Somnia started to wonder whether Rui was right to doubt her plan. She fought beside Yugo in a wide clearing within the forest wielding her Demon Fangs – twin daggers her mother gifted her in her youth. They both had an eye on the hilt that cried tears of blood with each kill. She hadn’t gone back on her plan – yet –, but they certainly made it easier to enact her plan. What Wild Men wouldn’t surrender to her after seeing the Demon Fangs?

Nearly all of them!

She’d made a point of following the script she’d outlined with The Historian yet she and Yugo had both only managed to convert about four of the fifty-or-so Wild Men that surrounded them! As much as she wanted to grow their numbers, it was looking more and more like she’d have to chalk this battle up to a loss.

Somnia caught a Wild Man that Yugo threw at her like a ragdoll. She slammed it into the ground by its head and held one of the Demon Fangs to its throat. The Wild Men surrounding her were visibly wary. They trembled, barely holding onto the makeshift wooden spears and axes while she held this creature’s life in her hands. It would’ve been so easy to kill them all. So much easier to wipe them out and call it a day. But that would’ve been foolish, wouldn’t it? The Wild Men vastly outnumbered them, and initiating true war puts the Oni citizens at risk. As much as Somnia wanted to follow Rui’s lead and kill them – because she knew he wasn’t following the script – it was safest to leave him and the similarly rowdy Oni as outliers. More than that, this was an opportunity for her to test herself and prove that she could take part in missions like this without letting her emotions get the better of her.

”Back away from him!” An unfamiliar voice called.

It was a male voice, and it spoke with a thick Burnish accent. Somnia turned at the same time as Yugo and the Wild Men who surrounded them. The crowd of Myths parted to reveal a new Wild Man. He was taller than the rest, though not as tall as Somnia herself. Rather than brown rags, this one was dressed in black and white cloth with tree bark grafted to it like armor plating.

“His name’s ‘Denk’,” Yugo called. “That’s what The Historian says, anyway.”

“You will refer to me as General Denk,” The Wild Man, General Denk, corrected.

He stepped towards Somnia. As he got closer, the Wild Man that she’d been holding managed to wriggle his way free and escape into the crowd of surrounding Wild Men. General Denk finally stopped when he stood about two meters away from Somnia.

“Trying to take control of my men, are you?” General Denk clapped and laughed. “They’re mine. These men love me like a father because I treat them like my sons and daughters. I hunt for them, I fight for them, I learn for them. Intimidate them all you want. Beat them down all you want. In the end, they are my family.”

An idea struck Somnia. “So if I can convince you to join our cause, they’ll join too?”

General Denk laughed even harder. “As if I would,” He stood a bit straighter, humor suddenly vanishing. “I’m a proud Wild Man! I didn’t need any outsider patrons to bring me up like Zelos did. Denk did it by himself, unlike that Zakaria bastard!” He looked Somnia in the eye. “And there’s only one way for real Wild Men to evolve.”

Just like that. Just like that! Without warning, that unseen hand that hovered over Somnia’s heart squeezed down, demanding to be felt. Black and red aura surged through and around Somnia’s body with uncontrollable fervor. Somnia took a deep breath and stepped closer to Denk with Demon Fangs in either hand.

“And what’s that?”

Denk stared down at the Demon Fangs and back up into the eyes of the visage of death that lurked ever closer to him. He wrung his hands together and backed away.

“C-conversation!” Denk stammered.

The hand didn’t accept Denk’s surrender.

“If you cared about your ‘sons’, you would’ve taken my offer the first time I asked you.” She loomed over the cowering creature now. He looked so small. So pathetic. “Take solace in the fact that they’ll join you in The Da–”

Denk pushed Somnia back into Yugo. The sheer suddenness of the attack was enough to throw her off and force the hand away. She stared ahead at General Denk, who leaned on a nearby tree with a hand and panted like he’d just stared death in the face which, to be fair, he had.

“You’re a terrible negotiator!” General Denk chastised. He stepped forward, jamming a finger in Somnia’s face like an angry old Burnish lady. “You’re no better than the other bleedin’ Generals! They’re all brawn, no brains!”

“I… but you said…”

“I said that I care about my boys more than anything! Do you seriously think I’d get myself killed and leave them to your waiting daggers? Think for a second! What good can I do for them from beyond the grave?!”

Somnia… felt embarrassed. General Denk was right, even if the circumstances cut that line of logic from contention. Still, she couldn’t let that overwhelm her. She slipped, but she could still recover.

“You’re absolutely right. Forgive me,” Somnia began, finally standing from Yugo’s supporting arms and bowing slightly. “Unfortunately, I’m not left with much room to negotiate. Will you be working with us, or not?”

“Seems my options are join you or get killed, innit?”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You could also run away?” Yugo suggested. “Go live life outside of the forest?”

“And go where? We’ll get ripped apart out there. We can’t live in no big city like the ones in Burnchester, Azuma Saikyou has too many open fields for it to be appealing to people like us, and Bukimiburgh is… Bukimiburgh.”

“Then join us,” Somnia finally said. “Once Zakaria is dealt with, we can go our separate ways. The forest will be yours. The Wild Men’s part of it, at least.”

General Denk’s eyes went wide. “Wait a step. You make an interesting point!”

He turned to his Wild Men and spoke to them in a language Somnia couldn’t comprehend. Yugo did, courtesy of The Historian, and informed me that they were “about to sing like songbirds”.

