RD 5 Ch 51

After getting Kathy and Ricky settled into the fortress, I found myself looking over our plans for the tournament. There were just too many moving pieces to our plan happening at the same time for me to keep track of each and every one. That meant I was delegating more and more tasks to the small armies I had built up. And that meant they all needed a check-in now and then to ensure they were still moving forward as I expected.

Thankfully, I had good people I could rely on for support. Simone alone was nearly magic at how well she managed the Mul Branova, who in turn, with their devotion toward me, had a strange effect that caused nearly everyone to stand up straighter and put their backs into everything they did a little more. Or at least, that’s how it looked from my perspective.

People simply cared far more about what they were doing, especially if the Mul Branova were involved. From the buildup around Vein City and the Citadel of Blood, to the farming operations the world over, and even the recruiters who were now beginning to sweep the countryside looking for eager converts, or those coming of age who would soon have the option to select their class.

Somehow, this operation reminded me of the one Simone had built in the Trial of Kings. Only now, she’d managed to port it outside and into the real world with far more ease than I would have expected. Perhaps what she had done in the trial wasn’t as strange as I had taken it to be originally.

“As you can see, everything is going just fine.” Simone finished her report, hands on her hips and a smile that begged to be praised as she looked up at me through her lashes. The woman was as always temptation incarnate. Though I still didn’t fully understand why she insisted on hiding her horns under that nun’s veil and illusioned her hair to be blonde.

“Well done, Simone. I don’t know how I would do any of this without you,” I admitted, which only cracked her smile a touch wider.

“Of course, Bran, but you must understand that I do this for you.” She emphasized the words, staring into my eyes. “All of them do. So don’t take it lightly, and make sure to use us all as generously as you would like.” She gave a little curtsy, making sure I could see plenty of cleavage, the robes were rather revealing. And I had no doubt she had inserted that innuendo intentionally.

“Simone, you know how I feel about the Mul Branova. Besides, at this point there’s…” I glanced around at the busy Citadel. “Far too many.”

Simone gasped and held a hand to her chest as she sprang back up. “How dare you say such a thing, Bran. There’s never enough,” she countered. “We could always use more hands. And eventually, hopefully, they’ll spawn more hands. We won’t be able to do all of this on our own forever.”

The idea of that only made me grimace harder. Bringing children into this hellscape seemed irresponsible. At least, it did to me. But maybe the average person could find some stability in this new world. While we were out killing monsters, removing demons, we did want those who remained behind with professions like crafting or farming to feel enough security that they comfortably continued their jobs, and that other people like Ricky and Kathy would want to move here once they knew more about it.

Children were only a small step away after that stability was found.

“Did I scare you away with the kid talk?” Simone smirked, knowing exactly what she had done.

“No, I’m fine. Though it will be incredibly hard for the Mul Branova to ever have kids with their current predication that you keep insisting that they save themselves for me.” I told her.

Simone only shrugged mischievously. “A girl can dream. But now that you see that everything is going fine, what are your next steps between now and the tournament?”

I grimaced, admittedly unsure. “The demons are planning something. What that is, I have no idea, and I don’t think it’s going to be feasible for us to figure out in time. Instead, what we need to do is plan through several worst-case scenarios.”

Part of me wanted to go find a dungeon to dive into and continue growing myself and my closest circle. But I also knew that the demons were preparing to move against us in some way. It was too risky to leave my organization unprotected. Instead, what I needed to focus on was fortifying them as best I could with the new SS rank to my class and my Bloodink.

There were a number of upgrades I could make to each of the fortresses, as well as learnings we now had from Vidar’s attack. The last thing I wanted was a slow response from me to become a larger pile of bodies.

In any case. That didn’t mean I couldn’t send others in my stead to deal with instances that I would know of.

“Here,” I said quickly, beginning to write out a list of actions and began drawing a map. “We’re going to send the Mul Branova and several of our generals on training missions. Meanwhile, my job will be fortifying our enchantments and, of course, looking after Ricky to see if we can’t get travel between our bases established.

