All the gazes including mine were glued on the three people who suddenly barged in at the moment the civil service department left the place, one of the reasons for our attention to be glued to them is that, the two maidens who entered the room were those absent in the proclamation of my monarchy and the establishment of Kamatayan as an official state, Bakunawa, and Saru, however, the more surprising thing is that they are currently holding a dark elf with severed legs encased in ice.
He was also unconscious but that is not important right now, that is because I have to first get the doubts of my military men towards these two core members immediately, I mean it's just normal for people to doubt others who are not "committed" enough to be early, or at least in time, we're not in the Philippines so that is the norm. In any case, the two of them, upon coming to an appropriate distance between them and the platform of my throne, placed their left hand into their right chest and bowed as they said.
"Your Majesty, we would like to apologize for not appearing on time, rendering us unable to witness the most glorious event of your monarchy."
Saru said, whilst Bakunawa continued, I guess they rehearsed this one for I don't believe Bakunawa will lower her head like that.
"We are just preoccupied with matters regarding the privacy of the city and because Kabuto is not available, we have decided to substitute in his steed."
I then nodded, the explanation was for my people here, because the mission I gave them could potentially damage their reputation and my arrangement was quite effective because the few people here started to nod their heads as if acknowledging their prejudice before, some even muttered.
"That's right, there is no way that even one of Lady Sophia's soldiers will be an undisciplined swine."
And among others between those lines, even Wokung who doubted his daughter the most in the room had a smug expression, Jin could not help but look at his father with the "How Shameless." expression all over his face, however, I ignored all of their reaction, for I have to act that I don't know what the hell is going on.
[Why?]
Because it's fun.
After that interruption, I asked the two of them.
"I shall forgive you, however, you still have to explain, who is this guy and what did he exactly do to entice the hostility of the two of my most powerful warriors?"
I can visibly see Saru blush and Bakunawa look at me with a glare, I ignored it of course as Saru immediately put down her hands and looked at me with a very wide smile, it was very evident because of her monkey-like mouth, no matter how the hairs all over her decreased as she gathered more strength.
"Let me explain, at the same time when the official establishment of the state..."
[3rd Person POV]
A few hours ago, at the same time as the official proclamation of Sophia's sovereignty as well as the establishment of the Kamatayan Queendom, an undead with a bag of goatskin scroll with a little bit more of the scrolls under his armpit can be seen, in her left side was Saru who is holding another bag of much heavier scrolls, meanwhile, Bakunawa is also lifting a bag of scrolls, as to what the three are doing, they are currently making a tally of the population and are giving them surnames so that it will be easier to identify them in the future.
Honestly, the undead is confused as to why the census needed to happen at night with these two ladies, but as one of Sophia's people, he has to obey, plus the help of the two powerful individuals is much needed in lifting the surnames that are written in the scrolls, again not just the undead but even Bakunawa and Saru was confused as to how did Sophia listed 20+ million words for the whole nation, it seems to them that it is not mortally possible to do such a feat no matter how powerful their lady is, but again they did not voiced out such questions.
They just continued to knock on doors, state the will of the lady, and then make the person choose from a lot of surnames to avoid confusion, they crossed out the chosen last name, and that process was repeated again and again inside the residential area and after this, they will be stamped with a number and will become their permanent address.
The one who tallied the names will have the job of listing down all of the people who will get assigned to different districts or departments for the sake of performance observation by the queen herself, meaning this particular undead effectively became the first non-living in Kamatayan to become a secretary of the civil service sector.
Minutes turned to hours that seemed to go on forever, the undead who has a loose perception of time did not feel boredom but instead quite anticipated his future secretarial duty, however the two living beings beside him already started to get impatient, one was because of the repetitive work of listing down a name, making them choose surnames and stamping numbers in the walls of the houses, it was very, very tiring, but more importantly, they are itching to complete the 'mission' given to them by their lady.
Well, even if Bakunawa did not show it to her face, the moment she saw how Sophia organized a whole society from scratch and managed to create a nation nailed just before a bay, she started to respect Sophia or perhaps more than that, however, that is not what is important for her right now, because she seemingly started to get bored as she put down the scrolls in her back, Saru, who is also tapped for the mission doesn't have a choice but to stop too.
"Why do we have to do this again?"
