Reborn 10 - Demonic Valor

by D. W. Jackson

  “Understood,” Uthla said bowing. “Then I would suggest that you consult with her as soon as you can. We have removed their weapons but that doesn’t mean there is no way for such a large number of enemies to cause problems if left unattended for too long.”

  As Ash walked toward the fort he kept his pace slow and even as his heart beat like a drum in his chest. He could still see Emelia standing on the battlements her eyes focused in his direction. Ash was surprised because he had not once gotten close enough that she could have made out his face yet her head was clearly turned in his direction.

  To settle his nerves as he walked Ash took the time to place his new stat points and to check out his newly acquired abilities. Unlike before when Ash put all his points in luck Ash spread them out into luck, strength, agility, and stamina. The reason for this was simple. His boosted stats still depending on his base states and so the higher they became the more of a boost they would gain so not it more efficient to place points into them instead of just luck. After finishing with his stats Ash checked out his new abilities.

  [Break guard: cost 50SP- fast movement that allows one to break through their oponets guard. Level 1-0%.]

  [Over boost- cost 75SP- double the damage of the next attack, level 1-0%.]

  [Flash step- cost 25SP- quickly move to any place within five steps. Level 1-0%.]

  Looking at the new abilities Ash couldn’t help but think how useful the reaper blessing was. Not only did it allow him to gain abilities from certain humans but also a great deal of experience. Which was something that was dearly needed since after the twenty-second level it cost more than a million experience to reach the next level and with each level after that it went up by a great deal. If he tried to gain a single level just by fighting he would have to spend months doing nothing but fighting. When he thought of the fact that all of his wives levels were in the mid-thirties he couldn’t help but suppress a shiver. Just how much had they been forced to fight during their youth? It was no surprise that Tolarea who was a battle manic was the highest level at forty-one.

  Before Ash knew it he was standing in front of the large wood and iron gate of the fort. Taking a deep breath Ash raised his head. “I am Ash Hawkwing open the gate and let me talk with the duchess Hawkwing,” Ash shouted as loud as he could.

  In the time it took to take three breaths a loud sound could be heard on the other side of the gate as the chains were turned and the large gate began to swing open. As soon as the gate opened a few feet a blur of blue and red rushed through the gate and charged into Ash’s chest.

  Tolarea and Ash’s other guards gripped their weapons but Ash waved them off as he wrapped his arms around Emelia’s slender waist. “I’m home,” Ash said as he held Emelia tightly to his chest.

  After a few moments Emelia pulled back from Ash’s embrace and hit him hard in the arm. Emelia looked up at Ash with slightly red eyes. “Welcome home.”

  “Shall we go inside?” Ash asked with a warm smile. “I don’t think we will get much done just standing out here making a show for everyone.”

  Realizing that hundreds of soldiers were looking down on them with more than a few of them wearing broad grins Emelia face blushed. “Yes…Very well,” Emelia said curtly before walking back through the gate.

  Emelia never looked back as she walked straight to what had been set up as the commander’s quarters Ash couldn’t help but look around the fort as he followed behind Emelia. It wasn’t really that long ago that the fort was nothing more than an idea he had. The last time he had seen it the inner wall was only just being started. He had heard that it had been finished but he didn’t think it would be so impressive with just the inner wall finished. Other than the wall nothing much had changed since all the buildings inside were made from wood.

  Ash was so immersed in his own world that he didn’t even notice when he walked through the door to the small log cabin until it shut behind him. As soon as the door was shut Emelia turned on Ash like a rabid wolf. “Where have you been?” Emelia asked her voice raising with each word. “What have you been doing? Did you even care that I thought you were dead? Couldn’t you have even came to visit your daughter?” By the time Emelia finished her tirade her face was flaming red and her voice was starting to break.

  Ash quickly wrapped Emelia in a tight embrace. “I’m sorry,” was all he could say to her words. “I couldn’t risk coming back before the battle,” Ash tried to explain. “Otherwise the surprise attack might not have worked.”

  Emelia struggled in his arms for a bit trying to pull back from his embrace but she quickly calmed down and wrapped her own arms weakly around him. “So we have a daughter?” Ash asked once Emelia had calmed down.

  “Yes,” Emelia said as she took a step back. She moved over and took a seat in a wooden chair behind a large oak desk. “I named her Ashley. She is the cutest thing you have ever laid your eyes on,” Emelia said her eyes glazing over. After shaking her head she narrowed her eyes at Ash again. “We can both go and see her later. I need to know what has been happening in your absence.”

  After taking a deep breath Ash started to tell his story. He started with being rescued by the demons during the battle. He explained that after he woke he learned that he had a blood ability that had signaled him as they next demon lord. Ash continued his story until he reached the part about taking wives.

  “What wives…As in more than one?” Emelia asked her face holding a look of astonishment. “Just how many wives do they expect you to take?”

  “Forty-two,” Ash said with a slight cringe.

  “Forty-two…Forty-two,” Emelia said lightly at first then shouted. Ash remained silent until Emelia had calmed down. He knew that she was a rational person and would understand the situation. Just as he expected after a few moments of grumbling she pursed her lips and looked at him. “I guess it doesn’t really matter if you have one or a thousand extra wives as long as I am the first.”

