Lord of Estaria Read online

  “Yes, Your Grace.”

  “Oh, and could you tell that student of yours, that I want to have a talk with him? I will probably be staying at the Night Bird Inn and...”

  “You are invited to stay in the palace,” Nalisia interrupted me. “Your room has already been prepared.”

  “You heard her. And also tell him that I want to see any other work that he has, no matter how embarrassing he thinks it is.” If the guy picks only what he thinks I would like, then it's pointless. I need to see everything. This guy has the ability to earn me some money.

  “And I will need someone to help me with legal stuff,” I said to lord Bray. “I would be thankful if you could recommend me a person who knows the law and is able to write agreements and give legal advice.”

  “Don’t worry my lord, I have the right person for you!” Bray said excitedly, and I had to wonder if he was going to refer some family member. Whatever, as long as work can be done, I do not care who it is.

  All of a sudden, there was some commotion at the entrance, and a gorgeous woman walked in. She was wearing a green tight dress that emphasized her womanly charms to an extreme. Also, judging by the horns and pointed ears, she should be a demon-kin.

  “Sozy,” Empress Nalisia let a sigh when she saw her. “You couldn’t wait?”

  “Wait? I am tired of waiting.” Sozida Az’Grotil Voznesensky smiled and then looked at me. “So, I heard that you hit my one and only daughter.”

  Chapter 7.

  “Mother!” A second later, Lillian rushed into the room. She looked like someone who recently went through a tough battle.

  “It was in self-defense, Your Grace.” I said while wondering if I will have to fight with her too.

  “You can call me mother.” She encouraged me sweetly as she sat on the sofa, right next to me. Then she glanced at Empress Nalisia. “I will be borrowing lord Bray for a while.”

  “Marriage?” Nalisia looked like she was expecting as much. “Fine.”

  “You are lucky Your Grace.” Lord Bray told Empress Sozida as his aid gave him a document. “I happen to always carry at least two marriage forms with me at all times. Just in case, you know.”

  “Well, you better find fifteen more, because lord Alex claimed all the girls from the Demonic Order as his wives.”

  Pff. Empress Nalisia spilled her tea and looked sharply at me. She had her mouth slightly open, but seemed to be at a loss for words.

  “That is correct, they are all mine.” I admitted and then tried smiling. “Mother.”

  “Wonderful!” Sozida looked really happy. “Now sign, because I have to prepare a small celebration tonight.”

  “Y-you don’t have to force...” Lillian was so red in the face, that she looked like she was from another planet.

  I signed the form and push the pen in her direction. “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. I already told you that.” That was true. Here, I am giving you the chance to run away.

  I dare you.

  Lillian took the pen to signed the document. And right after she did that, I stood up, put my hands on her waist and kissed her lips passionately.

  When I separated from her, I could see that almost everyone had their eyes averted in embarrassment. Empress Nalisia glanced at Lillian’s back and raised a brow when she looked at me.

  Just when did my hand grabbed my wife’s butt? I thought I had all under control.

  Oh, well. It was a special occasion, so I will let it slide this time.

  “Congratulations!” Sozida was the only one clapping in the otherwise quiet room.

  “Thank you, mother.” I said and looked at Lina, who didn’t moved an inch the whole time. Ah, she wasn’t spiritually present at the moment. It must’ve been a stressful day for her.

  Empress Nalisia asked us to leave because she had a lot of other work to do, so I picked the gold, then pushed Lina, and together with Lillian, we walked out.

  Sozida left shortly after, with a bunch of maids. She seemed hell bent on holding that celebration.

  We followed a maid as she guided us to our room. I tried to take notes of all the decoration styles, so I can try to implement some of those ideas to my castle.

  “Lina. Lina!” Lillian was shaking the cat girl, bringing her back to her senses. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Wrong? With ME?” She glared at Lillian for a moment, then pointed at me. “You weren’t there the whole time. You didn’t saw how Darling talked with the Empress! I thought we were going to die!”

  “What did he said to Aunt Nalisia?” Lillian seemed intrigued, not worried.

  By the time we reached our room, Lina told my second wife all the details of the conversation with the Warden Empress, up to the point of Sozida’s interruption and the wedding.

  “I couldn’t move!” Lina said exasperatedly. “It felt like I was watching everything from a distance and couldn’t move! Like a prisoner in my own body. I know he was rude. But I never thought that he would be that rude to any person, regardless of their status.”

  “You said all of that and didn’t even get a verbal reproach?” Lillian looked at me with amazement in her eyes. “She must really like you. Either that, or she’s scared of you.”

  Well, I was a Necromancer with thousands of undead, so the Empress probably thought of me as a valuable asset to have around.