Bakunawa asked, looking at a certain dark corner that connected two streets, Saru also looked at it and a little smirk formed in her mouth, she then patted Bakunawa's head and then signaled the undead a temporary signal given to soldiers who were under the queen's control "a mission came up" the signal means, the undead immediately understood and went to grab the bags, though with great difficulty, as said earlier, undeads don't have a concept of impatience, thus he patiently carried two bags side by side, it looks extremely weird but Bakunawa and Saru did not even mind it and looked at the wriggling darkness at the alley, unlike the ever so patient undead, the one wriggling around the shadow was nervous and seemingly ready to escape at any moment.
"Well, you see..."
Saru lowered her stance as well as Bakunawa, they glared at the figure in the dark as if they just cornered a prey.
"...Apparently she saw someone stalking our city and she wants us to capture this person."
At the moment she said that, a gust of wind followed by a tan figure with long ears jumped on the roof and dashed using his full speed in the opposite direction of the one tallying the population, Bakunawa and Saru followed and alongside their pursuit is the terror in the heart of the scout.
_Why is it that Bakunawa and the monkey leader's daughter are the pursuers and not her own assassin!?_
As he was running with all his might, he was cursing the smartass who learned of his existence, how can someone spot him so precisely? His prideful heart cannot accept the fact someone just destroyed his once perfect mission streak, however, he is more determined to stay alive than to heal his tarnished pride, he has to think of other ways to strike a deal with Sophia, the survival of his race and the freedom of his land is at stake here.
_It is just impossible to create a deal with these two, I'll just die!_
He once again looked at the two ladies who were still hot on his tail, he could not help but shake his head, he would perish if he got caught because he was misunderstood as a spy of another country that harbored predatory intents to a newly sprouted nation and if he died, the best scout of Indio, no one in their whole land can act as the messenger of their queen, after all the queen is injured so she cannot personally ask for help.
_For now, retre- Huh?_
The scout suddenly felt light on his feet, and when he looked downwards, his eyes widened as a single question appeared on his brain.
_Where did they go?_
Where did his feet go!?
He looked around and saw a hand holding his feet using the lace of his shoes, his face turned pale as he started to fall from the ground stunned, he never would have thought that someone could outrun him if he wanted to escape, and as if Bakunawa, the accomplice of the one who is holding his severed feet heard his thoughts, she attached long ice claws on her fingers and swung them hard at the back of the scout, not only did the claws left deep slash wound on his back, the scout was even flung down to the street because of the immense forward force Bakunawa exerted.
"Gaaakgh!"
That was the last words the scout said before he crashed his head hard on the ground, causing him to pass out, thus he didn't see when Bakunawa froze her lower half and his feet, and the two of them didn't have any intention to let him know as the two ladies lifted his whole body as if he was a feather and strode towards the palace of their queen.
[Sophia's POV]
"And that's why we are late."
I nodded in satisfaction, it seemed like no friction happened between this odd duo that were just so contrasting each other, one was calm to the very core, so calm she was that she garnered the position of Commander against the other candidate, his father, and the other is not so calm or outright chaotic that she cannot even take up a proper military position besides being my "substitute" in terms of power in the battlefield.
Going back, I made a blob of cold water and then lobbed it to the elf, the elf was jolted awake and tried to resist the iron grip of Bakunawa and Saru, to no avail of course.
"Good morning, welcome to Kamatayan how can I help you?"
The dark elf however, visibly enraged as his pry was crushed and is yet to know the severity of his situation, shouted at me much to the glance of my martials that instantly turned murderous, I slightly raised my hand to stop all of them from fucking the dark elf over, I grinned as he shouted.
"HOW DID YOU KNOW OF MY EXISTENCE!?"
The bones on his shoulders were creaking because of his relentless struggles to break free, to no avail of course.
"I know things that shouldn't be known to man, the moment you set your eyes on our walls, you are not only discovered but are also being trailed by a million eyes."
I laughed a little but abruptly stopped as the scout I don't care about the name spat in the first step of my platform and then exclaimed.
"THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU HURT ME IF YOU KNOW WHY I'M HERE ALREADY!?"
I raised my brow at this behavior and all of my martials stood up and were about to jump on him, however, the two closest to him beat all of them to it as Saru immediately pulled out her katana and cut the man's long ears that were many times more sensitive than any part of his body, some myths even say that they are an erogenous zone for the elves.
Nevertheless, one can only imagine how much pain he is feeling right now because of his screams, it was so incoherent that even the author's plethora of onomatopoeia cannot describe his screams, he just held his head and continued screaming, however, Bakunawa pulled his other ear, tearing sound started to be audible from it.
