Looking up to gauge the beast’s trajectory by the position of the stars, Emergias nodded with a faint smile. Just as they had hoped, the manticore had fled east. Having been thoroughly ousted from its former territory, it would never return here.
“Is that the last of the beasts worth ‘hunting’ in this area?” a woman said as she approached Emergias, slinging her spear over her shoulder.
Her name was Hisuizia Izanis, one of Emergias’s closest subordinates. She was strong-willed with the muscles to match, often giving off an even tougher impression than the prince himself. Even still, she was only a viscount. After Emergias’s recent explosive growth catapulted him to the rank of marquis, there was hardly a comparison between the two in terms of strength.
“Let’s see.” Closing his eyes, Emergias unleashed a wave of magical wind, emerging from his feet and rushing through the undergrowth. “I don’t see anything. Seems that manticore was the last one. And it’s still in a panic, running with its tail between its legs. At that speed, it might even catch up to that gorewolf we chased out earlier.” Emergias snorted a laugh, his subordinates around him starting to buzz. He could even pinpoint the location of distant enemies as they fled.
In the Izanis family’s lengthy history, Emergias might very well have been the most proficient user of Transmission. For so long Emergias had been regarded as the family’s shining failure, but recently attitudes toward him were shifting. After prolonged stagnation, his power had finally begun growing once more. Duke was still a distant title, but he was steadily climbing toward it. This hunting excursion was clear evidence that he had grasped a new application for his devil’s authority.
“Let’s hope they all find a nice new home to settle in,” Emergias said sarcastically, getting a round of snickering out of his subordinates.
On paper, their mission today had been to clear out the newly conquered Izanis territory of dangerous wildlife.
“I’m sure the people of Evaloti will appreciate the meat,” one of his subordinates joked, getting another round of laughs.
They hadn’t killed a single one of the large fiends they’d encountered this night. Instead, they had driven them east, toward the newly established autonomous zone. No doubt some would stop running short of Evaloti’s borders, but a good number would likely resettle within it. Why would the Izanis warriors have done such a thing? It went without saying—to cause anguish for not only Zilbagias, but also the Rage family at large.
The Izanis family couldn’t help but be infuriated by the rewards they had been granted for their contributions to the war effort. They had conquered all of the cities and fortresses between the border and Evaloti, taking virtually half of Deftelos’s land themselves. But their reward had been a mere thin stretch of land along Deftelos’s western border. The rich, fertile ground west of the capital had been subsumed by the autonomous zone.
Of course, there was a logical reason for this decision. After the demons had punched through Deftelos’s western defenses, those farmlands were all but undefended. The Izanis family had walked through those lands basically uncontested, so it was hard to argue they had earned them. And after Zilbagias led the Rage family in toppling the capital, the advance had been passed to Spinezia—another member of Aiogias’s faction like Emergias—to secure the remainder of Deftelos’s territory.
In other words, Aiogias’s faction was doing fine, but the Izanis family in particular had received the short end of the stick. After setting their sights on those rich farmlands, they had only been granted a strip of mountainous wilderness. They understood that the plan for those farmlands was to help alleviate the demonic kingdom’s food shortage issue, and that the territory effectively belonged to the Demon King personally. However, it was Zilbagias who had been given governorship of the autonomous zone, and in practice his domain included those farmlands. To add insult to injury, rumors around both the castle and Evaloti had made it clear that Zilbagias saw the contents of the autonomous zone as his personal property. The Izanis family inevitably had come to resent him for snatching up what should have been their spoils.
Thus their current hunting expedition. The autonomous zone had plenty of fertile land, but that autonomy was key. With the demonic army lacking influence in the area, the autonomous zone’s defenses were nigh solely the responsibility of the pathetic humans and beastfolk that inhabited it. With basically no priests, heroes, or Weaponmasters at their disposal, calling what they had an “army” rang as a joke.
In other words, the autonomous zone was still weak and fragile. While they were still trying to cultivate their farmlands, having such vicious beasts—like the ones the Izanis warriors had encountered tonight—moving into their territory would undoubtedly cost the autonomous zone dearly in blood.
“I wonder, can that little governor of ours handle such a tall order?” Emergias said, a satisfied grin on his face. If the agricultural efforts of the autonomous zone fell through, the blame would rest squarely on Zilbagias’s shoulders.
Perhaps he doesn’t have what it takes to rule over such a large territory.
Once such beliefs started to be spun and spread around the aristocracy, the Izanis family would inevitably be able to claw back some of those farmlands that rightfully belonged to them in the first place.
“I can’t wait to find out!”
“Yeah! Let’s see if he can wiggle out of this!”
The Izanis soldiers echoed Emergias’s sentiments with raucous laughter.
They were a close-knit group. Not one of them would let slip what had truly transpired here tonight. While they used the wind to carry the words of others, the wind never spoke of the Izanis family’s own doings.
†††
Some time had passed and a great deal had happened since I became governor of Evaloti.
First of all, there was what remained of the Kingdom of Deftelos. Spinezia had led the Sauroe family in its conquest, crushing the remaining eastern territory of Deftelos and making it their own. With the Izanis family to our west and the Sauroe family to our east, it seemed like the Demon King was trying to scatter everyone’s holdings.
The refugees that had been driven out of the land in Deftelos had narrowly been spared from slaughter and instead carted back to Evaloti. But that didn’t mean that all of them had been saved. Even though the weather had warmed up considerably, not all of those spared had survived the journey. The sick and weak had been effectively abandoned, and those who had been immobilized by their severe injuries had been disposed of on-site. As such, the majority of those who arrived in Evaloti were mobile and in good health.
As a demon prince, I couldn’t protest the methodology. Maybe I just needed to keep in mind how the current circumstances were an improvement over the past. Without the autonomous zone, those sick, weak, and injured would still have been executed. And those healthy and able would have been mercilessly enslaved, put through hell until they eventually died within a few years anyway.
Damn it all.
Of course, the survivors harbored a deep resentment against the demonic kingdom for being forced to leave their loved ones behind, or seeing their friends executed before their eyes. Many arrived as hollow shells of who they once were, while others were filled with a burning passion for revenge and trained themselves to the bone. Every time I visited the autonomous zone, I could sense that the growing renewed liveliness in Evaloti was accompanied by something smoldering under the surface.