Chapter 85: The other queen of darkness

-Felias-

"Tell me, Salama, is it true that the impostor Arana has been herding around killed... what was his name again?"

"Kalroth."

It is clear that I have been far too lenient with Arana. I let her be when she decided to run away, even after hearing that she had found some fake 'queen of darkness' I still wanted to believe that she was not trying to stand against me. But this time she's gone too far.

Helping an idiot in taking control of the demon wasteland and then killing him to take his place was MY plan. I needed to do this in order to get a foothold in the southern continent, most people there don't even know about me. There's no longer any doubt, she's really trying to use that impostor to stop me from fulfilling my destiny.

"Just what is that brat thinking?"

"Well, she's the witch of light after all. It's normal for her to want to stop you from breaking the rules."

"Bah, those rules are just holding us back."

The six witches have a great deal of power and influence around the world, but few people even know that we exist. For 2000 years we have been influencing the fate of entire nations from the shadows, which naturally lead to some questions about the morality and potential dangers of our actions, and that's why our most important rule was to never attempt to obtain direct power and become an actual ruler.

But just looking at the results of our work it should be obvious that such a restriction is entirely unneeded. Thanks to our influence, the number of major wars has been kept low, many evil practices such as slavery are a thing of the past, and the living conditions of the average person are much better than they used to be. Isn't it obvious then that if I become the absolute ruler of the world I will be able to stop ALL wars, destroy ALL evil, and transform the world into a perfect paradise?

Arana didn't understand. She told me that the progress the world has made has been thanks to many different people, that we only helped a little. And then she gave me a list of individuals who believed they could create a utopia if they had more power, only to end in disaster every single time... But that only happened because none of them were perfect! None of them were ME!

"Felias, you've been staring at nothing for a while now. Did you get lost in your delusions again?"

"Do you think that we can believe Cureva's report? If the impostor truly has the 'queen of darkness' title, her dark magic should be at rank 20. Am I supposed to believe that Arana somehow found some other artifact or something that could raise her rank?"

"Well, Cureva seems to believe that she did it with nothing but talent and hard work."

"That's ridiculous, even I was only able to reach rank 14 before absorbing the power of the seed of darkness. The idea that some random woman was able to reach rank 20 without some form of cheating is absurd!"

"Yeah, if there was someone as exceptional as that you'd think that there would be a prophecy about her or something."

"Salama... What are you trying to insinuate?"

"Nothing, nothing!"

Bah, I'll worry about Arana later, let's focus on the job I need to do right now.

My sister and I just entered the capital of the Pushver kingdom, a small country just south of Mekria. We're heading to the castle to pay a surprise visit to the king. Since we do not want to be found out until it's time, we're both wearing cloaks and trying to be as discrete as possible.

Even if we are witches, our appearance matches the races of the originals. This means that I look like an elf and Salama looks like a fox beastkin. Both are exceedingly rare around here, so we made sure to properly hide our features. And yet, people keep staring at us.

Or rather, they're staring at Salama. That's why I told her to wear a black cloak like mine instead of that bright red one. Then again, considering what everyone is staring at, it's clear that the cloak is not the problem.

They're staring at her chest.

"Is that what you call being discrete?"

"Fufufu. There's nothing I can do about it, even if I add more layers of cloth it's still noticeable. How troublesome..."

"If you find it troublesome, why did you laugh?!"

Bah, those breasts are so large that they look more like a deformity. It's just natural for them to draw people's attention at first, but after the initial shock, it is my beauty that they would rather admire and-

"LET ME GO!"

"Stop fighting already and come with us!"

"I DIDN'T STEAL ANYTHING!"

Right in front of the castle, there are a bunch of guards apprehending a young woman.

"What exactly is happening here?"

One of the guards turns around to glare at me.

"Who are you?! This is none of your business!"

"I cannot just ignore someone being kidnapped in front of me."

"This is an arrest! She tried to steal my sword!"

"That's not true!"

Stealing his sword? Is that really the best they could come up with? Seeing how pretty this girl is it's obvious what their true intentions are. Well then, this might be a good way to enter the castle.

"You seem to be mistaken, I'm the one who stole your sword."

"What are you-"

He seems surprised at seeing his sword in my hand, didn't even notice when I took it.

"Arrest me instead of that girl."

"Who do you think you are?! Why would we want you-" The guard seems to notice Salama standing behind me for the first time. "You! You are the real culprit!"

Perhaps it would be better to kill him right now and save time...

