I stood beneath the manor, staring up at the main building as I tried to think of what to say. What did I even want to change? Ideally, I wanted to back to my peaceful life, maybe even return to earth, but that was probably out of the question. It hadn’t worked the last time I’d asked and I doubted it would work this time.

Maybe the leaf girl was right about me needing something to look forward to, was there some goal I could set? What even were Elmidath’s goals? All I really knew was that she wanted to succeed her father, largely out of pride. She’d already done that, so what came next? And what was motivating her in the first place? If it was little more than her desire to above others, then maybe death was the best option after all. The only way to find out if there was more to her than that, was to ask.

Deciding that there wasn’t much point thinking about how the conversation would go when I had so little idea of what she would say, I went inside and sought her out. I found her in her uncle’s former room, surveying her latest conquest. “I need to talk to you.”

She looked up, frowning. “What is it?”

I took a breath as I wondered how best to broach the subject, and decided to just jump straight in. “What was the point of all this?”

“All of what?”

“All this fighting. What did we really gain out of it? Was it really just so you could take control of your father’s lands?”

She shrugged. “Is that not reason enough?”

“No, not for me. I get why you might be personally invested in all this, but it doesn’t do me any good. To be honest, I don’t see how it benefits anyone other than you.”

She walked past me and sat down on the bed. “You’re probably right.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I said, you’re probably right. I probably am the only one who benefited, if you can even call it that. The more I think about it, the more it feels like all I’ve done is create a mountain of problems for myself.”

“Then why did you do it? Why go to so much effort and risk both our lives?” Not to mention all the people who’d died along the way.

Closing her eyes, Elmidath paused for a while before replying. “What do you think of this world? You should have been here long enough to form an impression.”

I didn’t even have to think for that one. “It seems horrible.”

“And what about it seems horrible?”

“Mostly all the violence, what’re you people even fighting over? Useless scraps of land?” I didn’t really agree with the empire building that had gone on in my old world, but at least some people stood to benefit from it. The fighting here didn’t seem to help anyone.

“Not exactly, that’s just a means to an end. Also, the land isn’t exactly useless, but that’s beside the point. In my opinion all those who conquer do so for fundamentally the same basic reason; to reshape the world in their vision, even if only in a small way.”

It was fine talk and all, but what did it actually mean in the real world? “And? What’s your vision then?”

She looked down, drawing circles on the bed with her finger. “I’m still kind of figuring that out. My father used to talk about unifying the demons, rather than squabbling amongst ourselves for territory. There’s probably no way I can do that, and even if I could it would be a very long way off, but I think it’s a nice idea. At the very least, I’d like to try and make life a little more peaceful for my father’s subjects. Well, my subjects now.”

“And this was the best way to do that? Seems to me like they would’ve been better off with your uncle in charge.”

“It’s possible, but I really do believe he would’ve led them to ruin. He was no fool, but he was selfish and short-sighted.” Closing her eyes, Elmidath rubbed her forehead. “In all honesty when I decided to try to take back my father’s title, I fully expected to die. Either in the process, or shortly afterward. It was only when we met Lord Biustarn and he agreed to an alliance, that I started to think there was a chance.”

I shook my head, so she thought she’d just been committing an elaborate form of suicide? What a ridiculous choice. “If you thought you were going to die, why did you even go through with it?”

“Because,” she raised her head and drew herself up, “it was either that, or I give up and submit. And I refuse to dishonour the memory of my father like that.”

I still wish she hadn’t drawn me into all this, but there was no point focusing on that past. Though I didn’t exactly agree with her thought process, her reasons weren’t all that bad. Certainly better than I’d initially thought. “Well, what’s the plan now? Because at this rate we, and your remaining subjects, aren’t going to survive very long.”

“I realise that, and I do have a plan, but it will require a bit of a leap of faith on our parts. As we no longer have any troops of our own, we are essentially going to have to throw ourselves on the mercy of Lord Biustarn. No doubt he’ll demand a lot in exchange, we just have to hope it’s within our means to repay.”

“Is there no other way we can get more soldiers?”

She sighed. “I wish that there were, but without powerful allies or powerful incentives I’m afraid it’s all but impossible. At least for now.”

“What about mercenaries?” I assume her uncle must’ve left some wealth behind.

“I’m not familiar with that word.”

“Unaffiliated soldiers that will fight for pay.”

“No, there’s no one like that around here. Everyone that can bear arms is already working for one lord or another.”

“Fine, then let’s win over Lord Biustarn.” Our chances still weren’t great, but I felt significantly better about my situation than I had earlier. Having just a little bit of hope made a great deal of difference, and I seemed to have reached some kind of understanding with Elmidath.

“Then we’ll discuss it over dinner.” When I was nearly out the door, she added, “Though my apology isn’t worth much, I’m sorry for bringing you into all this. I kind of assumed your world would be similar to this one, but that’s clearly not the case.”

