This was a mistake.

Baik looked at the uneasy trio of kobolds, physically annoyed with himself.

This was a bad mistake.

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A few moments prior to Baik's mistake, he had arrived and transferred the chained humans from his grip to secured around the stone fencing of Baikan's garden. All four of the humans had seemingly reconciled to some degree before they arrived, all of them putting their bundles down before the healer and mage sat down beside the fence. Both the once-terrified girl stayed up for a time to watch their captor shifting his recently acquired gear around.

Carrying a sword... I think I did something similar to it with wooden stakes in my prior life. A real sword is heavier, but...

Baik twisted its fastening loop through his sash, impressed that his old birth blanket had so much utility. Comparing the wooden weapons he had so far experienced in his new life to his captured weapon was like night and day; his boneclub may have been special to him and a profound weapon, but the craftsmanship humans had was scarily above anything he and his friends could make.

The idea of just how easy it was to view kobolds as simple monsters made a lot of sense if there were more races like theirs. From Aggel's tales, there were at least four other demonic races of similar technological status as the kobolds: goblins, wulfar, salamanders, and merfolk. Fast reproducers with very little technology, often led by one or two elite members of their race or by demons.

Of the five demon-spawned races, however, the kobolds were the only ones feared.

But this was a distraction: the reason he was considering all of this was because of the fact that these humans would possibly have the skills to produce things of better quality than his kobolds. Getting the trio to trust their humans was more essential now than ever since their knowledge could grant them more techniques or advantages to stave off Bai from absorbing them.

Baik cast a glance at the four to ensure they were all settled down, finally turning and heading into the tower.

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"You brought humans? Here?"

This was a mistake.

Ango gripped his spear, casting a glance over at Hanaya. "We can't trust humans, even if Baik brought them."

Nehlka approached her brother, sweating as she gently grabbed his forearm.

"Brother, you heard Baik; this is something we must do so that we can-"

Ango shook free, just as Hanaya stepped forward to glare at her. "I agree with Ango. This is a terrible plan."

This was a bad mistake.

Baik stepped back, looking down on the pair as they met his gaze. He had told them about what happened with the humans and why he did it, yet he wasn't terribly surprised that they were reacting poorly. The issue was that Ango was grabbing a weapon. Baik spread his arms to bar the doorway of the tower, narrowing his eyes.

"I won't let you Ango." Baik looked at Hanaya. "Or you. Both of you aren't thinking clearly. You all were here getting everything set-up so you should know how important it is that we get help."

Ango flashed his teeth. "Not like this, my Prince. They're our enemies!"

"They're prisoners," Baik hissed. His own anger momentarily pushed through, causing his eyes to hue pink. "I spared their lives and should be free to choose how we deal with them. I am your prince, right?"

Almost immediately the fight vanished from the spear-clutching kobold's face, leaving him standing with Hanaya at hsi side. Unlike him, she maintained a lack of appeasement; she grabbed his shoulder, gently rocking it while staring Baik down.

"You are," she replied. "But this is a bad choice. Those humans will only get in our way, weigh down our food supply, and cause trouble if Bailaka finds out about them. It'd be one thing if you or Ango were at least having the females bear children to increase our numbers, but doing things as you ask, we are crowding and complicating things."

She's right.

"You're right."

Baik said it so flatly that all three of his friends let their jaws drop. Nehlka was the first to recover and shut her mouth, turning her head away as the idea of murdering people probably had begun to sink in. Hanaya seemed relieved once the awe wore off... and Ango merely raised the spear.

But all three of them noticed Baik didn't let his arms fall.

"You're right that things would be difficult. But we're not going to kill them; we're going to go through with the plan."

Hanaya averted her gaze while Ango lowered the spear with a disappointed frown. Baik continued, shifting his gaze to the warrior.

"If the humans consent to it, then you can mate. But we won't treat them as they treat kobolds; we will convince them that kobolds are better than humans... so that we can acquire their knowledge and aid."

"You believe that this will work?"

"Of course, Ango. It will be difficult but Nehlka and I are smart. In enough time, we can easily acquire their language. They'll probably pick ours up first, so long as we keep them occupied and watched."

Stolen novel; please report.

Baik finally let his arms drop, shifting aside to rest against the doorframe. His tail snapped and ran along the stone wall's cracks as he glared at them.

"The only one we should worry about is the mage. The one with the damaged hands." Baik raised his hand for them to see, running his fingers along his knuckles for emphasis. "I crushed both of his hands' fingers so they needed to be healed. Not to mention out of the four, he was the sole member to glare at me despite his life being in my hands. If we can win him over, I think the other three will naturally submit to helping us."

Finally placated — or at least too annoyed to be angry — Ango let the spear clatter to the ground. Hanaya cast him a glance but ultimately sighed. The huntress crossed her arms... and made sure to elbow her partner to draw his attention.

"If I catch you mating with a human before me, you're dead."

Ango blushed and turned his head away. The only issue is that he met the glaring look from Nehlka. Both girls pressured him to look back at Baik. Defeated by their energy, the male crossed his arms and sighed in defeat.

"Fine. I dislike it but assuming this plan works... I suppose it can't be too bad. But I am against you being the only guard when they sleep. Why not let me and Hanaya do it?"

