I was edging around the reasons for all of this, but I had a feeling they already knew. Sitting on a throne sent a message, especially as they already must know that I had rebelled.
“You want us to serve you?” Miyasa said slowly, as if she was tasting the words.
“To be more exact, he wants you and those oni who are designated for military service to serve him,” Vasi said, looking between me and Miyasa. “How do we ensure our safety in that case?”
“Because I will. What I am asking for is more than a mere alliance. It is a joining of two separate goals to produce a common cause,” I said.
“Until a week ago, your goal seemed to be to stop us from ever taking what you’re offering us right now,” Vasi said. She had taken the lead in the negotiations while Miyasa lost herself at the idea of serving me. “What do you want to achieve now?”
The moment of truth.
“The Rogistran Empire as I knew it is no more. It has been corrupted beyond recognition. The emperor has been deposed, and there will be no replacement. The same can be said for the princes. The seven princedoms are now six provinces, each considered the dominion of a separate race, none of them human. The change is so recent that they haven’t even properly named the new provinces. What was once the Taranth Princedom to the west is now under the rule of dragons. The Aghram Princedom immediately south is that of vampires.
“What I loved about my home is gone, along with the very reason I have defended it for so long. So I won’t allow this twisted shell of an empire to remain any longer than necessary. I will burn out the traitors that corrupted it, reduce the current system to ashes, and build a new order.”
The hall fell silent. Aaron scratched away at his notebook, presumably recording what I had said.
I wondered if I should elaborate but decided against it. The reality was that the oni did not understand much about the Empire and its inner workings, and I did not understand theirs. All that mattered to them was what I intended to do and how I would do it. My sixty years of bloody warfare with them stood as a testament to my ability to achieve what I wanted, almost as if I had been preparing in secret for this role all along.
“So the empire of humans is no longer for humans,” Miyasa said, ending her short-lived stupor. “To make yourself emperor and remove those who would deny you your power. Such a move is natural for you, I suppose.”
That was quite the leap of logic. I felt like I had missed something important. Or that Miyasa had.
With a cough, I interrupted her before she could praise me more. “No, the throne is more a symbolic thing. Who becomes emperor does not matter, so much as there will be one eventually. I simply need power to destroy the current corrupt empire. Reformation comes later.”
That brought a frown to her face. Miyasa looked around, as if she only now realized how few people were present. “I see your plan now. Crush the disloyal within your ranks. Join us for military might. Crush the new nonhuman rulers and their patsies. Establish a new empire from the ashes. Simple but logical. And if you cannot found a new empire that is enough like the original?” she continued.
“Then I will have had enough fun killing all the traitors to have made it all worthwhile,” I said coldly. “The world carried on for millennia before the Empire. Life will carry on after it. I simply won’t allow this mockery to stand in its place.”
Perhaps saying it would be fun was pushing matters, as this wasn’t about enjoyment. I didn’t care if the betrayers died or vanished. They had grasped at power so eagerly that they had forsaken everything that made the Empire what it was. Now it was a playground for mages and nonhumans rather than a symbol of progress.
“Surely you don’t think you can crush the Empire so quickly with only us?” Vasi asked.
“No. At least not to start with. That’s why I’m offering land,” I said. “The oni take the land and become strong, under my protection. Our armies together can then be used to dismantle the Empire, piece by piece. As much as I’d love to march on the capital tomorrow, this will be a gradual campaign.”
Vasi hummed to herself, her incredulous look fading away to a more thoughtful one. For a diplomat, she didn’t keep a good poker face. No, she was definitely more of a noble.
“For now, your goal is for us to become stable enough in these lands to provide you with more military strength, correct?” Vasi pressed.
“For now, yes. It’s a long-term agreement.”
Vasi’s slow nod at least indicated that she was satisfied. Whether that satisfaction was with the answer to her question or my proposed agreement was hard to say.
Miyasa muttered something under her breath but I missed what it was while distracted by my thoughts. The two oni traded a glance and a nod. Seeing my gaze, Miyasa spoke louder. “The Imperial salute. It is conducted over the breast with one fist, is it not?”
I showed her the salute slowly, unsure of her interest. With a blush, she waited until I returned to normal. Then she repeated my movements at speed, slamming her fist into her breastplate hard enough to noticeably move it. Very noticeably, given how large her breasts were.
Mine weren’t the only eyes drawn to the movement under her armor, and Aaron quickly averted his gaze when Ilsa gave him a sharp look. I observed a lot more scribbling in his notebook than before.
“As the Herald of the Oni, my position has always been to ensure your downfall. I have had one singular purpose—to ensure the Deridh clan claims the Nahaum Pass,” Miyasa proclaimed, her voice echoing throughout the hall as she matched my gaze. “With this agreement, my purpose will have technically been fulfilled. At the same time, the opposite is true. My life has and always will be yours, Bulwark Mykah. Your terms are more than acceptable to the oni. So I proclaim as the last Herald of the Oni.”
Miyasa’s words echoed throughout the hall with a sense of finality. They were the end of generations of war and the beginning of my path of vengeance.
