Chapter 23: A brief understanding of one's own subjects
Several Days before the Inauguration
The relationship between the elves and the dark elves was a rather complicated one if I were to give it a serious thought, firstly they were both created by the same goddess, the Nature Goddess Tanis. Secondly they immediately disagreed with each other in terms about how they should run their society, like siblings they couldn't come to terms with their views. The elves take priority in preserving nature and making sure the World Tree from which they were born from is forever protected whilst the dark elves believe in developing technology even at the expense of nature which could always heal given enough time with their ages that can span almost forever. I sat inside of the office of the former dark elven queen who was drafting up a plan to form an alliance with the elves, the memories of this body still haven't come back which is a headache to me since I do not know anybody in this kingdom. I walk around the room as everyone is being given a tour by Mist who is supposed to be my sister, the numerous books inside of it made me vaguely anxious since I didn't know what was in them, I guess I will try. I mean it doesn't hurt me anyway. I strolled up to one of the numerous books which were before me and picked one up, opening it up and reading it I found out it was a fairytale like storybook which made me glad that I didn't find some evil magic in it.
"This book could be a great bedtime story for the two"
I placed it back to the shelf and immediately remembered something, I had to go to the Drowillow Kingdom to inform Matt-kun about the great news. I opened a portal to the throne room and strolled right in.
"Hmm?Back so soon?"
"Yeah my bad, but I have some news for you Matt-kun"
Matt-kun was basically eating grapes on his throne sitting in a rather carefree way with a slew of documents in his hand, I know he was young looking and all but sheesh this guy really is a middle schooler acting like an adult.
"So what is the news that you wanted to tell me about?"
"I am dark elven royalty and I am going to be queen soon"
"...…what?"
The sound of paper falling to the floor could be heard within the throne room and it was obvious that this came off as a surprise. Of course he didn't expect this, how could he?The prime minister was frozen solid and stared at me as if he was going to kill me, poor old man I bet this kind of thing doesn't happen often...wait this kind of thing rarely happens or doesn't happen if at all.
"Wait...please repeat what you said"
"I am dark elven royalty and I am going to be Queen of the Sinoharl kingdom"
".....pftt..."
"..."
"?"
"pfft...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA EVERYTHING HAS TO BE A SURPRISE WITH YOU!! ONE MOMENT YOU ARE AN ORDINARY ADVENTURER WITH A DRAGON WHO CAN KILL HEROES AND THE NEXT YOU ARE THE QUEEN OF A NATION!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHA MY SIDES OUCH!!HAHAHAHA!!"
Kid kept on laughing like it was the end of the world, even came to a point where he started wheezing and they had to give him a cup of water. Matt stared at me with tears in his eyes shook his head as he did so.
"The more I try to understand you, the more I find out I can't. Well I guess we have to respect you even more from now on, having an ally who has the power to level a nation and not only she is the queen of another important nation I wanted under my wing"
The prime minister glanced at him with rather shocked yet excited eyes as Matt-kun said those words.
"I'll be making my leave but I will visit Marquis Frank now"
"You mean Duke Frank"
"What you promoted him?"
"Of course, he brought me such a precious comrade such as yourself. I'll be sure to arrive to your inauguration then"
"Thanks"
I left the room with the pair beginning to wander off into a very excited conversation.
"Sigh...…"
Frank gave out a sigh as he heard my explanation, he wasn't even going to scream or anything and simply just accepted it.
"Fate is dealing me a rather tough hand honestly, look you are already an extraordinary person but why do you have to do this to me?"
"Uhhhhhhh"
"Don't answer, did you visit the king?"
"Yes, he was the first one actually"
"Good. Cause what is going to happen from this point forward are a race of scenarios, the king is preparing an all out war with the Cornelia Empire"
"Isn't that the goal from the beginning?"
"You are going to have to play the role of the villain"
"I am well aware of that"
"The heroes might even grow stronger when they see the threat of the world"
"So what?"
"Huh?"
"I actually want them to grow strong, if they are strong then I can kick them down. Of course I know my students are kinda kicking their asses but that is so they can have some inspiration to actually grow stronger, they have reached stagnancy after all"
"So you have your hand over there as well"
"Of course, I'll be picking them up after their tournament"
"It seems you thought this out"
"I did my best to"
"What about your children and the Demon King's daughter?"
