We walked in silence until we spotted Miusin and the ogres further along the path back to Biustarn. The Demon Lord’s daughter was standing away from her brutish companions and hurried over to meet us when she saw us approaching. “I’m so glad you’re both alive, I wasn’t sure if I’d see any of you again.”

I glanced at Elmidath. “It was a close thing, but we’re okay now. What happened to the villagers?”

“I sent them on ahead.”

“What? Why didn’t you go with them?”

“I thought we had more important things to worry about. We still haven’t done what we came here to do, unless you two somehow dealt with the bandits while you were gone?”

Adjusting her clothes slightly, Elmidath stood up straighter. “We haven’t gotten that far yet. Things are far more complicated here than I thought.”

“How so?”

Elmidath and I gave her a quick rundown of what we’d encountered beneath the ground, and what little we knew of its intentions. To her credit, Miusin took it all in without flinching. “And what are we supposed to do about it?”

Her follow-up stopped us both cold. What were we going to do? Though the course of action wasn’t clear, there was one thing that was. “We need to stop this thing before it spreads any further, no matter what.”

Elmidath shook her head. “It’s impossible. You know what it can do, we were lucky just to get out of there alive.”

“Well if we can’t deal with it alone, that just means we need more help.”

“And who exactly do you think is going to help us? No one out there gives a damn about us, at least not anyone with the power to actually do anything.”

The sheer dejection in her voice made it hard to argue. I’d just received a reminder of how cold and indifferent the world could be, but it didn’t have to be that way. “They don’t have to care about us, this problem affects them too. What was the name of the Demon Lord who rules here again?”

“Lord Yueryurn, but you can’t seriously intend to ask him for help.”

“And why not?”

“Well for one, we’re helping his rival usurp him. Besides, I doubt he could do much to help us anyway. We’d need someone a lot more powerful to make a difference.”

“Let’s just take it one step at a time. You trust me, right?”

Despite Elmidath’s sour expression, she accepted my suggestion and we set off. Once we were on the way, I figured I should probably gather a bit of information before we get there. To that end I looked to Elmidath and Miusin. “Do either of you know what this Lord Yueryurn is like?”

Avoiding my gaze, Elmidath fiddled with her armour. “I’ve never met him, but my father said he was a dull cowardly man.”

Miusin’s eyebrows shot up at that. “His land is right next to yours, how have you never met him?”

“It wasn’t necessary, my father dealt with such things while he was alive. What about you? Have you met him then?”

“A few times, though it’s been a while. Lord Biustarn saw fit to conduct the recent negotiation with him without my presence. Lady Sarinknell’s description of him isn’t inaccurate, though I would warn you not to underestimate him. He would never have received or maintained his position were he not capable of a certain degree of cunning.”

“Sounds perfect.”

They both looked at me like I was making a bad joke, though only Elmidath spoke. “What? How? He sounds entirely unpleasant.”

“Sure, but we’re not here to make friends with him. We’re here to convince him of the threat to his lands, in which case him being cowardly might work in our favour.” Though given how reckless the demons I’d met tended to be, I wasn’t sure if their standards of cowardice were anything like mine.

Elmidath’s lip curled in distaste. “Fine. Distasteful as this will likely be, it is probably our best option. Assuming you’re still set on pursuing this.”

“Well what the hell else are we going to do? I really doubt we can just keep running away, unless you want us to abandon all the villagers we already forced out of their homes.”

“Of course I don’t want that, but saving them might be beyond our grasp given what we’re up against.”

“We’ll just have to see then. If Lord Yueryurn won’t help us, then we’ll find someone else who will.” From what I’d gathered, there were a lot of other people out there in the world and there must be some way to reach them if it came to that.

A faint smile graced Elmidath’s lips. “I wish I could be as optimistic as you are. I don’t think things will go the way you want, but I hope they will.”

I wasn’t sure if it was really optimism on my part or simple desperation, but it was nice to get some recognition. “They will, just wait and see.”

