67 Aftermath

May 1, 8:32 am, London, England

I stared at the projection, unable to enjoy any of it. I watched the replay of Irade's fight with the bear-man, expression growing darker with every passing second.

By the time Irade lost her arm, my hand was covered in the ink of all the pens I had snapped.

I think, of all the emotions I have felt in my two lifetimes, none confounded me more than confusion.

...

That sounded a lot smarter in my head. Let me rephrase: I hate being confused. I hate not knowing something. It was part of the reason why I became Mage King in my previous world. Well...it would be more accurate to say it was part of the reason I was able to become Mage King. Why I became Mage King was a different story.

But that did matter. What mattered was what I was angry. And I was angry because I was confused.

Why the hell had the HUD updated without my approval?

Before, I had mentioned that I could only give her about three Skills to Irade. At least, that was what I had concluded after my research. However, watching Irade progress so much with just [Flight], made me want to give her more than just three. So I had been digging a little deeper lately, developing a "patch" to upgrade the HUD.

Except for some reason, the patch had gone through during this bear-man battle.

A battle that I had not approved.

"You called for me, sir?"

I looked up to find Ms. Kang walk into my office, face as expressionless as ever. It was all I could do to stop myself from leaving forward and ripping her heart out of her chest. That would probably get her to make an expression.

I leaned back in my seat, and threw up the projection. The fight between Irade and the bear-man started playing.

"Care to explain this?" I said casually.

Ms. Kang stared at the projection for a while. She didn't say anything. I waited, tapping my fingers on the table.

"I will look into this," she said, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"You'll look into this?" I said, unable to keep the edge out of my voice. "You mean to tell me that you didn't authorize this? That this bear-man simply appeared out of nowhere?"

Ms. Kang said nothing. After a while she bowed her head.

"I apologize for my poor choice of words," she said, still bowing. "I simply wanted to say that I will reconsider my actions from now on, to only authorize approved story beats."

"And once again; I apologize for approving this unauthorized story beat."

"What even possessed you to think that I would like something like this?" I exploded, anger getting the best of me. My eyes glowed red; if her answer wasn't satisfactory, I would blast her away. I didn't care about her past accomplishments. They meant nothing in the face of this betrayal.

"Your birthday," she answered quickly. "I merely wished...to give you a surprise on your birthday. I know how much you enjoyed the Naga fight."

I raised an eyebrow. So she sent out the bear-man to fight Irade in order to give me a show...that was sensible enough. My anger was somewhat lessened, now that I knew Ms. Kang's motivations. However…

"My birthday is not for two months," I said, irritated. Her intentions may have been worthy of a good servant, but they were let down by her actions.

Firstly, the bear-man attacked the wolf, which was supposed to have been waiting for Irade at the cave behind the waterfall. The wolf was then supposed to teach her about the water's healing properties, as well as the [Miracle Flower]'s power to substitute for food for days on end. And then, after a little "tutorial boss fight," the two would set out as companions, all the way to Kashgar. While running into all sorts of adventures along the way, of course.

But all of that was ruined now. Because of this mistake. Because of this stupid, unforgivable action of forgetting my birthday.

Incompetence was the worst sin of a servant.

Ms. Kang seemed to know this, and bowed lower.

"My sincerest apologies, my Lord," she said. "It was due to my incompetence and carelessness that the present was released early. Please, feel free to punish me as you see fit."

The more she spoke, the more she soothed my anger. It was as if her voice were a salve to my emotions, smoothing them out, calming me down. My eyes stopped glowing, and I leaned back in my chair, simply watching her keep her ninety degree bow.

Sure, I got to see Ms. Kang bow every day; she was a servant after all. But I'd never seen her bow like this. From Ms. Kang, this was as novel as her smiling.

"Released early?" I questioned.

"The monster was supposed to be released two months from now, but I...miscalculated."

I smirked, anger dissipating into a mist. Ms. Kang admitting she was wrong? Now that was something I had never seen before.

