A Demon Queen's plea

Kali was one for asserting her position as the queen. When I went to the throne room, I found myself in a similar situation to the one I was when I got here for the first time. However, I was not tied and chained like last time. I don't want to get strangled by a rope again either.

She was sitting there, legs crossing, resting her face on her arm with her elbow on the armrest. Looking all smug and serious at me.

Dara and Nayleth, holding what appeared to be a big scroll, stood by her side, looking at me with a soft smile. Maple and Reynard looked from the side of the throne room.

What was her deal?

"You are contradictory, human" Kali pointed out while she looked down at me "You claimed to want to leave this place, yet here you are, still roaming around my castle"

"It doesn't help I don't have much else to go" I answered.

"So, you heard to reason" Kali smiled "Too bad we don't have the best of situations, as you should have noticed"

It was incredible how she managed to maintain her demeanor even with the current state of her castle. She acted as if this was not bothering her.

I commented, "I have the feeling that if your situation were better, I would not have been offered to stay."

She chuckled.

"Probably…" she sat straight now, still keeping her legs crossed and placing both arms on the armrests "But, this is now. I have to make sure what you want to do"

"But why do you want me to stay?" I asked, wanting a definitive answer.

"We need all the help we can obtain," she said standing up from her seat and slowly walking down towards me. I might be mistaken, but I swear I noticed an eye twitch "No matter how I put it, you should notice the situation we are suffering right now. My castle needs repair, I am full of refugees from a village we lost, and the enemies are almost at our doors"

"Like I would be able to change anything" I added "You must be desperate if you want me to join"

"Perhaps" and she admitted it "But I am going to be as logical as I can as long as I am queen. And you are special, exactly what we need right now to help us."

Queen of what kingdom? The village she lost was the last one they had, and the people were going to starve at any point. They probably would not be able to hold out on a siege and much less defend on the assault.

"Why do you keep calling yourself the Demon Queen?" I asked, my curiosity finally beating me to make me ask that question.

She crossed her arms and stopped her steps. She seemed to want to answer something snarky, but then took a breath with her eyes closed and decided to answer.

"I am Demon Queen Kali! Daughter of late Demon King Kailith and late Dragon Queen Mila!" she extended her arms "I am the last surviving member of my family and the last one to protect our people!"

"Or what is left of them" Added Dara.

Kali scoffed, but she did not protest.

"You see the orcs and goblins around us?" She said, pointing to the ones who were observing the exchange "They are the last ones of their race. The different kingdoms decided to exterminate them. And the vulpins are slowly being turned into slaves and used for their fur. And that is from the non-human races that we know of"

I looked around. There was the orc that was following Kali and apprehended me between a small group of orc and goblin soldiers. I did not learn his name yet, but I took a mental note to remember to ask it later.

"All I want is to rebuild my kingdom and make a place for these people to live in peace," Kali said once more and stopped right in front of me. She was wearing a perfume with a sweet scent I could not point out "And even when I hate to admit it, I need your help. I know… you can save us."

"I hate it" I answered.

Kali looked at me with a puzzled expression, and then I saw Dara fixing her glasses.

"What?" the Demon Queen asked.

"I don't care. I am not going to join you because I am special or something" I answered, then pointed my finger at Kali's face "All you are doing is saying stuff that has no value to me. I don't care how much you need me or what you think I am capable of!"

Kali looked at me angrily, showing her sharp teeth. Something I had not noticed.

"Y-you…" she said.

"The only reason I am staying here is my own. Yes, you have my stupid help. But I am not the special hero you are making me out to be!" I crossed my arms and looked to the side, wanting to avoid eye contact "It's embarrassing and annoying that you are trying to make me feel special just so I join you! I have my own reasons to stay, so stop"

Then I noticed Kali's face turning red, but still looking at me with anger and showing her sharp teeth. Her tail was raised and her wings were wide open.

"You have no idea how hard it was for me to prepare myself to tell you all that stuff…" I could see a small tear appear on her eye right "And now you are telling me I did not have to say anything nice to you?!"

"W-what are you talking about?" I asked.

Then she approached me and grabbed me by my collar. I could see the anger and embarrassment she was feeling at that moment.

"Don't make me act like that towards you, ungrateful brat!" Then she turned her head and looked towards Dara who immediately avoided eye contact "This was the idea of both of you! You two told me that I needed to use nicer words with him!"

"H-hey, let me go!" I yelled, trying to jank myself from her grip. She was impressively strong.

Then she turned her attention back to me. "No! Return me my dignity! You should have just said you were staying and avoided me the embarrassment!"

After a few moments, she returned to her normal self and back to her throne, crossing her legs. Her face was still red from how embarrassed she was feeling.

"W-well, then. From now on" She puts her right hand on her chest and closes her eyes "you will call me Queen Kale, Demon Queen or My Queen as my loyal servant!"

I opened my mouth to say no, but then I saw Nayleth wave with his hand magic words: "Just Say Yes" It could be worse if I started to fight her back once more.

I said nothing and nodded.

Seriously, what is wrong with her? Is like there are two different personalities inside of her, one that puts up the act of a dignified queen and ruler that is capable of keeping order, and the other of a small girl that is incapable of being sincere.

I decided not to dig deeper into this topic, but I was curious about what was happening through her head.

"Any questions, human?" She asked. She was not even going to use my name? I was tired of being called like that by her.

"Many, actually" I answered.

I still was in the dark about the world at large. Since I got her, I barely had any time to ask about what was going on around us or why the Sacred Army was fighting us. I got into this blindly.

Dara makes a signal to Nayleth and they both approach me. He unrolls the scroll and shows me a big map with 5 different colors on it. It was a political map of sorts, showing the different nations of the world. But there was something weird about it.

"Let's start with this, as you are new to this world" She mentioned.

Dara gets closer to me and I notice Kali on her throne looking at a random spot, her expression seemed like longing, as if she was remembering something.

"There are 4 kingdoms on this continent, unless you want to count us in" She points to the land on the north of the continent, painted yellow "This is the Holy Kingdom. You already fought one of his fanatics" She must be talking about Balor. Then she points to the west, a blue-painted territory "This is the Saljami Confederacy" Then she points to the east, red "Here is the Junti Realm" Then to the south, green-colored "Then here is the Markian Lands" Then she points to a spot where there was no color, except for a small cyan spot right in the middle "and here we are us, right in the middle, on the Neutral or Wild Lands."

"So we are at war with the neighbors on the north?" I asked, still inspecting the map.

"With everyone" explained Kali "The four kingdoms, and our territory, are at war with everyone else."

"Yes, and the only moments of peace between them are small truces that last very little time" Dara added.

That was bad. We were fighting an all-out war out there. Everyone not in the kingdom was an enemy.

"I have a question, though," I said, and Dara waited for it with her ears perked up towards me "Why is the continent a circle, and every kingdom is perfectly divided?"