by K R Zax
“I am Alex Miller, leader of the Demon Lord’s Party.” I then looked at Orst who had a troubled face, “I get it, you couldn’t go against your superior's orders. We’re still friends, OK?”
“Yes, my lord! Sorry, my lord!” The kid breathed in relief and then bowed to me. “Thank you, my lord, I’ll go see to your horses later.”
When we finished our conversation, the knight woman pointed a finger at me.
“Let’s get to the point. As a member of a Demonic Tribe, I find your nickname to be offensive. Thus, I challenge you to a duel.” Her declaration was followed by cheers of support from the other knights.
“A duel?” Was she for real? No, this is that kind of age. There are knights, so duels may be a thing.
“Yes. Or are you perhaps reluctant because I’m a woman?” She sounded displeased at that thought. I hope she’s not some kind of extreme feminist.
“Oh, no. I haven’t thought of you as a woman.” Shit! The moment I said that, there was laughter coming from somewhere among the adventurers.
“What did you say?” Crimson spots were decorating Lillian’s cute cheeks now.
“Sorry,” I apologized hurriedly, it would be bad if things get out of control. “I mean, I know that there are women that are fighters, and I certainly don’t look down on them. It’s just that your armor led my thoughts astray for a moment.”
“My armor? Is there something strange about it? Or is that a lousy attempt to make fun of me?” Now everyone looked like they didn’t know what I was talking about.
“What I wanted to say is, that the armor you are wearing does not look like the feminine kind of armor I was expecting, that’s all.”
Why is everyone looking at me like they don’t get it? I know I saw several of those armors back in Tsarigrad at Volseb & Voin. Is it because they were expensive, so not many girls could afford it?
“You know, boob plates and skirts, or just bikini type armor,” I remember reading somewhere about how inefficient and unrealistic those types of armors would be in reality, but this is a fantasy world. Magic exists here for crying-out-loud, I even saw an elf adventurer wearing a bikini top and trousers.
“I should’ve known,” Lillian said quietly and I breathed in relief. Then, she unsheathed her sword. “I’ve heard the rumors, but to think it was all true. All you concern yourself with are women’s bodies. Disgusting fiend! You may have the soul of a Demon Lord, but what about your strength?”
She launched herself at me, her sword going straight for my heart. I have to admit that she is very fast, but not enough to land a blow on me. I only had to twist my body a bit, catch her arm, and then smack her moderately.
“Ooouu!” Lillian cried and fell to the ground when I slapped her. She held her cheek, surprised at the sudden turn of events. I thought she would stay down, but no, she quickly got up and decided to get some more.
I caught the fist she threw at my face and punched her in the stomach. She was wearing armor, so I knew I wouldn't hurt her too much.
“Uuuuuhh!” She fell down, and a couple of her friends came to help her. Luckily, none of them tried to attack me, so I just turned around and walked away. That was the right choice, if she insisted on fighting any longer, it may end up bad for her.
No one said a word, everyone just moved out of the way as I headed for my tent. Lina also followed me in silence until we were out of sight.
“Darling,” she said with a complicated expression. “Could you tell me what exactly happened?”
“Huh? Oh, you didn’t catch that?”
“No, not really. While I can pretty much guess how it all went, I still would like to hear the details from you.”
Then I began explaining the moves, and by the time I finished, she was horrified.
“Dear God!” Lina covered her mouth and then continued in a lower voice. “You slapped her? And then punched her? Poor girl, that must hurt like hell.”
“She attacked me first, okay,” I said in my defense. It’s not like I go around beating girls on a daily basis. “She even came at me with a sword! I couldn’t just let her do what she wanted.”
“True, but still... Beating the Empire’s Princess isn’t something anyone can do, you know?”
“Who?” What did she say? Princess?
“Oh, Darling. I forgot that you’re not from the Empire.” She was quiet for a few seconds, sorting out her thoughts. “Listen, she’s Lillian Az’Grotil Voznesensky, one of the Emperor’s daughters. Az’Grotil is the name of her mother’s tribe, she’s one of the demon-kin.”
“What are the demon-kin?” Great, she's not an ordinary troublesome girl but a Noble as well. What can go wrong?
“They believe to be the descendants of Demons. There are all kinds of demon-kin, similar to how there are a lot of different kinds of beast-kin.” She moved her ears and tail like I wasn’t already aware of them.
Yes, honey. I can see that you are a cute beast-kin, you don’t need to tempt me right now.
“So what’s her deal?” I asked Lina while grabbing her tail, that thing was really smooth and silky to the touch.
“Darling,” she said in her flirty voice, and then smack my hand. “Demon-kin have different values and common sense than the rest of us. That is why most of them live in seclusion, rarely having any contact with the other races. Some rumors even say that they worship real Demons.”
“Ah, so that explains her dissatisfaction with me being called ‘Demon Lord’.” It makes sense, in a weird way. Hope they won’t try to sacrifice me to some Demon, that would suck. “If some problem occurs, be ready to run. I’ll let the zombies out to buy us some time while we escape.”
“Darling, sometimes you’re really awesome, you know.” Her sparkling eyes were closer and closer as she moved towards me.
