Chapter 218: Logistics at the Port of Avana
Logistics at the port of Avana turned out to be an even greater crisis than the war itself.
Admiral Damons, who led the invasion army from the Demon Country, had naively assumed they could simply plunder food locally, so they were unreliable in that regard.
Likewise, Knight Commander Barland’s Abysspania army had been barely subsisting on fast-growing potatoes on Antil Island. Even if Damons and his forces had won, the sheer size of their army might have led to a famine on the island.
「So, Knight Commander Barland’s strategy to hold out wasn’t entirely wrong, then.」
「That’s nothing to laugh about…」
Kaara, who has now taken on the responsibility of logistics for nearly twenty thousand soldiers, pressed her fingertips against her temples, deep in thought. After counting the soldiers in Avana, it was clear that nearly twenty thousand troops had managed to survive, even after their ships sank, by swimming to the port.
While massaging her temples with a troubled expression, Kaara murmured, ‘It would’ve been better if more of them had died…’
Her words did not sound like a joke.
The stockpile of provisions in the ship’s hold would run out soon. The teleportation magic could only transport people, with weight limitations, making it difficult to bring a large amount of food from the Eura Continent.
「Sorry to put you through this, Kaara.」 「It would have been helpful if I could use some magic for food production, but all my training has been in offensive spells… that’s come back to haunt us now…」
Kaara, who prides herself on being a strategist with a sharp mind, is, after all, a tactician and not an administrator. Perhaps we can’t get through this crisis without bringing in someone like Lyle-sensei or Sherry.
The Abysspania royal palace on Antil Island (if you could even call it that, given how few people remain) had lost most of its courtiers, leaving their logistical planning quite rudimentary. Knight Commander Barland handles military affairs, while his wife and Queen Amorette’s nursemaid, Pudding, manages internal affairs with a few court ladies. Even after half a year, the island’s survey hasn’t been completed properly.
Transporting food from the town of Antil is unreliable when considering future needs. In the flagship Beautiful Queen Silhouette which has become the only usable operations base and hotel at the battered port of Avana after the grand battle, Kaara groaned, holding a document in her hand.
No matter how much she fiddled with the numbers on the paperwork, it didn’t conjure food out of thin air. As the two of them were racking their brains, Admiral Damons, sporting horns like those of a wild bull, peeked in with a worried expression.
「Your Highness King General, the griffon beast is not only a carnivore but a glutton. Our troops have already surrendered to you, so I must implore you. If we run out of food, there’s a risk that the soldiers might be devoured. We need to secure some animal meat quickly to prevent any casualties…」
「Yes, I understand that, but…」
You can’t give what you don’t have.
Even so, if feeding the beast was urgent, perhaps they should prioritize hunting or fishing to secure some food for the griffons.
Just then, Louise entered the room.
「Ah… Louise, are you hungry too?」
「No, no, my lord. Please don’t lump me in with the beasts… I’ve come to say that even if we’re not in a pinch, there’s plenty of food available.」
「Huh? Do you have a source?」
When I asked that, my wife, the female knight, gave a sly grin.
「Indeed. I’ve already had Admiral Drake fetch some, and there’s still plenty of it left.」
「Plenty of it left to eat, you say…」
Prompted by Louise, I climbed up to the deck, where I saw Drake pulling in a large chunk of dismembered meat with a net on another black military ship. It was red and meaty—not a whale…
「Oh, right. We still have the meat of the sea dragon.」
Even if it was blown apart by the magic cannon, its huge body wouldn’t just disappear.
Fortunately, the many dismembered remains didn’t sink into the sea but were floating instead.
「Yeah, this looks pretty tasty.」
Louise said that, but having been swallowed by this thing once before, it didn’t look appetizing to me at all.
「…We’ll eat it.」
We couldn’t afford to be picky. Everyone would just have to eat it.
Now that I think about it, the holy beast Behemoth’s meat was quite delicious too. At this point, we’ll just have to think of the sea dragon meat as whale meat and eat it.
In the end, this too is a blessing from the Mother of Chaos.
We won’t waste the sea dragon we’ve defeated; we’ll cook it up and enjoy it!
※※※
In the port town, we lined up large pots and began cooking together.
We didn’t have enough iron pots for the number of soldiers, so we even washed and used iron helmets turned upside down as makeshift pots, but as long as we could eat, that was all that mattered.
