For the next month, the work of defeating monsters while paving the ground continued.
Day after day. In the heart of the plains, they repeated the cycle of defeating monsters and laying down pavement.
Fortunately, once the ground was compacted firmly enough, no new weeds sprouted from it.
On top of that, monsters never set foot in the areas that had been paved with stone.
Perhaps it was because Rest's mana lingered there, acting as a deterrent to monsters.
It wasn't the entire heart of the plains, but across a considerable portion, the abnormally overgrown weeds had been cleared away, and a foundation had been laid for building a new town here.
"GRRRRRRR!"
"Lightning Cannon!"
Isis unleashed a bolt of lightning upon the Corrosion Beast that appeared.
The blazing strike incinerated the creature in an instant, reducing it to a charred husk.
"Phew... I think that should about wrap up the last of them, right?"
"Yeah, at this point they should be pretty much gone."
Rest answered Isis.
The Corrosion Beast had made the heart of the plains their home, but they should have managed to subjugate nearly all of them.
Some may have fled the area, but at the very least, they shouldn't pose an obstacle to frontier development anymore.
"The kin of Sabnock, who once dominated these plains and drove back development parties time and again... how anticlimactic."
Those words came from Rail, the priest, who had finally broken a long silence.
Sabnock and the Corrosion Beast had, time and again in the past, driven those who sought to develop the plains to utter ruin.
Even they had now reached the twilight of their era.
With Sabnock, their boss, slain and the frontier development squads systematically taking out the rest one after another… there was no place left for them here.
(Arrogant ones do not endure. They last no longer than a spring night's dream… huh. No matter how strong someone is, when it's over, it's over.)
Looking down at the corpse of the fallen Corrosion Beast, I'm suddenly overcome by a strangely somber feeling.
Rodele was the same, but… no matter how powerful someone might be, when it's over, it's over. When it's time to die, they die.
And… that could very well be me tomorrow.
"Let's be careful… value our lives."
"Rest, what's wrong?"
"No… nothing's wrong."
Yuri tilted his head and asked, so I waved my hand sideways in response.
"More importantly… hasn't frontier development come along pretty far? Monsters have thinned out, and we've already taken down most of the strong ones."
The central plains had been Sabnock's and the Corrosion Beast's domain.
With them defeated, there were no longer any powerful monsters left.
At this rate, it was unlikely that a new lord of the demon realm would emerge either.
"Our work's probably just about done, isn't it? All that's left is for the specialists to set up a barrier to absorb the mana, and things should settle down nicely."
"So it all wrapped up surprisingly smoothly."
Lubeth crossed her arms, looking unsatisfied.
The development of the demon realm's core had no doubt been a fairly difficult job, but it seemed it would wrap up without much trouble—it had just taken time.
They never really faced any crisis.
"If there's a problem, it would be… the wetlands to the east, I suppose."
The knight Argil interjected.
A little ways outside the frontier's central area, there was a wetland zone to the east.
The terrain spread out like a mire, and it remained completely untouched.
"Hmm, we'll probably have to survey that area eventually. Well, we'll be waiting on Highness Andrew's orders for that, though."
Since the wetlands had a different environment from the plains, there was a possibility that different monsters from the Corrosion Beasts inhabited them.
Perhaps… there could even be monsters rivaling Sabnock.
(When Rodele provoked Sabnock, the Corrosion Beasts had headed straight west. Avoiding the eastern wetlands. The simple reason was probably just that Rodele had been on that side, but still…)
For Sabnock, the wetlands might have been a place it didn't want to pass through.
It would be one thing if it was for some adorable reason like not wanting to get its feet muddy…
"Alright, let's call it a day here. Everyone, good work."
Rest praised his companions and left the central plains behind.