Devourer

Chapter 81: Wartime Postwar Arrangements

I gazed down in annoyance at the indignant Mother Justina as she railed at me. Honestly considering I could just toss her into my mouth and eat her she has some serious guts. I was never that into religion in my past life considering god has done absolutely nothing for me. I was the one watching the rich and wealthy enjoy their fine meals as I watched with lil sis on the other side of the road, freezing on the sidewalk.

The only help I ever got was from good samaritans that bought me some food from time to time. Most of the time I stole to survive and I always stole from the weak. I stole from the old, pregnant women, those younger than me. Because at the end of the day, I valued my sister’s and my life more than theirs. It’s the law of the jungle out there, nothing will be given to you, everything must be taken. I myself got robbed on multiple occasions. In the back of my mind I always worried about what might happen to my sister when she got older. Considering she was so young then but eventually she would be old enough to be a target for rapists.

I stole, I harmed, I even slashed at another younger boy with a shard of glass once. All these things I did but in the end it didn’t even matter. Both my sister and I ended up freezing to death during the unforgiving winter anyway.

“You cannot use their bodies for something like that!” Mother Justina shouted as she glared at me.

“Their bodies must be returned to their families or receive a proper burial.” Mother Justina shouted as she pointed a finger at me.

“None of your laws stipulate that. Your rules of war and the laws that cover your safety and authority say nothing on the treatment of the fallen of war.” I replied evenly.

“That’s because…” Mother Justina began.

“Because it was assumed that the bodies will be handled in accordance with cultural and societal practices. Your divine text covers the rights of the living; it does not cover rights of the dead.” I replied.

“The Holy Texts specifically list out rites for the dead!” Mother Justina shouted as she clasped the rosary around her neck.

“Yes it does, but it did not say it was mandatory. No matter what the interpretation is of your Holy Book. I intend to use their flesh to further the interests of the living, I see no breach in your religious laws. What is being done is neither a breach of the laws of man nor the laws of the divine.” I replied calmly as I watched as she visibly deflated.

“I have read your text extensively, I have read every word in the texts of the Holy Libraries in Elysia. I have even consulted with some of the priests and mothers. What I am doing breaks no laws. You are lucky I even put in the effort and consideration in the first place…” I said with a tone of finality.

I watched as Mother Justina bit her lip as her hands shook. She knew I was right and of course I was. I could recite every text word for word if I wanted to. She has nothing on me…

“Honourable mother…” I heard a voice say and I turned to see the General Montis approach.

“General, you can’t allow this to happen just look at what they are doing!” Mother Justina said as she gestured to the scene behind me.

I looked behind me and I saw my hive hard at work. I had these collection beasts created, they were like giant bloated insects that could suck up corpses and biomatter. They had insect-like bodies with six legs and an abdomen that would swell the more bodies they sucked up. There was one slightly disturbing trait about it. The abdomen would become slightly translucent as it swelled which means you could see the bodies floating around inside it.

So the hive was basically dragging the bodies in front of those collection beasts and they were just slurping up the bodies like noodles. Once they were full they would just waddle to a nearby hole and start heading towards the Black Box.

“I will do nothing, because I can do nothing…” General Montis said softly.

“I am lucky that even some of my soldiers are alive. Hives don’t take prisoners, they just consume and expand. We are lucky the Great Beast is at least willing to reason with us.” General Montis finished as he lowered his head with a sigh.

At those words Mother Justina went silent as she grit her teeth, her body shaking in grief and anger.

“So if we are done here I have things to do.” I said as I turned away.

“Wait!” Mother Justina shouted from behind me.

“What… now…” I replied in annoyance as I turned around to look at her.

“What are you going to do with their bodies? Are you going to eat them?” Mother Justina asked. It looks like she doesn’t know much about Hives. I guess she spent too much time burying her nose in religious texts.

“I’m going to melt them down to make more labourers and soldiers.” I replied calmly.

“What?” Mother Justina sputtered in response.

“Labourers?” General Montis asked.

“Someone needs to rebuild your nation when this is all over. You can’t do that when most of your able bodied men are dead. Your king isn’t going to give up without this ridiculous last stand that will just get most of your men killed.” I replied.

This gave both of them pause as they glanced at each other.

“Let me be clear on one thing. I don’t enjoy torturing you humans. The screaming grew old a few thousand years ago. Now it’s just annoying. Your grief and suffering has no benefit to me, I would much rather all of you be happy and productive. You are simply more useful that way.