We set off for Lord Yueryurn’s residence, pausing to make camp for the night, and arriving the next morning. Compared to homes of other demon lords, Yueryurn’s was a humble affair. It was comprised of a few low buildings around a stout stone tower.

There was, however, no shortage of soldiers present. Four were on guard around the tower, with another dozen or so in the vicinity. I was considering how best to approach, when Aog lumbered forward and squinted at the tower. “Whom have we come to call upon today?”

“Lord Yueryurn, why?”

The ogres both showed their teeth, though I wasn’t sure if it was to signify pleasure or anger. Aog nodded to himself. “What a fortuitous day. We were beginning to question your commitment to our true purpose, but it seems our doubts were misplaced.”

“True purpose? What are you talking about?” I glanced at Elmidath to see if she had any idea what they were referring to and found pure dread etched upon her features.

“Perhaps you struggle to grasp the importance of the task at hand, I suppose it can only be expected of someone of your limited faculties.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m dumb, whatever. Just explain what the hell you’re talking about.”

The ogre’s leathery brow crinkled in confusion. “I am referring to the very thing that brought us together in the first place; the quest to destroy the foul lord of this land.”

“Ah.” I’d forgotten all about that. By the way the ogres were hefting their clubs and stomping their feet, it seemed like they were about to fly off the handle at any moment. I needed to regain control of the situation as quickly as possible. “I realize this must be difficult, but we need Lord Yueryurn’s assistance. We will have to settle your grievance with him at a later date, without him this whole land may fall to darkness.”

It was a bit of an overly dramatic way of putting it, though not inaccurate. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to go over too well with Aog who was already trembling with rage. “You deluded puddle of insolence! How dare you presume to dictate what is right and proper. Do not presume to lecture me when you know nothing of our campaign to rid this world of evil. Your trifling concerns are nothing when weighed against the most virtuous of causes.”

“If you’re trying to destroy evil, then how can you ignore the creeping darkness?” I knew there was probably no point arguing with them, but I couldn’t help myself. “You’ve already seen the ruin it will bring; how can it not be evil?”

Gurk, who’d spent most of the conversation alternating between glaring at me and at the Demon Lord’s home, burst out in guffaws. “Your absurdity is beyond all expectation; I had never conceived that you harboured such ludicrous notions. Tempting as it is to split your head open for your insolence, you are simply too amusing. At least for the moment.”

The ogre took a deep breath and regained some measure of his composure. “I shall provide you the most basic of educations, which your society has clearly failed to do. You see, at the crux of your conflict with this darkness, is the issue that it does not affect us in any way. Therefore, it cannot possibly be evil.”

“What does that matter? It’s evil because it will harm other people.”

Gurk shook his head. “That’s precisely why it is not evil. If it does not affect us, then what possible significance could it have?”

I knew the ogres were awful selfish creatures, but it hadn’t occurred to me that they had no concept of helping others. How did we ever end up working with them? I didn’t see how we could possibly fix such a vast gap in understanding. Once again, I wished we could just be rid of them without any further problems, but I doubted there was any way to achieve that.

If we left things as they were, at worst the ogres would attack us and at best they’d attack Lord Yueryurn instead. Out of ideas, I turned to my link with Elmidath. “You got us into this, what are we going to do now?”

“We could just turn them loose and let them have their way with Yueryurn. It would make whatever Biustarn is planning a lot easier here.”

“Yeah, we’re not doing that. At least not until we’ve exhausted our other options.”

“Fine, then how about this; we could tell them the lord is somewhere else.”

“You really think that will work at this point? They’re not stupid.”

For all their faults, they could be rather perceptive at times. If only they were as stupid as they looked, then this would be a whole lot easier.

“I guess not. What do you think they’ll believe then?”

Their mindset was alien enough to me that I had trouble grasping what they were likely to believe. They’d swallowed some ridiculous lies in the past, but there was no guarantee that would work again. “Is there any chance we could tell them the truth?”