"I've sent them to a dimension to train to become stronger so they can phase out of being premature Demon Kings"
"...….Yukiyo are you sure you want to walk this path"
"Definitely, I came to you because I knew you would be thinking about everyone. To be honest I am just reaffirming my resolve because a lot of lives are going to be lost in this war I'll try to make sure the civilians live, I am not that evil unless they did get involved inside of it then I will skin them alive and I am sure I am going to find those kinds of humans anyway"
"....Fine, thank you for telling me that you will show mercy"
"Something I didn't tell the king but will tell you, I am not just stopping at the Empire but I am aiming for the sky"
"What…..what do you mean by that?"
"You'll see, also relay the message to Rem. I've left my gift to her on the desk for the headache she is going to get after you tell her"
I smiled at him as he began to sweat with a nice bottle of modern whiskey being placed on the table via the hands of a Dark Matter. Time to go home and start talking with my big sister.
☆
The royal office was the same as I had left it and a bit of time had passed, I could hear footsteps heading my way I immediately sat down and began to look at the documents that were placed on my desk and looked serious. The door opens and its Mist my apparent older sister of this world, I give her a smile since I was planning to getting to know her some more.
"Mist"
"Yukiyo, we have an issue"
"Oh?What is it?"
"The knight captain, Sturm wants to test your new found strength in a battle."
"Eh?Can't we just talk it out"
"No, You know she's a stubborn one and also she was the one who vouched for you that you should go on the Journey of Strength"
"Ah.....what will happen if I refuse?"
"She'll quit and the entire army will disrespect you in return"
"Well fuck lets go see her then, c'mere for a sec big sis"
"O-Okay"
Mist blushes after I call her big sis and walks over to me with a beet red face but I chose to ignore it as I stand up to place my hand on her head whilst holding her right hand.
"I want you to visualize the building where the army barracks"
"….."
"Alright then, make sure to not open your eyes"
I opened dimensional rip to head over to the knight barracks using the visualization of Mist's memories. In no time we were already there, at the center of the training grounds.
"Y-Your Majesty?!"
"We're already here?!"
The knights and soldiers all screamed to see us with Mist responding in the same manner as them since she didn't expect us to get there so quickly, normally it would be a three hour journey but I cut down the time consumed by moving between dimensions. Mist opened her eyes in shock and stared at me.
"What kind of magic did you use?"
"Teleportation?"
"You can't fool my eyes Princess, that is some high level shit if I have ever seen it"
"Ah"
And there she was, the knight captain of the dark elves, she was even taller than me about 190cm if I were to use Sophia's information sea well. She had well built body that could make a bodybuilder praise it to high heaven, her dark chocolate skin glistened in the sun as her upper half was covered in light armor that protected her chest leaving out her nicely toned arms to be out in display. She held a crimson red sword in her left hand, her short dark red hair seemed to compliment her golden eyes and it seemed like she understood her own strength. This was going to be a tough one huh?
"Welcome back Princess, long time no see. I have to give you credit though, actually coming back overall stronger with powerful allies to boot I am extra happy!And you already know what I want to do right"
"How would I not know?"
"Great, hey you get a weapon for the princess"
"No need, I have my own right here"
"Oh?That's a really nice sword right there"
"Mist please step back a little because its going to get a bit messy"
"Sure, sure you were always a tomboy when it came to battles anyway"
Just how much of a replica was this version of myself, geez I need to see her status so I can know when to hold back.
『
• Name: Sturm Hildvanter
• Age: 490 (33 in appearance)
• Race: Dark Elf
• Title: Knight Captain of Darkness, The Queen's Savage Sword, The Sinoharl Kingdom's Trump Card, Demon Swordsman [NEW!], Devil's Fangs [NEW!]
• Job: Dark Knight of The Abyss [NEW!]
• Level: 189
•Job History: Swordsman, Magic Swordsman, Paladin, High Paladin, Fallen Paladin, Spellsword, Demonic Sword User, Demon Swordsman, Demon Knight
○ Attributes:
• HP: 280,000
• MP: 288,000
• Strength: 100,000
• Agility: 120,000
• Stamina: 200,000
• Intelligence: 300,000
』
Holy fucking shit she has more jobs than me, also it seems I am not the only one with weird jobs around here. Well I guess I will hold back a little but I have to make sure she doesn't realize it otherwise she will throw a fit and I won't be forgiven for that.
"What are you waiting for?A signal?Alright here's the signal my sword hitting yours!!!"
As if in cue to her words my sword skills immediately activated in response as she leapt forwards whilst throwing her scabbard towards me, I cut it in half blocking her slash.
"Oh?You're faster, normally your reaction would be so much slower but I see that you are much more experienced now so how about this!"