I know for a fact when there are this many bodies you all just burn them. What are you going to do? Cart all of these corpses all the way back to Voleria? That would just cause a plague. I would rather their bodies be used to serve the living rather than lie in the ground as ash.

More labourers means more food, better roads, better infrastructure, heck I could send them to mine resources. Does mithril furniture sound good? No poverty, because I can build houses for the poor, provide free food for the destitute, free education for all. I could eliminate hard manual labour for humans. I can tell you my children can plough fields far better than any of you.” I said and I saw Mother Justina’s eyes change from rage to doubt.

“Tell me Mother Justina. Do you view the living or the dead as more important?” I asked and I watched as Mother Justina lowered her head as she bit her lip.

“The dead can’t suffer, the living can. It is just simple logic, condemning the living to worse lives because of some vague sentimentality is the true crime. Nothing hurts prosperity more than stupidity and willful ignorance. This I know very well, I have seen you humanoids rise and fall with the only determinant being your own stupidity.

Pet causes, illogical decisions, frothing dogma worshipping fanatics. I have seen enough of it, I have no need for them, they are worse than useless. It would be better if they didn’t even exist. They can sweep the roads and do some menial labour, if they can’t even do that then I will turn them into something useful. That is all.” I said as I turned back around and headed back into the battlefield.

These humans are so foolish, you don’t need a body to mourn. You can mourn an empty box as easily as a fresh pristine corpse. Also the state of these corpses weren’t exactly fit for a funeral. Half of them are missing body parts or disembowelled and the other half are in several pieces or just mush.

The dead don’t care what you do to your bodies. I know that for a fact considering I got reincarnated. When you die you just get chucked in front of some reincarnation bureaucrat and shipped off to your new life. I didn’t even know I had died at first, it took awhile for me to get my bearings.

Reincarnate today! No refunds!

So no, they won’t be complaining, besides if they cared about their families I am sure that they would be willing to let their bodies help them achieve a better life. If they didn’t… Well then I don’t value their opinion and I’m taking it anyway. What are they going to do? Haunt me? If I was going to be haunted I would have been haunted by now. Even if they end up as angry ghosts, I read that ghosts are just balls of ether with a soul attached to it. I can just eat those, so I get the body and the ghost, which seems pretty good to me.

They’ll come around when I start making food plentiful, start putting aqueducts everywhere and every table has a bottle of wine on it. I even have these healer and druid minions planned, those should make the humans' lives easier. No one’s going to complain about how they end up in paradise once they get there…

They might feel a little down about it but not enough of them will be willing to do anything drastic to change the status quo. Especially if trying something risks a very painful death. Well I need to sort this massive logistics mess out. I’ll probably get to speak with the General and the Mother later…

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General Montis stood silently before the Empress of Elysia. She looked as beautiful as the portraits portrayed. But he couldn’t help but glance over at the Great Beast that was reclined next to her on this giant cushion. It seemed thoroughly disinterested as it lay there reading a book with its back to the throne. The Empress had just finished speaking to Mother Justina who was standing next to him. Offering her all the courtesy that a Mother of the Church required. The Empress promised her that the prisoners will be treated fairly and after one year of hard labour they would be returned unharmed to Voleria. The Empress also personally guaranteed that all the prisoners would return safe and sound.

This was a very light punishment for the survivors of an invading army. In Montis’s opinion this one year of labour was just a formality. There was a good chance they may not even serve it to completion after the war is over.

Montis knew how to read these types of situations, he was very well versed in this thanks to his upbringing as a noble and his time spent in the royal court. For instance the Great Beast was positioned strangely on the throne’s left. Typically the right was reserved for the most trusted of retainers. To someone who is simple minded they might assume that the Great Beast has a low station in the court. But Montis knew better, the other retainers were all standing on the steps below the throne, so only the Great Beast and the Empress were at the same height. He also noted that Princess Maria of Averlin and Princess Emeline of Beralis were standing there as well gazing at him coldly. A fellow royal of the same family line was positioned lower than the Great Beast… curious…

Not only that Montis noticed that the only door that the beast could fit through was on the left of the throne. The position of the cushion was odd as well. Everything in a royal setting had purpose. Trusted advisors were often standing on the right and slightly behind the throne so that the advisor could easily lean forward to whisper in the sovereign's ear.

