So it's been awhile since I finally introduced the true meaning of my title of Island Ruler to the Captain and her crew. It took a while for them all to get used to having a shit ton of monster which would normally kill them without a second thought helping them out when it came to constructing their new home. It wasn’t till a couple buildings were already finished due to the teamwork of the the Captain’s crew and my monsters. Some were pretty damned scared of them while others learned just how much easier it was to ignore their fear and saw just how much quicker they could finish construction when they helped each other.
The first and only building that has been finished being built was the town hall. It was nothing fancy, just a one story building with a main hall large enough to hold at least one hundred people, with an office like room in the back about 50 feet by 50 feet i had built for whoever was going to be placed in charge of this base, and a few more offices that were slightly smaller that were connected to the sides of the main hall by a small open path between the two.
Once it was done, I decided to invite the Captain and her adventurer buddies to use on of the little favors they owed me.
“You want us to what?”
I said, "I want you and your friends to teach me the proper techniques to fighting.”
The captain and her main group of adventurers all stare at me with eyes of both surprise and suspicion. One of the hired adventurers even asked to why they should help. To which i replied, “Well seeing as how I haven’t killed you all yet and even allowed you all to make a small settlement here and supply you all with food, i would say you all owe me quite a bit actually.”
With that said, most of their faces paled after being reminded how easily I could have them all killed with just a snap of the fingers. It didn’t take the Captain long to come up with a response after thinking about the deal she had made with me.
“Is there a reason to asking for this favor?”she asked nervously.
“Not really, I just feel like learning how to fight properly and not just swing a sword around like an idiot.”
“I guess that’s understandable. What kind of weapon do you want to learn to use exactly?”
“I’ll probably be using swords for now, and after getting the basics i’ll learn another, maybe the bow.”
“Alright, if you want to learn the basics about sword fighting, then it would be best you learn from old man Almar. He’s in charge of training the crew on close combat, including sword fighting. If you give me a minute, I could go get him right now.”
“Sure, go right ahead.”
It wasn’t long till she returned with the man she had mentioned before. He was a tall fellow, maybe 6ft. He had plated armour made of some material that looked like silver, but i'm pretty sure it has some magic enchantments in it to make it stronger and lighter for him to have it on all day, that or he was pretty damn strong to lug that shit around all day. He had long pointed ears, with one missing the tip, probably from a fight. His hair was long, about to his waist in length, and was a shining silver that you would think it was actual silver. His eyes were a dark emerald green, it was like staring into a dark brush in a forest. He had a long sword on his back that looked like it was also made out of silver with carved designs on the blade. Man, elves must really like silver to have it on everything, i mean, this dude is pretty muched decked out in silver and the Captain has a silver rapier which I may have accidentally broke, and I can tell there's some silver on her boots and gloves.
“This is Almar, he was the Commanding officer of the knights that served under me back in the Elvish Kingdom. He knows quite a bit about swordfighting and close quarters combat.”
“You humble this one with such kind words.” He says while slightly bowing to the Captain.
“Hi there Almar, my name is David.” I say while extending a hand to initiate a shake.
“Greetings lord David.” He says while accepting my hand and shaking. “I hear that you are in need of someone to teach you the ways of the sword and close combat, am I correct?” He says after releasing my hand.
“Why yes, you wouldn’t mind teaching this one in combat would you?”
“Of course not sir, not after how you have graciously given us a place to call home while we are here and have given us so much in assistance.”
Oooohhh, this guy's good. He knows exactly how to talk to someone of higher standing that would make him look good. I can tell by the slight smirk on the edge of his smile and the constant closing of one of his fist that he is keeping close to his side. He must not like me that much. Maybe it has to do with me threatening everyone with death, maybe.
“Great, let's start training tomorrow. That sound good to you?”
“Of course, that would be fine with me.”
“Great, now then, which one of you can teach me magic. I’m fine with any type, combat, support, I don’t really care as long as it's useful.”
“I specialize in wind magic, mainly combat type spells, but I do know a few support type spells.”
“Um, I know a variety of support spells, from healing to body enhancement spells that I can teach you if you want.” Lizzy says while hiding behind the Captain's back, just slightly sticking her head out from behind her shoulder.
