Even the Light Left

The next day, Elena woke up and found Dred in his panther form beside her. After lazing around for a bit more, she got out of the bed and dressed up. “What are you waiting for?” she asked, as she sheathed her last throwing knife.

“Nothing in particular. I was just waiting for you to get ready,” he said as he jumped out of the bed. “Why are you looking at me?”

“I can’t or what?” Elena asked, tilting her head to the side.

“You can… but what do you want?”

“...You were a bit strange yesterday,” Elena brought up his behavior.

“I know. It was because of my demon form. It all started with that so I won’t use it unless it is necessary,” he replied, still keeping silent about his reasons.

“Spill the beans already,” she shook her head.

“Uhm… it’s just that when I’m in my demon form, my whole crotch is tingling and I get excited over your body. It’s a nice feeling, but I don’t want it. You know that I’m liking you and I don’t want to lust over you all day. It’s distracting, to say the least.”

Elena was left with her mouth opened wide, not expecting him to be this blunt with his words. “That was- surprising. Uhm, should I do anything to help you?”

“No, it is my problem. I’ll be fine.”

“But your demon form can be used for much more things than your monster form. Hands are great, you know?”

“Of course, I know. I had the chance to experience what it’s like to have them. But I’ll be fine this way.”

“Eh? But you are giving up something good for ‘my sake’, which makes me feel bad now…”

“Then let’s say that I’m doing it for my sake,” he said, tilting his head to the side.

“Lies.”

“No.”

“Liar.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t really matter. I never said that I’d abandon using my demon form. I’ll just use it less to don’t get my head filled with you.”

“Why? Is that a bad thing for anyone?”

“I don’t know, it should be a bad thing for you,” Dred shrugged his shoulders.

“...” She stayed silent for a few seconds and rolled her eyes. “You know, I don’t really care at the moment. It’s not like you did anything to me, ever.”

“But I could if I stayed that way.”

“What? Are you lacking self-control? Then I’ll be the one to tell you to use your demon form. Self-control is very important, especially in our case! Hypothetically, will you fail a mission in the future if a woman tried to seduce you because of your lack of endurance?”

“Ugh, huh? Why are you bringing this up?” he asked, his eyes darting around in the room.

“Well, isn’t it the same? You are just trying to escape one of your weak points. It’s not like we don’t have them.”

“Listen, I’m sure that my self-control is great. It’s just that other men don’t have to see and hear a beauty masturbate beside them in the bed. I’m perfectly fine in my monster form,” he didn’t back away and stomped on the ground to express the stability of his decision.

Elena’s face turned red as she opened her mouth, “W-What the hell?! I’m not-!”

“Don’t try to deny it, I can hear you every time…”

“...So are you telling me that it’s my fault? But it felt good…”

“Yes, it is your fault and when I told you once that I should sleep alone, you told me that I should stay since I’m great as a pillow. You are selfishly using me. At least, you don’t go as far as to touch my body while doing it. Happy? You wanted to hear my opinion before…”

“Ehm… fine! But you shouldn’t have been this blunt!”

“What? You wanted me to be blunt and now you are telling me to not be so blunt? What do you want then?”

“I don’t know for fuck’s sake! But I got used to it. What do you want me to do? Or not do?” she spread her arms in exasperation.

“Well, I too got used to being together with you so I don’t really plan to give up on that. As I said, you can keep your habits and I’ll stay in my monster form!” he said stubbornly, stomping on the ground once again.

“So we are back to square one,” Elena furrowed her brows.

“Indeed.”

“I’ll think about this. I don’t want to take advantage of anyone, let alone you,” she mumbled in a low voice, her hand on her chin. Dred’s eyes opened wide as he felt a strange feeling of happiness fill his heart. Shaking his head in confusion, he got up and followed Elena who walked out of the room, saying no more.

Caleb arrived not soon after, his early arrival a sign of his excitement. Elena had enough time to tell her plans to Hector and push him until he accepted them. But this time, Caleb brought with him another person. Elena sat down beside Hector in his office, while Salem stood behind his back and Dred stayed in her shadow. Since they didn’t want to make the room crowded, Audrey and the others stayed outside.

Elena saw a red-haired man enter the room, followed by Caleb. As her eyes met his gray eyes, they started a staring competition. “What are you looking at?” Elena asked with furrowed brows, still keeping eye contact. Considering that he was the guest and the one who wanted help, Bethor shook his head and averted his eyes, slightly confused, “N- Nothing…”

“Pfft-” *cough* Salem drowned his laughter with a cough and stayed silent, his face red from embarrassment. He didn’t even dare to look at Hector, afraid to meet his eyes.

“What’s your name?” Bethor asked, looking at each of the people in the room, ignoring Salem’s slip. After everyone introduced themselves , Bethor took a seat in front of Hector’s office table and Caleb stood behind him.

Not beating around the bush, Bethor started, “I heard everything from Caleb. If I hand out some territory to you after winning the war, you plan to help us, right?”

“Of course. I know that you are in a desperate situation and any help would come in handy,” Hector replied, his self-assurance clear on his face.

“That’s indeed true, but the real question is… how much can you help? I didn’t sense even a single notable Magician, other than you,” Bethor replied, pointing at Elena. “Oh, wait, and there are three others in the palace, but this Kingdom? What do you have?”

Leaning forward, Elena replied with a smile, “That’s where our technology comes in the picture. Salem?” Nodding his head, he gave a weapon to Elena. Opening the window, she looked at an apple on the top of a tower, which they put there beforehand. Thanks to her great eyesight, she fired only once and the apple was blown into pieces.

