“I’ve dealt with those girls easily, thanks to the pepr sprej. They were hesitant to begin with, so it didn’t take much for them to give up. Watching them roll on the ground while screaming in agony was a real pleasure.”

“With my job done, I rushed back to your side, but a group of nobles got in my way. I wasn’t sure if they were also involved in the plot or if they came because they heard those girls screaming, so I decided to play it safe and give them the benefit of the doubt.”

“And, as always, that was the wrong thing to do.”

“I only realized they were hostile when they started clobbering me, so it was already too late for me to resist. As soon as I was on the ground, they started dragging me into the building, while the rest went on to search for you. A few of them wanted to kill me on the spot, but the rest insisted I’m much more worthy alive since I could tell them where you are. So, they started with some rough questioning. They weren’t really punching me or anything. They were mostly slapping me and pulling my hair … you know, the usual kinky stuff.”

“That’s when I realized I have a chance because, while they were harsh to me, they were also cautious about it. You could even say caring. I realized my charms stopped them from going all out on me. So, I made sure to fall in a very compromising position every time they’d push me and give them a proper weak yet suggestive look.”

“And … it worked. At first, they were like: you’re a real whore, aren’t you! Yeah, you like that, don’t you, you demonic slut! And it was fun for a while. But unfortunately, it turns out that timkiks lack stamina and they bust too quickly. Even sooner than most men do. They ran out of steam really fast, and it wasn’t long before they were like: we’re sorry, but we don’t want to fuck you anymore! We know we said we will, but we don’t want to fuck you anymore!”

She exhaled the smoke out of the small stick again.

“But of course, I didn’t stop. You don’t get to get my hopes up and then disappoint me like that. I didn’t stop until I made sure I’d drained every last ounce of energy out of every single one of them. By that time, Ira had already told me you were fine, so I decided to take a little break and have a smoke. I think I’ve deserved it.”

“I knew you’re strange, but not … in this way,” the queen searched for her words carefully, looking far more surprised than worried for her servant.

Then her face settled for a strained smile: “Getting your hopes up is all your fault though. You can’t blame them for not living up to your standards.”

“Yeah. I hoped their numbers would help, but they still failed. I just couldn’t let them get away with it. Still, the first ten minutes were ok.”

She flicked the stick out of her fingers in one elegant move once it got really small, exhaling the smoke for the last time.

“Ok, now what?” She asked.

“We should go back to the negotiations,” the queen answered, “We can’t let all of this go to waste and disrupt our plans.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Anna stretched her neck left and right, “These bruises do hurt, but that won’t distract me from my mission. My movements aren’t any slower.”

“That’s great!” Then, the queen turned to the guards-commander, “Can you please ask your Emperor if he’s willing to continue with the negotiations? Whoever did this wants to stop us from holding them, which is exactly why we should proceed.”

“I’ll report to his majesty and let you know.”

“Maybe we should go to that conference room straight away and meet the Emperor there?” Jens proposed, “The sooner we conclude the deal, the better.”

“That sounds good.”

---

The conference room remained as it was. The maps and figures on them were still in their proper places. None of the commotion affected the room itself, although it did affect the people in it. While not many, it was noticeable that some of the present nobles were now missing.

The human female covered in bruises attracted most of the attention though. But even though the bruises have ruined her face, those couldn’t take her perfect figure away. She stood tall, carrying herself in the same solemn, disinterested manner as before, as if nothing had happened. If those bruises were hurting, she didn’t show any of it.

That was the first time I’d ever seen a female with such an attitude. Most of the noble daughters I’ve met did their best to find an easy way out and have the others do things for them. For that reason, I never thought the females were cut out to be warriors. But this Anna person made me question everything. Not even being savagely beaten and gang-raped could affect her in the slightest. I didn’t see her shed a single tear, not even a sniffle. Forget females, I don’t think male warriors would handle it that well and just shrug it off the way she did! And not just shrug it off but turn the situation to her advantage completely. And then joke about it!

But the most important thing was that she had succeeded in her task. She protected her queen, barehanded. Those girls attacked her with knives and, not only did she stand her ground, she completely turned the tables on them.

