"Lady Farrah…"
"What did you call me?!"
"Ahem…I mean, Lady Yvonne."
The minister responsible for overseeing the southern provinces – one of the many ministers, anyway – bowed his head humbly.
"There are reports of a demonic legion massing in the forest near Zaid Town. We'll need to dispatch reinforcements. If you could authorize a request for military aid…"
"Huh? Why should I? My tribe will take care of it. Why else did you think I called them here?"
The minister, Mince, swallowed nervously. He glanced at his fellow ministers, who nodded encouragingly, and then returned his sincere gaze to Yvonne.
"Yes, but it's an entire demonic legion, so I'm afraid that Lady Yvonne's tribe might not be enough to fight them off. There are thousands of demons…"
"Huh?" Yvonne snarled, glaring murderously at Mince. "Are you questioning the strength of my tribe? Are you looking down on us, huh? You fat bastard!"
"No…no! Not at all! I wouldn't dare!" Mince pressed his head against the ground, whimpering. Yvonne was notorious for her short temper. There were rumors that she was as murderous and tyrannical as Bradley, and almost as psychotic and paranoid as Herman and Irene.
Speaking of Bradley, Herman and Irene, they were either dead or dying. Bradley had disappeared and it was likely that he had died shortly after being abducted into the lands of the Demonic Empire. Herman and Irene were still hideously fused together and the priests of the Holy Church were giving up on finding a treatment that could save their lives. Everyday they grew much weaker, their vitality sucked away by the Blood Spear of Longinus.
Their greatest hope of finding a way to remove the spear without killing them, Miranda, had mysteriously disappeared along with her mage corps. Over a month ago, four mages claiming to be her former subordinates had returned to the capital, Royales, and reported on her atrocities, as well as her death, but the news was quickly hushed up and dismissed as lies. The four mages then disappeared, never to be heard from again, but the fact remained that Miranda had gone missing. They did find the scorched remains of the garrison that she was supposed to man, and the royal family ordered it demolished shortly after that.
There was nothing to save. The interior had been burned – by the mages, if reports were to be believed. All of Miranda's research destroyed, her creations incinerated. Only death and destruction lingered, their traces made all the stronger by the military's complete demolishment of the base.
And now Yvonne was the only member of the strongest Hero's party left. Alan Assam too, but he was nowhere to be found, having disappeared shortly after the Demonic Emperor Viledoofus had been defeated. She was the Havan Kingdom's only hope in the face of a slowly recovering Demonic Empire.
Worse, there were rumors that a new Demonic Emperor had finally be chosen and that he was slowly reuniting the demonic legions under his command once more. With four out of the seven Hero parties annihilated and all but two members of the strongest Hero party remaining, the situation was looking dire.
Yet Yvonne didn't seem to acknowledge the urgency of their predicament. She didn't even care. In fact, she didn't even know about those news. The three ministers had tried to report the terrible news to her, but she had always dismissed them. Frankly, she wasn't interested in anything outside her southern provinces.
Rumors had it that Yvonne had lost all interest in the larger part of Havan Kingdom because she had been dumped by a man she loved, who had run off to marry another girl. Mince suspected that it was probably the wedding between Herman and Irene that had put the huntress in such a foul mood and drove her to renounce the outside world. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and this was no truer of Yvonne. Now, she devoted most of her time to hunting instead of governing.
"Lady Yvonne," another minister spoke up. This time, it was a bald man by the name of Birch. He swallowed, but pushed ahead. "Your tribe is currently in Gallagher Town, which is far from Zaid Town. If you could direct them toward Zaid Town, they might be able to make it in time to delay the demonic legion long enough for…"
"Are you telling my tribe what to do?" Yvonne cut him off. Birch blinked and then nervously shook his head.
"Not at all, my lady. It's…simply a request. But if your tribe doesn't move out soon, Zaid Town might fall."
"Then it's their fault for being too weak." Yvonne sounded absolutely dismissive.
"But my lady…!" Mason, a third minister protested. "They are simple townsfolk, not military! There are few soldiers among them, save for the guards, and no mages…!"
"And I'm saying that's their fault!" Yvonne snapped.
The three ministers looked dismayed. They shook their heads and retreated, their expressions filled with incredulous disbelief. Yvonne scowled when she saw their eyes.
"What's with those judgmental gazes?"
"W…what?"
"Nobody is judging you, my lady."
"Please calm down."
"Shut it!" Yvonne snapped and rose to her feet. At her gesture, three muscular hunters showed up and seized the trio of panicking ministers. "I'm sick and tired of you three always questioning my decisions, always criticizing me. I'm the lady governess of this province! Me! Not you fools! What makes you think you know better than me?"
Perspiring profusely, the trio of ministers exchanged nervous glances. The whole reason why the royal family appointed them to help Yvonne was precisely because they knew she wasn't capable of governing. They had chosen to reward her by granting her territory for her tribe and her own province to rule. But they were also aware that she had no experience lording over civilians and towns, so they had sent Mince and the rest to assist her with the administrative and political matters.
Up till now, she had completely ignored them and did whatever she wanted, granting her tribe preferential treatment and allowing them to run rampant across the cities, abusing the other citizens. It didn't matter if they pillaged, robbed, stole or raped – as long as Yvonne remained lady of this province, they would be forgiven no matter what they did.
And there was nothing the other civilians could do about it. One of the reasons was because of what she was doing right now.
"I'm not a cruel tyrant who murders people immediately," Yvonne told the trembling trio, a smile on her pretty face. White teeth contrasted with dark caramel-colored skin, which would normally be dazzling if they weren't so afraid of her. "Unlike the others, I���ll give you a chance. How about it? I'm pretty kind, am I not?"
