Claudius Claymore approached the harpy queen’s alien ball of sticks and mud. He gently waved for his soldiers to wait outside, smiled reassuringly—if faintly, and stepped up into the structure.

The harpy queen was lounging on her throne, looking peaceful and well-groomed, if not for the steely coldness in her sky blue eyes. She looked the human up and down.

“You look ill.”

Chitrathia, the bilingual harpy, translated for her.

“I haven’t been sleeping well,” Claudius shrugged.

Titania hummed. “You know, I was planning to visit you, but here you are before I could depart. What is your business with me?”

“What a coincidence,” the man grinned, “I hope we’re thinking the same thing; that’ll make this easier.”

“Say it.”

“Fight with me.” Claudius Claymore’s eyes hardened and he stroked the hilt of his sword on his back. “Join your army with mine. Let us ride you into battle, let me command your forces and you mine.”

“Against whom?” The sky queen leaned forward in her throne.

Claymore took that as a good sign and smiled bitterly. “Against the orcs.”

“Good!” Titania’s voice rolled out with an enthusiastic, involuntary chirp.

“Their Queen killed someone precious to me,” the human explained. “I suspect she’s been meddling in the background for some time. There’s a point where the enemy’s movements suddenly got better. Originally, I thought it was because the second prince took over command from their general, but after speaking with him at length, I can’t picture him giving those kinds of orders, and he certainly didn’t arrange his own rescue. Besides, the Orc Queen infiltrated the center of my camp with the utmost speed, stealth, and brutality. I can’t afford to underestimate someone like that.”

“Indeed, you must not!” Titania bobbed her head enthusiastically. How is this? I thought I would have to work hard to convince him. He’s delivering himself on a platter. It’s almost too good to be true… Could it be that the surrender order was made to both of us?

“Which is why I came to ask for your help,” Claymore nodded. “But then I thought, wait a minute, if the orcs are this terrifying, why didn’t you come to ask for my help days ago?”

Titania blinked and her lips parted slightly. “… What?”

“Of course, it’s because you haven’t really been fighting with them. Either they’ve been toying with you, or you’ve really been on their side this whole while, but I can’t explain your reaction just now unless you know how big of a threat the orcs are.”

Titania felt a sense of crisis at the direction this conversation was going. Chitrathia, who was translating, and her other harpies, didn’t seem to have caught onto anything yet, simply feeling like the stupid human was babbling. They didn’t realize that their alliance may be about to die before it was born.

“Wait, you should hear what I have to say, your majesty. The orcs are certainly not our allies! They’ve been—”

“Coercing you.”

Titania’s sky blue eyes widened in shock. She was going to lie and say that they were indeed fighting the orcs seriously but the orcs were still just toying with them for fun. She hadn’t wanted the more complex reality to come out at a time like this. But as it turned out, King Claymore didn’t need her admission to figure it out.

Claudius Claymore watched her reaction with a pale smile, and Titania realized she had been too shocked to deny his accusation.

“It… it’s true,” since things had come this far already, she admitted it. “They have our eggs as hostages, and we are not strong enough to rebel alone.”

He nodded. “See? It’s all out there in the open now. Will you fight with me, Sky queen?”

Titania took a deep breath and marveled. “King of foul waters, you are more than I or anyone else has ever given you credit for. How is your country such a failure with you at the helm?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

He laughed, a dry, barking sound. “They say it’s a curse from god. Claymore is an old nation, after all.”

“Then perhaps your god has lifted his curse,” Titania smiled slightly. “Perhaps he desires the death of the Orc Lord as much as we do.”

Claudius stiffened and looked up at the harpy Queen with a tense smile. “The… Orc Lord?”

The sky queen blinked, then asked, aghast, “Is that the one piece you didn’t manage to put together on your own?! Out of everything, you missed that?!”

King Claymore—former king—scratched his scruffy, crownless head of dark hair. “Well shit,” he mumbled. “This is going to be really hard, isn’t it?”