  “Always,” Ash replied with a warm smile.

  Ash continued with his story explaining his training and then the planning for the battle. She had been present for the battle itself so that was where his story ended. “Now we have thousands of soldiers and have no clue what to do with them,” Ash said getting to the reason he had originally came to the fort. “I figured that you would know how best to handle this situation.”

  “Just kill them,” Tolarea said in an offhanded manner. “It is never good to leave a live enemy at your back.”

  “I would like to agree with you,” Emelia said nodding her head. “Sadly if we just killed all of the soldiers the people would lose faith in us. Most of the men are just normal people who had been forced to fight. Killing them wouldn’t really solve who are real enemy is and that is the nobles and kings who didn’t even have the guts to fight in the battle themselves.”

  “Then what should we do with them?” Ash asked again.

  “We have a few choices. We can ransom them back to the king, release them, or put them into slavery,” Emelia said ticking off the choices with her fingers.

  “What do you suggest out of the three?”

  “First there is no way the king will pay a ransom for a low level soldier so it would be best just to release them. As for the mid and high level warriors it would be best to take it person by person to see if they are worth the ransom but we shouldn’t let any officer level soldiers leave easily. They are the real threat in a battle since it takes years to train a decent field commander.”

  “My lord if you wish I will send a message back to commanders Uthla so that he can start separating the prisoners,” Li said interjected.

  “Please see to it Li,” Ash replied quickly. Turning back to Emelia he noticed that she didn’t have a please look on her face as Li left the room. “No reason to keep them waiting longer than needed. It takes a great deal of work to keep so many people under watch,” Ash tried to explain.

  “And here I thought we could at least have a day to talk before all the wo
rk started,” Emelia said with a frustrated sigh.

  “Sorry.”

  “It is fine,” Emelia said waving her hand. “We will have plenty of time in the future though as soon as you can you should visit Yuki. She has been frantic since you disappeared.”

  Ash couldn’t help but smile when he thought about Yuki and the rest of the people awaiting him at his home within the city.

  After Li had left it took a little over an hour and a half for the first prisoners to start arriving. The low level soldiers were easily separated out thanks to Ash’s analyze ability though even then the sun had long since set before they had gone through a quarter of the prisoners. Whenever they found someone who was worth keeping they were moved into one of the buildings that had once been a barracks so that they could be guarded with a limited number of resources. The ones that had yet be interviewed were brought inside the fort and were guarded by both demons and humans.

  After night had fallen Ash followed Emelia back to the city where a large group of people awaited them. As they rode through the city gates people cheered not only for Emelia but for him as well. Though most of the faces showed nothing but happiness a few showed a look of hatred when they looked upon the demon women who rode behind and beside Ash.

  It was one thing for the citizens to accept demi-humans with demon blood since they were still partially human but it was something different altogether to accept full blood demons since they had been the scapegoat for everything that unexplained that happened.

  When they reached Emelia’s manor Ash was glad to be out from under all the eyes that had been focused on him.

  “Master,” a familiar voice rand out before a red haired fox girl jumped into his arms.

  “Hello Yuki,” Ash said as he gently patted her head which now reached just below his throat. Over the past half a year she had indeed grow a lot. She now looked her age which Ash didn’t know if it was a good thing or not. Before he separate from Yuki he felt something else tug on his pants as it started to crawl up his leg.

  “Did you miss me Milly?” Ash asked as he lifted the small panther girl into his arms. Just like Yuki she had group but not nearly as much but Ash was sure that she was a few inches taller.

  Milly rubbed her soft cheeks against his while let off a contented purring sound like a cat. Milly seemed to have the same effect on the demon women as she had on everyone else as they all seemed to coo over he uniquely cute look but it was Tolarea who won the right to hold her. What surprised Ash the most was not that Tolarea was so aggressive about getting to hold the young beast girl but was that Milly didn’t seem to object. When he had first met the young panther girl she was immensely shy and hid away from everyone.

  Once Ash had greeted everyone they moved into the dining room for a well-deserved feast. Since it was not expected that Ash would be attending the cooks had made Emelia’s favorite foods; steamed asparagus, steak, a light fruit salad, and lightly fried potatoes. In fact from what Ash understood they had cooked the same feast every day for the past week in hopes that she would return to the manor to eat.

  At the start of the meal Milly started in Tolarea’s lap eating off the giantess’s plate until the fruit and meat was gone then she slipped down moving from lap to lap eating her favorite food off each one before moving to the next.

  Once the meal was finished the mains showed Ash’s demon wives to their rooms which took a lot more work than Ash would have expected since they believed they should stay at his side. In the end they were able to come to an agreement with allowing one of the women to stand guard outside Emelia and Ash’s door.

  After the rooms were assigned Emelia drug Ash to the study instead of heading straight to bed. He was tired but Ash had to admit it almost felt as if he had gone back in time as he sat beside Emelia in the book filled room with her head resting lightly on his shoulder while a book was resting in his lap.

  “I missed this,” Emelia said with a contented sigh.