“You see, lady,” General Denk began. “Me and my men aren’t too cool on Zakaria. Those other Generals, though? They’ve all been drinkin’ the punch, if you know what I mean.”

So that’s what Yugo meant…

“I see. So you want to get rid of Zakaria and the other Generals so that you can take over all of the Wild Men's territory. Is that right?”

General Denk smiled. “Don’t make it sound so evil. I want my family to have room to grow! Our society is so rigid and dated. It’s time we modernize, and I’ll be the one to lead the Wild Men to that modern age!”

The Wild Men around him cheered as Somnia and Yugo shared a look.

“Your call,” Yugo shrugged. “Keep em’ or kill em’. What do you wanna do?”

Somnia already knew the answer. It was obvious, really.

She extended a hand. “Sounds lovely.”

General Denk took it immediately, fixing her with a comically wide grin that exposed two rows of razor-sharp teeth. “You won’t regret it! When do we start–”

Somnia tightened her grip on General Denk’s hand. “I hope you remain loyal to us, and I hope you keep to your word about nurturing the Wild Men. Because if you don’t…” She didn’t say anything after that, but the hand over her heart hovered ever closer. Denk must’ve noticed, because he began to sweat just like he had before.

“You have my word, lady. We’ll be good boys and girls!” He turned. “Aye! Won’t we!”

The surrounding Wild Men grunted, trying their hardest to say yes. Somnia accepted.

The instant she separated from his grip, Yugo whistled like he’d seen something wonderful.

“Hey, put your glasses on. Check the HUD.”

“How’s it looking?” Somnia asked, removing them from her robes as General Denk corralled his Wild Men.

“See for yourself.”

Somnia understood just why he’d whistled. The Conversion Percentage went up by twenty percent!

ZAKARIA MAJORITY. 23% CONVERSION.

“So,” Somnia began, doing her best to contain her excitement. “You were saying something about there being other Generals, right? What can you tell us about them?”

***

Not much. General Denk was annoyingly proud of his sovereign status within Wild Man society. He’d somewhat revealed that his group was made up of the outcasts of Wild Men society, hence why their group was so small and “out of the fold”. That was fine. They’d figure out other ways to drag the Generals out. If they played their cards right, they could have this Wild Men situation sorted out in a few days!

Following that discovery, Somnia ordered General Denk and his men to stay put while they waited for Shuten Douji to tell them where their hideout would be during the mission. In the meantime, she walked aimlessly with Yugo as she reflected on her encounter with the Wild Man General.

“Do you think I went too far with General Denk?”

“Too far?” Yugo asked. “He’s alive, and his men are relatively unharmed.”

“You know what I mean,” Somnia said, a hint of her prior embarrassment coloring her words. “I think I was subconsciously trying to act like my mother back there. When I was… you know… about to kill him.”

“Yeah,” Yugo sighed. “Your mother was pretty scary.” He conjured a water bottle and pointed it at Somnia. “Why do you think she’s your mental model? Of all people. Not that it’s a bad thing, I’m just curious.”

“Because she was the previous Matriarch of the Galerose Family,” Somnia answered immediately. There was a lot more to her mother and her temporary position in Minashire, but now wasn’t the place to get into that so she left it there. Rather than get into her family history, she orated public knowledge.

“Cerus Rose led the Galerose Family to the position they’re in now, making them the strongest force in Minashire. They were above the Mamoru Clan for an entire generation.” She paused. “But my mother can be… is… extremely offputting.”

She felt a familiar heat gather around her body.

“Intimidating!” Somnia immediately corrected. “F-fearsome!”

The heat vanished.

“People feared her more than they loved her, yet she’s remembered fondly by Minashire. By all accounts, I shouldn’t try to be like her. I should try to be more like Nori Knight or Animarum or the Light Eater. I love my mother, but she isn’t a role model.”

Yugo gave Somnia a thoughtful look. “I’m sorry, but that isn’t something I can answer for you. What I can say, though, is that you have plenty of time to iron out your… emotional kinks. And that Matriarch work is far more bureaucratic than combative. You’ll spend more time in meetings and signing papers than fighting.”

“I can certainly manage that.” Somnia snorted. “Can’t be any worse than Mamoru Ruma.”

Yugo laughed. Hard. So hard that Somnia thought something was wrong with him.

“Somnia, I have never agreed with you more in my entire life.”

“...It wasn’t that funny,” Somnia said, suddenly embarrassed.

Yugo wiped a tear from his eye. “Yeah, you’re right.” He turned towards General Denk’s direction. “We should go back and get them. Shuten Douji sent me the coordinates to our hideout.”

“I didn’t get any notifications on my phone, yet?”

Yugo tapped his head. “Message to the System. Once you make your Rogue Contract you’ll be able to pay for that functionality. It’s cheap, so I can buy it for you.”

“I’m not getting a Contract.”

“Sure you’re not.” Yugo smiled. “I look forward to the day you get one so I can say ‘Told you’!”

“You’re gonna be waiting a long time.”

“I doubt that.” Yugo gathered aura in his feet as he prepared to take off. “Anyway, let’s get going. We need to have a meeting about this General situation.”

With that, he took off. Somnia gathered aura in her leg as well. Before she could take off, though, a tentacle made of vines wrapped around her torso. Instinct kicked in and she slashed at the vines with her Demon Fangs, but that only caused more vines to entangle her body. Without warning, she’d been pulled deeper into the forest.