NOVEL WEB I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 49
Ferguson sat in his realm with his gaze focused intensely on his screen.
Displayed on the massive monitor were two stone pillars with a red, hazy rectangle between them. Thousands of ogres surrounded this monument, which existed in a large clearing in an area otherwise dominated by dense forests. Tents completely covered this space, with many spilling out into the gaps in the surrounding trees.
Due to the disarrangement, figuring out the exact number of ogres present was not a simple feat for the Seedling, but Ferguson had someone who could help him do just that.
"Erik. Give me a count."
While speaking such a request, Ferguson focused his screen on a large figure lounging in an equally large tent next to the portal's entrance. The portal's red hue slipped through the small gap in the tent's entryway, illuminating the bored figure in an eerie light.
"There are 17,824 from the western tribes, 8,625 from the northern tribes, 2,431 from the southern tribes, 734 from the eastern tribes, and 386 from the mountain tribes," the figure responded flatly.
The Seedling narrowed his eyes, "... Is that count accurate? It sounds convenient."
"It is right. I made sure of it," the figure replied, closing its eyes, "You told me the land could only support 30,000 men. I kept exactly that."
The original plan had been for a portion of his force to set up camp around the portal and prepare for the invasion while the rest of the force hunted around his realm and sent them supplies. After the first round of support came in, however, Ferguson quickly found out that it was not nearly enough for his plans.
With each ogre sporting a bulky figure reaching heights ranging from 6'3 to 7'1, the amount of meat they consumed was absurd. Even with rations being sent over from various tribes supplementing their hunting, the two-month stockpile of food they had worked so hard to amass was hardly increasing.
It was a problem that would only get worse with time.
There were only so many hares to hunt and berries to pick before the area would become completely depleted. Once this happened, his force would likely need to dig into these stored supplies before the invasion could even begin. As a way to avoid this, Ferguson ordered his Oracle to cut down their numbers and maintain a strict limit of 30,000 ogres. Even this amount would only slow down the inevitable, however.
"Did you send them to the extension or to the reserve?"
"The extension."
Ferguson panned his screen south where he located the camp at the center of their conversation, now crowded with roughly 8,000 ogres. The camp was about a two-day walk from the portal- far enough away for their hunting ranges not to intercept, but close enough to be called upon when needed.
Good. That should be fine for now.
While Ferguson was looking over the extension, his Oracle's voice once again came through the screen.
"Do we really need to bring so much food? We could easily combine with the extension and feed a few thousand more if we used some of it."
"Like I said before, the land through the portal is cold and empty. You need enough food to last until you reach better land," Ferguson answered.
"... How long will that take?"
It was a question Ferguson had been wondering himself for quite some time. Since Levon's Oracle had never made it out of the snow, the two of them could only come up with a number that was closer to a guess than to an estimate.
"I do not know," Ferguson replied honestly, "It could take a month or two."
"Eugh... so troublesome."
Ferguson ignored the groans of his Oracle, despite sympathizing with his frustration. He felt the same, after all, yet he couldn't blame anybody but himself. This food shortage was a disaster of his own making.
He had sent his Oracle on a decades-long recruitment campaign around his realm and was met with outstanding enthusiasm. Stories of the overwhelming success in the previous battle phase had been passed down in legends; thousands flocked at the opportunity to become part of a legend themselves.
But he had drastically underestimated how much food they needed; he simply couldn't feed them all.
It was humiliating. Even after dedicating most of the volunteers to the task of obtaining food around his realm, he could barely support the combined force of 38,000 near the portal. If he could not reliably feed them in his own realm, there was no way he could do so in another's. What was supposed to be a fragment of his initial army would now need to be the entire force. In the eyes of someone who did not need to eat thanks to his ruler status, this was even more frustrating.
I could have an army four times the size if they did not eat so much.
The situation may have been irking enough for the ruler to clench his fist, yet such a scenario was not dire by any means for one simple reason:
That human must have the same problem.
It was something he wholeheartedly believed.
Food was a universally limiting factor. If the area on the other side of the portal was as frozen as Levon made it out to be, there would likely not be any areas rich enough to supply a large army for a large distance. Even if Jacob managed to supply an army twice his size, Ferguson was confident it would not be enough to stop him.
Ferguson crossed his arms as he slipped into thought.
