YEAR 1549 OF THE THIRD CALENDAR

  Aftermath

  “Wow, you look really messed up, Elvitius! It seems like I am going to have to leave you in the care of that supposedly unhinged healer elf young lady”

  “Sir… Now is not the time to be making jokes… How… How did our mission go? Were you able to grab hold of Beliol Azt Mastras?”

  “Alas, as we had expected, this old, mad fool had plenty of escape routes ready in case of trouble… It doesn’t change the fact that he jumped ship, however. His advisors have been dealt with, and you can trust my dusty, ancient instincts–His two enforcers will not be a problem, even if they are alive and well”

  “Are we… Sure about that?”

  “Do you not trust your old lord’s guts, Elvitius? Believe me, all is well… Now, we just need to install on the throne someone both friendly to us, and who has a legitimate claim to the abandoned crown”

  Naturally, the ‘someone’ Salael was referring to had already been decided ahead of time–Algo Irmandelt Rootriska had actually been in contact with this person long before Beelmart had even begun to show clear signs of aggression… Knowing that this person was the one and only descendant of Beliol Azt Mastras, thus, the only person who had a legitimate claim to the crown, and the only person the population would be willing to accept as their new ruler…

  Balayal Azt Mastras was her name, the one and only princess of Beelmart. Or at least, the only child of the Beelmartian king who had been birthed by his official wife, he probably had a slew of other children, whom he had probably had with mistresses and slave maids.

  In any case, she had been exchanging letters with the Rootriskian king for several years now–At first, Algo Irmandelt Rootriska had been trying to seduce her before he ended up marrying a demon princess from Malkazert.

  Not that it would have ever worked, his charms had been utterly ineffective on her. It had felt like trying to warm up a glacier with a single match, an absolutely futile task…

  In any case, Balayal Azt Mastras wasn’t like her father. She understood well that, as prosperous as mass slavery might have made Beelmart in the past, it was no longer an effective economic strategy at all. Frankly, it was a miracle that they hadn’t suffered a great crash already. It would certainly make a lot of people very mad, but there was a definite need to transition out of using slavery and start building a new economic model. Obviously, she wasn’t just going to outlaw slavery out of the blue.

  In fact, she wasn’t going to outlaw it completely at all. She might have different ideas compared to her father, but one would be gravely mistaken in believing for even a second that she is kind-hearted. Balayal Azt Mastras did not give a damn about the plight of the enslaved. It is purely a matter of maintaining the nation in a superior position.

  If throwing babies into a pit of Hell was the way to do so, she would already have carriages filled with newborns to unload down into it… Thankfully, fixing Beelmart’s problems didn’t involve being an evil spawn of the devils.

  Algo Irmandelt Rootriska had struck a deal with the princess a while ago. It was very simple–The deal was that trading and military relationships would immediately be made between Beelmart, Rootriska, Heldinot, and Malkazert. The latter three would help Balayal Azt Mastras rebuild her country’s economy into something brand new, and in return, Beelmart would become a close ally of theirs. In particular, Beelmart had access to plenty of natural resources of all kinds, thanks to its countless high mountains, each and every one of them rich with minerals of all kinds.

  Beelmart could completely turn itself around and move away from the slave-based economy. The only problem was that it was too far entrenched in the blood of the country to use free labour that couldn’t refuse any order. The idea to start proper businesses, hire people, pay them, and actually treat them properly? A nigh alien concept to countless Beelmart’s business owners.

  It simply wasn’t how they were used to operate. Their parents had used slaves, so had their grandparents, on and on for centuries, since the rise of Beelmart was a powerful force on the continent… It definitely wouldn’t be a piece of cake to convince the population, but the soon-to-be queen knew that it would be much better for the future of the nation. Not everyone could afford to buy slaves, especially since they started running low.

  An impressive number of commoners made their bread and butter by keeping just a handful of slaves who were used to ‘make’ more slaves, which they would sell to anyone willing to buy. It was frankly quite impressive that the entire nation had adapted to this.

  If anything, Balayal Azt Mastras was reassured by this. She was certain that few other countries could have figured out how to keep all of this nonsense running so well for so long. Clearly, her people knew how to make their heads work.

  In any case, once the damage to the palace was fixed and the lingering chaos went away, she would announce her father's disappearance and officially take over his role as ruler… The assistance of Rootriska and its allies was also crucial here.

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  The commoners and bourgeoisie wouldn’t have anything to say about the rightful heir to the throne taking over the vanished king’s duties and authority, but the nobles? Now that most of the royal guards had been slain, and the two enforcers were gone, many would have delusions of grandeur and imagine themselves sitting on the throne instead of the princess.

  All three of Beelmart’s newfound allies sent protectors under the name of ‘diplomats’. If anyone got any unruly ideas, they would be met with a very bad surprise…

  Everything was perfectly propped up for success and long-term prosperity–Algo Irmandelt Rootriska had been working hard for many years to get to where he currently was… He was at the head of a tight-knit alliance of several powerful nations.