Besides, it wasn't like I could really blame Ms. Kang for my bad mood. The thing that I was annoyed about was the fact that my Patch had gone through and mutated into this...[Left Arm of the Djinn]. I mean sure, that was the ability I was planning to give her, but that had been when she had two arms.

Okay, maybe I could blame her a little for Irade losing and arm. That was not in the plan at all.

But I wasn't done torturing Ms. Kang yet.

"So you're saying that your plan failed?" I mocked. "What went wrong?"

"I underestimated the strength of the monster," said Ms. Kang, still bowing. "That, and his loyalty to me. I was teaching him the ways of human beings, and had told him that he would need some outside experience to truly understand humans. I taught him about other animals, and how it was superior to them. I...made a mistake."

I could see it now. Ms. Kang, training the monster, only to have it break out of its cage and run into the wild. How it was drawn to the wolf due to it's powerful magical aura. How it hunted it down, and managed to meet up with Irade by coincidence. It made sense.

"So this is one of Dr. Larsson's latest beast-humans, then?" I asked. "Why haven't I heard about it yet?"

Silence.

"I-I was told the report had been sent," Ms. Kang stammered. Her body was shaking now; from fear, or from staying bent over for so long, I couldn't tell. "But I...didn't verify."

She bowed lower. I tutted.

"Sloppy, Ms. Kang," I scolded her. "You've been slacking lately. Maybe I should pull some of the funds we've invested from the thriller storyline for this..."

If possible, Ms. Kang bowed deeper. I saw her fists tighten.

"I have failed you, my Lord," she said, her voice impressively even as her body shook. "I will take any punishment you deem fit."

Aaaah. That was the stuff. I had missed acting like a true King. What I would do for a pair of concubines on each arm right now, and a large throne room…

My smile widened into a grin as an idea popped into my head.

"Get up," I told her.

She looked up at me, face still as impassive as ever. It was times like these that I remembered why I liked that face.

"I have a new project for you," I said. "As punishment. If you mess it up, you're fired. I don't care how well you've done until now."

I saw her fist tighten, as she bowed once more.

"Thank you, my Lord," she said.

My grin widened.

"Don't thank me yet," I said. "Not until I tell you what the project is, at least."

Ms. Kang looked up, and took out her tablet to take down notes. I watched her face as I told her what the project would be.

"I want you to build me a flying castle," I said.

I started explaining the proposal for the flying castle as Ms. Kang listened intently. However, at the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think back to the question that had started it all. The question that had not yet been answered.

Why had my patch gone through without my approval?

***

May 1, 9:40 am, London, England

I arrived in my office, just below the Demon Lord's, and sunk into my chair. I stared at the screensaver of my computer for a minute, watching the lines all bounce around.

Then I heaved the biggest sigh of my life and sank back into my chair.

Scary, so scary.

I had been terrified out of my life that entire meeting. I had never seen him so angry before.

He was a monster.

Sure, I had known that when I started this, but that was the first time I had seen him act the part. His rage radiated off him like it was a physical phenomenon. I don't know how I didn't break down in tears in front of that monstrous presence.

I reached up to take off my glasses, only to realize that my entire body was shaking. I laughed; looks like the panic was kicking in now.

I practised the breathing techniques my therapist had taught me, taking a few minutes to calm down. Those few minutes turned into forty-three before I was able to calm down enough to function as a normal human being again. And even then, I had a stomachache. I got the feeling this stomachache wouldn't go away easily either.

No. Focus. I had work to do.

I briefly glanced over the Demon Lord's proposal for a flying castle. Despite the sheer scale of the project, the actual construction shouldn't be too hard. I could get that done quite easily, thanks the Congo's practically unlimited resources.

I set that project aside and turned on my computer, then opened up the program the Demon Lord installed that helped me watch the projections of the heroes. I quickly looked at Irade's storyline, rewinding back to her fight with the bear-man.

I froze the image on the bear-man's face.

"Whoever you are, you're getting in my way," I muttered.

I minimized the window, and started working on 'Dr. Larsson's' notes for the bear-man.