"Shin's teacher?!?" To that revelation Gwyn and the others inside the room were obviously shocked, of course no one thought that Shin learned everything on his own but to suddenly meet his teacher here.
"Actually, master is more appropriate... although in some ways I'm also his subordinate." Vilana scratched her head with the hand that wasn't currently crushing Joker's face.
"Please stop!!! I'm sorry, I'll work harder!" Completely ignoring the atmosphere Joker was pleading while flailing around in the air, "I won't steal food anymore, I won't paint Riaz's soldiers, I won't mix in random things with Fafnoth's experiments."
"Hah? Like hell I care about that." Annoyed Vilana made a wind up motion, aiming Joker at one of the walls as Joker shouted out as loud as she could.
"I-I won't steal your alcohol anymore!" Vilana froze mid swing at what Joker said.
"You." Lifting Joker so that her face or at least the parts that weren't currently being crushed by Vilana's hand was at an eye to eye level. "Were the one stealing my alcohol?" The glare Vilana released put a deep chill in the air, even Kaila and Misaki started to shiver in response to the atmosphere and killing intent that was being pressed upon Joker.
"Uh, uh ju-just once!"
"REALLY?" Joker's right eye which wasn't covered started roaming the room.
"O-Okay it might have been a few times."
"FEW?!?! Over the past year that you've been here I've had six hundred and fifty three bottles of alcohol go missing. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?" Vilana gave off a smile that had no joy or gentleness to it, her eyes narrowing down to slits as she glared heavily at Joker.
"I'M SORRY!!! Please don't kill me! I haven't given birth to Shin's children yet!!!"
"Eh?" Gwyn who was about to interrupt their fight froze while she was trying to understand what was just said, did Joker just say children?
"Tha-That's!!!" Shea on the other hand turned bright red, of course as a princess especially one that handled all the domestic and government side of things she was well aware of where babies came from as well as acts that many people do that would be considered rape or at the very least extreme sexual harassment.
"How dare you say something like that in the Princess's roo-" *Crack "-oom?" Caroline's words were interrupted by a loud crack followed by a very scary crushing sound as Joker's mask got ground into dust.
"Owwwww..." Joker was fortunate or unfortunately not injured aside from falling down on her back side. Groaning Joker slowly rose up and lifted her head to reveal!
Another mask... It was another mask that was a hundred percent identical to the one that she had always been using.
"Why would you wear a mask over a mask!!!" Caroline shouted out at the reveal, rather how did Joker fit two masks on her face without it looking weird or bulky.
"I'll only show my face to master after al- *Smack", Joker was sent tumbling across the room with a loud sound by Vilana who simply back slapped her.
"Stop playing around... Damn it I keep getting caught up in your pace all the time..." Vilana rubbed her temples and then suddenly looked behind her. "What are those idiots doing now?" Vilana stuck her head through the portal leaving behind a rather disturbing appearance.
"Even though I wasn't entirely fooling around..."
"Umm... it was definitely a surprise but... how is this going to help?" Shea hesitantly asked the dejected Joker. It's not that she doubted Vilana's strength but it would really be a similar situation to Joker's before. While a person can be worth and army in strength, they still can't cover the entirety of the battlefield by themselves.
"Who said anything about taking them on by myself? Although that is an option." Vilana looked at Joker in disgust while clicking her tongue before stepping away from what used to be a normal wardrobe. Soon after she did that a young man stepped through, his entire body encased in a dull silver armor.
Gwyn narrowed her eyes at his appearance, somehow even though the armor is as plain as plain can get without colour or decorations it made her nervous and that was worrying.
"Nice to meet you princesses, my name is Fafnoth and I am Shin's master for crafting." Fafnoth held out his right hand in greeting, on each metal encased finger was two rings that gave off a magical aura.
"A-are those enchanted rings?!? And really high level ones at that!" Shea's previously meek appearance was like an illusion as she grasped onto Fafnoth's hand. Being the one most sensitive to magic she was that much more impressed by the power coming off of every single one of the simple iron rings. At most Gwyn could get a feeling of 'powerful' from it and Caroline could sense it somewhat, Kaila and Misaki who were both able to sense magic and even see magic were unable to get a good look at the items because of their positioning.
"Is it that impressive?" Gwyn casually shifted her sword to an easily usable position, it wasn't that she was suspecting Shin but if each one of his master's were as strong as Shin then the war potential that he had currently in this room was worth more than the hundred thousand or so men that were currently outside the walls; if they were hostile...
"Yes! While the power they give off is impressive especially for how simple the item and materials is the enchanting on the it is amazingly intricate, I can only see a small amount of it's structure."
"Oh? You can see the structure of the enchantments?"