She was right, her apology wasn’t worth much. Regardless of what she said, it didn’t change anything. Still, it seemed like what she was saying was genuine. “Neither of us can change what happened, there’s no point worrying about it now.” And with that I left to clean myself and relax before dinner. After how exceedingly long the day had been, I wished I could just go to sleep but our work wasn’t done yet.

The manor’s servants, having concealed themselves about the building and taken no part in the fighting, had come through unscathed at least. They accepted Elmidath’s rule with a weary resignation, scarcely speaking a word on the subject. I imagined they must’ve been through this sort of thing at least once before when Elmidath’s father had died. More if they’d come from another household like Korzan had.

They’d removed the body of the late Lord Sarinknell and cleaned his former room. After a quick meal, thrown together by a few of the servants between cleaning up, Elmidath dismissed the servants. “I’ll be brief, I intend for us to leave the manor tomorrow.”

I blinked. “What?” We’d only just reclaimed it and now she wanted to leave?

She paced back and forth. “I can understand your surprise but we have little choice in the matter. Korzan can stay here and manage the rest of the clean-up in my stead, I trust her to handle that much at least.”

That much made sense but she’d yet to touch on the most important issue at hand. “Where are we going?”

Looking askance at me, she halted midstride. I watched as recognition dawned in her eyes. “Ah. Apologies, I’m getting ahead of myself. We’re going to pay Lord Biustarn a visit and try to secure what aid we can.”

“So we’re just going to leave the manor undefended?”

Elmidath bit her lip. “It’s practically undefended as it is, you and I aren’t enough to resist another serious incursion. I know it’s a risk to leave but it’s one we have to take, there are simply no other options available to us for acquiring additional manpower.”

“So that’s it then?”

“More or less. Make sure you’re ready by tomorrow morning, we’ll be leaving early.”

I struggled to keep from grimacing. Of course we wouldn’t have any time for rest. I was leaving the room when Elmidath added one last thing. “You did well today, I wouldn’t have gotten through it without you.”

There was a stiff formality to her words but they still brought the slightest smile to my face. Not turning around, I went back to my room. As terrible as the day had been, the brief bliss I experienced as I finally got a chance to sleep almost made up for it.

Waking the next morning, I reluctantly pulled myself from my bed’s warm embrace and went to face the world. Looking out the window, I realised it was later than I’d thought, it must already be approaching midday. Figuring Elmidath was sure to be angry at my tardiness, I hurried off in search of her.

I interrogated the first servant I encountered as to her location, but the harassed looking woman said she hadn’t seen Elmidath since last night. The next person I spoke with said much of the same and I was left wondering where on earth she could be. Had she gone below ground again for some reason? I descended into the cellar and the tunnels beyond. Finding Tagath working away in the central chamber, I cleared my throat to get his attention. He looked up and quirked an eyebrow. “Yes? What is it?”

“I was wondering if you’d seen Elmi-“ I stopped and corrected myself, figuring she’d prefer I not refer to her by her first name to others. “Lady Sarinknell.”

“No, not since the battle yesterday. How did you think that went, anyway?”

“Well enough, I suppose. A lot of people died but Lady Sarinknell is in charge of the manor and we defeated the attacking force.” I wasn’t sure how he’d view that trade but it was far from a great one in my mind.

He shook his head, looking down. “That tends to be the way of these things, unfortunately. But what’re you going to do, eh?”

“I suppose it was kind of inevitable, given the circumstances.” It still sucked though.

Tagath sniffed. “Anyway, is there anything you or your lady require of me?”

“Not as far as I’m aware. We’re both going to be leaving for a while but Lady Sarinknell will probably have more work for you when we get back.”

“Understood, then if it’s all the same to you I’ll continue with my current projects until then.” He turned back to whatever he was working on; some sort of clockwork contraption by the looks of it.

A little taken aback at the abrupt end to the conversation, I walked back upstairs and went back to thinking about where Elmidath might be. She wasn’t around the manor or underground… was she busy preparing something in her room? Getting so caught up with planning that she didn’t notice the time sounded like something she might do.

I knocked on her door and waited. When no response came, I waited and tried again. Hearing nothing whatsoever from within, I tried the door and to my surprise it opened. Between the empty chair by the writing desk and the large, made bed on the other side of the room there was no sign of her. Had she left without me?

I can’t imagine why she would have. Had something changed while I was sleeping? Tired of the fruitless search and my equally fruitless speculation, I called upon my connection with her to appear beside her. Everything went black and I reappeared beside the bed.

For a moment I thought my ability had malfunctioned, then I spotted the shape beneath the cover and I realised I could hear Elmidath’s breathing. I snorted in amusement. After all that, she’d just slept in. Some Demon Lord she was. It was a little ridiculous but probably could use the sleep, and more importantly I knew I could. I quietly closed the door and went back to my room.