POV: Generic Human Soldier

Run! Run! Run! I had to get away. They were probably right behind me. I could hear them behind me following my every move. I must warn everyone of our failure. We don’t stand a chance beating them in a headstrong assault now. We needed to regroup and come back with more men.

The moon died as the sun arose finally bring light to my path. My muscles ached at me for neglecting them during the marathon I ran that night. Sweat ran down my face as my muscles begged for mercy with every step I took.

After another couple miles, I couldn’t run anymore and fell in the middle of the road. My muscles had finally stopped working and I panted in utter exhaustion. I could no longer keep moving. I’d left all my supplies including my emergency stamina and healing potions in my quarters in the panic. I only had to hope that they’d find me before I died out here. At this, I fainted in exhaustion.

I awoke to a splash of water on my face. I looked up to see the main army in front of me.

“What happened soldier why are you out here by yourself?”

I was saved! I told them what happened and that I needed to see the commander. They led me to him helping me walk in my exhausted state.

“What is it soldier what happened to the vanguard?”

“The hero was captured when they tried to sneak in and kill the demon king. We held position waiting for reinforcements to see if we could still launch an assault to save him. But, we were ambushed in the dead of night. Their hordes surrounded us and took us out in the ensuing panic. THe demon king then jumped into the middle of the camp and told us to surrender. Everyone who resisted him was brutally murdered. He said our only chance was to send forth a diplomat to negotiate a ceasefire agreement and to turn back our main forces.”

“So he’s asking us to surrender, is he. For now, we will pull back our troops and make camp along the border. We’ll send our best spies to break out the hero while we deal in these negotiations.”

“But who should we send? He could kill who we send so we shouldn’t send anyone of importance.”

“But we still need to show our authority to them. I say we send our strongest generals It’ll make them think twice before deciding to attack us!”

“I’ll go!”

I turned to see the queen of the Holy Empire ride towards us. She radiated the goddess’s beauty and grace and was an important source of moral for our troops next to the hero.

“We must not falter here and I wish to personally negotiate with this demon king. Maybe he isn’t the mindless beast we think he is. It might be possible to end this horrible war once and for all.”

“I will go with you Katerina. I will not stand back as you ride forth to meet him. I would be setting a bad example for my men.”

King Uther of the militaristic nation of Bern rode up. He was a strong warrior and as well as a brilliant tactician.

“You're insane King Uther. We can’t risk our lives. Without us our countries will fall into chaos and ruin.”

Dessaix was a cowardly king but was a smart businessman. He represented a conglomerate of mercantile nations as the strongest nation that made up the conglomerate.

“Desaix you will lead our forces back then I will join them in the negotiations.”

Elbert was the chosen leader of the Lycian Federation. Due to the war with the demons, many countries joined the federation to combine their military forces against the demonic threat.

“Not you to Elbert? This is madness!”

“We have no choice our options our choices are limited with the hero being captured. If they had died we could have summoned another to aid us, but as things are. We are at his mercy until we can find another way to deal with him.”

No way! Three of the four great powers are going to negotiate with the demon king! I didn’t know what to say! Together they might be able to finally end the war as the queen says.

POV: A nearby bush

Everything is going exactly as planned. It would have been better if all four came but he will be pleased that this many are planning to negotiate. I’ll send some of my agents to keep tabs on Desaix, but I should go back and report the plan’s success to his majesty.

POV: Demon King Seliph

Done is making excellent progress. I expected her to be more opposed to my plans at first. But, I guess she is waiting for the right time. She lost most of her strength during the transformation. That punch last night was about half as strong as a punch from one of my generals. So she still had her power, but she was just weaker and unsupported without her gear and muscles.

My guess is she doesn’t want to risk angering me and facing my wraith. She isn’t suicidally stupid at least. Though I could definitely feel her resentment to me yesterday. That wasn’t going to go away for quite a while I’d imagine.

Though I did have to admit. She was a lot prettier than I expected her to be. We hadn’t tested the elixir due to the high cost and rarity of the ingredients. So I was glad it worked as well as it did. I found it quite funny that Flora was envious of her assets. I guess she expected her to be flat chested since she was previously a male.

Maybe if I was lucky they would still grow to be even bigger! Though I have a feeling that she be quite pissed if she heard me. But it was definitely a possibility (fingers crossed!).

With the way things are going her reveal as my new wife should cement both our positions in two more days. I’d have the most powerful woman in the land as my wife and she’d be under my protection and few would dare to cross her or they’d receive my wraith. She’d have to prove herself if she was ever challenged but that wouldn’t be an issue. She was already leagues above most of the woman in my realm in terms of strength.