"Oh, my. It seems like I got caught."

Salama does not seem particularly upset...

In the end, we managed to get them to leave that other girl alone and we both got 'arrested'. They didn't even bother restraining us in any way, just how stupid are they? Shouldn't they be suspecting that something is off about us?

The guards take us to meet their captain, a man with no eyebrows who's wearing jewelry that no guard on duty would normally wear. It also looks far too expensive for what someone of his level should be able to afford, it looks like falsely arresting women is not the only crime he's guilty of.

"Looks like you got yourself into some serious trouble miss," he says to Salama, ignoring me entirely.

"Oh no, I'm so scared," Salama replies with a completely deadpan face.

"Don't worry, if you're willing to do some work I could let you go just this time."

"No, I think that I would rather have a proper trial."

"Are you sure? Someone like you could even get some money out of this."

"I already have enough money, I think I'll pass."

"Hey! Who do you think you're talking to?!"

The idiot gets suddenly angry for no good reason and tries to reach for Salama's chest. But before he can grab her, he abruptly moves back and screams in pain.

"URGH! WHAT WAS THAT?!"

His hand got burnt badly by Salama's fire magic, but he's too stupid to even realize what happened.

"I've already seen enough, you're nothing more than walking trash."

"What?!"

He was already angry because of the pain, and my insult causes him to lash out and try to slap me. With his burnt hand...

"AGH!"

Such a lack of self-control... Naturally, he cannot harm me with his low strength. Even if his hand had been fine, he would have only hurt himself.

With a small push of my mana, I cause him to fall on his back. It seems like at long last he's starting to figure out that he's dealing with someone dangerous, and his expression turns into fear.

"Hey, you! Use the appraisal stone to figure out her level!"

The guard he spoke to checks my level and then his face turns pale.

"H-her level... It's 560."

"What?! That's impossible! Don't tell me that you are..."

"I am the queen of darkness."

After learning my identity, the captain begins to pathetically crawl on the floor away from me.

"Please spare me! I will give all the money I've stolen to you!"

What a disgusting creature... that really was the last straw.

'Shadow blast'

A single spell is all it took, there's no trace left of the man or the half of the room he was in.

"Felias... That was far too hasty. Shouldn't you stop to think a bit more before you kill someone?" Now Salama got upset.

"Bah, what's the point in waiting? I am the one destined to rule the world, it's only natural for me to be able to identify trash at a glance."

I then turn to look at the other guards, who are staring at me with pale faces.

"P-please, we were just following orders, we don't-"

"Take me to your king, I need to have a talk with him."

When we start walking, one of the guards runs ahead, probably to give a warning. Indeed, when I see the king, he has a dozen of his strongest knights with him.

"So you are the queen of darkness? Why did you come here?"

"First of all a question. Are you aware of the crimes your guards have been committing inside of YOUR castle?"

"What?! What crimes?!"

"That's what I thought... An incompetent ruler can sometimes be even worse than an evil one."

"Incompetent? Me?"

"Yes, that's why I've decided to take your country from you."

'Dark flare'

The blimps from Mekria are equipped with some wind magic enchantments that can hide them from sight. Nobody in this country noticed them as they flew all the way into the capital and on top of the castle. When I cast the spell that serves as a signal, a large number of walking machines jump from the four blimps and irrupt into the castle. They tackle the knights that are protecting the king and easily take their weapons.

"Are those metal golems?"

"Do not mistake them for mere golems, these are robots, but let's get to the point. From now on this kingdom will become a new province of Mekria. You'll be allowed to keep the title of king, but someone else will be in charge."

"You cannot just come here and say that the country is now yours! What right do you think you have?!"

"Right? This is not a right. This is a duty."

"A duty?"

"This should not be difficult to understand. The most basic principle of morality is that the strong need to protect the weak and the wise need to guide the fools. Nobody in the world is stronger or wiser than me, so ruling the world is my duty."

"You are mad. Do you expect us to just surrender without a fight?"

"Oh? Do you WANT a fight?"

The king takes another glance at his easily defeated knights and then looks at the floor.

"No, I don't."

Of course, there's nobody who could fight me. After all, I wield both the power of the old gods and the weapon that was used to destroy them. Conquering the world should be an easy task.

And no impostor will be able to steal my throne from me.

forli

One thing I wanted to do with Felias was giving the impression that Luna could potentially become like her if she were to lose her humility. I wonder if anyone got that impression when reading this chapter.