In case of an emergency, those who lived outside of the town could be evacuated inside the stone walls.
It was also like that this time. In the 15th district where no one lived, the Fish tribe and other newcomer beastmen were crammed inside.
There was not enough housing for 1,000 people, so tents were erected alongside the road to block the sun for the people who couldn’t live in houses.
But, there was only one house where it was less crowded. It was also the biggest house in the district.
In the innermost room of that mansion, the chiefs of the Fish, Crow, and Snake tribes gathered, and were sharing a drink.
“Please, have another cup.”
“Oh, I’m sorry for the trouble.”
The Snake tribe’s chief poured the liquor for the chief of the Fish tribe, who received it gladly.
The success of the rebellion, with the Fish tribe as the central figures, was imminent.
Therefore, in order to acquire some of the leftovers from the Fish tribe, the Snake and Crow tribe’s chiefs flattered him while smiling ingratiatingly.
Then, the sound of a gong resounded outside of the house.
The Fish tribe’s chief clicked his tongue silently.
The gong was the signal for the beastmen to rebel simultaneously, which meant that Gobi’s assassination attempt on Nobuhide had failed.
“Chief of the Fish tr-” The Snake tribe’s chief seemed worried as he looked at the Fish tribe’s chief.
The chief of the Fish tribe reined in his frustration and dissatisfaction. He emptied the liquor in the cup as if nothing had happened, and placed the empty cup onto the floor.
“It’s just a minor failure on Gobi’s part. Hey! Someone come in!”
“Yes!” A youth from the Fish tribe opened the sliding doors.
“Let the others prepare! We will also join the fight!” The chief of the Fish tribe ordered.
Although they only had farming tools as weapons, they still had no choice but to participate. Since Gobi had failed to assassinated Nobuhide, their level of participation in the rebellion now involved the tribes’ dignity.
Who will become the leader and manage the town? Currently, it was decided that the initiator of this operation would. Furthermore, the Fish tribe was the largest tribe, granting them an advantage in the power struggle amongst the beastmen. However, they still can’t be careless.
Anyway, the senior beastmen could operate the cannons. This was an advantage enough to overturn the difference in numbers between the tribes.
Furthermore, the reason why the chief of the Fish tribe could control these older beastmen until now was because he used the law of this town - Nobuhide.
When Nobuhide disappears, there would be no meaning in using the rule of being allowed to eat camels or not. There would also be no more need for the gambling debts to be returned.
Thus, what the Fish tribe needed to do now was to stay one step ahead of the other beastmen.
“What about the two of you? Will you make a move too?” He turned to the other two chiefs.
“Y-Yes.”
“We will go.”
In response to the subtle pressuring of Fish tribe’s chief, the chiefs of the Crow and Snake tribes left the mansion hurriedly.
The Fish tribe’s chief, who was now alone, poured more liquor into the cup, and waited for his tribesmen to finish preparing for battle.
Suddenly, something happened.
“What?!” He exclaimed as he heard an eerie sound emanating from outside.
It was heavy and low, an unfamiliar sound.
For a moment, he thought that it was the sound of the cannons, but he immediately rejected that idea since it sounded different from the cannons, which he had heard once before.
Cannons could only be fired once. On the other hand, the sound he was hearing now was uninterrupted and constant.
Nothing come into mind regarding the source of the sound. He could only guess that something unexpected had happened.
He raised his voice, demanding to know what was happening, but no one replied because they were still preparing for battle.
“Useless..." The chief of the Fish tribe grumbled.
He stood up to confirm the identity of the sound himself.
At the same time, a low and heavy sound could be heard from the floor,
near his legs. However, that was not the only thing surprising thing.
“Th... This..! The floor is sinking!?” As he yelled, the floor turned into mud, and he fell backwards as his legs were swallowed by the wet earth.
Before long, the mud disappeared as if it was swallowed up by the earth, releasing his legs.
“Wh... What is this...” He muttered dazedly while the sound continued to echo in the surroundings.
While he was stunned and confused, the Fish tribe’s chief came to realize that there was strange change to the walls.
A groan escaped from his mouth when he saw that the walls were sinking. It was not just the walls that were sinking; the house itself was also sinking. When he craned his neck, he could see the ceiling slowly closing in onto him.
