Chapter 383: A New Master
Arthur gladly accepted Revina’s request.
The next day, the mansion was unusually busy.
Not only Arthur's group, but the witches as well were all preparing to leave, so the servants were frantically running around to get everything ready.
“What? You’re going where?”
“Aintrier.”
“Arthur, I’m disappointed. I thought you, of all people, would understand how I feel.”
Dorneth, who had been singing Sharbadin’s na like a love-struck husband each day, narrowed his eyes when he heard the destination and pressed Arthur.
The World Tree.
Because it was the answer he didn’t want to hear, Arthur let out a dry laugh and replied,
“Space portal.”
“I recall you ca here through a portal yourself, didn’t you? If we use a portal, you could reach Sharbadin two weeks earlier…”
“Arthur, I trusted you. You’re reliable. Just order around, anything! Right now!”
Having easily dismissed the dwarf who was blinded by his elf wife, Arthur summoned the mansion’s steward.
“Dress the witches in all new clothes and prepare them with flowers and makeup. We’ll have a lot of people to impress.”
“I’ll do my very best.”
“If any VIPs visit while I’m away, contact imdiately.”
Arthur was confident that the Black Market executives would soon gather at the mansion.
The steward, noticing Arthur’s tone, nodded gently.
She had likely figured out by now that Arthur wasn’t such a bad master.
“…What’s this?”
“It’s a reward. I had a comfortable rest and received help, so I’m giving back. There’s plenty, so share it with everyone.”
“Th-thank you!”
Another reason for the steward’s favorable opinion was that Arthur never hesitated to tip generously. He handed her a heavy pouch of gold coins.
If Fenry had seen it, she would've nagged him for throwing money around, but she wasn’t here now.
The witches, now ready and dressed in their own unique styles, gathered in the reception room with awkward expressions.
They had briefly looked hopeful when they heard they were returning to their holand, but the mont they found out the destination was Aintrier, their faces darkened.
It was a place where they had once been dragged as scapegoats, tortured, and humiliated. So, it was only natural that they were reluctant to return.
At the witches’ reaction, Lily furrowed her brows and glared at Arthur, who gave a bitter smile and clicked his tongue.
He briefly considered telling them about the space portal,
but its existence was confidential and couldn’t be shared lightly.
“Arthur, is this the right thing to do?”
“Yeah, it is.”
To Lily’s pointed question, Arthur nodded without hesitation.
The witches, having been imprisoned and tornted for so long, had no real understanding of their current place in the world.
That wasn’t sothing Natasha or Lily could just explain to them.
They had to see it, hear it, and feel it for themselves. He wanted them to know. That Aintrier was no longer a threat, but a city now friendly to witches.
“Are the flower carriages ready?”
“Y-yes, of course.”
“Then let’s go.”
Shortly after, Arthur departed with a grand farewell from the mansion staff.
A procession of six-horse carriages, beautifully adorned with flowers. Five carriages, moving in a neat line, headed for Aintrier.
As expected, the journey was smooth and comfortable.
Occasionally, raiders tempted by the luxurious carriages approached, but with one mighty howl from the now-massive Keros, they dropped their weapons and fled in terror.
One day, then two… on the third day, Lily found little amusents to pass the ti.
“Found you!”
“Ruff!”
“Now Keros is it!”
She flitted between the carriages, spreading laughter among the witches.
Arthur, at the head of the procession, enjoyed the peaceful journey amid the cheerful atmosphere.
Of course, not everyone was pleased.
There was one person whose face flushed with irritation—
the dwarf sitting on the driver’s bench, reins in hand and a huge shield resting beside him.
Dorneth grumbled loudly.
“To think that I, king of the dwarves, have been made a coachman…”
“You did say to order you around. You could’ve refused.”
“If a king takes back his word, who would ever trust him again?”
“That’s true.”
“But if you were to cancel the order, then I would gladly…”
“We’ll arrive tomorrow. Why not just stick it out until then? Seems a waste to give up your pride over one day.”
Dorneth bit his lip and looked away. Arthur gave a short laugh and sat beside him on the coachman's seat.
The forest breeze was quiet and gentle.
Perhaps it was the first true mont of calm in a long ti, because Dorneth’s mood quickly lifted. The two sat on the coachman's bench, chatting.
“It feels strange… sitting here with you like this, after everything in Hell Gri.”
“We had no ti to rest in Tobaron, didn’t we?”
“Yeah. It was too brutal, too painful… a world built on too many sacrifices.”
“Thanks to those sacrifices, Beneta exists now.”
Naturally, their conversation turned to the political state of Beneta, and soon extended to the entire Tobaron region.
However, when Tobaron was ntioned, Dorneth’s face turned slightly grim.
“Is sothing troubling you?”
“I… I was arrogant.”
“Arrogant? What do you an?”
