Tales of the Old World Demon Lord

Chapter 25 – Power play

[Eternum Calendar 1971]

Dyed by the excessive glare of the morning sun, the residents of the snow blanketed town had amassed once more to ponder their immediate future. With the large conference room of the town hall, an open forum was being held, though none had spoken as of yet. They had been waiting for the past half hour with bated breaths on the arrival of their scout that was to bring information on the enemy plaguing their quaint little city.

Seated prominently in the midst of the room were three figures, though there were supposed to have been four. Dalton the Mayor of the city, Gerald the leader of the local Adventurer’s Association and Francisco the head merchant of the Merchant’s Guild, without a word they waited. The tension in the room was only accentuated further by the utter lack of any communication as a high pitched silent ping bored deep into everyone’s ears.

After a few moments Dalton took the opportunity of the silence to speak up. Specifically about the absence of Yvonne; he had kept his mouth shut until now because he had assumed that she was just running late but it became obvious that she wasn’t going to come anytime soon.

“Is Yvonne not going to be attending the conference? Francisco, have you heard anything about why she isn’t here yet?”

Francisco looked and paused for a second before answering. He shook his head in denial, though in truth he had of course known about it before hand, after all he had planned her absence himself. Where she was and what she was doing now wasn’t something anyone else needed to know thus he came up with a suitable fitting excuse that complimented his rather uncaring character.

“Who knows? As far as I know she hasn’t been seen since last night. Though I doubt her of all people need worrying about; if anything she’s probably the most capable person in the entire town.”

While Dalton couldn’t exactly have an agreeable expression to his words, he did admit that she had proven herself to be quite the capable fighter. Not only that but she was also a direct descended of the Vampire kin, one of the more elite races of demons, it was rather unlikely she fell victim to the same enemy that plagued their town.

“While I don’t think this will bode fairly, I must also concede that she’s strong enough to take care of herself. Thus I’ll put this matter on hold until later to deal with…”

Dalton answered as he breathed out a sigh.

“Indeed, or rather if you really just think about it her thought processes aren’t exactly hard to understand. Knowing her she’s probably ventured off to the forest to figure out all of this on her own; she’s a person who can’t sit still for five minutes like the rest of us.”

Francisco answered in a dismissive and disinterested tone, but that was simply his pre-established character. Rather than a natural personality trait, his public persona was more of an act of careful planning. As a merchant being too nice or agreeable had its own fair share of problems but the worst were the restrictions on socially acceptable actions that could be taken. While being hated was also equally terrible in other ways, the amount of utility it gained from being able to deviate from social etiquette offered much more freedom to scheme and maneuver.

By manipulating how others felt about him he could, to a certain extent, predict what their next actions were likely going to be. This was Francisco’s principle as a merchant and his own being; to play the role of a villain for the sake of convenience.

“Well, erm, I suppose there’s nothing to do but to place our trust in her ability to protect herself. After all she hasn’t earned her current position for no reason.”

With those words the conversation was lead astray by Francisco’s careful manipulation and the matter of Yvonne’s odd disappearance was left alone. Now that her tracks were covered, both Morgant and Francisco were free to play out the rest of their parts to lure the enemy into their trap. Thus having managed to continue reprising his role as part of the background Morgant was able to eavesdrop from a relatively secluded position in the conference hall.

They did not have to wait long before the doors slowly decided to open to reveal the entrance of three prominent figures. The first was a heavily plated knight, followed swiftly behind by a small girl and a slender looking man. The small girl seemed no older than nine years of age but hidden under her mysterious burgundy cloak, she expelled a competent aura.

Decorated with a false smile hidden with all sorts of ulterior motives was a beautiful, almost effeminate man with long black flowing hair. From the way he carried himself to his adorned and decorated clothing he felt much nobler than any noble that could possibly have existed. Indeed, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this man was the very definition of a ‘noble’.

That being said the two at the back were disregarded by the townspeople as they focused their attentions towards the leading knight. They tensed as the leaded forwards from their chairs waiting for him to speak.