  “Welcome, my lord.” Two maids were already inside the room when we got there. “We were assigned as your personal maids during your stay in the palace.”

  Classy. But it was a shame that there weren’t twenty of them. Only in that case could I relate to an Anime character.

  The ‘room’ looked more like an apartment. It had a couple of sofas, a coffee table, tapestries on the walls. There were another two rooms adjacent to this. One had a table and chairs, and the other was a spacious bedroom. There was also a smaller door leading to the toilet.

  Oh! White tiles and a big bathtub. Hmm, I should put a pool-like bathtub in my castle, that way I could have some quality time with my women.

  While I inspected the place, the other girls started arriving, so I told the maids to bring drinks and appetizers. I will also have to tell them to arrange for more sofas and chairs since a lot of the girls were standing, while a couple even sat on the floor.

  I waited for Lina and Lillian to fill them in on the conversation I had with Empress Nalisia. As expected, the girls were thrilled with the marriage and the party that will be held in a few hours. They needed to choose what to wear and all that.

  “Everyone, I need your attention for a moment.” I clapped my hands, and they all quieted down. “I won’t bother you with all the details for now, since you want to get ready for the party.

  Now, as you already know, I have been awarded the title of Marquess and given the Estaria region. There will be a lot of work, but for the moment I want you to know that this room will serve as our base. We’ll meet here tomorrow morning and discuss the plan for conquering the Estaria region.”

  ***

  I barely had any sleep.

  The sky was still dark when I got out of bed and went to another room to drink some wine.

  Sozida.

  That woman is dangerous for my health.

  Last night she made a party, but she also invited the family members of the girls from the Demonic Order. And lord Bray Walden was there to conduct a mass wedding.

  How else could I call that?

  The girls were happy, but some of their relatives didn’t seem to be. Perhaps I should expect some harassment and challenges to a duel in the future.

  This should have been ‘The Dream’ coming true, you know? My own harem. Happiness and sex everywhere and every day.

  I didn’t even got any last night!

  Can you believe that?!

  Yes, I was exhausted, but I got the pills! I was ready to sacrifice myself, and the girls refused because they had a long day and were tired from all the events. I mean, we did spent more than a week riding f
rom Tolia, and had an eventful day right after we arrived…

  Yes, it was a stressful day.

  All that formal speech and nodding… Uh, even some other Empresses were there, along with their children. As I’ve heard, a couple of Empresses and several of the children were somewhere in the south-west, traveling with the Emperor.

  That guy took his job seriously. At the first sign of nobles having weird ideas about secession, or just mistreating the people, he would show up with an army. He would probably say something like: ‘Hello, I heard there was some funny business going on here’, and if they happen to be stubborn, then he would most likely chop some heads off.

  I opened a portal and stepped onto the broken asphalt in a forest west from the capital. A Virsk Bird that I sent here to be a focus point for my magic, flew into the sky after it did its job.

  This was the same road that I came across on my first day here. And yesterday I found out that it was also the road to Estaria.

  The shadows shimmered around me and my zombies emerged one by one. I almost replenished their numbers, as of right now, I had around 14000 of them. And most were the Darkness type since I don’t want to waste my time making regular ones.

  “Go. Kill. Bring.” I told them after fifteen minutes when they were all out of my Storage. As the undead dispersed through the forest, I opened a portal and went back to the palace. And I was greeted by several soldiers, pointing their weapons at me.

  Well, not exactly at me, but at the zombie I left in the room so I could get back. It appears that a maid who came to wake me up, saw the undead and ran away screaming.

  When I explained everything, she and the soldiers apologized and went back to their duties. I poured another cup of wine as I made plans for today.

  When all the girls showed up, we had breakfast and then went to the city. Our first stop was the Adventurer's Guild, since I needed to report the quest and sell some monsters.

  “Alex, you’re back.” Elyn exclaimed when she saw me and Lina in front of her desk. “The Guild already received all the information from the Palace. They said that your reward was taken care of by them, and also to give you this. Congratulations!”

  The elf receptionist handed me a silver plate with my information engraved on it.

  “Is this alright?” I asked Elyn since it felt like cheating somehow. “To jump all the way to B rank?”

  “The Empress requested that, and the Guild Master agreed on it, so it should be fine.” She said and put her business expression. “Well, how many monsters do you want to sell today?”

  “I have about 18000.”

  She dropped her pen. Elyn stared at me for two seconds, then told me to wait for a bit and returned with an old man. The guy looked like a warrior: scars everywhere, long hair, beard, muscles, and he was missing an arm.