She drove a punch to my gut but luckily I had leapt backwards just in time, taking the bow and arrow which I took out of my inventory I shot some towards her but she cut them down as she made a beeline for me.
"Useless huh?Fine then"
I take my sword and pointed it at Sturm who was smiling viciously. With a smile growing on my face I zoomed towards her and clashed with her sword slashing it continuously as sparks flied from it, the result being Sturm being pushed back. Her golden eyes seemed to shine as she began to catch up with my speed, she stabs the space where I once was and swipes her sword to the left which prompts me to duck quickly before backing off and throwing knives at her which she quickly deflects with ease. She managed to push me back, her skill is almost like Odin's I bet the two would be best friends. Time to be a little serious, I dashed towards her and landed on her sword mid-swing landing a kick on her head before leaping backwards. I stared at her stagger for a bit before regaining her posture silently activating her demon sword which grew to a great sword size and swings it as if it were nothing. The waves of energy spat at me with the action that I took being dodging them despite being narrow as the space between two closely built buildings, cutting some of them down before they reach me.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I KNEW SOMETHING WAS DIFFERENT!!YOUR SWORD SKILLS ARE MUCH HIGHER THAN MINE!!"
That was true for the most part but I will make sure you don't see anything else you demon mentor, I made a bookmark in my head to prompt her to not say anything despite knowing how futile that was going to be. I raced towards her with one of the sword skills I had activating, it was the 『Autonomous Sword Technique』and she could see my sword produce numerous other swords which began to float around me as I accidentally activated Marchosias. The skill was named after a demon who was proficient at battle and thus as the name suggests it allows me to improve myself in the midst of battle be it in skill acquisition or overall ability, a notification rose up immediately after activating it 『Demon Sword Technique Has Been Acquired!』 『Demon Sword Technique Has Partially Fused With Autonomous Sword Technique To Create The Abyss Sword Technique!』. Well shit. I rushed forward with my sword which had turned black because of the new skill and began to use all of the swords that were in the air to attack and clash with her, to be honest I didn't expect her to block all of them or at least try to. I had included my own sword in the mix and went in to punch her in the gut which sent her flying across the arena and hitting the wall leaving her sword on the floor.
"I should fight more people with many jobs"
"That was the most exciting battle I've ever had, granted you didn't use all your strength"
"Heheh…."
"You are strong enough to use caution when fighting others who are at a lower skill than you, the little princess has grown to become a fine Queen. I am pleased to serve you Your Majesty."
"And I am happy to have you Sturm"
She went on one knee after getting up from the much damaged wall. I began to walk away after picking up my sword and returning it to the void where it belonged with Mist looking at me with eyes of awe and respect. Please don't look at me like that. I opened the portal after adjusting it to not be so eldritch and returned to the palace.
"As you observed warriors of the dark elven kingdom, that is our future Queen. The one who shall bring glory to our kingdom, she is very strong, much more powerful than her predecessor. Strive to become strong like her. I know its a high hurdle to reach because that woman is abnormal in the greatest sense of the word but train yourselves to at least not fall behind. I sense great things coming from our future Queen."
☆
"How did you gain all of these skills Yukiyo?"
I actually failed to answer that question coming from Mist, I can't really say they were given to me by an evil goddess can I?Since that is kinda false. The Elder Tree where the council were located at was rather close than far so I had plenty enough time to answer this question.
"I decided to go to the Great Forest of Arensha and I died"
"Eh?"
"You heard me, I died and then in my death I was reborn. I got my life back and was blessed by a goddess of life from beyond this world, that is how I came to meet Shen as well as Geri and Freki."
This was the truth of this body and I didn't alter anything to make it seem less or greater than it is. Mist was shocked for a moment and held her mouth for a bit, I could tell it was slowly dawning her that I might not even be the same person as her sister.
"It must've been tough Yukiyo, I am glad to have you back"
"Eh?Didn't you hear what I just said moments ago?I died and came back!I might not even be the same person"
"You'll always be my adorable little sister, remember that"
"Mist...."
I paused my walking and stared at her serious gaze for a moment, she said that with love. It was genuine and from the heart, perhaps she did know I wasn't her sister or she didn't but that was rather the sisterly love I keep hearing about. She hugs me at the moment and whispers into my ear.
