Queen, King, And Leaders

The following morning Ciemnosc woke up to a fresh, breezy, and cold morning. The sun was somewhere. But it was clouded in the sky, hidden and showing a gray that fit Ciemnosc's taste so much. As he came out of his satisfactory and sweet abode, much better than any dormitories he's been in, there were a few lines of adorable, young maidens with human appearances waiting for him in front.

They wore floral dresses with pink background, were about 1 meter and a half tall, and had very young faces. However, compared to the other times Ciemnosc had been offered whores or escorts, these young bunnies were looking at him with big smiles and a cheerful demeanor. Their voices weren’t hidden, and they didn’t take much to make Ciemnosc understand their purpose here. Yelling, they acted like dumb little girls getting excited over nothing.

“Welcome, and good morning milord!” Their voices were loud even without carrying any cultivation base. They were totally ordinary in that aspect and looked really young. They were pretty cheerful, to say the least, and as Ciemnosc didn’t respond to them soon, they worriedly began asking him. “Do you not like that form of address?” - “Would you prefer if we call Milord ‘Mr. Ciemnosc’ instead?”

“... Oh. Ah, no. I actually like the ‘lord’ part quite a lot.” Ciemnosc responded, somewhat perplexed at their behavior, and shook his head before choosing his poison. Right away, a little girl among them jumped in a silly manner and cheerfully established it. “We’ll call you Milord then, Milord, hehe!”

“...” Ciemnosc tilted his head to the right in contemplation. The little girl he was looking at - without shame or shyness, came over to him with the rest of the floral-dressed maidens and pulled him by his right wrist. As he was pulled over to Torem’s mansion, he could smell the distinct unique aromas of those present within the mansion, unlike before.

The mansion itself was gray colored from the outside, a dark type of gray. It was so tall it resembled a small mountain or a rather large hill. As Ciemnosc went into the mansion, the several pillars at the sides supported the entrance, and further inside, one pair placed from the side after the other every now and then seemed to become smaller as the roof was ‘eating’ them the further one went in.

First, there were rooms without end, but there were also, thankfully, large hallways for every large number of rooms. There were rooms for boys, others for girls, others for married or joined couples, and for the elderly as well. But there was no one inside. However, Ciemnosc could only guess why it was like so as he was brought to the main hall of this mansion, as the girls and young girls declared they were doing.

Just one place before arriving at the main hall, Ciemnosc crossed a garden that was already larger than any ‘normal’ house he had seen before. It was for simple, satisfactory purposes and not a single herb or plant with pure energy was around. Only bushes, beautiful flowers, and the occasional butterfly, hummingbirds, and even bees that are too peaceful and not suicidal.

Step, step, step… step- tum tum~! Creak.

A few more steps with the girls bravely introducing him into the main hall, a couple of very long yet narrow doors that required some physical strength at the very least were opened by their backs and legs as they leaned the former and used the latter to push backwards.

The sound was likable to Ciemnosc as he could already feel the difference in materials and the importance they placed on the main hall the moment his steps and the girls’ stepping sounds as they walked up the stairs of its entrance. Opening the door effortlessly, Ciemnosc could sense it had something to do with their bloodline and the design of this place. It wasn’t an array formation, nor the use of bloodline per se… It was more like a law… and seemingly something that could only exist within a natural array in this damned, broken world.

“...!” As soon as Ciemnosc stepped into the main hall, like a fish let in the water, the girls let go of him while looking at the profile sides of his face. Ciemnosc, however, was too stunned and busy looking at the beauty who was the only one within the main hall already standing and even looking up at him from a distance of no more than a meter away.

It was; she was a bunny. Brown fur, perhaps, as he could only see her ears, and her nose was that of a bunny as well. Though e could tell that was just a choice on her part, just like Torme chose her fur’s color as her human form’s skin color instead of a traditional one. Her skin was brown, with a darker and somewhat honeyed tone. And had big almond eyes radiating with the morning sun’s light even as just a little bit of it fell upon them.

