"What happened?"
"The entire legion sire, it-it was lo-lost," The general was stuttering as he informed the Prince of Gumina about the loss of the legion. He was the absolute head of the legion, and due to that, he was the prince's closest adviser.
To his surprise, the prince looked peaceful and relaxed on his seat. He eyed the King on the throne, wondering how it felt to sit there. He wielded so much power but he had never been at the very top. The shot-caller at the very top. He always had someone to answer to. Looking at this King, he wondered if he felt any freedom, but then he remembered that the king answered to him.
The smile on his face made those around him shocked. His usual character was one of anger and breathing fire like a dragon, but today, he sat smiling like a fool. The prince thought of the fact that very few even knew his name.
30 seconds was all the time he needed to feel sorry for himself. His face hardened as he eyed every person on the council with a serious look. He then rested his eyes on a woman seated by one end of the table. He then categorically asked:
"What do you have for me?"
"With respect Your Majesty, we cannot send another troop of wyverns," The woman stated.
"Why not?" Someone on the council asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Another answered.
"Are you telling me that the great beastmaster is afraid of a single archer?" The first councilman asked. Lord Marcus was in charge of logistics, and he held a lot of power. However, he never could see through this woman. What irked her the most was how much latitude the Prince had given her, hence he always sort to undermine her at every turn.
"You of all people should know how much it costs to raise a wyvern to adulthood, to train it until it can follow orders. It is no small thing. We cannot afford to have them shot down if we can avoid it. However, Sire, I do believe I have something of interest." She had been curt to this pretentious fool who so desperately wanted to reign her in, but she submitted to her prince. As she spoke, she unfurled a scroll and laid it before the prince.
It was a portrait drawing of a creature of some sort. From the looks of it, it looked like a snake, However, the scales on its body looked extremely rough, like that of a crocodile. From the portrait, it's maw was open. The teeth were arranged in 3 circular layers.
"What is this monstrosity?" Lord Marcus exclaimed.
"This is Majie, the latest creature in our shelter to successfully reach adulthood. The full size is quite spectacular, I might add." The woman nodded, almost as though she was talking about some cute monkey she saw at the zoo. Lord Marcus grimaced as he listened to her speak.
Part of the reason he was very apprehensive about her was that he had recently learned a secret about her. Something that he had been quick to inform the prince, only to learn he also knew about it and approved of it.
Many people thought of the woman to be a Nature mage on account of her attachment to animals, and maybe she had, but Lord Marcus had uncovered that she was also a witch.
Magic, in general, was amoral, just a source of power and a means to an end. Its morality remained purely on the guys wielding it. However, some forms of magic required a heftier price to pay but delivered greater power. Due to the price they required, they were seen by many as inherently evil and dark. This was what was known as witchcraft, practiced by wizards and witches.
"How big is she?" the prince asked.
"Currently, she is 10 meters long and 2 meters wide. Right now the Tristanites are drunk with victory, thinking they had successfully pushed us away. Let up hit back hard in ways they cannot even begin to fathom!"
"Then let's introduce her to the Tristanites."
***
As the woman had said, the Tristanites were drunk with victory. After running, being forced out of their kingdom and worse of, a humiliating loss, this win served to boost their confidence to a whole new level. After the flanks started taking fire, the general had led everyone else on the campaign into hunting down and killing all the remaining Guminates.
Granted, they still had quite the opposition coming at them, but the rampant confusion in the Gumina ranks coupled with the advanced weaponry of the Tristanites made them not even stand a chance. Many were lost, few managed to getaway. All in all, the infamous hell legion was torn apart.
The fight and subsequent hunt went on for the whole day and part of the night, but as the soldiers returned, they were received as heroes. The whole city was in an uproar as they never imagined victory could be achieved so wonderfully. It was such a far-fetched dream that seeing it come true made many think they were asleep.
Once the full army came back, the court was assembled in celebration and honoring of the heroes. It was on that day that Barda became recognized officially as a Lord. It was not a title he actively looked for, but it wouldn't hurt to have.
His fame skyrocketed as it was discovered that it was he who invented this fancy new weapon. In the court, the Commander had taken out the weapon and done a demonstration. Many had assumed it was a magical weapon made by the mage in the group, but they soon found out it was a forged weapon, a variant of a crossbow.
Looking at the weapon, even King Sahir was impressed as he held it in his hands. Now that the secret was out and the weapon was now known, the King and Queen naturally would get to inspect it. They each held one in their hands viewing them as the symbol for their success.
The shocking thing was up till now, only a select few knew how to make them. Undoubtedly, reverse-engineering the gun itself was not difficult once the competition got their hands on the weapon, but remaking the gunpowder would prove a little more difficult.
"It's so bulky though, if it was smaller and easier to carry, it would be perfect for every occasion," the Queen commented as she inspected.
"I disagree there, my Queen. I rather think if it was bigger, it would be better fo carrying more bolts?" King Sahir commented, unable to take his eyes off the weapon. It was a thing of beauty.
"Sire, you don't need to make it bigger, you just need to carry more of these," Barda said as he showed him the magazine with the bullets.
***
Later that night, Barda came to visit his favorite monarch after spending some time in the workshop. People had been celebrating at the time, but he had mentioned there was something he needed to get done so people just let him go. If you save an entire city from certain doom, you get to do whatever you d*mn well want to.
"I present this to you, Your Royal Highness," By now, the Queen knew that Barda only called her that when he was teasing her, so she had a shrewd smile on her face when he moved his hands to the back and told her to close her eyes.
"What is it?" When she opened them, she was stunned to see what he was holding, although she didn't know what it was. It was made of gold on the outside, but it was small enough to fit a palm. Barda wanted to say that a famous man named James Bond once used such a weapon, but he felt that would do more harm than good. It was for this reason that he had bought the gun in his previous life, and from owning it he had learned its designs.
"Its a gun, made much smaller, as you requested," The Queen was so touched seeing that he had taken her stupid suggestion and made it a reality. She held on close to it with tears welling in her eyes.
"So where is my gift?" Barda asked as he lay in the bed next to the Queen.
"What do you mean?"
"I just gave you a gift, the gun, and I won the war for you. What do I get?"
"What do you want?"
"Trust me you don't want to know the answer to that question," Barda teased good-naturedly.
"No seriously, what do you want?" The Queen turned his face toward him and locked her eyes on his.
"I am going to go out on a limb here and assume we are not talking about gifts anymore," Barda remarked.
"What do you want out of life, out of this?" The Queen asked clearly now, intoning every syllable.
Barda was rescued by a soft rumble, that turned into a deep growl followed by a thundering roar.