Royal Guards are positioned a certain distance away so that they could intercept any attackers and avoid fighting too closely to the sovereign. Either that or they were positioned far back in the shadows while being barely visible. This was for intimidation, showing a venere of acceptance while at the same time showing that violence was always an option.

If Montis had to guess the Great Beast had just plopped itself next to the throne with a complete disregard for decorum. Furthermore the Empress didn’t seem bothered at all, so this was a subtle message.

The Empress was saying that they were equals and they are close enough to do this. But what was more concerning was that if someone broke decorum it would typically lead to a drop in how respectable one looked. What Montis saw was not a foolish disregard of decorum, what he understood from this was that they were powerful enough to do whatever they wanted. They could break every rule in the book and still you will kneel. The petty traditions of humans are no longer their concern. They were now above it…

“Friend, how did it go?” Empress Cecilia asked as she rested her head on her hand she casually tilted her head in the Great Beast’s direction.

“Easier than I thought, I was actually over prepared, it was kind of funny how easy it was…” the Great Beast began as it looked away from the book and casually looked over its shoulder at the Empress.

“The old Elysians were a lot tougher than this, you humans have fallen quite far.” the Great Beast mused.

“Well then we just have to fix that don’t we?” Cecilia replied with a smirk as she tilted her head and gestured with her hand.

“Shouldn’t be that hard all things considered, once all the other humans stop acting like a bunch of children.” the Great Beast said with a chuckle, its low baritone echoing out across the throne room.

“Well children need to be taught no?” Cecilia asked as she turned her gaze to Montis and Mother Justina who was standing next to him.

“It takes awhile…” the Great Beast said as it flashed a fanged smile at the two of them.

Montis sensed Mother Justina flinch slightly but Montis held his ground. He was a soldier, he knew his duty and he learned how to die a long time ago. Showing fear would win him nothing, what he needed now was a path to the future. A future where his people don’t end up as chattel for monsters. Some would say if the Great Beast butchered Voleria he would receive divine retribution from the Seraphim. Even if that was true Montis didn’t care, vengeance from beyond the grave was pointless. The living mattered the wishes of the dead are worthless. More often than not the wishes of the dead just get the living to join their ranks.

Take this war for example, the King of Tralis wanted to make his mark on history and outdo his father’s memory. So he started this stupid war and delivered the nation right into the jaws of an ancient beast. His army was down to 4000 out of 40 000, that was 36 000 slaughtered in half an hour. That was 1200 deaths a minute, a ridiculous number of casualties. If the Great Beast decided that Volerians were not useful and just a thorn in his side he would make that slaughter look like a footnote in the pages of history.

“It won’t take very long, Empress.” Montis said calmly.

“Oh? Why is that?” Cecilia asked with a smile as she raised an eyebrow.

“Because I’m still alive. You will no doubt wish for Tralis to be divided after you conquer it. Divide and conquer, keep the sheep weak and minimise self sufficiency. It is a post war strategy for annexed territories as old as war itself.” Montis replied as he held her gaze.

“Indeed, you would prove useful. My friend here has said nice things about you. You have no idea how rarely he offers any kind of praise to humans. You are now part of a very exclusive club.” Cecilia said with a chuckle.

“Yet you seem so convinced that the war is already over…” Cecilia said as she sharpened her gaze.

Montis knew this was a test, not in the sense that she wanted him to admit that victory was impossible. If he didn’t even know that he wouldn’t be alive right now. No, she was testing for something else…

“War? That wasn’t war. That was slaughter. To your soldiers it was a meal, to the Great Beast it was sport.” Montis replied calmly.

“Hmmm…” Cecilia mumbled as she tilted her head in interest.

A pair of individuals who are confident enough to shed tradition like an old set of apparel would not be looking for conventional individuals. They want exceptional individuals who are not chained by tradition and convention… if that was the case, to hell with convention and decorum…

“Did I pass your test, Empress?” Montis said, speaking out bluntly instead of courteously.

At those words Empress Cecilia’s eyes visibly lit up and her smile widened. Then Montis heard the Great Beast let out a great booming laugh.

HAHAHAHA!

The Great Beast then turned away from his book and faced Montis. Its mouth peeled back in a wide smile, showing him the long fangs that could easily snap a man in half. Montis got the same feeling from it as a child who had just found an interesting toy.

“I like this one…” the Great Beast said, its voice filled with mirth.