I fought against that human personally, but his strength was nothing to boast about. If his humans are comparable, my ogres should have no problems crushing them.
Sure, he did lose the fight in the end, but that was due to an unexpected trick, rather than an advantage in power.
That human's tricks...
They were something that the ogre could not quite brush off even with the overwhelmingly stronger physique of his army.
Jacob's previous trick had resulted in the annihilation of a 50,000-member lizard army. Of course, he had his ogres prepare for the cold by fashioning warm clothing out of the hides of hares, yet he was sure that the human had something else up his sleeve.
But I might know what that is.
"Erik. Send in the scouts."
At the ruler's words, the Oracle shot up with an energy so strong that one would doubt the lethargic sight he previously displayed.
"Is it finally time!?"
Ferguson nodded at the screen, "Waiting will only waste food."
A wide grin appeared on the Oracle's face who exited his tent and stretched his massive body. The surrounding ogres quickly turned their heads at the sight of this muscular behemoth of an Oracle who fashioned the pelt of a gigantic gray wolf and towered over most of them at a seven-foot-tall height.
"Do you see that? Erik is out!"
"He came out at this time? Did something happen?"
"Look at his grin... that could only mean one thing!"
The Oracle's eager expression was enough for those around him to guess what was about to happen. Sure enough, Erik's next words confirmed their theories.
"BRING ME THE MOUNTAIN TRIBE!" he fiercely shouted, his voice loud enough for the entire clearing to hear.
"It is time!"
"We can finally fight!"
"Huahhhh!"
Cheers rang out at his words as a small group of ogres coated in layers of sewn hare hide approached the massive figure.
"You hail from the tops of mountains," the Oracle addressed the group once they gathered in front of him, "Snow is your grass and the cold is your home. You should bear no grudge against the land we will raid!"
Erik scanned the faces of the ogres in front of him for any signs of nerves, but nodded his head in satisfaction at their unfazed determination.
The Oracle continued, "As those who thrive in the snow, you will get the honor of entering this frigid land as scouts for our force. May the steps you walk leave their prints in legends!"
"""Huahhhh!"""
As cheers sounded on his screen, Ferguson recounted the tasks these scouts were assigned with.
The first was as expected- the group would need to scout out the area around the portal to see if there was anything of note and to make sure there were no hidden forces nearby who could ambush their group.
Ferguson originally wanted to send a scouting group far into Jacob's realm to find out how long it would take to get out of the snow, but he had to scrap the idea for a few reasons. For starters, Jacob could clearly see what was going on in his own realm. There was no way he'd let the scouts do as they pleased without sending a force to intercept them.
Without knowing whether his scouts were dead or still traveling, he would likely be wasting months of time and some of his dwindling food supplies for little reward.
He could circumvent this by sending in Erik, since unlike the scouts, he could see his view on his screen, but that was never going to happen. It was way too risky to send his Oracle through the portal for a simple scouting mission, so the scouts he sent actually needed to return alive to deliver the information he desired.
Building off of this, he decided to send those familiar with the cold to see how frigid Jacob's realm was in comparison to places he knew the ogres could handle. While Levon did rage about the conditions, his lizards were especially weak in such an environment, so Ferguson wanted to verify how much had been dramatized.
Levon's word is not very reliable, but he did say something interesting...
There was one thing that Levon said during their conversation in the training ground that stuck out to him.
His fire magic was not working in Jacob's realm.
It was a haunting thought; Ferguson could only pity the lizard who had a major lifeline ripped out from under him without any warning.
Levon blamed it on the cold, but...
What if it was something else?
This was the other mission he tasked his scouts with figuring out.
"Erik. Make sure you remind them about the aura testing," the ruler ordered.
Ferguson watched as his Oracle gave a subtle nod on his screen and communicated his words before finishing off his boisterous speech to the ogres.
"You are the ones who will set sight on our new opponents. Let us crush their heads as we did those insects of before!"
"""Huuahh!!"""
With those words, the first set of ogres from the mountain tribe disappeared into the red hue of the portal.
"So it begins..." Ferguson muttered at the sight.
"It has been a long wait."
"... I do not know whether you are hungry for battle or just impatient," Ferguson sighed at his Oracle's response, "You will need to wait a bit longer regardless. Send in two more men from each tribe. I need to see how the others can handle the cold."
