Gardenia became surprised, not expecting ethics to come out of demons. But it confirmed one thing for her, and that was that the Lord and the generals under him are a rare sort of bunch.
Gardenia appeared humble, seeing Ragnar being polite to her. "No, it's fine. This was all just a misunderstanding. I hope you can take your troops back to your base."
"I will, but before that, I want to ask something." Ragnar stared into Gardenia's eyes. "Want to join us?"
Gardenia's eyes widened dumbfoundedly, but eventually she calmed down, as this was expected. Every demon lord would try to expand their forces as much as possible; it didn't matter if the other party was willing to do so or not; they would coarse them in some way to join them.
So, Gardenia could already guess what Ragnar might do to her. Still, she tried to see if they were different. "What if I don't want to?"
Ragnar's face didn't change after hearing that. He gently shook his head. "Don't worry, we won't force you."
At that moment, Ragnar's soldiers came out of the forest with scars and blood on their bodies. From the looks of it, they survived the ambush and, on top of that, emerged victorious, just losing two Meatscrapers and a Swinefiend.
Gardenia's face darkened, going into deep thought. Ragnar waited patiently as he hoped she wouldn't make a mistake.
After a couple of seconds, Gardenia looked straight into Ragnar's eyes and said, "Okay, I will join you."
"Good." For the first time, a smile appeared on Ragnar's face, making Gardenia's eyebrows twitch upon seeing it.
"But, can we wait for a second? I want to bring my necessary stuff from my cave." Gardenia said, pointing her finger at the cave.
Ragnar replied, shaking his head. "You do not have to do it. My soldiers are enough."
Ragnar made eye contact with several of his soldiers, who understood what he was trying to convey. Quickly, they went inside the cave to pick up everything they could.
"If you have other soldiers under you, call them." Ragnar continued. "If not, just follow us."
Gardenia spread her mana senses and found all of her soldiers dead. With frustration in her voice, she uttered. "I have no one; let's just leave."
Ragnar gave her a weird glance before heading toward their base. Gardenia and Ragnar's soldiers followed behind him, while the few soldiers doing the pick up job were behind.
On the way, Ragnar couldn't help but glance beside him, looking at Gardenia's gloomy face. He asked curiously. "Ummm.. If you don't mind, can I ask you why you look so angry?"
Gardenia turned her head and looked at Ragnar's straightforward face dumbfoundedly. At first, she wanted to hold herself back, but thinking of joining their side now, she felt she could do what she had in her mind.
With fiery eyes, she yelled at Ragnar with justice. "You are asking that after you killed all my soldiers, which I cultivated with blood and sweat, wasting my time. You also forcefully made me join your camp. To think you had the audacity to ask!? You are dumb!"
Ragnar's eyes widened as he was left stumped. Not only him, even the soldiers behind him were left speechless. Their brave and courageous general, whom they respected and feared from the bottom of their hearts, was now getting scolded by a woman they met just a few minutes ago.
After letting out her spicy speech, she breathed heavily. As she calmed down, she started screaming in her mind, panicking heavily. 'AHHHHH!!! What did I just say? You dum-dum. Now you are dead. I have to find a way to escape quickly.'
At that moment, Ragnar also came back to his senses, and his eyes drooped down. This gave Gardenia the greatest scare of her life as she prepared to run at any time.
But contrary to her expectations, nothing happened.
"I am once again sorry, Miss Gardenia." Ragnar halted his Emberhoof and pointed his head to the back of the Emberhoof. "Please, take this seat. I can't let you walk all the way to the base. I have nothing to amend for my mistake; this is the only thing I can do now."
Gardenia froze as she was left speechless by Ragnar's behavior. She knows demons' behaviors, even if they gained higher intelligence or had a high ranking bloodline, they were violent to the core of their souls.
Seeing Gardenia not responding, Ragnar asked curiously. "Is this not enough?"
Gardenia woke up from her shock and immediately shook her head. "No, no, no, it's enough."
Then she ascended on Emberhoof's body and went with Ragnar in a relaxed manner.