“So what can you offer?” Empress Cecilia asked as she spread her arms, dropping all pretence of aristocratic protocol.

Montis knew from the start that this was not a discussion. At most this was a briefing of the new status quo but more likely it was an audition. It looks like the latter suspicion was correct. All the great leaders of the past had ambitions to rival the greats across time, all of them drew capable retainers to their side. It is said if one wanted to get the true measure of a ruler, look to their retinue. A ruler who can amass talent to their service is one to be feared.

“I can keep soldiers in line, minimise or prevent mutinies and rebellions. I understand my position and I am firm in the belief that no army in Elysia, Voleria or Zarima can contest your military supremacy.

If you can overcome the unforgiving terrain and lands, you might even be able to conquer the Mugummans, the Ostayans, the Elves and the Vampires. Though they are powerful, if they are powerful as you are Great Beast the human nations would have been wiped out long ago. As it stands their greatest defensive advantage is not their racial superiority, it is the lands that they occupy and the terrain advantage they provide.

I am also the patriarch of one of the oldest and most respected houses in Western Voleria. With my family name at the reins of the Volerian military and with my loyalty, your rule will be more secure. You can split the territories between provincial lords and defang their ability to amass power to resist you. The military can be formed in the structure of a tithe, each province must provide a certain amount of soldiers based on their means to the combined Volerian army. If I am in command of that, you can keep me close at hand and minimise the risk of rebellion.” General Montis said.

“Oh I will keep you close at hand, general, but I’m not worried about rebellion.” Cecilia said with a smile.

“Or at least any rebellion that will turn into anything serious…” Cecilia added with a shrug.

“Why?” Montis asked as he narrowed his eyes slightly. There is no way in hell this is trust, he was an enemy general two days ago…

“I can tell when you are lying general, the fact that I haven’t killed you means you are telling the truth.” the Great Beast said as he fired a sword sized spine from his shoulder that landed right next to Montis embedding itself in the stone.

“Like that in case you were wondering.” the Great Beast added with a chuckle.

“Since you are interesting to me and we have just met. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I can read your vitals so don’t bother lying to me. The human body reacts when it lies and I can see it happen.” the Great Beast said.

“My favourite colour is blue.” Montis said.

“No it isn’t.” the Great Beast replied nonchalantly.

“White.” Montis said.

“No it isn’t...” the Great Beast said again with a wide smile.

“Red…” Montis said.

“You like Elysian colours? That is quite funny considering the circumstances.” the Great Beast replied with a laugh.

“I hate prawns and strawberries.” Montis said.

“Prawns can be arranged to be never served to you but you won’t mind strawberries. I think you actually like strawberries, that was a big lie.” the Great Beast said with a laugh.

“I do enjoy strawberries.” Montis admitted with a nod. So the Great Beast was telling the truth, what a terrifying creature. How do you fight something politically when you can’t lie to it?

At that moment Montis noticed Princess Maria and Emeline both furrowed their brows at the display. They were keeping to decorum but from what he could observe there was a distinct lack of surprise from their reaction. Yet there was a reaction, which led Montis to believe though they were aware of this ability they had never seen it in action. Or perhaps they have no idea if it actually works, since only the Great Beast and himself would definitively know if it was true…

A rather insidious ability, it created a threat while subtly denying confirmation of the existence of said threat. The two princesses had no reason to be here so they have no idea if they were planted here just to see this scene or if Montis was coerced into playing it out like this. Deception is the main tool of politics and no one really knows who to trust…

Montis just got another piece of potential information or perhaps a bit of confirmation. The Empress and the Great Beast liked to play mind games. They would lead someone on just to see what they do and gather insights on their personality and true allegiances. Montis himself has heard of past great rulers doing this very effectively, he has seen other nobles attempt this but thus far he hasn’t seen anyone do it as subtly as the Empress and the Great Beast did. If the suspicion was true then they would have the Volerian aristocracy in the palm of their hands. Volerian aristocrats favoured strong arm politics, in Montis’s opinion strong arm politics was a crude and blunt instrument. Effective against the uninitiated but against someone who is very capable at the rigours of politics they will be easy to out manoeuvre.

“You know General Montis…” Empress Cecilia said with a wide smile, Montis felt a slight discomfort when he realised that she gave off the same feeling as the Great Beast. She was looking at him like she found an interesting new toy…

I think we are going to work very well together…

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