"Are you finally going to deal with the problem I asked you to?" Ajuka Beezlebub asked, his tone slightly dry as he reclined in his chair. Next to him sat a large magic circle, which was conveying his voice to a place far away from his research room.
"I'll get to it when I get to it," An annoyed female voice answered back, and Ajuka sighed.
"If you don't do it quickly, I'll come do it myself," Ajuka replied, his voice even, though there was an underlying threat.
"That wasn't a part of the deal, devil!" The female voice hissed, the annoyance turning into slight anger, "Stay out of that part of the forest. If you want a damn familiar, just come here and get one! Are you seriously afraid of that little pup running around?"
"I'm not the one who wants a familiar," Ajuka stated calmly, still staring at the screen in front of him as he multitasked, "It's Sirzech's little sister."
"Then she can come get one," The female voice growled, "You made me let that annoying 'familiar master' stay here for a reason, didn't you? He can guide her!"
"Be reasonable, Tiamat," Ajuka answered sharply, "If something happens to Rias when she's there, you know what will happen to you, correct?"
The dragon didn't answer for a second, the magic circle being quiet. Then, finally, she let out a mixture of a groan and a sigh.
"Fine, fine… I'll deal with him now, alright? Send the girl over in a couple of days."
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I felt a bit awkward as I overlooked the large graveyard in front of me, watching as Vargan and his three remaining generals - Baldrek, Thrain, and Skarn - all showed their respect for Rurik's grave.
Roughly a week had passed since the end of the war, and my average day had changed completely. Instead of being filled with battles and grinding stats, it was filled with something much more peaceful - kingdom building.
I was in a bit of an in-between situation at the moment. My army was stronger overall than before, but every creature, be it dwarf, succubus, dire wolf, or anything else, was exhausted from the war. They needed time to rest and recover, as well as mourn for their fallen friends.
So, I wasn't in a position to go recklessly challenge Tiamat yet.
In this downtime, now that three out of four of the territories in the Familiar Forest were under my control, I had made use of my newfound power.
First, I had gone throughout the entire previously 'neutral zone' of the forest, which I had claimed for myself. I gathered all the demon chipmunks I could find, increasing the size of Chippy's Chipmunk Platoon multiple times over.
Then, I had ordered them to begin structuralizing the forest. With help from some of the dwarves and cyclops that weren't involved in the war, there was a huge wall being built around the perimeter of the forest.
And, when I say 'huge,' I mean huge. The entire forest itself was thousands of miles long and wide, so it was like trying to build the Great Wall of China all over again. In fact, considering the wall aimed to surround the entirety of the forest, it was like building a bunch of Great Walls of China.
Luckily, the supernaturally skilled chipmunks and dwarves were much faster than primitive humans. There were well over a couple thousand chipmunks in total, as I had gathered literally every single one in the forest, and as a result the wall was coming along nicely.
The wall wasn't needed for anything at the moment, as it was more geared toward the future. Once I took down Tiamat and declared the forest as a serious faction in the underworld, other beings in the underworld would turn their attention to us.
When that happened, I doubted that a big as hell wooden wall would stop even a decently powerful devil or fallen angel, but it was more about sending a message. The Familiar Forest wasn't a place devils could visit whenever they wanted for familiars anymore - it was a fortress.
In that same vein, a smaller portion of the Chipmunk Platoon, which was practically a Chipmunk Army at this point, and the dwarves were working on sturturalizing the inside of the forest.
I worked with some of my new succubi soldiers to clear out the remaining mindless low-level monsters in the rest of the forest, excluding the ones in Tiamat territory. They were either put to work as soldiers or put into one of the many 'Monster Farms' that were being developed to act as food.
Now that the hunting grounds were being emptied out, the land was being used to build homes and the beginnings of a genuine city was forming in the center of the forest. In the same vein, the wall around the Land of Iron was partially destroyed as roads - which were really just stone paths - were being created to lead throughout the forest.
There was also a graveyard built to honor all the soldiers that had fallen during the war near the middle of the forest. I didn't really feel emotional enough to want it built, but Vargan had personally asked that I have a large one built, as the ones in the Land of Iron couldn't fit so many bodies.
Apparently, dwarves lived for a pretty long time, with Vargan himself being, in his own words, 'hundreds of years old'. As a result of that, along with the structure in the Land of Iron, death was not a typical part of life.
In a way, I kind of felt like a settler. The trees were being cut down, the wood turned into homes, and the overall forest-like Familiar Forest was becoming more and more of a city by the day. Under the strict orders from Velrissa and Vargan, all the races were begrudgingly putting aside any hard feelings from the war and forming genuine groups and communities.
Aside from the cornered-off section Tiamat was in, which I still kept my men far from, the Familiar Forest was becoming connected. It was becoming a genuine Kingdom.
Over the past week, I had gained a small sense of pride as I saw the development of the land. Instead of being a king of a small section in a forest, I was the King of a forming Kingdom.