Along the way, she couldn't help but ask. "You are far stronger than me, so why are you respectful?"
Ragnar answered without turning his head back. "Oh that. This is something my Lord taught me and others. We will only show our enmity to those that are hostile to us."
"Also," He further added. "I am not that strong. We are both basically in the same realm, it's just… there was no one to guide you while I had others to hone my skills."
[ General: Ragnar
Race: Martial Demon
Class: Martial Master of Stars
Vitality Realm: 9th Stage Fleshcrafting Realm
Combat Strength: 2nd Stage Physique Refinement Realm
Ability: Blessings of Martial Demon God
Vitality Technique: Great Tiger and Bear Art.
Skills: Counter, Blurry Dash, Shattering Fist, Calming Waters Meditation, Dance of Blinding Flashes. ]
Ragnar had reached the pinnacle of Fleshcrafting. He was just one step away from reaching the next major realm—Physique Refinement Realm. Just as the title suggests, in this you have to refine the physique you had and connect with your entire body.
Physiques aren't integrated with one's body, but they could still use it as if it was already part of it. One can look at physiques as a medium or an external item. By influencing your energy, you can use it however you want. However, this was the most wasteful way of using your physique, as you had to use tons of energy to influence.
That changes when one steps into the Physiques Refinement Realm. To achieve this realm, one had to know one's physique thoroughly before they could start integrating it into their body. Then slowly, they would ascend multiple stages, combining the body and physique as a whole. When one reaches the pinnacle of this realm, their energy cost for using their physique is reduced by half while their body's potential increases tremendously.
"Really!?" Gardenia let out a cry of shock. She didn't expect Ragnar to be also at the pinnacle of the second major realm. In her case, it was the 9th Stage Novice Realm. She thought Ragnar had a much higher cultivation realm than her because she couldn't believe someone in the same realm as her would be able to defeat her.
Ragnar nodded his head. "Yes, I am not lying. You can also achieve my level of strength. If the Lord is satisfied with you, he will give you a proper training plan."
Gardenia's eyes shone brightly. At first, she thought she had sealed her fate by agreeing with Ragnar, but from the looks of it, it isn't that bad.
…
Half an hour later.
"We have finally arrived." Ragnar's voice entered Gardenia's ears, waking her up from her drowsy state.
Gardenia opened her eyes fully and witnessed Benimaru's small yet packed base, where many demons were roaming around. It was surrounded by a 10-meter-tall wall. There were a few archer stations on top where meatscrapers were keeping an eye on their surroundings.
Ragnar dismissed his soldiers, ordering them to return to their stations. Meanwhile, he took Gardenia to meet with Benimaru. They still didn't have the authority to take any high ranking demon without letting Benimaru know of it. Without his consultation, taking a high ranking demon was a crime in itself.
"What!? Is what you are saying all true?" Suddenly, Ragnar and Gardenia heard a panicked shout coming from their right side. Gardenia was new here, so she didn't know anyone. But Ragnar instantly recognized that voice.
'Isn't that Belal's?' Ragnar became curious, so he changed his direction. 'Let's take a look.'
A couple of seconds later, they arrived before a small barrack, which was Belal's. Descending from the Emberhoof, Ragnar didn't enter the barracks. Instead, he led Gardenia to the back of the barracks and saw Belal talking with Bailey and Tanaka.
They felt someone's presence, so looking back, they saw it was none other than Ragnar.
"Brother Ragnar! I'm glad you are here." Belal's face glowed with light as a soft sigh of relief escaped his mouth.
Ragnar became more curious after seeing Belal like this. "What happened, Belal? You seem very worried about something."
Belal came before Ragnar and grabbed both of his shoulders. "Brother Ragnar, I need your help."
"For what?"
Belal hesitated a little but eventually blurted it out. "You know that the Paladin Warriors were sent by the Church of the Goddess Ignia. They should be coming for me, but they are targeting the kids I raised."
Follow current novels on (f)reew𝒆bnovel