I was quite curious as to what she’d finally decide on as a name though. I was curious to see what she would pick. She definitely needed a more feminine name then Done that’s for sure.

I made my way to the dining hall. I was going to make breakfast and dinner a mandatory time that we would meet. It would give us more time to bond and learn more about each other. There was still much I did not know about her and we had all the time in the word to find out more about each other.

POV: Done

After getting out of bed I made my way to the nearby dresser. When I looked inside I saw a wide arrange of new clothes inside. The main problem was that they were all pink! I bet someone is messing with me right now. I twitch in further frustration at my situation before I grab a modest pink dress. I set my nightgown on the bed and put on a new a simple pink dress that went to my ankles and exposed my arms. When I looked for some shoes all I could find were some pink high heels.

I wasn’t going to wear them. I only wore those high heels last night because Flora told me to. They were painful and not very fun to walk in. Also, these were pink. I was only wearing this pink dress cause all I had to choose from was pink clothes!

I then made my way to the door. Channeling some mana into my hand I punched the floor lightly sending a shockwave out to detect who was around me. It was kind of an improvised sonar I developed that helped me detect people.

Unfortunately I ‘saw’ that Felicia was nearby. So it looked like my chance to explore for an exit route were out for now.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I sat on the bed as she opened the door surprised to see me up and dressed.

“Good morning miss. I have been ordered to take you to have breakfast with his majesty.”

“Then let’s go. Can’t keep him waiting can we.”

I try to stress my sarcasm but Felicia just ignored it.

“Aren’t you going to put on some shoes miss?”

“I’d rather not. Shall we go?”

“I’m sorry miss, but Flora gave me strict orders that you had to wear shoes.”

Stupid Flora! I was then forced to put on the pink high heels much to my disgust.

“You look so cute, miss! It matches so well!”

I could stand looking pretty, but cute was pushing my nerves. I wasn’t a doll and it felt like I was one in this dress. I actually kind of liked the dress I wore last night but this! It felt too young and girly. Like they were treating me like a child.

Felicia led me through the halls to breakfast where I saw the Seliph already in his seat. He smiled upon seeing me. But what irked me was I couldn’t tell if he was happy to see me or laughing inside about how I looked in this pink dress.

I sat down in my seat as Felicia left us alone for breakfast.

“I thought it would be good to share our meals together. We can talk and learn some more about each other.”

“Oh yeah, and what do you want to know?”

“Do you have any family by any chance?”

“Do you?”

“I do actually. I have my mother and a younger sister. They are in another province managing affairs there. My father passed away in battle quite some time ago. You?”

He seemed to have answered honestly and it wasn’t like he could reach mine.

“Both my parents are still alive. My dad works in energy while my mom does interior design. I also have a younger sister. Though they are all on Earth. So I haven’t seen them for quite some time.”

“Earth is where you were summoned from then?”

“Yes, it was a planet of only humans and no magic. We used a lot of science and technology to achieve our goals. Though it was equally as warlike. Just in the past century, we’ve had two world wars.”

“Wars without magic must be incredibly boring. Doesn’t it just devolve to a battle of attrition?”

“No, we had planes, bombs and machine guns that would mow people down. Almost like magic equipment that could fly, blow stuff, and shot thousands of arrows in a minute. If you had to face them you’d be defeated easily, because everyone there can use these magical devices.”

He laughed at this as Flora came out with our breakfast.

“It seems you humans are just as bloodthirsty no matter where you are. But, from the sound of things, you guys became quite good at it. What were the death counts? Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands?”

Unfortunately, he was underestimating us. I hate to admit but we had become too good at killing each other.

“Millions. We killed each other by the millions in those wars.”

“Any chance you could recreate these devices? I’d love to have some.”

Of course he would. With that kind of killing efficiency, he could easily obliterate the human alliance.

“Not a chance! I still don’t trust you and primitive versions of them won’t even pierce the magical armor here.”

“But it’d be effective against the humans wouldn’t it?”

“I’m still not helping you kill them you know, and I thought you wanted peace.”

“Peace is only held when one person has the strongest force. That way no one else will dare to attack them. Guaranteeing peace for everyone else as a result.”

“Only for as long as you survive. You don’t have an effective means of passing down power do you? Civil war and greed will result in conquest once you die if you have the strongest force.”

“An interesting idea for sure then tell me how do you address this problem?”

“My country on Earth used a form of government that allowed the people to elect people to make decisions. So no one would declare war unless they had the entire populaces support. So power was peaceful change hands and war wasn’t sought out.”

