The magical stag was handed directly to the Eyebrow-Patterned King Serpent by Draven. To him, this guy was more like a living storage — he could even hold living creatures, which was far more practical than those storage rings.

  Of course, aside from the unpleasantly sticky stomach acid that smelled a bit gross, the ability to hold live things was such a big advantage that Draven just put up with it.

  At dinner time, Liliana clutched a huge chunk of roasted meat and devoured the equivalent of several people's portions. Her simple reasoning: "I worked hard!"

  She said this proudly.

  Well, she really did help quite a lot, especially with that digger — its efficiency was astonishing.

  Viola looked at the little girl with eyes full of indulgence and helplessness. Liliana's little belly was so full it puffed up like a big balloon.

  Alaric sighed inwardly, feeling that his place in his sister's heart might have been slightly usurped by this little rascal.

  Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the slaves' dining area was somewhat complicated. Everyone envied Titus, the kobold, who was feasting heartily on a special meal.

  It was magical beast meat — the kind even the lord himself was reluctant to eat. Titus savored every bite, but the wary glances from the surrounding slaves made him emit low, protective whimpers as if afraid someone would steal his delicious meal.

  Draven increasingly thought Titus was much smarter than he had initially imagined.

  After her meal, Liliana soon yawned widely, her eyes half-closed as she declared she wanted to sleep. Probably no more noisy antics tonight.

  Draven gave her an approving look, then started urging everyone to leave the big house quickly.

  The design of the big house's skylight was quite interesting. It wasn't just a simple hole — the roof was split into two layers, as if after opening a hole, a small cap was placed on top.

  This design allowed good ventilation and lighting, while preventing rainwater from falling directly into the hearth.

  Although the full moon that night wasn't particularly bright, moonlight streamed through the skylight into the stone house, creating a mysterious yet somewhat enchanting atmosphere. The crimson moonlight was like a light veil, gently enveloping the humble home.

  Viola bit her hair gently between her lips, appearing a bit shy and awkward. She didn't realize this small gesture warmed Draven's heart and lifted his spirits.

  The two finished their final wrestling sprint and collapsed heavily together.

  "Stop making noise! Are you trying to keep people from sleeping?" Draven was about to say some sweet words when Liliana's noisy shouting suddenly broke his train of thought again.

  The next day, Liliana's workload doubled. Draven sat with authority on a tree stump beside the construction site, spear in hand, personally supervising.

  Draven didn't think it was anyone else's fault. You see, there were over a hundred people in the village, but only this little girl was astonishingly busy. Liliana didn't sleep at night mostly because she hadn't had enough fun or enough exhaustion.

  So today, Liliana absolutely had to move enough stones — resting was out of the question!

  Viola led the slaves to continue the work left unfinished yesterday: smoking the snake meat. Her cheeks occasionally flushed with two red patches — perhaps thinking of last night's nonsense, or simply from fatigue.

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  The huge python's body was enormous, and the chunks of meat they cut off would last them a while. The ample food reserves brought a small sense of security to the little fox girl who had been on the run.

  Meanwhile, Bran was also busy as ever.

  Turning the snake's shed skin into leather armor was not a simple matter of stitching and patching. It required the unique processing methods of the demi-human race to make it tough and durable.

  Such a large piece of python skin was enough to make gear for the entire hunting party, so there was no worry about running out of materials.

  Draven gave the order to turn all the snake skins into leather armor. That way, not only the young men in the hunting team but also the other kids and slaves could wear them and gain more protection.

  After all, this place was full of dangers right now, and any equipment that could protect them shouldn't be spared.

  However, Draven knew very well that this kind of leather armor offered limited protection and no longer posed much of a threat to him.

  He used to envy the heavy armor worn by the troll chief Garruk — sturdy and imposing. Thinking of that armor, he couldn't help but feel a bit downhearted.

  How could Garruk have fallen to those snake people's minions? They were still allies back then, but now he was gone forever.

  Draven quickly pulled his thoughts back and refocused on the construction site before him. He had zero experience building houses.

  The demi-humans could pitch tents easily enough, but actual building techniques were almost a complete mystery to them.

  All he could do was sketch out the style of brick-and-tile houses he'd seen in his childhood. The only difference was that the windows weren't the usual square openings on the walls but were changed into skylights.

  This design mimicked the big house. After all, in this world, putting windows in the walls was too unsafe — it made it easy for enemies to sneak in.

  The kids' houses were right next to the big house: two long rectangular buildings, ten meters long and four meters wide. One side housed the Black Wolf clan's children, the other the Fire Fox clan's.

  They were separated by gender. Inside, there wasn't much — just one big communal bed. Furniture and such would be added gradually, as their craftsmanship still wasn't up to speed.

  The bed frames they made last time had already started creaking — whether it was poor wood or a design flaw, no one knew.

  The roofs naturally had no tiles. They still couldn't fire pottery here; the Black Flag Territory's technology hadn't reached that level yet.

  It wasn't that they didn't know how to make them. Viola and her Fire Fox clan had plenty of experience, but time was tight, and they couldn't spare hands for such tedious work. Laying down dry grass to keep out the rain would suffice for now.

  The slaves' quarters were similar but smaller and more crowded. A few pairs of kobolds had already been allowed to share the same large tent.

  However, they still needed to build separate small houses for them. Rurik, Bran, Alaric, Ayla, and Liliana were all in this situation.

  All in all, the workload was considerable. Without the help of the treants and Liliana, relying solely on the slaves, nobody knew how long it would take.

  Speaking of which, treants weren't as slow-moving as people thought. They were tall and big, and although they seemed slow when walking, they were actually very efficient.

  Even more impressively, they barely needed to eat — just absorbing sunlight and occasionally some meat was enough.

  During the day, the treants busily carried timber and stones, helping with the house construction. At night, they settled like large trees, deeply rooting themselves into the soil.

  Strangely, they seemed to prefer rooting near the toilets. This habit gave Draven quite a headache, forcing him to arrange shifts to make sure someone guarded the village's perimeter at all times.

  Outside the stone walls, the slaves dug some land and planted cassava seedlings. So far, all the cassava had survived. How much they would yield was yet to be seen.

  Besides cassava, Viola had also learned from Draven how to grow seasoning substitutes and planted some of those as well. For the little fox girl, these seasoning crops were even more important than cassava because they could improve everyone's diet and quality of life.

  Viola's fondness for Liliana wasn't just because the little girl was cute, but because she was a druid. Liliana's pure heart and strong affinity with plants and animals had long been seen through by the little fox girl.

  The change in attitude began when the little fox girl discovered Liliana possessed special abilities — she could interact with nature and even influence planting and livestock.

  During late-night talks, the little fox girl repeatedly mentioned Liliana's future important role in agriculture and animal husbandry. Actually, Draven understood that the treants' help with planting might be even greater than Liliana's — but he hadn't told the little fox girl that.

  The little fox girl threw herself into work very earnestly, sometimes a bit too hard, but Draven felt that some things didn't need to be rushed and could be done slowly.

  Everyone in the village, except Draven, had been busy all day. After dinner, everyone gathered in the square to start preparing for the upcoming full moon festival.

  The only mystery was when Liliana had climbed onto the roof, sitting there swinging her little feet, gazing at the moonlight.