The displaced soldiers are much more willing to listen to the words of the beastkin elders than they were to believe Cain. Their age gives their words a sense of truth that someone young enough to be an enemy soldier didn't have.
That brings them to a unique problem. Most of the nations that they used to belong to no longer exist, and their families are multiple generations removed from them, plus without a system in the Awakened zone, even getting home would be an adventure. If Cain is going to try to fix any more of the vortexes, they are going to have to consider what to do with the people who come back out.
He is also going to have to inform the mayor of this development and explain the process to the local Mages. The chances they can replicate what Cain did are extremely low, but they might have ideas that he hasn't come up with that might prevent the backlash. If he is really lucky, they might even know something about how the power was gathered to cast the spell in the first place.
The landlord has joined them today, wondering what sort of party was enough to drag his neighbors out into the middle of nowhere, deep into the dangerous territories that belong more to the beasts than to the sentient species.
The old man seems shocked to hear about what Cain managed, and the damage that the backlash did to the surrounding area, but not nearly as surprised as he is when he sees one of the Badger Kin men.
"You, you were from this area weren't you? I am pretty sure I know your family." The landlord declares and the man looks at him in shock.
"That can't be. My family was taken by the slavers a few years before I was trapped in that vortex. Surely they are all long gone by now." The soldier says sadly, but the landlord isn't letting it go.
"Elder Mooney, you know them too. From two villages south of here, their boy is the spitting image of him." He insists, and the old beastkin cocks his head as he thinks.
"The boy as you called him is a good bit older now, but you're right, they did look just the same when he was younger." The elder finally agrees.
After a few more hours of storytelling, the decision is made that everyone will head into the city with Cain the next day to meet with the Mayor and explain the situation to him. The city might be almost all demons, but he knows the leaders of the neighboring cities and towns, so he can arrange a way to get these people to somewhere suitable for them to settle down.
Almost all of them were craftsmen of some sort before they were drafted into the war, so they should be able to get set up again with a little assistance in learning modern culture and preferences. They might be skilled woodworkers or glass blowers, but if they don't know what the locals like these days it will be hard to sell their products at a decent rate.
Cain leads them all to the main road the next morning, to meet up with the daily patrol group heading back to the city. This is a larger group than they have had in years, and with the Crazed culled to such an extent they have been a bit bored lately.
The road is pretty horrible around here, so Cain decides to stop the group for a moment.
"Hey, can we get everyone to move to the side for a little bit? I have summons that can help sort out this road situation as we go in. It will be just as fast as slogging through the mud with the wagons from the end of the line." Cain promises, and the guards cheer, willing to entertain any idea that leads to them not needing to push wagons through the mud to keep the convoy moving.
Cain calls out a group of gravel golems and sets them to work. First, the golems strip away the soft dirt of the roadway, then they transmute most of it to large rocks and use magic to push them back onto the roadway. Then a thick layer of soft gravel is put on top and settled with their mild version of [Earthquake] that they use as a vibrating compactor. Cain summons a smaller group of Granite Golems afterward, who summon large blocks to set on top of the new base, creating a heavy-duty version of a cobblestone street.
With three dozen gravel golems plus the two dozen larger Granite Golems, they can lay the roadway at a fast walking pace, moving smoothly along in front of the traveling patrol, while the recovered beastkin marvel at the use of Earth Magic.
The guards assure them that this is not a normal everyday sort of thing and that Cain is in fact ridiculously overpowered, but they don't care. When they get to the city they will be able to tell everyone that they watched a great mage summon golems and build an entire road in a day.
The residents of the next village are stunned speechless when this road crew passes through town, now slowing their progress and only adjusting the width to the wider main street of the village. For centuries, they had placed boards across the road to cut down on walking through the mud when it rained, and now their little village had a fancy stone main street.
The novelty is so great that they even manage to attract extra farmers to the city's market today, all eager to be the first to try out this new road. The dark gray stone is laid wide enough for two wagons to comfortably pass, instead of the old single-track trail, making it one of the region's finest highways, despite the fact that it was only going to lead to a few small farming villages. The irony was not lost on them, but with such a fine road, they might attract a few new residents who wouldn't see the trip into town as so daunting of a task anymore.
New blood was a good thing for the small towns, bringing new businesses, and keeping them from dying out when the children of those living there wanted to travel or move into the city to escape rural life.