She wasn’t so tall and was actually of Ciemnosc’s height. When she looked at him enter, the girls that brought him here joined the rest around the center, forming a second ring at the front of the first ring, which were some old fellas with distinctive animal features. But all her eyes seemed, a deemed of him, was Ciemnosc’s body, face, and whatever could be inside him.

“... You must be Ciemnosc, I presume.” After quite a long pause, the strikingly beautiful bunny beast spoke to him, her words opening just slightly and yet emitting a powerful voice that traveled everywhere in seconds; aloud.

“I am, but, Queen… of this Kingdom. I actually liked being called lord before, so if you don’t mind.” Ciemnosc spoke as his eyes were dazed and settled on the fine woman before him, whose strength was already above that of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s sect master and was even pressuring him effortlessly.

“Lord?” The beautiful bunny woman spoke, her eyebrows raising slightly. Her skin was just so damnably beautiful. She made an ever so enchanting, devilish even, grin with her lips, but that did nothing to stop her from speaking. “Are you sure the shoes, the hat and the throne fit you?”

“Uhm, I don’t think it couldn’t. I just haven’t taken it yet.” Ciemnosc answered, now with his eyes sobering up and his heart thumping as he saw the beauty play with him. ‘Oh, mother. She could play and tease me all she wanted.’

“Mmh… well said,” the beauty spoke again, this time with a courtesy nod, looking more like a bow. She then turned around and walked towards the center of the main hall, where the little girls in floral, pink dresses all remained but smoothly opened a gap in their ranks. “It is indeed strange. You smell of no human at all. Not even those that sell their bodies to power, their rotten flesh and dying organs are impossible to hide, and you… You even smell… deliciously.”

“You… everyone here also smells delicious,” Ciemnosc responded with a… praise of his own. His comment led many people with distinctive features laugh and chuckle at a low volume. With that sound echoing everywhere and the little girls in floral dresses remaining quiet, the atmosphere turned lighter and of a friendly tone even.

“In fact. I wanted to place the meeting point in the garden outside. But my fellow Beasts here thought and told me that doing so would be denigrating for someone like you, Ciemnosc.” The beauty spoke, which at this point, couldn’t be anyone else but the Queen of this natural array formation’s kingdom.

“Ah, indeed. It would’ve been an insult to someone like you to be met without a ceiling for us to evaluate your heights, Milord Ciemnosc.” - “Mn, an opportunity like this, we have been waiting long and patiently. But we are now impatient and confused to make our decision. All in all, Milord Ciemnosc, we are honored to have met you here today…”

One by one, the people seated in their own seats in this main hall spoke. Some at the same time and some one after the other. In the last moments of these people voicing, the beauty had sat on the biggest throne, which wasn’t larger but that it instead drew attention the most. And that was even without her sitting on it with her fabulous self.

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“Milord Ciemnosc, then. Milord Ciemnosc? Would you please step in at the center? In a bit, there will be some attendants bringing tables and dishes. Let us begin before feasting. Though that might be rude for some, I always think of work first and then pleasure… At least to start the day.” The beauty spoke while the others were silent. She had a voice that was simply beyond breathtaking, not just in the definition of beauty but of might and lordliness in her.

“...” Ciemnosc said nothing, but he started walking towards the center, just a few meters in front of the beauty and several tens - even close to a hundred - meters away from the rest of the leaders of organizations around. But he could, definitely could, feel that their mannerisms were much different than those of any organization’s leader he met before.

Once he was in position, Ciemnosc made a spin with slow taps from his feet to meet every face with his own eyes. They were at least close to the main hall, and he could use his Spirit Sense to watch them, and there were tens of them, but he chose a respectful approach in the end.

“My name is Olga, queen of the Nulla Kingdom. Kingdom of the Beast Race’s bunny sub-race.” When his spin finished with his body facing the beauty once more, she presented herself with her left leg crossed over the right leg.

