Chapter 89: Recruitment – Part 3

Chapter 89: Recruitment – Part 3

I pat Aoi's head as I walk past her. She stores her book and the gold coin she was chewing in her [Item Box] and follows me, Alissa trailing close behind us.

I have a short conversation with Yunia about what we have to do, and she feels a bit sad and disappointed about what I want to say, then immediately feels guilty and starts flustering about silently, trying to get her feelings under control. She's still not completely used to [Bind], which leads to her oversharing occasionally.

None of the commoners know what's going through her mind as she watches the selection with an impassive gaze, her beautiful face stern as always. Her [Acting] is enough to keep this small disturbance of her concentration from being revealed in her expression.

I take an [Eternal Gate] to the main hall and exit the castle, then I feel the desire to rest in one of the private, secluded gardens, but that'll have to wait.

We walk towards the outer gates at a leisurely pace to give Yunia time, gazing up at the Island Winch along the way, its massive size giving me delightful tingles of megalophobia down my spine.

The duels come to an end one-by-one, but Yunia doesn't give the order for more to start, and soon, the sounds of battle die down completely, replaced with the murmuring of the confused recruits.

Hana wipes her brow and conjures water directly on her face to cool herself off. The droplets run along her skin, making her white shirt stick to her skin and allowing her nipples to poke out through the fabric.

She's been helping in the selection, testing the stronger men in single combat, and also showing off our power to the commoners so that they come to respect us.

Yunia stands up, her tight, light blue dress sparkling in the high sun, making Hana salivate. Yunia presses her [Project Voice] magic tool against her throat and asks with a booming and imperious tone, "Enlistees of the Lordsguard, answer me this: who are pledging your loyalty to?"

The men grumble, confused about her intentions.

"Answer me!" She shouts, her voice like thunder.

"Lord Yulania!" Some of them respond with both fear and pride.

"I didn't hear you!"

"Lord Yulania!" More join in, and their voices resound through the open air.

Yunia grips the railing of the balcony in anger and demands, "Louder!"

"LORD YULANIA!" They clamor and cheer, but that quickly dies down when they notice her face warping with anger.

What she's about to say hurts her pride, a lot, but it must be done.

"We're in this together," I reassure Yunia and mount Aoi, then she spreads her wings wide apart and starts to flap.

"WROOONG!" Yunia roars, anger and disappointment igniting into fury.

Aoi flies over the dark wall, then I press a [Project Voice] gem against her neck, and she lets out a deep, guttural roar that activates the fight, flight, and freeze instincts of the crowd. They point at her and cry in fear, but to their credit, nobody runs away.

Aoi makes a tight, banked turn, then pitches down, aiming to crash onto the crowd.

A few of the men panic and a few others raise their shields, but a good number simply stands still. They should've already heard that one of the new Lords has an Azurite dragon, and at least some of them should've understood that the dragon is also a Lord.

Aoi pitches up just in time to shoot over their heads, then I leap off of her and float in the air, waiting in place while she makes a u-turn.

She comes back and stops in mid-air, floating right behind me and blocking Yunia from their sight with her large wings.

I press the gem against my neck and roar, "I AM YOUR LORD!"

The men stiffen, and many of them cringe as they come to understand what they'd just shouted so proudly.

I pause dramatically for a moment and scan through the crowd, searching for the women to see their reaction to me. I find a few cultured women, seemingly knowledgeable about the superiority of draconic cock, and I also notice that there's a surprising amount of non-elves among the crowd, about 30% of the recruits.

"YOU WILL NOT SERVE YULANIA, YOU WILL SERVE ME AND MY HAREM!" I add with a scowl.

To enlist, they first need to name who they wish to serve, and the overwhelming majority of recruits wrote Lord Yulania, not the Ryder family. While it made her very happy to see that there are so many people wishing to serve her, this isn't right. They're simping for her, and that type of person would make for a terrible Lordsguard.

I'm offended that many of them don't even seem to know my name.

"CAN YOU DO IT? CAN YOU BOW TO A NON-ELF? CAN YOU SERVE SOMEONE WITHOUT A SINGLE DROP OF ELVEN BLOOD...?" -I cool down my boiling rage and let my tone become grim- "Can you give your lives for me and my harem...?!"

