[X][Soldiers] Heal them.
[X][Noncombatants] Free them
[X] [Slaves] Heal them.
[X][Focus] Consolidating control over Lord Rey's former territory.
So listen, I'm not good at speech writing and that's sort of awkward considering that Yukihime needs to do a lot of them.
You lost a great amount of your soldiers. You can only blame your own incompetence for such waste of life. Even now, as you view your new fortress all you can see is a great river of blood that flowed around the cold stone. You can still see the bodies piled up at the gate of friend and foe alike... This was your burden, you were guilty. Murder was all what you knew, and you felt melancholic. You had the injured from both your army and the enemy army brought to the courtyard, you additionally had the slaves brought out as well... Your men look at your form questionably, not understanding your intention... "The battle is over, isn't it? Yet we look at each other with such naked hostility and fear... This cannot do. Lord Rey, release your slaves immediately or be cut down." Lord Rey looked blue in the face, and scampered away from his captors towards his slaves "Y-yes! I'll do... I'll do what you say, I'm sorry!" You walked over to him and leaned menacingly over him so he'd stop blabbering and get over with it... And watched with concealed awe as the slave marks slowly vanished one by one from his demihuman slaves.
Your men grabbed Lord Rey and threw him back with his family... You note with disgust that one of his children had demihuman features, a bastard child... For a moment you felt like striking him down, to kill him and his men for his disgusting actions. To establish fear in the hearts of those who would commit this injustice before smothering it. You closed your eyes, the roaring, thunderous haze constantly screaming in your mind vanished and you smiled gently and when you talked, you did so not at them but at the world. "You're all fools. Disgusting imbeciles who hurt and enslave each other over pieces of the ground. You face total annihilation, constant invasion from demons and a life of misery and pain. When you developed your enlightened mind, you didn't make machines or tools to better the world... You forged a sword to cut! How disgusting... But don't worry." You bent down and patted the halfbreed child slightly on the head, "I'll forgive you. I'll forgive all of you. It's not your fault truly, that you descended into such barbarity... You are indoctrinated! You are all taught to fear and hate each other. You are all forced to kill each other by uncaring lords and masters fighting over pieces of dirt! How pitiable. In my world, the world of the common man and not uncaring Gods, of uncaring monarchs there will be no need for war. The senseless killing and torture will stop, so to that end! To reconciliation and the eventual unification of all peoples, I declare that we heal friend and foe equally! From the oppressed to the former soldier, to the repentant lord to the humble servant! I will treat you and then I will free you in the name of the betterment of the world... For the greatest virtue, isn't it forgiveness? Isn't it to reprimand the careless child and teach you to do better instead of punish them? If we could just raise beyond ourselves, we could achieve what nobody else could!"
You went a bit manic in your speech, but you believed every word. There could be no peace, no freedom from oppression until you broke the indoctrination a large portion of the population was under. You note with some amusement that you've shocked most people into silence... "Well, what are you waiting for! Let's get to work." You shouted at your monks, and they reluctantly went to tend to the enemy army, and less reluctantly tended to the Demihumans who suffered from minor injuries and burn wounds from the slave seals. The largest benefit from recruiting monks was that most knew a thing or two about medicine... Not that you're going to let them do all the work, you immediately grabbed some first aid supplies and began applying what you knew.
In truth it wasn't such a laborious task that you thought it would be, unfortunately a large amount of the enemy didn't survive leaving only around one hundred injured soldiers from the initial defenders and forty-six reinforcing cavalry sans horses, no match for your small elite force that'd cut them to ribbons if they tried anything. It only really took a few hours and you only had a few scuffles you had to break up... But you can tell a lot of your men are a bit angry with you deciding to heal the enemy... Tough, you sort of needed the population to be sympathetic to you and you're not really okay with killing soldiers that have surrendered even if it was a common practice back where you're from... If the enemy knows you'll treat them kindly in your care then they'll give up instead of fighting you hopefully...
