Chapter 53

  Ah, who was I kidding? I had no talent for drawing. None at all. The beautiful, artistic renders of a whole catapult and its individual parts I was seeing on my NeuroHUD display had become stick figure doodles on the city wall, ones any toddler would look at and think to themselves “I could do better than this with a crayon”. My SAC was covered in spots and drips of white paint, and I was feeling increasingly embarrassed as I was coming to the end of my presentation. From what I’d seen in Hell so far, demons had the capacity to achieve great feats in the field of architecture, and while I hadn’t seen any statues or paintings so far, I was sure they would be able to create and appreciate art given the opportunity. I could only hope they weren’t too fussy about quality when it came to schematics of military equipment. Ah, who was I kidding? They probably were. Luckily, the crafters seemed keen to avoid offending their new lord; as I finished my explanations and stepped back from the wall, they were nodding and humming thoughtfully, and I couldn’t hear a single word of criticism as they quietly discussed my plans. Reinos was just shaking his head, looking at the wall with a horrified expression on his face, and even Lanny, my new attendant who had shown nothing but unbridled enthusiasm and optimism so far was quiet and wasn’t smiling. Ah, everyone’s a critic, even if silent.

  After about a minute I was going to ask the crafters if they thought they could build my dream catapult, but just that moment their discussion began to heat up.

  ‘No, no, no! That gear needs to be larger! And an extra one here.’ Dhrogor-Gazak, the blacksmith demon argued loudly, picking up a small stone from the ground, dipping it into my bucket of white paint then drawing over my schematics on the wall.

  ‘If you do that, than I’d have to enlarge the axle, and you’ll need to reinforce it with metal,’ Lagharok the carpenter demon retorted, producing a wooden stick from somewhere, plunging it into the bucket, then not only drawing but writing on the wall. Then the ropemaker, Arghadon chimed in.

  ‘You’ll also need to make the frame thicker and stronger there,’ he said, pointing at the sides of the frame where the axle with the rope-spring would go, making adjustments and writing notes with his own paint covered stick. ‘There’ll be a lot of ropes, it needs to be able to withstand the tension.’

  ‘Hm. If that’s correct, I could make the arm a little longer and have it throw the projectile farther,’ the carpenter demon mused, looking at the scribbled notes of the ropemaker.

  This was the first time I was seeing the written form of their demonic language; the characters or symbols were blocky, but they had a puritan elegance to them, and they were quite nice to look at. I had been right: if the written form of their language was any indication, demons definitely had the capacity for art and aesthetics. I wondered if they had songs and poetry as well. But that was for later, it was time for me to step in and ask some questions.

  ‘So, how long do you think …’ I began to ask the question, but the crafters gave me no time to finish it.

  ‘How far do you need this thing to throw? And how heavy is the projectile going to be?’ the ropemaker stepped to me, glaring like I had just offended him somehow.

  ‘It’s going to be pots of flameslime, otherwise I wouldn’t be here,’ the flameslime guy spoke over him, also glaring at me. He glanced at the now heavily altered design painted on the wall, then said, ‘I’d say between 5 and 7 stones per jar would be the average weight.’

  ‘Hm. Quite large. Let’s say 6 stones per pot on average, which means with this initial design a distance of 400 steps is easily doable.’ The blacksmith nodded knowingly, together with the carpenter demon.

  ‘Right. That sounds about right,’ the ropemaker agreed with them. ‘I’ll need some separate equipment made for twisting the ropes and fixing them to the axle.’

  ‘Not a problem,’ the carpenter grinned at his colleague.

  ‘Okay, okay, I take it you will be able to make the catapult,’ I said to them loudly.

  ‘Of course we can, Lord,’ the carpenter said, still glaring.

  ‘Good. You can ask the army to get all the materials from the Wilds. For the metal parts you can use anything looted from the enemy camps, and you can use as many crafters as you need. How long?’

  The four crafters looked at each other, they all nodded, and the carpenter presented the answer.

  ‘Two days to make it, another day to set up and train a crew to operate it.’

  ‘Good.’ I nodded to them. ‘Let’s get to it then!’

  ‘Well, the crews won’t be happy,’ Lagharok the carpenter noted.

  ‘Why is that?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t think we can bond a weapon like this to anyone,’ he said. ‘Which means no EXP regardless of how many kills they may achieve.’

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  ‘I see.’

  The same problem I had with my sentry turret; I had killed hundreds of minotaurs using the AI operated gun without a single EXP coming my way. I could live with that, but demons might take issue with burning dozens of minotaurs to cinders without any EXP rewards. A quick consultation with Button revealed that if I was to entrust the operation of a catapult to members of the army, Reinos wouldn’t be able to offer any extra payment from the Army Coffers to compensate for missed EXP. I, on the other hand, could offer bonus payments to soldiers, crafters and other workers from my personal allowance.

  ‘How many demons to operate one catapult?’ I asked.

  ‘Three,’ Dhrogor-Gazak replied.

  I wasn’t yet sure how many catapults we were going to have by the time battle was upon us again, but I was sure I could afford to make a one-off bonus payment to the crews at least once, so I just said,

  ‘Tell them I’ll pay them some EXP once we win our next battle.’

  ‘That should work.’ The carpenter nodded along with the other crafters.

  ‘Good stuff. Get started!’