Then, her lips connected with mine.
Chapter 16.
When I woke up in the morning, I could hear the sounds of birds chirping. A pair of cat ears came into view when I looked at my girl, who was glued to my body. Should I call her my girlfriend at this point? Or woman?
Last night, we finally did it. And dear God, I think I may get addicted to it. Not like I was a complete virgin, I certainly wasn’t almost 4000 years ago. But this girl is something else. Or is it the fact that both our bodies are stronger and have more stamina than normal human ones? That has to play some part in all of this.
“You wake up,” Lina said and then she smiled broadly, revealing her pointed, cat teeth. “Oh, both Darlings are fully awake.”
“Not now.” I pushed her hand away and put my clothes on. “It’s morning already, we need to get going.”
“Hmph, fine.” She pouted, and then made a whole show of dressing up.
Nevermind, I have a job to do. Getting stronger and collecting dead monsters for sale is a must, or else, I won’t be able to buy myself a big house and several more slave girls.
“Huh?” When I stepped out of the tent, the first person I saw was the commander of the Demonic Order – Lillian Whatever-Was-Her-Name.
And she wasn’t the only one, all the girls from her Order were there. Some were sitting by a campfire with the Three Wolf Fangs, others were practicing swordsmanship, and a few were picking up tents.
Were they camping here last night? Does Lillian want a rematch so badly, or perhaps they have another motive. And why is she blushing?
Just as I looked over them, the peaceful atmosphere crushed, and the girls started chattering:
“Oh my God! He doesn’t seem to be tired at all!”
“A monster!”
“Demon.”
“They were at it for hours! I barely slept last night.”
“I wonder if he likes blonds?”
“Look at the girl! She has to be strong, right?”
“I’ll talk to mother when we get back, she’s been bothering me about marriage for the last few months anyway.”
They were like excited high school girls. Well, some of them looked that old,
but most seemed to be in their early twenties.
“Ahem,” all the girls quieted down at Lillian’s signal. “We decided to travel with you for now, and asses if you are worthy of keeping the Demon Lord nickname.”
What? They are going to stick to me for the whole trip? Over a nickname? Bloody hell, these women are getting more annoying by the second.
“Eh, excuse me, but… Shouldn’t you find a healer first?” Lina dropped into the conversation and pointed to the big bruise on Lillian’s cheek. “And Darling, shouldn’t you apologize? You certainly went a bit overboard there.”
“No,” I said, and a few girls jumped when they saw the shadows swallowing our tent as I put it inside the Storage. “She attacked me first, I just defended myself.”
“That is correct.” Surprisingly, Lillian agreed to my words. “I will wear these bruises with pride as a sign of respect for my opponent, that is a tradition among the demon-kin tribes.”
I suppose it is a good thing that she calmed down. And that tradition doesn’t sound so bad, it can be a nice reminder for the next time she tries to start a fight with me.
We had a relatively civil breakfast, and then Lina and I went for the forest. Lillian and her group wanted to go with us, but they backed down when I threaten to beat every one of them. Man, these girls can be such a pain.
When we reached the area where my zombies were, we saw an enormous amount of monster corpses there. It took me more time than yesterday to Absorb, and turn them all into new zombies. Of course, Lina took a nap while I worked.
This time, almost 1210 zombies were still functional and 380 zombies were destroyed during the night. They managed to kill almost 1800 monsters of which, 241 were too damaged to reanimate.
After that, I used the Virsk Birds to find strong opponents, and only found two. They weren’t as strong as the Troll, but well, beggars can’t be choosers.
***
We continued with the same routine day after day: wake up, Absorb and make new zombies, hunt, leave the zombies, go back, sleep. Over and over.
After a few days, we started seeing villages here and there along the way. Every single one had some kind of wall or fence surrounding them. Improvised stone wall, wood wall, earth wall...
There were people working on the fields and some that kept guard further away, watching out for monsters. Some soldiers and adventurers would trade with the locals, buying fresh food or other things that they needed.
And I had a great time hunting. It appears that a lot of monsters liked to approach human settlements, and built their lairs in the vicinity. Of course, there were adventurers from a city in this area that came regularly to hunt them, but almost none of them went deeper into the forests.
Then, sometime before sunset on the ninth day, our forces reached Zupol city. It wasn’t as huge as Tsarigrad, but it was big enough to have an Adventurers Guild and a lot of different shops and Inns. At least, that was what Lillian told us when Lina and I reached the camp that day.
There weren’t enough rooms to accommodate all of the knights, soldiers, and adventurers. So she and her Order had to camp outside, with the rest of us.
“Tolia should be bigger,” she said while we were walking towards the city gate. It wasn’t just her that followed me and Lina as we headed for the Adventurers Guild, all of the Demonic Order girls invited themselves. It felt like some kind of school trip.
We paid the entrance fees and asked for directions, lucky for us, the Guild was located close to the main gate.
The building only had three floors and was about 25 yards wide. The double wing front door, was kept open since the days were warmer, and a lot of people were going in and out. Most were adventurers, but there were also Guild employees and merchants who bought fresh materials.
Everyone was looking at us as we walked to the counter, not surprising since every single individual in this group, aside from myself, was a girl.
