RD 7 Ch 31 (Patreon)

I lay atop Gloria's bed. She had refused to shower with me afterward, saying I would only make her dirty again. Which, admittedly, had been my exact intention. It was a shame she did not have time for that type of fun.

Gloria came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her, and sat down to fix her makeup. She grumbled something about reapplying it entirely, which was fair, given the mess I'd made of it.

Though if I was honest, I was quite satisfied with the end result. My mob princess had been in need of me reasserting my dominance. She was not the kind to ever give up without a fight, which was perhaps one of my favorite things about her.

"So what else did you come back for?" Gloria asked, working on her face to ensure she'd be presentable.

"Can't I just come back to spend time with you?" I asked, aghast that she'd think there was more to it.

She gave me a bored look. "Bran, you're never idle. Let's not pretend otherwise."

"Fine. I was just trying to be a little romantic." I pinched my fingers together.

The smile she gave me was the picture of someone being smug, and on the verge of saying ‘I told you so’.

I ignored it. "I have to plant this peach. So first thing is I need a spot for it.” I held up a pit that looked like a giant blood drop. "And I need to check in on a few things. Mainly, I need to see if there's any organization among our forces that can move to the Amazon and help provide some stability for the region."

"Is it that bad?" she asked, pausing in her makeup.

"They're all worthless," I answered sharply. "To start, Eve and the First Garden are more interested in their jealousy toward me than actually managing their area. The nuns in the city aren't bad, but they're too far behind to hand the reins to with any expectation other than failure."

Gloria paused, slowly nodding.

"And the tribes are much the same, while also being horribly undermined by the demons. Cleansing them is actually a large concern of mine." I told her.

"Have you found the Demon King?" Gloria asked, and I could only shake my head.

"No. Way to point out more problems.” I teased her.

“I don't know if I have the forces to do much about it," Gloria told me. "But I could see more than a few of my father's generation wanting to step out of his shadow. The system has given a number of those old men their youth back and they have gotten hungrier for it."

"This is not an open recruitment call," I quickly clarified. "The ones most eager to strike out on their own are the ones that worry me most. Too much ambition can go bad fast."

"Ambition is good, but too much of it blows back on us the wrong way," Gloria agreed.

"Now, if Bobby or someone—" I trailed off.

She stopped in her work, glancing over her shoulder while holding her towel in place. "If you want to send Bobby down there, you'll probably have to do it over my father's dead body. He's increasingly interested in trying to hold the family together."

"Understood. That's why we're having this conversation," I said, holding my hands up quickly before anything I said could make its way back to Carmen in a way I didn't want.

"No, I understand. I'm just warning you that the old man gets this way sometimes. He’s fixated on the future and his legacy." She emphasized the word as if it annoyed her.

"I've seen it before, too. I know the sudden obsession family men get, especially when they feel threatened, or feel they have enough excess to start cutting their pie." I told her.

Gloria hummed in complete understanding. "You get it." Then she paused. "Did you ever get that way?" she asked, with a faint squint. She knew there was a delicate question in what she had asked.

"Never had kids," I confirmed. I’d wanted them at one point, but when you stop aging you think you have eternity and it's far easier to tell yourself it isn’t the right time.

"Never?" She sounded surprised.

"What, you think I had some brats you didn't know about?” I teased to keep myself from going down into some dark thoughts.

“I mean…  you lived a very long time." Gloria sounded concerned for me.

"It was never the right time," I said. "The world was kind of going to absolute shit, and I never found myself interested in bringing a kid into that. Just more complexity than I ever wanted."

"So it's not that you don't want kids?" she asked for clarification.

"Do you?" I felt like I had to ask.

"No." She shook her head quickly, then paused. "But I'm also the kind of person who doesn't like having my options taken away from me."

I chuckled in complete understanding. Gloria often wanted what she was not supposed to get.

"Yeah, I can see that," I said, earning a scowl. "You set yourself up for that one," I defended, quickly. "Maybe one of these days… when things are more peaceful," I trailed off, noticing a comb on the floor and picking it up for her.

The two of us had made a brief mess of her room, but it had been a very fun way to make one. I enjoyed that she'd added a mirror in her room after we'd both discovered some enjoyable uses for the reflection.

