Chapter 71: The First Vassal Tribe

I smiled as the doppelgänger disappeared and approached the altar again. "It seems you’re having fun, matriarch...", I said, my voice loaded with a dangerous tone. The matriarch’s face turned gray, as she knew that by destroying the Omaishi, the Demon King’s clone would appear and that this would be enough to intimidate outsiders. But now that her calculation had gone completely wrong, she felt an immense pressure from me and my team. No matter what she tried, she knew she was finished. The outsiders’ power was too great to confront, so she could only pray to survive this calamity. "I wouldn’t dare, my lord," she replied, trembling. "I was only performing the ritual as I was taught by my ancestors..." With a snort, I lightly stomped the ground, creating cracks in the earth. "You know what I hate most in this world? Liars like you..." My hand began to glow with a silvery color. At that instant, the maiden beside her, named Senda, ran and covered the matriarch’s body with her own, preparing to receive the impact. She closed her eyes tightly, but the pain didn’t come. I just watched her with a smile; it was a pleasant act to see others sacrifice themselves for their loved ones in this world so full of envy and death. "Seeing that you are no longer fit to lead the clan, I order you to hand over your authority to her. I never want to see you again." The matriarch lifted her gaze, confused, as she expected to die at that moment. The members of her clan vehemently protested that she not leave, that they would fight even if it cost them their lives. "Don’t go!", "Don’t abandon us!", "We will fight with you!". The matriarch raised her hand and stopped them, accepting her fate while calming everyone present, as she didn’t want her entire tribe to die with her. She took off a red dog collar with a golden symbol that represented the authority within the clan, placing it on the young dogkin’s neck. "There is no need to fear," she said, looking at Senda with an expression of peace. "I hope you guide our village in a way that I could not..." Without another word, the matriarch walked away alone, heading into the interior of the island while the other members of the dogkin tribe wept. The matriarch had been decisive in making a choice, knowing that I could use any excuse to punish them, and she didn’t want to be to blame for her clan’s misfortune. She was grateful enough that I hadn’t killed them for summoning the Demon King’s clone to this place. I was surprised by her audacity and nodded, acknowledging her courage in that action. "Due to the goodwill of the old matriarch, I will pardon your faults, but if anyone dares to have any disloyal idea against me or against any member of my family, I will not hesitate to exterminate all of you." My gaze swept over those present slowly, causing everyone to tremble with fear, especially the new matriarch. She was already thinking about how to avenge her master, and I, seeming as if I could read her mind, had hit the nail on the head with my threat. After looking at the sky for a few moments with tears falling down her cheeks, Senda walked toward the altar without looking at us and placed a drop of her blood. The altar immediately began to vibrate and a message appeared in front of me. [The Dogkin tribe wishes to become a vassal tribe of the "Hero’s Clan"] [Accept / Reject] Next to the word vassal was a question mark symbol, so I pressed it and an explanation of what it meant appeared. Vassal tribes are essentially slaves without chains. They cannot disobey the leader of the ruling clan, regardless of the reason or request. They cannot leave the area designated by the ruling clan and must be in charge of security, maintenance, harvesting, or mining, as the case may be for the provided land. They must pay a monthly tribute, depending on what is agreed upon with the ruling clan. Punishments for non-compliance will be imposed by the ruling clan. The leader and elders of the ruling clan can arbitrarily decide the death penalty against any member of the vassal clan for any minor failure. Any act of revenge will be considered treason, causing anything from suffering to death. This last point seemed quite interesting, as the option could be configured so that if any member of the vassal clan harbored malicious or vengeful intentions against us, they could suffer direct damage to their brains or even die. I had thought I would have to mark each one of them to ensure they wouldn’t harm any of my girls, but it seemed that wasn’t the case, as this ensured our safety. Now I felt much more confident about what I planned to do. "Good decision. From now on, you will be under my command. Because you are a little far from our village, you will be temporarily relocated for your safety. Only take what is necessary; we will temporarily protect your valuable possessions. Bring all the gold and cores you have here. Girls, accompany our new guests to retrieve their things." Senda’s face contracted when she heard my demands. This was nothing more than completely open and shameless extortion. The entire tribe couldn’t believe what they were hearing, but they didn’t dare to attack and began to bring all their valuable items in front of me, creating a pile of diverse articles. The process was simple. Everything that wasn’t useful for the guild hall was sent directly to the system store. The points grew and grew to incredible levels. Things as insignificant as F-grade clothes and weapons only gave 1 to 3 points, but even the meat of a mosquito is still meat, and little by little with this looting, I had amassed 500,000 points, 5 times more than what I had obtained in the warehouse of the white-tailed tribe.