"Where is Lord Stork? What happened last night?" the villagers shouted at the three brothers who pushed them all back and away from the trail up to the fortress. The men were at the front questioning while the women and children watched from behind.
"As I said before, we have a new lord. His name is Lord Ali, and he will be here shortly. Now, back up or I'll beat some sense into you," Tel said, taking out a club from his belt and swinging it in the air, scaring the line of men back.
From the fortress, Fiona looked outside her bedroom window, holding her daughter in her arms. She looked down at the courtyard of the fortress, where a large storm eagle lay butchered cleanly, its feathers plucked. Then, her eyes went up to the direction of the forest where her home was. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she would always look there.
But then, her eyes caught something in the air. First, it was the shadows of two large things hidden in the clouds. Then, she caught a black object falling fast towards the village. The object became clearer and clearer the closer it got to the ground.
"It's him," Fiona said as she watched Ali flip and…
BOOOOOOOOOM
The three brothers fell back from the impact that landed between them and the villagers, who scurried away in fear. Dust and dirt flew up into the air from the strong impact.
Slowly, the villagers stood up and looked at the dispersing dust cloud. There, they saw a large man in black. He was very muscular, where his shirt struggled to hold his large muscles. But his face was the true shock: he had deep black eyes and an unnaturally handsome face.
"Lord," the brothers shouted and bowed to Ali from behind.
The villagers heard that and couldn't believe their eyes. "This man is our new lord! Why is a man like him in a backwater place like this?" they thought.
"Kneel," Ali said, and all the villagers fell to their knees instantly, women and children included. Nobody could fight back against the pressure that fell on them.
"My name is Ali, and I am your new lord. There will be many changes around here, changes that will better your lives only if you follow my words and never act against me or harm my lands or interests," Ali declared.
Sarina from behind Ali signalled for the brothers to come to the courtyard.
"First of all, these trash huts that you call homes will be reconstructed today by your own hands and my instruction. Of course, I can see that many of you have not had a good meal in a long time, so…" Ali lifted the Force off them, and they slowly looked up to see the brother walk out of the fortress with a large wooden slab on their head, carrying a huge chunk of cooked beast meat.
"Eat up to your fill and get ready for work. Oh, and you are all exempt from paying taxes for the year," Ali announced, and the villagers erupted in celebration.
"Thank you, My Lord," they all shouted in unison at the incredible news for these poor people, along with seeing the meat set down between them as they began to satisfy their months-long hunger. The brothers even went back to carry the next batch of cooked meat.
Ali walked back into the fortress, passing by Sarina and the cook cooking the cut-up meat. Next to them was a young girl around sixteen, also in a maid's outfit, with brown hair and below-average looks. All of them bowed to Ali until he entered the fortress.
Once inside, Ali could hear something that was starting to annoy him now. 'Is she still crying…?' Ali thought as he walked up the stairs to a certain bedroom.
From outside the room, Fiona could be heard sobbing, but could also hear a small ruckus from inside. Ali tried opening the door, but it was locked from inside.
When Fiona heard the handle creak, she stopped and walked up to the locked door. Before she could get there, the door knob suddenly moved on its own from her side and unlocked the door.
The door opened to Ali, who stepped inside and looked around the room. The bed was missing its cover, as Fiona had used it as a bag to hold clothes for both her and her baby, clothes that Sarina had given her the night before.
The baby slept on the bed without covers, with Fiona standing next to it. Her usually beautiful eyes were now red and puffy from crying, and her hair was tousled, revealing her golden locks from the brown.
"Are you leaving?" Ali asked, stepping forward. Fiona backed away.
"Yes," she replied, her voice broken from sobbing.
"Where are you going?" Ali asked again, taking a step forward.
"Away from here, away from you," Fiona said, her voice filled with hatred. "I know a demon when I see one, and I've seen what you are."
"If that's what you want, then go ahead," Ali said, moving aside and pointing at the wide-open door.
Fiona picked up her daughter gently and the bag of clothes in her other hand, stepping past Ali.
"I feel sorry for your husband," Ali said, and Fiona froze in place. If not for her child in her arms, she would have attacked him. "To sacrifice yourself for your wife and child to live, only so that the mother of your child decides that dying in the hands of bandits and warmongering lords would be a better choice than living in a safe fortress." Ali walked closer to Fiona and blocked her way out.
Fiona looked up at him, her pretty cheeks now streaked with tears. Ali raised his hand, and she didn't look away from his bloodied hand.
"I killed thirty-eight bandits last night," Ali said, his voice slow and steady. "And I saved fifteen men who were hanging from a rope, with their hurt wives holding them up not to die. The bandits I killed were fighting each other to rape kids…" Ali lowered his head, so he was at eye level with Fiona. He used his other hand to wipe away the tears on her face, even though she looked away, but he didn't stop.
"I'm not telling you not to grieve for your husband, but I am telling you to think about your daughter's future," Ali said, letting her go and turning around. He left Fiona in her bedroom.
"And I'm not a demon!" Ali shouted from the corridor as he descended to the former torture chambers.
Ali passed by the new machinery, neon blue lights, and air conditioners that pumped ice-cold air into the lower floors to keep the machines cool. He walked past the small factory on the first floor and down to the second level, where he found the fat Captain strapped to a metal pole with his fat rolls chained by metal wires that shone blue.
ZZZZZZZZZZ
MMMMMMMMMMMMH
The Captain was electrocuted, and his screams were muffled by a mask covering his lower face. He shook uncontrollably from the terrible pain and wouldn't stop moaning from under the mask.
"I'm currently in the process of extracting superficial information about the world. Everything of worth is already waiting in the throne room," Miles said through a speaker up in the roof while his body lay motionless in the ice tub.
"The throne room?" Ali asked.
"It's the floor without a roof. My AI reconstructed the fortress, and that used to be a throne room hundreds of years ago. I've set up a map for you up there," Miles told Ali in a robotic voice from the speaker.
"I'll go up there then," Ali said. "Oh, and kid, I'm starting renovations around here. Start making some construction robots, if something like that exists." Ali tapped the wire on the Captain's body, and that released a shock that hit both Ali and the Captain.
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMH
The Captain screamed from the pain, but Ali simply removed his finger and looked like he didn't even feel the pain. "That hurts a lot. You better speak or the kid is going to have you here like this for a long, long time," Ali said to the Captain, whose eyes were on the edge of rolling back into unconsciousness.
——————-
Just wrote a 4000 word chapter, it's on Patreon now if u wanna read it early
Please donate some of your power stones, it would help my ff massively.
If you want to support my work and get Five chapters ahead of webnovel : patreon.com/Rondo312