With my newest servant guiding me, I made my way towards the lord’s castle. Even half destroyed I could still tell how beautiful this structure must have been. To think that my own family home looks like a dump in comparison. Thankfully the longer we walked the less devastation there was.

            I soon joined back up with Damian and the rest of the mercenaries who were engaging the remnant of the lord’s army.

            I must admit I am starting to wander if I too should wear armour, I mean the one I made for Damian and the rest of the mercenaries just looks so cool. I made it out of a Titanium alloy hence making it lighter and more resilient than traditional armour, not to mention that the dark grey colour is just wonderful to look at.

            I never wore armour since I heal too fast for any injury to ever be considered a problem but who knows, maybe someday I will meet someone that is my match or even stronger and the use of a layer of protection could prove helpful… and cool.

            Damian sensed me approaching and left his frontline post to come and brief me on the situation.

            “The remnant forces are persistent, I tried reasoning with them, but they’d rather die than surrender.”

            “Let me give it a try.” I pushed forwards until I reached the front line, commanding the solders under me to fall back I continued until one of the defenders shot an arrow meant for my head. I caught the arrow and crushed it in my hands resulting in shocked murmurs from the defenders.

            I projected my aura then started reciting a prewritten speech, “I am Elizabeth Verlie of house Silvier. This is your one and only warning, your lord and his heir have both been slain, the city defences are no more than rubble and you stand no chance of defeating me, “alone”. Surrender and I shall spare your lives, continue your meaningless resistance and I shall turn you all into ash.”

            The defending solders faltered and most lowered their weapons but not all. About forty men stayed defiant. Knowing that there will be no reasoning with those men I conjured an equal number of floating knifes which I hurled at them at a speed almost equal to that of a gunshot. The knifes I made with sharpness to the molecular level penetrated the sculls of the insolent whelps that dared defy me. The sound of their bodies hitting the ground reverberated, sending chills into remnants of the viscount’s retinue.

            Soon after my display of strength the door to the castle gate opened. The first thing I noticed was not the beautiful architecture but the lined-up men that continually threw their weapons on the ground. This is for the best as them dying here would be a waste. I would love it if I could one day earn the loyalty of these men but that will have to wait until the first part of my plan will be instituted.

            “Karman, lead me to the chambers of the lord’s family and Damian you know what to do.”

            The boy-man stepped forwards to lead the way whilst Damian turned back to take care of the miscellaneous tasks such as securing the castle ground amongst other things…

            Bored, I engaged Karman in conversation, “How about you tell me about yourself and this territory.”

            “I don’t think that my story will be of any interest to you but if you insist, I am the bastard son of a local merchant, being an illegitimate child born with a curse I was abandoned by my father and hated by my mother. At age five she threw me out of the home, judging that I was old enough to survive on my own. Seeing that I am still alive I guess she wasn’t wrong. At that time, I hoped that I could find a cure to this curse but no matter where I looked, I couldn’t even find a lead. That is until the day I met a kind man who told me that the temples might know of my affliction. Thanks to the priests I learned of the god’s views on me but instead of letting me despair they gave me hope, they told me that if I were to serve the lord and his family, I could find salvation. I could be freed from this curse. After hearing of their oracle, I immediately entered into the lord’s employ, he was kind to me, no, they were all kind to me. The lord and his family took me in without even doubting my words and they allowed me to serve my penance.”

            This poor fool…

            “I worked in all kinds of jobs, from rearranging and strengthening the land into farmable areas, I helped the people on the lord’s command, I made water when drought came, I reinforced the walls of the city along with those of the castle though it was all meaningless to you…” he continued to tell me about his time in the service of the viscount but when I determined that I bought enough time I stopped him.

            “I think that’s enough.”

            “Did my retellings displease you?”

            “No, I mean you don’t need to buy any more time.”

            “Whatever do you mean?”

            “Do you take me for an idiot? I might not have lived in this castle, but I still have a sense of direction, leading me in circles is a stupid idea, also you should come up with a better signal, I mean a wink, what are you? Children?”

            His eyes narrowed “ha, so you knew, not that it matters the young lords and ladies would have already escaped, not even you can do anything about it, not anymore. So will you create one of the those knifes and split my scull open or will you burn me alive.”

            “Oh my, what would give you the idea that I would hurt a hard-earned possession such as yourself. I told you earlier if you betray me then the lord’s kin will be the ones to pay for it. Hmm, you look confused, well, let me tell you something that should have crossed your mind when you didn’t see me react during our little stroll.” Behind me I could hear the clanking of armour and the cries of people. “If you were buying time then so was I. Do you think that I would take a city, kill the lord and the heir only to allow his other family members to escape? I would be a laughingstock if that did happen.”

            Damian along with about two dozen mercenaries dragged in what I assume to be the lord’s family members, and there were quite a few of them. I mean what was he? A rabbit in heat? I don’t know if I should give the lord some respect for having so many children or if I should scorn him. “That’s quite the haul you brought in, are they all the lord’s children?”

            “I have yet to question them but seeing as most of them look alike I would assume that they are siblings along with their mothers and others who tried to flee along with them.”

