As Reynald watched the Doom Cavalier ride back to make its report, he suddenly felt the surge to laugh at himself. Who would've thought the crown prince of the ancient Jaxith family would be made to look so stupid at the mere presence of a monster?
Granted, this was the first time he had ever laid eyes on any undead creature much less one as powerful as a Doom Knight. He hadn't been prepared for the thick stench of death oozing out of it and was taken aback.
As he was considered royalty, he had obtained his strength strictly by the nurturing of the Jaxith family. Even though he was only the second son, the Jaxith family was powerful enough to nurture both him and his elder brother with all their knowledge and resources.
However, their main focus was naturally on his elder brother, the crown prince. As such, he had received far less attention from the family and had been sent to the Brimstone family's Magic academy to help further his development.
Naturally, no ruling class family would be willing to send their heirs to another family's region to learn even though the Magic Academies boast of their independents from the ruling Great Families as they allied themselves with both the Hunter Guild and Merchant Association.
So as only the second son who was not in line to inherit the throne, the family couldn't waste all of their resources on him and thus didn't mind sending him into enemy territory to attend a Magic Academy.
As for his younger brother, his high magic potential alone could not qualify him to receive any help from the family but had earned him admission to the same magic academy Reynald had studied in.
Unfortunately, none of his sisters had any promising magic potential so they had all been used by the family as political tools to expand their lineage. Everyone else was left to their own devices with the family providing minimal support.
Due to his special but private training, Reynald had only gained real world experience from the battlefields in the fairly recent wars against their neighboring regions.
Still, he had fought a few monsters and magic beasts in his days at the academy and even defeated ones that were stronger than himself. However, these were not just ordinary monsters. They were creatures that should not exist in this world. The undead.
Even for a place as dangerous as the Demon continent, undead creatures were not a common sight and he knew just how powerful and dangerous they could be. Making them one of the most hated beings in this world and the practice of necromancy had been banned for centuries now.
Yet Reynald had heard about how the Demon Lord of the Darknar family had some terrifying undead beings under his command yet for some reason, no one in the Darknar region had any complaint and even the Great Five was hesitant about what to do.
Necromancers were both hated and feared across the world not only because they were desecrating the Dead and tampering with the sanctity of life itself, but also because of how troublesome an army of the dead could be.
Imagine an army that never tires, never hunger, never sleeps, and only multiplies the more they kill. Anyone capable of controlling such force would be a god amongst men. Something the Dark Demon, Adelt Wilderbelt, had attempted to become after attaining the immortal body of an undead Eldar lich.
However, controlling the undead was not similar to taming monsters, to say the least. As far as he knew, many promising mages back in his day at the Brimstone Magic Academy had destroyed their lives in the process of trying to create and control the dead.
Adelt Wilderbelt was the greatest demon necromancer to ever exist in the Demon continent and even he could not fully control the powers of the dead and ended up being corrupted by his own negative energy until he became an undead creature himself before retreating into the then forbidden Darknar region.
Although the Dark Demon had obtained the immortal body he so desperately wanted, it wasn't exactly as he expected, and even his plans to transform the world into the land of the dead had been cut short as the current Darknar family had been founded after winning the war against Adelt and his army of the Dead with overwhelming force.
'So does that mean they found a way to take control of the remnants of the undead army? Or has their demon lord already corrupted himself? No way.'
Reynald shook his head at that possibility, for some reason, he couldn't imagine this new Demon Lord to be that ignorant as to make use of the undead without having a way to deal with the corruption.
Something he didn't even think was possible but no one had ever believed the Darknar region would be claimed by someone not part of the Five Greats so maybe anything was truly possible.
."Alright everyone, stay alert. We cannot afford to do anything that would offend them."
"Sir!"
Reynald felt the weight of the situation pressing down on him. These envoys were supposed to simply be here for trade talks so why did it feel like a do-or-die affair already?
The envoys had passed through several towns and villages to get here so Reynald was already away of their composition and might.
The mere fact that they had not been stopped by the allied families they were at war with was a testament to how far the tales of the new Demon Lord had spread.
There were five luxurious carriages. Each of them was pulled by One-horned White Tigers.
They were lightning-attributed Advanced class Magic beasts resembling normal tigers but insanely massive with a single curved horn on their foreheads.
Each of those creatures was capable of toppling towns and falling mountains so Reynald couldn't fathom for the life of him, how the hell did they tame so many of them. And why were they being used during a simple trade negotiation?
This was so blatantly an intimidation tactic, just how cocky could they be.
As his thoughts ran far and wide, a Doom Cavalier ― probably the same one from just now ― approached him from the envoys' side.