"Well, then I suppose I'll keep looking for a solution for the Amazon if you don't have one on hand. My father might have someone he'd be willing to let go, but those are also probably the type to cause at least a little trouble. There's simply no way around the ambition," she explained. "You need it if they're going to be even decent at managing a territory. That's why old nobility always liked to expand through marriages. Family adds a layer of trust, but even that wasn't foolproof."

I thought about her words for a second, but there were no options quite that readily available to me, which was a shame. I wished there was an easy solution. I considered the various generals I had, and parking one of them down in the Amazon, letting them use it as their exclusive training ground, seemed one of the better options. Still not great, since I'd essentially be separating a chunk of my army off and permanently stationing it somewhere that would both be an easier target and less readily available to me for other operations.

But I needed to find a solution. I wasn't always going to have a perfect one at hand. In fact, that I already had such incredible options for so many of my problems was a blessing in itself.

"Thoughts?" Gloria asked.

"The best I can do for you right now is one of the generals. One who'd be interested."

"Interested is going to be the next problem, even if you find one," Gloria said.

"Maybe I'll just assign one and make them do it." I wrinkled my nose, and she gave me a dour look, making clear exactly how she felt about that particular solution.

I had to admit, I hadn't exactly been using my generals as much as I could have. I found myself stroking my chin. “Actually, it might be a good idea to get the generals involved in the Amazon, and if any of them turned out to love the place, well… I could just give them the chance to stay.”

Gloria paused, waffled her head, and nodded. "That's at least a much better way to go about it."

I kissed her on the cheek, feeling suddenly ready to go and begin the next phase of the plan.

***

Cao arrived with his elite unit of poison monks. They had various abilities, but all of them were dressed like beggars, carrying various vessels stuffed with alcohol, steeping in poison. He listened to what I said, nodding along with my words.

"I see," Cao responded. "Then it's okay if we simply kill any demon we find?"

"Not only is that okay, it is actively encouraged," I answered, watching him closely.

He took a swig from a gourd, sloshing a little down his chin, and regretting it enough that he used the heel of his palm to try and scoop it up and get the liquid back into his mouth as he sucked it off.

I watched him and kept my face impassive.

"The more damage you can do here, the better. I don't think you're going to have problems, but if you do, the rockie-talkies are there for you. And reinforcements will only be minutes away. As I said, there's plenty of poison users in the area. I would welcome you and your troops clearing them out as best you can."

"You hear that, boys? We've got work," Cao said, lifting his glass in a toast. He eyed me out of the corner of his eye, and I waved my spatial ring, dropping enough spirits to keep him and his men well stocked for continuing to consume poisons and strengthen their abilities. The stash disappeared instantly into Cao's own spatial ring.

"The other units are coming too?" Cao asked, as if he'd forgotten to ask and was only now remembering.

"It's a lot of ground to cover, and there are plenty of instances to clear or watch," I told him.

"Demons," my general muttered, and a number of the men behind him nodded their shaved heads. A few of them even held their hands together in a weird mockery of prayer. I knew their whole group were simply drunkards, but I also wasn't going to start complaining about the help.

"We will keep an eye on the situation, Lord Bran, and thank you once again for the opportunity," one of Cao's lieutenants said, bowing to me.

I heard a few of them whispering about there being plenty of fruit in the amazon and decided they would enjoy it for now.

The men quickly began distributing the reward, their faces far too excited. They began to set up camp deep within the Amazon. Cao and his group weren't exactly ones for luxury, and despite their vices they were powerful, initiated warriors who chopped down trees with their bare hands and began making log cabins to base themselves out of as they started handling things.

"Shall we go?" Merlin said. It was clear they didn't need any more direction.

"Yes, let's. I put Rogers and his people closer to the sea. After all, he was a pirate in my last life." I chuckled. If the man from back then could see himself now, he'd probably die laughing. In his first life he became the kind to bow to no one and vowed to live free. But he didn't have that kind of strength in this life, and I'd lashed him to my cause well enough, I suspected. He'd find his own way to come to peace with the fact that he was now simply a demon hunter for the rest of his days.

"Yeah, let's go. We've gotten four generals situated. We'll put another two more in place. It'll leave us a little thin back home." I thought aloud.

