When Ash walked to the gates of the fortress, a few soldiers moved to greet him and quickly ushered them in respectfully.

The normal citizens who would be moving in here were greatly impressed by the strength of their Queen's personal soldiers and they were more in awe at how their Queen had developed the place.

The bloody-looking fortress looked quite menacing and intimidating from outside, but inside, everything was so different. The streets were clean with the potholes of the road and any debris from the previous time Ash and the others assaulted this place were filled in and cleaned up by the soldiers.

There were even soldiers still out there fixing some buildings and bringing in materials for construction and development. They stored those materials inside warehouses that Maria had built after they completely occupied this place and did some cleanup.

The officials that came here sighed in relief and admiration at the state the fortress was in. They expected the place to be a wreck but it was quite the opposite. The stark contrast of the menacing fort when looked from the outside compared to the inside made them admire their Queen.

She knew exactly how to govern and the officials anticipated their eventually meeting with this Queen of theirs. Most of the people here had never seen their Queen before despite Maria constantly flying around in the air through the city.

They did see her figure before but never her face so they didn't know how exactly she looked like. There was a large statue built by the vampire dwarves at the center of Heltania City's main square so they had some expectations as to how she looked.

The statue depicted her with a beautiful and dignified face that had a tinge of both cruelty and kindness within her eyes. Naturally, this was just the dwarves' depiction of how their Queen looked like so it probably was what they should expect, however, having a personal look themselves would be better than just imagining how she looked based on some statue.

The soldiers separated Ash's group into three. 1 group would continue following Ash to meet their Queen while the other 2 consisted of ordinary citizens who would make this place their home while the other group was the workers and craftsmen.

Once everything was in order, Ash's group proceeded towards the largest tower within the fortress that overlooked the entire place. Ash couldn't help but think that Maria really did love high places.

He saw from below that at the highest balcony of the tower, Maria was currently looking down at his group with her blood-red eyes. He also saw that there was a mysterious smile on her face.

Maria's personal soldiers led Ash's group into the tower and they climbed the staircases leading up to the highest floor of the tower. When they got there, there was an empty throne in the middle of the large hall.

Besides Ash, the other officials were wondering where their Queen was. Ash looked up into the air and saw Maria sitting on the beams of the hall. She had a disinterested look on her face when she saw them walk in.

"Ash..."

"Yes, My Lady?"

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Hearing the voice come from above, the other officials immediately tried raising their heads but Ash let loose a little bit of his aura and pressured them to kneel and keep their heads bowed.

"...It took a while for you to come... I got really bored waiting."

"There were some...complications on the road, my Lady!"

"Hmmm... what kind of excuse are you going to make up now for keeping me waiting?"

"Uh..."

"You know that I hate waiting..."

"I'm sorry, my Lady! I'm here now so please command me as you wish!"

"..."

Maria remained silent and started thinking about what to say. She was just mad and pouting because she had to wait for so long. It was nothing serious, but Ash and the others thought that their Queen was really angered for their lateness.

"Your Majesty!" An official grabbed ahold of some courage and stood up to speak with his head still bowed, not daring to take a look up at the ceiling. "I'll immediately make the arrangements for the fortress, my Queen! We'll make sure this place is fully functional, reinforced, and running without any problems! Then we can continue with Your Majesty's plans on expanding our area of influence!"

The official who had spoken up was a senior official so he had met with Maria a few times before but was never in any position to speak to her. This was the first time he had spoken to his Queen and it was because he wanted to try to appease her anger.

Maria wasn't mad at all though, but after hearing the promise from this NPC, she smiled and said, "Is that right? Well, do your best then. Now everyone else besides Ash, leave!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

She liked being addressed like that. Maria swung her feet happily in the air. This dainty appearance of hers was only witnessed by Ash who had no qualms about looking straight up at her.

He somewhat knew that Maria was only pouting and throwing a tantrum because they were late but it couldn't be helped because they were moving with so many people in their group. Ash was just a little worried that something bad might happen to him since most of the time Maria took out her anger at him whenever she threw a tantrum or was dissatisfied with something.

"My Lady, is there something you require of me?" Ash asked after the rest had left him and Maria alone in the hall.

"Come," Maria said as she floated down towards the balcony just to the side of the hall.

Ash flashed over and quickly arrived next to her side and saw the view ahead.

"See those mountains?" Maria pointed forwards and asked.

"Yes...is there something you want from those mountains?" Ash asked.

"Mhm, I wanna hunt there. You're coming with me!"

"Uhm... but what about the faction?"

"Forget the faction. We've already placed a lot of capable officials and workers everywhere. We can't continue micromanaging them or else it'd just wear us down, stagnating our personal growth! Remember, you still have your vengeance to exact, and if you're weak..."

"...I understand, my Lady..."

"Should I summon Alexa, Lady Lilah, and that pet hound of yours?"

"Just go back and bring Alexa! I didn't let her come with me despite her being a reserve captain of my army... As for Lilah and Little Red, I'll just summon them using our familiar contracts!"

"As you command, my Lady!" Ash disappeared in a burst of clouds that transformed into a flock of vampire bats.

Maria then saw this flock of bats fly into the horizon in the direction of Heltania City.

*DING*

Requirements have been fulfilled! Please name the new Fortress!

Maria looked back at the system window that had just popped up and quickly inputted a name.

Haemanthus Fortress Congratulations, your first fortress city has been named! Rewards: +100 World Reputation, +20% experience points, Blueprint: Intermediate Smithy x1

"Oh, that's nice... I leveled up!"

Maria stretched her wings and back while saying, "Ugh... I should go back to the real world and ask big brother how that streaming thing works... I've got just the perfect thing to stream!"