The Oracle nodded his head at the request and the eight ogres entered the portal soon after.
Now we wait.
It took about an hour before the ogres returned to the realm; each shivering heavily and covered in snow.
Erik immediately ran over to greet the group and note their discoveries.
"Erik. Give me an update," Ferguson ordered upon noticing their finished discussion.
"It seems to be an environment even the mountain tribe struggles with. They claim the cold was pressing down on them. There is nothing but snow in every direction with no trees or game to speak of," The Oracle grimaced as he spoke.
"Pressing down on them? What does that mean?"
"... I do not know either. They said the cold made them feel heavy."
"That is odd..."
It seems Levon was telling the truth.
There was always the chance that Levon was exaggerating the awful conditions in an attempt to save face following his brutal defeat, but this had not been the case. The environment on the other side of the portal was truly as abysmal as he made it out to be.
"... And what did they say about their aura?" Ferguson brought himself to ask.
"It seemed to work fine in strengthening their bodies, but..."
"But?"
"They claim that it did not last long. Once they used up what was stored in their bodies, they could not recover any of it," the Oracle hesitantly admitted.
"I knew it! So it was not because of the cold, after all!"
"... Chieftain?"
"Ah- Give me a moment."
Ferguson drifted into thought at the realization.
Did that human truly not put any mana on his realm?
It was something that was difficult to believe even with all signs pointing to it being the case. Despite ogres using it nearly exclusively for body strengthening, mana was something that Ferguson deemed to be essential.
It will be impossible for him to go far in this competition without mana.
This was something that Ferguson wholeheartedly believed.
...But that is not my concern. Not having mana will greatly limit what he can do in the fight.
Still, even with this discovery, Ferguson could not shake a feeling of unease when he thought about sending his ogres into the fight.
I did not use aura during my fight with him. I overpowered him without it.
In theory, his ogres should have no problem crushing the humans regardless of the lack of mana, especially when considering his hidden reward from the previous battle phase that would help them in doing so, but this fact made Ferguson even more wary.
Is this the trick that the human planned?
If the trick would have no impact on the outcome of the fight, was it really the trick that was meant for him? There was also the whole issue of his scouts apparently being weighed down by the cold which he had no clue how to address.
Such thoughts filled Ferguson's head as flashbacks to Jacob's wooden sword pointed at his neck replayed in his mind.
"... We are not ready," the Seedling mumbled out loud.
"WHAT!?"
Ferguson turned to the screen at the sudden shout from his Oracle.
"What do you mean 'we are not ready!?' I have been gathering men for decades! I have been waiting here doing nothing for weeks! I even just sent in scouts! How could we not be ready!?"
Ferguson's eyes narrowed at his Oracle's sudden outburst.
"We are not ready because I said we are not ready. We need more men and more supplies. There are no trees on the other side of the portal. If it is as cold as the scouts claim, we need to prepare more firewood."
"YOU WANT TO DELAY OUR FIGHT FOR FIREWOOD!?"
The surrounding ogres watched in confusion as Erik sprinted over to a nearby oak tree and wrapped his arms around its trunk.
"IF YOU WANT FIREWOOD, I WILL GIVE YOU FIREWOOD!"
With a sudden motion, the massive Oracle ripped the gigantic tree out of the ground, roots and all...
"HUAHHH!"
... Before he launched it through the portal with a shout.
"H-how is *hah*, how is that for firewood?" the Oracle stammered completely out of breath after the whole scene.
Ferguson simply stared at the screen with a blank expression.
"... Are you done?"
The Oracle gave a small nod.
"Good. Then set up a few more extension camps about the same distance as the one to the south," Ferguson paused, "Send out messengers to the reserves. Tell them that anyone who can get at least two months' worth of food for themself can join the fight. The men here can gather firewood until then."
The ruler looked at his Oracle with mixed emotions.
"You will get your fight soon. Work hard until then."
Given the success of the southern extension, it was possible to increase their force by at least a few thousand more. It seemed as though every ogre would count in this upcoming fight.
We only need to win one battle. Whatever petty tricks he pulls can be overpowered by our strength. Once we make a foothold in his realm, the rest of the reserve can come through.
With those orders set, Ferguson began to advance the time in his realm.
We just need to win one battle.