"A little bit, I spent some time learning about enchantments but since I wasn't suited to using enchantment magic I stopped. I still haven't found a type of magic I'm good at even though my magic aptitude is supposedly very high."
"You haven't tried dark magic yet have you?" The people present got a chill down their back at the sound of the voice although it was not the voice that gave them the chill but a literal drop in the temperature of the room.
"Why would anyone bother trying to learn the same stupid magic as the ones you use?" The girls in the room released the breaths they didn't know they were holding as Vilana yelled at the new comer.
Unlike Vilana who wore tight but simple leather equipment emphasizing on maneuverability or Fafnoth who was walking around in some simple but obviously high level full body suit of armor the man that stood before them looked more prepared to attend a party than a battle. A deep navy blue mantle that held a mysterious shine to it and elegant black clothes and despite looking the most respectful and gentle out of the bunch he gave off the aura that caused the most wariness from them.
"Magic is much more effective than those fancy movements you call martial arts, I believe I have proven that point many times already."
"Hah?!? Has your brain decomposed you ancient buffoon, we're currently at 66-65 in my favor, right Fafnoth?"
"Like hell it is, don't try to skew the numbers you old hag, I was the one leading as honorable and honest Fafnoth would testify to."
"Riaz... Vilana is the one leading."
"Hah! See! I told you! Your magic tricks are nothing but that, tricks."
"You... to think you would be bribed by her, I've trusted you wrongly Fafnoth."
"I'm simply telling the truth, now if you two would stop quarreling like two children we can proceed with what we came to do." Shea smiled awkwardly and thanked Fafnoth briefly for stopping Riaz and Vilana, in the first place even though the three technically five there wanted to say something in order to stop the two there was no way they could with their strength; even Caroline and Gwyn was troubled with how the two army strong monsters seemed like they were about to fight each other.
"Ah, right. Hehem. Ignoring this shriveled wretch let's get on with the main topic." Riaz turned towards the princesses. "My name is Riaz and as unlikely as it looks I am the noble master of that rude boy."
"Heh, I'll like to see you say that to Shin's face."
"Shut up Vilana! I'm talking right now." Before Riaz and Vilana could once again get derailed from the conversation and fight again Fafnoth stepped in between the two of them.
"Obviously letting either of you handling this was a mistake," As the two back downed under Fafnoth's glaring he returned his gaze to the princesses."Continuing from where these two imbeciles left off, which speaking honestly amounts to nothing. We have come here on the orders of Shin to take over the castle." Fafnoth snapped his armored fingers loudly as large skeletons armed like a knight, a death knight walked through the portal.
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"What are you talking about?!" The first to move was Gwyn, pushing both Caroline and Shea behind her Gwyn positioned her sword in front of her, ready to attack or defend at any time.
"I thought I explained it quite clearly, we are here to take over the castle and as an extension the city as well." The number of death knights that have entered the room has reached ten and it did not seem like it would stop increasing anytime soon as yet another undead walked through the portal.
"No, like I said. What are you talking about? There is no gain for Shin to be attacking us at this stage." On the outside Gwyn appeared more or less calm but inside she was panicking. At most she could hold one of them back and that was if she relied heavily on the gear Shin gave her, but there's three of them here. It would be impossible for either warring faction to stop the three if they decided to push through with their announcement, after all there was no way they could even hope to compete strength wise.
"I believe he said something about demon king role playing or something like that. We aren't actually taking over your country so don't worry about that. We are simply taking over the castle under the guise of the demon king's generals, I assume the reasoning Shin has for this is because you've revealed that you had demons working for you. Of course you can say that you didn't know they were demons when you hired them but the timing would definitely plant a seed of doubt for many."
Riaz stepped in front of Fafnoth, "That, is where we come in. The amount of people that knows you requested directly from Shin the reinforcements is known to only a few so if we create a commotion here under the pretense that the demons were supposed to infiltrate in and take over from within it'll solve a lot of your problems."
"And give us a common enemy." Caroline added, her eyebrows crossed as she started thinking deeply about the subject.
"In the first place this kingdom is made up of many different countries joining together to fight an external threat. Keeping all those greedy pigs from stabbing each other in the back after the initial conflict was resolved for so long is quite an achievement." Vilana shrugged, "Although if it was up to me I would just kill all of them."
"MmphmmmMMPH!!!" Kaila was shaking her head violently in obvious protest, while she was unable to actually talk or shout the sound she was making was more than loud enough to attract the attention of all the people in the room.
"Joker..." Vilana once again grabbed hold of Joker's head, this time from behind as Joker attempted to escape into the portal. "What were you doing?"
"I wasn't playing! I swear! I was training them for the master!" Already the sound of cracking could be heard as Joker was struggling desperately.