Titania stared at him. “…You are not backing out,” she half-commanded half-begged.

“I’m not, I’m not,” he raised his hands defensively. “We’re going to need a solid strategy. You’ve been gathering information, right?”

The sky Queen showed a rare sharp-toothed grin. “My girls are good at that. I’ll tell you what I know. You will help us pull off another miracle.”

“No pressure, of course,” Claymore chuckled.

***

When the army returned to the capital, Corinth set aside his work and watched from one of the palace windows. He confirmed his brother riding on a horse at the front of the procession and finally breathed a sigh of relief, heading downstairs to greet him.

“Brother!” Corinth called out. “Welcome home.”

Verde dismounted and half-smiled at him. “First to greet me is my little brother. Ryle is right, I need to find a fiancé.”

Corinth pouted, unamused that his genuine care and concern was apparently unwanted. Still, he examined his brother and frowned. He seemed thinner than when he’d left, even if it wasn’t all that long ago. His eyes were tired and dark, and the curve of his lips seemed to pull downward whenever he wasn’t focusing on it.

It had been a short but eventful war. Their army had started on the back foot, and their general had committed suicide after his orders needlessly killed countless men. Just after his brother had taken command, he was captured by the enemy and only managed to escape rumors proposed, because some monster had intervened.

Corinth leaned in and asked quietly, “Are you okay, Verde?”

The second prince shot Corinth a sharp look, but it quickly softened. His naive little brother wasn’t the one who should be receiving that gaze. Sighing, Verde whispered back. He smiled with a sudden rush of bitter humor, “No. Were it not for that she-demon, I would still happily be enjoying my vacation in a foreign land. I didn’t ask her to save me.”

Corinth blinked in shock, and Verde patted him on the shoulder.

“I’m healthy. Don’t worry about me. Post war finances are supposed to be a nightmare, so focus on that.”

The second prince walked away, leaving the third prince staring mutely after him.

I… I asked for it. His eyes widened slightly.

He must have hurt his brother’s pride unintentionally… but Corinth would rather have Verde alive and ashamed than proud and dead.

She kept her promise…

His brother was home and safe. Their army had returned and the war was over. In a situation where the casualties reached such numbers as they did, Orc Lord Vyra still managed to safeguard his brother’s life.

Corinth fixed his expression and went to seek out his father for an audience.

The king of Andorin was in his office, looking a bit more tired than usual, but much much better than when word had arrived that Verde was captured.

“Father,” Corinth bowed and waited for his father to nod before speaking further. “With the war ending, I’m helping to put our finances back in order.”

“Indeed,” the king said. “I’ve already given our head financier a ruling on how to handle the treaty with Claymore. You can get the details from him.”

Corinth nodded. “Thank you. I also wanted to ask if I should set aside any additional award for our other trade partner, given their contributions.”

Monster or not, the Orc Lord had volunteered to help them during this war, and that help had turned out to be indispensable. Corinth was of the opinion that they owed her some reward.

His father paused a moment to examine him. “Hold off on that,” he said. “The northern swamp is still experiencing some conflict. Once our trade partner is no longer indisposed, I have another proposition for them. It may affect the reward.”

Corinth frowned slightly in confusion, but it didn’t seem like his father was thinking about being stingy with the person who saved his son’s life. It also didn’t seem like he was willing to discuss the details with him at the moment.

“Understood.” The third prince hesitated for a moment before giving another bow and taking his leave.

The conflict is ongoing? Corinth wondered to himself. But why would she hold her army behind while ours retreats? Corinth didn’t know much about war, but he knew most people wanted it to end as quickly as possible. Is it that the war against the harpies isn’t settled yet?

He considered the possibility that Vyra was converting her brother’s retreat, or fighting on to avenge the soldiers who had died in some way. The thought birthed an image of valiance in his heart, which beat just a little warmer for it.