"Whether you are or you are not the person who left this palace, in the end you are my little sister who I cherish please remember that"
"Mist…..you adorable idiot"
It felt like we were hugging for ages and just like that I was back to normal smiling with her, I wanted to be with this person as her little sister and prove to her that I could do it. We walked straight ahead to the Elder Tree and opened the doors which led us to the center of the hall where five seats were occupied by the Elder Council of this nation. The first two were the twin elders of dark elven culture, Droph and Croph, these two began at the center. From their respective left and right were the elder of military might, Silvern, the elders of magic, agriculture, foreign affairs named in order: Tevil, Godrey, Opalmis.
"Welcome home Princess Selanis, we are glad to see you have returned."
"I am indeed glad to be back."
"Your journey has proven to be useful, we've heard reports of strength coming from the Knight Captain who is the trump card of this kingdom"
"Indeed as well as having formidable allies, there is one question that we wish to ask you as the Council of Elders before you are crowned Queen of this nation. What are your intentions with that strength of yours and with the kinds of allies you have?"
"I desire one thing: Peace"
"Peace you say?"
"How so?"
"Why just peace?"
"I do not want the dark elves and elves to be separated anymore, I want to craft the Great Elven Empire with my own hands"
A silence fell upon the room which made it even more tense than before I stepped into it. I smiled and stared at them with eyes that didn't care about what they thought.
"You know what you wish is impossible right?"
"And?Do you think I care?"
"Ah"
That sound escaped from Mist who was watching from the sidelines what I was doing, of course I didn't care at all about these old crows.
"Such impulsive behavior, that is not worthy of being a queen!"
"You should go back from whence you came you brat!"
"Yeah yeah, it doesn't change what I want to do. I came here to unite our races together and that is all that matters to me."
The shouting old people kept quiet for this moment and I stepped forward proudly.
"You are the source of the Dark Elves failing to unite with the elves, because of your views and values. We don't need a council of elders to tell us what to do, we don't need an elder of military might because we have the knight captain, we don't need an elder of culture because we have libraries, we don't need an elder of magic because we have sages who are young and willing to learn new magic, we don't need elders of agriculture and foreign affairs because we have people in those positions. I didn't come here to announce just my return to my home, I came here to announce the disbandment of the council of elders as a government board. Your advice will be needed of course since you are elderly and we need your guidance but you are all obsolete as a group we should lend many of our nations' issues on. Good bye."
"WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!!"
"WAIT!"
"DAMNED BRAT!!"
"WE WILL STOP YOU FROM BECOMING QUEEN!!"
I walked away and stared back at them with a serious gaze, with a jet black aura and lengthening shadows my status as the Empress of the Dark Matter was very clear to them.
"Try me, as you can see I already am an Empress. If you can defeat worlds upon worlds of Dark Matter then you can stop me but other than that there's no way in hell that you old sacks can ever reach me"
The numerous eyes spread across the room as they were in the shadows and were staring at the elderly council with vicious eyes, this was to intimidate them into accepting me by force. I was going to do whatever I liked and I was going to make the people choose their fate by walking it instead of having their hands held by these old trees. It all goes back into my shadow and the scene returns to normal, I beamed at them with one of my most charming smile.
"Thank you for your cooperation, I hope you bless us in the journey we are about to walk as a nation. Mist let's go."
"Ah...yes!"
The doors came to a close as I left them inside.
"What has returned to our land?"
"That was not Princess Selanis…..that was….."
"The incarnation of an evil goddess"
"She has the memories and brashness of the princess but her aura is that of ancient evil."
"The same type as the grand goddess Lythalia"
"...we should just obey and keep quiet"
A silent decision was made and they didn't go back on it. They took the disbandment to the face and it was going according to plan.
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Why did you disband the Council of Elders!They are very important you know!"
"And redundant. I've been reading up the history of our nation and I have to agree they were important in the early days of this nation, but they have lost their purpose. They have time and time again deterred us from having relations with other nations and that is why we are poorly developed as a nation because we do not improve in certain aspects"
"Is that why you were inside of Mother's office?You were reading up the activities of the Elder Council?"
"Yes. Mist trust me on this, within a couple of days we are going to be just as advanced in technology as the Magic Empire of Arbacoss"
"Wait..how?"
"One of my companions is the Sage Sev"
Make the people's lives better by removing a board of elderly folk who wanted to follow tradition, embrace the new and make them feel culturally enhanced. Mist looked at me with glistened eyes.
"But what was that though?"
"What was what?"
"That aura you showed the Elders?"
"Uhhhhh I'll be honest I am already an Empress of a people but they live in a dimension very very different from ours."
"Ohhhhhhh as expected of my little sister!"
Did she just take that at face value?Mist is more accepting than I thought, I was thinking she was going to be rejecting that idea but it seems not. Wait I did beat the Knight Captain after all so there's that, I'll eat dinner and go to bed then after that this nation will have some major reconstructing.
