Chapter 62
Ten minutes later — which we had spent in awkward silence — General Riaret was looking at the platter on the table in front of her, the appetising aroma of Lanny’s spicy steak and mushrooms wafting in the air. Mickey had abandoned his place on my lap the moment my attendant placed a bowl of chopped up meat next to my chair, and he began to happily indulge in the treat — I didn’t mind that at all; the cat was large and heavy, and while the weight posed no problem for my SAC, it would have been a hassle to eat my own breakfast that way. Which raised the question: where was my breakfast? My attendant had brought food for the general and the cat, but what about me?
I had no idea how Lanny had got him to do it, but Grashon came into the room just as she was leaving, bringing me my platter of food. On second thought, it might have been him who had forced her to let him do it — he must have been worried and curious about what was happening in the room. The big guy put the platter in front of me, and as he did that, Riaret the Severing Strike finally spoke.
‘You!’ She glared at the big grunt.
Grashon froze under the general’s narrow-eyed gaze.
‘Yes, general?’ he said after a few moments of hesitation.
‘I’ve seen you before. You were in Tarashak’s army, along with Reinos,’ she said to him.
Huh! Riaret and my favourite general knew each other? I recalled Reinos had asked me not to kill Riaret. Perhaps he had more respect for the woman than he had let on.
‘Uh … yes general, I was. I’m in General Reinos’ army now,’ Grash replied.
Riaret nearly jumped up from her seat.
‘What did you just say? Reinos? A general?’ she snapped at my guy.
Grashon looked at me for support, clearly worried that he might say the wrong thing. Which I understood; he was at least six levels below Riaret and saying the wrong thing to someone like that could prove fatal. So, I took over.
‘Reinos the Vengeful Flame is one of my generals, along with Tarashak the Smoldering Storm,’ I stated.
‘Yes, yes,’ Grashon nodded, encouraged by the lack of immediate violence on Riaret’s part. ‘The Boss and General Reinos won a great victory at Garoshek. We showed those filthy Third Ringers.’
‘Garoshek, huh?’ she hummed, seemingly still annoyed for some reason. She turned her away from Grash to look at me. ‘So, if the runt is your general, then where is he?’
‘He’s just left Garoshek not long ago with the army and the residents to join us here at Orroth.’
‘You’re abandoning Garoshek?’ she yelled at me, once again nearly jumping up from her chair. ‘You took a city back from the Third Ringers only to abandon it? Is this what you’re planning for Orroth, too?’
Well, she didn’t seem happy about my strategic choices, then again, she didn’t know what I was planning. I supposed this was as good a time as any to change that; better to get it out of the way now. Hopefully she’d understand and accept that we had larger and more important objectives than liberating and holding any one city in the Ring. Cities could wait, the gate to the Third and the minotaur king couldn’t. Everything hinged on those two objectives.
‘Either partially or fully abandoning Orroth is exactly what I’m planning,’ I said to her, and before she could leap over the table and strangle me, I put a hand up and continued speaking. ‘As things stand now, trying to hold any city is pointless, unless the city in question gives us an advantage. Like Scaragar.’
‘Scaragar?’ she asked, looking like she was trying to recall if she had ever heard of the place. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she hadn’t — it was a small town inhabited by only a few thousand demons who made a living by mining the hills for building materials as well as producing timber from the surrounding Wilds.
‘Yes. I made the town my capitol city, the seat of my power. To gain a specific advantage.’
‘Which is?’ she demanded.
So, I went on to explain to her how I had tricked the minotaur king into going to Scaragar and concentrating his forces there by making the place my capitol city. I explained how this had resulted in weakening the armies besieging the cities across the Fourth Ring, how it had led to the liberation of Garoshek and establishing Reinos as a general. Riaret listened in silence, not commenting, not even humming. So, I continued and told her that my plan for Orroth was similar to what we had done at Garoshek. Why? Because the first main objective of my campaign was to capture and close the gate to the Third. This act would not only cut the enemy off from reinforcements, but it would also reveal to their king that his target, the ruling demon lord of the Fourth, was not in Scaragar but at the gate. It would lure him there, hopefully, with all of his forces, which might enable us to achieve the second main objective of the campaign: to force a decisive battle in which I could attempt to eliminate the hated king of the hated minotaurs. Somehow.
Riaret was quiet for long minutes after I had finished my preliminary presentation, so I took the opportunity to eat my food while she mulled things over. It was a bit of a waste that she hadn’t touched hers, but I supposed she had more important things to consider than breakfast. And it seemed she was considering those important things carefully.
‘Your plan is impossible,’ she finally spoke.
Yeah, well, I had kind of expected to hear those exact words.
