Primordial Villain With A Slave Harem

Chapter 1788: The Why

In the corner, Kaede flinched. However, she did not do so because of Quinlan’s display of cruelty.

’Fujimori honor is everything.’

She had heard those words in council chambers, at formal dinners, whispered into her ear before every test the elders designed. She looked up from the floor and watched the most honorable man her clan had ever produced writhe for air as his skin melted.

Chizuru didn’t look at him. She stared at the floor, and nothing in her posture changed.

"You had Silverwind," Ayame spoke up, returning to the topic at hand. "You were building toward taking Greenvale in the competition, and you were doing well. If you focused on that and won, then you just needed a few years to consolidate your powers, wait for the old man to kick the bucket, and you’d wield more power than the crown itself."

"..." Alexios couldn’t help but send the young oriental lady a wry glance. But then he returned his attention to Chizuru, knowing she was entirely correct.

The topic of Succession has been on his mind for a very, very long time.

Numerous powers were making moves with his encroaching death in mind, not just the Fujimori because, for various reasons, none of his heirs were ready to inherit the throne.

The Vraven Kingdom was facing its most difficult years as soon as he died.

Ayame did not seem to recognize or care for the old king’s attention on her, however, as she asked, "Why throw all of it away to join Elvardia’s side? You must’ve known the crown would learn of your treason and all your effort would be ruined."

"’Your?’" Something crept into Chizuru’s voice, thin and instinctive, and the dead register shifted by a fraction. "Why do you keep saying ’your’ and not ’our?’ You can hate us all you want, children, but you," at that she paused, gaze going from Ayame to Black Fang, "both of you, are Fujimori."

Black Fang offered no reaction, save for a dark smile, but Ayame was different. Every trace of the composed magistrate left her face.

She couldn’t believe the endless hypocrisy this woman kept spewing whenever she got the chance.

"If you dare say that I-" her eyes went to the window, to Black Fang still watching the serene moonlight, "-or she, belong to the Fujimori one more time, I will show you the real meaning of pain."

"She’s already slated for years of agony..." Black Fang spoke up suddenly, voice soft, nonchalant. "But you’re welcome to join."

Ayame’s anger dissipated quickly as she heard the invitation, expression replicating her sadistic big sister’s ominous smile. "...That’s certainly one way to bond with your sister. But now you ruined my threat."

"It was a weak threat. She already knows what I’ll do to her," Black Fang explained calmly, educating her little sister in the art of threats. "The threat of you joining me won’t make her behave."

"..." Ayame’s eyes narrowed as she observed Chizuru and noted how she was still a free woman. Then understanding shone through.

For the woman who had ruled an entire duchy from the shadows, the loss of control, the ultimate loss of control... "I’ll have you enslaved and ordered by my partner to speak all we want to hear right away without your chatter."

Black Fang said nothing, but that in itself was approval.

Chizuru’s mouth closed, eyeing Quinlan with gnawing fear.

"These emotional manipulation tricks might have worked on Kaede." Ayame smiled, seeing she understood how this trash bag’s brain worked. "But they won’t work here. They just make me even more disgusted with you."

"..." Chizuru slowly lowered her head, staring at the floor.

The manipulation was gone from Chizuru’s voice when she finally answered.

"The reason we didn’t wait is because we couldn’t. The competition was never the end goal." Her voice came out stripped bare. "Greenvale was just a stepping stone. The blade demanded that its wielder stand above all of Iskaris. As you have understood, our original plan was to go from one duchy to two and then reshape the kingdom from the inside until we controlled it all. Then would come the rest of Iskaris..."

Everyone looked at Alexios, wondering what he thought about this revelation, if he knew.

The king sat very still, grim yet unsurprised.

"But the plan was built for a world without that thing." Chizuru’s gaze found Quinlan, and the dead register cracked. "This abomination’s existence changed everything."

Quinlan grinned at that, but his stalwart samurai did not find the way he was spoken of amusing. Her jaw tightened at the ugly word spoken with extreme disgust, but before she could, a voice came from the window.

"There are degrees to suffering."

Black Fang still hadn’t turned from the stars. The words arrived soft and unhurried, yet they brought with them an immense sense of dread.

Chizuru’s mouth snapped shut, and the defiance that had crept back evaporated.

Her attention darted to the serene silhouette in the window, and the fear that crossed her face had nothing to do with ice or subjugation.

Ayame looked at her sister’s back, at the profile that hadn’t shifted a single inch, and shook her head.

She would have needed cold steel in her voice and a hand on her hilt to land half of that. Black Fang had done it with a few words and the view of her back. ’She truly is terror in the flesh. Amazing...’

The oriental beauty refocused on Chizuru. "His existence forced your hand. Now I understand why you called him a cruel joke of the Goddess."

Chizuru was silent for a long moment, then dipped her chin.

"We watched him grow," she said, thin and bitter, and her eyes began moving from face to face as she spoke. "First it was the princess."

Her gaze landed on Alexios, and anger flared through the emptiness, brief and hot. "The Villain, using the chance to endear himself to Felicity, managed to form a bond with the king himself, despite the two men being enemies who kept trying to kill each other. By the time we turned traitor, the two of them were bantering like best friends and the princess was clearly attached to the Villain."

Alexios didn’t move.

"Then the foxkin." Her eyes slid to Kitsara. "A princess of the Beastman Confederation. Through her, he had presence among an entire nation that should have been beyond his reach."

Kitsara waved at the old woman, carefree.

"And then the elves." Chizuru’s gaze reached Myrasyn and Isveth, and the thin voice broke into open fury, the defeated puppet snapping its strings for one raw moment. "Their Queen, openly flirting with him on the battlefield. Their faith’s head maiden, weeping at his feet. Their race, choosing him over everything they’d built across millennia."

Myrasyn held her gaze, regal and unmoved. Isveth looked proud at the words spoken of her.

"We saw the writing on the wall." The anger drained from Chizuru as quickly as it had come, leaving her flatter than before. "If we kept playing the long game, he would swallow the continent before we ever could. So we abandoned everything we’d spent generations building and joined Elvardia, the last real resistance standing between the Villain and enough political control and personal might to consume it all."

Her eyes dropped to the floor. "Together, using Kaede’s dimensional movement ability to ambush him, we should have been strong enough to end his reign of terror before it even truly began."

The room sat with that.

Then, from the window:

"Why did the blade need a continent?"