After that you allowed your men, and Lord Rey's men to rest for the night making sure to keep an eye on them... Then you had them kicked out with a few spare carriages to help carry the more wounded men. Lord Rey and his men might be a problem later on, but you don't regret sparing them... Everyone should get a second chance, and you didn't want to take away a father in front of his children. If he comes to face you in the field again, you wont hesitate to cut him down though. As for the former slaves...
"Please let us join you!" Ten of them came to volunteer for you, and you felt sick... Did they think you wanted to become their employer after treating them? "That's not necessary... I don't expect anything in return for my actions. Please do not think you owe me anything!" You needed to stomp down on the temptation to just accept them into your ranks, was this coercive? Was it wrong to accept them... You think so. "We owe you our lives, our freedom! But it's not just that... Your speech... I want to believe it can be done, that we can fight for equality between our people and enter a age of peace. Either you accept or I'll follow you everywhere regardless!" The one in front, a fox like man with a formal looking grey tunic overcoat... You tapped your fingers against the desk in the castle study... How do you respond to that? "Fine, but don't feel obligated to follow me. You, and everyone else can leave my service whenever you wish..." If you're left with nobody and nothing, then it was because you were too weak and incompetent. You wont force anyone to follow you, not now, not ever. "Thank you, thank you! You won't regret this." You still felt a bit icky... But as long as you made it clear that they're free to leave at any time it's okay right?
The rest of the Demihumans spoke of you with approval, but were wary due to you being well... Human, and couldn't trust you or weren't willing to fight in a war. You didn't take offense, and allowed them to settle a small settlement near the foot of the mountain of your other fortification. Speaking of settlements... You just realized that just because you won the pitched battle and destroyed all the military forces in this administrative district of Melromarc it didn't mean you actually controlled anything.
"What the fuck do you mean we have to deal with these 'Manor Lords' first?" This is the first time you've heard about this. "Manor Lords and Barons control most if not all of the villages in this area... It's where Lord Rey got a lot of his soldiers from. Each village has a population of around 500-700 and slaves make up... Twenty or so percent of that population per village with some exceptions of some slave majority 'villages' that are little more than labor camps. The high slave population comes from frequent raids into Faubley's territory that the king of Faubley unoffically allows to happen because he's related to King Aultcray... I propose a pacification campaign against these manor lords. Make them either surrender or be cut down like with Lord Rey and establish new management of some sort..." William explained to you... Well shit, you guess that you needed to clean house.
I should mention you gained a point of personality and unlocked the first aid skill at level 2.
Please choose one option for every underlined selection.
Because Lord Rey consolidated all the soldiers from various Manor Lords and military outposts to his own castle, you will easily take over these villages without any issue. You just run into the problem of who exactly is going to be governing these villages after you abolish serfdom and remove said lords...
[X] Empower the people! You will give each village the ability to elect it's own leader.
[X] Empower intellectuals. Master Hillwick didn't just host a bunch of martial artists, he also sustained one of the largest hubs for heretical thought, philosophers and free thinkers on this side of the country. Make use of their education and brain power to coordinate the villages.
[X] Empower the Monks. You have more than enough educated people in your army that you can make use as administrators instead.
Another large problem is the fate of the churches in your territory... Most of them are dedicated to the religion that hates you and thinks slavery is a good thing.
[X] Exile them and take their riches. Burn the temples to the ground.
[X] Exile them and send a messenger across the border to request missionaries from the Church of the Four Heroes to replace them.
[X] Exile them and send your more loyal monks to inhabit these new temples to spread your philosophy.
Demi humans and humans aren't going to get along just because you say so... How are you going to deal with this headache?
[X] Hate Crime Tax and other similar laws. Every time someone vandalizes a demihuman home, they must pay restitution. Repeat offenders will be exiled.
[X] Temporarily separate them and try intermingling them down the line.