‘Oh, you think? Those were just the broad strokes, wait until you hear the details, general.’ I smiled at her.
‘The details? Such as how you’re planning to break out of Orroth? Or how you plan to take the gate? Or how you want to face a million minotaurs and their stupid king with whatever will be left of us by the time we take that gate?’
‘Yes, those details.’ I nodded.
‘Alright, I’m listening,’ she said with a vicious smile on her face — more like a sneer, really, with some of her sharp teeth showing.
Oh? Given that even I knew my plans were rather outlandish, she was surprisingly willing to hear me out.
[Skill: Will of the Infernal Tyrant reached level 7.]
Oh. Of course. I had forgotten that I’d left that skill on. I wondered if I should maybe just leave the skill on until level 8, but I decided against it and switched it off — it had done enough for now, and I felt like I already had a good chance to get Riaret on my side. Well, if she was still receptive after hearing about the catapults.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
***
‘Catapults? You want to resort to something as useless as catapults?’ Riaret demanded, looking at me like I was mad — it was becoming somewhat of a demon tradition to do that.
‘I told you: with a few of them and with a lot of flameslime, the enemy fortifications will be up in flames in no time.’ I argued.
‘Listen, Hyde, I will not let you take away the only good thing the cursed Third Ringers brought with them.’
‘Come on, Riaret! There’ll be plenty of EXP left. At least a million of the bastards are running around, probably more. What’s the problem with softening their defences a bit before rushing out to get yourself killed?’
‘You said you didn’t like waste, didn’t you? I won’t stand for wasting EXP. It’s undemonic!’ she yelled at me.
‘Do I look like a demon to you?’
‘No, and that’s the problem, you stupid dreg of the Surface World!’
‘Name-calling? Really? Is that the best you can do?’
‘Oh no, it isn’t. You want to settle this? I’m ready to go, Hyde!’ She jumped up from her chair with halberd in hand, startling Mickey, who had been lounging and licking himself on the table while I’d been trying to convince the insufferable general to join me.
But she just had to go and nitpick every single aspect of my plan about the breakout, the deployment of her forces, or Reinos’ forces, and of course the use of catapults. I supposed in a way this was what I had wanted: the general to think for herself, to have her autonomy and to be able to make decisions — that’s why I had resisted the Kralsenites’ suggestion to break her mind and claim her army that way. The problem was that while she was cautious enough to agree that everything needed to be scouted out properly, especially around the gate — if we ever got there — her head was filled with ideas of glorious charges, heroic last stands and general bloodshed, and in my book that hardly qualified as thinking. She would have been a good fit for the Allied Systems Marine Corps, the bloody berserker. How she had survived this long, I’d never know.
‘Alright, settle down, settle down!’ I waved my hand at her. ‘Duels are out of fashion as far as I’m concerned.
‘Are they now?’ she sneered at me as she sat back down on her chair.
‘Look, I understand that EXP is important, and believe me, I’d love to get as much of it as I can as well,’ I said. ‘It’s the same story as the cities. Sometimes we need to give up short term gains in order to achieve larger, more important objectives.’
‘Listen, Hyde, we do not have the numbers advantage, but we have the level advantage, which is the very thing we should build on. Instead of wasting the filthy Third Ringers, we should use Reinos’ army as a distraction while we make quick attacks and level my soldiers as much as possible. With high enough levels we’ll be able to break their lines. Eventually. And if you want to face that scum of all kings, levels will be the only thing you could count on.’
‘Not true, and for the last time, we don’t have the time for a hit and run campaign. We have a lot of other things we can, should and will use.’
‘Oh, not the catapults and Kralsen again!’ she cried out in exasperation. ‘I will not waste EXP, and that’s that.’
Mickey sent a meow her way, and that seemed to calm her down a little.
‘There will be plenty of EXP later,’ I said.
‘When? Once we have wasted the enemy and reclaimed the Ring?’
‘First of all, we won’t run out of minotaurs any time soon, but if we all die here because you have such a small mind, it won’t be any use because they’ll have won. Secondly, once we reclaim the Ring, I will establish a dungeon. That should increase the monster levels in the Wilds, so even after our victory, there’ll be plenty of EXP for everyone.’
Instead of yelling some stupid argument or some obscenities back at me as I had expected, Riaret just stared at me with her eyes narrowing to slits.
‘What?’ I demanded.
‘You’re planning to create a dungeon?’ she asked.
‘I’m planning to create a dungeon.’
‘Why?’
‘Why do you want to know why?’
‘That idiot Ugrathar, and even his father before him, refused to make a dungeon,’ she said. ‘The Wilds is free to hunt for anyone. It can’t be controlled. If the monsters’ levels increase, it means the demons’ overall levels will increase throughout the Ring. There will be a lot more demons reaching level 40 or even 50.’
