"I still don't like you," said Keris, but there wasn't any real malice behind the words. It was almost a peace offering, given how things had been going between them. She didn't really make it out to be anything brutal or any reason to act as though she were feeling bad, it was just something that she felt the need to state.

  "Oh, however will I survive without your perfect approval, dear Keris?" Len also did her best to keep the bite out of her words. It wouldn't do to let the woman feel like she had the upper hand in these negotiations. It really was just a matter of keeping their spirits up. That they could talk like this was a strange sort of camaraderie that felt oddly reassuring.

  Frankly, she wasn't entirely convinced that any of this would work out. Keris had lots of sharp edges that she didn't seem particularly worried about filing down and that was the sort of thing that could cause serious trouble down the road. Still, it didn't sit right with her to let Balar have the final say in that decision-making process. Sure, Keris was his wife, and there wasn't anything she could do about the relationship between those two, but it wasn't enough to just leave it at that and have him throw away a potentially valuable resource. Instead, Len would make sure to test the woman to her fullest and, more than that, make sure that she had someone picking up the bulk of the slack on the paperwork that she couldn't handle. Yes, it was a petty thing. No, she did not care. Corporate life had taught her a lot about dealing with people she didn't care for and at least here she had the upper hand.

  "Now then, shall we talk about what we need to get done today?"

  "If you wish. I honestly don't know where we should start. You weren't joking about the rate at which this stuff piles up. Where are these papers even coming from? This stuff isn't cheap."

  "Yeah... 'bout that, I had a friend back at the Hovel provide me with a useful cantrip on that front. It's not exactly 'real' paper, you see. More of a material that we've transformed that takes on the appearance and function of the same. Don't ask me all of the specifics, I don't really have a head for magic most days. This one's pretty much the limit of what I can manage."

  That got a raised eyebrow out of Keris.

  "Forgive me, but I was given to understand that Dark Elves were particularly gifted when it comes to magic. Was I mislead?"

  "Well, that is the stereotype," Len conceded. "Doesn't really apply to me and I've never had much use for nonsense concepts like race determining ability."

  "I appologize," Keris replied. "It seems I've misstepped."

  "A bit, but not for the reasons you're probably thinking. Don't worry about it for now, but maybe think about it when you've got some free time, it's really not the sort of thing that one should walk through life depending on. Those assumptions could trip you up in ways you wouldn't expect. Also, it's bullshit and not the way you should be thinking. But mostly that part about it leading you to bad decisions. Not to twist the knife too much, but you've been... not great at the decision-making thing in the past."

  "Point," Keris acknowledged with a slight growl. "I don't suppose it'd do much good to ask you to stop calling me out for that?"

  "Oh, definitely. You've got years of penance on that front, dear. Now then. Let's look at the stack."

  They'd been chatting on the walk to the office, it was fun to have someone to bounce barbs back and forth with. It wasn't anything like the relationship she had with Astrid, but it was different than most of her other relationships here. Her best friend in this world, Kilareth Bloodsipper could banter with her proper, but didn't exactly keep her on her toes most of the time. Not because the Orc couldn't keep up, just that she was too merciful to really go for the throat on issues. Astrid could and did, but also had that whole underlying flirtation thing going on that made Len more than okay with losing a verbal sparring match from time to time. Keris? The woman was smart, for all of her poor choices in the past, and was more than happy to be brutal if the opportunity arose, but she wasn't someone that Len felt any desire to cut any slack either. It was an interesting situation. She'd never much had use for the concept of "Friennemy" but here she was, potentially developing one.

  It occurred to her that she'd read this sort of premise before in any number of tales. Granted, it was most prevalent in crappy romance webtoons that she'd followed, but the idea of a 'villainess' certainly did the rounds. Whether it was because of her particularly odd mood after a lousy night's sleep, or something else, the title really did fit Keris in her head right now. That brought a wholly inappropriate giggle to her lips that earned her a sharp glare from Keris who always seemed to be on the lookout for any slight, real or imagined.

  "It's nothing," Len said, offering a conciliatory wave. "Don't worry about it."

  "I'm not sure I should be doing that," Keris scowled. "But I'll allow it this time."

  "So very gracious of you."

  "Indeed."

  The walk and the chat over, they entered the room and both of their shoulders sagged almost immediately. It wasn't that the paperwork had gotten out of control in their absence, but it had grown rather depressingly in the... only eight hours? that they'd been gone.

