The Amid Empire’s army that was occupying the Sauron region was troubled by the fact that the process of normalizing the new government system was not proceeding at all.

“What shall we do, Duke Marme? At this rate, our position in our homeland…” said a military civil official, inside the conference room of one of Duke Sauron’s army’s forts that had been seized by the Amid Empire’s army.

A vein surfaced on the forehead of a middle-aged man whose hairline had receded to the top of his head. “Damn it, I don’t need you telling me to know that!” he shouted hysterically, pounding his fist against the thick, round table.

He was Duke Marme… the cousin of the Amid Empire’s current emperor, Marshukzarl.

Duke Marme had assumed the position of supreme commander of the Amid Empire forces occupying the Sauron Duchy in the spring of this year.

The political measures for occupation hadn’t progressed for multiple years after the Sauron Duchy was occupied, and Duke Marme, the head of the Marme family of dukes that possessed a sacred bloodline, being connected to the imperial family of the champion Bellwood, took this position in high spirits, thinking that he would make the political measures progress rapidly.

However, he had come to the end of his rope soon after taking up this new post.

All of the “improvements” and “political measures” that Duke Marme and his retainers could come up with had already been tried by his predecessors. And this had led to the current situation.

Even when they were exempted from paying taxes in full for a period of time, or the infrastructure to maintain the highways were put in place, the people of the Sauron region would not yield to the Amid Empire. No matter how much time passed, they referred to the Amid Empire’s army as the ‘occupying army,’ supported the resistance behind the scenes despite not showing any signs of rebellion on the surface, and they were waiting for the return of Duke Sauron’s children, who had fled to the Orbaume Kingdom.

The political measure of discriminating against Vida’s races like Beast-people and Titans, which were completely normal in the Empire, would not be applied for a long time due to the orders of Emperor Marshukzarl, and this had not caused any problems, at least on the surface. However, other political measures had caused problems to surface.

Trying to do something about it, the army that Duke Marme had brought with him were throwing themselves into things and running about, but the situation had only worsened.

“The people have a deep-rooted resistance to the construction of a Church of Alda and religious conversion, so we cannot gather workers. In fact, there have been conflicts between the people and the soldiers trying to recruit workers, devolving into bloodshed…”

The national religion of the Amid Empire, the faith that placed Alda, the god of law and fate, at the highest position – commonly known as the Alda religion. The political measure of converting the people of the Vida religion, which had flourished in the Sauron region, had not progressed at all.

“Again… It may be overbearing, but if you gather a dozen more armed soldiers, the commoners won’t riot so easily. You should have received permission from His Excellency the duke, and you should have enough soldiers gathered. So why are you not doing this?” asked the grand chamberlain of the Marme family of dukes.

“No, that is… the first ones to act violently were the soldiers, the ones that belong to Duke Marme’s army…” the civil official said.

“What?! Are you saying that those who belong to the duke’s army conducted such behavior?!” the grand chamberlain shouted, seemingly having understood the situation now.

The pale-faced civil official continued his report. “Something about a Beast-person child falling into a puddle of water, sending mud flying onto one of the soldiers’ shoes. When he tried to discipline the child, the child’s parents apparently interfered, and… the blood rose to the soldier’s head and he drew his sword. He punished the father on the spot before the other soldiers could stop him.”

“So that was the cause of the rebellion. Has the grand chamberlain not taught the soldiers that they do not have the right to punish civilians?” asked a man who seemed to be the civil official’s superior, covering for the civil official.

“Silence! It has not been long since those soldiers were recruited, and it is you civil officials who simply look at the numbers, say that there are not enough soldiers and then ask us to send more!” the grand chamberlain shouted.

“We did indeed request for more soldiers, but it is supposed to be the work of you military officers to decide who to actually dispatch!” the civil official’s superior shouted back.

“SILENCE!” Duke Marme bellowed. “Are there any other reports?!”

“Y-yes! The reconstruction of the fort in the Scylla territory has been delayed. According to preliminary estimates, if we can have five earth-attribute mages and a team of military engineers dispatched, the delay could be reduced to the end of autumn, but…” another civil official reported.

“You bastard, didn’t you say at the start of summer that ‘the delay could be reduced to the end of summer?!’ We’ve dispatched the valuable, skilled individuals among our mages, so what is the meaning of this?!” the grand chamberlain demanded.

“I-I’m terribly sorry! The gathering of materials and workers is not going well, so the construction work is not progressing.”

“Damn, are there any other reports?!” the duke shouted, saliva flying from his mouth.

The pale-faced civil officials delivered their reports one by one. Complaints from the Adventurers’ Guild, as well as petitions from every Guild – the mercenaries, merchants and mages – had stacked up like a mountain.

On top of that, the military officers reported things such as a lack of progress in the reformation of the resistance extermination squads that had been annihilated in spring, as well as increasing numbers of soldiers in the occupying army becoming unable to move due to illness, though they were not seriously ill.

As only half a year had passed since Duke Marme took up this post, these problems were not entirely the responsibility of him and his retainers.

All of these are due to the resistance’s achievements… no, interference,

thought Baron Cuoco Ragdew as he moistened his throat with black tea at a seat at the end of the conference hall, watching the duke’s face growing darker and darker as if it was completely unrelated to him.

The Amid Empire’s misgovernment of the Sauron Duchy had begun when they allowed two influential resistance organizations to form. The Sauron Liberation Front that was led by the Liberating Princess Knight and the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army that was led by Duke Sauron’s son, Raymond Paris.

The two resistance organizations had become a source of hope to the local populace that the Amid Empire’s army had tried to force to become accustomed to everyday life under occupation. This had maintained their desire to rebel against the empire.

Due to this, the Amid Empire’s army had become unable to hire the local populace as workers to become new guards or build new forts and other military installations.

They had hired commoners after applying numerous checks, but members of the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army had a high rate of success in infiltrating the workforce and had continued to cause incidents to occur.

One might think that these problems could be solved if workers and necessary military personnel were brought from the Mirg shield-nation, whose national borders were close to the Amid Empire mainland, but this was no simple matter.

Rebels existed in both the Amid Empire’s vassal nations, including the Mirg shield-nation, and the Amid Empire mainland itself. If they were to group up with the resistance, even the mainland’s public order could become unstable.

Even if this weren’t the case, the Mirg shield-nation still hadn’t reorganized its army after it had lost much of its military strength in the expedition to the Boundary Mountain Range three years ago.

As for workers, bringing them from the Empire or its vassal nations would be a poor move as well.

First of all, this would plainly come with high