"ARRRGHHH! STOP! STOP!"
Bakunawa then whispered into his ear.
"Be careful of your actions before I lay waste to your posterity."
She then let go of the ear as Bakunawa forced the elf to kneel by force, after which, she just clicked her tongue and did not speak further, finally, he realized how dangerous the environment he just entered was as he said with snot still in his nose.
"I...I'm sorry for my rude behavior, I was driven by mortal emotions that might be beyond you to feel, I know this is impudent for me to ask because of my previous disrespect towards your monarchy, however, I was forced to swallow my shame. My Lady is willing to sacrifice herself and let you conquer her as an offering for you to help us attain our long-coveted independence."
The scout said in a straight tone, however the shame in his words and heartbreak somehow could be heard, however, may be beyond everyone's expectations here, I started to snort, then giggle and audible laughter until my hysterical laugh resounded in the whole room gathered the confused looks of all the people here.
"BWAAHAHAHAHAAHH! GYAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! BUHU...! YOU MAKE MY STOMACH HURT... HAHHAHAHAHAHA"
I continued as such as the confused gaze of the scout, my wife and all of my subject present did not cease, finally after a minute of laughing, I sighed.
"Under normal circumstances, being married off to another leader will be a huge pleasure, but you see..."
I straightened my back and put some mana into my mouth as I replied. Surely, no one expected me to marry Luna, not if I already knew what their plan was.
"I think you should rephrase your words, it should be like this: We plan on giving you our leader by exiling her into your nation and thus making her the ultimate martyr while we avoid being assimilated by Kamatayan, right?"
Wind gushed from my words again alongside the sways of the whole castle and the crackle of the walls, under the despairing gaze of the scout, he muttered.
"H-how did you..."
"As I said, I know things that shouldn't be known to man, in normal times that kind of offer will be tempting to me, more so if you have that gorgeous leader, however, what I want right now is land to house my undeads, not ladies to accompany me in bed."
I said in one breath before I paused, when I saw the tears of the scout from helplessness, I continued.
"Well, any offer that fits my desire? If not, Eleanor, please heal his feet back together, as well as his ears, and let him leave immediately."
All the gazes including mine were glued on the three people who suddenly barged in at the moment the civil service department left the place, one of the reasons for our attention to be glued to them is that, the two maidens who entered the room were those absent in the proclamation of my monarchy and the establishment of Kamatayan as an official state, Bakunawa, and Saru, however, the more surprising thing is that they are currently holding a dark elf with severed legs encased in ice.
He was also unconscious but that is not important right now, that is because I have to first get the doubts of my military men towards these two core members immediately, I mean it's just normal for people to doubt others who are not "committed" enough to be early, or at least in time, we're not in the Philippines so that is the norm. In any case, the two of them, upon coming to an appropriate distance between them and the platform of my throne, placed their left hand into their right chest and bowed as they said.
"Your Majesty, we would like to apologize for not appearing on time, rendering us unable to witness the most glorious event of your monarchy."
Saru said, whilst Bakunawa continued, I guess they rehearsed this one for I don't believe Bakunawa will lower her head like that.
"We are just preoccupied with matters regarding the privacy of the city and because Kabuto is not available, we have decided to substitute in his steed."
I then nodded, the explanation was for my people here, because the mission I gave them could potentially damage their reputation and my arrangement was quite effective because the few people here started to nod their heads as if acknowledging their prejudice before, some even muttered.
"That's right, there is no way that even one of Lady Sophia's soldiers will be an undisciplined swine."
And among others between those lines, even Wokung who doubted his daughter the most in the room had a smug expression, Jin could not help but look at his father with the "How Shameless." expression all over his face, however, I ignored all of their reaction, for I have to act that I don't know what the hell is going on.
[Why?]
Because it's fun.
After that interruption, I asked the two of them.
"I shall forgive you, however, you still have to explain, who is this guy and what did he exactly do to entice the hostility of the two of my most powerful warriors?"
I can visibly see Saru blush and Bakunawa look at me with a glare, I ignored it of course as Saru immediately put down her hands and looked at me with a very wide smile, it was very evident because of her monkey-like mouth, no matter how the hairs all over her decreased as she gathered more strength.
"Let me explain, at the same time when the official establishment of the state..."
