Chapter 495 - 314: Peace Upon the Ruins

Chapter 495: Chapter 314: Peace Upon the Ruins

The war was finally over.

Lavin had been waiting for this day for a long time, but when it finally arrived, he wasn’t as excited as he’d imagined he would be.

Instead, he just felt a bit dazed.

And weary.

For the past month, he had been in the refugee camp established by Zog, responsible for distributing supplies and putting on performances.

Putting on performances for people who had just fled the fires of war, their nerves still rattled.

It sounded a bit absurd, as if he were just causing trouble in the refugee camp.

But in truth, his performances were very popular with the people here. The more difficult the times, the more people needed something to lift their spirits.

And performing was exactly what he was good at.

During this time, Lavin had also written quite a few short play scripts based on events that had occurred in the refugee camp.

Although these scripts received excellent reviews after being performed in the camp, he himself wasn’t very satisfied.

At least, they were nowhere near as good as Mr. Zhuoge’s scripts.

"Mr. Lavin, everyone’s waiting for you!" An excited shout from outside the tent brought Lavin back to his senses.

"Alright, I’m coming."

A celebration was being held in the refugee camp. The conditions were crude, but how could they not celebrate a victory?

After the celebration, everyone would leave the camp and return to the Augustine City State to rebuild their homes.

As the spiritual leader of the refugee camp, Lavin, of course, had to attend.

Spiritual leader.

Heh.

Lavin found it laughable himself.

The reason he could become a spiritual leader was simple: he was the most famous person from Augustine.

He had become the most famous person from Augustine just by playing the final villain, Buffalo Bill, in *Silence of the Lambs* for less than twenty minutes of screen time.

A rather unimpressive final villain. Anyone who had seen the Shadow of Evil knew that Hannibal and Starling were the core of the story. As for Buffalo Bill, he was just part of the scenery.

But even if he was just part of the scenery, he was part of the scenery in a famous Shadow of Evil, and that was enough to make the Augustine People proud.

They really had nothing else to be proud of.

This tiny City Federation had indeed been ignored throughout its history.

Except for Villain; they were very interested in this land.

This fame brought Lavin considerable pressure. He felt he didn’t deserve it.

After all, he was someone who had fled during the war, not staying behind to resist with his countrymen.

While his countrymen were suffering through hell, he had even slept in a warm, soft bed in a luxury hotel suite provided by the Zog Group.

And he hadn’t made any praiseworthy contributions to his homeland either.

The one time he tried to sneak into the armory...

’Ugh, better not to bring that up.’

That idiotic act had left him in debt to Mr. Zhuoge.

But his countrymen still credited him with the aid from the Zog Group.

They believed it was because of Lavin’s initiative that Zog had chosen to help them.

Lavin had denied this many times, but the more he denied it, the more people thought he was just being modest.

He had even reported the situation to Mr. Zhuoge.

However, Zog wasn’t angry at all. On the contrary, he was delighted, muttering things about "conquering this market."

There was nothing for it. Lavin could only do his best to do more things of value, to make himself someone truly worthy of his countrymen’s praise.

There was one other thing that troubled him slightly.

It wasn’t a huge deal.

It was just that, because of him, *Silence of the Lambs* had become the most popular Shadow of Evil in Augustine.

Even five- and six-year-old children knew the plot by heart.

Whether they understood it was another matter, but was it really a good idea for kids to be watching content about Ogre psychopaths?

Posters for this Shadow of Evil could be seen everywhere in the refugee camp.

What was different from other places was that most of the posters here were character posters of Buffalo Bill.

The second most common were of Starling.

Because she was a Devil.

Nowadays, the Augustine People’s favorability toward Devils was surprisingly high. Who wouldn’t have a good impression of the force that helped save their homeland?

Although, the way the Devils had saved them was a bit... strange.

Lavin composed himself. He had to show his most positive side to his countrymen in the camp. Then he walked out of the tent.

When the people saw him emerge, they erupted in cheers.

Lavin was swarmed by the crowd and guided to a microphone.

Looking at the people, their faces smiling yet their eyes filled with tears, Lavin took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly.

He said, "My countrymen, after today, we are no longer refugees! We are going back to the Augustine City State, back to our homeland! On this land that nurtured us, we will restore her former beauty..."

The reconstruction of Augustine began.

It was not an easy task.

The long war had destroyed nearly every building in the eastern part of the city-state.

It was even more difficult than building a new city from scratch because they first had to clear away the ruins and debris.

But the people were full of motivation; they were building their own homes.

And no matter how difficult the construction work was, it was better than facing the risk of a sudden, senseless death at any moment.

The organizations that had previously provided aid still offered a great deal of help.

This time, however, it was no longer free.

Other nations provided reconstruction loans, which were estimated to take over a hundred years to repay.

The Devils who had once fought here also stayed behind to continue the construction.

To the locals’ surprise, these natural-born Warriors were also masters of construction.

And they were especially good at conserving building materials.

’Perhaps it’s a Skill they developed in the resource-scarce environment of Hell.’

Their efficiency was also very high, much better than that of Human workers.