All I can really hope to accomplish is starting the process and laying the groundwork. The victories of the army are an important part of that process, but they also create more problems. Most of the slaves that we just freed are going to want to join the army after what they have been through.

  That is going to become a problem because it means the army will grow too quickly. There is a limit to how large of an army that we can support and we are already close to it. Of course, I am talking about what the beastmen as a nation can support, not myself personally.

  Thanks to Pol, I can easily double or even triple the size of the army without a problem. It would be dangerous to have an army of that size normally, but it is necessary for what is coming. I just have to be careful to make sure that a stable breeding population survives the war.

  That shouldn’t be too hard considering that the cores of the tribes haven’t joined the army. As long as they remain behind, then the beastmen should survive even if the army is wiped out. Of course, I plan to do everything that I can to prevent that from happening.

  Letting the army get some levels at the expense of the humans is a part of that plan. The stronger and higher level my troops are, the lower the casualties in the war should be. Because even if I unify the peninsula and take the humans to war, the beastmen will still be the main force.

  The physical strength of the beastmen is needed to match the strength of the demons. If it were just humans, we would need to outnumber the demons at least three to one. On the other hand, the beastmen should be able to match the demons at one to one.

  Although, since I don’t know what kinds of numbers the demons will have, I have to plan to be outnumbered. I am pretty sure we will be outnumbered by the demonic beasts, but that is easier to deal with. The number of actual demons is what really worries me and is the hardest to plan for.

  Another thing that I can’t really account for is how many humans will be fighting on the demon’s side. I know that they will have humans fighting for them, but I have no idea how many. It makes it hard to plan for the war when I only have some basic guesses to go on.

  The worst part is that I won’t know the kind of numbers I have to deal with until they show up. So I have to create multiple plans to try and cover every possible eventuality. I have been making plans to cover the worst case scenarios that I can think of, but even then I have no idea how accurate they might be.

  That is why I am planning to create the biggest, toughest army that I possibly can. Even though it is going to stretch our supplies extremely thin and make things fairly tough. Keeping the army fed is probably going to be the hardest part, but hopefully the farming we have started will be able to keep up.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  If not, then I will have to have Pol buy what we need from anywhere that can supply it. Pol is probably well aware of our needs, but I should mention it to him just in case. Opening a trade route with the northern empire could end up being really important.

  In fact, I wish that I could open a trade channel with the southern empire as well. However, we only have the one ship and sailing around the peninsula would take far too long. Not to mention that we don’t have any charts of the southern coasts of the continent.

  Although I could probably get them from the emperor, I’m sure that he would like it if we opened a trade route. Then, as I am standing next to the huge gate, I realize that I am being stupid. I should totally be able to open up a trade route with the southern empire through a gate.

  I’ve already learned how to build a gate frame that will support a gate that anyone can use. I just need to make it big enough for a wagon to pass through and link two of them together. I can put one in the capital of the southern empire and open direct trade with my people.

  Not only would that improve both of our economies, but it would allow us to reinforce each other. It would make our alliance more than just words on paper and could make a huge difference in the war. I can’t think of any downsides to this idea, but I will run it by Pol first before I do anything.

  A short trade route like this will have major effects on the economy and I am not qualified to judge them. There are probably preparations that need to be made first and maybe some restrictions. I will run the idea by Pol and if he likes it he can figure the rest out for me.

  While I have been distracted by my thoughts, the rest of the freed slaves have gone through the gate. Now I am just waiting for the soldiers to finish cleaning up the battlefield and return. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I am able to reduce the size of the gate to conserve mana.

  Thanks to that, I should still have enough mana to keep the gate open long enough for everyone to return. Now that things have settled down, Leonarr comes over to report on our losses. Even with how well the battle went, we still lost a few soldiers and more were injured.

  The wounded are brought over so that my aura can help them while they wait to be taken through the gate. Some of them, after being in my aura for a few minutes, are able to get up and walk through on their own. Only the most severely wounded still need to be carried through the gate.

  In the end, we killed over nine thousand enemies and only lost a dozen of our people. While I regret our losses, I feel that the gains for the army were absolutely worth it. The rest of the troops are in much better moods after venting their feelings.

  The experience they gained is only a small part of it, the feelings of unity are much more important. Personal strength isn’t as important in an army, discipline and unity are more important. The discipline comes from training, but the unity comes through going through battle together.

  These troops should have the unity after this and with some training they will become elites. The rest of the army is going through similar things fighting in the empire. By the end of all of this the entire army should be elites, or at least that is what I am hoping for.