“Oh~ you’ve finally arrived Sipher. Now, quickly tell us of what you witnessed at the forest. Were words of the victims true? Were there really goblin gods?”

Dalton stood up to greet the knight with a firm handshake, but quickly pushed forward for the main topic at hand. This was not a situation in which they could dally around and waste time after all. Sipher shot a pensive gaze towards the mayor as he thought about what to relay to the mayor, but after much deliberation he decided to withhold information regarding the mysterious boy they had met. If only for the fact that he did save the princess’ life, it was the least he could do.

“Yes… and no, I think the stories may have been exaggerated but there definitely was something there.”

They all listened in carefully as Sipher started to explain in great detail about the cursed goblins that plagued the forests. About their tenacity, about their unstable berserker rage and general hatred towards all crossing opponents. All except one person were keen in this ‘new’ information; Francisco neither cared to look at nor listen in to Sipher’s ramblings as he had already known in advance the situation at hand. Or rather, it was precisely the nature of the ‘enemy’ that he was interested in, but not of those monsters in the forest, but the mastermind that likely sat together with him in this very room.

Their plan had already begun but it would take more than just attendance for it to bear any fruit. So as Sipher continued explaining as to what the natures of these goblins were Francisco subtly scanned the two most prominent suspects in front of him, Gerald and Dalton.

“The monolith shard… and the crystalline curse… We need to quickly do something about this before it spreads any further! If we gear up all able bodied combatants we should be able to mount a suitable offensive to destroy these scourges before they have time to amass an even greater threat!”

Loudly pounding both of his hands onto the table, Gerald was the one who stood up and proclaimed this solution. Naturally everyone’s attention shifted towards him with a lot of people showing an agreeable expression while some remained to be convinced. However it was Francisco who raised an eyebrow, staring back puzzlingly at the loud elf he asked.

“While I don’t disagree that we should take some sort of proactive measures, what exactly would you have us do? Are those long ears of yours only attached to your head as mere decorations? Or did you not hear from this here adorned knight about how the enemy won’t die even if they are slain?”

“But-”

“Or what, do you have a solution to this problem as well? The problem isn’t the enemy itself but those ‘monolith shards’ that are producing these abominations. Mounting an offensive will just have us all killed.”

Francisco shot him back an accusatory glare. Gerald was not wrong in trying to take on a more proactive role now that they have more information, but the real problem was how they should take such actions.

“But waiting here won’t solve anything either; we can’t just hole up until we find a perfect solution. It may be too late for those goblins but if we act quickly enough we may be able to prevent other monsters from being mutated.”

Francisco stood up from his seat and paced around to Gerald’s side as he carefully caressed his beard in a contemplative manner.

“Prevent other monsters from being mutated? Whatever do you mean by that? I don’t believe the good knight has brought up anything to that effect; indeed I was under the assumption that this was all just another new variant of the goblin race with a specific condition attached to it. That condition being that the monolith shard. Or was I the only who thought that?”

Francisco turned to get an answer from Dalton and any others for their opinion. Both the mayor and Sipher shook their heads, suggesting that Francisco wasn’t the only one with that thought.

Gerald’s eyes twitched wide as he temporarily ceased breathing. The fact that other monsters were vulnerable to the curse was not information Sipher knew because all he had faced were ‘crystalline goblins’. Francisco on the other hand was privy to such knowledge because he had been told of it by Morgant who had gone as far as entering combat against another cursed species; the Horned Crystal Stag. The question now falls, ‘so then how does Gerald know?’ Francisco asked himself with a dastardly grin.

Of course the answer was quite obvious, ‘Bingo~’.

“I… I just assumed that it was because it was called a ‘curse’. It’s… it’s not like goblins are the only species vulnerable to curses right? In, in any case, whether it’s only goblins that are affected or not, we still have to do something or else more of the cursed goblin population will start showing up.”

Gerald answered in a shaky tone. To this Francisco had a hard time trying to hide his smirk but somehow managed to get through suppressing it.

“Why now?”

Francisco asked.

