“Hi hieee...What are going to do to me?” asked Sirsutor anxiously as he watched Acma walking towards him. It grabbed the leg of the guardian harder.

“Nothing, I just going to stand you up”, replied Acma as he grabbed its shoulder and helped it to stand on its feet.

“It’s better to speak with Sir Sutor while you’re standing up”, said Acma.

“Th.. thank you”

“Lets talk on the scorpiones back. I like to sit on it for once”, Acma lead the way toward the Sirsutor’s ride like he’s the one who owned it.

“Okay” “Hey, give us some space. I want to talk with sir warrior here”, said Sirsutor. The other talpid moles jumped down to give Acma and Sirsutor a space to talk.

“Sir Sutor, there many thing I want to ask you, but I will ask only a few. I hope you don’t mind”

“Sir Acma, I don’t really mind, but our tribe never give anything for free”, said Sirsutor while kept avoiding looking at Acma’s face.

“He want a payment even for information. Really a trader. But this fatty seem to forget his place after a few sir and now he think I’m a pushover?”, thought Acma.

“I understand that everything has a price. But I want to remind you, that you came here to attack my village. With that fact alone I should kill you and your group. Then, to prevent more trouble, I will trace your tribe and annihilate them. But I didn’t. Do you understand?” 

Acma’s sudden change of tone coupled with intimidating pressure from his body made Sirsutor shivering non stop in fear. It never thought that this human’s mood could change this fast and it almost lost its life because of a simple statement it made earlier.

“Do you have a map of the entire Isebial Kingdom?” asked Acma didn’t give a chance for Sirsutor to answer.

“Sir Acma, possessing a map is forbidden by the kingdom”

“...”

It’s not impossible for a kingdom to do that especially Isebial Kingdom who were recovering from a devastating war. But a trader should have a map or a mean to navigate safely throughout the kingdom. Acma wanted to know that.

“How do you navigate your trading route?” 

“We depend on our memory and this baby here”, replied Sirsutor while patting its scorpiones. “Only a senior member of our tribe will lead a trade convoy and scorpiones can easily remember all the routes they take during the journey”.

“Looks like this scorpiones is really special”, praised Acma. He also patting its carapace and secretly planted a tracking device between the carapace intersection. 

“Yes, they are. They are our tribe most prized possession”

“How do you control it. I mean, your strength not even half the scorpiones”, asked Acma curiously.

“... I shouldn’t tell you this but it wasn’t a secret either. Our tribe have a scorpiones tamer. They were the one who control these scorpiones”

Acma restrained himself from looking at each of the talpid moles around him to locate the tamer. He had some ideas about what tamer was but maybe it was different in this world. 

“What is a tamer?”

Sirsutor looked at Acma unbelievably, maybe because Acma asked about a fairly common knowledge. But it still answered.

“They were the one who formed a contract either with beasts, monsters or insects. To form a contract, a contract rune is needed except for some of the high rank beasts, monsters or insects which are known to be prideful and refuse to be contracted. Most of the time, the tamer will use a slave ring or slave collar to forcefully make them submit”

“Scorpion is not an insect”, Acma refuted in his head.

“That was interesting. Do you sell a contract runes or slave ring?”

“... No, we do not sell them. Only the kingdom have them”

“...”

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“It’s mean this moles have the contract rune for scorpiones. Since they have it, there is a possibilities that I can get the runes from other parties and not from the kingdom. I can’t ask too much about this or this fatty will get suspicious that I will rob the contract rune from them. Lets ask about something else”, thought Acma.

Acma called Silver to his side. He unsummoned and then re-summoned it just to show it to Sirsutor.

“What is this ability called?” he asked.

“Sir, I’ve never thought you’re a Soul Slaver”, said Sirsutor as its face darken.

“Soul Slaver?” asked Acma. He was curious about the reason why Sirsutor suddenly became agitated.

“Other than necromancer, soul slaver is the most hated profession among non human. Why? Because they kill and then enslave the soul to become their summons. The enslaved soul will never die and never be able to return to the afterlife. That’s why we hate the soul slaver”, said Sirsutor without looking at the Soul Slaver in front of it. The other moles also looked agitated. They distancing the other scorpiones from Acma.

