I’m starting to regret allowing Amber to stay. Ever since being appointed my secretary, she has shown how subpar her skills are. However literate she may be, it didn’t change the fact that she was overeager for work and that ended up making her make many mistakes.
She was a combat-focused demon, and she would constantly fight and ask permission to kill anyone who talked to me in a relaxed manner. This behavior dealt her several large whacks to the head and a few chew downs.
She hated being scolded by me more than anything so she quickly stopped. That was good, it showed that she could at least learn. After bringing her back, we asked what type of demon she was. All we got out of her was “Oh one of the original ones.”
That answer was enough to make Traya and Razana’s eyes almost pop out of their sockets. Since demons were organized into a hierarchy, the oldest were the leaders. There were several types of demons. There were lesser demons, who had a set magical power count, Greater Demons, who had a slightly larger set magical power count. Above that, there were even higher-powered demons called grand demons. Then above that, there were the oldest demons. They were special types of grand demons called the aboriginals. The aboriginals had a set amount of magical power like the other types of demons (every demon only had a set amount of magic per their species). Theirs were equal to the grand demons. The difference between the normal grand demons and the aboriginals was that they were the first demons. Due to being the first, they had accumulated battle and other sorts of experience and wisdom. Due to this, they were the strongest demons.
There were only 16 aboriginals. Amber was the yellow aboriginal, as each aboriginal was distinguished by color. They were as follows:
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
- Green
- Indigo
- Violet
- Purple
- Pink
- Silver
- Gold
- Beige
- Brown
- Grey
- Black
- White
- Blue
The aboriginals prided themselves on being the best of the best, so it was a bit of a mystery why one would answer my summons. I asked this of Amber. She only replied with a nonchalant “I was intrigued and someone of your caliber… oh they only come once a century!”
So she was just jumping my bandwagon to come to the physical plane. I learned from the legends that Amber hadn’t been seen very much on the physical plane, based on current records, she’s only been summoned twice before, and the last time several hundred years ago. The other aboriginals were more popular summons, the white, black, gold, and silver demons seemed to be the most popular. It was rumored that the gold demon was the strongest of all. When I asked Amber if it was true, she merely yawned and said, “Oh yeah, he’s strong but he lacks the,” knocking on her forehead, “You know what.”
She was laying on her back and eating fried crickets so I replied with a short muttering of, “I see he’s not the only one who lacks that.”
“Huh!?” Amber rose suddenly, “What do you mean master? I am incredibly smart!”
“Being literate doesn’t entail you’re smart!” I said, hitting her head with a karate chop.
“You glutton! You're getting cricket feet all over the carpet!”
She teared up, “I’m sorry master! But it has been four hundred years since I was called here, can’t I enjoy the food?”
“You sure can! But you are supposed to be helping me with this plan!” I yelled.
She made a pouty face, “Why do we need this plan anyway, I can swap the deck with them.”
I nodded, “You sure could,” It was true, despite having a set amount of mana, she was stronger than anyone I have ever seen. “That’s not the point, I don’t wanna have you fight at all.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“If I do, then every other country will know that we have a demon! That’s not gonna do anything good for our PR!”
“Oh,” she said, finally getting it, “But I could leave no survivors.”
“And what about all the citizens who are gonna be watching?!”
“I had not considered that, yes I agree master you must use your plan, but if it all comes down to it, send me out.”
I smiled wryly (I swear every single light novel loves to use the word wry. Realist hero uses it to the point where its an abused word I shall use it sparingly), “Sure,”
She burst out into a dazzling smile then, “Hey, don’t think you got let off easily, c’mere, and use that supposed brain you have to help me fine-tune this strategy!” I barked.
“What do you mean by ' supposed brain'? Master, you are so cruel!”
“Does it matter?” I asked.
“Waaaah!” Her cries could be heard deep into the night.
The next morning signaled the start of the battle. I summoned my ministers and leadership and explained the plan in great detail. They all got my orders and hurried to carry them out.
With everything in place, I led a platoon of mages to the place of battle.
Robert, the second prince of Noivern sat on his warhorse. He was outfitted with a set of armor that most people would kill for. He was the commander here.
He led a force of 7,000 men to besiege the walls of the city of Elentiania, which was now renamed Silviphiette after the citizen’s leader. He had personally met the person named Silviphiette calling herself a princess. He was annoyed with a woman treating him with disrespect, not only that his worthless brother joined forces with that insolent lady! He had not heard anything from his brother since.
The army marched on because the kingdom wanted the region’s land. Before the Kingdom was hesitant to invade because of the fragile treaty they had with the north. The north-south treaty said that no one from either the north or south could claim the strip of land that was made up of the autonomous region of Garentouress, as it serves as a buffer one. This was so that either entity could not border each other and therefore not get into such skirmishes. Also escaped slaves could not easily reach the south, therefore reducing negotiations about returning slaves (which often led to bloodshed). The zone also served as a major economic point, a region free of regulation where free trade thrived. Until the recent monster threat, it was deemed profitable to maintain the region’s autonomous state. But ultimately the disorganization of the region led to its downfall, and a country was formed out of half of it. The south found that since regulation and such was now imposed by the new country, the reasons for the region to stay autonomous were void. The north-south rivalry was legendary, and even their respective churches hated each other. Invading the new Principality and gaining land was deemed a beneficial action.