The crowd is stunned into silence, and I notice that most of the elves have become crestfallen while the non-elves still stand proudly.

Alissa appears on the balcony with Gify on her shoulder and sits down beside Yunia, then Aoi and I slowly descend in the middle of the crowd.

They make room for us, then we touch the ground. Aoi's tail sways about, giving us even more room as the crowd backs off to avoid getting hit.

I draw my elven shortsword and get into a fighting posture.

"DEFEAT ME AND YOU SHALL BECOME YULANIA'S PERSONAL KNIGHT!" I shout, then I remove the magic gem from my neck and put my off-hand behind my back.

There's an unspoken belief that a personal knight is someone with a more intimate relationship with their charge, but that's just an urban myth, though it has the desired effect as Yunia's simps all suddenly become very hopeful.

With a mental nod from me, Roxanne gets up and gathers the healers of our Court.

It's time to do some weeding.

I hold myself back from chopping limbs off, but many throats are sliced open. With 30 points in [Sword Use], [Rush], and my unorthodox [Ekrano Style], I'm unstoppable.

I don't have time for a drawn-out fight, so I just quickly rush in and finish them off after a few blows.

I enjoy hurting Hana and Alissa quite a lot, even going so far as drawing blood, but not with strangers, and not without a sexual undertone.

I manage to keep my claws padded so that I don't ruin the handle of my sword. This small amount of [Soul Manipulation] is very easy for me to keep up even while in battle, so I can at least preserve this ancient elven sword Arreira gifted to us.

A few of the men observing me make me feel a bit wary. They seem to have a calm and confident air about them, and I'd bet that they're former officers or knights. If any of them challenge me, I'll have to change my tactics.

The number of healers belonging to our court quickly increases as they volunteer to heal the challengers, serving as a practical test of their abilities.

Then a familiar-looking old elf steps into the challenge area, and I smile subtly as I use [Sense Soul] on him.

'Soul Info'NameSandoro IrmeRaceGolden ElfLevel61HP100/100MP1,130 | Magic PowerStrength17Endurance17

The officer I fought when we deposed Mavel. I remember that he showed me a small degree of respect after our fight, so I don't think he's here for revenge.

He looks younger than Salbotica, and now that he's not wearing any armor, I can clearly see his athletic build. His eyes are cold, but his new puffy beard softens his look a bit.

Sandoro lowers his head in respect and confesses, "Forgive me, Lord Ryder, but my only wish is to duel with you."

"That's fine. Let's fight," I tersely respond.

He lifts his head and draws his bastard sword, then he pulls a kite shield out of his [Item Box] with a *poof*.

I [Equip] my shield and shift my stance. My tail stops waving about and tenses up, revealing my emotions.

Sandoro lifts an eyebrow at the unknown spell I just cast but remains quiet, then the chatter dies down as the crowd realizes that things are getting serious.

I cover my neck with my shield and rest my sword on it, and he mirrors my posture, then we cautiously advance towards each other.

Our eyes lock together, and we share fearless looks with a touch of sportsmanship.

We reach stabbing range and stop, then we start circling each other to keep our feet moving. A stationary warrior is slow to react.

[Battlefield Perception] triggers, and he [Blink]s forward, so I slide backward with [Telekinesis] and [Block], trusting that the skill will handle it.

The brim of his wide shield comes towards me like a punch, and I let it slide along my scales as I duck, then I slash, and he [Blink]s away.

A small cut opens a hole in his thin shirt, and a red line appears on his chest, but I've only nicked him.

We reform our postures and get into stabbing range again.

This time, we poke and probe each other with cautious attacks. His bastard sword and superior height give him a longer reach, which is a great advantage in this kind of fight.

I need to quickly enter his reach, so I cast [Rush].

I hit his shield with mine right on the brim between his handle and his sword, protecting me from his counterattack while also twisting his shield. It isn't strapped to his arm, so he can't properly control where it's facing if I hit it parallel to the handle's axis.

"Lord Wolf and Alissa demand a meeting with Signeur Caruso," I impatiently state with a glare.

