It took a couple of minutes before Katherine finally calmed down. She was currently pouting away while I tried to catch my breath. I started to regret not leaving her behind on Greyston. I think I would rather deal with her whining than get charred to a crisp.

  “Alright let’s go see Damian and V and introduce them to Paimoth!” I announced, wanting to pretend the last few minutes didn’t happen.

  After confirming that Katherine calmed down, we were ready to return to my kingdom. But as if I didn’t suffer enough, I abruptly received a dreadful and familiar message!

  {VLADDDYYYY!!}

  The second I read that message I was ready to bolt out of here! But I was stopped by the priestess, her pouty expression changed to one of self-satisfaction. Shit! She remembered last time!

  I immediately was given the all too familiar hug from behind. My body already felt the pain of the black bear’s embrace. I swear I think just enduring his affection should net me some progress in my Health stat with the amount of pain I have to take!

  “Damian, how many times do I have to remind you not to do this in public!” I angrily complained to him while I flailed my arms around, trying to get my body free with enough room for me to breath while ignoring my exhaustion.

  “…Oh sorry”

  Damian’s expression reverted back to normal as he put me down like a delicate animal. V themself was right behind me, happy to see me. I simply sighed while I tried to get over my discomfort. Since my [Health] had ranked down, I had felt that hug more intensely and just after I was starting to get used to it…

  “You always got to go the extra mile on the hug don’t you Damian.” Mordred pointed out though even he was getting used to his antics.

  “Hmmm, so that’s what’s going on huh?” Katherine said to herself, never letting go of that satisfied look on her face. “I am rather intrigued to learn the story on this.”

  She inched closer to me; I looked away as I could feel the mocking tone coming out of her mouth. “Maybe you’re not such a savage creature after all, Vladimir.”

  Ah, my there goes my awesome image being torn to shreds! Haven’t I suffered enough with my [Tiny Tyrant] title?! I suspect it has something to do with this predicament! Come on [Game Screen], give me a feature to turn off this title Damn it!

  I looked to my new butler for help, hoping this wouldn’t change things with him. I was in dismay when I saw that he was giggling. He was finding this amusing!

  What’s worse, he’s already acting like this is normal and was going to Damian and V to greet himself without acknowledging the hug.

  “Greetings fellow henchman. My name is Paimoth, and I’ll be in service of Master Vladimir as his personal butler.”

  The adventurer nodded, not saying a word. V raised their hands up in excitement, happy for the new addition.

  “Yay! Welcome Mr. Paimoth! I’m V, I’m so happy to have a new friend join us!”

  The little goblin walked up to the Daemon and admired his wings. “You have such pretty wings!”

  They were reaching out to touch them, but the shadow moth waved them off politely. “I’m sorry little one, but my wings are rather sensitive you see. But I appreciate the compliment.”

  He then raised hand, conjuring up a shadow tendril from the ground. It danced around in an effort to entertain the young goblin.

  Many would have found it creepy and would rather stay away from it but not V. In fact, they seemed fascinated by it.

  “That looks so cool!” They started to pet the shadow like it was a newborn puppy. “Oh, I think it’s purring!”

  Paimoth chuckled to himself, finding the little goblin adorable. Katherine shook her head in disapproval.

  I decided to let Paimoth get to know them a bit more before we returned to business.

  Similar to Greyston, the citizens in Mivtic took to my new henchmen with fear and worry. They took a bit longer to accept but seemed to have given up on arguing with the matter.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  I brought my butler around the kingdom to help him get familiar with the area. Afterwards, I took him to the castle. There I was planning to discuss his exact duties he would perform as part of his duties as my butler.

  I also wanted to know of any skills he could provide that could better improve my empire.

  As I suspected from looking at his status screen, he was rather knowledgeable about Mana and could help cover the magical aspects of issues I have yet to address.

  Reluctantly, I took him to that dreadful room. My minions, who had previously worked on the ritual, had slowly tried to remove whatever trace of it they could. But there were still some lingering effects on the floor.

  Seeing my pained expression Paimoth seemed to figure it out and simply snapped his fingers. Several shadow tendrils rubbed against the floor, the remaining Mana dispersing as they do. In only a few seconds all traces of it had disappeared.