The 10,000 soldiers were just the vanguard. They were supposed to secure the capital and hit the morale of the citizens. A new country shouldn’t be very strong, so higher-ups thought it would be easy.
The prince wanted revenge as well. The best part was that as the treaty pointed out, the kingdom couldn’t touch the autonomous region. But since a new country formed, it technically wasn’t Garentouress. The north probably wouldn’t take the information well, but as they were the ones who drafted the treaty they couldn’t complain. They’d probably use underhand tactics to take the region for themselves. Luckily, Noivern was ready for that.
So the army marched on. Suddenly a scout approached the prince. Bowing he opened his mouth, “Your Majesty, I report that a large armed force is approaching.”
The prince smiled. “Follow it, get the advance parties to corner them while we catch up.”
The advance parties pursued the opposing army. The main force quickly caught up and the army was fleeing. The two armies played cat and dog as they raced across the hills in front of Silviphiette. Unbeknownst to Prince Robert, he was falling into a trap.
It should have been a little suspicious because the army they were pursuing was only 300 men strong. But the prince thought that that was all the new nation could muster. And he sent all of his troops at it to show the overwhelming amount of strength the kingdom had. This was all a mistake.
I watched from my perch with my platoon of water mages. Early on in my reign, I had established a water and sewer system. Underneath the city, earth mages had dug out tunnels under the city that served as a sewer system. I had made aqueducts aboveground to take water in from the city. Finally, both upstream and downstream, I had made small facilities that dealt with waste and water quality. They employed water mages and cleaned both the water coming in, and going out. This water system made the river much cleaner and revived fish populations.
I had also asked the earth mages to create a bunch of canals through some parts of the city, this extended outside the city as well. These served as flood managers, as I knew the river was prone to flooding. This would damage the city and the surrounding fields.
The kingdom’s army rounded a corner and came to a stop between two large hills. The valley was perfect for an ambush but none came. Soon, the army grew impatient and the prince ordered them to attack the opposing army that was resting on the other side of the valley.
Before they could move, the small army quickly turned toward the city. They disappeared. Advancing, the troops also decided to turn. But they were greeted by a large wall of water. The water advanced in the valley, flooding everything in a great big wave. The soldiers flew back, surprised, weapons and armor going everywhere. The armor and weapons flying around in the chaos soon found unknowing victims that were swept away. Many of the soldiers had died either from the weapons accidentally stabbing them, or as many other soldiers flopped around they got crushed by the other’s and their mount’s body weight.
In a massive water attack, three-quarters of the kingdom’s army perished. The prince had the luck of being carried on a large enough horse and far enough back from the wave to be spared most of the attack. Looking around, he saw he only had about 1,700 troops left. Many of them were lying on the ground, groaning as they were pinned under others, stabbed, or knocked out from the wave’s sheer force.
To explain, in the canal-building, we had made several alternate man-made rivers to divert water in case of a flood. We used the surrounding valleys to divert water. This valley was near a dam we had built. It was one of several we had around the river that we regularly controlled to divert and mitigate water flow. I realized this could be used as a weapon, I had lured the kingdom’s army into the valley, then released the dam. We had closed off other dams so this one built up a lot of water and pressure.
When the army was in place, we pulled up the army we used to lure them onto the top of the dam, then opened the gates. Water mages helped by building up water and diverting it in the right direction. A normal water mage used water attacks by synthesizing water and unleashing it in swift currents, usually through the air.
That’s why nobody expected this attack, there was no way a water mage unless they possessed a great amount of mana and training could accomplish the feat. Although I had a large mana capacity, I wasn’t nearly skilled enough to materialize the amount of water we released. However, mages could control a part of an element that already existed. For example, they could control water already there. Since synthesizing water was most of the work of water attacks, removing this made handling water with magic much easier. That’s why my simple platoon of water mages could control a large amount of water.
The prince looked up, bewildered that so much of his army had been obliterated. Not only that, but he couldn’t waste time helping the injured. I had prepared to release a second dam and closed the first. The water flooded from the newly released second dam and hit the newly closed first dam. The first dam now had a new supply of water for another attack.
The prince was strong, and a bit unintelligent. But he wasn’t incapable, especially as a military man. The kingdom of Noivern was a militaristic state, so the military education was top-notch. Calling all men that could stand, he rounded up some horses and galloped off. When the mage in charge of the platoon asked me for orders, I told her to stand down. Although we had manipulated the dams so that we had a way of building up more water for releasing more attacks, no commander was stupid enough to make the same mistake of falling for a trap twice.
The force of 3,000 the Kingdom had left in their remote camp was still formidable. I sighed, I’d have to use my secret weapon after all
I ordered the mages to not release the dam again. While the prince and his men were retreating, and though I had engineered the dam system so that we could replenish water reserves if the whole force didn’t come there was no use releasing more water and doing stuff such as damaging the environment by releasing large amounts of water.
I decided that I had to use my trump card, we had destroyed much of the kingdom’s forces. I decided the chances of someone escaping and telling others was quite low, and the base was far enough away for the citizens not to see if the damn demon could keep it quiet.
I had to trust her, and we certainly had the power to defeat them. Together with my platoon, I went back into town.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