The eight griffons were also happily eating the meat of the sea dragon, which was a fellow demon beast.
I was worried they might only eat live prey, given that they are birds of prey, but thankfully, they weren’t picky eaters.
For a thousand years, the soldiers of the demon tribe and the human tribe had been at each other’s throats, but Kaara’s shock therapy must have had an effect. Surprisingly, without regard to friend or foe, everyone sat together, crouched around stone stoves, cooking sea dragon meat.
Having been at war just moments ago, they might have been too exhausted to continue killing each other. Right now, there was no time for fighting. If they didn’t work together to secure food and shelter, they would all wither away and die on this island.
The sea dragon meat simmered in the large pots, bubbling noisily.
It seemed to be just about ready, so I went ahead and took a taste.
「It’s got a bit of a chew to it.」
I had been worried that the corpse might have absorbed seawater and become mushy, but it turned out to be more like seafood (if you could call it that, considering it’s a dragon—perhaps it’s more of a marine reptile?). There was no problem at all.
It was less like a dragon and more like squid or octopus with its firm texture.
And the more I chewed, the richer the flavor became. Despite its massive size, it wasn’t bland at all.
The meat was chewy, rich in flavor, and the taste deepened the more I chewed. It was genuinely good.
Every small piece of meat was full of deliciousness. When boiled, it produced a plentiful broth.
「Takeru, try this as well.」
Louise handed me a pot filled with a gelatinous, wobbly mass.
Scooping it up with a wooden spoon, I took a bite—it was incredibly rich in collagen. It tasted like something that would be good for your skin.
「This is delicious! Is this shark fin?」
「No, it’s the boiled eyeball of the sea dragon.」
I was taken aback when I heard it was an eyeball, but at this point, I shouldn’t be surprised. I was amazed at how gelatinous the eyeball could become.
The texture was incredible, and despite its rich flavor, it had a clean aftertaste.
Now wasn’t the time to be squeamish about eating eyeballs.
I ate voraciously.
Hmm, this is quite the delicacy.
It’s a flavor that makes you crave rice. Dragon meat truly is the finest quality ingredient.
「Why does the meat have such a strong flavor?」
「Maybe it’s because the sea dragon has been eating all sorts of things in the ocean. The meat of strong animals tends to be nutritious and delicious.」
As Louise said this, she took a big bite out of a large chunk of grilled meat on a skewer.
She was also devouring the seaweed salad I had made from the seaweed caught in the net.
The people from the Abyss continent also didn’t eat seaweed.
Only Louise and I ate the seaweed. It’s so tasty, though.
Given the quality of this meat, Louise assured us that we could make jerky out of it, so it seemed we could survive on just the sea dragon meat for at least ten days.
We had plenty of manpower.
After that, we could hunt the local animals, fish, and gather the untouched coconuts to secure a medium-term food supply.
In the meantime, if we cleared the land and planted potatoes, we could manage a long-term food strategy.
Good, a plan was forming.
「Next, we need to secure a place to sleep. Barland, are the buildings in Avana’s port town usable?」
I asked Barland and his team, who were surveying the town’s buildings, about the housing situation.
「Fortunately, the inside of the buildings is intact. However, considering that the town was already in decline, it’s impossible to house 20,000 people, including the demon army’s common soldiers and sailors.」
There were simply too many people for such a small port town to accommodate.
Before nightfall, Barland planned to split his Abyspanian soldiers into several groups and send them to a few nearby pioneer villages.
Even so, that would only reduce the number by about 2,000.
The living quarters on the Black Cedar warships would also be opened up, but when considering the nearly 20,000 soldiers of the demon army that needed housing, it was like trying to extinguish a fire with a cup of water.
After finishing their meal, I saw that Damons and his group were setting up large tents one after another outside the town and in the square.
They were made of durable animal hide.
「Oh, so you have those too?」
Apparently, these were made from buffalo hide.
The Abyss continent has many deer and buffalo, and it’s common to use their meat and hide for various tools.
Deer and buffalo can’t be domesticated, so they are hunted in the wild.
Barland and the other knights have horses to ride, but it seems there aren’t animals like cattle or sheep that are easy to domesticate.