"Forgive the long wait. Our leader, umm... ― t-the first wife of the Great Demon Lord, Ty Falls Darknar, Lady Rain Darknar, has agreed to meet with you. Lord Reynald, please, follow me."
For some reason, the Doom Cavalier seem uncomfortable when it introduced the supposed wife of the Demon Lord but Reynald didn't think much about it.
After signaling to the other knights to hold their position, Reynald guided his horse after the Doom Cavalier. Wondering the entire way, what sort of being would the wife of the Demon Lord be.
Frankly, he was sort of relieved. After seeing the Doom Cavalier he had been worried that the leader of the envoys might actually be undead as well but at least he didn't think this Demon Lord would be into something as kinky as that.
He hoped.
He didn't know how he would introduced her to the elders if she was really undead.
Reynald's horse could not keep itself from breaking out into a cold sweat as it approached the coach so Reynald dismounted, standing before the coach.
"Then, this is the leader of the envoy party, Lady Rain Darknar."
The door slowly opened, and to Reynald's delight, a humanoid figure slowly emerged. It seems he had let his imagination run wild as he was beginning to think everyone from the new Darknar family was undead as well.
However, what Reynald saw there was neither undead nor a demon, but rather, a goddess.
Should he call her beautiful?
No, Reynald could not think of an adjective that could better describe her. The only thing which came to mind was "god-tier beauty"
Unfortunately, Reynald had not been as privileged as his brother to represent his Family in the rare balls sparingly thrown by the Great Five so he was yet to lay eyes on the Demon continent's top-class beauties but he had heard tales about them.
Hence, he didn't believe any of them could ever come close to possessing looks comparable to Athena, who was far weaker than them but was constantly being compared to then. Yet, what he was witnessing now was beyond anything possible by mortals.
For noble demoness, their beauty was usually a reflection of their strength as proof of their untainted bloodline so Reynald — who had met various female demon lords from across the demon continent — thought that he had seen the limit of what could be considered beautiful was thoroughly at a loss for words.
This was a level beyond mere mortal comprehension. A true God-class beauty.
Rain trod on the step board of the coach. The faint sound of her high heels jolted Reynald back to reality saving him from the embarrassment of the crown prince fawning over the wife of a Great Demon Lord.
Such a sin could easily mean the destruction of the Jaxith family.
Reynald immediately genuflected before her and lowered his head.
This was not reassessed or planned but was completely instinctive and involuntarily. This wasn't because the current situation of the Jaxith was desperate in comparison to the Darknar family.
Rather, this was his body's reaction when it came face to face with a superior entity. The vast difference in life rating between a mortal being and a Demigod not trying to suppress their aura even though mere mortals could not even sense the Aura of the divine.
"Umm... Oh my... Could you please raise your head?"
The slightly confused and quiet, lovely voice rang out from above him.
"At once."
As he looked up, the peerless maiden's face was all smiles as she tenderly looked down on him, her long pointed ears twitching slightly in amusement.
After making such a blunder before the negotiations could even take place, Reynald was sure she was looking down on him but decided to play it cool as though he had meant to do that.
Reynald then moved his eyes to size her up. Her long pointing ears and darker skin tone were the features of Dark elves. To think the wife of the Darknar Lord would be a Dark elf, he suddenly had a strange respect for such a being as he could not take his eyes off her.
Wearing a body-fitting laced purple dress, it didn't seem like she was carrying a weapon on her person so perhaps she possessed a storage box or ring.
.
The Gold and Emerald bracelet on her arms had a particular gleam to them so clearly, they were magic items. However, he couldn't tell just how strong they were or even if they were artifacts.
"I am the leader of the envoys of the Darknar family, Rain Darknar. Though it is for a few days, we will be imposing upon you so please stand up."
" Ah, you have my gratitude."
As Reynald stood up with as much elegance as he could muster in such a situation, a thought suddenly crossed his mind as he asked.
He had failed to inquire about the title of the leader of the emissaries. Although she had declared herself the wife of the Demon lord. He needed to convey a more tangible title to the elders to avoid any diplomatic dispute by unintentionally insulting the Leader of the diplomats.
He couldn't just refer to her by her name as that was not an appropriate noble etiquette and would undoubtedly be considered an offense.
Normally, this was something he should've already been aware of but thanks to the current war and the sudden appearance of the Darknar family, no information was communicated with them so he had no choice but to bear the shame and asked.
"Forgive my lack of manners, but may I know how I should address you?"
At his unusual question, the dark elf tilted her head slightly to the side with a smile and as though seeing right through him she answered.
"While I may not look it, I am one of the Darknar family's Six Great Generals, The Lightning General, Rain Darknar. You can address me however you wish."freeweb(n)ovel.co(m)
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