“If nothing else, that would give me peace of mind next time I enter an instance. That way, Winnie, Circe, or any of the other generals could travel from fortress to fortress and intercept any troublesome attacks with far more force than they were able to now After all, if four or five of my generals had gathered together to fight Vidar, the fight may have been far simpler.” I told Simone as I scribbled down my thoughts.

It was a shame that the man’s sudden assault had been so effective. His attack while I was occupied had spilled far too much Mul Branova blood for my liking. Realistically, I knew there would be sacrifices in the years to come and I couldn’t protect every one of them, but that would still remain my goal.

Simone glanced over my list. “Looks doable.” She nodded along, reading each line. “We’ll have to be careful on these two.” She tapped on my list.

“Why those?” I asked.

“Because Rogers doesn’t get along with… well, anyone.” Simone hesitated.

“Just tell him that if he can’t play nicely with others, I’ll come and ensure he can’t play at all.” I nearly growled at my words, not having patience for this type of issue.

The man was currently prickly and a coward. In my past life he had eventually grown quite hard. But he knew that his eye wouldn’t work on me with his spirit. And for now, that should keep him from causing too much trouble.

Simone nodded along again. “Now all there is to do is for you to relax.” She put her hands on her hips with a big smile on her face even as I deadpanned at her.

“I don’t think that’s how this works, Simone.” I told her.

“Sit down and relax.” Her smile grew tight, as if denying it was only going to make it worse.

I returned her tight smile. “There has to be something for me to do,” I stared at her. We’d just gotten back from a trip that had shown there were more problems ahead.

“Nope, can’t think of a single thing.” Simone kept smiling back at me, and we were at an impasse. The two of us, frozen, as we stared at each other.

I had a feeling our stubbornness would have left us like that for a while if the door hadn’t cracked open. Nyx’s serpentine hair announced her before her head even peeked in.

“Oh, you’re both here. Wonderful. Gloria told me to invite both of you for dinner. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to get the whole gang back around the table.” Nyx said.

Simone only grinned wider, this time daring me to say no.

“Well, I suppose that works out in the end.” I shook my head. “You win.”

Simone’s tight smile turned into a true smile. “I want you to know, Bran, I genuinely get zero joy from forcing you to do anything. However, I do think forcing you to relax from time to time is vital for everybody.”

Nyx clearly noted that she had stepped into the middle of something and slowly began to ease her way back while her hair strained to stay and watch. “I’ll see you two in a little bit,” she said quickly, disappearing behind the door, only for me to turn to Simone and shake my head.

“Look at that. You scared Nyx away.” I teased.

“I did not. Take it back.” Simone wagged a finger at me.

“That, to me, looked like a Nyx running away from a very terrifying Simone.” I pressed further even as I gathered myself to go ‘relax’.

Of course, the woman in question gave me a big pout with puppy-dog eyes that would make even a psychopath question his choices.

“Let’s pretend that this was my idea rather than you forcing it.” I offered, daring Simone to say otherwise.

She nodded so fast I thought her head would fall off. “Of course, you win. You get to go take a break. A break happens to include Gloria’s cooking, I’ll have you know. Can you believe it? She cooks!”

I frowned at that statement. “Gloria doesn’t cook. And let’s say, by some strange transitive property, her hiring a chef counts as her cooking… which, in my own personal opinion, it does not.”

Simone shrugged. “Good thing that we have an opportunity to test all of those at once. After you, Lord Bran.” She bowed low.

I nearly flicked her forehead, though because the sight was so pleasant I managed to resist. “I get enough of that from your ladies. Don’t add to it.”

Simone chuckled. “You really should get used to more bowing and sweeping. After all, you’re now a hegemon, with a number of monarchs at your back and call. There should be lots of people bowing to you, at least in my opinion.” Simone grinned up at me.

AN - I thought I'd get to the tournament, but I'm realizing I don't really have time for that now do I? So we'll wrap this book up shortly and I will go through and fluff it a little. I do think I need to add some outside of the trial perspective early on to help ground everyone in the tension.