It was a dark and cold night, and contrary to what one might expect in such a remote and underdeveloped region, everything was a hive of activity.

The cause of all the commotion was none other than the residence of the lord of these lands, normally a quiet and boring place to see, but now heavily guarded.

The guards watched constantly over the walls, turning while the scouts patrolled the perimeter.

Even the mercenaries prepared their weapons in an improvised camp set up inside the garden.

There were more than seventy guards and three hundred mercenaries, all heavily armed.

It's hard to imagine what kind of effort must have been made by the Lord of these lands to deploy such a level of security.

These lands are not rich; they don't even have mines from which to obtain valuable metals or gems. Their only source of income are the farms where serfs work.

Inside the residence, alone in his office, a man of about 60 years old with brown hair already covered with gray, Baron Lord Duncan Bowward, very nervous and biting his nails, stood next to the window.

Perhaps it wasn't the best time to cloud your mind with alcohol, but for him, clouding his mind sounded like a desirable option for escaping while drinking his finest wine, usually reserved only for important guests and too expensive to drink freely.

After the courtesy visit of the group of adventurers, before fleeing hastily towards the guild, Duncan did everything possible to try to keep calm.

If it had been up to him, he would have immediately evacuated the area along with his family, following the example of those adventurers.

He couldn't imagine how much he envied them at that moment.

Unfortunately, the duty of a noble is to defend his land at any cost; the laws of the empire are very strict, and if he does not fulfill his duties, he will be dragged, tortured, and executed in the public square of the imperial capital to serve as an example.

His family wouldn't have a better fate either, so he didn't have much choice but to stay and fight.

For that, he spent almost half of his annual budget hiring all the additional labor he could find.

No, he wasn't limited by lack of funds; no, he would have been willing to go into debt to hire a group of S-class adventurers, but simply because there was no one else available or willing to accept the job in such little time.

His heart was terribly restless; everything indicates that there really could end up being a hidden calamity under those ruins.

In his entire life, he had never heard a sound like that. Coming from where those dangerous ruins are only worsens the picture and confirms the story of those adventurers.

"It must be whatever is below those ruins, now free and walking through the forest; it's just a matter of time until that thing gets here."

A cold sweat ran down his back as he finished his glass of wine in one sip.

If they found a calamity, it would be almost certain death; yet, it is part of human nature not to want to die and resist the last consequences; he would not be different.

He sent his best team of explorers to the serfs village, but this time instead of having the goal of preparing to protect them, as should have been his duty, he sent them with the sole objective of watching.

A village so vulnerable and full of fresh food is a perfect target, and when whatever came out of those ruins reaches them, it's almost certain that it will attack.

When that happens, his mission is to return and inform them immediately to have at least some idea of what they face and increase their chances of winning.

However, Duncan's face doesn't reflect much confidence in his own strength. Those adventurers will take another six days to reach the nearest city.

To that, you have to add who knows how long before the guild calls a squadron of subjugation, two weeks before the whole squadron meets in that city, and then another six to eight days to come back here.

He himself risked his reputation by sending messengers asking for help from the Guild and the Empire, but due to the lack of information and only speculation, it is unlikely that he will receive timely aid.

His ramblings were interrupted when someone knocked on the door.

"My Lord, the scouts have returned."

His heart skipped a beat when he heard that they had returned. That could be very bad; it's most likely that they saw something that made them return.

A part of him wanted to ignore them to escape reality by drinking more wine, but nervously, his pale face mustered up courage not to show his pathetic side to his servants.

"Let them in."

He said, doing everything possible to try to pronounce those words without trembling his voice.

He quickly took his seat while wiping away sweat with a handkerchief and, like rehearsed hundreds of times, assumed the role of the gallant and respectable lord who should always be.

The door opened, and the leader of the expedition squadron entered with a wet face and was visibly tired.

"My Lord, the men we sent to the ruins still haven't come back; it will take at least two more days for them to complete the expedition."

Adjusting the pace of his breathing and already recovering some breath, he continues.

"While observing the situation in the village, I sent some men to investigate around the forest; they found a large number of corpses of monsters."

A grimace of terror crossed the face of Duncan, but he quickly recovered composure, at least outwardly. Without giving him time to calm his heart rate, the leader explorer continued with his report.

"There were all kinds of monsters, but what was really worrying was that we discovered two dismembered bodies of Forest Tyrants."

"It is extremely rare to see them near the village, and it makes us suspect that they may have been fleeing before being caught and killed."

"The worrying thing is that it seems as if something had played with them before killing them; the violence with which they mutilated their bodies is not normal, they seem to have been killed with all kinds of magic attacks."

"And there were no signs that anything had eaten parts of the bodies."

Unable to maintain his facade, Duncan simply brought a hand to his forehead.

"And something, with enough power to use two class B monsters as playthings, being very optimistic is at least one or more class A extremely strong monsters; the situation is really bad."

Duncan's body lost strength. If the class A monsters are lurking around the village, it's only a matter of time before they attack. Still, it would be a relief if it was something like that.

Internally, he feared that it wasn't something as simple as plain class A monsters; after all, why had they been hunting if they didn't even plan on eating their prey?

"My Lord, with the exception of the findings in the forest, the only unusual situation in the village was that one of my men thought he had seen a shadow move on its own."

The man hesitated but was encouraged to continue.

"But we could not confirm it; we ended up discarding the event as just a mere product of stress because there was also no attack after the supposed sighting."

The scout doubted whether it was worth mentioning something like this but still took the risk of including it in his report since he was ordered to provide every detail.

"I left the rest of my men stationed in the area to keep you informed. Now I'll go back to continue my work with your permission, my Lord."