            “I mean wow, I don’t know how old he was or how many wives and concubines the viscount had but this might be a problem, then again I still need to punish you.” I turned to look at Karman who’s face turned pale upon seeing that none of the people he bought time for managed to escape. “Seeing that there are almost… I guess a little over thirty of them I will execute five…”

            “NO” Karman yelled, then a chorus of shouts, pleads, and yells echoed within this enclosed garden.

            Weeping, they made vain arguments and pleaded for their lives “My lady spare me.”

            “Spare the children, I beg of you, just the children.”

            “Mommy...”

            “Spare us my lady, we never intended to rebel, that was all my husband’s doing”

            “… I will castrate the men and as for the women I will give them an alchemical concoction that removes the possibility of giving birth, hmm… I will spare those two newborns from this; they are girls I presume” I walked towards two women carrying babies in their arms then removed the pink cloth to check their genders. “Yes, send these girls to an orphanage, they are to be raised without knowing of their heritage. Now for the rest of them, as they are no longer nobles, I will make them slaves.” There is a curse-mancer in the capital that works in a company that focusses on the trade of slaves, I should ask them to engrave a curse upon this bunch. “Send the men to David he knows what to do with them, as for the women they are to have a curse engrave upon them afterward there are to be used to replace the servants I have executed.”

            The least they can do is fill up my meagre amount of manpower.

            “If you seek to blame anyone then blame this man, I gave him the chance to serve me with you as the price for his services, but he betrayed me, you can blame him for your fate.” This way I will alienate both sides from one another whilst cementing my control over this arcane user.

            I approached Karman then whispered in his ears, “I might not have put a figurative collar on you had you done as we agreed, no matter, for all intent and purposes you are also a slave; my slave to be exact and you will do as I say, that is if you do not wish for an even harsher punishment. I am kind by nature, but I am human, and cruelty is a defining trait of ours.”

            “My lady, my lady I am only the son in law of the viscount, I have nothing to do with any of this, please spare me. My father is Viscount Tiliup, he is sure to thank and rewards you greatly if you were to allow me to return to his domain.” Hmm, he likely doesn’t know that he was used to strengthen the alliance between his family and that of Katimus. Using their own children as chess pieces, how revolting.

            The problem now is what I should do with him, he is unlikely to be the only one to possess external familial relations but then again, I did say that I would punish any of them to the fifth familial degree. His family is one of the three great eastern nobles so I could use him as a bargaining chip. Then again how much value is there in a spare son? I have a better plan for him, how about I kill him, mount his head on a spike and draw lord Tiliup out to battle. This would minimize the civilian deaths. The problem is that his family’s territory is the furthest from my current location, I would have to skip over Viscount Mordry’s domain.

            The more I think about it, the more I can see the benefits of using this man and his family’s coming demise to finish the eastern subjugation even earlier than previously estimated.

            Rather than continuing to subjugate those lesser lords on my path, which is likely to take me at least four more mounts, I could skip over some of them and in their place, I could focus mostly on the big fish. I knew that I would need one of the three great eastern nobles to keep the peace in the east when I leave this part of the territory. For that purpose, house Mordry is a good option, they are a military family and though they’ve proven themselves disloyal they will likely be too scared to rebel after I take down their two great supporters.

            I should slow my advance so that the news of what happened here and what I will do to house Tiliup can propagate throughout the eastern territories. This might give them time to prepare but after seeing what I am capable of I can say that no matter their preparations I will be able to crush them easily. However, them choosing to take the suicide rout is a possibility though it is unlikely. I instead believe that they will be more likely to either surrender or flee. The second option would be a problem, but few are the nobles that would abandon their land and title, not that I intend to allow them to keep ether of those things. Instead, I could offer them a sort of governorship where they can continue ruling only with drastically less power and almost no man at arms.

            I should probably answer him, “Damian, we are taking this man with us.” I of course have no intention of sparing him, but he will be more docile if he believes that coming with us is in his best interest. I turned my eyes to look at Katimus who likely remembered what I whispered in his ears, but he wisely chose to keep his mouth shut. What a good boy, he learns fast, I guess keeping him in a leash is a must, at least until the day he understands what was done to him, then his anger and hatred will likely squash any remaining feeling he may hold for these people. All I need is to be the one he ends up being thankful for, it can’t be that hard, can it?

            “Could I bring my wife with me? She is with child.” I gave him a gregarious smile and nodded. This is an unexpected boon, if killing his son in front of him is not enough to draw the lord out of his fortress then the threat of killing his unborn grandchild should do the trick. Although this one will be a bluff, I have no intention of taking the life of a yet to be born infant.

            Staying in this city for the next three days should be enough time for the information of what happened here to start spreading. Until then I will take care of some paperwork, mostly related to our supply situation and on how the city will be run in the absence of a lord.

            The next day I personally took care to castrate every man and boy who carried a drop of noble blood. I also fed the women and even the younger girls a potion that would make them infertile. Now that I think about it, I should have used this on Ariel before she got pregnant, maybe if I had I could have avoided everything that recently happened. As there were two pregnant women in the group, I chose to delay making them infertile as drinking the potion could harm, if not kill, their babies. This way I can be sure that keeping these people alive will not cause me any trouble in the future, once they have been cursed into slavery the whole process will be complete.

