Airia once more picked up her blade, but this time pointed it at herself. Pale, lips trembling, she said, “Th-Then I’ll...”
“Wait, hold up!”
I hurriedly snatch the saber out of her hands. What is she, crazy!? In my haste, I’d grabbed the sword by the blade. It wasn’t sharp enough to cut through my tough hide, but it still hurt. About as much as gripping a plastic ruler really tightly by the edges would.
“What point is there in killing yourself!? Think about this rationally!”
“Rationally?” Airia looked up at me with a dumbfounded expression on her face. It seemed she was too shocked to think straight. I sighed and looked her in the eyes.
“Look, our army’s already taken the city. We’ve tried our best not to kill any of the citizens, but I understand why you’re scared. With me so far?”
“Y-Yes... I understand.” Airia nodded over and over, like a terrified child. I nodded back and continued my explanation.
“We do plan on ruling this city from now on, but we have no intentions of killing you, or turning you into our slaves.”
“What?”
Is that really so surprising? Unable to comprehend what she’d just heard, Airia followed up with a question.
“Th-Then, what on earth did you come here for?”
I guess the humans have some misconceptions as to what we actually do. Ah well, I suppose I should explain.
“We don’t want a slaughter. To be honest, we’d prefer you all to keep going on about your lives normally. And for that, we’ll need a human leader. See where I’m going with this?”
“Umm... You want me to continue being the viceroy?”
“That’s right.”
Thank god she’s an understanding person.
“We need your help to keep friction in the city to a minimum, so please just surrender and cooperate with the demon army. If there’s any demands the humans have as well, we’re willing to listen, so long as they’re not unreasonable.”
I waited patiently for Airia’s response. Though she still appeared to have a few misgivings, the light had returned to her eyes. She sure did come to her decision quickly.
“If I found you’ve lied to me in any way, I’ll rally the citizens to fight back with everything we have. Are you still sure you want to make that offer?”
“That’s fine by me. The Demon Lord personally gave me full authority over administration of this city.”
I nodded my consent, and Airia got to her feet. She held out her hand, and I obediently returned her saber back to her. She held it reverently for a few seconds before respectfully offering it back to me.
“I, Airia Lutt Aindorf, Viceroy of Ryunheit, formally surrender to the Demon Lord’s army. I humbly request that you have mercy on my men.”
“I hereby accept your surrender.”
With that, the battle was officially over.
Events progressed rapidly after that. Airia collected her terrified servants and began giving out orders.
“Get me the messengers. Tell all units they are to cease hostilities immediately. We have surrendered to the demon army.”
Crap, that reminds me. I need to let my men know it’s over too.
“I’m gonna start howling, but don’t be scared. I’m just contacting my men.”
Airia’s servants had looked like they were about to faint just from seeing me, so I was trying to be as considerate as possible. I turned to the window and howled as loudly as I could.
“AWOOOOOOO!”
Anything made of glass in the room shivered, and the servants all screamed and fell on their backs. A few of them wet themselves. Oops. I guess that was my fault. Still, with that, my orders reached every corner of the city. Coded within my roar was the message.
“Commander has been defeated. Gather.”
Seconds later, a series of howled replies reached my ears.
“On our way.”
“Roger.”
“No injured in our squad.”
The howls faded away after everyone finished their reports. The fighting, which had been going overwhelmingly in our favor, came to an end. I just hope those guys didn’t kill too many people.
Soon enough, all of the werewolves gathered at the plaza in front of the viceroy’s manor. Each and every one of the men and women under my command looked quite intimidating. And though they were under my command, they technically weren’t my subordinates.
“It’s been a while since I last went on a rampage. Were battles always this tiring? My poor hips ache.” A gray-haired werewolf walked up to me and grinned. It was Vod, the old geezer who lived in my neighborhood. In his human form, he looked like a kindly old man with white hair.
“It was probably good for you to get some exercise, old man. When you get to our age, you gotta keep fighting or you’ll go senile.” Mary, the old lady who ran the nearby grocery store grinned at Vod. She was a kind woman who always threw in a few freebies when I shopped at her place.
“Oh? We’re done already?”
“Holding back tired me out more than if we’d just been allowed to cut loose...”
The werewolves I’d led for this operation were all my friends and neighbors. Which was why they acted so friendly with me. Werewolves always hunted in packs. Those who lived in the same town were all part of one pack. Whenever they had to fight, they’d fight together like this.
That being said, werewolves were also demons. And there was only one thing demons respected: strength. Werewolves were no exception. Those who doubted my power and ability to lead started voicing their complaints.
“Hey Veight, how come we’re being so soft on these humans?” A large werewolf with a striking crimson mane looked up at me. He was Nibert Garney, the younger of the Garney brothers. His elder brother, Garbert, strode forward and voiced his discontent as well. “Did you forget how many of our ancestors were hunted down by human scum like these? We should slaughter the lot of them.”
I had been friends with both of them since childhood, and I knew they were stronger than me. In general, werewolves with red manes were stronger than others. So much so that they were given exaggerated nicknames like ‘hunters of the blood moon’ and so on. That being said, they were definitely tough. And because they had such confidence in their skills, they were unhappy with the fact that they were taking orders from me.
Ah well. As someone who used to be human, having to solve everything with violence is just a pain. But that’s the only thing that’ll get through to these two.
I leapt out of the second-story window and landed in front of the Garney brothers.
“Got a problem with my orders?”
The two of them exchanged glances. They probably thought they could take me if they attacked together. As expected, they puffed out their chests and attempted to intimidate me.
“That’s right, I don’t like your half-assed attitude. I should be the leader of this pack!”
Both brothers were a head taller than me, and they certainly looked imposing. It was obvious they wanted a fight. The other werewolves could tell as well, and they backed away to make space. No one else wanted to challenge me, it seemed.
I glared at the two brothers and said firmly, “I’m the one in charge here. If you don’t like my orders, beat me down and take my position by force.”
“You sure you wanna say that?”