NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1765
I was shocked to see the magician who had once worked under King Roth. She had actually survived that battle, and she was allowed to leave. I didn't want to imprison or enslave them. That would have violated the agreement and my consciousness, even though I knew King Roth would have gone after all of my women if he had won. The magician wasn't an animalkin woman, so she had no loyalty to Dioshin. So, she had come to Jespain? Of course, where else could she have gone? She could stay in Aberis after everything that happened, and she had no place in Dioshin.
Maybe, she could have gone north to Imperial Cloud Meadow, but she was a pretty powerful mage. Down here, she would have had the right to be a top general or even a lady. In Imperial Cloud Meadow, that might not be the case. She was a big fish in a small pond, and she was unwilling to swim to the ocean and risk getting eaten, so she found another pond. Unfortunately, the new pond had a net. Lord Vandeer's words echoed in my head.
I had hoped King Roth had told no one about his reason for invading. It looked like he had told his First. Now that Jespain also knew, I couldn't trust that it wasn't well known. The feeling that my daughter might be in danger didn't feel good. I started thinking about all the mobs and traps I had left behind just in case she got invaded.
"Don't be so stiff… we're a civilized people, and I am not some wild animal like King Roth. Even if we could get through Dioshin, we never would." He noticed my behavior and immediately tried to reassure me.
The magician girl who was standing nearby also stiffened, apparently not liking the man she had dedicated her life to being called a wild animal. He ignored her, waving his hand, and she was pulled back away.
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"What do you plan to do with her?" I asked, watching as she was taken away.
"Her? Oh, don't mind the woman. Her behavior was mostly nervousness overseeing the man who killed her lover. I promised her the chance to see you again, but I don't want her to say or do anything any of us would regret. She has some magical talent and is pretty useful to me. She is merely one of my employees, and she lives a comfortable life as a widow and magician."
"Celeste?"
"He's telling the truth," Celeste responded.
The words he was discussing were not being hidden at all. Hearing over Slave Communication that she would be fine put me at ease. I didn't set her free just so she could be turned into someone else's slave. The lionesses had a survival of the fittest mentality. They supported who was strong. They may be supporting me, but they had also quickly left King Roth to do so. They said this change was permanent, but I would have expected them to act more like this girl. She had been indoctrinated into King Roth's harem cult. That sort of love and devotion wouldn't just disappear. Most of the girls other than the lionesses would never join me and would live the rest of their days wishing I was dead. Wait, were they the ones that put the hit on me from the assassin's guild?
Either way, this was one of the main reasons I didn't allow myself to get too intimate with the lionesses and had even abandoned them when I had the chance. They may be loyal to the strongest, but that wasn't enough for me. I would treat them kindly, but until I could sort out the difference between blind loyalty and love, I could only keep them at an arm's distance.
I was allowing myself to get distracted though. It was because I was faced with something I didn't want to talk about. While I was trying to change the subject, Lord Vandeer was hardly so easily distracted.
"I'd like you to help me with a problem. A fairy problem."