‘And? That’s not a bad thing.’
‘It is for a ruling demon lord who wants to keep ruling without high-level demons challenging him regularly.’
Hearing that I realised I had missed an important implication of getting my dungeon, one that would have a huge effect on the Fourth Ring. To me, the dungeon was a tool; the means to get to the so-called Surface World so I could try to get in touch with the Allied Systems military. For the Ring it meant a connection to the Surface World through which an influx of RE could drip down here. It was a resource to help the place and its people grow, and perhaps for a few, diligent demons it would mean outlevelling even the ruling demon lord.
‘I am not concerned about being challenged,’ I said, surprising even myself how comfortable I was saying it. ‘I intend to go to the Surface World after this war is over and things are settled.’
‘You’re … planning to leave after this?’ she gasped at me.
‘Once again, Riaret: do I look like a demon? Do I look like I belong here? Do I look like someone the Ring would accept and allow to rule in the long run?’
‘Is this why you’re fighting, then? Is this why you’ve become the ruling demon lord? Just so you could have your way out of here?’ she asked, her eyes wide with the now familiar “this human is barking mad” look glinting in them. ‘Just hand over the title now and get lost! Ughrathar was a stupid, greedy bastard who wanted power for the sake of power and cared little for the Ring or anyone in it. We should have never allowed him to rule for as long as he did, but at least he never considered abandoning the Ring.’
I sighed long and loud, massaging my temples as I considered her words, then I spoke again.
‘I am not planning to abandon the Ring; I simply have some business up in the Surface World which I need to attend. In any case, even if I left or if something happened to me, I have an heir. A daughter. She’s a good girl, and she’d make an excellent ruling demon lord, so the title wouldn’t be lost, and the Ring would be fine,’ I explained. ‘But for me to create the dungeon, we need to win here, and we need to win in the future, Riaret. As much as I approve of and even like your enthusiasm for slaughtering the enemy, if we go about this war your way, we’ll all be dead in days. I’m not in the habit of throwing our lives away when there is no chance to win. If I engage in battle, it will be because we have planned, we have prepared, and we have worked out a path to victory. For this campaign, and for the entire Ring, final victory is more important than cities or EXP or any one demon’s personal satisfaction, including yours or mine.’
It was now her turn to consider my words. She leaned back on her chair and kept her eyes on Mickey on the table —who was just about finished cleaning himself — and she kept letting out hums and soft grunts as she thought about everything with her brows furrowed.
‘So, you have an heir,’ she said after a minute. ‘You work fast, Hyde. Where did you find a demon willing to lay with you and …’
‘Come on, Riaret! I adopted her. She’s a demon,’ I groaned.
‘Oh? So, you just picked up a brat in the Wilds?’
‘No, I picked up Ugrathar’s heir after I killed him,’ I said. ‘Her name is Flamey. And she’s adorable.’
‘Ugrathar’s heir is alive? But then how are you the ruling demon lord?’
‘I got her to relinquish the title to me, then I adopted her into my dynasty,’ I explained without going into detail about our trade — I wasn’t sure she would have been happy to hear that the entirety of the Fourth Ring had been valued at five Crunchymel bars at the time.
‘I see. You do understand then that if you leave for the Surface World and leave the brat in charge, she’ll be easy pickings for anyone,’ she warned.
If we had been talking about any other demon kid in the Fourth Ring, she would have had a point.
‘I pity any fool who would try to move against Flamey. I can’t think of any demon who could stand up to her if she got serious. She’s formidable. She’s already keeping minotaur mages as pets,’ I explained, my fatherly pride welling up inside me.
‘She’s doing what? Minotaur mages as pets? That’s … impressive,’ she admitted begrudgingly.
‘It is, isn’t it?’ I grinned at the general, and I was about to burst into a long presentation about why Flamey was the best daughter Hell had ever seen, but I remembered I had a job to do. ‘Listen, Riaret, we could keep on going in circles here, but I think we’ve already said everything about where we both stand. Reinos is on the way, and I want to start planning and preparations. We have a war to win. I’ll ask you again: join me as my general. Then let’s show the Third Ring scum that invading us was the worst idea they’ve ever had.’
After half a minute of silence Riaret stood up, slowly and deliberately. She placed her enormous halberd on the table, then she reached out to place a hand on Mickey. The cat let her and purred as she patted his head and led her hand along his back. I stood up as well, suspecting that she had made her decision. She spent another half a minute to admire the fearsome creature Mickey was, then finally she stepped to me, looking into my eyes.
‘I suppose if nothing else, I’d be able to talk to Reinos if I’m your general,’ she said, offering her hand to me.