None of them replied because they knew she was lying. They kept their heads bowed, unable to accept the grim reality of their situation.
"Bring them to the forest," Yvonne instructed her personal guard. The three tanned, muscular hunters nodded and immediately hauled the poor ministers to their feet, dragging them outside.
An hour later, Yvonne showed up, riding a horse. Her fellow tribesmen followed closely, also mounted atop their hoses. In front of them, the three ministers knelt on the ground, bound by ropes. Standing sentry over them were the three muscular hunters.
"You know the drill," Yvonne told the three ministers.
Indeed, they did because she had forced them to spectate this very event multiple times in the past. During those instances, they were horrified to see innocent civilians subjected to this all for the crime of "offending" Yvonne. And now they found themselves suffering this punishment firsthand.
"I'll give you a ten minutes head start. You'll run into the forest and run for your pathetic lives." Yvonne laughed harshly. "I'll pursue you ten minutes later and hunt all three of you. You'll do your best to escape. As promised, if you succeed in evading me for a whole day, then you go free. You can stay here if you want, or go wherever you want if you're free – you have my word. I'll even give you a carriage and everything if you want to return to Royales."
The three ministers exchanged glances. The deal was sound, but in all of the times that Yvonne had carried out this hunt, there was not a single prisoner who had ever succeeded in escaping.
Nonetheless, they had no choice but to try. It was their only hope of survival.
"Cut them loose," Yvonne told the three guards. They nodded, drew their hunting knives and swung them, severing the ropes. The three ministers rose to their feet, shaking their hands to allow the blood to recirculate in their wrists. The red-haired huntress offered them a predatory smile. "Go ahead. Run as far as you can."
The trio immediately took off without another word, rushing into the forest. Plunging into the dense foliage, they split up, hoping that it would delay Yvonne further. While that might spell doom for whoever she chose to pursue, for the other two, they had at least two-thirds of a chance that they might escape.
At least until she hunted the first one and came after them. Then it would be reduced to fifty percent.
Whatever the case, they didn't care and continued to run into the jungle, praying that Yvonne wouldn't be able to find them.
Ten minutes later, Yvonne dropped down from her horse. Slinging a quiver of arrows over her shoulder and holding her bow, she stealthily snuck into the forest and disappeared from view.
*
Mince panted as he dug a hole with his hands at the hollow of a tree. Overweight, he lacked the stamina to continuously run. Without the proper physique, he had no choice but to rely on his intelligence to think a way out of here.
"I only have to survive for a whole day. A day."
If that was the case, then the solution was simple. He would just hide somewhere until the day was over. As relentless as Yvonne was, surely she wouldn't spend more than a day on this farce. He would wait a little longer, hope that she and her tribesmen were gone, and then crawl out of the forest and make his way back to the capital.
Mince did not trust Yvonne to keep her word. He had seen her renege on her promises as easily as a man would down a mug of ale.
The bitch was just as bad as the other members in the so-called strongest Hero party.
He frantically dug some more, not caring that he was breaking his nails. He was so desperate that he ignored the pain…the blood flowing down his fingers. At last he saw that the hole was big enough and he crawled into the hollow of the tree.
Swallowing, he then reluctantly scooped clods of soil back to seal the hole he had recently opened up. He tasted dirt and spat them out, but endured the filthiness. It was worth it, he told himself. He only needed to put up with this disgusting earth for a day, and then he would be free.
He grimaced and held back a shriek when he felt something crawl over his arm. Another thing scuttled over his foot, its legs pricking his flesh and making his skin crawl. He could feel a swarm of ants marching nearby in the darkness, their black bodies brushing past his face. A spider climbed over his fingers, dragging its bloated body over the scabs that had just only dried.
Mince prayed that it wasn't venomous…that it wouldn't bite him.
"How did it come to this?"
He shut his eyes and wept silently. A year ago, he had been so proud, so honored to have been appointed to assist one of the famed members of the strongest Hero party. He was to help her govern the southern provinces, his administrative experience vital to the running of the sector. Yvonne had admitted that she had little knowledge of politics and governance, which was why the king turned to his three trusted ministers to help her.
But his new lady turned out to be a nightmare. Not only did she ignore the advice of Mince and his colleagues, she abused them. And then she enacted a reign of terror upon the civilians in her province – those who didn't belong to her tribe by blood, anyway. For her own entertainment, she would make up false accusations, finding fault over the least trivial things and then condemning them for "offending" her. As punishment, she would throw the "guilty" into the forests, promising to set them free if they evaded her for a day.
Mince knew that it was all just an excuse for her to hunt humans. Yvonne evidently took delight in hunting her fellow humans, sadistically enjoying their fear, rage and despair. Humans, with their intelligence, made for the best prey, according to her.
The ministers had sent reports back to the royal family, strongly requesting that decisive action be taken, but the answer was always the same.
Put up with it.
Yvonne was one of the heroes who had saved Havan Kingdom by slaying the Demonic Emperor, after all. It was all right if she wanted to be a little wild. She deserved to be cut a bit of slack, what with her tribe being a minority in the kingdom. So granting them preferential treatment was perfectly fine.
Closing his eyes, Mince wept silently.
How did it all go so wrong?
Suddenly, he tensed, going still. He was sure he had heard something. A footstep, maybe? The scrap of something against a tree root? Someone…or something was approaching.
Please it be a beast, he prayed silently to himself. Please don't let it be Yvonne.
Those were his last thoughts before an arrow lanced through the wall of dirt he used to seal the hole and plunged deep into his forehead.
And thus Mince died, buried under a grave of his own making and his body consumed by the bugs in the earth.