The proposal from the elves sat on William’s desk. He had read through it many times, and was now sitting there, frowning. “What the hell is wrong with the elves?”

His question wasn’t exactly rhetorical- and it was aimed toward Lorelei, who had looked over the proposal with him. “I have no idea. I haven’t even met an elf. It’s hard to know how they might think.” She pointed to the paper on the table, “However, there’s nothing wrong with the proposal. It’s not disadvantageous for us to accept it.”

“That’s exactly the problem!” William waved his hand, “Seeds from every type of plant in the borders of Cruonia- ‘as feasible’? The dwarves would have asked for an entire mountain made of gold, if they thought they could get it.” William shook his head, “And they want a monument memorializing those who were lost in the Demon King wars as a symbol to stand against genocide. I should have already thought of something like that and had it built! There’s nothing unfavorable here.” William closed his eyes for a moment, “The Demon King is outside with their group, sniffing damn flowers!”

“Which ones?”

“The little red ones.”

“Oh, those smell nice.”

“That’s not the point!” William flailed his arms. “He hasn’t done anything wrong! What’s his scheme?”

Lorelei shrugged, “I have no idea. I could go talk to him, but I’d be recognized right away. I wouldn’t get much useful information out of him. It does seem rather odd, though. He’s usually quite straightforward. His schemes usually amounted to hiring someone else to scheme for him. Are you sure it’s him?”

“Of course I am! It feels just like him, right Chris?” Chris nodded.

Lorelei folded her hands, “Let us just cover all of the options, hmm? I understand that you would not mistake feeling the connection, but how many times have you felt that connection to the Demon King before? Twice? Once with his main self, and once with a fragment?”

“Well, yeah… but Chris helped you hunt down quite a number of fragments, right?”

“And he thought you were the Demon King when you met again,” Lorelei stated calmly.

Chris started writing on the floor as fast as he could, “I thought he was dead! Gone! Exploded! I just wasn’t expecting anyone else to have the connection anymore. It actually felt somewhat different, though I could definitely feel bits of Demon King soul. This guy definitely is mostly just that!”

William nodded, “I’ve looked over his soul and it clearly shares the same feeling throughout. He’s a fragment of the Demon King, no mistake.”

“Then… maybe he just stopped being stupid.”

“That’s…” William touched his hand to his forehead, “Is that even a thing that can happen?”

“People are known to change drastically when met with extraordinary circumstances. I imagine having your soul shattered into a large number of pieces would leave an impact. Perhaps that plus the particular portion of his memories he inherited left him more cautious.” Lorelei tilted her head, “It could also have something to do with whoever raised him. After all, he would not have been able to fend for himself for at least a handful of years, and that would mean he was able to be influenced by them.”

“You think that could turn someone from genocide by soul destruction to sniffing flowers?”

Lorelei shrugged once more, “Perhaps, but the two states are not mutually exclusive either. He did not spend much time on any activities other than war and planning to go to war, besides training his body and magic to return to his standards. He could have picked up a new hobby or learned subtlety. But all of that is merely speculation.”

William sighed, “I liked it more when he was trying to kill everyone. It made him easier to fight. Now when I destroy his soul, I’ll look like the bad guy instead of him.”

-----

The elves remained in Cruonia for several months. They mostly spent their times enjoying the gardens outside the castle. At various points, one or two of them was sent off- with heavy supervision- to go gather seeds of one kind or another. The elves had a number of specific plants they were especially interested in, wanting to take them back with them on their first journey. There were species of large oaks and giant sequoia, redwoods, and other impressive trees- but also some rather more mundane ones. Not everything was in the right season, but some plants had seeds that had been gathered. Farmers and woodsmen were glad to sell a bagful for a good price.

William talked with some of the non-Demon-King elves, and even took a chance to try the elvish he had learned. While his pronunciation was different, he could tell the languages could have once been similar. Until a great gross of years got in the way. William supposed that he might have gotten an incorrect version of the language- but if that were the case he doubted it was on purpose. The diviners and knowledge-keepers seemed to not be the type to spread false knowledge.

William even had a few passing conversations with the Demon King- Galen Eanlar. They talked about the garden and the proposal from the elves, but none of the conversations were very long. However, the personal conversations were enough for William to feel a sense of awkwardness from the Demon King. It was very subtle, but enough for William to pick up on. He could pick up something, but the Demon King was no longer an open book, like Lorelei had previously described him. That worried William.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do at the moment. Or at least, nothing he would do. It would have been trivially easy to just walk up and destroy him. Even with Galen’s portion of soul recovered, it was only a smaller piece of the Demon King’s soul, and William was even stronger in that department than he had been when he first tried to destroy him. It was the consequences that he couldn’t stand. It wouldn’t be easy to convince people he was a fragment of the Demon King- and if he just disappeared, there would be problems as well. Especially in an area that William controlled completely.

While the elves might find it somewhat impractical to go to war from where they were, they might find a way. That would also give the dwarves a good excuse to participate… and if William was found to be starting wars, the humans might not look on him so favorably. On the other hand… removing one more piece of the Demon King- preventing him from committing any more atrocities- it could be worth it. Even so, William had to do it the right way.