            I spent the rest of the day dealing with matters concerning the city. Since the walls are broken, they will have to be rebuilt but more important is that we mages must leave the city before we draw a monster towards this town. As they have lost many of the city guards during my initial attack along with every one of the lord’s knights being dead, this city is incapable of defending itself. I was forced to leave a hundred of my mercenaries along with two of the scribes I brought along to over see the defence and reconstruction of the city. I created a decent sum of 270 gold and 4600 silver coins as a reconstruction budget.

            Thankfully winter has already passed so shortages of food is unlikely, at the same time the fact that the death count is in the hundreds if not thousands means that next year’s harvest will be smaller as there are less people to tend to the fields not to mention that it is necessary to rebuild the walls thus some of the workforce will be diverted to that area.

            As I have previously said I will take care of my people and that’s exactly what those who live in this territory are. I have yet to be named countess as per my plans but there is no reason to delay their relief. The money I leave behind is more than enough to rebuild the city and provide for the population in case of a poor harvest. Instead of plundering the city like is normal in this world, I only intend to take enough food to last us until the neighbouring domain of a baron who also participated in this rebellion where I will repeat the same actions I have taken here. I am buying absolution from the people but then again so did Christians for almost all of their history.

            The east and south will become my personal domain on top of the lands belonging to my father, after all I already dethroned him, there is no reason for me to give back what I took. On top of that, Lord Adam, who in the future will become the last great noble of this duchy, is the dominant power in the west, meaning that I will have almost all the duchy at my beck and call. The north is too sparsely populated and devoid of any wealth to pose any threat to me, but I still intend to take it for myself, hopefully I can do that before I go on my campaign to reconquer Aren, by which I mean that I will take the entirety of the territory, even those where I hold no claim over.

            Seeing that my forces are down a hundred men, those I am leaving behind for the defence of this city, I should probably replenish my numbers by taking some knights from those rebels who choose to surrender. I was surprised that Damian did not lose a single man, I know that I made them an armour that is almost indestructible in the standards of this world but that is not to say that they do not have weaknesses such as the unprotected areas like their joints and neck. I should be careful to whom I give this armour, maybe I will create some sort of royal guard who will be the only ones allowed to wear it.

            I continued to think about many things whilst spending the remainder of my time here in the garden. It is so peaceful here that one would be forgiven to think that this is an ordinary day like any other and yet it had to be disturbed by a pair of heavy footsteps.

            “Damian and Karman, what an odd combo you two make. Speak, what is it?”

            “Lady Elizabeth, it appears as though we’ve run into a problem, the granary was hit by one of the projectiles and fire ruined most of the grain stored there.”

            “There isn’t enough food for the people let alone the amount you requested.”

            “Oh, I am surprised that you are speaking to me Karman, I thought that you would continue to pout for a few more days. Well anyway, is the city in danger of starving?”

            The boy turned his head and resumed the attitude with which he treated me since the moment I decided to execute a number of the former lord’s family members.

            “Not exactly but rationing will definitely be needed but if we account for next year’s reduced output it can be said that they are in real danger.”

            Sigh, “I guess it is my fault so I might as well fix it.” I got up and started to amass a great amount of magic then I used my control over creation to produce a literal mountain of grain. I do not wish for my power of creation to become widely known, yes, I could gain a lot from letting others know of it, especially the religious folks, but the draw backs are greater than any benefit. If others learn of my ability, then the market will be turned on its head, people will start to rely solely on me to fix their issues and by extension blame me for things I can’t do or I am unwilling to do. Worst of all, the temples will gain legitimacy and I will become a tool that will increase their power as any accomplishment of mine will also be attributed to the temples. Those are things I will never allow, as such I make it a point to use creation sparingly along with making whatever I conjure explainable through mastery over any given tree of magic. I would rather be known as a magic genius than a woman able to use creation, something that is believed to normally be reserved only for gods. That is why I can’t use my powers in front of the mercenaries by creating whatever supplies we need, nor can I use it in front of those I do not trust or those I do not have a hold over. Damian has long known about my ability, and I trust him implicitly, as for Karman he chose to shackle himself to his former master’s family and by extension he became my slave in all but name.

            “Say that we are using the grain we found inside the lord’s castle, you should imply that he was stealing from merchants and the neighbouring domains.”

            “Impressive as ever.”

            “Even if you created it through magic, given enough time it will disappear.” Yeh, he might be bound to me, but I still don’t intend to clarify myself, so I just smiled at him. With this we avoided a food crisis, guess it really is a good thing that we stayed here for a few days.

            In two days, we will depart this city and continue our advance, this time aiming a bit more to the north. There are eight lords I intend to subjugate in my way to Tiliup, all of them are barrens and have very small domains with little in wealth and military strength. I can’t wait to get this done and over with so that I can inflict a real wound on Aren, my one true enemy. I hope Sir Mayron will be pleased by my returning sooner than expected.