  “…. thanks”

  The moth Daemon bowed, his wings lowering in obedience. “Just doing my duty, my master.”

  Having seen how he handled the leftover Mana, a thought came across my mind. “…think you can do that to those affected by it?”

  “If I am able to assess the situation with them directly, it is possible.” He answered.

  No sooner did I hear his answer did I brought him to the next room. I dared not try to get my hopes up but still. If it’s possible I need to see it myself.

  When we went inside the cells, the afflicted fellow monsters still stood there. Their expression of their shattered minds was difficult for me to look at.

  Paimoth took his time to examine them before closing his eyes for a moment. He was probably using his [Mana Presence] to sense the Mana lingering from the ritual on my poor fellow monsters.

  It makes me wish I had this ability. Yes, I’ve been getting better control over my own Mana. But it still irks me I can’t directly affect living creatures myself.

  I shake those thoughts out of my head for now. I needed to watch, as the one in charge I need to assure that this succeeds so that they can return back to their homes.

  It wouldn’t feel right to me to conquer them right now until then. My gnolls being the exception since they were in an urgent matter.

  “I’ve finished assessing the situation, Master Vladimir.” Paimoth announced. He turned to me, his expression unreadable. I gulped, worried about his answer.

  His glowing dots for eyes shined a bit brighter, his antennas waving a bit. “I have good news. With time I should be able to return their minds back to how it should be.”

  My eyes started to light up, thankful for this chance to fix this kingdom’s mistake. Now it’s one less problem I need to worry about.

  “I will have to request to postpone my training for the time being Master. This will require my undivided attention.” He lowered his shadowy head.

  “I got it, we can resume once you’ve finished.”

  Paimoth then began his treatment. Seeing as I didn’t have much to do to help him out, I decided to leave things for him for now. I’ll have to stay in this kingdom for the time being until then. When I left the cell room I passed by the still unmoving golem.

  With how busy I’ve been I almost forget the poor monster. My human researchers were still struggling to figure out how to reactivate the golem monster. Their priorities were more focused on restructuring and other matters that required more immediate attention. Maybe after he’s done Paimoth can help with this matter as well.

  When I reached the balcony, I noticed that it was starting to get dark. Just seeing the dusk sky made me yawn. It seems we took longer to go around the kingdom than I thought.

  The rest of my henchmen had let me focus on getting Paimoth equated while Katherine wanted to check up on the citizens and ensured to resolve any problems they may have. Though she would probably chalk it up to wanting to make sure I wasn’t doing anything heinous to them.

  Since I was tired, I decided to sleep for the night in the pig king’s old bedroom. I don’t think I have ever been to that room since I conquered this kingdom. Never liked the idea of being anywhere near where that bastard had been but the servants in the castle had reassured me before that the room was thoroughly cleaned off so there was no trace of his existence left in there. I might as well use it. It would be a disservice to their efforts after all.

  Without much thought I found myself already in the bedroom, crawling into the massively fluffy bed. I ignored all the gaudy accessories inside as I laid my head on the pillow that was three times bigger than my entire body. My mind shutting down as it drifts to dreamland.

  I found myself back in my room from my old world. My usual anxiety from seeing it was building up once more, but I steeled myself as I tried to leave it once more.

  Once again, I met with the same group of mysterious people marching in the distance while I was in the ritual room again. They seem even harder to look at, so I decided to ignore them. Not like I wanted to see them anyway.

  Closer to me my eyes widen, seeing the same fellow kobold suffering through the damnable ritual. My breathing was growing heavy. I tried to remind myself how we’re trying to fix this issue now.

  But it only started to get worse. He seemed to be even in pain! He was clutching his head so tightly he was bleeding on his head.

  I tried to help but was kept back by some invisible force! Damn it let me through!!

  But as I banged through the invisible wall, I felt a chill behind me. I reluctantly looked behind me, only to be met with the unseen gaze of six familiar silhouettes. Even unable to see their eyes I could feel their discontent piercing right through my soul and judging me!

  I started to panic, but I don’t know why. My thoughts started to scatter all around.

  I…

  …

  After some time, my panic started to die down. No longer feeling those judgmental gazes anymore, I started to feel more at ease.