“Your terms appear more than amenable, but the final decision remains that of the mothers,” Vasi added with a sharp look at her fellow oni.
“I wish for one change to the agreement, Bulwark,” Miyasa said, her face like stone. She completely ignored Vasi.
I raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“I am the herald, but that is a meaningless position now. You are no longer our foe but our ally and commander. Please, do me the honor of making me yours,” Miyasa said. Then she immediately bent over in a bow at an almost ninety-degree angle. It looked practiced.
Spluttering, Ilsa intervened as I sat still in shock. “That’s highly inappropriate. Surely you can think of something else other than that. Mykah, say something. You have somebody else in mind. From within the fortress, even.”
“There is nothing else in my life that would mean more to me than a future together with Mykah,” Miyasa said, doubling down. “I have proven experience that is no doubt as great as anybody here.”
Aaron and even Vasi looked on with smiles on their faces, their eyes lit up with amusement. I snapped out of my confusion at Vasi’s expression. If it had just been Aaron, then that was one thing, but Vasi’s reaction got me thinking.
Even though Miyasa spoke perfect Imperial, her words tended to be stiffer and more formal. She likely didn’t have a grasp on more casual Imperial. This looked like a setup.
I took a deep breath to steady myself, then said, “Miyasa, are you sure you have your words right here? As in, the Imperial? I’m not sure that what you’re asking means what you think it means.”
The put-out expression on Vasi’s face proved that I had hit the nail on the head.
Miyasa frowned at me, thinking over her words. “I believe so. To clarify, I wish to be taken under you as commander and servant rather than remain as part of the Deridh clan. This is because my purpose as herald has been fulfilled. Is that not what I said?”
“Not quite, but I think I understand how you might have thought it meant that,” I said, thinking that maybe it would have been b
etter if she had meant it the original way. Former enemy or not, there weren’t many women with looks that could match hers. Then again, it wasn’t as though this was the end of things.
“I’m more than happy to take you on, once matters are sorted with the mothers and the rest of the clan,” I said, eliciting a broad smile from Miyasa.
We parted ways not long after, as there was little left to discuss. Whatever misgivings Vasi might have about my plans, she clearly knew the value in my offer. This was the best thing that had been offered to them since they began invading the Empire’s borders well over a century ago. All they had to do was help me destroy an empire they were already at war with.
Now that I had the combined military power of the oni and my old army, what was left was to build a base to launch my conquest from. The Empire was too vast to attack without more preparation.
Chapter 4
Spring had come, and with it came headaches of a kind that made me wish for dragons to slay and vampires to decapitate.
“Terry, I thought I told you not to handle the oni war bows?” I said in exasperation. I walked over to the armored figure splayed across the grounds of the archery range.
“It should just be a matter of practice, sir,” he muttered to me as I helped him up. “They can all fire these things so damn easily.”
Terry was referring to the dozen or so oni who had formed up into a gaggle of girls. They giggled at us seemingly at random as they looked us over like a pack of predators. Each oni had a single black horn protruding from her forehead and wore my black and blue armored uniform. The scavenged armor that the oni usually wore was a thing of the past now that they were in my service.
These girls were colloquially known as demi-oni by my soldiers. They were not considered full-blooded oni, as something caused them to only have one horn. I had recently learned from Miyasa that the term “demi-oni” was a racial slur. In the eyes of the oni, all were equal regardless of the number of horns. This made their integration with the humans under me easier, as they didn’t look down on us for not having horns.
Instead, they looked down on humans for not being superhumanly strong. I picked up the massive hunk of wood that Terry had dropped. The bow was almost two meters tall and nearly as thick as my fist. The wood oozed magic.
Whispering to each other, the oni watched me with bated breath from within their gaggle. I wondered if they were placing bets. They seemed new to the fortress, as I recognized none of their faces.
I nocked an arrow and lined up a shot. Archery was hardly my forte, but this was a practice range rather than a battle. There was no stress here. No need to place shot after shot on distant, moving targets. No enemies closing in, prepared to cave in my skull. I drew the bow easily. The magic in the bow actively helped me do so. I felt the enchantment activate and amplify my strength.
The shot looked about right. Then I fired and all hell broke loose.
The arrow exploded on contact with the stone target. A cloud of sawdust appeared as the soft wood of the practice arrow disintegrated from the raw force of the impact. My left arm did its best to follow the path of the arrow and take my body with it. It hurt. A lot. Only the raw magical energy I had pumped into my body kept me in one place. I acted as though everything was alright, my empowered muscles enabling me to pretend to be a champion archer. But damn, did it hurt.
The bow magically aided the user, so it didn’t require absurd physical strength. The problem was that the user still needed to be able to withstand the force being projected by the bow. Every pound of force the magic helped with earlier came back with interest.
The result was a bow that the oni could fire quickly and was probably cheap to produce. For a human, he could fire it so long as he didn’t mind being sent flying along with his arrow.
The oni found this hilarious. They also wanted to see a human successfully fire one of their bows.