One of the adventures wearing a dark hood also joins in telling me that they specialize in fire magic, with both combat and support type spells they could teach.
“Great, i’ll have each of you teach me one day, have the next day to rest, have another one of you teach me, and repeat the process of having a break day. That way I can train all day with one of you, and rest the next. That work with all of you?”
Everyone agreed that the schedule would be fine, so once all the finer details were finally done with, I excused them all to leave except for the Captain, I had a few questions I wanted to ask her. Lizzy and Almar were a little reluctant to leave her alone with me, but the Captain assured them she would be fine, so they finally left the office, leaving the Captain and myself alone together.
“So what is it you want that needed us to be alone?” She says with a suspicious gaze.
“Well first of all, I just wanted to get to know you better. Seeing as how i'm giving your and your crew land on my island to make a base of operations while you're here and supplies to survive. I’m pretty sure i'm entitled to at least some basic information like you name for example, and why an elvish princess would want to leave the cushy life of a royal palace for adventuring into the unknown?”
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She seemed a little reluctant at first to answer, maybe trying to find the right way to answer my questions when she finally sighed and began answering my questions.
“My name is Aerith Morifiel of the High Elf Clan. I am…..was the 2nd princess to the Elven Empire of the Southern region of the Dantian Continent, north of this island. The reason i left the palace was because I was tired of it all. I was tired of having to go by the rules of old men who always saw themselves as the superior race. Constant rules against the contact of other races, saying they would taint our ways of life, saying they were simply savages while we were superior in every way to them. I was tired of constantly being reminded that I must marry myself to someone of noble blood. Every man my father has tried to marry me to have been either arrogant, idiotic beyond belief, immensely older than me, or a combination of everything. The only things I could do that helped me deal with the stress was when I snuck to the training grounds and had Almar teach me the basics of fighting. Through training, I was able to relieve myself of all the pent up stress, pretending that the training dummies were people like my father or those he tried to marry me off to. The biggest reason I hadn't been married off was my mother, who would always find a way to convince my father not to go through with it.”
“But one day, my mother came to me in the middle of the night, telling me to quickly pack my things. I asked her what was wrong, but she wouldn’t tell me till we were already in a carriage making our way to the castle walls and heading to the port town of Elswimer. She told me that my father had finally crossed the line of stupidity and had arranged a marriage for me with a noble man who was at least a hundred years older than me. He was to have me meet with them a week from now, so my mother has arranged for me and all the knights and servants who were placed under me to escape from the Empire.”
“At first I was confused at how we would do it, at least….until we arrived at the port town. When the carriage stopped, I was surprised to find that my mother had already arranged the purchase of a ship with a ton a supplies for us, even crew members that were part of the royal navy and adventurers to provide protection. She gave me a chest full of gold to keep me ready to resupply should our supplies run low, and had us set sail away from the kingdom. I used this opportunity to begin the life I always wanted, to explore new lands, to meet new people who weren’t ignorant, arrogant elves. It wasn’t till we were out at sea for over a month that we finally landed on your island. By now we had gone through quite a bit of our supplies so you helping us was quite the miracle, until it turned into a nightmare for us when you had your monsters appear all around us as if they were about to kill us. So that's about it for me.”
“Now I have a question for you. How did a human child like yourself manage to find your way to a monster infested island and become the lord of all of them without dying? The nearest human empire is the Pyroxian Empire, and getting there from the Elven Empire is already a four month journey by boat.”
“Hmmm, I guess I can answer that question. First off, I didn’t come from any of of those Human Empires. In actuality, i’m not even originally from this world. I’ve been summoned by the gods of this world to do whatever I want.”
Aerith’s face showed a looked of disbelief and surprise. Might be from me telling her i'm not even from her world.
“What do you mean, ‘not from this world’. Are you saying you just magically appeared here by the wills of the gods?”
“Exactly that. Your gods grew tired of you guys cause the major races of your world were always bitching about each other and then solving your problems by slaughtering everyone that wasn’t of their race. So they decided to leave your sorry asses and decided to summon a random soul from another world, yours truly, to do whatever the fuck they want, which then leads me to why I am the lord of this island and hevn’t died yet. Your gods gave me the special class of Monster Tamer which basically lets me befriend any monster as long as I gain their respect or loyalty in some way.”