Bowing, he went when Duncan authorized him by making a gesture with his hand.

"I did everything I could; now we can only pray to the gods."

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair, filling his cup with more delicious wine.

 

---

 

"Why does there have to be so many people?!"

It's hard for me to believe how inconsiderate they are with such a humble and barefoot lady in the forest.

"What can we do, dear? Things won't be that easy, will they?"

I tell my beloved while caressing one of his beautiful tentacles softly.

Gor doesn't seem to care much about all this. He only responds when necessary, just because he loves me so much.

Now that I think about it, it's not that I don't understand him.

I remember how bored and uninterested I was when shopping with Emilia; it was simply tedious. I spent hours and hours visiting places while having to wait.

"How could I have been so insensitive to him? I don't know what's happening to me."

Neither is it going to die if I don't get some shoes ...

I let my "Lady Victoria Nightsun" side take control of all my emotions, distorting my priorities completely.

I'm not the stupid girl I used to be, now I'm a lovestruck woman, but I must have clear goals if what I want is to have a happy life with my beloved.

"But still, I want some shoes ... Why does everything have to be so difficult in this life?"

The voice of reason can't simply turn off my emotions.

You know, screw all that. If I'm going to risk entering that property, it's because I'm taking other useful things I need, like gold, magical artifacts, and other valuable objects.

Of course, that's the real reason behind the idea of breaking into a fortress; that's why I really do it. I need the gold, yes, but only for that am I going to do this.

*Sigh* It won't be easy sneaking around with so many humans buzzing around here.

I could catch a guard or some scout, put on their clothes, and enter, but I quickly discard the idea. I don't want to wear someone else's dirty clothes and feel my body covered in their bodily fluids again.

Another option would be to simply cross the main door and ask permission to enter, but that would be terribly suspicious.

I don't look like an adventurer, and it's very rare to see a woman like me walking in the middle of the night without an escort.

In some way, I could make my Darling tentacles take the form of a knight covered with armor and play the role of my escort, but unfortunately, I doubt my beloved husband can do it correctly; he still has a lot to learn to do it convincingly.

Neither is a frontal assault an option because I would have to kill every one of those little animals for it to be considered successful; it would only need one of them who had been lucky enough to see me... that would definitely screw up all our plans.

On the other hand, I have the problem of calling too much attention when cleaning our tracks from the ruins.

I know it's impossible to hide that something came out of there; Maybe it's better to keep playing the game and feed the idea that something escaped from there, but focus the attention very far away from me.

"If they fear that a monster came out of there, then I'll give them that monster."

My face lights up with a smile, and my heart beats with excitement.

"To execute this plan convincingly, I will have to kill many humans."

It's not like it seems like a problem for me now, right?

"I'll have to kill and dismember horribly many humans, all of them with a life, with families who love them, with dreams to fulfill, with children they feed, children like my son Angelo, whom they love and would have given everything to save."

My body begins to tremble, and tears run down my cheeks before I realize it.

It is very easy to think about doing something, but when you are about to do it, you feel the real weight of your future actions.

No, no, no. I shouldn't get distracted by those irrelevant details; I'm not even human anymore.

Why should I worry about the pathetic details of their lives? But despite my efforts, my body keeps shaking.

Imagine killing humans who try to harm my beloved Gor, or even how I would kill those who were once important to me if they tried to take him away from me, is very different from massacring people indiscriminately.

They have done absolutely nothing against us, nothing that makes them worthy of experiencing hell on earth.

"Why can't I stop putting myself in the place of these humble beings?"

My head hurts a lot; the buzzing is so strong that it stopped being pleasant a long time ago.

I know it's the best option, and I can't believe I'm hesitating after all this.

"Because? Why? Why does everything have to be so complicated? Why I still have such feelings?"

"What would I feel if a monster took away my beloved son?"

"What would Angelo feel if a monster took his father away?"

"Angelo was a human, just like all these people."

"But still, although he was a human and I am now supposedly a very superior being to him, despite all that, I still love him with all my heart ..."

Gor's tentacles interrupted my ramblings, covering my body completely until they eventually took the form of an insectoid monster, completely black.

He sent me a mental image of what could be described as a terrifying insectoid-like monster.

"Wait, Gor, I don't know if it's a good idea yet ..."

I try to protest, but one of his tentacles wraps around my neck violently, Gor uses so much force that I can even hear the sound of my bones breaking and cracking while strangling me.

More tentacles came out of the dimensional matrix until Gor's body completely left the artifact and simply immobilized my arms and legs with his "hands."

A small opening appeared in the shell to allow me to see the outside, but that's not something I care about at this moment.

I tried to stop him, even tried to free myself, but my whole body is completely paralyzed.

I'm suffocating; my neck is regenerated enough not to die, but I can't breathe. It's a terrible and desperate feeling; panic takes over me.

I have no doubt that Gor is angry with me. Very angry with me. I am very afraid and feel like I am going to die.

It has been so long since I saw him so angry; Every time I close my eyes, the tentacle around my neck tightens with force, strangling and making me suffer.

"Gor, if you are so violent with me, I will break. Please, Gor, I don't want to die."

I tried to communicate mentally with him, but he ignored me completely. I think he finally got tired of my nonsense. I'm definitely going to die at this rate.

No, it doesn't bother something as trivial as killing or not some humans, those things have never interested him.

Humans are so uninteresting that they don't even care if I don't want to kill them.

Through our link, the only thing I feel coming from him is ... jealousy?

What could he be jealous of?

I am hopelessly in love with him.

I belong only to him.

My whole body belongs only to him.

I live to help him and make him happy, just for him.

I was designed to be perfect only for him.

I can't live without him.

My heart belongs only to him ... eh?