“But it would be rife with corruption. Commoners are so easy to manipulate are they not.”

“There are always problems with government. The important thing is to be able to change as necessary.”

“So you want to change your mind and willingly join me then?”

“Don’t twist my words numbskull I said politically. It doesn’t mean I should change my mind just to suit your purposes.”

“Fair enough. I guess we wouldn’t be having these interesting conversations if that were the case. Anyways I need to get to work now and so do you. Peace doesn’t happen in a day as you know.”

He wiped his face and exited the dining room. Flora then led me to the room we were yesterday and we started another grueling day of training. Though today we focused on the government's hierarchy and how I should address certain people and who ran what.

The kingdom was run and managed by Seliph’s eight generals. Currently, four of them were on the front lines. The one who led me here was named Leif. He was Seliph’s right hand man and had helped him reach his current position of power.

The other four were dealing with domestic issues plaguing the kingdom. Though she didn’t go into explicit details about what they were doing. Only saying that their names and where they governed.

I was amazed at how efficiently the kingdom seemed to be run. They seemed to prize efficiency and strength above all else. With there being bi decade competitions where one could challenge a demon general for his position. So it always forced the current generals to remain sharp and focused in their duties.

It was definitely the first time I’d seen such government in practice. But I guess factors allowed it to work. Though I’d have to see it in practice for a while before I had complete faith in their system.   

I then had dinner with Seliph again. Who was waiting for me again in the dining room like this morning.

“So how were today’s lessons?”

“Informative, but it’s a lot of information to take in.”

“Too busy to play dress up then I guess. I thought I'd be able to see you in another dress. Though that dress does look quite cute on you.”

“I'd rather you not call me that. It feels like an insult to all my training.”

“I'm just complimenting your appearance. No need for me to lie to you. You just look cute in it.”

I slammed my fist against the table in frustration.

“I didn't ask to be this way though! I don’t want to be cute or womanly. I’ve been a man all my life and now because of you I now have to be a woman!”

“But aren’t you enjoying it? You’ve seemed to be quite happy so far.”

“Happy? I’m not happy! I just wanted to kill you and go home! I wanted to see my friends and family again and forget about all of this! But I fell for your stupid tricks and now I’m like this! Now even if I do succeed in killing you. I’ll probably go home as a woman. They probably won’t accept that I somehow became a woman, and I don’t even know how they are doing! I wasn’t told I had died or anything I was just brought her to fight and kill you as the grand hero! I only fought as hard as I did because I thought I would be able to go home. I’m now trapped here forced to be your queen and you’re treating my whole transformation as some kind of comedy skit! I’ve only cooperated so far because I don’t know what to do! I can’t beat you, I can’t leave, and I can’t go home!”

“But does that really have to limit you?”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“Are you really trapped by your soul desire to go home? Haven’t you tried to have fun and enjoy yourself here? Or are you just afraid of making connections because you thought you’d just go home and forget all about i?. You’ve closed off everyone and everything in this world because of this fear haven’t you.”

“What am I supposed to do then. Forget about Earth and everyone I left! Live happily here while I am ignorant to my family’s suffering?”

“All I’m saying is that you should enjoy this journey and not walk with only a single purpose. Pleasure is not a sin and new friendships are never a bad thing. I’m not telling you to forget your family. I’m only asking you to enjoy yourself here. You don’t have to constantly fight alone. You can have friends and have fun here. You don’t have to think of this as a prison, but as a new world for you to explore.”

I’ve had enough I was tired of this crap. I needed to get some sleep I was tired from Flora’s lessons, and I didn’t want to talk right now.

“I’m going to go to bed early tonight. Excuse me.”

I stood up and started making my way towards the door.

“Before you leave I want to hear what name you’ve chosen. You’ve had plenty of time to think of one haven’t you?”

I stopped at the door at this. I guess it was inevitable. Luckily I had decided on one, but I was still a little reluctant.

“Diana I want to be called Diana now.”

“Very well Diana. I wish you a good night then. Flora please guide Diana back to her bedroom.”

“As you wish your majesty.”

Flora then led me back to my room and helped me get into my pajamas. After she finished she left me alone in the dark room. I then jump onto the bed in exhaustion.

I hugged one of the pillows to my face and use it to stifle my crying. I missed my old life and didn’t want to spend any longer than I had to here. I didn’t want to admit it but he was right. I had closed everyone off because I didn’t want to get attached.

I thought it would be easier for when I beat the demon king, but in the end, it left me weak and vulnerable. As a result, I fell for the demon king’s ploy.

I just didn’t know what to do at the moment and cried into my pillow some more before falling asleep.