“Damn it! What is happening to this house?!” He snarled as he stood up and ran towards the entrance.
He did not have time to think about the reason for the current abnormalities. It was simply the danger of being crushed that made his body move.
The chief of the Fish tribe managed to somehow escape the house. On his way out, he bumped his head against a beam, but there was no pain since the place he hit turn into mud immediately anyway.
His body was safe and sound, but, it was hard to say if his sanity was as what was being reflected in his eyes when he exited was a scene that he could not have imagined.
“Wh... What is this...” He gaped.
What he saw after escaping was, by no means, a threat that couldn’t be natural. Similarly, the other fishmen outside also became dumbfounded as they stared at the situation unfolding before their eyes.
“Impossible...” One of them gasped.
There were countless houses sinking, and it was not only limited to the houses. Far beyond the sight of the chief of the Fish tribe, the stone walls surrounding the town were also sinking.
The town was sinking. It was a sight just like the end of the world.
The Fish tribe chief only remained stunned for a while before looking around.
Inside the town, the houses in this district and the shopping street in the center of town had disappeared completely. However, the rest of the houses were still there.
“What does this mean..?” He started to ponder.
There was also one more thing he noticed at the main street in the center of town - a lump of mud was rising at the end of the street.
He decided to investigate, and gathered the tribesmen nearby before heading there.
Mud had risen up from the both left and right sides of the main street. It was happening along the street, and the mud was already reaching half the height of normal people.
What’s special about this mud was that it was very hard, contrary to its appearance.
The Fish tribe’s chief remember the beam he hit, which had turned into mud, and disappeared into the floor. It was very soft, exactly the same as real mud.
However, the mud in front of him was very different from the mud before. It seemed to be shaping itself into something.
What on earth was happening at the both ends of the road? It was as if it was trying to block someone from using the road.
He looked toward the northern stone walls. The wolf tribesmen were descending via stairs as the stone walls slowly sank.
When he looked closer, he noticed that Nobuhide was with them.
“Could it be..?” He muttered.
Was this mud a way for Nobuhide to safely escape to his home instead of the stone walls surrounding the town? The chief of the Fish tribe wondered.
“Impossible! There is no way-!” He shook his head.
If so, then the abnormality in the town was something Nobuhide caused, as if this town itself was being shaped freely by Nobuhide’s hands.
It was exactly like the work of God.
◆
Various abnormalities occurred throughout the town. Of course, this was because Nobuhide was performing[Sale] and [Purchase] with his ability.
He first sold all the [Mountain Cannons] and [Grenades] since he felt that those were the greatest threats to himself. Next, he sold individual weapons such as [Bows] and [Short spears] of all the beastmen except for the Wolf tribe.
He also tried to sell the armor, but since he already transferred ownership of the armor to the beastmen, he couldn’t sell them.
When their weapons disappeared, the beastmen panicked, especially the Raccoon tribe, who was facing off against the Wolf tribe.
It was natural for them to panic since their own weapons suddenly turned into mud while their opponents still had their weapons.
But, their shock merely continued to grow.
After Nobuhide sold all the weapon-related items, he continued to sell the whole town. Selling the whole town was aimed to make the rebelling beastmen fall into confusion and lose their fighting spirit.
Nobuhide did not have any attachment to this town because he could make another ten such towns if he so wished with the current amount of [Funds] he had.
The only thing in his mind now was how to survive this ordeal together with the Wolf tribe.
The stone walls that surrounded the town, and houses and facilities inside the town... Nobuhide sold all of them.
However, regarding the houses, since ownership had been transferred like the armor, he could only sell part of them.
Lastly, Nobuhide also purchased a new kind of stone wall.
It was to enclose and isolate the road from north gate to the place where Nobuhide lived, as well as the residential area where the Wolf tribe lived.
“Alright! People of the Wolf tribe, head to the location of the car now! Protect me with your lives! If I die, everything will be lost!” Nobuhide ordered urgently.
It was not too much to ask for them to protect him using their lives since it was a fact that if Nobuhide died, the Wolf tribe could come to an end too.
Thus, he didn’t mince his words, and merely emphasized that fact and conveyed it to them.
The Wolf tribesmen merely cried out as their morale rose.
With the exception of the Wolf tribe, weapons of the other beastmen have disappeared. The results of the abnormalities happening in the town right now, had clearly shown the fact that this was due to Nobuhide’s power.
