The Lord Is Too Overbearing

Two days ago.

Upon his return, Basil immediately gathered every Elven Chieftain that had participated in the battle and some of their Elders in the Chieftain's meeting room. Some of the Dwarven Elders questioned him why he didn't invite them and he told them that it was better for them to rest than participate in the boring discussion that he would have with the Chieftains.

They immediately bought it. See, Dwarves were honest creatures. They were extremely bad at lying. Since Basil was going to talk about the matter regarding Grittenhein, he didn't want any Dwarves to know about it. He was hiding the predicament that Grittenhein soon would face from Manfred, so letting the Dwarf tell him was not a good idea.

"Is there something urgent that you need to tell us, Lord Basil?" one of the Elders immediately asked as soon as Basil sat down. "Also, why do you have to bring that…thing to our meeting room?"

Glancing briefly at Dantalion who was standing on his side, Basil said, "As you mentioned, this is my thing. As long as it doesn't endanger you, I am allowed to bring it into this room, aren't I?"

"Ah, yes…. Pardon me if I somehow offended you. I just never thought that we would have a Demon join us in our meeting someday."

Waving his hand, Basil dismissed the apology. "Let's stop being formal with each other. You don't have to treat me like that to show me your respect for me." Putting his hands on the table, he tapped it with his fingers. "For you who don't know about it yet, Grittenhein is under attack."

Gasps of surprise filled the entire room immediately. Puzzlement riddled the face of the Elders inside as they turned to look at Basil; they wondered how they had only heard about it now and why he didn't let Manfred know about it.

"If you are wondering why your scout teams haven't told you anything about it, it's because it hasn't happened yet. The army of the Empire is already on its way; however, it is a sure thing that blood will paint the land of Grittenhein soon…if we haven't done anything, that is."

They wanted to know how Basil got the information but they held themselves back. Basil knew a lot of things that they didn't know, which was what made him even more terrifying.

"I had let Eloreth know in advance and we had prepared a pre-emptive measure against the attack. There is nothing to worry about for now but, of course, we won't just keep quiet and watch as the pre-emptive measure gradually fails to fulfil its job."

He then explained what the pre-emptive measure was. He revealed that Ordella and her squad were sent to Grittenhein to sabotage the equipment that the Priests and Paladins brought; specifically, the cannons that attacked anything on the land and in the air.

When asked why it even mattered—the Elven Elders were confident that their people would be able to counter the cannons—Basil gestured his hand at Dantalion. He told them that the cannons delivered significant damage to Dantalion's creations.

They were, of course, confused at first. They asked why he needed to consider Dantalion's creations and he told them that Dantalion's creations would attack the Empire's army in Grittenhein with him, at which Dantalion blinked his eyes upon hearing.

"How many do you want me to create?" Dantalion asked carefully.

"How many can you make in two days?"

"Hmm…probably, sixty-thousand if I push myself."

"Sixty-thousand it is, then."

Dantalion choked on his saliva because of his bafflement. Clearing his throat, resigning to his fate, he stated, "I can't guarantee you their toughness, though. Some of them may die in a single attack."

"No problem," Basil replied simply. "Their main role is to prevent the army of the Empire from holding the people hostage. I could take all of them by myself if I didn't care about three hundred thousand lives, which is the number of people that may fall victim to the Empire's savagery."

The Elven Elders nodded their heads in agreement, amazed and astonished at Basil's power and compassion. They didn't know, of course, that he just didn't want to lose people that could fight alongside him.

"Ah, I have gone to great lengths to sabotage the Church's equipment, so do your best creating the Monsters. Should you not, I will let you experience something worse than dying," Basil reminded Dantalion.

"I shall not disappoint you, My Lord," Dantalion replied confidently.

Moving on, Basil told the Elven Elders to stop sending their scouting teams to Grittenhein and kept the information about Grittenhein being under the attack of the Empire a secret. He would be the one who told Manfred about it himself, so he didn't want Manfred to figure it out himself.

He then told the Elven Elders to prepare their best Assassins to infiltrate Vallienda and assassinate every strategist of the Kingdom. He would send Manfred there in two days; knowing that Manfred would go on a rampage there, he didn't want the battle to be a battle of wits for he knew Manfred would fall easily into the trap of the strategist.

The meeting ended and everyone immediately did what they were told while keeping everything they heard in the meeting room a secret. No one wondered what they had discussed with Basil except for the naturally curious Dwarves.

It was unclear who started it but whenever they were asked by a Dwarven Elder about the meeting, the Elven Elders would say that they were discussing Basil and Tinuviel's date of marriage.