“How may I help you?” An older woman asked politely when I approached.
“I want to sell some monster corpses,” I said and handed her my Guild card. The woman’s brows rose when she saw my nickname, but she kept her appearance professional.
“A Dark Mage, huh. May I assume that you have them inside that Shadowy Storage thing? How many do you have?” There were some murmurs when she said ‘Dark Mage, but most of the people didn’t seem to care.
“About a hundred.” I wasn’t going to sell everything I had, just a portion.
“Follow me.” The woman left the counter and called for two more Guild employees as we went through a door. There was a large open space, and a couple of people were dissecting monsters on to big tables. There were a lot of orcs and some kobolds. “You can put them here.”
I decided to take out only the most common ones, orcs, kobolds, lizardman, boars, and wolves. Who knows what could happen if I got the stronger monsters out, it would probably turn to be a hassle.
“One hundred and three.” The Guild receptionist said after counting the bodies, and one of the other employees who inspected them gave her a note. “That is a total of 5 gold coins and 9 silver.”
Well, this time I didn’t do it as part of a quest, and I didn’t take out something as strong as the Raging Bear, that guy was worth 5 gold coins alone.
I took the money and we went to a Mage shop. We easily found a promising one on the main street, and when I looked inside, there were a few Mages that came with us from Tsarigrad, gazing at various things. It was a small shop, but it was filled with canes, staffs, potions, books, writing equipment, enchanted items and a lot of other things.
“May I help you, sir?” A man in a robe asked while I was looking around.
“Crystals. Do you have any?”
“Yes!” The man said happily and showed me a couple of chests filled with them. There wasn’t a lot of different sizes as there were in Volseb & Voin. “People rarely buy them, there aren’t many enchanters around these parts, you know. So how many do you need?”
“How many can I buy with 5 gold coins?” I asked, and the Mage was excited. After a bit of haggling, he sold most of the crystals he had in the shop. The guy even gave me a nice, wooden chest since I was buying so much.
“I don’t get it,” Lillian said five minutes later when I walked out of the shop with a chest full of crystals. “You sold all those monsters to buy crystals? Are you mass enchanting stuff? Making a powerful weapon?”
“Accessories.”
“Huh?”
“I said, I’m making some accessories to help me hunt monsters,” I responded, hoping that she will just give up. There’s no way I can tell people what I need the crystals for.
“Alright, I get it. People have secrets that they don’t want to talk about.” Lillian said so but didn’t seem like she was over it.
The girls weren’t in a great mood as when we entered the city. Probably because the place wasn't as lovely as Tsarigrad. So, to lighten their spirits, I bought them some tea, cakes and lots of candies. By the time we were going back to the camp, they were all chatting cheerfully.
“Did you have a good time?” Velira asked when we arrived at the campfire, she was cooking some orc meat that I left, before going to the city. Aler and Bjorsal were also there, already eating and drinking some ale they got from somewhere.
“It smells good.”
“I’m so hungry.”
“Me too.”
The girls flocked over, when I put a basket of fresh bread and some cheese on the improvised table. Each of them took an empty bowl and waited for Velira to fill them with meat and baked potatoes.
“It’s delicious!”
“You wouldn’t normally eat something like this on a mission.”
“Darling loves his meals to be as sumptuous and luxurious as possible.” Lina bragged about my tastes, and I felt a bit embarrassed. Why on Earth wouldn’t I eat something nice if I can afford it? It’s not like I’m eating caviar here, or some kind of extravagant dessert decorated with gold l
eaves.
“Are you from a noble family?” Lillian suddenly asked, and all the girls were now waiting in silence for my answer. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“No, I am not from a noble house. And that is the truth, I swear so.” I said in the most sincere tone I could possibly muster. “Anyway, is being polite considered as something exclusive to the nobles?” They don’t have a copyright on manners, right?
“My lord, I took care of yours and your lady’s horse.” Orst came and Velira handed him a bowl with meat and potatoes.
“Good work.” I tossed him a coin, and the girls giggled.
“Of course he’s not a lord...”
“Maybe royalty?”
“He reminds me of my father. Who happens to be a Duke.”
“Hahahaha…”
I left after a while and went straight to my tent while Lina stayed with the girls for a little longer. That was convenient since I wanted to practice with my magic, but first, let’s check the Status Plate.
Name
Alex Miller
Mana
S
Strength
A
Speed
A
Dark Magic
B
Fire Magic
C
Air Magic
C
Water Magic
D
Earth Magic
D
I opened the book with magic skills to search for any I could try to learn tonight. Maybe one that isolates sound? That would be nice to have around my tent at night.
Could I enchant the tent? Dr. Sam said that I could learn magic easily, so I may develop a talent for enchanting. And if I can make the tent soundproof, can I also add other enchantments like protection, monster detection, or even expand the interior? It would be really good to have a bed in here if it weren’t so tiny. I’ll probably need some more books and better materials.
After some time, Lina came into the tent and started taking her clothes off. That was her new tactic, she knew that I loved practicing my magic, so she came up with a way to disturb me enough to switch my attention to her. This cat was starting to look more like a fox with every passing day.