Lord of Estaria Read online

  “They sent a note yesterday, saying that they will be spending the night in the Palace, with the High Priestess.”

  “Good,” let them have a nice time, because we are going to start an aggressive campaign, all the way to Estaria. “Aliona, tell the cooks to prepare a lot of sandwiches, bread, stew, cheese, and roasted meat. I will leave them some orcs and pots in the backyard.”

  “Yes, my lord,” she was already writing everything on a small notebook that she carried around with her. “Anything else?”

  I looked at the ring that I took from the dead Murim; the crystal was obviously filled with a Dark Spell. Just an imitation of my Storage.

  A chest with jewelry appeared in front of me and I looked through its contents. That was something I took from the Baron, and I was planning to give most of it to my wives, one piece at a time.

  This one should do. I took a golden bracelet with rubies on it. Precious stones could also work as crystals. In fact, they were better, but also way more expensive, so not many people use them. That was what my book said, anyway.

  I experimented with each of the tiny rubies until I get the knack of it, then I took a gold ring with another ruby, and replicated the spell.

  “Take this,” I gave the ring to Aliona. “It should work as a Darkness Storage, but it doesn’t have big capacity.”

  “A Storage Item?” My secretary looked at the now dark red jewel, as she put it on her finger. “I’ve heard that those were expensive. Oh, my!”

  She was surprised when her notebook disappeared, and then appeared again in her hand.

  “Thank you, my lord. To think that you would give me a Storage Item, I feel honored.” She was all smiles now.

  “Wait, you said that these ‘Storage Items’ were expensive? As, they are available on the market?” I knew most of the items at Volseb & Voin, and I never saw something like that. Not until I killed the Murims, so I thought it was something only available in the south kingdoms.

  “Of course, you do remember that I am the daughter of a merchant, right? And every merchant dreams of having a Storage Item, that way you don’t need to pay a lot of adventurers to guard a caravan. And sometimes you can even avoid paying taxes. Though, few merchants do hand the magic item for inspection, and pay their fees, because they want to keep a good reputation.”

  “How much does it cost?” Avoid paying tax? Hahaha…

  “It depends, my lord.” Aliona didn’t seem to be sure. “The lowest price I heard of, was 1200 gold coins. It is hard to find a Dark Mage who can use a Storage, let alone enchant an item. And most of the time, when such an item appears, it ends up in the hands of some noble.”

  “Anyway, I hope you will enjoy it.” I will probably get in trouble if I mass produce it. But if I give them to my wives and slaves, I could make a good sum if they used it appropriately.

  “I also want you to take a look at the brothel and see how the renovation is going. Then check the other shops and buy me more crystals. Here, this should be enough.” I gave her a bag with around 200 gold coins, and a note with several more things to take care of. “I will go to the forest now, and will probably be back tonight.”

  Chapter 18.

  “God, how can I serve you?” Akifa asked when I summoned her inside the forest.

  “I want you to help me with the zombies. See that?” I pointed at the mountain of monster corpses. “I want the piles sorted in two groups: anything below D-rank on one side of the road, and the stronger ones on the other. Continue piling them on every mile… Um, on every kilometer along the road towards the north-west. Also, look at how I left my undead behind to guard the road from other monsters. I want you to redistribute the rest in a similar manner. Can you do it?”

  “I will strive to do your bidding, Lord.” She said and went to work.

  When she was gone, I started Absorbing the weaklings, and made new Darkness Zombies from the stronger monsters.

  I also had a lot of corpses in my Storage that I have to deal with, so this was going to be a long day for me.

  Thankfully, I could make some good progress since there weren’t more Wyvern nests along the way. I worked like a madman and managed to create almost 2500 Darkness Zombies. With that, I had about 23000 now, and new corpses kept arriving.

  Since I was extremely tired, I left Akifa continue with her job, and I went back to the mansion.

  “Shit.” I cursed when I was back in the parlor. Perhaps I should try to teach Akifa how to make Darkness Zombies.

  “What is it, my lord?” Lillian asked me when I sat down. “Did you overworked yourself again?”

  “Yeah, but I made a lot of progress today. Oh, thanks, Verochka,” One of my maids poured me a cup of tea, and put a plate with delicious-looking cakes in front of me. She used to be the lover of one of the Baron’s sons, and she knew about their illegal activities, so she ended as my slave.

  Aside from her, there was also Dasha, who was in the same position – lover of the other son, knew about the shady business, and now is my property.

  Both were very young and attractive, so they easily got the attention from the young masters. Nobles and their maids. Such a classic.

  I am looking forward to making good, obedient bitches out of them.

  “Slut,” Amara murmured, and Evrlir nodded. They didn’t like the way Verochka exaggeratedly stuck her butt out, while arranging the tea cup and cookies on the table.