"Just leave her alone Vilana, she won't listen to a single thing we say anyways, only Shin."
"She was messing with your experiments."
"..." Fafnoth patted Vilana on the back and removed her grip from Joker. "Now no need to be so rough, Joker's just doing her best for her master." Fafnoth held Joker in front of him and put a hand on her forehead, well the forehead of her mask. "You must be tired, come let's get you something to drink."
"Eh? Ahh, NOoOoOoooOooooooooo!!! I'll die! I'll seriously die!!!!" Joker was held by the shoulder and pushed towards the portal, all the while struggling with all her might. She even utilized several clones to try and stop Fafnoth's advance but he was steadfast and undeterred by the blows being given to him, rather six pairs of hands couldn't even move one of his fingers.
"Oh right, we really only just came for a greeting, the actual representative of our demon king is just a high level undead Riaz summoned, Vilana trained and I supplied. A self proclaimed hero should show up a little after these guys wipe out the rebels so don't worry about it and just watch." With that Fafnoth walked into the portal dragging the clones that had at this point piled up on him along.
"Hmph, for him to get mad at such a childish prank."
"She was the one who drew all over your soldiers you know."
"..." Riaz looked at Vilana who was staring right back completely serious. Wordlessly he quickly went back in through the portal.
"So, that's that. I also need to have a talk with her."
"Wait!" Gwyn stepped forward and held Vilana back. "We haven't agreed to this yet, in the first place throwing a bunch of undead into the castle is- *Boom" The wall directly opposite of the wardrobe was caved in with Gwyn being the center of the impression.
"No one here is ASKING, princess." Vilana stated coldly before turning her back to them, "Well try not to die alright?" Stepping through the portal she traded places with an undead knight that was twice as large as the normal ones garbed in black spiked armor and holding a giant two handed axe.
As the portal closed the monstrous skeleton roared loudly and lifted it's weapon, the target was Shea. "DAMNIT!!!" Sparks flew as the black blade of the axe collided with Gwyn's sword.
"Gwyn are you okay? Light Heal!" As Gwyn was having a strength contest with the death knight Shea cast a healing spell on her.
"Those damned people! Shea get out of here with Caroline and evacuate everyone through the secret passages, take Kaila and Misaki with you. I'll hold this guy back." Even with the heal spell Gwyn was hurting, although it didn't leave any major damage that light hit from Vilana had slammed Gwyn hard into the wall and there would definitely be a large bruise if Gwyn had checked her back right now.
"But I can help!" As Shea took a step forward it was Caroline who stopped her.
"No, we should leave." Caroline looked around cautiously at the rest of the death knights around them, together they number twenty. "While the small ones aren't moving yet it isn't guaranteed that it'll stay that way, getting everyone especially the non-combatants out should be our first priority." Caroline paused, looking over at Gwyn's equipment, "Besides, Princess Gwyn's chances of taking any major damage is probably minimal if not non-existent."
Shea hesitated before heading to Kaila and with some difficulty managed to cut the rope, although rather than the rope itself being tough it was just simply finding a place that wasn't tightly plastered to Kaila so to avoid cutting her. Kaila suddenly gripped Shea's shoulders, "There's enemy troops in the secret passages, we can't go out that way."
"So you really did... betray us."
"I..."
"Just get going! The small fries are starting to move!" Gwyn interrupted the two as she blocked a heavy overhand swing, the floor underneath her feet caved in a little and cracks spread out from underneath her.
"Talk later, for now we're on the same side and that should be enough." Misaki stated as she started pulling Kaila towards the door.
"I agree." Caroline did the same with Shea, even if her tone of voice was cold.
After the others had left Gwyn was immediately attacked by all of the undead present. Ignoring her body that started protesting from her extensive use of it without satisfactory rest she continued to fight, desperately trying to keep any of them from exiting the room. "I am definitely going to make you pay for this Shin!!!"
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"Hmm... Huh?" In the midst of all the chaos the king slowly opened his eyes dazedly, "Wha, what happened?"
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*Note: Sorry it's pretty late in the night, work dragged on longer than it should have, One of the groups of people just wouldn't leave and we couldn't kick them out. That aside I was going to try and get another chapter done during the week and while that hasn't changed... the chapter won't be about this story. I got a weird idea for a story for the valentines event that is in a format I haven't used before in writing. Probably going to give that a go.
P.S. Yeah I know I went over the estimation for when this section was going to end, well as far as when we'll get back to Shin it's fairly soon but I'll refrain from putting a number out there as it's not accurate at all, depends on so many factors and if something new (not planned) comes up while I'm writing. For now, good night!!! Sleepy >.>