The Wicked are too groggy and dizzy to react in time, so they drop like flies as we strike them with surgical precision. The few that we let live for a little longer are too far from the explosive stuff to do any real damage, so they also fall to our blades before long.

Once the last Wicked falls, I let out a sigh of relief as the tiredness starts to creep in, followed by the revulsion from all the killing. Even memeing isn't enough to take my mind off the rivers of blood being spilled today.

"I think we've done enough here," Alissa asserts and lands a gauntlet on my armored shoulder.

I nod weakly and take off my helmet, then I start applying [Clean] to my armor to remove all the dried droplets of blood splattered all over it.

The fires continue to spread, and the smell of smoke starts to thicken, so I order the golems to store any papers, ingredients, or equipment they can find before the fire reaches this place and blows everything up.

While we wait, I take a closer look at the girls. The javelin left a three-finger-wide opening in Ciel's armor, a two-finger-wide opening in Aoi's because her scales absorbed some of the force of the javelin, and a one-finger-wide opening in my armor. I'd like to make a dick joke here, but I'm not really in the mood.

These holes can be repaired quite easily by Lina, it's just Hana's Bastión armor that'll take some effort since it's gotten all warped from the heat, so the dragonkin switches to one of the spare sets to not risk damaging it further.

Once our fiery-headed wife takes her helmet off, we see that part of her eyebrows and some of her hair have burned away, which is a crime in itself, so I use [Regeneration] on her to give her mane back, but we'll need Poosh's help to get the length just right again.

Hana stares at me with misty eyes as I use the spell on her. She doesn't have that much concern for her own beauty, but she does enjoy it a lot when others fuss over her because who doesn't like being pampered?

I also use a bit of [Regeneration] on Aoi to regrow the scales that were shattered by the javelin. Her sleek and shiny appearance shouldn't ever be tainted by the ugliness of broken scales.

Then Sandoro's group catches up with us, and since the way up is mostly clear, we start the sacking in full. Anything valuable or not bolted down will be taken by us since we've decreed that Dawn of Fire has to be fully wiped out, and nothing will be left standing after we're done.

I unsummon everything and summon ten water-Roxannes, then I tell them to make a path back to the mansion of the Wicked leader. I want those supersonic javelin shooters that he used against us and possibly the [Abyssal Fire] flamethrower if it didn't get destroyed by its own flames.

"Alcander reports that the second base is already under their control, and they're just midway through sacking the place," a Lordsguard relays Sandoro's message.

"Anything about the siege in Glorampina?" I question him.

"The Heart Lord responsible for the area has appeared, but no conflict has broken out yet."

"Let's board the Floater and fly it over there as a show of force," Yunia suggests, and we agree.

We check up on Hukarere and Romy to make sure that they're okay, then we take a [Gate] to Nohopu's ship and command him to fly to Glorampina as fast as possible.

The squirrel-headed man bows as he grins excitedly. "Understood, my Lords. If the loud noise of our propellers bothers you, the guest suite is soundproof."

I nod and wait a few seconds while the ship powers up, and yeah, the propellers going at full speed makes a loud buzzing that annoys my ears, not to mention Alissa's, so we just retire to the suite. The trip will take a few hours, so we have some time to relax.

I wax Aoi's regrown scales, and then Hana's since the heat also damaged them a bit. After their scales are back to being just as shiny as mine, I cuddle with Alissa on the bed to recharge my energies while Ciel uses her lap loli and the last three drink a bit of alcohol.

The smell of smoke starts to become noticeable again as our noses regain their sensitivity, so Ciel's [Holy Spirit] uses [Clean] on each of us until it's gone.

I run my claws through Alissa's bright, silky hair, then I kiss her forehead, and she raises her head to look at me.

Her large light brown, almost orange eyes stare into mine curiously. "You really do have two personalities inside you," she softly remarks.

"What?" I ask, surprised and confused.

"At one moment, you are killing and 'memeing'" -she makes a grimace when she says the dirty word- "and then the next, you're all gloomy and soft."

"My dick is still hard, tho," I cheekily reply, making her pout. "The dragon just released the reins of my body, so I started to feel the aftereffects of butchering men."

"I admit that fighting them was really exhausting," Ciel chimes in with a weak smile.

"Fire isn't something that goes well with elven nature," Yunia remarks, her gorgeous face warped in a sneer.

