Chapter 49

  Sleep. Blessed sleep. Six hours of it according to the clock on my NeuroHUD. I felt rested and refreshed as I woke, which was a surprise even to me. Being a demon lord had turned out to be hard work; after all the marching through the Fourth Ring of Hell, fighting minotaurs, convincing demons to follow me and of course healing said demons after battle, had been a lot, and I had honestly doubted that anything less than a full day of slumber would cut it.

  I sat up on the largest bed I’d ever had the pleasure of sleeping in. Despite its simple design and the plain leather sheet on it — which had come from either a Staring Hunter or a Prowling Devourer — it was surprisingly comfortable. Maybe because this had been the first time I had slept out of my SAC since arriving in Hell, which was always the preferable — but not always feasible — way to do it. I wasn’t sure if Krasharak’s bedroom was average or if it was more luxurious on account of the guy serving as the overseer of the city; it was as large as one would expect from any room sized for demons, and it was as plain and utilitarian as a room could get: a bed, a wardrobe, a table and a chair, and hides of different monsters adorning the walls. That was it.

  ‘Good morning, my man, I hope you slept well,’ Burning Darkness spoke to me, his voice all cheerful and energetic in my mind.

  The sword lay on the table, my SAC open and waiting for me next to it. I clambered down from the bed and waddled over to the chair and sat, then summoned a Crunchymel bar and a bottle of water from my storage. Unfortunately I had ran out of ration packs, which wouldn’t have been a huge problem as monster meat wasn’t as bad as I had feared, but along with the packs instant coffee was also gone. I drank some water, then I stared at the chocolate bar intently, debating with myself whether I should open it now, or wait until later. I had only ten of them left, I was sure Flamey had none by now, and so I found myself facing a decision that was possibly one of the most important ones, and with far reaching consequences. It was too early in the morning for this sort of decision-making. I needed a distraction.

  ‘I slept alright, thank you, esteemed Hellfire Blade. Or … Blade of Betrayal, as I recall Zeneth using that name,’ I said to my sword as I made the Crunchymel bar disappear back into storage and opting for a smoke instead. ‘Care to explain?’

  ‘Ah, you remember that? It’s just a stupid name, don’t pay any attention to …’ he began to deflect, but I didn’t let him. This was my distraction after all, not his.

  ‘Come on, just come clean!’ I told him.

  ‘Alright, if you insist,’ he said then paused and pretended to take a deep breath. ‘Well, I have a confession to make.’

  ‘Go on!’ I told him, lit a cigarette and inhaled the smoke deeply.

  ‘You’re not my first.’

  ‘Oh? You’ve been married before?’

  ‘Pft! Idiot!’ he snapped at me. ‘I meant that as strange as it may sound, you’re not the first human I have bonded with.’

  ‘I’m not?’ This was interesting. ‘So, what’s the story, and why did Zeneth seem pissed about it?’

  ‘You know the story already. Most of it anyway,’ he said. ‘I was left behind when the Fifth Ringers retreated through here because my then owner was obliterated along with the rest of his bonded set. I survived, barely, and the guy who did the obliterating picked me up.’

  ‘And he was human.’ I stated rather than asked.

  ‘Yep, and not just any human. One of the Surface World heroes,’ he said, sounding a little wonderstruck. ‘He was without a doubt the strongest, highest-level creature I have ever seen. Zeneth probably hates me because, well, the hero used me at the time to dispatch quite a number of Fifth Ringers. Ah, his swordsmanship skills were way better than anyone else who had ever held me. Including you.’

  ‘Are you comparing me to your ex-husband now? How insensitive!’ I grinned at the sword maliciously.

  ‘Just … shut up, you! You asked, I answered,’ he yelled at me. ‘Right now, I’m experiencing a profound regret at bonding with you.’

  ‘Alright, fine, I’m sorry. I was just pulling your leg.’

  ‘I don’t have legs, I’m a swo … oh. Okay,’ he groaned. ‘Forgive and forget as they say where you come from, right?’

  Before I could tell him it was indeed how the saying went and that it did apply, the door to my room burst open as if a storm had hit it. I jumped to my feet grabbing Burning Darkness, the cigarette falling out of my mouth, absolutely not ready for a fight. I relaxed as I saw Grashon barging in with a grin on his face.

  ‘Would it kill you to knock, Grash?’ I yelled at him under the influence of the sudden adrenalin surge. I was wide awake now, coffee or no coffee.

  ‘Boss! I heard you’re awake. The general is waiting for you,’ he yelled back at me, obviously in a good mood.

  I had no idea why Grash was still standing guard outside of my room — he had been there when I’d gone to sleep and he was here now. Had he even rested or slept at all? Had any of them? I didn’t think I needed guards at my door anyway; since the Kralsen Hive Mind was on my side by contract, I was sure Zeneth and the few other minions of their collective present in the city would make sure I wouldn’t kick the bucket before holding up my end of the bargain. Dark, scary, mind-bending and insanity-inducing bodyguards. Good stuff.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ‘Well, let’s go and say hello to our general then,’ I said to Grash, and started the process of getting into my SAC.

