"What are you waiting for? Heal me already!" Bradley bellowed. "Or was that last lesson not enough? I'll give you both a fucking worse punishment if you continue to dawdle about!"
"There's nothing to fear," a familiar voice came from the top of the stairs. Everyone turned to look upward and saw Stella Nightsworth strolling down the stairs. She tilted her head toward the fallen Bradley. "Right now, the both of you are free. He's just a barking dog. Are you sure you want to help him, even after all the brutal things he had done to you?"
There was hatred and resentment in the two priestesses' faces. They kept their hands raised and pointed accusingly at the stunned Bradley.
"Why should we help you?" the brown-haired priestess demanded. I assumed she was Selina, and she had a beauty to her that reminded me of a graceful feline. "You raped us, robbed us of our innocent and violently abused us. Even now, you're threatening us! Do you still not understand your predicament?"
"That's right!" the blond priestess added, her usually pretty face contorted in rage, and her usually snow-white skin flushed red. This must be Karen. She jabbed a finger angrily at the shocked Bradley, her other hand on her hip. "I didn't sign up for this! When they told me I was going to be assigned to a famous knight from the strongest Hero party, I thought he would be more handsome…kinder and gentler! How dare you betray my expectations?! I want to speak to the manager!"
Bradley recovered from his stupor and tried to lunge at them. An impossible feat, considering that he was missing two arms and a leg.
"How dare you?!" he roared. "When I get my hands on you, I'll kill you both! I swear, I will…!"
"How are you going to get your hands on them when you don't have any?" I asked amused. He turned purple with rage and fear, looking back at me with a quiver.
"I…I…"
"Do you need a hand? How about I give you a leg up?"
Casually swinging my sword, I hacked off his last limb. He howled in agony as blood poured out from his stump, but I sealed the bleeding with ice. I didn't want him to die just yet.
After all he did, he didn't deserve a quick and easy death.
"You are free," I told the two priestesses, who were watching Bradley suffer, satisfaction in their eyes. "You can leave. If any of the demons stop you, tell them that you are civilians and have no intention of fighting. They'll let you go."
They stared at me, stunned, and then bowed their heads. They didn't seem to believe what I was saying, but when they glanced at Stella, she nodded at them encouragingly. Evidently Selina and Karen trusted the red-haired knight more. They then hurried out of the back door.
Before they disappeared, Karen ducked her head back in to yell at me.
"If they attack us, you can be sure that I will speaking to the manager about this!"
"I am the manager," I replied. Her face changed color and she hurried away, partially because Selina was impatiently pulling her away.
"Sorry for taking so long." Stella approached me and sheathed her sword. "I was delayed because the two priestesses were being escorted by Commander Cornell. He was quite the formidable opponent."
"Yet you defeated him." I was impressed. I then noticed the blood on her armor. "Are you all right?"
"Yes. Selina and Karen healed me shortly after I defeated Cornell." She then turned to the half-frozen Bradley, who was whimpering in pain. "You don't plan to kill him?"
"Not yet. There's someone I want him to meet. He can die after that."
Retrieving my whip, I then sheathed Blood Angel. The crimson sword was supposed to boost my blood magic, which explained why my regenerative abilities were so powerful. Even if I drank blood, such a fatal wound normally wouldn't be healed in seconds. Placing a hand on the hilt of Blood Angel, I conjured a bunch of blood-red strings that bound Bradley's Daruma doll-like body and hoisted him into the air. The strings appeared to crawl across the ground, transporting the bugger.
Good thing I had a lot of practice, using my blood magic to help transport concrete, debris and other heavy material during the five days of constructing a highway through the cave previously. I had been doing that while simultaneously pushing barrows of liquid cement (which would be bad if I mixed blood with them, so I didn't use blood magic for that).
"I have captured your duke!" I announced to the knights outside. Less than twenty percent of them had survived, and their morale broke when they saw the pathetic state of their leader. A few of them discarded their weapons and held their hands in surrender.