“...” 

“Enslaving the souls? How about look at it from another perspective, I suggest, repurposing the souls. If I argue with this fatty, it will become a classic unending debate about good and evil, or about the act of manipulation and this kind of debate is useless. Hmmmm... I should tell about this to Orca Village. I wonder what are their view on this”, Acma was contemplating. 

He never viewed things as black and white like he never viewed a weapon as good or evil. Weapon was just a weapon. It’s the wielder who was good or evil, not the weapon itself. It’s also similar to skills or techniques. In his opinion, soul enslaving could be bad or evil. He didn’t care about Sirsutor or other non human’s view on him. The most important thing, either it was useful to defend himself and to defend someone or something close to him or not.

“What is the difference between Necromancer and Soul Slaver?”

“Both of them enslaved the soul, but necromancer enslaved the soul of a sentient being while soul slaver enslaved the soul of a non sentient being. Look, can we talk about something else?” said Sirsutor as it look directly at Acma.

“Impressive, your hatred have overcome your fear. Now you even dare to look straight at my face”, praised Acma. He stroke its shoulder repeatedly, each stroke was harder than previously. Then he slapped its face lightly several times.

Its head immediately shrunk after hearing Acma’s words. 

“No.. no sir, I.. I won’t dare. I apo.. apologize for my behaviour just now. I will never repeat it again”, said Sirsutor stutteringly as it lowered its head. 

“I have no more questions but I want you to spread the news about me. You can aggravate it if you want to. But, let me remind you, if anyone dare to touch my village, I will annihilate your entire tribe. Who knows, I might be a necromancer too. Let them think about it”

Acma stood up and look at Sirsutor. 

“Sutor, raise your head and look at me”

“Sir warrior, I.. I won’t dare”

“I said, raise your head and look at me. Do not let me repeat it again”

With much difficulties, Sirsutor raised its head and look at Acma.

“Sir Sutor, your courage just now is what I admire the most. Keep it. Although we’re not friends, but we’re not enemies either. Don’t let your hatred blind your judgement”

After he said that, Acma jumped down and walked toward the centaurs followed by Silver, leaving the gobsmacked Sirsutor who seem couldn’t comprehend Acma’s praise.

“Alice, activate that tracking device and let me know if it stop moving permanently” “Yes, Master”

The centaurs seemed to have come to an agreement and were looking at Acma. When Acma arrived, Chief Gru stepped forward and spoke.

“Acma, we’ve agreed to accept you as our lord, but we will never call you our lord. As long as you keep this village safe, we will follow your order. This is our decision”

“Good, I accept that. I will leave two guardians at your village. It will help you to defend the village. Also, take this sphere. If you face any emergency, push this button and I’ll immediately know”, replied Acma as he shoved the communication sphere at Chief Gru’s hand.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand”

This village have become your territory.

You can view about the status of this village in your territory panel

“My third territory, awesome”, thought Acma.

“Chief, what is the name of this village?”

“We have no name. It’s not important”

“Okay. I’ll name this village as Gru Village since you’re the founder. Everything in the village will proceed as it was previously except I am the lord. You will lead the village as usual. If I have anything for you in the future, I’ll tell you. Right now, take this metal and forge your best weapon from it”, said Acma as he gave a hundred gram of nokium metal to Chief Gru.

“This is a rare metal. Where did you get this?”

“It’s not important”, replied Acma short. He look at the sky and noticed the deep orange colour were plastered all over the horizon.

“It’s not even 9 hours since the sunrise, but now its already near sunset. What happened?”

“Chief, why it’s already near sunset? Compare to yesterday, it should be much longer right?, he asked.

“The daytime is always shorter on the 3rd day and the night-time is longer ”

“That’s weird. Nevermind, I’ll get use to it sooner or later”

“I see. Chief, I need a guide to the werewolves’ tribe. I still have some business with them”

“Are you going to kill all of them?”

“I’ll know when I reach them. Do you have a guide?”

“Yes we have. He will come to you shortly”

While waiting for the guide, Acma ordered 2 stone guardians standing guard beside the main gate like a door god. Shortly after, a guide came forward.

“Lead the way. We leave immediately”

“Yes, sir”