The gaggle of oni girls gasped and stared at me in shock. They exchanged looks between each other. Then their faces began to warp. Desire and lust hit me like a wave, the oni’s attention focused entirely on me. This situation was going to be difficult to explain to Miyasa.
“Mykah, what are you doing?” I thought of the devil and she appeared. Or thought of the oni in this case.
Miyasa walked up to me with a bundle of what looked like clipboards in her arms. Her sharp glance at the other oni shut down whatever dreams they might have been having about me, although I suspected that my name might have elevated the anticipation visibly building on their faces.
“Reminding Terry of why this is a terrible idea,” I said, looking over at him. “This hurts a lot, you know.”
“Oh yeah, I’m sure,” he said, his attention caught by the oni and the naked lust in their eyes. Not even Miyasa’s presence was enough to shut the girls down. Somehow, I got the feeling I was giving him the wrong message.
“If you want a less humiliating test, get to the point where you can take an unguarded punch to the ribs from Aaron without falling over. Then give this stunt a try again,” I said, patting him on the shoulder.
Terry was taken aback. “Archangel, really? It’s that bad?”
I waved him off, then walked with Miyasa farther around the keep.
Soldiers and oni bustled about in all corners of the fortress, although perhaps I should refer to them simply as soldiers. Now that the oni wore my uniform and fought for me, the only real difference was that they had horns.
There was one other difference, I noted as I watched an all-female company of oni troops pass. The oni had far more women than men in service. The large number of women in their ranks was no surprise, given their innate magical abilities. Magic was the great equalizer in battle, making brawn and mass nearly useless. That inhuman strength punctured the pride of countless men like Terry.
Unfortunately, the humans of the Empire lacked the same easy access to magic. Less than twenty percent of knights were female, and the numbers were lower in the less magically inclined ranks. Only the battlemage units had anything close to equal numbers of men and women.
Miyasa interrupted my thoughts as she said, “Do you really need to tease them?”
“Teasing?” I asked, looking away from the archery range, where Terry watched the oni fire their war bows.
“The oni girls. Do you really need to show them what they can’t have?” Miyasa said, pushing her point.
“That’s not how this works. I can make my own decisions, and I imagine they can as well,” I replied.
“So if they all turn up at your door, what will you do?” Miyasa’s raised eyebrow made it clear that she had a particular answer in mind.
I didn’t respond, although I wondered why the oni became so worked up over such a small demonstration. Given my answer would be very different from the one she had in her head, silence seemed like the wise choice here.
Time for a change of subject. I pointed at the clipboards in Miyasa’s arms and asked, “Anything of interest?”
“Nothing of a military nature. We’re well beyond the Nahaum Pass now, so I had expected to meet resistance. Instead, it’s only ordinary towns and villages. Shouldn’t the dragons have reacted by now?” she asked, shuffling through her clipboards.
I frowned at Miyasa’s fumbling attempts to organize the clipboards. The oni had some odd system of notes based on wood and I was trying to shift them to a paper-based system. The furthest I had gotten so far were these clipboards, which seemed worse. Miyasa didn’t understand how a clipboard was supposed to work.
“Not necessarily. We’re not in their territory yet,” I responded. “I was a duke as well as a magister-general. The nearby land was effectively mine, separate from any princedom. As a duke, I answered only to the emperor.”
“Hence why all the towns and villages are not resisting your rule. You were already their ruler,” she said, then frowned. “Then why are we conquering them again?”
“Because I didn’t do anything as duke. Prince Aghram ruled my
lands so I could focus on defending the Bulwark. I had wanted the duchy so I could issue commands without being opposed by political opponents, if the Bulwark ever failed,” I said.
I frowned and looked away. The plan brought back distant memories. Unhappy ones. My predecessor, Tornfrost, had died due to politics overruling his orders. I had claimed the duchy to prevent the same from happening to me.
“I see,” Miyasa said, finally retrieving a clipboard and making a puzzled face at it. “There’s another request to join your… court. I still don’t understand what that is.”
Now to deal with the second headache. I wished it was the last.
“Nothing of importance,” I grumbled.
“Perhaps, but I think I need to know.”
“A court is a gathering of people to advise, influence, and make decisions over whatever the court is in charge of,” I said. “My court would assist me in ruling my territory or commanding my armies.”
In truth, courts were a cesspit of bribes, favors, backstabbing, fakery, and other such political nonsense. They were also endlessly bureaucratic. My studies of demonology showed that demons and devils had a system of courts of similar complexity to that of the Empire. As much amusement as I took from that, I wondered if it was a coincidence.
“Don’t we already do that?” Miyasa said, looking confused.
“Yes, but not in a formal setting. There are many rules and formalities to courts.”
Realization dawned on Miyasa’s face. The flicker of emotion I saw told me I was right to have her under me, as she seemed to know of something similar and did not appreciate it. The moment passed and her face returned to its usual mask.
“Yes, I can see why you don’t need one.”
Unfortunately, when that moment of camaraderie passed, headache number three reared its ugly head, namely the need to deal with the rest of the clipboards.
Advice about what crops to plant, questions about the forts, how to deal with oni-human relations issues, where the oni should begin to settle, how many more soldiers I needed…
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