  “I did as well,” Ash admitted honestly. “Where is Ashly?” Ash asked when he remembered his newly born daughter.

  “She is with Helen at the moment,” Emelia said. “I didn’t think I would survive the war so I sent her to stay with Helen and their family. If anyone could keep the child safe I thought that old bat would be the one to do it,” Emelia then turned to Ash with a pained look in her face. “I know you want to see her but we should wait until we finish the business with the prisoners. We will have to be out a lot over the next few days and we can’t risk her safety.”

  “I understand,” Ash said pulling Emelia close to his chest. “I have been able to stay away fir months a few more days won’t kill me.”

  “Do me a favor,” Emelia said after a few quiet moments passed.

  “Anything,” Ash replied his voice full of warmth.

  “Don’t leave me again. I don’t think my heart can take it.”

  “Promise,” Ash said with a light chuckle. “Though I hope you know I won’t be able to spend all my time with you,” Ash added after a few moments. “I have my duty to the demons to preform, and I am sure that the war is far from over.”

  “I am not a fool,” Emelia said her voice holding an edge of annoyance to it. “You won’t be the only one who will be busy. With the battle over I will have to declare our independent from the crown. If the king himself would have stayed out of the war I might never have done it but now that he personally sent troops there is no way that we can stay a part of the kingdom.”

  “Looks like we are going to have a very busy future,” Ash said in a joking tone.

  “I wouldn’t be laughing,” Emelia said hitting Ash lightly in the chest. “It will be hard for us to find one day a week to spend with each other at this rate,” Emelia said pouting.

  “Hasn’t that always been the life of a noble?” Ash asked seriously.

  “Yes but before I was the noble and you were just my cute arm candy,” Emelia said pulling Ash into a kiss. “Who would have thought that my husband would turn out to be the king of demons?”

  “I am just as surprised as you are,” Ash said returning the kiss. “Looks like life is never as simple as we think it will be.”

  “Are you going to be going back to finish your training once the war is settled?” Emelia asked her voice sounding slightly lonely.

  “Yes though you should really join me in the training,” Ash said with a warm smile. “You could do with putting a little muscle on that body of yours.”

  Emelia crossed her arms and huffed. “I don’t want to become one of those muscle bound women. I much prefer the way I am thank you very much,” Emelia said in a dignified tone. “If you want to follow me to the bed chambers I can show you the benefit of having a wife that isn’t all muscle.”

  10-10

  Over the next three days Ash spent his time interviewing prisoners. Just as expected 97% of them were standard soldiers. The rest were knights were high level officers belonging to one of the nobles and a few to the king himself. In the end they were left with a little over sixty people held captive. The only exception the Emelia’s decision were the two standard soldiers who had the reapers mark above their heads.

  Ash couldn’t simply execute them without cause, instead he consulted with Emelia and they held turned them over to the church for trial along with the other fourteen officers who were marked as well. This was done to give a reason for execution that made both Ash and Emelia blames since not even a king would be foolish enough to denounce the rulings of a church even if they wanted to. It also allowed Ash to kill them openly once they were found guilty so he could reap the rewards from their deaths. Ash felt slightly bad about killing men who had surrendered but he knew that to get the mark of death they had to commit grave sins that were unforgivable but it did little to alleviate the nagging of his conscious.

  The remaining prisoner’s name was taken and sent to the king along with the prices for their release. Once that was finished Emelia contacted Helen and had her bring Ashely bac
k to her house.

  The first time Ash had seen his daughter his heart had been taken away by the miniature giggling face. She only had a small amount of hair and no teeth but she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. It was when Ash noticed the small pair of wings on her back that Ash started to understand what Emelia had done in his absence. He was not the only one surprised as his demon wives all held complex feelings about the small child who could very well be the next maoh if she carried Ash’s blood ability.

  When Ash had asked Emelia why she hadn’t gone through with the purifying rite she had simply said that she wanted their daughter to be fully theirs as the gods decided. Ash couldn’t blame Emelia for her choice but he knew that the small child would have a much harder life thanks to those small wings on her back but at the same time she signaled a new hope. She could very well be the bridge between the two races though Ash knew pinning such hopes on such a small being was asking far too much.

  It didn’t take long for the church to convene a court in order to try the criminals and even faster to judge them. The priests had a skill that allowed them to call forth any crime committed against the goddess so there was no way for the prisoners to deny what they had done. In the end Ash gained four more levels and an amazing nineteen abilities.

  [Binding throw: cost 10SP- warp up the enemy and throw him. Level 1-0%.]

  [Bludgeon: cost 20SP- increase attack with blunted weapons by 25%. Level 1-0%.]

  [Bolstered resilience- increase damage resistance by 5%. Level 1-0%.]

  [Hurl: cost 5Sp- throw weapon doing 10% more damage. Level 1-0%.]

  [Weaken: cost 50MP- weaken an enemy by one level. Can only be used if enemy is at a higher level. Level 1-0%.]

  [Cluster shot- cost 40MP 5SP- when the next arrow is fired it will burst apart damaging all enemies within its striking area. Level 1-0%.]

  [Replenish: cost 10% of channeled MP. Pass MP onto an ally. Level 1-0%.]