  “Yeah,” I agreed while taking a sip of my splendid tea. “But she is MY slut.” Then I looked at my maid. “Verochka, dear, don’t let the girls discourage you, and know that I appreciate your work.”

  “Yes, my lord.” She said coquettishly and walked away, swinging her hips like a pro. That reminds me, I will have to arrange for new maid uniforms. These ones were too conservative.

  “So, why is she here?” There, a few feet away from me, was Roxy, sitting on the floor like a good girl. And right beside her was the High Priestess, Saril, in a similar pose.

  “Aunt Nalisia and Patriarch Kirilin both concluded that she will be safer with us. And we were also provided with additional guards, that are now watching the mansion from all sides.” Lillian explained to me, and I was a bit disappointed that no one thought about consulting things with me first.

  “Hmm, so I have two dogs now.” I wondered whether they’ll fight for a cookie, if I throw them one. Roxy was already growling at Saril, so this may turn into a bitch-fight either way.

  “My lord, I would appreciate if you wouldn’t insult my friend.” Lillian was more serious than usual, she really liked Saril, huh? “Can’t you see that she is… Having some issues.”

  “Lilly, I already told you that I am fine,” Saril said pleadingly. “And I like how he treats me. Just let him be himself. Please?”

  Sigh. “Fine,” Lillian backed away. “If you want him to abuse you, go for it.”

  “Thank you!”

  I was In a tough position now, because I didn’t know if the fact that I was a magnet for weird, could be actually a good thing. Sure, crazy girls were fun, but you also had the dangerously crazy ones. The kind that would do harm to someone if things didn’t go their way. The psychos.

  “Everyone, listen,” I clapped my hands and looked at the girls. “Starting from tomorrow morning, we will push forward and kill our way to Estaria. I have a lot of zombies, but most of them will be redirected to road guarding duties, and only the stronger ones will be in the front lines with us.”

  “Shouldn’t we wait for our equipment to be made?” Milia asked. “Wasn’t that your plan?”

  “It was, but now we have her,” I pointed at my perverted elf. No, not Evrlir, but Saril. “You are some kind of powerful healer, right?”

  “Yes! I am really good at healing!” Saril was enthusiastic about her new job. That was so cute.

  “I am going to bed now, see you in the morning.” I said and left the parlor.

  As I walked to my room, I noticed someone following close behind me. Lillian kept quie
t all the way, and once we were inside my room, she closed the door behind me.

  “Is there anything you wanted to talk to me about?” Ha-ha, I’m so funny. But I still need to play cool, even if I knew where this was going. And it would be awkward if I jumped at her the moment that the door closed. Besides, I would like to see her take the first step. Come on, my fearless knight, show me what you’ve got.

  “I,” she approached me slowly. “Don’t want to be left behind. Several of the girls were talking about taking an initiative and...”

  “And my second wife wants to claim her rights?” I put my hands on her slender hips while looking into her red eyes. “Just don’t tell me that there is a tradition among the demon-kin, that require for us to fight before we jump to the funny business.”

  Lillian giggled and wrapped her hands around my neck. “Well, my mother told me that a good fight is essential for a happy night.”

  Is she serious? “How about we leave that for another time and do things my way?” I kissed her jaw and slowly made my way to her pointed ear.

  “That could work too.” She was getting out of breath already, so I took her clothes off as fast as I could. Just in case she changes her mind about the fight. She can’t do that naked, right? But what would I know? The demon-kin were freaking weird.

  ***

  “Kill!”

  “Kill!”

  “Kill them all!”

  The members of the Demonic Order rushed through the forest with their weapons drawn, while a barrage of Fire Arrows flew over their heads, killing some kobolds that were charging at them.

  Why did I use Fire Arrows? Because they gave more of a ‘Star Wars’ feeling in this situation. And besides, the girls weren’t in big trouble, so I could take it easy.

  This afternoon Akifa informed me about the kobold settlement ahead of us, and I told her to send just a few zombies, because the girls needed more battle experience. They were already getting tired of mock battles with one another, so an enemy that they could kill was the perfect thing.

  But since there were close to a thousand kobolds here, I had to send some trolls and Fur Spiders to reduce their numbers a little, before letting my bloodthirsty wives run wild. Also, I was standing on a Vogor, acting as a sniper. Just in case.

  The cute Nastia blocked a kobold’s sword strike, and Yafi pierced him with her spear. They already took down a few of the monsters with that strategy.

  To be fair, most of the girls fought in groups of two or three, on my insistence. But there were also the solo players.

  Lina danced around the kobolds, cutting their tendons and throats with her Razor Bird daggers. She dodged gracefully, when a kobold swung his rusty longsword, and in the next second his gut spilled.

  Iime Zemdrova stood on a boulder and fired her arrows with the accuracy that her elf brethren were proud of. She set goals for herself, and dissatisfaction was visible on her face whenever she had to shoot an enemy that wasn’t facing her. How was she supposed to hit the right eye, if the monster wasn’t looking at her?

