The priest gave a nice speech and several other people did as well. However, Vaile was getting annoyed at the majority of them; they had near openly talked of seizing power or fracturing the organization just a few tens of minutes ago and now they were talking about how they would help the Red Mountain Bandits stay around at the side of ‘The New Tyrant’. Their speeches were a mix of doublespeak, attempted brownnosing and detailed stories about how they were always oh so very loyal.

The bullshitting escalated with every eulogy as it seemed to all that Nora was listening intently to each word spoken. They were all a bunch of idiots to assume that Nora was not the least bit as capable of discerning fact from fiction as Seivalt was. After a good 30 or so people tried to spin-doctor their way into the new regime, Vaile took his turn.

Stepping up to the platform, Vaile cleared his throat and was glad that his outfit hid his face.

“A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away, I was just a man hated by the world. Every day was a struggle to try and survive. It was very difficult to even attempt to grow stronger. I managed to find comrades not in other people like me, but in those who were despised by the ‘Good People’ of the world. Monsters, demons, beasts and nightmarish and eldritch horrors so great and terrible that to look upon them would shatter the mind.”

“Seivalt, at that time, was being hunted by agents and adventurers working for his twisted bastard of a brother. It was something of a mark of honor that I managed to not only find him first, but also save his life. I managed to tail a group of adventurers and then sneak ahead of them. Lo and behold, by the time they arrived to fight Seivalt, he was already out of their reach and their mission ended in a failure. I had stolen adventurer targets from the jaws of oblivion many times before that, but this time in particular was one that filled me with pride. It was then that a beautiful friendship was born.”

“Seivalt was one of the few members of The Races that saw me and did not try to kill me. For a while he was my ace in the hole, a being far more powerful than I was and who was more than capable of dispatching any who tried to take me down. However, all good things must come to an end. The threats grew larger and more potent, and Seivalt began to find himself out of his weight class. Still, he was there for me when I needed to give newer threats that existed in a state like myself a good beatdown.”

“I nearly lost him a number of times, but he always managed to endure beyond the limits of what should have been possible. I remember fondly when he and I took down an entire city’s guard and every citizen who joined in after I was forced to retreat through the area unprepared. I remember how he singlehandedly saved me from death against a full squad of powerful adventurers whose strength would far exceed S Rank in the modern days. When I needed muscle that would not cause alarm, he was there. When I decided to get payback on an Adventurer Clan that had been a massive thorn in my side for a few months, he was one of the heaviest hitters.”

“No doubt he told you stories about me and my exploits, but if I know anything about him it would be that he heavily downplayed his own roles in many of them. I couldn’t steer a ship at all, so he did. I couldn’t hold off adventurers on my own, so he did. If I ever needed something or someone beaten to a bloody pulp in the early days, guess who was the man for the job? I owe Seivalt more than any of you can possibly imagine, which is why my heart aches with sorrow and rage as I stand here.”

“I hate the fact that I got back here only to see him bite the big one shortly thereafter. I hate the fact that he did not get to finish his big, multi-millennia plan to destroy the legacy of his brother. But what I hate the most is that some people thought they could use his death and his descendant’s grief to tear his hard work apart. If Seivalt heard what I had, he might have just clawed his way out of death’s embrace to teach said traitors a lesson. I will never forget my original ace, my earliest and most powerful friend among The Races, and I will never let his great work be unraveled by the short sighted. Farewell, old friend. May the world you go to be better than this one.”

Unlike the other speeches, there was no golf clapping or nodding at the end. Vaile had made it perfectly clear what his thoughts on the people attending the funerary service were, and those who were guilty of what Vaile so eloquently called ‘treason’ knew that since Vaile was the apple of Nora’s eye he could and probably would have them either killed or removed from their positions. At least, that is what they assumed.

Vaile had no interest in taking the reins and was more than content to have Nora do what she wanted. Maybe it was just because Seivalt and the Red Mountain Bandits were more human-like than the Rattan, but Vaile empathized with them a far bit more and was more willing to get angry over things of this nature. Vaile had no interest in ruling anything; his new desire was simply to travel around and see how his Tamed Beings and their descendants were doing. If they needed help, then sure he would do so but only until they crossed a line.

That was why he left the Rattan Under-Empire, after all. They did not just cross the line; they tore it up and used it as toilet paper. That and he did not want to be repeatedly raped by amazonian rat women while under perpetual house arrest. He may have enjoyed some kinks, but being used as breeding stock for sadistic rat monsters was not one of them.

…

As Vaile sat down, Nora rose and walked to the speaking platform. She let her eyes sweep over the crowd and made sure to make a mental note as to the identities of the ones who looked the most perturbed.

“Let’s see you people squirm.” She thought as she kept her rage at their betrayal from forcing its way out of her. She was going to make them regret their actions, one way or another. They would pay for their attempts to undermine everything that the old man had built. Their lust for power had been taken too far, and now that they had exceeded their limits they would fall. And she would make sure they fell hard.

“For now,” she thought, “let’s see how long it takes them to realize what I have in store for them. I wonder if they are observant enough to notice what is going on around them?”