Lord of Estaria

by K R Zax

  “My lord, I think that what she wanted to say was: that a person with a brave heart, gets the highest praise for his achievements.”

  “Oh, in that case you don’t need to worry.” I patted Milia’s head. “Because my heart is probably black and dead by now.”

  This morning we made several fires around the hill, then we put a lot of marinated orcs and rabbits to bake. The small soon attracted the hungry Wyverns, and most of them split. It is a shame that some of those morons couldn’t resist attacking the zombies I placed to guard the meat from other monsters that lived in the forest.

  A couple of my wives had issues with that too: ‘It looks cowardly’, ‘It doesn’t seem right somehow’, and a lot of other crap was said.

  Why? Because I choose to split their forces and attack them individually?

  Oh, but it’s not that. The army and knights also use that kind of tactic. But in my case, I sent all ten of my undead Wyverns to gang up on one or two of their living cousins. Now that sounds like bulling, right?

  How much will it take them to realize that I am an asshole, and I feel good about it?

  When I put the last dead Wyvern inside my Storage, I ordered the undead ones to cooperate with the other zombies and kill the strong monsters.

  I won’t be making more undead today, I’ll just Absorb the life force from the trashes and then sell them to the Guild. And since I can find a lot of strong monsters in this area, everything below C-rank will be considered as trash.

  But man, I will need a lot of Darkness Zombies. I already had over 20000 of them, and it would seem that they are advancing smoothly. Of course, with my newest additions, it will be even better.

  Or maybe not, because I had to leave a considerable number of them to guard a strip of land around the road.

  What is the point in clearing an area, if other monsters will just settle in there after my zombies go away? How will people come and go to my territory if monsters start inhibiting the place again?

  That was the reason why a lot of other people failed. They cleared an area, then moved on, and later they would find themselves surrounded on all sides. Then they had to fight their way back, because the supplies couldn’t reach them anymore, and they didn’t have a firm stronghold where the wounded could rest, so they also dragged them down.

  Day attacks, night attacks… That’s a freaking nightmare! If I was a soldier, I would’ve given them the finger at the recruitment post.

  “OK, everyone, lets go.” I called the girls who were diligently practicing their skills while I took care of the mountain of dead monsters. And then I opened a portal in front of the orphanage.

  I asked sister Arima to look after my girls, who went to play with the little kids, after I gave them a considerable amount of orcs.

  She agreed, and then she told me that there was a barrel with dead rats and mice outside. It seems that Aliona sent a soldier yesterday with a request for them, and they gladly accepted.

  Bloody hell, having a secretary was awesome. I only had to tell her what I wanted, and she would arrange for it.

  I gave her some money and candies as recompense for the kids, and then I opened a portal to the brothel.

  “Welcome, master.” Loryn, my slave who was in charge of the brothel, bowed when I walked into her office. It is good that she didn’t seem as scared as she was the other day.

  “Is everything going well?” I asked and sat on a chair.

  “Yes, master.” She then handed me a paper. “These are the estimated costs for the renovation you have ordered.”

  The brothel was three stories tall and had a reception office, four storage rooms, a basement, two gambling rooms, and thirty small one-bed rooms, designed specifically for the prostitutes. Those were around 100 square feet each, enough to have a bed and a nightstand where the girls could put a cheap mirror and some makeup.

  And there were 42 prostitutes working here in shifts. While a number of them were upstairs, the rest could use a big room in the basement to get some sleep.

  Twenty-seven of them were slaves, and the rest were poor girls from the slums who also worked on the streets occasionally.

  The slaves weren’t bad; I met all of them when I had to take possession of them officially. Just like with my other new slaves, a public servant had to write down their details, as another one cast a transfer spell on their crest. And that service costs 1 silver per slave.

  Aside from the slave girls, there were also five burly men that became my property. They acted as security here and liked to abuse the girls... Oh, pardon me. There are three burly men now, one eunuch, and one more Darkness Zombie inside my Storage.

  Hmm, 38 new beds – 14 gold, wall mirrors for the rooms, hallways and bathrooms – 19 gold, bed sheets, curtains, and towels – 8 gold, plastering and painting services for the whole building – 45 gold, remodeling four rooms into bathrooms and installing the toilets – 100 gold, and remodeling one into a kitchen – 11 gold.

  197 gold coins in total.

  “Do it. Shut down the brothel and start the renovations.” I handed her two bags. “You have 200 gold here, and 150 silver in this one. Tell the girls that they will get paid for cleaning if they stay to help. And don’t abuse the slaves! As their owner, I am the only one who can do that.”

  “Yes, master.” She looked uncomfortable, “But once they get back to work, there might be ‘rough’ people coming, so...”

