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Gods of Tartarus: Benevolence
Chapter 65: Bad Deal

Chapter 65: Bad Deal

It was late in the afternoon in the town of Elaseen. Much of the destruction had been cleaned up, but nothing else. Caeldaemos found it strange.

Caeldaemos moved about through the shadows until he found a small home with the boy he saved.

Slipping into the home, he watched the mother bring the boy a bowl of soup.

“Be careful. It’s hot.” She said, handing him a bit of a bread loaf.

“Okay!” The boy smiled brightly.

As the boy moved to dip his bread, he stopped and turned around.

“What is it, Jacob?” The woman asked.

“He’s here.” The boy said.

“Really?”

Caeldaemos was surprised. Could the boy really sense him?

“Mr. Demon-Lord, you don’t have to be afraid.” The boy said, getting out of his chair.

Caeldaemos was hesitant but quickly put on his helmet to hide his face. Rising from the shadow, the two humans watched until he was entirely out.

The boy ran forward and hugged Caeldaemos’ leg.

“Why?” Caeldaemos could feel tears forming in his eyes.

“You saved me. You saved Mommy!” The boy smiled up at Caeldaemos.

“Would you like to join us for dinner?” The mother asked.

“But you…”

The mother stopped and had a face of regret. “I am sorry. I should not have accused you of the evils that cult did. You not only saved us, but you saved my son. For what I had said to you, I am sorry.” She bowed down to the ground.

“The rest of the town loves you too!” The boy cried out.

“What?” Caeldaemos was shocked to hear that.

The mother giggled. “It is true. When everyone heard that you were the one who saved us and destroyed the cult, how else could we feel about you?”

“But what of your history?” Caeldaemos argued.

“Eevicaln was not that evil. She just caused a lot of population issues and depravity. You are just a much better version of her.” The mother got up and made a bowl of soup for Caeldaemos, inviting him to the table.

The boy led Caeldaemos over to the table and had him sit down next to him.

“Be careful. It’s hot.” The mother joked while handing him a spoon.

“Mommy’s soup is good. But the bad people destroyed everything.” Jacob said, sadly looking down at his bowl, wishing it was her usual stew.

“I saw that there was no rebuilding going on. What is happening here?” He asked.

“The local lord decided to collapse the town. We only have twenty-three survivors of nearly three hundred. He plans to have it turned into a military outpost instead.” The mother replied, sitting down with her soup and bread.

Caeldaemos pulled some cooked meat from his storage. “Please, have some.”

“Meat!” The boy excitedly cheered.

“What did all of you say in reply?” He asked the mother, trying the soup. It was good.

“Honestly, no one wants to stay here. Many have already left for the next town over. The remaining eighteen don’t have enough to be able to make the trip. We are still trying to decide what to do.” The mother replied.

“Oh! Could we go with you!?” Jacob asked.

“Jacob! Don’t trouble him! I’m sorry, sir.” The mother apologized.

Caeldaemos felt terrible for them. They were willing to welcome him now. He needed to make a call.

“I’ll be right back.” Caeldaemos stepped out of the room and called Orelia.

A few minutes later, he returned without his helmet.

“My! You are a handsome man.” The mother commented.

“Whoa!” Jacob added.

“Thanks. I have an offer for the Faithful of the Demon-Lord.” Caeldaemos said to them. “Could you contact the others of your town?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lady Temerilla was standing in her nightgown, looking outside at the moonlight, wondering how Caeldaemos was doing.

A knock came to her door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me.”

She quickly moved and opened the door. Caeldaemos hugged her.

“Thank you. You were right. They all welcomed me.” He said to her.

The noblewoman smiled while returning the hug. “I told you so. Now you owe me.”

Caeldaemos laughed while he let her go. “Fine. What is your request, my lady.”

Lady Temerilla took a deep breath. “I have been speaking to your wives.”

He groaned. “Please tell me it is not what I think it is?”

“It probably is. After much discussion, they gave their permission.”

He groaned once more. “Did they tell you anything? Did you at least talk to Orelia? She is human and could give you a WAY better perspective.”

Lady Temerilla was beginning to get hurt by how much he seemed against embracing her as a lover.

“I… I’m sorry. I’m not against it. It’s just a difference between eating something bit by bit to shoving the whole thing in your mouth.” Caeldaemos tried to clarify when he saw her looking downtrodden.