☆
My eyes opened up to a roof that was elaborately designed, it appeared to look like the Mist red rose if it was colored white and gold, the pillow I slept on was so soft that I almost ended up asking what kind of material was used to make it. The bed was so comfy I didn't want to leave it if I had internet and some snacks my life would be set right now, I shifted my head to my right side and Shen was sleeping peacefully. She looked happy even in her dreams, aight time to get up. Yawning as I went to open the door with a group of maids immediately greeting me silently since they didn't want to wake up Shen, using the mind map in my head I walked towards the bath of this palace.
"Please, I would like to bathe alone"
They bowed and left the duty of guarding to the maids who were in pieces of armor, I am pretty sure that Shiro and Kuro are not awake yet in fact no one is currently awake at the moment except for the few. After washing myself in some good warm water and drying off, I allowed the Dark Matter with some good fashion taste to dress me in whatever they found suitable and that was a black dress of Victorian make as well as mantle of the same color. Getting out of the bath the maids were shocked to find me in clothes and kept on praising how I looked, give that credit to the Dark Matter fashionistas in the dark universe. The next area I aimed for was where Sev was working on for the last couple of hours or so. The Department of Magic Development. Since I put a piece of my soul in Sev the teleportation went smoothly, Sev was talking with several of the dark elven mages who were marveling at her knowledge.
"You've arrived Yukiyo as promised"
"Yes I have and I am going to ask you for some favors"
"I already know what you are thinking, and the answer is yes. The question is did you deal with the Council of Elders?"
"Yup they are going to be announcing their disbandment soon"
"You intimidated them didn't you?"
"Of course"
I smugly replied with a smile and folded my arms. Sev touched her witch hat and sighed before staring at me.
"Lesson's over, you need the rest anyway. From this point on you will be having practical lessons because the instruments on paper are coming to this nation"
Sev said to her new acolytes and walked my direction.
"I'll have you sign some documents coming from the royal family and you'll have our cooperation."
"Fine by me"
"Great then"
"I wanted to do something alchemical in this place"
"Oh?"
Sev folded her arms and became very interested in what I was about to do next. Having the alchemy skill on level 18 I had a fair bit of knowledge of what I wanted to create, I wanted to craft a golem that looked very close to a human at the same time my idea was on the money it should have futuristic robotic like features. I took out one of the dragon cores I had from harvesting the elder dragons Shen fought the other day placing it at the center of the room, afterwards I used magic to draw a circle that would focus on the dragon core. Sev had taken out a pen and some paper and began to write what she was seeing. My final piece was to put in material that didn't exist in this world nor mine for that matter, it was a light alloy between tungsten and orichalcum. I had to create this using my Creation skill, to make sure the dragon core isn't something one can easily get to.
"Almost done. Now for the command: Create Greater Golem!"
I poured my mana into it as the fusion of the materials began to take place. It became the shape of a tall woman who appeared to be in her early thirties, she had light blue skin and purple synthetic hair, her eyes were a darker shade of violet and looked at me with the gaze a child would have whilst looking at their mother. She was naked of course and the expression on her face was void of all emotion something I expected but what didn't expect was her hugging me and lightly smiling as she did so.
"Mother!"
She legitimately called me that, I thought she would be calling me creator or master but straight up Mom?!Wait something was wrong why is she even talking?I thought golems didn't talk.
"You never surprise me, the mana you provided ended up making her evolve rapidly upon birth"
"Eh?Ehhhhhhhhhhhh?!"
I used Appraisal-chan on her to check what she had become.
『
• Name: ???
• Age: 0
• Race: Talos Lord Of Automatons
• Title: Creation of the Archbishop of Chaos, Lord of Golems and Automatons
• Job: Lord Spec Automaton
• Level: 230
•Job History: None
』
She stopped hugging me and bowed instead as if waiting for something to happen, oh right I didn't name her yet!
"Sieglinde should do, nickname would be Sieg"
"It is an honor to be named by you Mother I am so elated"
Despite her voice being very monotone I could feel the emotion behind it, since I was busy I was going to leave her with her siblings.
"I am going away for a bit please dress up and tell your siblings what happened here. I'll be right back"
"As you wish Mother"
She bowed once more before I opened a portal to the royal capital of the demon empire. They had expected me there since Notte had notified them beforehand and my plans of bettering the lives of the dark elves was running smoothly. If they lived with other races they will begin to soften and more cultural exchange would go on that way. The very next step was with the elves.