"Well, this is what we wanted. We're certainly flooding the area," Merlin said and stretched her back.

I smiled at this small reminder. "And when this is done, I'll find a way to give you a break from teleportation. We need to get Ricky down here and working on a portal sooner rather than later. I had expected to leave South America behind, but the simple reality is we're going to have to take it over too. Better us than the demons."

"Couldn't agree more," Merlin said quickly.

“Any news from the scouts?" I asked. I wanted the Amazon completely combed through by our people, mostly because in all of this I still had not seen hide nor hair of the Demon King himself. After trapping his people in instances and pretending to be him in the city, I would have thought he would have shown himself. The fact that he did not made me wonder what he was doing that kept him busy enough to ignore me.

"Nothing yet," Merlin confirmed. "But I'm sure something will turn up."

"I'm wondering if he's somehow gone and done something that's put him out of contact for a period of time.” I said.

Merlin’s sharp bob swayed with her nod. “At this point, that's really the only answer that makes sense, given what you said about him in the past."

"He's become wary of you," Almeria said, and then smiled at me. "My people have reached the mouth of the Amazon. The news that the demons who once attacked our home were now present here, as well as your need for our skills in the water, rallied plenty of forces." She grinned ear to ear, proud that she could provide help.

Without even thinking about it, I bent over and kissed the top of her head. "Good work. Soon the demons will run from you and your people."

She glanced up at me, a smile growing on her face. "Many people would particularly love the opportunity to trace back where the Manta Demons are coming from," Almeria said, fidgeting ever so slightly with her fingers. Her words gave me slight pause.

"Why do you want to trace them back?" I asked.

"To weed them out and kill them entirely. We fought plenty with them before. They left us alone deep under the sea. We were worried that they ran off to recoup losses faster than us," Almeria explained. "We'd prefer to find wherever they're holed up and ensure they aren't remaking an army."

I hummed in understanding. Stronger bloodlines tended to have fewer children, which meant that in a long, drawn-out battle, Almeria's people would be at a decent disadvantage. And that disadvantage grew if the demons had a decent-sized population of humans to continue restoring their numbers.

In a few years, the world would likely progress to a point where they'd be able to open gates to other worlds. By the time that was the case, and they were able to bring in reinforcements en masse, it would be incredibly dangerous.

The only aspect that had kept us from losing in my previous life was that there were many people in the wider universe interested in finding new demonic battlefields to scour and clear. But if we acted fast, perhaps we could get the demons to a point where they weren't strong enough to even call reinforcements in the first place. The idea hit me like a pleasant dream, and I shook my head to clear it.

"Good, then. I suppose we're moving forward with the plan. Bring our armies down here and clear out as big a swath as we can. We'll start far away from the First Garden, but Eve will notice sooner rather than later. I'd like to be firmly situated before she's knocking at my door demanding an explanation." I stated.

"I'll give her an explanation," Merlin said, raising her fists like she was ready for a fight.

I gave her a long look, and she laughed, putting her fists down.

"What? A woman's got to have teeth in a harem or others might walk all over her."

"You're adjusting quickly," I said to Merlin, keeping watch out of the corner of my eye.

"My sisters have been very welcoming," Merlin answered, as if that statement answered everything. "And if you want to deal with Eve, perhaps you should just invite Simone down. I'm sure she'd be happy to put her in her place."

“I didn't want to have the conversation, but that didn't mean I was going to hand it off to someone else.” I frowned at her.

"I'm just saying, Simone would handle it very well," Almeria said from the side.

I gave her a slight nod, thanking her for her opinion, but kept my thoughts mostly to myself.

"I suppose now we go directly and do some hunting ourselves among the tribes," I said, looking at the other two with me. Both of them gave me simple nods, not looking away from the jungle. They were clearly more wary, as if some lingering danger they hadn't yet identified might crawl out of the depths and make our lives more difficult if they were not vigilant. I didn't think there was that much reason to be concerned, but I never begrudged someone keeping watch over my back.

“Well then, I suppose it is time to stop ignoring the tribes.” I gestured for Almeria to take the lead, since she'd done her own scouting to them on multiple occasions.