Most of them slumped to the ground, losing their will to resist.
"We surrender," one of them shouted, almost in tears. "Please…please spare our lives."
I pushed my glasses up my nose and stared at them. The knight offering surrender, in particular, I recognized him. Wasn't he the one who cut off the arm and leg of the poor man a week ago? The one who begged to see Duke Bradley? All because he "trespassed" upon the duke's property?
"No." I turned to the orcs and kobolds. "Kill them all."
"W…why? You can't do this!" the knight shouted. I glared at him.
"Then let me ask you this. When your victims begged for mercy, did you spare their lives? Did you stop raping women in the city when they asked you to?"
"O…of course…"
The knight then screamed in pain when two blood stakes surged from the ground and sliced off his arm and leg.
"No, you didn't. Do you not remember me? I was there when you cut off the arm and leg of a man begging for mercy, refusing to let him into the estate even though he requested to see Duke Bradley. If I wasn't there to stop you, you would have cut off his head too." I placed a finger on my chin and smiled. "And I remember you asking me if I thought I could go, and ordering me to come back here."
I smiled and spread my hands.
"So I'm back here."
"You…"
Horror filled the knight's eyes when he finally remembered who I was.
"The only fate awaiting liars is hell," I said and clenched my fist. Well, I was a liar, but that was such a cool line, so I couldn't resist saying it. Sue me. In any event, the knight died when several blood stakes impaled his body from the ground, rupturing his organs. I then turned to the demonic legion, who was blinking in horror. "There's no reason to let scum like them live."
"You heard him," Silvia said softly. "Kill them all."
With their general confirming the order, the demons didn't hesitate to carry out the executions. The cries of human knights filled the air.
Outside, rather than being haunted by the cruel noise, the civilians of Bravia City celebrated.
*
Stella bowed her head as she paid her respects toward a tombstone. Atop the surface, a single name was engraved.
Shirley Nightsworth.
Kneeling in front of the tombstone, Stella laid a single flower upon the mound, and then she clasped her hands in prayer.
"Sister, Klein has avenged you. You can rest in peace now."
Despite her smile, tears streaked down her face. She wiped at her blue eyes, even as a gentle breeze caused her long, scarlet hair to sway slightly.
I also lowered my head and mouthed a single, silent prayer. Then I cleared my throat.
"Technically, I haven't avenged your sister yet."
"You have crippled and captured Duke Bradley, humiliated him and destroyed his reputation. You have conquered his city. I would say that's more than enough."
"No, it's not. The revenge isn't complete yet." I grinned. "You're more than welcome to witness the final part of the revenge, once we're done here."
As arranged, Bravia City was now a principality of the Demonic Empire. True to my word, I had ensured that the civilians emerged from this unscathed. Under the new reforms instituted by Silvia Winters, the heavy taxes had been waived temporarily, and they would be heavily reduced once they were finalized in two months. All those humans who wished to leave Bravia City and remain part of the Havan Kingdom were allowed to do so.
Over the last couple of days, many convoys had been streaming out of Bravia City. Despite their delight at the fall of the tyrannical duke and his corrupted knights, the humans still couldn't bring themselves to trust the demons, and they departed without any hesitation.
To my surprise, the majority of the Bravian citizens opted to stay and become subjects of the Demonic Empire instead. The apothecary mumbled something about it being troublesome to move his clinic elsewhere, while the old man at the tavern relished "new business opportunities" and wanted to expand his services to include demons.
Selina and Karen had joined the convoy, probably to report to the church. They didn't recognize me, not having fought alongside the Heroes and soldiers during the war against demons, so there was no danger that they would leak the fact that I was still alive to the Havan Kingdom.
Nonetheless, Silvia was aware that the humans would retaliate and try to recapture their province, and so she was busily establishing a fortress over the hill that overlooked Bravia City. That would be a near unassailable position that would inflict tremendous casualties upon the human armies if they were foolish enough to mount a charge uphill. Or so we hoped.