  “If anyone behaves like an animal, kick him out and put him on a blacklist. You may use my name if they have some kind of status. Also, make sure to hand me any information about that kind of people.” It could be fun to steal from a noble, under the guise of retribution.

  “Oh, and I will send you a tailor to take measurements for everyone, so tell them that as well.”

  ***

  It was late when I returned home with my wives. After the brothel, I had to visit the other two shops, then go to the Guild, Volseb & Voin and a couple of other places. Being a Noble was such a tiring thing. Weren't they supposed to be arrogant people who walked around in nice clothes, acting like narcissists all the time?

  Sigh. I opened another small portal and five mice jumped in it. With this, all the dead vermin I got today were running around Tsarigrad, especially the ones tasked with keeping an eye on the people of interest.

  “My lord, master Kiryan is here.” Aliona walked into my office with the young artist who carried a huge stack of papers in his hands.

  “Give them to me.” I said excitedly as I wanted to look at what he did.

  “Yes,” Kiryan said in a hoarse voice. When I took a closer look at him, I saw that he appeared to be tired. Dear god, his eyes were red, and he smelled on sweat and mana potions. Did the kid overworked himself? But he was smiling as he gave me the papers, so I think that it was a good move on my part to treat him to some prostitutes yesterday.

  What? If he becomes addicted, he will be spending money in my establishment, so it’s a win-win.

  My, this was such a drastic improvement. The face expressions on the characters were more obvious, their clothes didn’t look plain anymore, and you could see the folds and shades. I also told him to imagine sudden gusts of wind messing with the clothes and hair. And man, he didn’t disappoint me. These works were absolutely stunning.

  “Good, I will take these,” I placed several illustrations aside. “As for these ones, they are good, but I want more. Push the boundaries, make them look edgy, they should look like great warriors. Forget reality and use your imagination. As for the girls, their outfits are nice. But I want them to be more… Tempting. No mater it you think that it may be absurd, the important thing is how cute they are.

  Remember: ‘Cute is Justice!’

  Just follow my advice, and you’ll be rich.”

  “Yes, my lord. But, eh, don’t you think that the skirts are too short?”

  “They are barely above the knees!” I replied at his nonsense. “You saw what the prostitutes were wearing yesterday.”
>
  “Um,” his face was red now, and he started sweating when he saw that Aliona was still in the room.

  “I am not telling you to show the ‘special’ parts, just make it look natural and cute.” I gave him fourteen gold coins for the art I took. “Oh, and make the monsters more horrific. Again, forget reality and use your imagination.”

  “Yes, my lord.” He took the rest of the drawings and rushed out. Nice, I need him to make about a hundred great illustrations and then I will switch to phase two: training the Water Mage.

  “My lord, I was wondering if this outfit is necessary?” Aliona asked me as she looked down at her new uniform.

  The women at my clothing shop worked really fast. Only yesterday I gave them an illustration that Kiryan made according to my instructions, and they delivered the uniform a couple of hours ago.

  High heels, stockings, a tight, black skirt that reached just above the knees, and finally a white shirt and a black jacket that were also tight.

  “Of course it is.” I checked her out. “That is the traditional ‘Secretary Uniform’, only the chosen ones can wear that.”

  She was like the perfect image of a secretary. Well, she also had a cape that reached below her butt, so she looked even more charming.

  “But everything is so tight, and it feels embarrassing...” She was about to sit on a sofa when I raised my hand.

  “Wait, a good secretary is supposed to sit on my desk, unless it is crowded with documents.” That was also an important tradition.

  “Forgive me, master.” She apologized like a good girl and walked to my desk.

  “Is it fine like this?” Aliona asked as she placed herself on the edge of my table, and crossed her slender legs.

  “Yeah, that’s it.” I put my hand on her thigh. “You know, a good secretary is supposed to please her lord in all possible ways. Just listen to my advice and everything should be fine.”

  “Is that so?” She smiled and took hold of my belt. “I would be more than willing to please you, my lord. I even tried to find out what kind of things do you like. And…”

  Holy cow! How fast was she? I barely had time to take a deep breath, and she was already down on her knees, using her mouth effectively on my member.

  Oh, crap. No no no! She’s so good that I won’t be able to last long. Shit! What to do? What to do? Surveillance! Yes, look at other people.

  Hmm, oh! Ahem, lets see… People walking, talking, having sex… No! Don’t look at those!

  The Murims! Let’s see, where are they? Oh, in front of the Saint Palace. Eh? Was the High Priestess supposed to go out at this hour?

  Alright, it appears that they were just looking around, doing nothing. That’s fine.

  The night was indeed lovely; the moons were high in the sky; the crystals were illuminating the streets with their warm light, and people walked around like always.

  Yes, look at the people. Hmm… Don’t worry, they can’t see you. Just forget about your secretary and look at the people walk-

  Oh, yeah… People walking on the streets, minding their business… Like that, keep sucking…

  The two Murims walked towards the Palace. Slowly… yeah, they were walking slowly with the other people…

  Other people?

