Chapter 144: Chaotic Situation
In a blizzard before dawn, the dense congregation of the Beastmen army packed their items, donned their tattered platemail, and began their journey.
Ma.s.sive Behemoths used their footsteps to awaken the sleeping highlands. Amidst the drumbeats, Wolf Knights began traversing the darkness while the aerial units who had just returned from their hunt carried the heads of human spies with them.… What that was just described was impossible!
According to the original plan, the Beastman army should have set off long ago. However, a small “accident” occurred.
“Scram! What I want is top-quality cosmetics from Yadosven! Do you think that you can fool me with these inferior products? Do you believe I won’t burn your entire basecamp?”
“Lord, please don’t be angry! This is the top-quality Elven Springwater. It has the ability of restoring youth and vitality. It is definitely much better than those inferior man-made alchemy products!”
“I don’t care! If you want my a.s.sistance, you have to fulfill to my requests!”
The Dimensional Window leading to the Chaos Abyss closed and the flames on the magic ring dissipated. The will of the Demon Marchioness had already retreated. Looking at the pile of ashes on the ground, Witch Kamala shook her head helplessly. She slowly placed the magic ring down and left the tent.
Upon stepping out of the tent, she saw countless faces waiting outside. They were all influential figures from the various tribes. Their worried looks were reminiscent of examinees waiting for the release of their results. Based on the frowns on their faces, it seemed that most of them didn’t hold out much hope in the results.
When the witch lightly shook her head in response to the gazes of the various Chieftains, she received a wave of helpless sighs.
“She is too difficult to deal with. The previous time, she said that the war songs of the Beastmen were too noisy, so she wanted us to find something more soothing. Thus, we found Sparrow Shaman singers and wandering poets for her. Even though the collaboration of the two had produced a piece of melodious Soulsong, that Demon said that it was a countryside folksong and they were off-key. This infuriated the proud Soulsingers to the point they almost charged to the door leading to the Chaos Abyss to teach her a lesson. I had to expend great effort before managing to appease them.”
“That is nothing. What that happened two days ago was even worse. She actually said that she wanted to eat the Red Jadefruit, a fruit unique to the west of the continent. When I told her that there was none of it here, she almost killed me. And that ‘Don’t you all have Dragon Knights? You should be able to get them if you tire a few of them to death. At the very least, I didn’t make you all buy lychee.’ What the h.e.l.l is lychee?”
“More than thirty attendants have died waking her from her sleep. There is already a rumor going about that we are feeding a powerful Ogre with our attendants.… Alright, not mentioning how this affects the moral of the troops, the amount of food our army consumes everyday isn’t a small sum. Are we supposed to continue stalling the matter like this?”
“Forget it. Even without the Fire G.o.d’s Blessing, it shouldn’t be a problem conducting a sudden attack and taking down two cities to tide us through the winter with the a.s.sistance of the Earth Elemental G.o.d. At the very least, it would be much better than idling here like this. Yesterday, another thirty tribes chose to depart from the alliance.”
Women were difficult to deal with, even more so for Demonesses. In the past half a month, the Chieftains had already had enough of the endless demands from Elisa. Beastmen had their own pride as well, and the movement to go on with the invasion without her was gaining momentum.
As one of the few people who were able to converse with Marchioness Elisa, Kamala naturally became the middlewoman for them. During this period of time, the other Chieftains viewed her highly. However, as time pa.s.sed, she became an outlet for the frustrations of both sides, causing resentment to accrue in her.
“We can’t wait anymore. Who knows what she will come up with tomorrow? The first snow is rapidly approaching, and by then, it will be too late.”
“Sigh. I’d already heard that the Demon Lords were fickle-minded and did everything based on their own interests. This time, I’ve had the honor of witnessing it first-hand.”
“Shhh, this is a Marquis-level Demoness who conquered an entire Dimension by herself. She is an existence equivalent to a true G.o.d, so it is understandable that she would be slightly haughty. She has an eternity before her to play with us, but we can’t afford to go along with her.”
“We can’t wait any longer, let’s just throw in our chips tomorrow…”
While the Beastmen Chieftains were getting frustrated and infuriated over the Demon Lord, they couldn’t have possibly guessed that the difficult Demon Lord they were talking about was currently speaking impa.s.sionately with their greatest opponent. Furthermore, her tone wasn’t the irritable and impatient one that she spoke to them with.
“… They are probably getting impatient. Even without the Fire G.o.d’s Blessing, they will probably go it alone.”
“Stalling them for half a month? That’s already quite an incredible feat. Is the pressure from the Chaos Abyss piling up? Are the other Demon Lords complaining about it?”
“The Demons wouldn’t bother about such insignificant figures. It is the will of the Chaos Abyss to allow the Power of Elements to wreak havoc in the Main Dimension. It doesn’t care about the Beastmen’s success. It is sufficient as long as the Power of Elements causes the Elemental Tide to rise.”
At this point, Elisa paused.
“There seem to be some other intentions behind this invasion. Most probably, there are intermediaries from other Demon n.o.bles in the camp. There are many Great Demons who intend to utilize this opportunity to please the Will of the Chaos Abyss. As long as I continue to refuse to grant them the blessing, others will probably take my place.”
“Just grant them it then. Grant them the blessings when they show all of their cards to you.”
“Yeah?”