“As you know, the Tobaron region has been united under Priestess Nella. That power is unlike the old Tobaron. I believed that given enough ti, we could even rival Hell Gri.”
“But you changed your mind?”
“I t the Sword Demon.”
At the thought of the Sword Demon, he gripped the reins tighter.
“I thought we could protect ourselves. I was wrong. The mont I faced him, I realized—we could be invaded and destroyed at any ti.”
Through that encounter, Dorneth realized there were many with similar strength to the Sword Demon within Hell Gri.
If Tobaron had a strongest figure, it was him.
Even when he fought alongside his comrades, they couldn’t claim victory over the Sword Demon.
A monster.
As Tobaron’s ruler, Dorneth had finally grasped the vast gap in power between Hell Gri and Tobaron.
Arthur looked at him with a bitter smile.
‘A harsh truth.’
Hell Gri was the main stage of the novel ‘When the Villains Get Stronger’.
While Tobaron covered Chapter 1 with the rise of Kal,
Hell Gri was where the real story—Chapters 2, 3, and 4—unfolded.
Naturally, the power scale was vastly different.
“Tobaron isn’t alone anymore, right? Lord Dorneth, you and I are part of a united alliance. And the alliance is strong.”
“No, that’s not why we’re strong.”
Dorneth showed a twisted smile.
A strange expression—sowhere between laughing and crying.
“The alliance is strong because of you.”
“What?”
Tobaron’s unification.
The change in fate for the non-humans and witches, even the swallowing up of Aintrier.
Arthur was at the center of it all.
Dorneth had been watching Arthur since Tobaron. He didn’t trust the alliance—only the man before him.
“Even that she-cat pretends to see you only as a source of money, but it’s not true. That prickly girl thinks over everything you say and acts on it.”
“You once said you could face the Sword Demon. So now, can you tell what the plan is?”
Dorneth wanted to hear Arthur’s thoughts. What picture was he painting for the future?
A short silence followed. Arthur rubbed his chin, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Unity.”
“...Unity?”
“It ans that we must stick together to survive.”
At Arthur’s reply, Dorneth felt his strength drain. It was a response anyone might give—sothing obvious.
“Aren’t we already united?”
“Being united doesn’t an we’ve achieved unity. Are Tobaron, Ordor Forest, and Aintrier all moving with one heart?”
“That’s the weakness of a so-called alliance. If there’s a crack, it could all fall apart. Demtor and Pri Root are more than capable of exploiting those cracks.”
Tobaron Region.
Ordor Forest, where the World Tree resides.
And Aintrier, the economic hub of Hell Gri.
Their combined power had grown massive. The core mbers might be fine, but it was impossible for a small group to cover everything.
They had to strengthen the foundation. Through unity, build trust, and fill in the gaps.
“You’re saying we should defend rather than attack? I was thinking of a preemptive strike.”
“How far into Pri Root have you gone?”
“I’ve seen the Frozen Desert.”
“There were two historical attacks on Pri Root by the stars of Demtor. The Sword Demon stopped both, alone, in the Black City of Reruze.”
“Isn’t the sa true of the Ordor Forest?”
“At that ti, the only Black Star was the Sword Demon.
And two of Demtor’s stars fell and were replaced.”
Arthur’s words left Dorneth murmuring in awe. The fact that one man had stopped all the stars was shocking.
“Attacking the Sword Demon in Reruze is suicide. If we want to defeat him, it must be on our own ground. In that sense, the one-year truce with Pri Root is not a bad outco for us. Karl handled it well.”
“I understand now.”
Dorneth said nothing more on the subject.
Another day passed.
Early morning. A light mist blanketed the wide forest, creating a dreamlike atmosphere.
Arthur looked at the fog and nodded.
“We’re almost there.”
“Seems so.”
Aintrier’s mornings always began with mist, thanks to the great Kenline River.
As they erged from the foggy woods, they began to see carriages gathering around.
Aintrier was a city of rchants.
Each day, countless traders and travelers visited to buy and sell goods in the central hub.
The closer they got to Aintrier, the more rchant caravans they saw.
Eventually, they beca too many to count.
Clatter—
Arthur’s party moved their carriages slowly alongside the crowd.
“Huh???”
People walking along the main road began turning their eyes toward Arthur’s procession.
The carriages were lavish, clearly rare and expensive.
And there were five of them.
Naturally, the eyes of thousands began to converge. At the center of all those gazes, the carriages soon arrived before the massive, tightly shut gates.
Arthur quietly disembarked and looked up at the gates.
Aintrier.
This is where it begins.
The first step in the plan for unity would start in Aintrier.
Standing before the gates again filled him with emotion.
During his first visit, the alliance hadn’t even been recognized.
But now—
“O-open the gate! The master of Aintrier has returned!!!”
Arthur, now the rightful master of the city, stood proudly at the gate.
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