"I want to forget the smell of burning flesh," Lina quietly admits, and Ciel intensifies the petting of her lap loli.

"It made me a bit hungry," Aoi innocently states, though the stare she gives me is anything but, and I'm not sure how to take the implication.

As the mood starts to turn pink, Alissa's gaze becomes sly. "If we took care of this" -she suddenly grabs my boner through my pants- "would you feel better?"

I smirk at Alissa. "I don't know, but it doesn't cost us anything to try," I huskily reply.

Gify pops back into existence on top of my head, and she only needs a single look at us to understand what's about to happen. She rolls her eyes and teleports to the table with a *pop* to eat some snacks while we do our thing.

And it does help, a bit.

After a few relaxed rounds, we dress and groom ourselves again because the day isn't over yet.

As I look out through the window of our suite, I see the dark green sea of leaves under us suddenly come to an end, and the view turns bright green as the sun of the morning reflects off the long blades of grass.

Glorampina is just one long, flat grassland that's occasionally broken up by a small rolling hill or river. As we're at the southern edge, there are uncountable little brooks coming out of the comparatively more wet High Forest that drain towards the basin of Glorampina that's at a lower altitude, and it's this water that feeds its many lakes.

The hidden base isn't very far from the High Forest, so we only get a few minutes to enjoy the view before we spot the little black dots of our men surrounding the hole in the ground that Dawn of Fire used as a base.

"Here we go again," Roxanne wryly remarks as we [Equip] our armor and don our war faces.

The Floater lands right next to our men, then one of the Lordsguard opens the door for us, and we strut out of it like the pompous royals that we are.

We see two small armies having a standoff. Our Lordsguard, knights, and Templars on one side, looking mighty calm and collected, with the angry and threatening Lordsguard of the local Heart Lord on the other side, only a few meters separating them as the Heart Lord's men do their best to keep ours tense and alert to wear on their nerves.

We want to intimidate this insolent fool of a Lord, so Aoi un[Equip]s her armor and grows as large as she can, then I stand on top of her, using [Telekinesis] to keep myself balanced. She's about two-thirds the size of an elephant, so she looks very fearsome even though she's quite slender for a dragon.

The angry soldiers cool down and start to become fidgety as they realize Aoi's true size. Their spears will be basically useless against her tough and scaled body if she decides to trample them, which is the worst nightmare of footmen.

An olive-skinned silver elf wearing a pretty set of light green armor starts stomping his way towards us, his face flush with anger, but his steps become quite stiff as he takes in Aoi's size and glare.

"Lord Ryder!" The elf angrily shouts a greeting.

"Lords," Aoi corrects him with a growl, and he grimaces.

"Crown Lords," he greets again through gritted teeth.

"What was his name?" I ask through [Bind] since he's still a bit too far away for [Sense Soul].

"Uh…" Yunia mumbles uncharacteristically.

"Heart Lord," I reply coolly with a nod.

"What is the meaning of this aggressiveness?" I question him through Aoi since he seems to fear her more than me.

"What is the meaning of this incursion into my territory?" He asks back flippantly, his lip trembling in anger.

Wow, it seems like we really offended him.

"Do you not see the Templars among our men?" Aoi flatly replies.

"I've not been informed of the reason for this incursion, so I also haven't approved it," he slowly retorts.

Aoi narrows her eyes in slight annoyance. "Time was of the essence, so we chose not to ask permission when you likely wouldn't answer in time…" The Root Lord, who is now close enough for me to see that he's named Maverde, begins his retort, but Aoi's rumbling, powerful voice drowns him out as she continues, now putting a bit of anger into her tone, "But what's curious is how you learned that we were purging a deeply Wicked circle of magi so fast that you already have all your men here, ready to defend them. Do you perhaps have dealings with Dawn of Fire?"

His face freezes in a scowl as he gets caught off-guard. "I do not like your implication."

Aoi snorts, letting smoke come out of her nostrils, then she continues with a flippant tone, "I don't care, and I'm going to ask again, did you have dealings with the Wicked circle of magi, Dawn of Fire?"

He grits his teeth and grumbles, "I do not."

And Aoi shows him a toothy grin. "Then how did you learn of our purge?"

His anger continues to cool down as he becomes defensive and frowns. "I have my own ways of monitoring my own territory."