  About twenty of the ‘normal’ people suddenly joined in one big group, heading to the Saint’s Palace. It should be close at this hour, right? Then why… Oh! They attacked the guards and rushed inside.

  “God dammit!” I pulled out and started wiping the drool from it with Aliona’s cape. “Those damn bastards! I’ll fucking kill them!”

  Chapter 15.

  “Aaaaaa!”

  A woman’s scream was cut short by the invader's blade that pierced her back. Ten assailants were inside the Saint’s Palace while the others engaged with the Imperial Agents. They knew that two of their members were being watched, so they broke contact with them until half an hour ago. Only that way their chances of success could increase.

  “Where is the Virgin of Light?” A man was yelling as he stabbed another priest, staining the white robes with blood.

  “Arul! Stop screaming!” Another sect member reproached Arul as he cleaned his bloodied knife on a dead man’s robe. “You only have to follow the rest of us.”

  “But I don’t like being kept in the dark!”

  All was good. The plan worked perfectly. First, they killed the guards and left behind the sacrificial warriors to prevent chase, and now they purged anyone that stood in their way.

  After going up the stairs, they headed straight to the Virgin’s private chambers. As expected, there were four guards in front of the double wing doors.

  “Stop right there!” A guard yelled at the invaders as he pointed his spear at them. “You are not allowed to...”

  The guard dropped dead when a crossbow bolt hit his head.

  “Kill the minions of the False! In the name of N’Uruq!” A Mage yelled and threw a fireball at the other three guards before they even knew what happened to their friend.

  “For the true God!”

  “N’Uruq!”

  Five invaders charged at the guards without regard for their own lives. Three of them died in their mad rush, as the Imperial soldiers fought bravely. In the end, the Murims were able to kill the guards, and that was the only thing that mattered.

  The seven remaining Murims walked into the room and saw the blond elf girl sitting on her bed. She looked at them like they were an annoyance and didn’t seem to be concerned about her safety.

  “Demon spawn, you’re coming with us!” Arul yelled threateningly at the High Priestess.

  “Alright,” she smiled and stood up obediently, and all the Murims were taken aback with her behavior.

  “Uyhar,” one of the Murims looked at their leader. “Could this be a trap?”

  “Why aren’t you scared?” The leader, Uyhar, asked Saril, while glancing at another man, who was in charge of discovering traps. The guy shook his head.

  “You can’t fool us, there are no traps here.”

  “I know that,” Saril smiled cutely. “But I am just looking forward to the massacre my husband will make when he finds you.”

  “Husband?” For a second, Uyhar thought.

  “But she’s still a virgin.” A guy was holding a metal disc in the girl’s direction. “The device doesn’t lie. She is messing with us.”

  “I heard that she might be crazy. Just don’t listen to her words and take her.”

  “Oh! Someone is coming!” Arul readied his knife as he looked at a black vortex materializing in the room.

  “OK, pieces of shit,” a young man dressed in black, walked out of the darkness with an enraged expression. “You dared to ruin my fun time, so better say your prayers, ‘cause I’m sending you to hell.”

  “Die!”

  A crossbow bolt flew towards the newcomer, and it bounced off his Air Shield.

  “Is that all?” The Mage looked at the Murims like they were garbage. “In that cas...”

  A metal staff materialized in Uyhar’s hand. It had several crystals filled with huge quantities of mana, and when the Murim Leader activated it with his own meager magic, a ray of Light hit the young Mage.

  His Air Shield broke like it was made of paper. The ray also pierced the Mage’s clothes and flesh as the impact threw him against the wall.

  “Hurry! Make the gate!” Uyhar ordered, and one of his comrades took out a metal cube, adorned with crystals. After placing the magic item on the ground carefully, he smashed one of the tiny beads with his dagger.

  “Bring the girl! We have to hurry!”

  A black circle as big as a doorway appeared over the small cube. The Murim cultists grabbed the elf girl, then pushed her through the portal along with them.

  ***

  Bloody hell, it hurts! Uh!

  That freaking asshole had such a powerful weapon. Shit! That thing destroyed my Air Shield in an instant, like it was nothing.

  I looked at my abdom
en, and saw a hole in my coat, shirt and body. Man, was I supposed to be alive in this situation?

  Ah, I could see the blood on my burnt clothes, but the wound was filled with Darkness. It was weird. The magic activated without my control and was now acting as first aid.

  Holy cow! Not just first aid. My flesh was regenerating slowly, and I could feel the mana flowing through my body. Was this something like how a small cut would heal, but on a greater level? Could it be that Dr. Sam added something strange to my body, or an ability that was inherited with the Demon blood?