The question was reasonable and somewhat thought out, so Baik gave him a few seconds of wondering before respectfully raising his hand out in front of him.

Silent gesturing wasn't always obvious, but Baik could practically feel the anger radiating off of his friend when he realized that his flattened hand was exactly level with Ango's head.

"Really!?" Ango stomped, turning and storming into the meat cellar. "Always my damn-"

The door slammed, giving the prince a chuckle. Hanaya had remained, her eyes affixed to the door.

"I know the real reason... you're worried about the mage using magic?"

"Yes." Baik turned his head toward the two girls. Nehlka was squeezing her staff, looking between the two with her own shaken nerves. "If I'm being honest, it's also the reason he's the most dangerous. Out of the four of us, I'm the only one who could survive in a battle of magic and physical might."

I get it, Ango. But you need to understand: I'm doing this to try and give us a better future. That future would be pointless if this dangerous choice of mine got you killed. Things will get a lot harder from now on but this mistake of mine can also become an incredible boon.

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The first task with the humans was to take stock in all the looted goods and assert their position within the Baikan hierarchy. Although they were going to be treated above the average mark for humans in kobold captivity, they were to be positioned beneath Baik and his friends.

As far as the first steps to achieving this, the most obvious was to disrobe them. Although the humans of this world had likely a differently-shaped culture, they were still distinctly human when it came to emotion. Shaming them would be an effective tool just as it would have been in Baik's prior life.

Ango and Baik handled overseeing the mage and his larger friend, which took considerably long for them to comprehend. The girls initially seemed alarmed but when the druidess and Hanaya motioned them to the tower. The two men were provided a pair of shorts from among the goods while the women were allowed to keep their tops wrapped in a singular wrapped-style bra and shorts. Although it was still a bit chilly at this point of the year, they were made to stand while Nehlka took in their measurements.

"So," she grumbled, tapping her small piece of charcoal against the wooden slab. "By our measurement in kobold size, the tallest to shortest is the older warrior at two kobolds and a single youth, the woman you called a coward and the mage in a near tie at two kobolds, and then the healer at a kobold and a youth. But by the measurement humans use, it'd be about... six feet and three inches, roughly five feet and eight inches, and five feet and five inches."

Baik had known the odd-one whom remained quiet was tall, yet hearing the number made him realize he was probably taller than the leader of the group. Compared to the one whom the mage was speaking to, however, he sounded older and probably was; so most likely, that meant this large one was an older human but younger member of their group.

"I see. Does anyone know what part of the human world they might have come from?"

Baik went fishing with that, given neither of the trio had an education like his. Even with Aggel's guidance, he had only learned of the world within their forest.

"I don't. My brother doesn't either. Hanaya mentioned that one of them looked like a warrior that her father slew back in a forest border war that happened a few years before we were born. The um... the mage, I think?"

Will I really need to deal with him?

Baik mentally waved it away and looked over at the four as Ango worked to get them moving lumber and stones around as best their language gap allowed. "I see. The two girls are also young enough to have children, I take it... so we'll need to keep them underguard doubly so. I'm not against the humans having sex but if they get pregnant, that would-"

"Prince!"

The blue kobold turned and looked at the befuddled and embarrassed druidess. Her expression alone made him realize he had been too blunt.

"I mean," Baik coughed, clearing his throat and averting his gaze to look back at them just as the healer pleaded with Ango to exclude the mage. "It's not as if I'm wrong. We know nothing about humans, do we? They may be similar and have children like us, but kobolds carry to term quickly and female bodies are naturally suppressant of birthing pain. It'd be extremely dangerous and possibly cost them their life if we didn't have something for them to endure it..."

Although she didn't enjoy the subject, he heard the smaller of the kobold girls grumble before she continued scribbling notes on her slab.

"You aren't wrong... but there are times and places to discuss that sort of topic. Not to mention that if you are the one always guarding them during those hours, it almost sounds like you're intending to watch the humans..."

Voyeurism had never been his goal, much less a fetish for the kobold prince. He merely saw that there was no reason to shy away from the truth. As unsettled as Ango and Hanaya were with their new residents, they worked diligently as instructed and put faith in him. Baik had a responsibility unlike any other to ensure their trust wasn't misplaced, covering and predicting every angle possible. If the humans fell in love and began trying to mate, he could only hope that he learned enough of their tongue to stop it or they would understand this situation and avoid creating an even more complex scenario by having a child. Additional kobolds could be explained easily since kobolds rarely exhibited the traits of their parents... but another human, one that loudly cried whenever it was upset in some way, would put all of them in danger.

"Nehlka," Baik spoke colder now, grabbing the nearest bundle of weapons. He sat it down between them, letting his tail thump it closer to her. "Take these weapons to Ango and Hanaya. The ones I marked down are to be kept aside for these if they ever earn them back... but the rest are to be looked over and determined on their usability. Some of the shorter humans may have good-length weapons for them."

"Oh. Okay. Um... and what will you do?"

He smiled and started toward the mage as he sat down, relieved of having to work but still choosing to stay near his friends while they set the stones and stakes into place.

"I'm going to have a talk with them... and try to learn a few more of their words."