Aoi nods slowly, still grinning. "So perhaps you were preparing to purge Dawn of Fire yourself, and we got in the way of your glory? If so, why don't you join us in wiping out the Wicked and plundering their valuables? We'd gladly share them with you."

Maverde swallows heavily, seemingly disturbed by Aoi's words. "Normalizing pillaging is detrimental to our society."

Aoi waves her claws dismissively, and her tail lowers down as she becomes disappointed. "You can always use the valuables to pay for projects that aid the commoners."

He gives us both a judgmental glare. "Is that what you are going to spend your loot on?"

Aoi nods and answers matter-of-factly, "Of course. The first project we'll start is to build a Shell for every town and village in our territory."

Maverde is still skeptical, but his courage is far too unsteady for him to question us further.

"We aren't here to discuss such matters, though," I interrupt the talk and make a dramatic pause so that Maverde's focus can fully return to me. "The Wicked here will be purged, and Dawn of Fire will be dismantled. Are you going to stand in our way?"

A bit of anger returns to his expression, but Maverde isn't suicidal, so he begrudgingly gives in, "No, we won't, but we also won't forget this infringement upon our territory's sovereignty."

He's implying that the Crown Lord will also stand with him, which is kind of expected, but we plan on mollifying Crown Lord Herbaco when we call a summit about Katasko's encroachment into the elven lands, so we aren't too concerned about that.

I simply glance back at the Floater, reminding him that we have air supremacy over all elves and most of the empire, then I nod, and Aoi starts walking back to our men. I see Klein, Anton, Enomosa, and the rest of the knights at the front line, looking like stern statues holding back the angry soldiers in front of them with just their glares, and I feel a small amount of pride well up within me.

This hidden base is quite small, so we just give the signal to start the purge and sit this one out.

We return to our castle victorious and quite a lot richer than before, but after I pay Osaria and Poosh a visit, I go down to the lake under Escanso to bury two of our men. One of the Wicked in the second base committed suicide with a bomb and took out two of ours along with one Templar.

The advantage of working with the Templars is that nearly every single one of them can cast [Heal], but the men died instantly, so they were beyond saving.

This time, their spirits aren't so attached to the land that they remain beside their bodies like Lorena did.

They're just two average, young elves with a talent for combat and teamwork who pledged their loyalty to me. Their families are commoners, who cry all the way as our boats make their way towards the grave tree.

Ciel says the rites, and we lower the coffins wrapped in our heraldry while I stare at the bereft families with kind and aching eyes.

"They died with honor while fighting the Wicked," a son consoles his mother.

"Yes, they… they died for something noble…" The mother tries to convince herself.

I just wanted vengeance on Dawn of Fire.

They turn to me, and I slowly nod at them. "They died so that our lands could be safer," I whisper kindly.

The other family doesn't seem to be convinced by our condolences. The old couple gives me an angry glance but then lower their heads respectfully towards Yunia.

The priests cast [Materialize], then the spirit of the first family appears and gives the mother and son pair a warm hug while smiling, showing them that he's happy with the life he lived. A moment later, the second spirit appears standing in front of his parents, giving them an assured and content look, as if he was saying that he has no regrets from serving us.

After just a few long seconds with their families, the two spirits turn to me, then they salute, and their bodies disappear into mist as they willingly depart towards Paradise.

This elven burial ritual was made specifically so that the Lord sees the result of their actions firsthand, so that they'd never forget the price of violence. It's also not lost on me how Sandoro isn't required to participate, but a Lord is. I'm encouraged to rule through my heart, and he is encouraged to lead through the numbers.

We return to the castle, then take a quick bath and rest a bit. Poosh gets the maids to massage us while we eat some chocolatey snacks, and they apply not-aloe to our skin since it got a bit irritated and dry from all the intense heat. Hana's hair also needs some elven treatment, so Poosh takes it upon herself to bring the red mane back to its full glory.

But my massage/wax/blowjob is interrupted by a message from Sandoro. One of the mages from Dawn of Fire's High Circle wants to speak with us.

I cum down Iliada's throat and sigh tiredly as I pat my favorite maid's head.

"I'll visit him in your place," Alissa kindly offers, and I swear to repay her for this favor. "Not really a favor. We need to rotate who acts as the 'face' of our family."