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“W-Well, you would be my first! What happened, happened, but I don’t count that. So, you will be my official first.”

She watched as Caeldaemos picked up her amulet and added several new enchantments.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“If you are that sure, I would be cruel to turn you down after all your effort. This is just to bring you to the starting line.” He replied.

“S-Starting line?” She was beginning to have second thoughts.

“Alright. The rule is: Keep. This. On.” He handed her the upgraded pendant.

“Um… V-Very well.” She replied, putting it around her neck.

“I owe you a lot. Honestly, you are a great woman. I promise to do right by you.” Caeldaemos wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close.

She then felt the mighty Daemos pressing up against her stomach and chest.

“I-Is that?”

“Yeah.”

“Can we… take it slow?”

“I promise to be gentle.”

The following day, the people of Flower were perplexed as to what had happened to Lady Temerilla. The noblewoman seemed to have a permanent golden light of happiness around her head and a beautiful smile of contentment. Many wondered if she had somehow reached enlightenment, but a handful of women had a more accurate idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The people of Elaseen gathered outside the town the following morning, away from the prying eyes of the soldiers that were there.

Caledaemos appeared nearby. “Is everyone here?” He asked.

“We are, my lord.” An older man answered.

“I’m so excited!” Jacob ran up to Caeldaemos.

He ruffled the boy’s hair. “I’m glad to hear that. Everyone, gather around.”

Once the eighteen people gathered around him, Caeldaemos teleported them all to Hallibrush.

They appeared in the temple’s main hall, where Orelia and Sophia were waiting.

“Welcome to Hallibrush.” Both Sophia and Orelia welcomed the humans.

The elderly man in the group took the lead and spoke to them.

Orelia led the group out of the temple to show them their temporary residence.

“You look well, my lord,” Sophia commented, once alone with him.

“Yeah… I had a bit of a rough patch, but I am doing better. Those cultists were… evil.” Caledaemos commented.

“The history of cultists is darker than the Demon-Lords. It just goes to show the level of darkness in people’s hearts.” Sophia commented while shaking her head.

Caeldaemos and Sophia headed toward the door.

“How busy has everyone been?” He asked.

“Construction has been going along quite well. Thanks to Rana’s golems and Geon, things have been smooth for expanding the city’s defensive walls.” Sophia answered.

The pair stepped out of the temple, and Caeldaemos was surprised by how busy the town was.

“What the heck is that building?” He asked, pointing out a four-story stone building that was still being built. He could see a few golems moving about the framework.

“That is the new city hall. We are making sure to have it be capable of being a safe location if an attack occurs.” Sophia replied as they walked toward the town center.

When they arrived, Caeldaemos laughed as he saw the usual queue of people lined up to use the LemoGeon Simulators. Many of the townspeople who were present saw and welcomed him back.

“So, where are the girls?” He asked Sophia.

“Rana has been busy assisting with building with her golems, so she is likely somewhere along the new walls. Listamati went to Venture to investigate something. I think Liara and Geon were still working on your home design. They have the area where it will be built and mapped out, but it still needs to be cleared and leveled. Lily is assisting the local guard in clearing monsters out of the new area.” She explained.

“Then, let’s go check in with Rana first. I hope she is not pushing herself too hard.” Caeldaemos decided.

He expanded his wings and picked up Sophia in his arms.

“Oh? A princess carry?” Sophia teased.

“I could drop you.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Then I best hold tight.”

Shaking his head, he took to the air.

From his overhead view of the town, he could see a lot of construction was taking place. The city hall looked like it would be about a quarter of the size of the one in Galgalake. It was being built in the new open area of the growing town.

Flying in that direction, he saw that the new walls were progressing quite well. Using his versatile vision, he zoomed in on the southern section of the walls being built. Searching the area, he could only see some of the demi-humans and golems working.

“Where is the material coming from?” He asked.

“Geon is providing it. Look to the northeast. There is a quarry over there that she established. Thanks to your domain storage, the ladies can transport large amounts of cut stone to where they need to go.” Sophia answered, enjoying the view.

Looking in the direction she indicated, he found the quarry. It was already an impressive size. Clearly, a considerable amount of stone had been pulled from the location.

“How did they make the quarry?” He asked, headed toward the north section of the wall where he spotted Rana.