  Gizzena Ljev swung her War Hammer and crashed a kobold’s scull, then turned and smashed another one’s chest. Like every bear-kin, she was muscular, but she also had a big bust, so her figure looked great – thank you god.

  Oh, shit.

  I opened a portal to protect Milia and Adrea when a kobold mage attacked them with Water Arrows, while they were busy fighting with three other monsters.

  The Mage cried in pain as I redirected his spell at his back. I just loved that trick. And sure, I killed any other kobold that had a cane or a staff.

  Some of my wives could use magic attacks, but they enjoyed using physical force even more.

  “Saril! You can go now!” I yelled at the High Priestess, who was on the ground, waiting for my signal.

  As Saril went to check if anyone needed healing, Akifa followed close behind her. My undead Mage was tasked with protecting the priestess and the surrounding area, while the girls fought.

  Then I ordered my zombies to kill any remaining monster they found inside the ruins. When I saw the kobold settlement, it was clear that they used the remains of an old castle. They even repaired the walls in few places. If piling up rocks could be called ‘repair’.

  “Did you enjoyed the fight?” I asked Lillian, who was being treated by Saril. Earlier I saw her engaged with five kobolds. She killed them pretty fast, but then she decided to look for another group, and now there were several shallow wounds on her arms and legs.

  “I couldn’t resist,” she said. “But you know that I am strong as a B-rank adventurer, so it’s not like I was in serious trouble.”

  I turned around without saying a word, and I hoped that she would think about her actions. She wasn’t in serious trouble? That is correct. This time. But if she keeps behaving like a spoiled brat, she will regret it one day.

  Inside the old walls were primitive built huts, but unlike the orcs, kobolds were more intelligent. Their home were made of mud and branches, with thatched roofs. Kobolds rarely raped girls when they caught them, and usually just killed them along with the males.

  My undead were dragging the corpses of kobold women and children from the huts and piling them on a clearing in the ‘town’s square’.

  Should I make a few banners with my coat of arms and have a couple of zombies walk with them behind me? That sure would make me look more like a Demon Lord.

  “Darling, what are you writing?” Lina and a few other girls approached me as I made my way towards the castle.

  “A memo. Nothing of importance, really.” I closed my notebook and put it back in the Shadow Storage. “But look at what they did to this castle. Such a shame.”

  Only one corner of the castle was still standing, while the stones from the rest of the building were used to reinforce the wall.

  “My lord, do you plan to push forward?” Emilisa asked with a grimace as she avoided a zombie who was dragging two dead kobold children. “Considering our fast pace, we would appreciate if you could take us back to the capital, at least for a day.”

  “Sure,” I approved of her request. We already spent three days in the wild and were very close to Estaria. The next time, we’ll charge all the way to Ragan, and my own ruins. The ones that I will have to spend a lot of money on the repairing materials and workers.

  Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling like going there just yet.

  “Akifa, come here.”

  “Yes, my God. Please, give me new orders.” She prostrated herself before me, and I saw Lillian catching Saril when she was about to do the same. My undead Mage and dog were Saril’s greatest rivals, and she was desperate to secure her position as my ‘most important tool’.

  I am not making this shit up. Those words came from her own mouth last night while we were having dinner.

  In the love field, I was the richest man in the world.

  “I want you to lead the zombies down the road. If everything goes well, we may secure the Ragan ruins by tomorrow evening. Here,” I took some sacks and wooden crates from my Storage. “There are more red handbands, food and water. Send them to my slaves.”

  Late last night, I went back to pick up my slave soldiers from the mansion, and the red handbands that I asked Aliona to prepare for me. Then I brought them to the place in the forest from where I started cleaning the road and told them to tie the red cloth on all of my zombies.

  “Yes, God. Um, may I torture them if they behave badly?” She was still mad when she heard some nasty stuff that they said about me, while I wasn’t looking. It seems that slaves could talk however they wanted among themselves, so these guys kept praising the times when they worked for the Baron, and curse at their current state. And new owner.

  “Just make sure that they are still able to work.”

  “Praised be the Lord!” Akifa then called a few zombies to carry the food and cloth, then she walked away as fast as she could.

  Yes, that’s me: a benevolent God who grants wishes.


  Chapter 19.

  I had to open Portals three times on our way back. We could arrive at Tsarigrad in one jump, but then I would have to drink a lot of mana potions. So opening multiple Portals on small distances was far better than going through that hell.

  Still, I was very exhausted when we reached the Palace, so I did have to drink one potion. The girls were grateful, since most of them had family who was staying in the palace, and they could go to visit them.

  “Marquess Miller has arrived.” A maid announced when I arrived at Empress Nalisia’s office.

  “Your Grace,” I bowed to her and winked discretely at Felisy, who looked like she wanted to murder me.