Full Moon

A complacent smile stayed on his face as he sat lavishly, as though he was a jarl and everyone else were his subjects.

He ran in his finger along the right side portion of his scar before leaning forward, the smile not leaving his face but his eyes narrowing a bit.

There were more people present here than he had first expected, it wasn't a bad thing, he had simply not expected Solitar to bring the other people Axio had seen not far from him.

He knew that he had seen three of them somewhere before but they hadn't been important enough for him to bother searching his memory to remember.

The other two, he did not know.

He recognised the woman in a white and golden robe as he had made connection between Solitar and Roderman thanks to her,as for the young man that followed her around, Axiolypito assumed that he must be some sort of assistant or student.

He was always right by her side, like little baby chick following mommy hen.

He didn't know for the three, adventurer looking fellows and that assistant, but the woman, whose name seemed to be Blouvier, actually seemed rather decent as a pawn, he definitely hadn't noticed that last time.

Obviously, Sir Solitar was there too, looking exactly the same as before.

Axio didn't feel an ounce of fear seeing the swordsman so close to him, he was confident nothing was going to happen here.

Seated in between Solitar and Blouvier, King Roderman had his arms crossed and seemed expectant about this meeting, that strange air Axio had noticed about him seemed to have seriously deepened since last time.

There was also an unexpected guest, unexpected for everyone but Axio, he was the one giving out the invitations after all.

Bizinda, the sharp-toothed knightess that could walk under the sun had also been made privy to this meeting.

She may be loyal to the Obsidian Queen in some capacity, but she was definitely more worried about that mustachioed man.

'Gonas, I think?' he really was having trouble remembering the names of inconsequential ants lately.

He turned to the vampire lady first, whose presence in this meeting didn't seem to surprise Roderman much, she was one of his royal knights, he should be quite shocked or, at least, a bit intrigued by what she could be doing here.

It appeared the king didn't have any of his care to spare for this at the moment.

"Bizinda, you are the one that is truly at the top of the chain of command in Roderst, after me" 

Indeed, the sun-walking vampire was the big boss put in charge by the Obsidian Queen around, Axio was technically higher ranked than she was but he didn't bother himself with this.

She had to order a bunch of different monsters that were all annoying in their own ways and he had heard that she even had had to deal with her troops getting slaughtered by the hero lately.

He had other things to do.

"I will require you to make sure no monsters are close to Axia on the day we agreed upon" that was something he could do himself with his authority but he thought that it would be less suspicious if it was Bizinda that ordered it.

With the hero problem, she even had a perfect justification to be moving troops.

"Also, make sure to insert this in the nape of all the high ranking monsters under your command..." he pulled out a bunch of needle claws from the inside of his abyssal coat, making it appear as though he had reached directly into his chest cavity to grab these.

"...Be gentle with them, they're fragile" he added before turning his attention to Solitar and Roderman.

"Solitar, I will be needing your fortress to be empty in the future" Axio squinted his eyes at the swordsman, trying to gauge how he felt about this demand.

Axiolypito had learnt much ever since he had successfully lied in Reduvia's face.

Like how Solitar was very protective of what laid beneath his castle.

He knew of what was underneath thanks to a certain cannibalistic dragon, so he expected that Solitar might not be willing to allow him to have free reign on so many crystals.

"Sure" reality was sometimes pleasant, he agreed only after a few seconds of staring.

'Almost smells fishy...'

"Grandiose! I will tell you to evacuate a few days before" he didn't show his suspicion and clapped his hands enthusiastically with a bright smile.

"By the way, after I am done with this, our plan will truly start taking place"

"The Condemned will die that day, the Obsidian Queen would be beginning the very first battle on the other continent, meaning that she won't be able to come back here quickly enough" he began explaining.

"Solitar, Roderman, you two will be taking care of Faceless Lord" he spoke seriously, dropping his fake cheerfulness.

Using his two strongest pawns to take care of only one minister may seem stupid but Axio knew that Faceless Lord wouldn't fall easily, even with the both of them.

"The Scourge will be away and meaningless during that time" he didn't elaborate for now and simply went on.

"Everyone else will be taking care of Sovereign Of Flesh, I suppose" he didn't have much hope in them, as combat inept she may appear, she wouldn't be a minister simply for her ability to spit out a bunch of meat slimes.

"I, myself, will face off against Cradled Lich" he announced with a straight face.

Saying that he, a pitifully weak monster would duel with a lich wielding death magic made everyone straighten their backs and open their mouths like some fishes.

Everyone knew of how she had instantly killed Wide Hat Hogan, a proficient mage that should be the best to counter a spell of this sort.

Axio barely had any mana and was as much of a mage as he was heroic.

He may be fast but death would catch up in no time.

'Of course I won't fight her... I'll just use my living castle to bury her deep into the earth and-' his cowardly thoughts were interrupted as someone raised one hand up.

"I can take her" spoke Blouvier with a straight face.

"Heh?" everyone but Solitar and Roderman couldn't believe what they had just heard.

Had the alcoholic mage seriously just proclaimed that she could defeat Cradled Lich?

Axiolypito wasn't sure what to make of this but looking over at the two unsurprised men and seeing Roderman nod his head at him, he eased up.

"As you wish" he said whilst closing his eyes.

'That's even better...'