Uscfrea stood at the top of the Legion keep, looking down at the waves below. He watched as mothers took their pups to swim in the shallows while a ring of warriors patrolled the ocean further out. Hunting parties were coming and going, Dobhar were making repairs to their rafts on the beach.

He took a deep breath and thought back to the last few days…and to his Queen.

He still couldn’t read her entirely. She never displayed any emotion or any sign of what she was thinking. She accepted overly generous offers right off the bat, with seemingly no thought as to what her employers would think of it or to what she could demand instead. Yet, she enforced that offer with a rigid magical contract that bound him to her will, and during the negotiations did not hesitate to firmly reject any condition she found objectionable. She could be easily convinced when the terms were agreeable to her, yet when she decided to refuse she was firm and unyielding.

He tapped the new armor on his head. The armor that seemed to have a mind of its own. ‘Cybernetic components’ she had called them. They spoke to him in a manner similar to the Queen’s, and seemed to assist him in thinking? But…their way of thinking was strange and alien.

Uscfrea was not at all comfortable with such an alien presence connected directly to his mind…but at the same time, he tried to embrace it. Because he felt in his gut that this was the key to understanding his Queen, and how she made her choices.

And that…was something the fate of his entire race might rest upon.

In an instant she had ruined all his plans and laid waste to his army. She had left him battered and beaten and forced him to bow to his hated foes.

Yet…she bore the Dobhar no ill will of her own. She brought them under her own protection when it was her right to take everything from them. She paid their debts out of her own pocket, for reasons he could not explain. She gave them a new home and personally built them a mighty fortress to call their own. She annihilated anyone who would dare attack them. She personally acted to save a single pup, granting it her own mana in the process.

She could be a killer without remorse or hesitation…or a savior of seemingly endless compassion and generosity. She had seemingly switched between these instantly, without warning, based purely on an oath the Dobhar had not even started to fulfill. And Uscfrea needed to understand why, so that he could ensure the Dobhar remained in her graces. And to ensure he and Estrith could guide her decisions in their favor.

And her personality wasn’t the strangest or most concerning part of it, either.

She was a dungeon master, a foul demon lord. The part that was deeply shocking, though it actually answered a lot of questions. Yet, she did not seem to hunt for sapient life, or demand regular sacrifices like others of her ilk the Dobhar had encountered. She acted as if she was purely human, all things considered. Or perhaps something else, given Uscfrea’s opinion of the average human.

And then she wielded Holy mana, with the ability to bestow it upon others.

That a demon lord would be granted that power by the Aesdes…that was something unthinkable. That defied all understanding of dungeons and demon lords and the Aesdes themselves. Was it not the demon lords that Holy mana is to oppose? Are they not anathema to each other? And the Dobhar were fairly tame in their opinion of the dungeons, Uscfrea could only imagine what the Empire would do if it learned of these things, given this situation defied every doctrine they espoused.

And yet, here she was, a Holy demon lord. Turning Dobhar pups into Holy monsters in order to save their lives.

Uscfrea shook his head.

Such things were beyond him. He was no scholar or theologian. He could not explain why such a thing should not happen, and so could not then explain why it had.

So instead, he would focus purely on what she had done.

And despite how casually she had accepted their allegiance, it appeared by all accounts that she truly considered the Dobhar her own. She had spared neither resource nor effort on their behalf, not even for the youngest pup. She revealed her greatest secret, granted Uscfrea a similar power, and left it in his hands. And then rather than ordering him to prey upon his people as he feared, she instead commanded him to use the dungeon’s powers to protect them.

He opened up the dungeon records once more, looking over all the things he could do with it. He continued to review the conversations his Queen had recorded between herself and the former dungeon masters in her employ.

And he imagined the future.

He imagined legions of Dobhar equipped from head to tail in powerful dungeon loot. He imagined invading Imperials caught in traps and twisting halls. He imagined armies of monsters swimming into the deep, and overwhelming the Dread Orcas. He imagined Dobhar pups surrounded by endless piles of food, never knowing hunger or danger until they were grown enough to fight.

He grinned, and gripped his fist.

No, in the end, no matter her eccentricities, no matter her intentions, no matter the damage she had done to them, no matter the grave questions as to her identity, the former King Uscfrea Spellbreaker of the Dobhar would only be grateful to his new queen.

Because thanks to her efforts, the Dobhar were now in the best position their race had ever been in. And once he mastered the power she had granted him, he could elevate them to become the supreme power in Turannia. In all the North Seas.

Whatever the future held, the Dobhar would be ready for it.

He decided he would put a little extra effort into the search for those humans of hers. The boons she had granted him were worth a great deal more, after all.

He turned and exited the watchtower.

He had much work to do.

Meanwhile NSLICE-00P was flying back to Castra Turannia, with a trembling and teary-eyed Estrith in tow. It turned out the Dobhar warrior was not a fan of being kidnapped by a demon lord and then pulled up into the sky. But recent events had made her mission even more urgent, so here she was. Up in the sky, where no Dobhar should ever be. Bound to a foul demon lord.

But such musings went unnoticed by NSLICE-00P, and soon they arrived back at Castra Turannia.

She quickly found Ateia and Taog as Estrith reacquainted herself with the ground. The pair were helping clear out debris, though the work was well underway. The limitanei’s ubiquitous Earth magic skills made repairing a mostly stone city a simple task.

Just another reason Imperial fortresses were hard to siege.

But still, NSLICE-00P hadn’t taken that much time with the Dobhar, so the repairs were still in progress.

And…

After greeting Ateia and Taog…NSLICE-00P calculated that she would not be able to resume her search until the repairs were complete, since she would have to wait for Ateia and Taog.

So…

Dozens of magic circles formed across the city.

The spell Earth Wall is now level 9!

The spell Rock Throw has leveled twice times and is now level 8!

You have learned the spell Stone Wall!

The spell Stone Wall has leveled five times and is now level 6!

The skill Earth Magic is now level 9!

The skill Multicasting is now level 11!Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The skill Farcasting is now level 7!