  To him, it had always been obvious. Allies were needed for a kingdom to thrive. War may be a profitable business, but in his eyes, it was profitable like gambling could be profitable. It might offer the possibility of riches, and it might even be possible to ensure that you won most of the time, but if you lost in a significant manner? Everything would come crashing down like a house of cards.

  The Rootriskian king did not like gambling. As such, becoming close allies with his neighbours had been his objective from the very moment he put on the crown. Rootriska had always had economic ties to these other countries, but it wasn’t enough in his eyes.

  He forged stronger bonds through marriage first. He married a demon princess himself after his first wife unfortunately passed away, and he married one of his sons to a beastfolk princess–This alone wasn’t enough, however. Marriage had always been a great way for nations to form friendly relationships, but the best way to make sure these bonds would last was through procreation… Through the melding of the royal bloodlines, the kingdoms would be forever united by essentially making it so that heirs with rightful claims to both nations would be born.

  Normally, this step would have been impossible to make due to the difference in sapient species. Humans, demons, and beastfolks could rarely reproduce, and when they did, the results were often… Not pretty to look at.

  Algo Irmandelt Rootriska was equipped with the means to ignore such restraints. His new queen, whom he had much affection for, was already pregnant, and so was his beastfolk step-daughter. The rulers of Heldinot and Malkazert weren’t certain about the results yet, but he? He was already well aware that the children wouldn’t just be born fine. They would be immaculate hybrids which neither party would be able to reject as not being truly born out of wedlock.

  Regardless of how joyful he was about all of this, or the fact that Balayal Azt Mastras had agreed that one of her future heirs would be married to one of his–There was something else weighing on his mind…

  “Lady Balayal, if I may enquire, do you know what became of the entity your father made a deal with? Would you be willing to share insight on the subject?”

  Algo Irmandelt Rootriska and Balayal Azt Mastras weren’t alone in this meeting. Their other allies had been invited as well–Valetiel Bestos Felinis, the king of Heldinot, and Argras Juliper Malka, the king of Malkazert, were present as well.

  The latter had not been impacted by the nightmares nearly as hard as the other two, but he was definitely curious nonetheless. No one was willing to allow such a creature to roam free when it had already proven to be equivalent to a country-level threat.

  “As you know, I was never very involved in the matters of the crown. My father was always wary of me… I did spot the creature from afar on a few occasions, however. I even heard her speak”

  “She is definitely a bizarre being. To this day, I have no idea what kind of being she is supposed to be…”

  The kings and their entourage of top officials listened closely.

  “I would say that she was above five or so centimeters taller than me, and seemed to be made entirely out of steel. There was flesh growing upon her, but it looked more akin to tumours than actual body parts. Her hands and feet were largely oversized compared to the rest of her build… Her head was without feature, only adorned by a jaw resembling an enormous beartrap, and two beady, purple dots… The purple struck me as odd from the very beginning. For some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was looking at a shade of purple that did not exist”

  “...In any case, although her speech would sometimes stutter, as though there was an extra voice repeating some of her syllables, she was actually rather well-spoken, and in general, her manners reminded me of a very classy and polite bourgeois. You can imagine how odd it was with her monstrous looks”

  “As far as I am aware, she said her name was ‘Maeve’, and she seemed to have a sweet tooth for steel, flesh, as well as anything cursed or haunted. I checked the attic she had been residing in, and no traces of anything she was given were found… So I have to assume she somehow consumed it all”

  The information was important, but the meeting ended on the fact that no one knew where Maeve had disappeared to. She had simply vanished out of thin air.

  “...I remember you mentioning a monster of this description before. To think that a monster who once operated confined inside of a town and was considered nothing more than a loose creature would turn out to be not only sapient, but also possess an ability capable of affecting several countries? It is a blessing that Jorah was able to identify it as a curse and begin removing it… Or, well, I guess I should say curses, since apparently there were actually two”

  “Your Majesty, I must admit that I was more so thinking about the nature of the monster. It seems to be some sort of machine, perhaps a cursed or haunted one. I was wondering if my skills as a mechanist could be of help”

  Leton Nebulo exchanged with the king, speaking with natural deceit he had learned from his twin sister. He knew very well what had happened. He had recovered SHLAD-01 and viewed the images his creation had captured.

  Mara had simply disappeared. Literally, one second it seemed like SHLAD was going to fulfil his mission, and the next, she was just gone. Whether one blinked or not, the result was the same.

  Without any telltale signs, Mara Maeve Maya Nebulo had simply popped out of existence.

  Leton could have heaved a sigh of relief and guessed that it meant that she was gone for good, but he wasn’t going to fool himself.

  Mara was going to come back. He could simply tell.

  She had not died. She was going to appear again… And she was going to continue killing without restraint.

  This nightmare was not over.