The reactions varied. Iliana wasn't amused by the rumour, which was not surprising. The young Chieftain, on the other hand, was ecstatic about it despite knowing it was merely a rumour. As for those who knew Basil, they were waiting for when the big war would occur.

All of them were mature enough, fortunately, so nothing happened in the end. Eloreth still considered turning the rumour into reality, though.

"Master, everything is ready."

"Good job. Then, it is time for me to tell Manfred about it and commence our plan."

After two days of work, the Monsters that Basil wanted Dantalion to create were ready. They weren't as good as the ones that his army had fought, yet they were good enough to, at least, kill ten of the Empire's troops by themselves.

"Is that it?"

"What else are you expecting?"

Turning his uninterested eyes to the side, Basil found Dantalion, who had turned himself into a woman, pushing her not-so-small chest toward his face. Basil looked up and then met Dantalion's suggestive gaze.

"Are you nuts?" he asked.

"I am sexy," she replied sultrily.

Sighing lightly in exasperation, Basil said, "I've been in your shoes. I know exactly how you think, so I can't consider you a woman."

"Just so you know, I am born genderless. I have been a man and a woman. I have never felt the pleasure of being a woman despite being one for a couple of hundred years but, trust me, I know how to think and act like one."

"Oh, that is interesting."

Dantalion's eyes lit up as she asked, "So, are you ready to let me experience—"

"No," Basil cut instantly.

Leaving the shell-shocked Dantalion alone, Basil went to meet Manfred. He didn't beat around the bush with the Grittenhein's King; he revealed that he had been hiding the information, so Manfred would take time to rest instead of immediately going back to his Kingdom.

Manfred went silent for a few seconds. He clenched and unclenched his fists as he stared at the ground, hiding his frowning look from Basil. He sighed when he had calmed down and then expressed his dislike toward Basil's method. He was calm the entire time, which was not what Basil had expected.

"You are a very brilliant young man—no, you are the most brilliant person I ever know. I don't like the way you did me like this but I am sure you did this because it will produce the best outcome. I will accept it. Now, tell me, what do you have for me?"

Smiling softly, Basil patted Manfred's shoulder. "Unleash your anger in Vallienda. I will assign our allies to accompany you, so you don't have to care about anything. The Kingdom is yours—you can do whatever you like there. None will frown even if you violate its Queen."

Manfred's view of Basil's smile instantly changed. Previously, Manfred had considered Basil's soft smile as his way to show how glad he was that Manfred understood him; now, however, Manfred could tell that it was not more than an empty, cold smile that he directed at the people of Vallienda that would soon fall.

….

Gulp.

"Phew…. Our young Lord is terrifying, isn't he?" standing a few hundred metres away from the gate of the Vallienda Kingdom, Manfred remarked. "Still can't help getting nervous whenever I recall that smile."

"Ha-Ha-Ha. That is pretty tame compared to what I have seen," standing beside Manfred, Alphonse, the blind King who saw more than what most people saw responded.

"Well, I am not going to ask what you saw. You have seen a lot and I don't want to know what you consider terrifying."

"We shall begin the attack, Manfred."

"All right. Let's do this—my hands are already itching."

"Now, Manfred. Our Young Mistress is already knocking on the enemy's door."

Confused, Manfred looked ahead and found Iliana charging at the Kingdom's gate. The soldiers were doing everything they could to block her from the battlement yet nothing could stop her—it was baffling and amazing.

It wasn't long until Sinister Piercer, her beloved spear knocked the gate of the Kingdom down. Everyone took this as the cue to charge and, thus, the conquest began.

Basil was watching it through [Visualisation], one of the features that the Guide had. He could now hear the sound of the scene he was watching, so he didn't have to lip-read everyone anymore.

Boom!

"Kill these creatures as fast as you can!"

"Get out! Get out of the Kingdom!"

"Abandon this place immediately! Let it fend for itself!"

In front of him, pandemonium broke out. As the Monsters that Dantalion had created decorated the sky, the Empire's army panicked. Most of them tried to get out of the Kingdom, meanwhile, some of them attacked the Monsters as the others escaped. None of them, of course, thought about defending the Kingdom.

Since they were unaware of this development, the people and the remaining troops in Grittenhein were also confused. None of them fled the territory, however, since they didn't want to part with their home.

"Good, everyone is out," Basil remarked as he watched the scene. "Old man, take Ordella and her squad with you inside the Kingdom as soon as you see a river. Remember, your goals are Gerhard and Archibald."

"River?" Anthony asked in confusion but went ignored.

Basil pointed his hand toward the Empire's army rushing out of the gate, sending hundreds of bladed weapons at them. Soon after, Anthony understood what river Basil had referred to.