The other wives agree, though not very eagerly, but at least they don't freeze with dread like Lina does.

Intermission – Aisco

The room they put me in is quite comfortable, all things considered. I'd imagined that they'd just put me in a dungeon, or something, but they really did honor their word to spare the ones who didn't resist. Well, I guess not being Wicked improved my standing with them.

I look down through the window of this vessel and see tall flames burning down my former home, but I only feel catharsis at the sight of it instead of sadness. That wretched place is now gone, and a new opportunity has appeared right before me… or rather, above me, though I'm currently inside it, so… ugh…

My analogies need some work.

I start to become a bit annoyed at the fact that I've been left alone with my overactive brain. There's nothing else here but a bed and a table, so I have nothing to occupy my itching hands and restless mind, which is quite an effective way to torture me. Not that they should know about my addiction to work, or that I should reveal it to them. One should never show weakness before the person they're about to negotiate with since that's just an open invitation to be exploited by the other party. Not that I believe the oh, so holy Ryders would exploit me, but they did show quite a lot of spite for the Wicked, so maybe they would think badly of me for working with them, and I'm sure the slaves we h-…

OH, GODS! SOMEONE SAVE ME FROM MYSELF!

Then I hear a knock on the door, and I stop pulling on my hair.

"Royal Lord Alissa has called for your presence," a gruff male voice announces dryly. The speaker must be one of those strange Chimeras, for no elf would have such a manly and brutish voice.

Wait, "Alissa"? Who is she…? Why isn't the Dragon Boy asking for me?

I groom my hair and recompose myself, then I walk out of the room.

As I enter the location for our meeting, I'm first awed by the good taste the Chimeras have in interior decoration, then I become surprised that the half-imperial boy didn't melt down all this gold, and finally, I notice the pretty little thing sitting at the golden table before me.

Ah, it was the fox girl.

The problem is that she's the second youngest in the boy's harem, so why was this child sent to talk to me?

I sit down on a comfortable chair and lower my head respectfully as I introduce myself, "Crown Lord Alissa Ryder, I'm Aisco, one of the members of the High Circle that controlled Dawn of Fire."

I raise my head again and see her nod slowly, her eyes stern and her face unmoving as she wears the usual mask that all nobles have.

"And what did you wish to talk with us about?" She flatly asks. I appreciate straightforwardness, but I feel like I'm talking to a statue instead of a person, and though I wished that all the humanoids I had met were statues, the fox girl in front of me is one of the rare exceptions to that.

I smile gracefully and energetically respond, "I heard that you lack a High Mage in your court with a [Fire Magic] specialization, so I wish to offer my services to the Lordship."

"What else did you hear about us?" She immediately asks, surprising me with her smooth evasion of my offer.

"Only that you lack a Fire High Mage," I promptly reply.

She raises one eyebrow. "That's it…?"

I shrug. "Nothing else mattered to me, so I forgot it all."

She blinks blankly and whispers, "I see…"

And I grin back. I'm very proud of my ignorance when it comes to useless matters, as I believe this makes me seem more honest.

Then her tone turns cold. "But you're still going to be accused of working with the Wicked and of holding illegal slaves."

Of course, I knew the uppity Ryders would do this. "May I not atone for my crimes by working for you?" I cheerfully ask.

"What can you do, specifically?" She dryly replies, the contrast between our moods feeling quite jarring to me, but I just ignore her theatrics.

"Train Fire mages, use my [Fire Magic] for combat, and share my research with you, as long as I get the credit for my discoveries," I categorically answer.

She thinks for a few seconds, completely unmoving while doing so, before continuing, "Are you going to ask to lead the mages in battle?"

I softly shake my head. "No, I don't care for such things. My only true wish is to continue my research."

Then her tone turns stern, and her large orange eyes stare intensely at me, carefully measuring my reaction. "We'll still force you to go through a Truth Seeker to make sure that you don't hold any ill intent towards us."

She's a bit frightening.

I blink a few times in mild surprise, then I honestly confess, "Huh, how cautious, but I assure you, I don't hold a grudge. I'm a perfectly logical person who knows that crimes must be paid for, but right now, I see a golden opportunity in front of me, but not literally."

She nods slowly. "Yes, you seem quite reasonable, just a bit eccentric." And the subtle hint of humor seeps into her tone.

I nod. "Yes, 'a bit.'"