"What do you mean?" I asked as I tried to hold down my raging emotions. Considering that I didn't explode straight away, I was doing a pretty good job with that.

"Just as I said... Your Highness," Answered Kildor with the same smirk as before, "His Majesty said that if things turn up bad, I can have you be part of the attacking force, and seeing how, unfortunately, our spies in the town were found out, I think it's in my right to-"

"You have no right to tell me what to do, and if you think so, then you are gravely mistaken," I shouted as I smacked the table hard and as fire started covering my fist.

I couldn't continue listening to what he was saying with that look on his face. The anger and rage inside of me just reached a point of no return and I couldn't keep them under control anymore, being talked to like that wasn't something Zagmuz would have accepted at all.

"It's exactly what I had said, things aren't ideal now, and we need all help we can get, and your abilities are well suited towards what we need, that's why-"

"You must be an idiot if you think that I would get even within a mile of that freaking shithole," I cut him off, my anger making itself as clear as day.

On Dorian's side, I could feel myself getting agitated as a bleed of some kind happened. I still had enough self-control to understand what was happening and try to chain down the foreign emotions and not let them affect me much, but it still wasn't easy to keep the change I went through from the other guards who were next to me. On Zagmuz's side, though, things were already going out of control as I felt my pulse quicken and my vision started being covered by an orange veil. I could see from the corner of my eyes people starting to step away from me, but I didn't have the frame of mind to care about any of that, all that filled my mind was Kildor's expressionless face, and how much I wanted to destroy that mask of his.

"Unfortunately," Continued Kildor slowly and deliberately, as if he was enjoying this way too much, "You don't have a say in this, you will do what is asked of you, it's his Majesty's order after all."

Before, whenever the Demon King was mentioned I would always feel a sense of fear and panic. That name would always bring me back to my senses no matter how deep I had lost myself in my anger, but this time it was different. Once the initial effect of what he said left me, and I was able to move normally again my anger burned even hotter. I couldn't take how Kildor kept on using the same thing to bring me under control, like a trained dog.

"And I don't give a fuck," I shouted as I left my chair and advanced towards him unconsciously, "if you think that you can get me to do whatever you want by bringing Him up, then you are freaking wrong."

I don't know why I started walking toward him, but the closer I got, the closer his face seemed, the more natural the next step of what I felt like doing came to me. While he was still sitting in his seat with an unreadable expression on his face, I looked down on him as I breathed heavily and balled my hands into fists. I was one hair away from smacking him in the face, but I didn't cross that final step, a final bit of rationality was holding me back.

"Your Highness," Deraan's calm and collected voice sounded from behind me.

Amidst my raging fury, his voice was like a bucket of cold water, extinguishing my fires. I was reminded of what happened earlier, the stench of burning flesh and how horrible I felt after it, I didn't want to think about what I had done back then, the experience wasn't something I wanted to go through again. With my momentum halted by Deraan's call, both mentally and physically, I finally had some time to gather myself and calm down a bit, bringing my orange fires, that I noticed had for some reason covered me whole under control. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

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Just as I was giving Kildor one last glare before turning around, the general suddenly murmured under his breath:

"Coward."

Bang!

I don't even know how it happened, one second I was trying to turn back and control myself so things don't escalate as far as they had before, and then the other, my fist, which flared up in flames in less than a second, had already connected with Kildor's face. The sound was loud and clear inside the quiet tent and for a few seconds, no one did anything, not even moving a muscle, then Deraan hurried by me and stood between me and the downed general. His action seemed to have woke up everyone else from their shock, sending most of them running towards the general while doing their best to avoid triggering me.

I took a few steps back as I saw what I had done. I wanted nothing more than to turn back and run from the mess that I had created. No matter how much I felt that Kildor had deserved what had happened to him, I still couldn't get rid of the feeling that I had done something wrong, that I shouldn't have lost control as I did.

With those thoughts swirling in my mind I turned around and started leaving the tent, just to stop in my track at its mouth as a sense of calm and steadiness fell on me. Taking a grip over my frying emotions and steering my thoughts to the places they should have been in since the beginning, the things I failed to notice and the mistake I was about to do.

As I looked back on what had happened, it was quite clear that Kildor had been trying to agitate me, to get me to act in a certain way. I wasn't one hundred percent sure of what his end goal was but I could guess. Kildor made it clear since the first time we met that he didn't like being under me, he saw me as nothing but a hindrance to his plans and leadership, and I'm sure that that feeling only grew as time passed and I showed just how much of an insufferable bastard I can be, so he knew that he had to get rid of me.

Of course, how I punched him wasn't enough of an excuse to take command from me, but running away after doing just that would make it harder to fight against him if he tried to wrestle control off me. I also didn't have any delusions that the captains in the room were on my side, it was quite obvious that they liked Kildor a bunch, at least a lot more than they liked me. As long as Kildor was still there, there was no room for me to lead.

With all those thoughts moving inside my mind, the outline of a simple plan started to take form. With nothing better to do, I knew that I had to go with it. So, instead of leaving through the tent's door, I turned around and as I did, I noticed that Deraan had been following closely behind me all that time, with his eyes focused on everyone in the room. I nodded at him and then headed to my seat. On Dorian's side, I told the guards I was on patrol with that I had to go tell captain Dunn something and left, some of them complained as I left but no one did anything to stop me.

While I headed to captain Dunn as Dorian, as Zagmuz, I looked at the gathered captains and the downed Kildor before opening my mouth:

"Won't you fucking stop being this pathetic," I shouted at no one in particular. My voice stopped the chaos in front of me as all eyes turned my way with not a small amount of anger in them, of course, that anger was hidden and not vocal at all, "he isn't a damned human, stop acting as if he is going to die. Return to your seats and let us continue this meeting."

It seems that no matter how harsh my words were, they did get the point across, and soon all the captains returned to their seats, displeasure clear in their steps and body language. Just as they started dispersing, Kildor pulled himself from the ground slowly, looking at me with a bruised and blistered expressionless face. Even though how he looked made my insides turn, I still met his gaze unwaveringly as I said:

"Take that as your punishment for disrespecting someone higher ranked than you, I let you off with a small punishment this time, but I wouldn't be so lenient next time."

I again watched as Kildor's expression turned blank, I didn't know what was going through his mind but I didn't care, simply because I had already come to terms with something.

"Well, I went over what you had mentioned before," I said after a while had passed, "and alright, I'm doing your work for you, I'll join the attacking force on the castle." A hint of confusion flashed through Kildor's eyes when he heard what I said, and a wave of whispers passed over everyone. I didn't care though, I just continued as before, "but I have a condition, you need to be there with me, both of us will be in the heart of the battle."

For the sake of Border Town and the success of our defences, Kildor had to die.