“I’m sorry? Why what?”

Gerald replied back in confusion.

“Why have you changed your stance on the matter? Previously you had wanted to erect a defensive wall around the town to keep the people safe, but now you say you want to go on the offensive. Just what on Eternis caused this miraculous wind of change?”

“What? No, that’s wrong, it’s precisely because I want to keep the townspeople safe that I’m now adopting a forward defense strategy. Since we now have a more solid understanding of the nature of the enemy we can take the chance.”

Francisco carefully placed his hands atop of Gerald’s shoulders. He flinched but didn’t retort back and merely tried to suppress his subtle trembling.

“Of course, I definitely agree that we should do something proactive, but it is not like you said. We don’t have a full understanding of the monsters and if anything we now have more of a reason to build defensive perimeters since the monsters are almost death defying. From your actions so far I’d say it seems like you have a personal vendetta against these monsters and WANT to charge in and destroy them all.”

“N- no, that’s not-”

As Gerald was about to object Francisco leaned in and whispered into his ears.

“I don’t blame you; after all, this town must be awfully boring for you right? You’re still so young yet you’re stuck doing administrative tasks day in and day out, you must never get any real chances to see any action, right?”

“What are you-”

Gerald tried once more to answer back but was cut off.

“Ah, that reminds me, this may be a little deviating off topic but there was once a man I met in one of my business trips. He was a smart man, taught me many things too, but the one thing I never forgot were his words. ‘An inferior man seeks validation, while a superior man validates others’. Make of that what you will, I just thought you would benefit more from his words than myself at this point.”

There was a brief moment of pause between the two men before the mayor interjected.

“Is something wrong, Francisco?”

Francisco withdrew himself from Gerald’s comfort zone and returned to his seat but not before flashing an arrogant, smothering grin towards Gerald.

“No, mayor Dalton, I don’t believe anything is wrong. In any case, I do believe we should be doing at least something about the situation but we also shouldn’t take it too hastily. At the very least I would like to wait until Yvonne returns.”

Dalton thought about the proposition for a moment before agreeing.

“Yes, perhaps a day or two in deliberation may be necessary. Then I shall adjourn this meeting until a further date.”

…

“So, did you manage to confirm it really was him?”

As soon as the conference was adjourned Morgant and Francisco had returned to the Trading Post for further discussions.

“Weren’t you there? Then there’s no need to ask me now is there.”

“Gerald… was it. Hmph, I feel like this may have been a little too easy, though considering his personality perhaps not. Though I did prepare something just in case it really was Dalton, but it doesn’t look like I need to use that.”

Morgant responded with a cheerful façade of a smile. Just like Francisco, Morgant was also the type that preferred to play the role of the villain due to the usefulness of its utility. That being said, unlike Francisco, Morgant was much more comfortable with the façade on rather than letting his true personality out near allies.

“I do admit that I feel the same, but facing an opponent whose background I haven’t truly confirmed yet, it’s somehow uncomfortable. I fear that what we’re trying to do may be a little too simple for my tastes.”

Francisco commented as he fell down on his sofa with a sigh. The stress of the situation as it was coming to a peak had started to get to him but with strict discipline he banished such anxiety.

“We’re only keeping it simple because we’re operating on a lot of assumptions here. Anything more convoluted would’ve required too much time and more information, something we’re sorely lacking right now. Yet just as we know nothing of him, he knows nothing of us; it’s a gamble at this point and the victor will be decided by who has the greater ‘unknown quantity’.”

Morgant replied from Francisco’s armchair.

“Hmm… well regardless, I think they should be arriving soon.”

As if on cue there was a knock on the door and upon opening said door three figures had shown themselves. Sipher, Este and Enrich had been invited for a secret meeting with Francisco but what they hadn’t expected was the inclusion of Morgant.

“Ah! You’re that boy!”

As soon as she entered the room, Este pointed as she recognized the arrogant green eyes and deathly pale black hair. Morgant smiled back and waved at her.

“It’s good to see you again, Este Fallon, Sipher… and Enrich.”