Chapter 200: Welcome to the Kingdom: Meeting

Jon Mourn sat at a desk in a calm, quiet room.

That peace was immediately interrupted when the door opened and one of his currently least favorite people walked through.

“Hello, miss Asmo,” Jon said as the woman walked in, back straight and silver-blonde hair falling down her spine.

“Greetings, Jon,” Asmo said. She stopped walking in the center of the room, facing him. The room was small and quaint, the office that was given to him within the royal castle. It was far out of the way and there was seldom any sort of commotion around this area, just how he liked it. Or, rather, there wasn’t any commotion until this woman appeared.

“Do you mind telling me what you’re here for?” Jon asked. “I’m busy writing a response to a trainee’s request for a leave of absence. His sister is late in pregnancy, and the family needs to be there for her during childbirth.”

“You will be denying this request, correct?”

“No, I was thinking of accepting it. We do not currently require maximum manpower, after all, so—”

“Deny it.”

Jon pursed his lips. “Do you mind telling me why?”

“He’ll be put on the front lines of our new mission.”

“What new mission? And why him? You don’t even know which of my men I was talking about.”

“I want him because men like that are disposable, so the front lines will suit him well. And the new mission is what I came here to talk to you about.”

Jon places his pen down on the table, fighting off a scowl. He understood the concept of the greater good—he’d predicated his entire life off of that, after all—but when he had to make a sacrifice for such a thing, he did so somberly. Asmo was clearly eager to let others die for her cause. And he suspected she would do the same even if her cause didn’t align with what was right. But for now, he would have to work with her if he wanted to save lives.

“Anyway. Because of that Faerie thing that’s been bothering us, our superior Demon is asking me to send out forces to kill the fugitive now, rather than continuing with our original plan of regrouping and amassing power. As much as I disagree with that order, I have no choice but to at least make an attempt, and as such I will be sending out a company of soldiers to attempt to hunt down the fugitive.”

“So you want me to give you a list of names, then? I can send out a few soldiers to get this done. Really, I feel that it might be a good thing for a fire to be lit under our seats. The number of casualties caused by these Demons grows by the day, so getting this done sooner rather than later would be preferable.”

Asmo rolled her eyes. “As if this will work. I have no confidence in the operation. A good plan is laid out weeks in advance, pondered upon for countless hours by countless people, with every eventuality considered. This is hasty, emotional, rushed decision-making that will not stand the test of implementation. And it only interferes with our true goals as Humans to gain an upper hand over these Demons, anyway. What a waste.”

“Perhaps you could do well to learn some flexibility, miss Asmo. Not everything can be done only after having weeks to prepare. Some issues require immediate attention. If Arlan dies, it could be a massive success for the kingdom.”

Asmo stared at Jon for some time, then eventually huffed out a breath of air and spoke. “Well. Anyway, it will not only be nameless soldiers going on this mission. Some important people will be going as well. Relevant to this conversation: you.”

Jon frowned. “I thought you said this mission would surely fail. I didn’t think you would decide to send people with so many duties placed on them to do something you feel is so low-priority. That said, I do accept your assignment, of course. Even if you don’t believe this is a productive mission, I will do my best to kill Arlan.”

“I’m not sending you because I want you to kill the fugitive. In fact, feel free to neglect your duties. I’m sending you, first off, because we need someone to command the troops. All of the individuals I will be sending will be those with enhanced loyalty. As it is typically best to have at least one person present with control over them so that they remember the consequences of disobedience, I was forced to pick one of us VIPs.”

“Ah,” Jon said curtly. “Enhanced loyalty. That is what you call the people you have…dismembered, correct?”

“Yes. They have Winic’s appendages. Dissent will not be a worry for you while hunting—that you can be sure of.”

Jon nodded. “I understand. You do not have any plans to do this…procedure on any more individuals, do you?”

“Of course I do. If any soldiers die during this mission, be sure to retrieve their appendages, so that I can affix them to new soldiers. With enhanced loyalty techniques, lives are cheap. It is the technology that is expensive to lose.”