[3rd Person POV]
A few hours ago, at the same time as the official proclamation of Sophia's sovereignty as well as the establishment of the Kamatayan Queendom, an undead with a bag of goatskin scroll with a little bit more of the scrolls under his armpit can be seen, in her left side was Saru who is holding another bag of much heavier scrolls, meanwhile, Bakunawa is also lifting a bag of scrolls, as to what the three are doing, they are currently making a tally of the population and are giving them surnames so that it will be easier to identify them in the future.
Honestly, the undead is confused as to why the census needed to happen at night with these two ladies, but as one of Sophia's people, he has to obey, plus the help of the two powerful individuals is much needed in lifting the surnames that are written in the scrolls, again not just the undead but even Bakunawa and Saru was confused as to how did Sophia listed 20+ million words for the whole nation, it seems to them that it is not mortally possible to do such a feat no matter how powerful their lady is, but again they did not voiced out such questions.
They just continued to knock on doors, state the will of the lady, and then make the person choose from a lot of surnames to avoid confusion, they crossed out the chosen last name, and that process was repeated again and again inside the residential area and after this, they will be stamped with a number and will become their permanent address.
The one who tallied the names will have the job of listing down all of the people who will get assigned to different districts or departments for the sake of performance observation by the queen herself, meaning this particular undead effectively became the first non-living in Kamatayan to become a secretary of the civil service sector.
Minutes turned to hours that seemed to go on forever, the undead who has a loose perception of time did not feel boredom but instead quite anticipated his future secretarial duty, however the two living beings beside him already started to get impatient, one was because of the repetitive work of listing down a name, making them choose surnames and stamping numbers in the walls of the houses, it was very, very tiring, but more importantly, they are itching to complete the 'mission' given to them by their lady.
Well, even if Bakunawa did not show it to her face, the moment she saw how Sophia organized a whole society from scratch and managed to create a nation nailed just before a bay, she started to respect Sophia or perhaps more than that, however, that is not what is important for her right now, because she seemingly started to get bored as she put down the scrolls in her back, Saru, who is also tapped for the mission doesn't have a choice but to stop too.
"Why do we have to do this again?"
Bakunawa asked, looking at a certain dark corner that connected two streets, Saru also looked at it and a little smirk formed in her mouth, she then patted Bakunawa's head and then signaled the undead a temporary signal given to soldiers who were under the queen's control "a mission came up" the signal means, the undead immediately understood and went to grab the bags, though with great difficulty, as said earlier, undeads don't have a concept of impatience, thus he patiently carried two bags side by side, it looks extremely weird but Bakunawa and Saru did not even mind it and looked at the wriggling darkness at the alley, unlike the ever so patient undead, the one wriggling around the shadow was nervous and seemingly ready to escape at any moment.
"Well, you see..."
Saru lowered her stance as well as Bakunawa, they glared at the figure in the dark as if they just cornered a prey.
"...Apparently she saw someone stalking our city and she wants us to capture this person."
At the moment she said that, a gust of wind followed by a tan figure with long ears jumped on the roof and dashed using his full speed in the opposite direction of the one tallying the population, Bakunawa and Saru followed and alongside their pursuit is the terror in the heart of the scout.
_Why is it that Bakunawa and the monkey leader's daughter are the pursuers and not her own assassin!?_
As he was running with all his might, he was cursing the smartass who learned of his existence, how can someone spot him so precisely? His prideful heart cannot accept the fact someone just destroyed his once perfect mission streak, however, he is more determined to stay alive than to heal his tarnished pride, he has to think of other ways to strike a deal with Sophia, the survival of his race and the freedom of his land is at stake here.
_It is just impossible to create a deal with these two, I'll just die!_
He once again looked at the two ladies who were still hot on his tail, he could not help but shake his head, he would perish if he got caught because he was misunderstood as a spy of another country that harbored predatory intents to a newly sprouted nation and if he died, the best scout of Indio, no one in their whole land can act as the messenger of their queen, after all the queen is injured so she cannot personally ask for help.
_For now, retre- Huh?_
The scout suddenly felt light on his feet, and when he looked downwards, his eyes widened as a single question appeared on his brain.
_Where did they go?_
Where did his feet go!?
He looked around and saw a hand holding his feet using the lace of his shoes, his face turned pale as he started to fall from the ground stunned, he never would have thought that someone could outrun him if he wanted to escape, and as if Bakunawa, the accomplice of the one who is holding his severed feet heard his thoughts, she attached long ice claws on her fingers and swung them hard at the back of the scout, not only did the claws left deep slash wound on his back, the scout was even flung down to the street because of the immense forward force Bakunawa exerted.