"What would you do now?" Silvia asked when I returned to the newly built fortress. Thanks to the dwarves, magic from me and the elves, and the menial labor provided by muscular orcs and kobolds, the construction went well.
"Once the fortress is completed, I'll be heading back to the Demonic Empire." I turned to Oswald. "I'm going to pay your village a visit."
"What…? Why?"
"I told you, to alleviate the issue your village is facing." I smirked. Silvia raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask for more details.
"After that?"
"I'll need to get more allies." I raised my right hand, where the magic crest burned fiercely. For some reason, after I had defeated Bradley, the crest had grown larger and glowed brighter. Silvia had suggested that it was growing proof of my authority as the new Demonic Emperor…that it was responding to my achievements. For avenging the previous Demonic Emperor.
Come to think of it, I received the crest shortly after I had dealt with Herman and Irene.
"Allies?" Oswald asked. I nodded.
"As Silvia mentioned, having only a single demonic legion support me isn't enough. To consolidate my position, I will need to gather more support. Preferably from another demonic legion."
"Do you have anyone in mind?" Silvia asked. My smile widened.
"A few candidates, actually. But of course I won't be asking for their support for free. I'll have to bring them a gift."
"Gift? What sort of gift?" Oswald asked blankly. I grinned at him.
"Who knows? Speaking of which, I'm going to present you a gift to your village."
*
About three days after I helped finish the construction of the fortress, I then followed Oswald back to his village the Demonic Empire. We took the underground highway that the dwarves and Silvia's legion had constructed under the cave. Of course, Stella accompanied me, along with another human.
In order to keep him alive, I had put him in stasis, entombing his body in ice.
"Hey, I'm back!" Oswald shouted as he stomped into the village, my carriage following me. Stella looked around, automatically on guard, but she refrained from placing her hand on her sword. I had warned her not to display any sort of aggression.
"You survived, dear." Olivia looked relieved. As for the rest of the orcs, they looked tired and (sexually) frustrated.
"Please tell me you brought some men back, Oswald," one of the orcs said.
"Well, I didn't, but Klein here says he brought you a gift."
"Ah, Sir Klein!" the female orcs bowed their heads politely, but I felt disturbed by the gleaming lust in their eyes. I could practically feel their desires rolling off their bodies. They really had been deprived for quite a while.
"Yeah, I hope this man will please you." I hopped off my carriage and went to the back. Using my blood magic, I yanked the block of ice containing a frozen Bradley out. With a snap of my fingers, I thawed him out, and threw him into the middle of the village.
Immediately, all the female orcs swarmed him.
"You can do whatever you want with him," I told the practically drooling orcs. "I might have cut off his limbs to prevent him from escaping, but I didn't neuter him. He should still be able to function for that."
"T…thank you, Sir Klein!"
"This…this is an amazing gift!"
"Thank you so much!"
As for Bradley, he had a rude awakening. Chattering from the cold, his mind still blank, he opened his eyes, only to see a horde of lecherous female orcs gazing at him.
"W…what is this?!" he screamed. He then caught sight of me, some distance away. "Klein! You! What is this!?"
"Don't you love women and sex, Bradley?" I asked mischievously. "So I was kind enough to ensure that you will receive plenty of both."
"No…no!!!!"
Bradley disappeared from view as the female orcs mobbed him, tearing off the tattered rags that remained of his clothing and running their grimy paws all over him. One of them forced a vial of herbs into his mouth, to force him to get sexually stimulated.
"How big!"
"Nice! This can fit inside me so well!"
"No! Please, no! NOOOOO!!!!"
Bradley's cries faded over the pleasured squeals of the orcs.
Turning to a horrified Stella, whose face had turned extremely pale, I smiled coldly.
"Only now is the revenge finally complete."