In the blink of an eye, a week had passed since the coup in Mandrake City. Hel had been extremely busy these past few days — she'd been occupied with endless confiscations. The rebellious nobles within the city, the wealthy merchants they had supported, and the local troops stationed across their domains — in short, Hel had cleansed every opposing force within the territory.
When Hel finally returned to her office in Mandrake City, she found herself staring at a mountain of administrative paperwork. The sheer volume gave her a headache. After skimming through only a few files, she slumped forward onto the desk in defeat.
"This isn't right, not right at all — this shouldn't be my job~
"Hel reached out with trembling hands to grab the catgirl Niv beside her, but Niv dodged easily with a nimble twist of her waist.
"Niv, how long until Sebas and the others arrive?" Hel asked lazily, still sprawled across the desk, unwilling to move an inch.
"Master, did you forget? You sent Mr. Sebas to reclaim the other territories of the Mandrake Domain," Niv reminded her gently.
"Then… what about Arwin?"
"Mr. Arwin is stationed with troops at the Golden City."
"And…"
"Miss Lily went to Northhill City, Miss Melanie is pacifying the remaining merchants in Mandrake, and even Lady Anna and her mother are overseeing the construction of the territory's academies. Master, face it — you're the most idle person here."
Hel could hardly believe how such a small, warm 36-degree mouth could say such cold words. Faced with all this paperwork, she'd rather spend her days merging undead than waste her time buried in bureaucracy.
Suddenly, a spark of inspiration lit up in Hel's mind — she seemed to think of the perfect candidate. "Oh right, where's that old man Witt? Tell him to hurry back. The Queen of Selphis doesn't need him meddling there anymore — she'll be falling soon anyway. Have him come back and deal with all this administrative nonsense. I've got more important things to do."
With that, Hel got up and strode out the door.
The elf Niv watched her rush away, raised a hand, and finally called out, "Then… Master, what about all this paperwork?"
"Leave it to you!" Hel's voice echoed from the hallway.
Niv could only sigh helplessly. What else could she do? She was already in charge of commanding all the puppets across the territory. Infrastructure, city defense patrols, order distribution — everything fell to her. And now, a mountain of administrative documents was being shoved her way. Even if she had seven auxiliary brains, this was pushing it.
Just as she was lamenting her fate, Hel suddenly dashed back into the room.
"Master, have you finally had a change of heart?" Niv asked hopefully.
"What change of heart?" Hel looked at her in confusion, then jogged over to the desk, scooped up the catgirl Niv — who had been lazily rolling on top of the table — and bolted for the door again.
"I just forgot to bring catgirl Niv. Work hard, Niv — I'm counting on you!"
And with that, Hel was gone again.
Niv could only shake her head and sigh. What could she do but indulge her? After all, Hel was holding her just a moment ago…
As she thought of that, a faint blush colored Niv's delicate cheeks. "I didn't expect Master to be so dependent on me," she murmured softly.
——
Not long after Hel left the office, she received a communication request from Sebas.
"Well, long time no see, Sebas."
"Good day, Young Master," Sebas greeted politely with a bow, then quickly reported, "Young Master, while I was in the Earl of Rivervale's territory, I met a messenger from the Watchwall. He brought a military order concerning the Mandrake Defense Line."
"Go on," Hel said. Sebas' words gave her a bad feeling.
"Because the Mandrake passes have been cut off, the entire Watchwall garrison along the Mandrake line now depends on our domain for supplies. The ten thousand laborers who were sent to repair the Watchwall were conscripted as regular soldiers. Additionally, the Watchwall command expects us to honor the previous agreement and continue sending extraordinary combatants from the Heim Domain."
"That old agreement… could it be something Brenda promised them before? So they're afraid that after the regime change, I — the new Duchess — won't honor it? Hmph. Fine, I'll go there myself."
Hel knew about the Watchwall garrison on the Mandrake Line — it was split from the Tulip Line's Watchwall troops north of the Snowveil Line. The garrisons of both the Mandrake and Snowveil lines had long lost most of their structure during the Beastmen invasions, and the Free Nations to the west were in no position to send reinforcements to the Selphis Kingdom's border.
The Knight Empire had been forced to spread its defensive forces thinly, leaving the Mandrake garrison relatively small. The entire Watchwall army there had only two sixth-tier combatants, about a dozen fifth-tiers, and a total of roughly thirty thousand extraordinary fighters.
As for regular soldiers, aside from the ten thousand conscripted Mandrake citizens, there were almost none left. When the Beastmen invaded previously, most of the ordinary troops stationed there had died — only the extraordinary fighters survived.
With such a force, they couldn't possibly withstand another large-scale Beastmen assault, not even repeated smaller attacks.
For Hel, eliminating the problem wasn't the issue — the real challenge lay in how to secure the Mandrake Defense Line without exposing too many of her secrets, and how to handle the Saint-tier combatants involved.
"To be safe, I'll call a meeting first," she decided.
Hel activated the Soul Network and summoned all of Heim's upper leadership.
In a featureless round-table chamber, Hel and Niv sat among the others. After Hel explained the situation briefly, everyone's brows furrowed in concern — clearly, this was no simple problem.
After a long silence, Witt finally spoke up hesitantly: "Young Master, perhaps we could use this as an excuse to send those extraordinary fighters who used to serve the old nobles?"
But Hel shook her head. "No. What I need to solve is how to stop the Watchwall garrison from endlessly leeching off the Mandrake Domain. Even if we send people now, they'll just keep asking for more later. So — either they surrender control of the Mandrake Defense Line… or we seize their commander."