  ***

  Reinos assigned Captain Krasharak — formerly the overseer of the city — to liaise with Team Catapult, which was a sensible decision; the guy knew the crafters already, knew his way around the city, and he’d be able to allocate both local and army resources and manpower to the project. I hoped they could keep to the two-day deadline they had set. I couldn’t wait to see the completed weapon and test it, and as I was letting the plans roll over and over in my mind, I was more convinced than ever that catapults were going to be just the things to give us the edge in our next battle at Orroth.

  ‘My Lord, even if the catapults work and do exactly what you’re hoping for, I still think transporting such large contraptions will slow us down too much, not to mention they would be vulnerable to raiding parties if we set them up behind enemy camps.’ Reinos said to me as we watched the numerous crafters walk away with Krasharak to get started on the project.

  ‘True,’ I said while I removed my helmet to look my general in the eyes.

  ‘So then why are you insisting on them?’ he asked.

  I opened the RMS menus, brought up the map of the Ring, and zoomed in on Orroth. The city was at least three times the size of Garoshek, and if I could believe the map, it was in the middle of a shallow crater at least ten kilometers in diameter. How a crater like that had formed I had no idea — normally I’d attribute such things to a meteor strike or an extremely powerful orbital bombardment, both of which were unlikely occurrences in Hell as far as I knew. Maybe some magical shenanigans then. The crater was surrounded by the Wilds almost on all sides except the east, where the charred plains of the Fourth Ring intruded on the forested monster territories. If I brought catapults out of the Wilds behind the enemy camps surrounding the city and tried to bring them into firing range on the open terrain of the crater, the most I could expect were two or three shots before the enemy stormed out and destroyed them. Reinos was right that it wasn’t a feasible strategy.

  ‘The catapults are going to be in Orroth, safe behind the city walls,’ I told him.

  ‘Oh?’ Reinos raised his eyebrows at me.

  ‘Yes. The one I want to build here is to test it to make sure it works,’ I explained. ‘And before you ask, we’re not going to build the rest here then transport them. I’m going to have them built in Orroth, the same way I’m having our prototype built here.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Kralsen has someone in the city. Once I know the prototype works, I’m going to have Zeneth relay the design to his colleague, and the crafters there will build as many as they can by the time we arrive there.’

  ‘I see. Lobbing huge pots of burning flameslime at the enemy camps from behind the safety of the walls. Worth a try, I suppose,’ Reinos said, not looking all that convinced. ‘There is just one flow in your plan, my Lord.’

  ‘Yeah? What is it?’ I asked, curious to hear what he had to say.

  ‘You do know that Riaret the Severing Strike is in charge of the army that holds the city, which means she is in charge of the city as a whole.’

  ‘I do know. Is that a problem?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, it is.’ He groaned unhappily. ‘Knowing how she is, she won’t be happy about a plan that doesn’t involve her and her army engaging in direct combat. Even if the catapults kill half of the enemy, the EXP will be lost. She won’t stand for that.

  ‘You think she’ll refuse to have the catapults built?’ I asked, worried all of a sudden.

  ‘I’m not saying she will, but I think it might be a good idea for you to meet her in person and … uh … convince her. By any means necessary. Just … don’t kill her.’

  It was my time to groan unhappily; this meant I’d have to go there ahead of my army, as soon as possible in fact, and get this infamous Riaret on my side, get her to become my general, and do so by force if necessary. I really wanted to be here to witness the glorious debut of my catapult, to see the first test shots fired, to help with any adjustments that might be necessary and to help with the training of the crew. And I could have used a bit more rest. Instead, I suddenly had another journey to make with my squad, just as I’d had before the Battle of Garoshek. Ah, damn! Who could have guessed being a demon lord was going to be this busy? On the other hand, I had full confidence in Reinos handling things and preparing according to plan, and if any issues arose that he couldn’t solve by himself, I could communicate with him through the RMS as easily as if I was standing next to him.

  ‘Okay.’ I sighed. ‘I’ll go ahead with my squad and get Riaret to play nice. We’ll leave tomorrow. You will be in charge of everything here, including making sure Team Catapult delivers. You good with that?’

  ‘Of course, my Lord.’ He nodded, the expression on his face serious. ‘I’ll have the army ready as we have discussed, and we’ll meet at Orroth when the time comes.’

  ‘Good stuff,’ I said to him. ‘Anything you need from me before I leave, you let me know.’

  ‘Will do, my Lord,’ he said. ‘And I want to say again: Riaret will likely resist, but don’t kill her.’

  ‘She commands an army of ten thousand, I’m not going to lose that, Reinos, so don’t worry.’ I assured him.

  ‘Good.’ He exhaled the word, sounding relieved for some reason.

  I didn’t know what to make of Reinos’ worry about me killing Riaret — maybe he was just trying to warn me not to commit a strategic mistake. Of course, I wasn’t going to kill a valuable asset like a general and alienate another one in the process; that would be an extremely foolish thing to do in the middle of a war. I’d never met Riaret, but she seemed to have the respect of both Reinos and Tarashak, so I had to come up with some convincing arguments before meeting her, or perhaps even switch my Will of the Infernal Tyrant skill back on for the duration of our future meeting.

  Now, with everything in the capable hands of General Reinos — including my catapult project — I beckoned to Lanny to follow me, so I could wrap up the last round of treatment for any injured soldiers not yet in fighting shape.