“Only if you want them to turn on us immediately. I suppose that would save us some trouble in a way. We’d either die or be rid of them.”

Deprived of Shotensho’s power, I wouldn’t be much use if it did come to blows and that left Elmidath to deal with the both of them. We’d faced worse odds, but we’d still be taking a big risk. “Fine. But if we’re going to lie to them again, we should at least make it something that won’t come back to bit us this time.”

I couldn’t come up with any particularly compelling lies, so I went with what would be most directly helpful to us. Assuming they believed it. “How about we tell them that the darkness is ultimately responsible for all this? At least they’d be fighting with us then, if they actually believe it.”

“I guess it’s worth a try, there’s no telling what they might believe. You can handle it then, it’s your idea after all.”

Oh, great, just what I needed right now. Whatever good humour the ogres had before had already faded, and they were once again regarding the world around them with naked hostility. Seeing that Aog had brought it up in the first place, I addressed him directly. “I can only apologise for my previous misunderstandings, but I have new information to share.”

Their nonsensical grumbling ceased and the ogre gripped his club tightly. “Your apology only serves to demonstrate your inadequacy. I shall listen to you for a little while longer and then there will be blood.”

He didn’t specify whose blood, though it wasn’t difficult to guess. “We were mistaken earlier, when we told you that Lord Yueryurn was the root of all this. The truth is that he was controlled by the same dark force aligned against us. Therefore, the only way to wipe this evil from the world is to cleanse the darkness wherever we can. Lord Yueryurn is not responsible for what happened earlier. In fact, he’s our best asset to righting this wrong.”

I thought I did a good job of explaining it in terms the ogres would understand and they seemed to be taking it in. At the very least, they were both silent as they thought it over. Hopefully that was a good sign.

Stroking a protruding tusk, Aog lowered his club. “While that would mean it was a worthy target for the wrath of the righteous, that does nothing to erase the debt Yueryurn owes us. He must pay for his foul deeds with his life, there can be no other way.”

Gurk grunted in agreement. “If he was weak enough to be controlled, then he is every bit as guilty.”

Well that was a total failure, I should have known the ogres wouldn’t care the least bit if he was acting out of free will or not. All they cared about was how it impacted them. That was simple enough, but how was I meant to change their minds then? There was no way they’d accept that I’d just been wrong about everything. Was there? They clearly had a low opinion of me; perhaps I could use that to my advantage. “Actually, while we’re talking about it, it occurs to me that we were wrong about Lord Yueryurn all along. He didn’t have anything to do with any of this, it was all the darkness’ fault.”

My heart beat madly in my chest as I delivered the bald-faced lie. There had to be some limit to what they’d believe and I’d surely strayed beyond that some time ago. I was already dreading their answer when Aog opened his gaping maw.

“You are truly a being of incomparable incompetence.”

Gurk nodded. “An oaf of outrageous obtusity.”

“A stupendous display of stupidity.”

I raised my hands to forestall their litany of insults. “Yeah, I get it, I’m dumb. Are we good or not?”

Aog shrugged. “Assuming you’re correct this time, then it appears our fury was perhaps misplaced. Are you certain this darkness is responsible for our horrendous mistreatment?”

“Absolutely.”

I glanced at Elmidath, who took the cue. “Everything we’ve learnt over the past few days has pointed towards this, so we’re fairly confident.”

Scratching his head, Gurk looked us over. “For what reason did you delay in providing us with such crucial information? It seems nonsensical.”

Elmidath looked like she wanted to reply, but I already had the perfect response. “It just slipped my mind until now; you know how we are.”

“I suppose such negligence is to be expected of you. It’s something of a miracle that your stupidity has yet to get you killed, though I am sure the ludicrous details of your death will entertain us in the coming days.”

Aog scratched the thick scales around his neck. “Indeed, that is one of the few things regarding you about which we can be sure. It will bring us much amusement, there can be no doubt.”

“Great, I’ll try to not to disappoint you when I do get around to dying.”