Rubifya staved off a laugh, a spark lighting in her eyes at my rare use of rough language. Meanwhile, Topazia—slipping into her chair as usual—even opened her eyes a little to look at me. But she quickly lost interest and went back to sleep. It was the first time I’d seen her wake up of her own accord, so I was a bit shocked, but I recovered quickly enough to keep the show going.
“Apparently, managing that tiny strip of land in Deftelos is causing the Izanis family trouble, so now he’s trying to blame a fire they had on me.”
“Oh my, how unfortunate.” She gave in and bellowed a genuine laugh as I poked fun at how the Izanis family had gotten the raw end of the deal in this whole Deftelos situation. She just couldn’t keep it together while seeing the usually calm and polite Zilbagias being so openly hostile.
“It’s the truth! He’s the one who started the fire! We have witnesses, and all of them can attest to the fire starting right as he was leaving our territory!”
“Oh calm down. I have a devil of knowledge in my employ. I’ll have her send you a record of how commonplace forest fires are in Deftelos during the summer,” I replied to seaweed head’s outburst with a cold smile. Once every few decades, Deftelos was the site of major forest fires of a variety of degree and intensity. The last one hadn’t been for about fifteen years, so it wasn’t strange for there to have been one now. “Besides, you wanted land for agriculture, right? All those trees burning down actually helps you out. In fact, why not have your men finish the job and burn down the rest?”
The green-headed bastard was absolutely fuming, but I didn’t let up on my flurry of taunts. Rubifya was laughing uproariously, while the Gutsy Gorger was back to stuffing her face. The room descended into utter chaos.
“What’s wrong?” Finally, Aiogias entered the room with a frown. The sight of a laughing Rubifya and a furious Emergias was all the indication he needed that something was off.
I crossed my arms and gave Aiogias a dissatisfied look. “Have you been skimping on discipline again, Aiogias?”
“What...?”
“There was a fire in the Izanis territory recently, and he wants to pin the blame on me.”
Aiogias’s eyes flickered to the green bastard, entirely unreadable.
“And if that wasn’t bad enough, this is all after they drove a bunch of fiends from their territory into the autonomous zone. The whole situation has been a real pain.”
“You’re the one making false accusations! Stop pretending to be a victim!” seaweed head growled at me with a glare. “They got scared by us demons and fled to the abandoned human land. That’s it!”
“Maybe that would make sense if they were ordinary animals, but why would carnivorous fiends flee to somewhere with no prey?!” My earlier anger had been purely pretend, but now I snapped for real. “I already know about the Izanis family’s recent large-scale hunting expeditions! And I know the people in your Deftelos territory have been celebrating how easy hunting has become with the fiends gone!”
I had gotten all that information from Enma. Wherever there were cities, there were goods being shipped around. And wherever goods were shipped around, there were bone horses and their carriages to move them. All I had to do was say the word and Enma would look into anything, anywhere. In this case, it had simply required eavesdropping on common people in the streets, so information hadn’t been challenging to attain. Also with the fair number of night elves moving through the Izanis territory, I was able to double-check her information through them.
“So either you were driving fiends into the autonomous zone on purpose...or maybe the collective force of the Izanis elites still struggles against a single warbear. Now that I think about it, that does sound likely. Maybe I did jump to conclusions,” I sneered. What’ll it be, greeny? Admit you did it, or admit your family is full of idiots?
The green toilet stain sat silently, face twitching.
“An outbreak of fiends, and a large forest fire. Sounds like western Deftelos is cursed,” Aiogias interjected with a bemused smile. “Emergias, I know how frustrating it must be to lose land like that, but don’t you think you’re getting a bit too excited?” He laughed, playfully rapping a fist on Emergias’s head. “I’ll have to ask for your patience as well, Zilbagias. As the future Demon King, I also find the damage brought upon the autonomous zone to be a concern. So why don’t we get together for a sit-down later and talk this all out? Surely we can work together to find a solution.”
Ah, he wants the fiends and the forest fire to cancel each other out, huh? All while making himself look good.
I snorted. “If you insist. Though I must say, it’s still quite upsetting having to face these baseless accusations in the first place.”
Aiogias laughed. “Yes, I imagine so. Emergias?”
Seaweed head ground his teeth, glaring at me.
“Emergias,” Aiogias repeated, voice still just as calm and gentle. But at the same time, he placed a hand on the green bastard’s shoulder, and it was clear how deep his fingers dug into him.
“I’m...sorry...” the green toilet stain barely managed to squeeze out.
And that put me at a bit of a crossroads. I could taunt him further by pretending I didn’t hear him. But that was probably pushing it...wait. Rationally speaking, I was supposed to be six years old.
“What was that? Sorry, I didn’t hear you.” I put a hand to my ear with a frown.
“I’m sorry!” he roared, loud enough to make my ears ring.
Wow, I didn’t know he had it in him.
“Hmm. Okay then. Apology accepted.” I smiled, giving him a hard glare.
There was no way in hell I’d let him off the hook after one little apology. His meddling had taken the lives of seven people. He’d killed my father, and by proxy my mother. And he was the reason Claire had to go through so many terrible things... I’d make him pay someday, for all of it! Him and the rest of the Izanis family!
We exchanged glares, unmistakable fury taking to both of our eyes. It hardly looked like we were making up.
“Oh, speaking of a sit-down...” I snapped out of it, turning to Rubifya with a cherubic smile. “We haven’t really had the chance to talk, have we? Why don’t we meet up for tea sometime?”
Rubifya, evidently disappointed by the conflict’s resolution, lit up with a smile at the sudden and unexpected invitation. Like a flower blooming... No, that description was far too mellow. A smile took to her face like fire to dry grass.
“I would be happy to,” she replied instantly, shooting Aiogias a meaningful look. “I’ve been wanting to talk with you as well.”
Aiogias bore it all with a strained smile.
“Good, everyone’s here. Oh, what’s wrong?” And then the Demon King finally made his appearance, frowning at the strange atmosphere.
“Oh nothing, father,” I greeted him with a bright smile. “Just a trivial little argument. Everything is already settled.”