They seem unfazed, not even twitching from Aoi's glare, showing a modicum of training.

"He was expecting you. Follow me," one of the guards flatly responds, then he turns around and opens the double doors while the other steps aside.

I normally wouldn't care about etiquette, but they're being deliberately disrespectful by not addressing us as Lords.

The guard leads us down a corridor and out into a fairly lavish large hall. A set of sofas await us in the middle, and a chubby elf sitting on a large and comfortable armchair stares at us as we approach.

His eyes hold the same faintly contemptuous glare that many elves show when they see us, but his unfit body makes him look like a spoiled, petulant child. Not even the elven diet can withstand the extremes of laziness that the merchant class so often revels in.

Over two dozen lightly armored men stand ready at the walls, an implicit threat in case we intend to try anything, but Caruso is underestimating us. Aoi's size makes some of them nervous, and I believe they know that they'll have a hard time containing her.

We silently sit down on the sofas facing Caruso, and Osaria gives him the stink eye, but he only has eyes for me, which is a bit weird.

Aoi sits on the sofa, too, then the elf standing beside Caruso shoots her a brief glare, and she responds with a toothy grin that partially looks like a snarl, frightening him so much that he instantly looks away.

There's tea set out for us, but I have zero patience for that right now, so I go straight for the jugular, "Signeur Caruso, you don't recognize us as Lords?"

He wrinkles his nose in contempt and spews his words hatefully, "Slavers... I won't recognize your kind until I see Dame Yulania well and sound! She is the rightful Lord, not you!" Spittle flies out of his mouth, and he pulls out a handkerchief to dry his lips. Fortunately for us, his chair is too far for his filthy fluids to reach us.

Osaria already argued with him until her throat hurt, so I won't waste any more time with him.

"So, you're disobeying my order?" I calmly ask, an obvious undercurrent of anger in my tone.

"I serve the Lord, and I don't recognize your authority!" He spews back.

A part of me is angry, while another part of me is so very tired. They unite together for one simple reason: to make this fool learn something very important.

I'm not gentle.

I turn to the very nervous elf beside him, a younger version of Caruso, though they don't look like father and son. "You're in charge, now," I flatly state, then hell breaks loose.

Gify pops out of existence; Aoi stands tall and spews fire in a circle around our position to keep the guards from swarming us; Confiel's man draws his sword and leaps in front of Osaria to protect her; and Alissa casts [Ghost Lights] repeatedly to keep everyone blind. I summon a nature elemental that immediately snatches Caruso with her vines, which I follow up with five earth and two wind elementals to knock everyone else out.

The soldiers all get thrown away and slammed into the walls before they can defend themselves, then even more of them burst into the room, but [Discharge] is enough to leave them defenseless while the elementals continue their pummeling.

Before a full minute can pass, the room clears, then Aoi summons her ball of water and extinguishes the flames from our surroundings.

One of the elementals barrels through a wooden wall, opening a way out for us, so we stand up and calmly leave the building.

The grunts try to attack us in a swarm, but one roar from Aoi is enough to make them stop, and now that they've lost their momentum, none of them have the guts to lead them into a suicidal attack again.

They get out of our way, so we continue on. I make sure that Caruso's mouth is firmly sealed so that he can't spew out any orders. He even tries to eat through the vine gagging him in his struggles, but the elemental just hardens it until he stops.

Caruso's assistant watches us walk away, stunned into speechlessness. Osaria will come here again, with a larger escort, and if they still don't obey, I'll keep arresting them until someone finally does.

We hear the rustling of leaves coming up from below, and I have a hunch that it's the Eia coming for us. We hasten our pace and leave the farm before our income tries to strangle us.

The guards at the gate have looks of utter confusion when we appear, but they silently obey, not wanting to get kidnapped, too.

We have a [Gate] mage teleport us to the outer castle walls, on the opposite side to the selection area, then we enter a Lordsguard barracks, which has an [Eternal Gate] to the dungeon.

We reactivate our underground hotel and check in our first guest for one night, or for however long it takes for his sanity to return.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Prince PreownedFIN.

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