We found rice!

When I described rice to Roland, he immediately knew what I was talking about. In this world, they did not eat rice. Instead, they used them to feed farm animals. It was hard to find because they did not appear in the marketplaces where the units were searching, as they were extremely cheap and no one ate them.

I immediately contacted farmers and bought all their extra stock with gold. If only they knew how to cook rice, they could have avoided the food crisis.

I had rice cookers produced; these were portable, unlike the usual rice cooker. The batteries were made during the development of a replaceable unit battery. It could only last a unit for one week, so it was rejected. But of course, using it in a rice cooker could probably last for more than a month.

I showed Roland, who was curious about my obsession with rice. His whole family were immediately addicted to the sweet and fluffy rice. And they begged me to give them a rice cooker. I think they were happier than when I gave them the gold. But I guess that's the power of rice.

We also found crude oil. Like rice, they had no idea how to use it. They did know that it goes boom when near a fire. I was surprised to find crude oil this close to the earth's surface, but this was a different world.

Several mines were shut down because they dug into a crude oil reserve. But that just meant good news for us. I went around and built refineries at each point; most of them were at Aidan's territory, so we paid them a bit of gold as a fee. Also, they got addicted to rice as well.

And oh, we also destroyed the Empire's army; I guess that's more important. They did make some nasty threats, including making a girl a slave, which kind of pissed me off, so we returned their aggression with aggression.

The units we sent beforehand had scouted the enemy's strength and equipment. Then we waited to see the types of tactics they used. I was disappointed when all they did was launch projectiles and climbed the walls. So we intervened, as there was nothing really special like those magic cannons being used, which was what I wanted to see. A sample would also be nice.

We also captured a few prisoners, and they were taken back to the main base, blindfolded. Apparently, we had another Gilot. Gilot is our newest code word for people whose ego is extremely inflated.

Our newest Gilot demanded the unit's obedience, so I ordered them to tape his mouth so that not even the units had to suffer. He was bragging that he was the one who scared the dragons away, which just confused me because I did not receive any words of a dragon appearing.

Interrogation with the new Gilot did not go very far, but the other prisoners were more than happy to betray their country for better treatment. The information we gathered wasn't that significant.

Their treatment was nothing special, just food three times a day, a comfy bed, and chess. They began to bet against each other with their deserts, which were gold to them.

It reminded me to build a larger prison. I also want a rehabilitation program to be put in place for offenders to change their ways and an opportunity to rejoin society.

But that's for later; an Empire needed to be destroyed first. Our spies confirmed that they sent reports of our reinforcements to the leaders of the rebel army, who thought it was absurd.

However, Arisu, who led the soldiers defending the city, was concerned and sent her spies into Roland and Aidan's territory.

Even then, they would not find anything as the airfield was quite far away from any villages and towns. The people only know about the flying helicopters and our units, still using their fake faces.

To confuse the spies, we deliberately planted fake letters and reports. All the phoney information produced contradicted each other, which would delay their investigation.

We even started to have units protect random things with tracking and listening device attached, which we deliberately let them take. The reports that they sent to the Arisu were all over the place. It was only a matter of time before they realised they were being played.

During our charade, they requested us to help out in an open field war. It was forty thousand Empire soldiers against thirty thousand Rebels. But spies in both armies reported that it was to lure us out, to get a good look at our planes.

I didn't want to give what they wanted, but at the same time, it could be a way to demonstrate our power, and we did promise the rebels that we would help them, so we had to.

We also got intel that magical weapons were in play this time. On the Empire side, there were ten magic cannons, and they also had a heavy calvary squad equipped with magical armour. It is an opportunity to test our power against them and get samples.

We had Roland and Aidan negotiate with the Rebels for several magic weapons on our behalf. They were initially reluctant, asking why they should pay us even more. But we came to a simple deal; we get to keep the ones we destroy.

They still underestimated us, despite the numerous reports sent by Arisu, who has been put on the backbench, since they thought she was going crazy. The higher-ups of the rebels will probably regret their decision not to listen to her.