“I am Ciemnosc, son of my mother and from a village. I am now the person you’ve been looking for, but…” Ciemnosc presented himself in response, rather humbly and without courtesy but without being a rough idiot too. The people within this main hall nodded at his greeting and, in a quick yet slow but smooth set of mannerisms, queen Olga began introducing the names of each person and of their organizations.

When that was done, Ciemnosc was standing exactly at the center of the main hall. While silence prevailed, but only for a few seconds before queen Olga resumed the talking. With her voice, she spoke to Ciemnosc as the rest listened, and they were well behaved. There was no doubt she was their leader, and the respect she commanded with just her breathing was there to be praised and witnessed.

“Rather than negotiations, it would be better if we call this a discussion.” Queen Olga began. She looked at Ciemnosc and placed her hands together. “Milord Ciemnosc, we have noticed your presence since more than 2 years ago. I believe that is also the time that you began cultivating, according to the records that we have glimpsed with the help of some. You caused a commotion that sucked the pure energy in several hundreds of meters around you… worth of thick and dense pure energy. The real distance your commotion reached is beyond our knowledge, and anyone’s for that matter.”

“When we were warned by nature itself, our natural array formations trembled. They shook and even blinked for hours with no end. At that time, we feared our protection was about to fall apart. It has been a long time since they exist, and they could break apart if time came. It is no secret that they are unusually weak, unlike the academy’s… No, I meant to say unlike the grand array surrounding the Rocaloi Academy.” Queen Olga’s voice sounded reverberating and appeasing the hearts and chests of all. But at the same time, it dominated them.

“But afterwards, they went back to normal. And without asking or searching for anything, we began to receive news of you, Ciemnosc. Be it in the forms of signs or the words of humans in this Region, our Beast Race has the ears to cover it all.”

“Our Beast Race has had its run of slavery and rebellion with the Human Race time and again. It is no surprise that there is instinctive hatred now between our Races. But it is the same within the Beast Race as it is within the Human Race. Only, we do not fight all the time, and that is why we are much more vulnerable than you, a war-like Race.”

“Ciemnosc, for starters, I would like to ask. Is the academy worth of our trust? Our cooperation? Of an alliance?” Queen Olga sat up straight, facing Ciemnosc somewhat closer and having the entirety of those within the main hall tense up.

“...” Ciemnosc looked at the queen. She was looking at him seriously and wasn’t using anything but her mouth and body to speak. She could even, without her certain and obvious bunny features, be considered an ordinary and Power Energy-less woman if it wasn’t because of the pressure she simply had over any other being in this world.

“It is not,” Ciemnosc said after a brief pause with a cold tone but also detached and casual. He took a step forward with his right foot, his heart beating slightly faster than it already usually does, and his blood was flowing as impossibly fast as always. “Truth be told, the academy is not to be trusted. Their recent reports are the show of that, and their unwillingness to keep fighting is even more obvious of how unreliable they are as simple friends, let alone in a war.”

“Let me clarify something first,” Ciemnosc suddenly said, changing his tone to directly become just ultimately cold. “You were approached first by them, no? The eastern ‘major’ organizations. And now you are comparing which side to choose?”

“Indeed.” The queen took not even a second to think about it or to react to Ciemnosc’s knowledge. She didn’t even ask him afterwards and, instead, she let Ciemnosc continue speaking as he said in his ultimately cold voice. “Then choose none.”

“I do not care if you support those who are on the other side or those who are now on my side but could not be someday. But you’re asking for my advice. And my advice is to not choose any. Strengthen yourself and start accepting people from the outside, not just of your natural array formation, but of your race and teach them. Show them. Learn from them as well.”

“Please continue,” Queen Olga said as the main hall became silent. Ciemnosc’s words were obviously something they were not against. And though thought before, it was different to directly hear it from a person with rich experience.

