The eight generals were kneeling.
The Demon Lord remained silent, lost in thought.
"I lost the bet. I took a scratch on my face, and with that, the hero won. Since I must keep my word, for exactly one thousand years we will not attack any human without cause. But when that time passes, then we will be able to attack with all our strength and conquer this world."
The generals celebrated his words. They did not seem to care about having to wait a thousand years before returning to battle.
"You were very kind to the humans. Not that I am questioning it, but are you sure this is a good thing?"
"That does not matter. I made an agreement, and I must honor it."
He stood up, raised his right hand into the air, and used all his mana to raise a barrier around the entire tower.
"We will maintain our duties as always. Stay at your posts and relax a little. This barrier is almost impossible to break."
"You could have asked Niko to do this. Your mana is far too precious to be used this way," Lysandra said.
"Maybe it is, but it is my responsibility to keep the Tower safe," he said as he looked her in the eyes.
Days passed in the tower. Everyone had a role. The generals handled security, the soldiers patrolled certain areas of the tower, and beyond them there were demons who handled cleaning and food preparation.
There was an area that simulated an open field. That was where all the oxygen in the tower was produced. Plants grew under an artificial light that never went out, along with several plantations where all plant-based food was produced.
There was also a forest with some monsters. They were used for training combat tactics.
Beyond the forest, there was a dungeon filled with powerful monsters. It served as both an unlimited supply of crystals and a training ground.
The generals usually went into the dungeons with their troops and only left once they had enough crystals to create scrolls that would not be used for at least a thousand years.
That is, disregarding the fact that in times of war, the stock would not even last two months.
Demon Lord Victor was sitting down. In front of him were piles upon piles of papers, countless reports, most of which had been left for later review because of the war.
A great deal of work and very few helpers. Even with assistance, most of the work still had to be done by Victor himself, since he needed to sign everything.
That was the bureaucracy of being a ruler.
"What does this mean?"
"That we will run out of food. The war increased the demand for food, and production did not grow at the same pace, so we have little time," Lysandra said as she read the document.
"We will be out of food in less than two weeks. This needs to be resolved as quickly as possible. Bring Niko here," he said while reading through the entire document.
Niko was sitting on a chair, and Victor was gently stroking her head. She seemed happy, but her expression changed when she heard his request, to use plant growth magic on the plantations.
She did not hate the magic itself. She hated the boredom of having to walk through the plantations all day while using it. It would take at least four days, and she would still have to walk several miles every day.
"I will not do it," she said in a gentle tone. She was trying to convince Victor to abandon the idea and appealed to her cute side.
"You will, or you will starve," he said calmly.
"No," she said like a spoiled child.
"That will not make me change my mind. Maybe if you were eight, or even twenty years old, I might reconsider, but I will not accept this coming from an old woman."
She looked at him. Her face turned red with anger, and her gaze changed. The cute, childish expression vanished, and the expression of an assassin emerged.
"What did you say?"
The room filled with a different energy. A killing intent arose, but it was contained when Victor placed a piece of chocolate into her mouth.
"If you do what I asked, we will have more cacao. That will be used to produce more chocolate, and with that, everyone will be happy. Do you not agree?"
"Yes," she said cutely. She seemed like a completely different person.
"We will need more meat. What will we do?" Lysandra asked.
"Send Eris to the dungeons with some soldiers. I need some rest. For now, I will be in my chambers."
Lysandra looked at him and thought about saying something, but she gave up.
Everything went as planned. Gradually, the pile of papers disappeared, and food stopped being a concern.
The dungeons had almost unlimited monsters. A large mana crystal caused many monsters to continuously appear throughout the day.
That was why it was cleared from time to time.
Dungeon crystals can eventually stop existing when a dungeon is cleared too frequently, but this dungeon, for some reason, never stopped generating monsters, even though it had been cleared for the past two hundred years.
That was good, as it meant unlimited food, along with many crystals.
Each monster possessed a different crystal. Depending on the color, it could be used to enchant weapons or produce scrolls, each with a different magical characteristic.
Red crystals held fire energy, blue held water, white held wind, green held earth, yellow held light, purple held darkness, and there were neutral crystals. They had no elemental energy and were used for other purposes, such as increasing strength, agility, or even teleportation. These were the rarest.
Even so, they were easy to find in the dungeon.
In such cases, the color of the crystal could vary. The same color could grant different characteristics, so only specialists could evaluate what type of crystal it was. In those situations, some people could take advantage of inexperienced adventurers, claiming that a rare crystal was a more common one and paying far less than its true value.
"We have another problem. The treasury is out of gold. On top of that, we need trade. Staying isolated is causing issues."
"The agreement did not involve us being trapped here, did it?" Vans asked.
"No, it did not. I just thought it would be for the best, since many races hate us."
"Then the best thing to do is to wait for the hatred to fade. But a thousand years is a very long time. I suggest we wait at least four generations, so that what they know about us becomes nothing more than history."
"How many years would four generations be?" Niko asked.
"For humans, around one hundred and thirty years. For dwarves, one hundred and eighty. For elves, at least two hundred years," Vans replied.
"What are you suggesting we do?"
"We can return and act as humans or members of other races. Little by little, we can infiltrate and act only when the time is right."
"We can do that now," said a woman with an eyepatch.
"Yes, but it is very risky. Everyone is extremely suspicious and afraid. Not everyone will believe it when they hear we are at peace. Some will still expect an attack, so every precaution is necessary."
"But as time passes, people will come to terms with it and think it is a lie, or that the story has been exaggerated. With that, we will be able to return to the surface."
"Besides, everything is destroyed right now. That will take time."
"So you suggest we stay here doing exactly what? There is not much to do."
"Hibernation. We can hibernate and only wake up two hundred years from now, but it would be best to wake up from time to time for maintenance."
"Pass this information to everyone. We will do that, but only in one year. We need to stockpile food and crystals, as well as some metals, like gold. Our treasury is practically empty."
Mirel, the woman with the eyepatch, accepted the decision.
But she looked at Vans in a strange way. She felt some hatred toward him.
"Where is Vesta?"
"She is still in the treasury. She was not summoned."
"What is the point of holding a meeting with the generals and not summoning everyone?"
"I will call her."
Vesta was tall. She wore a mask made of mythril. She wore a black dress with an admirable neckline. The area around her abdomen was transparent, and over it she wore a transparent black tunic.
Her presence conveyed peace, even though she carried a mythril sword with gold details and many crystals on the hilt.
"What is the true state of our treasury?" he asked, showing no concern for her presence.
"We are almost completely out of gold coins. We have eight gold coins, thirty-five silver, and only fourteen copper."
"We have no gold bars left. What remains are only a few crystals, weapons, and scrolls. We no longer have ink or any paper that can be used to produce new scrolls, and everything that remained was used to produce the documents. Additionally, we have no potions left in stock," she said slowly. Her voice was gentle and conveyed peace.
"How did we reach this state of bankruptcy?"
Before she could open her mouth, he asked her to stop.
"We have one year to get out of this situation. I want you to begin producing paper and food, increase our gold reserves, and resolve the other problems."
"We can use that artifact to deal with the gold issue. The humans will not mind, I believe."
"We will do that. We will use it without limit. We will fill our stock. But I want every amount of coin generated to be accounted for, including those that are melted down into gold bars."