Bethor leaned on the table in interest, his brows wrinkled. “Now, that’s an interesting tool you have. But I could have evaded it.”

“Indeed, it’s ineffective against me as well, but you see, there will be many Magicians and Warriors in the middle of a battle. They can’t dodge every shot and unless they have an ethereal form related spell, they won’t escape death. This means that our people could shoot from far away and safely take out many of our opponents. Of course, I too would help and fight alongside you.”

“You keep saying ‘our’ enemy,” Bethor pointed out, raising a brow.

“Of course, Atelon is in the way of my plans, so he is my enemy. Simple as that.”

“Will I be in the way of your plans too, in the future?”

“I don’t think so. Unless you plan to kill me,” she replied with a grin on her face.

“I have no intention to hurt my benefactor. The question is, how much territory do you want? You surely know that our Kingdom isn’t all that great in its current form and if I give away too much, it won’t be worth for us.”

“That much is obvious,” she nodded her head. “And so, instead of giving us one of your cities, we will build our own city at a good location. You will help us with that. On the other hand, it’s pointless if we just earn some territory. I want our people to mix together. You will learn more about technology, while our people will learn more about Mana, spells, skills, and the rest of the good stuff.”

“You aren’t like a real princess. You talk openly, which is unusual,” Bethor remarked with a chuckle.

“Well, I’m an exception. So? What do you say? I want these two Kingdoms to combine into a powerful one and with the backing of the high-level materials, our technology can rise to new heights too.”

“That’s a rather interesting concept and although I have a few doubts about the future, I’ll accept this deal.” Even if you wish to rebel or take the lead in the future, we will have the upper hand. We could easily wipe out your forces if you tried something funny, he thought, nodding his head. Raising his head, he added, “We should talk about the tactics too. I’ve been secretly training the guards and the thugs, but your soldiers know nothing about my plans. How should we change that?”

“Well, I suppose you can’t bring your people here and we can’t go either. So sadly we will have to spread the word and hope that our people aren’t stupid,” Elena replied with a smile.

“That’s right… but if they followed my words, our army would be still better organized than Atelon’s. Caleb has been spying on his forces for many years now. His biggest power comes from the students of the Magic Academy and those who graduated from it. His hired forces are just trash. They are powerful but are nothing but a bunch of unorganized monkeys. The students of the Magic Academy are the same, but they are very powerful.”

“Three of them happened to visit my city three days ago and they want to hold a competition to pick up the talented young people. If everything goes the right way, they will never return to the capital city,” Bethor replied with a grin on his face, clenching his fists.

“You seem to hate them,” Elena tilted her head to the side.

“I do. If you met them, you would too. Almost all of them are just arrogant bastards, thinking that they can do anything. I do know a few students who are clever and aren’t arrogant, unfortunately, they are few in number. But I still managed to make a deal with a few of them. They will help us and their oaths are also protecting us from betrayal.”

“Huh? For how long have you been planning this if you have even these kinds of trump cards?” Hector asked with wide opened eyes.

“Ten years!”

“That’s quite a while… I didn’t think that you would put so much effort into this, but I’m happy to realize that I was wrong,” Elena commented, showing her white teeth.

“I knew from the beginning that I had to build everything from scratch. The first part of my plan was to become a city lord, which took a lot of time. But even when I earned the title, I knew that it won’t be good for anything if I don’t advance my plans step by step. I knew that I had to find people who shared my view and dared to risk.”

“There were hard times when I misunderstood people and I had to kill them to keep them silent. But as you can see, I’m here and the day I can finally kill this idiot of a king is creeping closer!” he started explaining his plans, filled with emotions.

“You must have had it rough. Somebody who sacrifices people and things for the greater good, huh? We are quite similar,” Elena grinned.

“Is that so? And what is your ‘greater good’?”

“Who knows? Time will tell,” she smiled, standing up from the table. “I’m leaving now since my presence is unnecessary at this point. You can share your battle plans with Salem,” she pointed at him, continuing, “I’ll use my own methods to fight. The only thing I need to know is whether you have some large scale attack planned or not.”

Nodding his head, he replied, “I do have.”

“In that case, I’ll ask Salem about it later. I need to focus on training for now.”

“Alright. My time is running out so I will keep it brief,” Bethor replied, but by the time he finished his words, Elena was nowhere to be seen.

Furrowing his brows, Caleb remarked, “She is very good… I can’t sense her.”

“Oh? That’s interesting. Is she really just a princess of your Kingdom?” Bethor raised a brow.

As an experienced king, Hector easily hid his emotions and replied with a straight face, “Of course. I took her in a long time ago since she was an orphan. Although initially, I had to hide her from the general populace, after beating our enemies, I could finally reveal her identity.”

“I understand, though she seems to be the one leading,” Bethor rudely commented on Hector’s seemingly low authority. Considering how weak he was and how little he talked, Bethor didn’t give him enough respect, even though he was the King.

Hector’s brows twitched as he slammed his hand on the table, “I could simply cancel this thing if you want to keep badmouthing me! I did let her play around this time, but I’m the one who has the last saying in this!”

“I’m sorry,” Bethor slightly bowed his head to show his honesty.

“Good. Now share your plans and then leave,” Hector humphed.

I think I mistook who is the leader here, Bethor thought helplessly, realizing that he said something he shouldn’t have.

Thanks to continuous learning, Hector and Salem too learned the general language of the universe, so they had no problems with communicating. After finishing their negotiation, Bethor stood up from his seat and left with a simple goodbye.

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