  ***

  As I walked out of Krasharak’s house, which was very close to the centre of the city where the Wilds were allowed to grow — a weird and dangerous park, really — I was somewhat surprised to see a large number of demons congregating in the street, almost as if they had been waiting for me to come out. For the first time I saw children: small demons, much like Flamey, standing in the midst of the crowd and staring at me with wide eyes. I supposed with the minotaur threat gone for now, even the smallest, weakest, most vulnerable members of demon society felt safe to come out. I spotted a few soldiers of the army among them, wearing armour and carrying weapons, but the vast majority of them were regular, civilian residents. And they all turned to look at me the moment I stepped out of the doorway. At the same moment Vikaret, Surtharkar and Zagrathar appeared out of nowhere, forming something like a protective circle around me together with Grash. Iskaret was still recovering, and her absence reminded me to check in on her later.

  ‘Uh … what’s going on?’ I asked Grash.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he gasped as if I had asked the stupidest question in the entire universe. ‘Everyone wants to see you.’

  ‘Okay. Why?’ I asked the next stupid question.

  ‘Boss. You’re the lord of the Fourth Ring. And you’re human. And you won a great battle and slaughtered the enemy general personally. Of course everyone wants to take a look at you.’

  I glanced at my squad surrounding me, all of them exuding a distinct “stay the hell away from us” aura, looking all menacing and ready to take on the crowd.

  ‘Okay. Do you think they pose a threat? Is that why you’re all here?’

  ‘Threat? No.’ He shook his head. ‘We just thought you’d want us to keep away the hundreds of demons who will pester you to take them on as your attendants or aides.’

  ‘But if you want some women to wait on you, I can see a few good looking ones in the crowd.’ Sur commented cheerfully.

  Zag nodded in agreement while Vik delivered a smack to the back of Sur’s head. Ah, demons; I could almost believe they were normal people after a display like this — if I ignored their blood lust in battle and the dangerously little regard they had for life, including their own.

  I took a few moments to scan the crowd in the street, and questions began to pop up in my mind. For instance: their clothes. I would have to ask someone about the fabrics they used. I could guess how their metal and leather clothes and armour were made and where the materials came from, but the fabrics were a mystery to me. The only plant life I’d seen were the dark, stony, lava-filled trees of the Wilds, and none of the animals residing there had anything resembling wool. Another question I had was about attendants and aides; if I’d taken some time to study the RMS menus — particularly the “dos and don’ts” of a demon lord — I would have known already, but I supposed it was better late than never, so I looked it up as we started walking down the street away from the centre.

  As it turned out, it was entirely possible for me to have aides and attendants; according to the RMS I could hire demons for those roles, emphasis on the word “hire”, which made me delve deeper into the topic of currency and payments. As Button summarised the financial system of the Fourth Ring for me, I recalled seeing or hearing about accumulated but unused EXP being used as currency. My assistant confirmed it.

  RE, or Ring Energy, was the strange, magical stuff that demons received in the usable form of EXP upon killing a monster or another demon, and they could use it to level up or to pay for goods and services. For instance, if a demon wanted a house built, he’d buy the materials and hire builders, pay them in EXP, which the builders then could use either to level themselves or to buy stuff. Or one could hire hunters to hunt monsters for food. Or to make clothes or weapons. Or anything, really.

  As demon lord, I had access to the Ring’s coffers — just over 7 million RE currently. If I was understanding it correctly, the source of this wealth was some sort of taxation of the populace of the Fourth Ring. Whatever was in the coffers was only available to use for public projects, such as maintaining and paying my generals and soldiers — apparently they weren’t fighting for me for free — maintaining city defenses and garrisons, and a number of other things. Public spending, basically. However, a small amount — about 5000 RE — was set aside for the demon lord as a yearly allowance for his own expenses, such as paying aides and attendants, but not personal guards — a personal guard unit, such as the one I had established for Flamey, was a public expense, paid from the coffers. It was a shame I couldn’t use my personal allowance to give myself EXP for leveling up. Would have been nice.

  What I didn’t find anywhere in the RMS were prices, value, purchasing power and exchange rates between RE and EXP, which made it difficult to determine how much an attendant should be paid and whether it would be weekly, monthly or yearly. I did find a log, or records, of public spendings in the RMS, and after having Button do some serious calculations, I learned that a soldier under level 20 in my army was currently on 180 RE per year. Now, I still couldn’t assign a numerical value to how much EXP that was, but according to my trusty Demonic Help Button, a soldier under level 20 could use that amount to level up twice. Well, roughly. But wait! How long was a year in Hell? Oh. 370 days, according to Button, so not that different from what I was used to. Which meant that I was going to have to pay Reinos and his army two levels in about 369 days from today. Right. I hoped I’d have the funds in the coffers. I also noticed that higher level soldiers were paid more to keep the yearly salary around 2 level’s worth, as the requirements were growing with each consecutive level gained. I supposed I could consider this compensation for inflation. Unfortunately, Button had nothing to say about the conversion rate between RE and EXP, and for the life of me I couldn’t find it in the menus.

  Well, with this mystery at least partially solved, I was actually considering hiring someone as an aide, or maybe a couple of attendants, just to see how this whole system worked in practice and to see if I could figure it out. But before I could make a decision on this, we — and by “we” I meant myself, my squad, and all the civilian demons following us — arrived at the series of squares or plazas that separated the walls from the city proper. I’d have to investigate these infernal economics later; Reinos was waiting for me near the south gate of the city, talking to some of his captains while walking amongst the injured and mostly recovering soldiers laid out on leather and canvas sheets. Ah, I was proud of the guy; just as I was growing into my role as a demon lord, he was growing into his as a general. And I had a lot to discuss with him.