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Chapter 92: Demon's Ploy
🕑 Added 2024-10-04 17:09:27 +0000 UTCNothing noteworthy happened. I slaughtered all the demons in my way. I simply needed to sneak in with a few elite dragoons, bite one of the enemies, and the virus would spread. Soon enough, the demons were scurrying for their lives. Their law against kinslaying worked against them, making them hesitate to attack the vampiric demons.
"Ahh!!" one of the humans screamed. I quickly cast my dark aura toward a vampiric demon to ward it off.
"Lady Eli! You said they were under your control…" one of the soldiers complained.
"I retract that statement. I only control the ones I can see. They're set to attack anything they encounter," I replied.
"Ugh… Can't you do something about that?"
"I can't help it. There are too many of them. I can't command them to only attack demons. They'll attack all living things. They're not that fast or strong. As long as you don't get bitten, you'll be fine."
"That's the scary part—they lunge at you! And they don't even go down when you shoot them in the head," the soldier said. The vampires' weakness was actually their heart, but it would take several bullets to destroy the mana core there, so I hid the information. I don't want to spread or cause misinformation. It was better to stab it with a spear or sword. However, these soldiers weren't prepared for that. They didn't even draw their guns when the vampires were clearly approaching them.
"Just stay close," I muttered.
"Will do."
*Bang
A gunshot rang out beside me, killing a demon I was trying to capture. I had been playing it carefully, using five vampires to act as if they had regained their sanity, intending to use them to capture one demon. But the soldiers shot it.
"What are you doing!" I retorted. "You killed it."
"You missed one. Claire told us to purge all demons." The soldier finally revealed his true colors—arrogant and menacing. They were enjoying the slaughter. "They're evil! We must kill them all!"
"She told me to capture one of them alive and unharmed!"
"Eh?" The soldier looked to her comrades, and most nodded, supporting me. However, someone certainly forgot the memo, as several of them tilted their head. Seemingly trying to recall what Claire said to them.
"Yes, what Lady Eli said is true."
"Oh, I just remembered. She did say that, didn't she?" The soldiers in the carriage whispered among themselves. The soldier who had shot the demon went pale at once. "Lady Eli… why didn't you tell us? I didn't know. I thought we were supposed to kill all of them…."
"Speak of the devil…" I said as I saw a dragoon approaching us. He must have been sent by Claire.
"No… what am I going to tell Princess Claire…" The soldier agonized, kneeling down.
Nevertheless, we were brought back to headquarters, where Claire greeted us with a smile, serving me bland tea inside her makeshift tent. The soldiers smiled stiffly as they sipped their tea. The fortress prioritized towers and walls, so everyone was sleeping on the ground tonight—Claire and me included. We had some mattresses, so we were better off than the common foot soldiers.
"What a joyous occasion. In just a week, we've managed to recapture Tundraise from the demons. Even though we were a bit late, I'm pleasantly surprised by all your hard work! Well done, dear Eli!" Claire came over and playfully pinched my cheeks, hugging me from behind. Her bountiful mound was undoubtedly there, though more miniature than Alicia. Claire's was no less prominent if one looked from afar. I sighed and bemoaned my own lack of such bounty as she playfully pinched my cheeks. "If you had been here before, I wouldn't have needed to go back in time… I can't believe how easy all of this is."
"Weren't you the one who killed me in the previous timeline?" I muttered. I wasn't sure how much of the novel's story actually matched reality anymore, so I was just rambling, but Claire looked at me incredulously.
"How did you…? Well, you tried to kill me first, Eli. You can't fully blame me. If I had known the future then, I would have saved you no matter what."
Claire tried to placate me, but we both knew it wouldn't work. Then she asked, "Oh yeah, about the live demons. Did you manage to capture one?"
The cheering soldiers suddenly paused. I sighed and pointed toward them. They kowtowed in shame, realizing there was no way out of this.
"We apologize, Princess Claire. We accidentally killed the one Lady Elidranthia was trying to capture," the soldiers said, bowing.
"Ah, well, there are still more of them. We still need to capture the port, and another one has been sighted in a different province." Claire dismissed the soldiers without much concern. They looked at her and cheered for her benevolence. It was easy being an idol. She has brainwashed these soldiers well.
"Yes, Lady Claire!"
"We'll have the port town in sight. Tonight, we'll lay an ambush while Eli sets up her vampiric horde again."
I tilted my head, then realized they assumed my horde was dead since the sun had risen. However, I still had a link to them and could easily raise them again tonight. But should I? I knew Claire hated these demons to her core, but I wasn't sure what she had seen in the future. What if she eventually saw me as a threat and decided to kill me, too?
I chose to remain silent and cut the link between myself and my vampire horde, leaving just five intact, just in case.
"Ah, I saw some pigs outside. Soldiers, why did you bring them here?" Claire asked, referring to the corrupt nobles as pigs. She certainly didn't mince words when dealing with them. I thought her bluntness would contrast with her saintly demeanor, but her soldiers didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
"Lady Eli didn't seem to need them for her horde, so we brought them here to ask Princess Claire for further directions."
"I don't want to bite humans…" I replied.
"I see. Off with their heads, then. Hah… millions of gold wasted, and they couldn't even serve as fodder in our fight against the demons," Claire sighed.
