"O Pale One, I beg of you. Be our new leader and protector."
A truly muted, shocked expression settled across the faces of the awakened group. Kaiden and his won exchanged wide-eyed looks. The request, and the sight of an entire community bowing in blood-soaked submission, was overwhelming.
Only Calypso and Bastet remained unfazed. The monster girl pair simply looked at the kneeling humans and nodded in approval, finding their submission to their man more than acceptable. ’It is only right to submit to him,’ they thought.
But the rest of the group was rattled. They exchanged expressions without speaking, their faces communicating disbelief and confusion. Kaiden even looked toward Tessa and Geralt, but the two leaders were visibly flabbergasted by this sudden developnt.
No one knew what to say.
But feeling dozens of people waiting for him to respond, Kaiden finally found his voice.
"I am not the strongest man alive, not even close. I can’t guarantee your safety. I don’t even know how I entered that demonic transformation; I probably need to get stronger before I can freely call upon it. You’ll be in danger."
Taigi smiled in response. Her blood-splattered face was bright with conviction. "Danger is everywhere. We know that better than most. We don’t expect to be coddled; we just hope to be given a chance at changing our ways. For that, we need a leader who doesn’t stray, who doesn’t let evil thoughts cloud his judgnt."
Then a man spoke, the one who seed to lead the hunters. "To our people, honor is the most important indicator of character. We find you an honorable warrior. You have our trust, and you’re stronger than any of us... It makes you the most ideal candidate to lead."
"..." Despite their words, Kaiden remained troubled. He did not know if he could take on this role.
After all, he did not even have a land of his own to house people. He didn’t even have his own ho; he lived in a governnt-provided, hidden bunker. How could he be asked to protect these people?
In fact, he feared that if he accepted, instead of being a help, he would be a liability. He had many enemies in the shadows; they could easily attack these people as a form of revenge against him because they could not find his true location.
That’s right. After the news of what happened here reaches the public, and if Kaiden is to beco the leader of these people, then the natives would need to be relocated to a hidden location.
Kaiden looked toward Tessa and Geralt for a second ti.
This ti, they seed to have co out of their initial shock and realized the gravity of the situation. Their expressions were troubled, yet they nodded toward him. Kaiden understood their unspoken communication as, ’We’ll see what we can do to help house them,’ instead of a firm promise of, ’Don’t worry, we’ve got this.’
Kaiden sighed inwardly and looked back at the natives.
"This is a big responsibility. Let think for a few hours before I give you an answer. In the anti, you are to follow my allies. They will lead you out of the forest. We have a camp set up with first aid supplies, and we even have proper Healer-type Marked Ones there."
Taigi and the lead hunter smiled at the imdiate directive. They saw that even if he hadn’t formally accepted, he was already issuing orders and taking protective asures, the actions of a proper leader. It was a good sign.
Taigi and the man rose instantly, the first to accept his word. They seed to quickly develop into proper secondary leaders. Taigi was visibly listened to by the girls and won, who huddled around her, while the hunter had the respect of the n and boys. They began forming neat lines, moving efficiently toward Geralt.
Kaiden sent Geralt a aningful glance. Geralt understood the silent request. With a heavy sigh, Geralt nodded. "Follow ," he commanded, turning to lead the group.
Just like that, all of Geralt’s subordinates, the groups of Runewoven, began departing, together with the natives. Naira sent Kaiden a final, extrely grateful expression before rushing toward Taigi, who was already coordinating the transport of Naira’s mother with the help of the other Awakened.
Tessa then stepped up. Her gaze was sharp as she looked at the many demonic monsters currently idly standing by. "Are you sure you want to stay here with these monsters, Kaiden? They didn’t seem very obedient, and you’re clearly exhausted."
"Cali seems to have it under control," Kaiden replied with a small shrug of his shoulders.
He got many flat stares in response. Everyone, literally everyone, knew that he understood the dangers but chose to risk it. Having a demonic army and perhaps even a dungeon was far too tantalizing a reward.
Speaking of the dungeon...
"Let’s go and check it out," he said and turned.
Tessa watched wryly as he departed. He didn’t even ask her to co with!
"H-hey! Don’t you want us to go with you just in case the demons go out of control?"
Kaiden turned his head just enough to look back at the woman over his shoulder.
An infuriating smirk ford on his lips.
He instantly saw through her, which annoyed Tessa greatly!
She could see in his eyes... He knew that she wanted to get in his good graces more than ever before... After all, he’d just proven that subjugating monsters was no fluke at all! He did it a second ti, with no failure in between the attempts.
He was a real monster subjugator!
And if the demons did not rebel, he controlled a large quantity of them. Kaiden was moving up in the world’s importance ladder in real ti, right before her very eyes.
Tessa felt the chance of strengthening her relationship with the man slipping. She knew he would not remain small-scale long enough.
Soon, the big shots would co knocking, letting Kaiden make deals with them instead of with low-tier guilds like hers.
Her importance to him was lessening every single passing second.
"No one said you can’t co with," Kaiden’s sly response only made her heart clench.
If it were the old Kaiden, he would’ve done all he could to ensure she and her guild ca with him to protect him in case the demons rebelled.
But now, he seed confident in himself and his team.
"Form up!" Tessa ordered, ignoring the few questioning glances sent her way by her guild. They might not have liked the current pecking order, but Tessa’s job was to think of the future.
And a future with no Kaiden Grey seed much less appealing than the one that featured him and Nova Circuit in a stable alliance.
"Vaelira, summon your soldiers just in case," the guild leader then ordered.
The blonde woman did not like what she was hearing. "Is this really happening? He stole my XP for a second ti, and you want to spend my valuable mana to protect him?!"
Tessa sent the blonde the most authoritative look in her arsenal. "That’s exactly what you’re going to do."
The two won stared into each other’s eyes for a long, long mont.
"... Tch!"
Vaelira was the one to relent, and she began summoning her legions.
Just like that, they began the journey toward the dungeon.
Calypso was leading the way, hopping happily in front of the group. Her mood was an absurd sight to behold; she was walking with her Darling and was about to show him her ho.
Nothing was weird about that, per se, but the fact that she was a level 100 boss monster, the Infernal Matriarch, a demon who commanded hundreds of monsters with an iron fist, was acting like a dreamy woman...
The expectations were so different from reality that so awakened had to do triple takes to ensure they were not under illusion.
Her demon army marched obediently along the edges of the clearing, keeping a respectful distance.
Calypso herself was followed closely by Kaiden and his other won.
Between Kaiden’s group and the demonic horde stood Vaelira’s large number of skeletal and undead summons, flanked by the rest of the Nova Circuit mbers. The arrangent was tense, a stark line drawn between the new allies and the wary old ones.
Vaelira, radiating palpable annoyance, watched the demoness skip ahead. She stood no chance of putting up a proper fight against Calypso’s demon army should they decide to rebel; Vaelira was too low level for that kind of confrontation.
But her legion of summons provided a necessary tactical buffer. What she could - maybe - do was buy enough ti for the rest of Nova Circuit to execute a proper retreat, potentially helping Kaiden and his group escape as well if the demons suddenly turned hostile. It was a contingency plan, one that highlighted the imnse power disparity now under Kaiden’s command.
And that infuriated the blonde woman more than anything.
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