“Geon established herself as a dungeon core where your residence is. Giiwo is always on twenty-four-hour guard duty around Geon’s core. But, with her being established, she consumed and converted the ground into earth mana, then used it to make large stone bricks. It was quite amazing to see the hole just appear.” Sophia replied.

“Geon is such a cheat ability.” Caeldaemos chuckled.

“I would say you yourself are more of one,” Sophia commented.

Caeldaemos laughed as he brought them down to land by Rana and put Sophia down.

“Cael!” Rana stopped her conversation and welcomed him back with a loving hug.

“I’m glad to be back.” He smiled while hugging her.

“Did something happen?” She asked.

“Some things, but I am good now.” He assured her.

Rana narrowed her eyes, checking to see if she could see if he was playing it down. After seeing that he was alright, she moved over to hang on to his arm.

“Curious about the progress?” She asked, leading him over to the construction area.

“You’re not pushing yourself too hard, are you? I saw you have a lot of golems out and about.”

She smiled. “I got the hard part out of the way a month ago. When I noticed that golem cores above Rank 5 could be programmed, I began making many of them. When you headed out to deal with the cultists, I had nearly a hundred Rank 5 cores, thirty Rank 6, and four Rank 7. Giiwo is the only one who is Rank 9. I regularly progress her core to the next rank when I can. I have been instilling artificial souls into the Rank 7 golems and having them be the primary commanders of the lower ranked.”

They arrived at the site where demi-humans were working with the golems to lay the large stones. The giant stone golems would carry the bricks and set them in place. The demi-humans would then lay out the mortar on top for the next brick to be put in place.

“Lady Rana.” A large demi-elephant man waved them over. He was nearly as big as Caeldaemos.

“Have there been any issues? Ah, this is Foreman Duprell,” She asked while introducing the man.

“Nope! Progress should be ahead of schedule now that we have ironed out the coordination kinks.”

“Is everyone getting enough rest?” Caeldaemos asked.

“Of course, my lord!” Duprell smiled widely. “We take regular breaks and stop before sundown.”

“By the way, Cael….” Rana began.

“Yeah?”

“We… might be running out of Tress….” Rana turned away.

“What!? How!?” He asked while pulling out his Household bank card and checking the balance.

What had been in the millions was now only a few hundred thousand.

“What. Happened?” Caeldaemos demanded to know.

“C-Costs of everything went a bit above what I estimated….” Rana replied.

“Where are all the costs going to? I know the town budget wasn’t great, and we would have to use our household funds. I thought the material here was free, thanks to Geon.”

“The only cost here is our daily wages, my lord. Which is around 40T Tress per day.” Foreman Duprell answered for his part.

“I’ve been gone for a couple of weeks, meaning their costs would only be around 60,000 Tress! Where did the millions go!?”

“Shall I answer since she seems hesitant to?” Sophia asked.

“No!” Rana pleaded, seeming guilty.

“Rana. What did you do?” He asked.

Rana seemed like she didn’t want to answer.

Someone landed on Caeldaemos’ back, wrapping their arms around his neck.

“Welcome back, Dad!” Lily kissed his cheek.

“Hey, Lily. Could you give us a moment? I am waiting for your mother’s answer.” He asked, patting her head.

“Oh, you mean all the metals she bought. She was pretty sad that she got scammed.” Lily said.

“Elaborate.” He asked her.

“Um, if I remember right, she made a deal with a merchant out of Vualdulin who was going through to Galgalake. Mom was kind of stretched thin that day with everything going on and bought what she thought was a good deal. But she-.”

“I’ll tell him the rest!” Rana finally gave up.

Shortly after, Caeldaemos teleported them back to the main town.

There were nearly forty crates of metal in the warehouse of the workshop. Caeldaemos assessed several pieces of the ore. Rana had explained to him that the ores were supposed to be a mix of gold, silver, iron, copper, and a tiny amount of mithril.

Iron Ore. Poor Quality. Less than 10% of the stone is iron.

“Ouch. If you remember who the merchant is, I could pay him a visit. I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to cheat the Demon-Lord.” Caeldaemos jokingly asked.

“I’ve already contacted Yanni, and he is helping me to file a complaint with the Merchant’s Association. But such things could take months to years to resolve.” Rana commented.

“Seriously?” He asked.

“We are a small, unknown workshop. Of course, they won’t put a high priority on it.” Rana replied.

Caeldaemos thought for a moment. “Then all we need to do is to change that.” A wicked smile came to his face. No one messed with his family and got away with it.