"And off they go,

" Irea thought, watching how the group of roughly a hundred men and women ran off into the distance.

For the next few moments, she just stood in place, watching how their backs turned smaller and smaller, threatening that the cloud of dust they kicked would soon cover them. And surely enough, before long, she could only see the said cloud, with no other hints of human presence off in the distance.

"Okay, everyone, back to work! This is not the time to be slacking off!

" Someone in the crowd shouted, prompting a huge part of the crowd to move back to their daily tasks.

But Irea stood. 'I should still have some time,' she thought, raising her left hand to her right wrist only to caress the delicate texture of her bracelet.

'Who knew that it could work like that,' she thought, tracing the intricate carvings in the metal with her fingers. While the metal itself was heartlessly cold, it gave off a faint aura of Layn's presence. Just by having the bracelet on her arm, Irea didn't feel all that lonely.

'It doesn't produce much mana, does it?' she thought, associating the small yet constant stream of the energy with some kind of warmth. 'Well, it doesn't matter,' she thought before turning around on her feet and heading back to the kitchen. 'As much as I hate it, I still need to get back to work,' she thought.

"You, you and you,

" she stopped after only walking a few paces.

"Bring today's ingredients to the kitchen,

" she ordered a random group of people around. 'Since they are standing and doing nothing, they might as well help me out,' she justified her bossiness, refusing to look for the real reason for her act.

"Yes, Ma'am,

" the men replied, lowering their heads with respect.

'I wonder whether it's their respect for Layn and Layn alone or for me,' she thought before casting those thoughts away. 'Well, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things,' she added in her thoughts before shaking her head.

Bit by bit, the crowd that watched the brave warriors of the camp set off started to disperse. Just like someone said a moment ago, their warriors leaving didn't mean there was no work to be done.

"Today's quota is two thousand bricks!

" Someone shouted in the distance, proving that at least some parts of the camps were coming back alive. Even though the manpower decreased by nearly a fourth of its total number, no one was courageous enough to decrease the required daily output of the factories.

And it was because of one, simple reason.

Just like it was said in the last council of their leaders, their greatest advantage was the growth rate of the camp. With a clear goal set for everyone, they were free of the burden of developing things that wouldn't prove advantageous. As a result, they were free from stagnation and many pitfalls that the development of civilization would always bring.

The only reason the camp dispatched the warriors to sabotage the efforts of the other parties was to buy the workers at the camp enough time so that they would be able to press this exact advantage.

'Still,' Irea thought, finally reaching the doorstep of her workplace again, 'I wonder how they will fare?' she asked herself, putting her hand on the doorknob of the kitchen.

"I need to...

" someone said in the distance. Sadly, the voice came from too far away for Irea to hear the details. As such, she didn't bother to listen to it but entered the kitchen instead.

Soon, her usual day of work started with the daily cleaning of all the utensils. Although the number of mouths to feed in the camp increased by many times, Layn's oversight from when he was projecting the building allowed her to still keep up with the demand for the meals all on her own.

'It's unusually dirty,' Irea thought, checking the condition of the kitchen.

"I guess that's what I get for not cleaning it properly yesterday,

" she muttered with grief.

As great of a time as she had cuddling with Layn back then, now came the time to pay for her earlier slack. Yet, rather than complaining, she quickly grabbed one of the cleaning rags and rinsed it in the water before adding the dust imported from the nearby desert on it.

Yet, just as she was about to start riding off all the residue from the previous day worth of cooking, a knocking on the doors stopped her.

'What now,' she thought, slightly annoyed. Out of all the things she looked forward to in the sad time without Layn to her side, the general lack of disturbances was the biggest one.

"Come in,

" Irea shouted after releasing a deep sigh. But rather than halting her movements in wait for the visitor, she combed the cleaning cloth together before swiping it through the huge cooking desk.

"My lady, I'm sorry to bother, but we might need your help,

" a visitor said, bowing as soon as he entered the building.

"What happened,

" Irea asked without even moving her eyes away from the part she was cleaning right now.

"We have some messenger from the old lands,

" the man announced, twisting his lips in a weird grimace.

"He insists he brings some important news but is only willing to report them to the top brass,

" the man added, biting on his lips.

'What now?' Irea thought, surprised by the sudden development. 'For as far as I can recall, there should be no scheduled reports for now,' she thought.

With how far Layn's, Markus's, and Al's ambition stretched, they were sure to establish several groups to work outside the camp. Just the fact that not even half of Al's clan ever reached the camp itself was the greatest proof of that.

Due to the sheer scale of how many people worked for the trio of the leaders outside of the camp, rather than having them come in randomly with reports, they were supposed to appear per schedule.

The only situation where this rule was allowed to be broken was when something important enough happened. After all, if someone learned the world was coming to an abrupt end, waiting for the scheduled time of a report would be a stupid thing to do.

"Bring him in,

" Irea said before a heavy sigh left her mouth.