This was different from what we had discussed previously. A Beastmen army who did not fear the cold would become a difficult enemy to fight against, but I had other ideas.
“It would be problematic for us to deal with them if they were granted the complete Fire G.o.d’s Blessing. However, if something were to happen midway through and the blessing didn’t possess the effects they had expected, no one would be able to blame you.… You get it.”
“You are evil, as always. Right, have you been philandering recently? If so, be careful of my sudden a.s.saults.”
After dealing with the official matters, all that was left was our daily small talk. Honestly, I, who had been single all along, wouldn’t know how to face Elisa if she had remained by my side. Rather, making small talk like this as we usually did felt more comfortable to me.
“How could I? If only I had such luck. You don’t know how eccentric Beifeng and company have been recently. The more Gentlemen there are, the more difficult to keep them in check…”
Furthermore, I didn’t even know how I felt towards her.
Lovers? Partners? An adopted daughter felt much stable than the previous two relations.h.i.+ps. At the very least, I knew whenever I recalled that familiar silver hair and the features on her face, that rare hint of warmth and sweetness I felt was nostalgia for my family rather than love between a couple.
“I understand that Elisa had forked out a lot, and I know what she intends to achieve by doing so. However, whenever I try to view her as my lover, I somehow recall her voice and features when she was six or seven. I am not a beast, so how could I possibly lay my hands on her? Maybe it’s because she is too important to me. That’s why hesitation halts me.
“Sigh, the more I think about it, the more complicated it gets. Forget it, I will stop mulling over it. After all, I have never been able to make sense of it, and it is unlikely that I can in the future anyway. So let me just muddle my way through this.”
I knew that this was an irresponsible att.i.tude similar to a cowardly ostrich. But my past experience had proven that settling the matter by burying my head in the sand was effective, even though awkward.
After all, not everyone could live as long as I could. As long as I was able to drag on until the other party’s death, their emotions wouldn’t matter anymore.
“However, even if I wanted to be philandering trash, I have to at least be in a position to do so. In my first life, I died too early. In my second life, just when I had barely dug out something, I triggered a war and died pathetically. In my third life, for the sake of vengeance, I turned myself into a Lich.… Sometimes, looking at the couples who appear during Valentine’s Day, I feel like I have lost. I can’t help but to shout the FFF slogan and throw a Fireball at them.”
However, I would sometimes ponder the possibilities that could have occurred if I hadn’t pursued strength vindictively. Perhaps I might had already found a suitable candidate to start a real family with, and at this moment, my children and grandchildren could have been surrounding me. At the very least, my adopted daughter (depending) wouldn’t pity me and ridiculously develop a crush on me when I was already more than three hundred years old. However, most baffling was my descendants appearing when I hadn’t even settled my romance.
Perhaps it was precisely because of Elisa’s deep understanding of me that she played these little tricks, leaving me with no way to reject her at all. Somehow, I ended up falling into a deep emotional debt, resulting in the current state of affairs.
“She didn’t say so, but the Chaos Abyss can’t possibly be a comfortable place to live in. Demons are the incarnations of Chaos and the Demons below often revolt. Demons of the same tier often devour one another to evolve, and as such, battles are never ending. Maybe, from the moment she stepped into the Chaos Abyss, her fight had never stopped. It is truly difficult for her.
“However, Elisa’s help is something I cannot do without. It is useful to have a spy amidst the higher echelons of the Chaos Faction. Just a single piece of news at a crucial moment can serve as the determining factor in a war. If we were attacked without any prior notice, we might have ended up losing the initiative right from the start. By delaying them for half a month, we managed to reverse the situation.… Seems like I am sinking deeper into debt. There is no way I can repay it anymore.”
After ending our conversation, I heaved a sigh of relief. Putting aside the emotional debt I owed her, the invasion of the Beastman army was quite troublesome to deal with.
The one to face the brunt of the first wave would be Sleuweir Kingdom. I had complicated emotions about this country.
They proclaim themselves as the true heirs of the Mist. I had many comments just on this itself.
After all, in my generation, Karwenz and I were the only remaining royalty of the Mist Country. If that darned father of mine hadn’t left behind an illegitimate son, Karwenz and I would have been the only remaining main bloodline. Due to Karwenz’s horrendous reputation, Reyne could only call herself my descendant even though it wasn’t spoken of explicitly.
History is history. However, since they acknowledged themselves as the descendants of the Mist Country, this made the situation interesting.
If the final remaining prince and the sacred sword that represented the royal authority of the Mist Country returned, then shouldn’t Sleuweir Kingdom, who had proclaimed their royalty to be of the Mist bloodline, come under the command of Mist’s emperor? If so, didn’t that mean that Pavill the 3rd would have to hand over his crown and be satisfied with the position of an ordinary fief lord?
Of course, everyone knew that it was impossible for that to happen. However, if I really brought the Roland Sacred Sword to their capital and demanded him do so, no one could know for sure what would happen. At the very least, ever since the rise of East Mist and the return of Roland and his knights, the Mist citizens migrating from Sleuweir had never stopped.
As a result, they made a decision, and what was presented before me was a “gift” of theirs to greet their ancestor.
“Sigh. On one hand, they proclaim themselves to be the true Mist bloodline, while on the other, they send a bunch of a.s.sa.s.sins to get rid of me? What filial descendants I have.”