"Lady Claire! Please forgive us!" came shouts from outside the makeshift tent.
"They must have a death wish. How dare they call Princess Claire' Lady Claire'..." Claire's ardent followers mocked them. One of the soldiers was about to go out and deal with them himself, but Claire stopped him.
"Wait. Don't do it inside the fortress. It would bring bad luck to have them die here."
"Yes, Princess Claire."
"You're surprisingly superstitious," I remarked.
Claire merely shrugged. The rest of the day was fairly laid-back. I had nothing to do, and the demons had gone quiet. They had stopped attacking us ever since we destroyed over half of their forces in a pincer attack. We had killed over ten thousand of their troops, but Claire said there were millions of them.
"If there are millions of them, couldn't they simply devastate our coastal ports? And were there really that many?"
"Yes, there were that many in my vision. Even if all our coastal ports were destroyed, we could simply use the river and land transport, so it would merely become an inconvenience. It's not fatal. I have no idea what they're doing, but they definitely want to kill us all. I have seen it in the future. If we can deny them a beachhead, we can install advanced cannons on top of the towers and shoot their ships from the shore."
Claire told me her plans. They seemed solid, but I knew things wouldn't go that smoothly with the uncooperative nobles. Nevertheless, Claire didn't need to watch all the coastal towns—just the one located in the north.
A week passed, and Claire launched her assault on the port. With proper cannons, the demons had no chance of defending themselves.
"The demons want to negotiate, Princess Claire," a soldier announced as he entered the tent. Claire's eyes widened as she looked at him.
"What? How could that happen?" Claire was utterly dumbfounded by the message. I tilted my head, thinking it was natural for an enemy to negotiate for peace, or at least a truce, when they were losing. They had clearly suffered massive losses here. But such a thought didn't seem to cross Claire's mind. Did she genuinely believe these demons were inherently evil?
"Um… the demons just released a human to deliver us a message."
"Does that mean someone is still alive in the port town?"
"No. They captured some people from a nearby rural village."
"What a joke! After everything they've done, do they really expect us to negotiate?" one of the soldiers scoffed.
The negotiation request went unanswered, and Claire continued to bombard the port town with cannons. The demons, once brave and arrogant, now skulked like rats.
While clearing the town, she saw the demon ships leaving and ordered them to be bombarded. After the ships sank, she departed.
"The demons seem to be surrendering," one of the soldiers said. Claire was caught off guard, not believing her ears. She insisted that the demons couldn't possibly surrender.
Only when the soldiers brought the demons before her did she finally believe them.
"Is it true you've surrendered?" she asked.
"Yes," the demon replied. Despite surrendering, he didn't seem afraid. Some smirk was left on his face.
"Why?"
"Settler number 13 has lost 95% of its inhabitants. We've lost. The loser must obey the winner."
"Settler?" Claire asked.
"Yes. We are settlers. We came to inhabit this uninhabited land and develop it for King Rausha."
"I see…" Claire pondered.
"Kill them!" the soldiers chanted, but Claire spoke otherwise.
"Send them to fill feystones. We need more ammunition. How many of you are left?"
"A bit over 50."
"Call them here. If they don't attack, we will guarantee their lives. But now, you must work for us. By the way, how many settlers are there?"
"About 45 in total. Each settler has around 5,000 Leymen."
"Leymen?"
"That's what we call ourselves. From your translation, 'demons' are beings from the underworld who do evil. We are no such thing. We come from Rausha's Utopia on the central continent. It's overpopulated, with over four billion Leymen, so we were tasked to establish new settlements here," the demon, named Naughtar, explained.
"Four billion…" Claire massaged her temples, then smirked as she looked at me.
"Claire?" I felt a sudden shudder, but she dismissed it.
*Bang
Claire shot the demon right in the forehead. Everyone was disturbed, but Claire merely looked at me and asked, "Eli, would you be so kind as to revive him with your necromancy? I want to know if he was telling the truth."
I did as she asked and revived him. His demeanor changed immediately.
"So, is it true there are 45 settlers?" Claire asked.
"No. There are 125 groups. Each carried over 10,000 troops."
"Why did you lie?" Claire facepalmed and sighed, while I rolled my eyes.
"We planned to downsize our fleet. It was illegal to tell the enemy our real strength. We also want to analyze the source of the Death Bite. The death bite was fatal, so we wanted to eradicate its source as quickly as possible or find a cure. I have sent the rest of the fleet on to abolish kinslayer act on other settlers. The rest of the settlers won't go down easily."
"Never mind that for now. Let's go. We'll take the remaining demons hostage," she said, turning her attention to the map. She asked whether the demons had other lies, but he denied them.
"Let's return to Elderan. We disrupted their landing at Sand Pearl Port, but judging by the casualties there, we still have over 9,000 demons to kill," Claire said. "I also want to visit Althemer. We need guns from there. I wonder how Ludwin and Heracles are doing. Eli must want to see her beloved soon."
Claire's stress must be higher than I thought. She's hallucinating that I have a good relationship with Ludwin, after all. Was the new information that devastating?
"Lady Eli, your body is so cold. It's nice."
Meanwhile, I had been turned into Alicia's hug doll along the way. She sure liked hugging me lately. I could only close my eyes and try to distract myself from biting her by focusing on the soft sensation of her chest pressing against the back of my head.