It was also a bit surreal. When I think back to how I first landed in this world - engulfed in a dark forest, fighting for my life as I explored the forest and was tracked down by dire wolves - it almost feels like a lifetime ago, even though it hasn't even been two months.
"Damn it! Damn it!" I glanced to my side, taking in the distressed form of Ragnat.
Compared to the dwarves' more glorified view of death, as they saw Rurik's demise as more of a 'glorious sacrifice' than a murder, Ragnat was much more upset. The wolf prince had been inside the graveyard constantly since it was made, hanging around the graves of his two dead brothers - Ragno and Ragnot.
I didn't take the man to be an emotional one. When Ragnar had died, he was definitely pissed at me for a bit, but he hadn't been particularly sad.
Now, there was a small hole in the dirt around where he was kneeling, having formed from the man banging his fist into the ground over and over again. Sufficient to say, he was very distraught.
I took a couple of steps forward, and he glanced over his shoulder at me as I approached.
"What do you want, Your Highness?" Ragnat spit out, a bit of a bite in his words at the 'your highness' part.
"You're wasting too much time here," I replied bluntly. The man had been spending all his time over the past few days wallowing in despair in this graveyard, and I needed him to get over it.
The dire wolf section of my army had been hit the hardest during the war, and they needed a strong figure head. While they respected me as their King, within an army of so many different races there was a familiarity that came with taking orders from a fellow wolf.
Raya had been doing her best. She was also saddened over the death of her brothers, and I suspected that part of the reason she had initiated the 'fun' a few days prior was to help get over it, but she had kept a strong front in front of the rest of the dire wolves.
But Raya wasn't a fighter. She was intelligent and could give commands and orders better than anyone else I had around, but she wasn't a true fighter. She hadn't been in the depths of the Meadow of Love with the wolves.
While she could act as a strong commander, I needed Ragnat to be a figurehead in a different way. He would be the one leading the wolves in battle, so he couldn't keep wallowing in this graveyard for much longer. The other wolves seeing him like this would kill the morale in a way that would never recover.
"W-What?" Ragnat stuttered at my words, his eyes flashing with anger as he stood up and spun around, "Waste?! My brothers are dead, and you say that visiting them is a waste?! What was a waste was that damn war! They'd still be alive if your selfish self didn't send us into-"
He stiffened as my eyes narrowed at him, his fear overpowering his anger as he composed himself, bowing his head at me, "I-I apologize, Your Highness…"
"It's fine," I shook my head. I would let his outburst slide this time - he was hurting from the loss of his brothers, and I couldn't fault him for it.
"But, you are directing your anger into the wrong place," I said firmly, staring at him with hard eyes. Ragnat glanced up curiously at me from his bowed position, straightening his back.
"Did they die in the war I started? Yes," I stated, my eyes boring into his, "Did they die because I sent them to battle? They did. But, that means nothing."
Ragnat's hand clenched at my words, a slight glare forming in his eyes, "What…"
"There are things in this world that are out of your control," I said bluntly, "You will never be able to control my ambitions, and you will never be able to control whether you must fight or not. That is all for me to decide. All you can do is…"
I stepped forward, jutting my finger into the man's chest roughly and causing him to take a step back, "Control yourself! If you wanted to your brothers to live, then you should've protected them!"
"W-What?" Ragnat gritted his teeth at me, glaring openly, "How can you say this is my fault?! There were too many of them! While you were off in the forest, there were dragons and-"
"Excuses," I cut him off bluntly, narrowing my eyes at him and causing him to stiffen, "Too many? Dragons? I cut the head off two dragons in under a minute, did I not?"
"T-That's…" Ragnat clenched his fist even tighter, blood starting to drip down from his palm as his claws dug into it.
"You cannot control everything in the world, so when there's something you can control, you damn better take advantage of it!" I growled out at him, "Your brothers were right next to you in the forest, but you didn't protect them! You can make every excuse you want, or you can shove all the blame on me! Either way, you were too weak to protect them!"
Ragnat stiffened at my words, his jaw tight as his eyes were hard. I turned around, walking away from the man and leaving him to stew on my words.
"If you want to protect those you care about," I gave him one final statement, "Then stop wallowing in your own despair. If you want to protect them…"
I gave one final glance over my shoulder at him.
"Become stronger."
I walked away, heading back to my palace as I left him to think on my words. Hopefully, that would light a fire in him and get him out of the rut he was in.
I had a lot of stronger subordinates now, but he was still one of my strongest subordinates. And, he was my strongest dire wolf.
"V-Valon! There's an emergency!"
I blinked as I stopped in my tracks, having reached the front of my palace in only a few minutes and about to enter the building.
Raya came barreling out the door, her face panicked and her eyes wide.
"T-The dragon! Tiamat!" She spit out hurriedly, pointing her finger off the side of the mountain at the land below, "S-She's coming! Right now!"
My eyes narrowed at her words, my hand clenching.
Well, I had planned to let my forces recover and grind more stats before I fought her, but…
Nothing ever goes as planned, right?
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out tomorrow!
You can also read chapters before they're posted publicly on Patreon.com/Koyon ! Up to chapter 46 is available there!