  “I’m Guild Master Zafel,” he said in a deep voice as he checked me out. “So you’re the kid, huh?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Hmm, Elyn, pick a few men and take them to the warehouse number 5 first. I will send you more personnel after I make some room in warehouses 6 and 7.”

  We followed the receptionist outside and walked down a side street. I could see a dozen big warehouses there, with several people guarding them. Each of the buildings were about thirty yards wide and fifty long.

  Once we entered inside warehouse number 5, I began taking out the corpses. I decided to start with the stronger ones that were too damaged to reanimate, and soon the place was filled.

  Other Guild workers arrived and told me that two more warehouses were ready, so I followed them there and continue with my work.

  I finished after more than an hour. Not bad at all. Though, I could have done it faster. But the Guild employees needed to inspect the corpses and write down the numbers.

  Then we had to wait for them to calculate everything and bring me my reward. And as we waited there, I could see some merchants buying whole corpses and other materials from the warehouses. These people didn’t lose time at all.

  “Darling,” Lina sounded confused as we walked out of the Guild. “Why do you look so serious? You got all that money, you could at least smile.”

  She was probably right. I earned 2437 gold coins after I got rid of all the monsters. And that amount would seem like something great before I become a Marquess. Now I have to spend a lot of money on various things.

  “Alex Miller, it's been a while.” Koliar shook my hand when I entered his shop. “And you brought so many lovely Ladies with you. Please tell me, how can I help you today?”

  “I need more information about these.” I pointed at the female armors he had on display. “How good are they? Can they compare with the ones my girls have? And what is the price?”

  “Uh, lets see.” Koliar stood in front of a bikini armor. “This one, for instance. It is way more powerful that any of what the girls have.”

  “How?” Lillian looked irritated. “Just look at it! It can barely cover anything! Maybe if you put it over leather equipment...”

  “My Lady,” The merchant interrupted her. “This is made from mithril and other high quality materials. And do you see this jewels? They hold powerful A-rank spells. This is not just beautiful artwork. Once you equip it, the armor will adapt to your skin and provide protection for your entire body. Imagine if your skin was as hard as mithril. This is the ultimate A rank armor.

  As for wearing it over something else, that is out of question. This equipment NEEDS to be in contact with the wearer’s skin.”

  “Then… then why not make a whole body armor? Like the one I am wearing?”

  “Because it would be pointless, and expensive.” Koliar said simply. “My Lady, if your armor was made from the same materials that were used for this one, and was enchanted with the same spells, it would be at least twenty times more expensive. For the same level of protection.

  No smith would do something like that. If they were to make a whole body armor, they could enchant it with even more powerful spells, but then that armor would be S-rank. And it would cost at least a hundred times the price.”

  “So how much is this one?” Now I was curious. Just how much is it?

  “This one is 150 gold. But we also have cheaper ones. Though, they would be around B-rank.”

  Bloody hell?! Oh, dear god! My money! Urgh!

  “I need 18 sets of A-rank armors for my women.” I said in a smug tone. Damn it! My inner pervert is stronger than I thought.

  “Wonderful!” The merchant was pleasantly surprised. “But you will have to wait some time, because the ones you see here are for advertising. All armors of this type need to be carefully designed to fit the body of the customers perfectly. Oh, and we offer a discount if a customer buys more than three sets.”

  “How much… Ahem, I mean, how long will it take for them to be made?” I almost slipped there. It would be bad if I looked cheap now that I am a noble.

  “Usually it takes a week for one set to be completed, but the workshop I am affiliated with, can handle up to three sets for that time. They are all excellent smiths and enchanters.”

  “Fine,” in a way this is good, the girls will have a great protection so I don’t have to worry too much while we advance to Estaria. “But I want a woman to take their measures. If any man dares to touch my wives, I will rip his arms off and shove them up his ass.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that, my lord.” Koliar assured me. “We do have women who will take their measures. After all, we have a reputation we wish to protect.”

  I told him to make accessories for the girls and enchanted weapons as well. Then I bought all the crystals he had in the shop.

  That day, I spent 4900 gold coins in Volseb & Voin.

  Chapter 8.

  “Where are we going now?” Lillian asked me when I walked further away from the Central Area, after I finished buying several more things in other shops.

  “I just realized that there are some more orcs in my Storage, so I tho
ught to give them to the orphanage.”

  No, stop! Don’t look at me like that!

  “Darling is so-”

  “Shush! Don’t say that word!” I almost screamed at Lina when she wrapped herself around my hand.

  “Nice?” Lillian suggested and the rest of the girls giggled.

  Bloody hell. They want to ruin my reputation. Do these girls know how difficult it is to be me? After having to spend all that money, the last thing I want is for other people to look at me like I am a Charity Central.