"Gaaakgh!"
That was the last words the scout said before he crashed his head hard on the ground, causing him to pass out, thus he didn't see when Bakunawa froze her lower half and his feet, and the two of them didn't have any intention to let him know as the two ladies lifted his whole body as if he was a feather and strode towards the palace of their queen.
[Sophia's POV]
"And that's why we are late."
I nodded in satisfaction, it seemed like no friction happened between this odd duo that were just so contrasting each other, one was calm to the very core, so calm she was that she garnered the position of Commander against the other candidate, his father, and the other is not so calm or outright chaotic that she cannot even take up a proper military position besides being my "substitute" in terms of power in the battlefield.
Going back, I made a blob of cold water and then lobbed it to the elf, the elf was jolted awake and tried to resist the iron grip of Bakunawa and Saru, to no avail of course.
"Good morning, welcome to Kamatayan how can I help you?"
The dark elf however, visibly enraged as his pry was crushed and is yet to know the severity of his situation, shouted at me much to the glance of my martials that instantly turned murderous, I slightly raised my hand to stop all of them from fucking the dark elf over, I grinned as he shouted.
"HOW DID YOU KNOW OF MY EXISTENCE!?"
The bones on his shoulders were creaking because of his relentless struggles to break free, to no avail of course.
"I know things that shouldn't be known to man, the moment you set your eyes on our walls, you are not only discovered but are also being trailed by a million eyes."
I laughed a little but abruptly stopped as the scout I don't care about the name spat in the first step of my platform and then exclaimed.
"THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU HURT ME IF YOU KNOW WHY I'M HERE ALREADY!?"
I raised my brow at this behavior and all of my martials stood up and were about to jump on him, however, the two closest to him beat all of them to it as Saru immediately pulled out her katana and cut the man's long ears that were many times more sensitive than any part of his body, some myths even say that they are an erogenous zone for the elves.
Nevertheless, one can only imagine how much pain he is feeling right now because of his screams, it was so incoherent that even the author's plethora of onomatopoeia cannot describe his screams, he just held his head and continued screaming, however, Bakunawa pulled his other ear, tearing sound started to be audible from it.
"ARRRGHHH! STOP! STOP!"
Bakunawa then whispered into his ear.
"Be careful of your actions before I lay waste to your posterity."
She then let go of the ear as Bakunawa forced the elf to kneel by force, after which, she just clicked her tongue and did not speak further, finally, he realized how dangerous the environment he just entered was as he said with snot still in his nose.
"I...I'm sorry for my rude behavior, I was driven by mortal emotions that might be beyond you to feel, I know this is impudent for me to ask because of my previous disrespect towards your monarchy, however, I was forced to swallow my shame. My Lady is willing to sacrifice herself and let you conquer her as an offering for you to help us attain our long-coveted independence."
The scout said in a straight tone, however the shame in his words and heartbreak somehow could be heard, however, may be beyond everyone's expectations here, I started to snort, then giggle and audible laughter until my hysterical laugh resounded in the whole room gathered the confused looks of all the people here.
"BWAAHAHAHAHAAHH! GYAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! BUHU...! YOU MAKE MY STOMACH HURT... HAHHAHAHAHAHA"
I continued as such as the confused gaze of the scout, my wife and all of my subject present did not cease, finally after a minute of laughing, I sighed.
"Under normal circumstances, being married off to another leader will be a huge pleasure, but you see..."
I straightened my back and put some mana into my mouth as I replied. Surely, no one expected me to marry Luna, not if I already knew what their plan was.
"I think you should rephrase your words, it should be like this: We plan on giving you our leader by exiling her into your nation and thus making her the ultimate martyr while we avoid being assimilated by Kamatayan, right?"
Wind gushed from my words again alongside the sways of the whole castle and the crackle of the walls, under the despairing gaze of the scout, he muttered.
"H-how did you..."
"As I said, I know things that shouldn't be known to man, in normal times that kind of offer will be tempting to me, more so if you have that gorgeous leader, however, what I want right now is land to house my undeads, not ladies to accompany me in bed."
I said in one breath before I paused, when I saw the tears of the scout from helplessness, I continued.
"Well, any offer that fits my desire? If not, Eleanor, please heal his feet back together, as well as his ears, and let him leave immediately."