  "How is this possible," Keris asked, a groan of misery escaping her lips.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "I had Balar automate the process. Some nonsense where he's able to have the various divisions throughout the city get these things filled out and delivered via magic. No need for couriers or anything like that. As soon as they finish up their report or their request, it just gets translated over here in an instant. Damn impressive piece of magical tech, that, but it does terrible things to one's sense of progress. I really ought to consider asking him to stop with that."

  "But if he did, wouldn't that just mean that this work is piling up elsewhere ready to ambush us at any given moment?"

  "I mean, yeah... sure. But at least then we wouldn't have to look about it. That seems like a perfectly decent tradeoff to me."

  In her heart, she didn't really mean it, but she still felt the weight of all the work ahead of them quite distinctly. With a mutual gaze of semi-despair, the two sat down to work. Much as before, the work was greatly helped by Keris' actual fluency in the language of the clan. It certainly helped that they could get to the work faster with her summaries, but the pile didn't dwindle as fast as either of them might have preferred. That cursed automation reminded Len of the constant struggle to keep up with her emails back in the day. It wasn't that she wasn't working, that they weren't getting tasks accomplished, it was that the very instant it felt like they were making headway, three more would show up. Equally frustrating was the fact that so much of it seemed redundant. She'd swear that she'd gone over this stuff before. The day prior and the day before that even. Why did this stuff keep crossing her desk? Eventually, she let out a muffled scream and looked at Keris.

  "I think we're going to have to change something. This is getting us nowhere, driving me to drink, and getting in the way of more pressing matters."

  "What kind of pressing matters?"

  "Dealing with Claymar and his impending attack, what else could I mean?"

  "You really think he's going to attack?"

  "I do. Granted, I don't have any real good reason for guessing that it's coming anytime soon, but he's not the sort of guy that would just pass on this stuff. We're ripe for the pickings of an outright assault."

  "But... you're in charge of the city now. That means that we've already fallen under the banner of the Demon Army."

  "Oh yeah, sure. Technically. I can't say that I've actually met the guy so there's at least the slightest possibility that that's something that'll give him pause. I doubt it though."

  "What makes you say that?"

  "Well, I haven't met all that many higher ranked individuals in the Army. My time as a grunt has been... well it's been a bit truncated. I got shipped out to the middle of nowhere with nary a bit of actual training. Kinda cut to the front of the line an got noticed by folks that I probably would've preferred not to. It's colored my view of things."

  "I don't see how that means that Claymar is ready to actively usurp territory that you've rightly won."

  "I'm getting to that. The thing about the Army, near as I can tell, is that it all comes down to power. If you've got the power to do a thing, no one's going to stop you and Claymar seems to have put some serious eggs in this basket."

  "What do eggs have to do with anything?"

  "Ah, right. Idioms. I mean that he's really dependent on gaining the power and status of conquering this region. The fact that it's already been conquered might make things a little less convenient for him, but he's not the sort to let that get in the way of things. Whether it's by lying about my conquest or by just bragging about wresting it from me. He's going to want this territory and he's going to do everything he can manage to pull it off. And the bitch of it is that he's got the power to do so."

  "What about your Demon Lord?"

  "You mean 'our' Demon Lord?"

  "Err... Yes, I suppose I do."

  "I am in direct contact with her, but it's not like her power is absolute?"

  "Wait a second. 'Her'?"

  "Yup, lots of work with the pronoun game in these parts. Suppose that detail might have slipped through the cracks. Congratulations on discovering that in the most technical of senses we're currently part of a matriarchy. Demon Lord Astrid sits upon the Immortal Throne to cast down decrees as she sees fit. She of glorious and terrible beauty shall always be there to support her subjects. Unless there's something more interesting going on. Or there's a Grand Proving that she needs to pick favorites in. Or there's any opposition from her court. Basically what I'm saying is that yes, she's aware and even in my corner a bit, but she doesn't have the authority to make decisions of what Claymar chooses to do here."

  "That seems... less than absolute."

  "Right? Don't even get me started on things. She's not powerless, but she's also kinda limited in what she can do on a given day. She can give me advice, though, and she's let me in on a few details of what he's been up to. Hell, it's how I knew that he was going to be a problem in the first place. It's just that she's not able to swoop in and save my ass whenever things start to go awry. Damn selfish of her if you ask me."

  "So what do you intend to have us do, then?"

  "Well, for starters, I think it's time to get to work on figuring out which of my subordinates can be trusted. Congrats, Keris, we're putting this shit on hold and going for a walk."

  "I'm overjoyed that you've come to that conclusion," Keris said with a perfect deadpan.