It took her a few seconds to finally process everything I had told her. She went from a look of disbelief, to one of shock, and finally one of utter fear.
“There’s no way that's true, why would the gods just abandon us like that. The gods would never abandon their creations. You're lying, you're trying to mess with my head aren’t you!”
“Hmpf, give me a good reason for wanting to mess with your head. If I wanted to make you my plaything, I would have used other methods to achieve that already. I’m just telling you what you wanted to know. I mean, come one, it can't be all that bad being without your gods. Look at you, you managed to survive this long without even knowing that your gods had abandoned you, that just shows how you don’t need them to live. As long as you have the will to survive and keep fighting, you’ll be just fine. Now go on and go back to your buddies, just keep doing what you normally do, and don’t think about this stuff. Just relax and go about your day. Tell ya what, a couple Armoured Hoppers just recently found a nice hot spring on the island, and if you and friends behave, i’ll take you all to it, how does that sound, huh.” I say with a smile while already moving Aerith towards the door.
She just walks without resistance until I stop her after she had passed the doorway of the office. After she was clear of the door, I shut it behind her and return to the desk and sit on the chair behind it.
That look on her face looked pretty funny. Utter shock and disbelief that the deities she believed in had completely turned their back on not just her but every race on this damned planet.
“You know, you could have been a little nicer and not have told her that last bit about her gods abandoning her and everyone else. You don’t know how religious she may have been. She might be crazy enough to kill herself after hearing this kind of information.”
“Well what do I care if she offs herself, one less annoying thing to take care of.”
“Oh come on, don’t be like that, how else are you gonna get close enough to bang her if you're making her think suicidal thoughts? That's not exactly attractive in a man you know.”
“Whoever said anything about me wanting to bang her?”
“Oh c'mon, you know you want to. She's got a pretty nice body, you would be stupid not to want to tap that.”
“Wow, you're really perverted for an A.I., ya know that?”
“Meh, not my fault one of the gods that helped make me was a god of lust.”
“That would probably explain it.”
Just as I was about to continue with our conversation, quick and heavy footsteps could be heard coming from outside the office. Just as I was going to get out of my chair to check what was going on, the door was quickly opened by Almar who seemed to be dragging a tied and gagged man with him. He seemed kinda nervous, sweat was already coming off of him, and it couldn't have been from him just dragging whoever he had with him. I've seen him carry heavier looking things without a single drop of sweat appearing on his face.
“My Lord, i'm sorry for intruding but I must inform you of something very important.”
“Hmm? What is it you need to tell me. I'm guessing it has to do with the tied up guy that you brought with you?”
“Yes, it would appear that this man has been feeding information about us back to the kingdom, including our location through a magic tool that allows for long distance communication in exchange for an immense amount of mana that must be stored within it.”
“Ok, so what does this have to do with me? Shouldn't you be telling Aerith about something like this since it deals with her?”
“Yes, but when the magic tool was given to our mage, he was able to read the message that was sent, and a part of it included how the princess is being aided by you.”
“And? Why should i be worried about that?”
Almar released a tired sigh.
“The reason you should be worried is that the Emperor will be trying to take back the princess for the marriage he had arranged for her. She was to be married off to the second son of the second most powerful faction in the empire. Should the marriage succeed, the Emperor’s faction would take in the other and create the largest faction in the entire empire. This would then in turn give him even more control within the council of representatives. He will do whatever he can to get her back, and now that he knows that a separate power is now sheltering her, he will send a naval force here to take her back by force if need be.”
“Huh, guess that would be a problem for me. About how much time do we have until this possible naval force arrives?”
“I would give it about a month sir.”
“Well then I guess I better get ready to welcome some more guests. You can go now Almar, oh, and leave our guest here, i’d like to chat with him for a bit.” A sinister grin begins to grow from my face.
“Of course, I will be taking my leave and informing the princess of what has happened.”
And with that, Almar shuts the door as he leaves the office. He doesn’t even take five steps before he hears maniacal laughter coming from the room over the horrid screams of the man he had just left behind. On that day, Almar decided to try and not get on David’s bad side if he could.