「Of course, we didn’t come empty-handed. We knew that just capturing this small town wouldn’t be enough, so we prepared tents to set up a base camp. However, even with these, it’s not enough, so the common soldiers will have to sleep outside.」
The fleet carrying our supplies was at the bottom of the sea.
Even though we used the remaining intact ships to retrieve the cargo floating in the harbor and dried it out, there were not nearly enough tents to accommodate 20,000 people.
From what I’ve heard, they originally planned to make the common soldiers and slave laborers sleep outside.
It seems that no army ever gets logistics right.
「Damons, I have no intention of leaving our soldiers exposed to the elements!」
「Your Highness King General, even if that’s the case, what do you propose we do?」
It was a challenging situation, but I had someone with a wealth of knowledge. I looked over at Kaara, who was standing at the foot of the hill, concentrating deeply. She began to launch shockwaves at the wall.
The earth was sliced away with a sharp sound, creating a large cave.
Ah, a pit-dwelling residence. I examined the cave Kaara had dug.
「Nation’s Father! We’ve got a roof now.」
「Hmm, it’s better than sleeping outside, but the soil dug up is damp, and it doesn’t look very comfortable.」
「Then, let’s do this. Kaara commands the heavens and the earth: Inferno!」
With just a wave of her hand, Kaara effortlessly cast a high-level fire spell. Ever since we arrived on the mana-rich Abyss Continent, she’s been in top form.
The flames of hell, like those from the depths of a cauldron, scorched the clay inside the large, dug-out cave, transforming it into a dry floor.
「Well, this will do for now.」
Afterwards, if we lay straw or leaves on the floor, it should suffice as a temporary sleeping place.
The cave turned out quite large, which is good, but housing soldiers there raises concerns about potential collapse.
「Kaara, we need some pillars around here.」
「Understood. Rock Drop: Grock Press!」
With a thundering sound, a massive stone pillar appeared.
Kaara, being an advance mage, always does things with great flair. This was the first time I’d seen the Grock Press used in such a way.
With her abundant magical power, Kaara employed grand spells to carve out dry caves in the surrounding mountains, creating makeshift shelters for a large number of people.
However, cooking inside would cause the caves to fill with smoke, so these could only serve as temporary lodgings.
Although Antil Island is quite warm, it might feel a bit chilly sleeping in the caves at night.
Meanwhile, Kaara, getting carried away, even used the excavated earth to construct defensive walls around the town of Avana.
It’s impressive, to say the least, but her work tends to be a bit haphazard.
If only Oracle-chan, a specialist in dungeon construction, or Lyle-sensei, a master of magic control, were here. They could have crafted provisional pit dwellings with air holes or chimneys to ensure proper ventilation, allowing fires to burn without smoke buildup.
Since we need to win the demon army over to our side, we need more well-thought-out accommodations that consider their welfare.
As a temporary solution, this will do, but it’s clear that Kaara, who specializes in offensive magic, isn’t suited for civilian tasks.
「For now, we’ve secured enough space for everyone, so next, I’ll redirect water from the stream to build a bathhouse for you, Nation’s Father.」
「A bathhouse, too, huh? Oh, right. It would also be a hassle for the soldiers to always prepare drinking water, so could you use magic to boil and disinfect the river water and store it for them? It would also help if you could set up a kitchen where we could cook, since we can’t meet the demand with magic alone.」
There’s plenty of wood around here for firewood, and the island’s river water is fortunately clear. It might be a bit risky to drink it as is, but boiling should make it safe.
However, we currently lack enough pots and kettles for cooking.
If we collect purified water in large barrels, it would be a great help to everyone.
It would also be good to make earthen pots and jars for cooking using the clay Kaara dug up.
Even though it’s close to the tropics, temperatures drop at night, so building some simple fireplaces might be a good idea.
When you think about it, there’s a lot that can be done.
「Understood, I’ll take care of that as well.」
「Yeah, while you’re at it… please.」
Kaara tends to put the most effort into building a bathhouse for me rather than focusing on the soldiers’ living quarters.
It’s nice that she cares so much about me, but it wouldn’t do to neglect other matters.
As I walked around making suggestions, Kaara built kitchens where the soldiers could work and a bathhouse near the river. However, it seems she put a lot of effort into the bathhouse, as it turned out to be exceptionally grand compared to the rest.