Since the strategy meeting had been temporarily postponed in favour of a mass cooking and impromptu banquet, Gemini found himself bored. Aria was currently sitting in her cot and looking around at everyone else, after throwing a small fuss about being surrounded by just about every single Demigod and being cooed at.

To avoid his nasty stare, some of these Demigods had volunteered to join the ones who were already in the kitchen making food.

That said, the Demon Sovereign had a feeling that he was still better than most of those Demigods, but none of the remaining Demigods were going to let him test that theory.

“Am I really that bad at cooking?” Gemini voiced out loud. His question swept through the room filled with chatter, and the din died down. He could see his subordinates — the ones who didn’t have that much confidence in themselves, anyway — pause and come up with an answer that wouldn’t hurt his poor ego.

“Screw that last bit,” Gemini muttered. Raising his voice, he said, “There’s no need to be scared, really. I take criticism really well. Have I ever scolded you guys for failing at a task or anything?”

Pai-Relix cleared her throat. “Well, Lord. Let’s just say that your food is edible and leave it at that, shall we?”

“It’s that bad?” Gemini asked.

“That’s a conclusion you must draw for yourself,” she replied.

“I do remember being a rather good cook, though.” Gemini crossed his arms. “How did my skills deteriorate this badly? Do acquired skills like this actually worsen drastically over long periods of disuse? This doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Forget it. I’m not stepping into the kitchen.”

“I believe that is for the best, Lord.”

With that short exchange over, she retreated into the small group of Demigods. In turn, after noting that Gemini wasn’t going to press them on questions they couldn’t answer, those Demigods began to talk about more serious stuff regarding the war, and Gemini found himself listening in. Although he had a good grasp over just about anything related to the war, these Demigods were drawing their own conclusions and making ground-level observations about the Five Lands’ forces.

These were perspectives and viewpoints from a different angle, which was nothing short of valuable experience for Gemini, who had been somewhat winging it the whole time. The black dome created by the Demon God had simplified so many aspects of the war for Gemini, enabling him to manipulate the conflict with a few simple movements.

It didn’t help that the Demon God’s passing had restored the sanity of his familiar spirits, new or otherwise, enabling Gemini to tap into their huge stores of knowledge. For him, all he had to do was to give a direction and a general means of achieving it, and the Demigods of the Wildlands would execute it for him.

As a person who desired to protect the Wildlands from the same disaster that befell the beastfolk, Gemini couldn’t help but thank the Demon God for his final moments of lucidity.

It was interesting to learn about the ground-level perspectives these Demigods had, though. Things like how to identify very flammable targets, or the best approach to scare the escorts into fleeing temporarily without harming them.

Gemini could tell that these Demigods actually took part in these raids themselves, which probably accounted for why the demon forces had seen massive successes in stalling and bogging down the Five Lands here. Other than that odd Demigod that had been shuttling through his territory with alarming ease, Gemini hadn’t spotted any other Demigod in the Wildlands.

Or, for that matter, Paragons and even Lords.

If Gemini hadn’t restrained the demons from killing the invaders — that is, a normal war — there wouldn’t have been anyone left after a few days of fighting. A Demigod was not something that armies of Squires and Soldiers could stand against…but that was obvious from the get-go.

Therefore, it should have been very obvious that the Wildlands were showing mercy on purpose. The fact that the Five Lands had not reached out to discuss a possible future of cooperation could only indicate that either they still desired the Wildlands’ territory, or they were completely blind to the situation their armies were in right now.

Gemini felt his head hurt. Did they not know that the Demon God’s final gambit would last for at least two centuries, even if it wasn’t maintained by anyone?

The Demon Sovereign froze. “Wait a minute.”

His quiet mutter drew the attention of everyone present, and Gemini rebuked himself for startling everyone present.

“Lord?”

He looked up at the worried Demigods and smiled. “No, nothing to do with you guys. I was wondering why the Five Lands hadn’t tried to reach out with ceasefire offers or something similar. Is it possible that they’re assuming this” —Gemini gestured at the black dome that protected the Wildlands as a whole— “barrier would fall in a month or two?”

“Surely no one would look down on the great gods that much, would they?” Gu-Barai asked, his scarred face emanating disbelief at those words. “Although our ex-master may have been fallen in battle, he was a great god nonetheless.”

“But I feel the Lord might actually be correct,” another Demigod replied.

“Yes. We mortals have a tendency to…evaluate the fallen poorly,” Gu-Barai replied. “But how would we get this information out to the Five Lands as a whole?”

Gemini chuckled. “That, my friend, is a very good question. Unfortunately, we won’t have time to explore that, seeing as how our food is done.”

Everyone’s nose twitched in unison, a sight that made Gemini wonder if the people in front of him were actually demons or beastfolk. Were they really that hungry? Why couldn’t they cook for themselves? What kinds of food did these demons here, who weren’t confident in their own cooking, eat as a general rule of thumb?

All these were essential questions, but Gemini didn’t feel all that inclined to study them now, since there was a very delectable diversion coming out right now.

“Parasites! Move aside, food’s coming!”

“Block me and I’ll turn you into an ingredient!”

“Get out of the way, dolts!”

The battle cries that followed the convoy of food was rather…descriptive, and Gemini found himself smiling as the mightiest of the Wildlands convened for a nice, huge lunch.

Times like this were why he fought.