Jon fought off a scowl at her words. “I will do my best to ensure it doesn’t come to that. Though, Asmo, I do find that it could be helpful to remind you that I am cooperating with you because I feel that working alongside you is better than working with the Demons—or, of course, Arlan. From the start, this procedure with Winic’s appendages has been distasteful to me. So I do urge you to reconsider your…haste in using them on so many people.”

“How many would I have to use them on before you turn against me?”

“What?”

“Give me a number. Exactly how many lives would I need to take over through my enhanced loyalty techniques before you decide it is no longer worth supporting me?”

“I’m…not sure.”

“Well, if you ever come up with an exact number, tell me. If it is ten thousand, I will use them on nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine people, and not one more. I will respect your wishes in that way.”

One again, Jon was forced to fight off a scowl. That wasn’t respecting anyone. What, she intended to force him to pick between killing ten thousand and killing ten thousand minus one? It was a joke. But, at least right now, a joke he was forced to participate in. “Miss Asmo, I believe it would be more worthwhile for you to simply change your methods at gaining loyalty.”

“I will.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

“Of course. I would never rely on a single method to ensure my living. I’m already having Winic research more methods as we speak. One or two more should be done soon.”

“Oh,” Jon said. Then he tilted his head curiously. “What do you mean by ‘ensure your living?’”

“Well, I currently have exactly eighty-four people under my control with Winic’s appendages. And if I die, they shut off forever. Meaning if I die, eighty-four people die with me. Of course, that disincentivizes people like you from killing me on an inherent level. But since these eighty-four people are also working within the kingdom’s operation, it also disincentivizes the Demons from killing me, since doing so would come at such a cost to their ranks. And, as I said, I would like to increase the number of insurance methods like these I have.”

“...Hm.” Jon wasn’t sure what to say to such a matter-of-fact way of valuing these peoples’ lives. All he knew was that the more he spoke with Asmo, the less he liked her. And simultaneously, the more he realized she would almost certainly forever be a part of this kingdom. “So then, you want me to lead this excursion?”

“Yes. Feel free to take a decent number of soldiers with you.”

“I would have thought you would commit as few resources as possible to this task. You said it was useless, right?”

“I did not. In fact, I would like for you to take a minimum of fifteen people with you.”

“Do you mind telling me why?”

Asmo took a breath, standing in the quiet room. She turned to look around, glancing over the simple wooden furniture and the plain red carpet below her. Eventually, she settled on staring out the window on the right wall. The sun shone through, avoiding her face. She opened her mouth, still staring out the window. “If you find a woman named Ripley Tenet…bring her to me. Or…tell her, ‘Asmo would like to see you.’”

“Ripley Tenet? I know that name. Wasn’t she on the VIP team as well? I don’t believe I ever formally met her before she disappeared. Is that why you want a larger force? To find her?”

“Yes. In fact, please make it your main objective.”

Jon stared at her incredulously. “Finding this woman is more important than killing Arlan? I’m sorry, I might need some justification for that. Why do you want this woman so much?”

Jon saw Asmo’s face shift in a strange way at his question. For the first time since he’d met her, he thought he might have just seen her smile. It was miniscule, for a fraction of a second, but unquestioningly did happen. For what reason, he had no idea. But the moment passed just as it began, and Asmo said in her typical, plain tone, “She will help.”

“But how could she add more to our efforts than the accomplishing of our main goal could?”

Asmo turned to look Jon in the eyes. “She will. Not everything is about the fugitive. That is important for now, sure. But killing him is just a means to an end.”

Jon sighed. What a difficult woman. “Okay. What does she look like? I doubt we’ll be able to find anyone with just a name.”

“She is a tall woman,” Asmo said. “Short hair, strong build, attractive looks.”

“Attractive? What do you mean? That’s very subjective.”

Asmo looked at Jon for a moment. “She is objectively attractive.”

Jon nodded slowly. “...Right. Should I write this down so I can tell it to the people I bring along?”

“Feel free.”

“Great.” He bent down to grab some parchment from a drawer. “Oh, by the way, you said you wanted me to bring a significant force with me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then, is it okay if I bring along a person to assist that isn’t just one of the crime-ringers that you’ve done your operation on? Someone more powerful?”

“It would depend on the person.”

“Well,” Jon said, “this is what I have in mind.”