“Fu-Fujiwarsama!” He heard an imploring plea from Raccoon tribe’s chief.
However, upon thinking about their betrayal, he does not have any words to reply with. But, Nobuhide clearly understood that it was a cry for mercy.
However, the words of the chief of the Raccoon tribe chief words no longer had any effect on Nobuhide.
“Bring Mira there! I will absolutely not let her die!” Without even a glance at the Raccoon tribe, Nobuhide ordered the wolfmen, and they began to move.
Then, a terrified shriek echoed.
Gobi had dropped from the stone walls to the outside of the town by his kinsmen’s own hands. After witnessing Nobuhide’s God-like powers, even if he was from the same tribe, there could be no mercy.
The Wolf tribe descended from the stairs while surrounding Nobuhide as wolfmen at the back held onto their spears to keep the Raccoon tribe in check.
As Nobuhide descended from the stone walls, he saw the Goblin tribe. They had retreated far away without needing the Wolf tribe threatening them with spears as they knew that their rebellion had failed upon seeing the abnormalities in the town.
“Fu-Fujiwarsama...” Like the Raccoon tribe, the Goblin tribe also began to beg.
However, Nobuhide ignored them. Other than the Wolf tribe, Nobuhide had already forsaken the others.
Now, what he needed to prioritize was the Wolf tribe, who would never betray him, and his own life.
“Put Mira over here! As for the others, split up and get aboard! As soon as everyone is aboard, my vehicle will lead the way!” Nobuhide announced.
Behind the north gate, other than the armored car which Nobuhide used, there were three more trucks packed with supplies. It was enough to hold all the wolf tribesmen.
“Wait, Fujiwarsama! No, Savior-sama!” A voice could be heard from one side of the mud walls that extended from the north gate to Nobuhide’s home. It belonged to the Fish tribe’s chief, who had climbed the raising mud walls.
“Everything is the plan of those senior beastmen! We, the newcomers, are not involved in it! Please, save us!” The chief of the Fish tribe grovelled.
This startled not only the Goblin tribe, but also the Raccoon tribe who were descending from the stone walls as well as the beastmen on the eastern and western stone walls.
It seemed like the Fish tribe intended to put all the blame on the senior beastmen instead.
This was definitely the definition of the phrase “If you betray someone once, you will betray yet again.”
“You bastard! Don’t lie! Everything was planned by you, the Fish tribe!”
“That’s right! To take advantage of the Shugurin Dukedom that’s planning to attack the town, you guys from the Fish tribe persuaded us to rebel!”
The chiefs of the Goblin and Raccoon tribes refuted.
But, as if he had already memorized it, the Fish tribe chief lied without even blinking an eye.
“That’s absurd! What can we newcomers do? We don’t even have weapons! Stop telling unsightly lies at a time like this!”
Shameless.
Shamelessness was so ingrained in the Fish tribe’s nature that they could tell a lie as if it was the truth.
But, the Fish tribe’s chief overdid it.
“What did you say!?” One of the raccoonmen on the top of the stone walls used one of the few remaining bows to shoot the Fish tribe’s chief.
The arrow pierced into his shoulder, he let out a pained cry as he fell onto the other side of street.
Nobuhide was watching all of this from the driver’s seat.
It was disgusting. Not just one of them, but the both of them.
“Fujiwarsama, everyone is on board!” He received a report through the transceiver.
“Fujiwarsama! We were wrong! Please don’t abandon us!” The Goblin tribe begged as they prostrated themselves onto the ground.
“Fujiwarsama!”
“Fujiwarsama!”
The Raccoon tribe and other beastmen also began their appeals while descending from the stone walls.
At that moment, the other Fish tribesmen started climbing up the mud walls again. One of them tried to jump on top of the vehicles.
However, an arrow flew there swiftly, shot by the Raccoon tribesmen once again.
“Fujiwarsama, we’ve killed the hateful Fish tribe! We’re on Fujiwarsama’s side too!” A Raccoon tribesman shouted loudly.
However, Nobuhide merely switched gears, stepped on the accelerator, and took off.
Then, Nobuhide used his ability while gripping onto the steering wheel. At the place where the car once was, mud rose and blocked off the road’s entrance.