That was the first time I’ve ever felt a genuine admiration towards someone and wanted to be like them. But then again, I didn’t really have any positive examples to look up to in my life up to that point.

Anyway, the Emperor, his advisor, and Booker walked in under heavy escort. He cast a quick glance around the room.

“I’m glad to see that all of your people are safe, human queen,” he said, “Although, I’m sorry not all of them are well.”

“Don’t worry, I’m fully functional,” Anna responded.

“Shouldn’t you be lying in bed with those wounds, my lady?” The advisor Rowena asked.

“It’s not something that will affect my performance. Consider it to be nothing but a bad make-up work.”

“O-k,” Rowena answered reluctantly.

“Let’s get to the business right away, shall we?” The queen said, bending over one of the maps, “I want this city on the coast and, in return, my army will help you take the rest of your territories back and end this war. Keep in mind that we won’t help you if you decide to push on and capture territory that belonged to the hosagians before the war. Our main goal is to stop the war so we can get the commerce back to its full potential.”

“And to give your people a place they can call home in this world,” the Emperor added.

“Yes. Surely, taking a city from your enemies is better than asking you give us a patch of your own land.”

“Qalo isn’t just any city. It’s a symbol.”

“All the more reason for us to have it. Do we agree that our main goal is to end this war in a way that is beneficial to your Empire?”

“So?”

“Since it’s a symbol, hosagians would never accept you taking the city. They’ve been fighting for centuries to make sure that doesn’t happen. But, if some scary demons straight out of hell were to take it, they’d be far more willing to give it up. And to help with that even further, our army will also take this city here.”

The queen pointed her finger not only outside of the maps but outside the table, in the air.

“We will take the city of Cruawell and close the Witcier pass, isolating all hosagian forces south of it. Cruawell is also a symbol, an impenetrable fortress, as I’ve been told. Losing two cities that are claimed to be impossible to capture and having their most battle-hardened and elite units cut off will help hosagians understand the situation they’re in and accept the negotiations. There, we will demand that they return any territory they’ve captured from you and concede the city of Qalo to us while we will return Cruawell and the other hosagian territories south of the Witcier pass. Their refusal would let us keep everything south of it.”

“That’s … extremely optimistic at best,” The Emperor’s brows furrowed in worry as he stroked his beard vigorously.

“I’m confident my army can do it.”

“Cruawell isn’t even on the maps. You can’t just march your army there.”

“Not even if you’d find enough horses for your entire army,” Rowena added.

“I have something much better than that. I won’t bring many soldiers, the portal prevents us from doing so. But we’ll offset that by providing our army with unbelievable mobility. It will be split into three parts. The first part will be tasked with taking the city of Qalo. It will be land-based and consist mostly of heavy infantry, but it will still have better mobility than any troops you have, thanks to its mounts. Each and every single soldier will have a mount.”

“Mounts aren’t very useful in the cities,” one of the generals pointed out.

“They will dismount in the city and, once it’s taken, use those mounts to push onward and establish a land connection with Cruawell. The second part of our army will be light, mounted troops whose sole purpose will be to support your forces. These troops are highly-mobile and use powerful ranged weaponry capable of annihilating even the toughest opponents at extreme ranges and will help your armies turn the tide on the front line. The third part will be tasked with taking the city of Cruawell and holding it until reinforced by the heavy infantry. These will be airborne troops. It means these troops will be transported through the air, achieving both speed and surprise. The enemy won’t have the time to organize a proper defense, let alone gather reinforcements.”

“You will transport them through the air? How?”

“We’ll use flying chariots for that. Remember that self-pulling chariot we came here with? We have similar things that go up in the sky.”

“Why didn’t you use those to come here then?” The Emperor asked.

“Those require more energy and can look scary. You will understand once you see them. On that note, I understand you have your reservations about my plan, so how about this. How about we move our army here, so you can inspect it yourself? Seeing it with your own eyes will help you understand why I’m so confident. How about we agree that we’ll proceed with my plan if you find my troops to be satisfactory? And if not, then we’ll come up with something else. Something that would also include us getting the city of Qalo, of course.”

She turned to face the Emperor with a confidant smile: “So, what do you say?”

His tail swished wildly, and his ears twitched for a while before finally giving his answer.