Nothing but the dry bread and vegetable soup they had eaten that morning had passed through their stomachs, yet none of them cared.
They needed to protect the Walls of the North as best they could, and to achieve this, Luke Ibn Alphonsine, the sole prince of Hiera, was making a great effort.
None of them could be selfish. The walls of the North, which had not been expanded for a long ti, had now been enlarged to rge with the mountains. What needed to be done now was to build proper roads and erect houses. After that, there would be a large influx of people here from other cities.
There was no way it wouldn't happen.
The north would have more warriors, and the walls would be better protected.
While all this was happening, Luke had climbed the walls with a few soldiers and then began to carry out a careful observation.
Luke was aware that there were millions of soldiers in the city. In this situation, installing new weapons on the walls would be quite useful.
This city could already bring dragons down from the sky, but Luke could make a significant contribution to take this situation to an even more extre level.
The ballistae on the walls of his own city could also be installed here.
After Luke briefed the soldiers on the plans, he took their opinions into account, and without even consulting Hannah, the city's leader in Kassadin's absence, the ballistas were imdiately deployed across an area spanning two hundred kilotres.
The top of the wall was equipped with ballistas that could at least help the soldiers defend themselves.
Luke would have placed more, but he had finished the job in four hours, trudging along for two hundred kilotres.
There was no need to ntion how reluctant he was to do more.
By the end of the day, Luke had managed to erect exactly twelve thousand three hundred and ninety-six houses, taking only about a hundred soldiers with him, as the darkness of night fell and the northern cold brought everyone to the brink of freezing.
Of course, this scenario ant that no one needed to sleep in tents.
When the next day arrived, the remaining houses were completed within sixteen hours, placed one by one by Luke, and in such a short ti, over two hundred thousand houses had been erected in the vast area.
Luke's work in the eastern part of the north was now complete.
The maintenance of this area and many other things were now directly under the responsibility of the Wirgo family.
Luke could have tried to return himself, but he did not want to spend days travelling.
It was easier for him to call out to the Ancient Dragon Shenhal, still slumbering in the heart of Esphia, from a point over a thousand kilotres away.
'Co,' said Luke, his voice so commanding, so authoritative that the soldiers around him, even those who had fought magical beasts for years, couldn't help but tremble.
The Ancient Dragon Language was truly in a different league.
After a fifteen-minute wait, the Ancient Dragon Shenhal appeared directly where Luke had called out to it and transported Luke straight back to the centre of Esphia.
Luke was drenched in sweat; it would be accurate to say he stank.
After entering Wirgo Manor and taking a long shower, they had given Hannah all of the reports and then gone to sleep.
After a full day's sleep, he had set off westward, this ti with the Ancient Dragon Shenhal.
This ti, he had to deal with the West. He could finish everything sooner than he had thought and return ho.
He needed to tell Zoey how much he missed her.
Upon reaching the west, Luke could see that nearly 10% of the roads had been completed.
With her absence from the region, the work had naturally slowed considerably and even reached a point where it could be considered stalled, but the soldiers of the north had still managed to do their best.
It was already an incredible feat for hundreds of thousands of soldiers and workers to cover a distance of over a thousand kilotres in just two days, and the fact that they had already started working despite this was proof enough of what beasts these soldiers were.
When Luke saw the work being done in the region and even saw Crystal herself trying to help with the work in the region, his respect for the Wirgo family increased exponentially.
Seeing Crystal, the future leader of the Wirgo family, whom he already loved dearly, seemingly treating herself, the future Duchess and her rank as equal to an ordinary soldier from the people, helping with the road construction, Luke found himself smiling involuntarily.
Luke himself had helped with the road construction for a short while and then, as if nothing had happened, had climbed back onto the walls with a few people by his side.
This ti, however, he had filled the western walls with ballistae and loaded thousands of projectiles onto small depots he had built right next to the walls, as well as into the towers he had constructed at the very top of the massive walls.
In short, by ensuring a stockpile of ballista projectiles both at the base and atop the walls, he had increased the city's defences by at least a factor of two.
After all, these ballistas and the enormous arrows they fired were incredibly powerful.
In a short ti, he had finished his work and filled an area of just five hundred kilotres of these walls, which were over a thousand kilotres long, with dozens, even hundreds of ballistas.
Afterwards, Luke truly felt even more exhausted than usual.
He ordered everyone to take a break for the day and, within an hour, managed to erect at least thirty thousand buildings, allowing those who were not considered old among the soldiers but were past a certain age to sleep in the buildings.
This had enabled more than half of the nearly four hundred thousand soldiers to sleep in warm hos after taking hot showers and eating hot als.
Crystal, along with a few servants under her command, had been placed in a house, and Antique Dragon Shenhal himself had been placed in an area close to the house, which Luke had deliberately left unbuilt.
Luke certainly did not want any harm to co to his one and only wife Zoey's sister.
Even if they were soldiers of the North, only the gods and goddesses knew who would betray and who would not.
The day had just begun, and within a short ti, the sun had disappeared. Following Luke's orders, they had only worked for about six or seven hours today. After all, it wasn't difficult to understand that quite a lot of deep work had been done before Luke arrived.
Luke himself had entered the house he had built for himself and then placed a candlestick on a dining table and lit the candle inside it.
"Great Goddess, sole mother of the Night, leader of the Chaos-Born, and the one upon whom the bright eyes of the gods and goddesses gaze, I pray to you, Lady Nyx," Luke said suddenly.
With the constantly changing image of the burning candle's three flas, Luke wanted to do sothing he hadn't been able to do for so ti.
Pray.
"Forgive , I haven't prayed to you for a while, despite promising to do so. I've been very busy, truly busy. I realise I could pray before going to sleep at night or after waking up in the morning, and I apologise for using my busyness as an excuse. Still, I hope you hear my voice, that you are watching , Luke."
Every ti Luke spoke, the fla of the candle in front of him seed to burn even brighter. It was as if the goddess herself was excited.
"I pray to you for the health of my family, for the health of those in my lineage and those not in my lineage, and I wish for the Great City, Selene's people, to bring joy for many years to co. I hope you are watching , and if you truly are watching, I hope I have beco a person worthy of your admiration," Luke said, in as gentle a tone as possible.
"I will cut this prayer short because I really need to rest; I have been very tired these days. Still, before I finish my prayer, I have another request for you, a personal one, a truly personal one," Luke said, then opened his eyes and watched the burning candle in front of him, imdiately after which he uttered these words:
"Please allow my wife, Zoey Gloria Hiera, to have eternal happiness. Never allow to hurt my one and only wife, and remind her of my love for her, even if Chaos itself makes forget. An."
With these words, Luke's prayer ended, and the fla on the burning candle miraculously flared up once more before going out, and then the room itself was plunged into darkness.
Luke entered the bedroom of the house with the light in his hand, lay down, and fell asleep shortly afterwards.
When he woke up again, it was already morning, and work had started again.
Within half a day, the roads were finished, and within another four hours, Luke had managed to erect every house, market, tailor's, blacksmith's, and many more that needed to be built.
Luke now had no further business in the Duchy of Wirgo. He could return to his ho, his wife, his city, and his servants.
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