“You do have experience battling. You may even have strategies or tactics that those from the academy lack. Your lifestyle hasn’t been like the academy, and they even spotted your people long before the eastern could, who directly wanted to ‘approach’ you in a direct and aggressive manner before even trying to negotiate. That’s how the east of this Region thinks, just war and take anything you see.”

“You have also accepted to meet the academy, the west, and its major power. They are more powerful than the 4 ‘major’ organizations combined and more than you still. You may have many Obsidiafying realm cultivators and Creatures at your disposal, but one or two peak Obsidiafying realm besides the ones needed to keep you at bay are enough to level down all of your troops with their correct armament and weaponry.”

“You have, thus, realized that none of the two is an answer!” Ciemnosc changed the way he spoke, but his tone was ultimately cold still. And the last word ‘answer’ was even dragged out as he moved and tilted his head around to look at the leaders of many organizations that could, admittedly, be able to slap him to death still according to the information they held.

“So here is a better; third answer.” Ciemnosc faced the queen again, his face looking downwards at her, and she was looking up from her seat. It was by no means short, but Ciemnosc was a little kid that was simply no human. “Choose me. I have no power that can grow, nor am I capable of facing Obsidiafying realm cultivators yet, or may not even be able to after breaking through the Conflagrate realm.”

“There is no need to sweeten it up. I know you’re thinking and thought it. But my prowess nor my growing my troops was ever my strength. I only took numbers from already-established powers, real organizations that have established their foothold and foundations since long ago.”

“I have both knowledge and skill. I can teach your people it all, and I can command your armies around the world. Train your troops, and I can make this world one where you wouldn’t stupidly think, ever again, of deciding who to be spanked by and who to say ‘I’m sorry’ to.” Ciemnosc made a pause. He looked all around before adding quietly. “And a world where people don’t think of me anymore as a dog that can be passed around.”

“Do this, and if I remain stronger in the far future, I will have to bring you with me out of this world. Whether you choose to follow me from now or simply ask for my capabilities. We are not normal, ordinary people; your people or their people. We do not have an intrigue for legitimacy for ruling or for being called something, we make it ourselves, and we kill every day. But those are just the small steps we make every long walk.”

“We live longer, and we should not think briefly. Our goal is not to gain some Region. It is to rule it all! Even if you wish to remain stuck in one place, I will continue moving. I will not think of myself as a king of the inferior and broken world such as this. But if I cannot even do that, then I would have failed to even be called a cultivator in all truth and meaning.” Ciemnosc concluded. His eyes were to be afraid of as they scanned the faces of leaders around him, but his mind added a little tender something. ‘I would have failed Mother.’

“... And how can we be sure you hold no dearness for your people? You’ve been with humans long enough to have even married and have children like most of those living in greatness do, even for cultivators such as us.” After long seconds of silence, a voice spoke out. It was old and unhurried, and it was challenging.

“I have proven it already, and your very own hearts know it too.” Ciemnosc looked at that person. It was an old man with wrinkled cheeks and a smooth forehead, he had a ‘neutrally good’ face, and it even invited others to call him grandpa. He had thin, blue and light blue ears, the former for the outside and the latter for the inside of such. His eyes closed and opened like those of a reptile, and his fingers had spade connections in-between.

“Humans? Hmph,” Ciemnosc somewhat chortingly snorted after adding. “Creatures? The fabled Demons or Elves? Perhaps some huge unknown Races that have never been seen?”

“I do not appear to be any like those, and even when it comes to the Beast Race, I still know that so far… I’m alone in this world. And now, hear yourself. You are… expecting me to feel attached to the humans that we know of? I only care like that for those who are my troops and my subordinates in general. As for this Region or the rest of the world… It is my place to decide what to do with every living being that falls in my hands. And I am, unfortunately for whoever dares to look at me ugly, very smart.”

“And hungry, very hungry.”

…