldn’t carry very much, needed long breaks, and were scared to death of the forest. They would be lucky to earn more than a handful of silver.

“Not my problem, “Ronny thought, “What do I care about a bunch of strangers?”

The only other competent ‘person’ was Enzi, the Demon. To Ronny’s annoyance, Enzi was better than him—and by a good margin too. He would lift the stones into his arms like a waiting grabbing plates from a table, one after another. In one trip, Enzi could move several hundred pounds of stone and he did it without breaking a sweat.

“Go over the river, “Ronny told Enzi as they passed each other, “you shouldn’t be putting them so close to the wall.”

Enzi nodded and did as he was told. It was obvious to him that Ronny was just trying to slow him down so that he wouldn’t outshine him but calling his boss out on it wasn’t going to do him any good. After that, Enzi had to go about double the distance he’d been doing before. It ate into his earnings, but by his guesses, the payout at the end of the day would be good.

“1 silver for every 350 pounds moved” was the new policy. They’d changed it to account for the rubble. With those kinds of numbers, Enzi would earn far more than what he would have made in the military. He could tolerate an abusive boss if it meant getting one of the best salaries a Demon could hope for.

And plus, he'd had worse.