Arpious of the Planes

"Why the hell did we choose the Kingdom of Fire anyway?" The same leader dressed in chainmail armor asked.

His golden greatsword shone brightly in the light of the large diamond chandelier above the table.

"Cause it's the closest place to the [Mountain of Twilight] after the… what's it called… I don't know—that shitty kingdom which was destroyed," A woman in gleaming silver armor answers.

"Well, should we just do a full-on attack?"

"Yeah, that seems like the only way. We have the numbers,"

"Wait!" A man sitting at the table with a massive katana stretched across his back shouts.

Everybody turns their heads towards him.

…

(Arpious POV)

"NICE!" I shout in excitement after hearing the news that we won our first battle, and even though there were some complications with Hades, it seems he's learned from his mistakes.

His growth is what I want most from this war, despite it probably being one of the most important wars I'll ever fight in my life.

"Also, where were you? Did Kumo need your help in the war?" I ask Yin, the deliverer of the good news.

"N-no. Mistress Kumo wanted me to stay as she needed a footrest," Yin responds without even looking up from her kneeled position.

"Pfft… HAHAHAHA! What the hell! I thought it was something serious, but I guess the little bit of stress that has been accumulating was for nothing," I laugh to myself.

After calming myself down, I saw Kumo, who looked as if she wanted something. But, it didn't take much thinking to find out what she wanted.

"Well, there is probably going to be another retaliation, so we'll follow Kumo's plan immediately," I mutter in order to drag out Yin's request.

If she wanted a reward, she would have to ask me myself.

"M-Mistress, can I ask you something?" Yin asks without much hesitation, though I could feel a hint of desperation from her.

I also noticed something strange, which made my eyebrow raise slightly.

"Why'd you refer to yourself as 'I'?" I ask while reaching out my legs to the pet beside me, who began to massage it.

Yin immediately froze up but let out a long breath to calm herself down.

"I… devoured Ina," Yin says coldly.

"Oh, that sucks… Not that I minded as she was pretty much useless… But how did Kumo react?" I ask as I knew her staying behind was probably part of what Yin just told me.

"She almost killed me… I don't mean to bring down Mistress, but she's the scariest person I have ever encountered,"

"Oh really… Well, I don't care if Ina is dead or not. But it does seem part of her personality seeped into you,"

"Yes. When I devoured her personality, I gained traits of her, but I still retained myself,"

"But why did you devour her in the first place?" I ask while eating a sweet fruit the pet beside me handed to me.

"Cause she was getting in the way of our work. She was too soft, so I killed her and made sure she wouldn't come back," Yin responds, completely serious.

"Also, how did you devour/kill her?"

"I don't know. It was a strange feeling… We were in a dream, and we were walking through this very castle. This has never happened before, but I thought that if nobody was around, I could kill her, which I've always wanted to do... So I did, and when I woke up, she was gone," Yin explains.

"So, how did you devour her?" I asked as I felt as she had left a part out.

"O-oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you that in the dream, I also ate her body as an overwhelming feeling of starvation enveloped me,"

"I see… Well, she's gone, and what was the question you were going to ask me before?"

"I-I wanted a reward," Yin responds, slightly blushing, causing her to try and cover her face back up with her mask.

"Hmmm... Okay. Come here," I say, reaching out my arms which Yin immediately jumped into without hesitation.

Slightly affected her? Yeah right. If I didn't know better, I'd think this was Ina.

"Mistress, pet me, pet me,"

"Okay," I mutter while stroking Yin's hair.

…

(Aika POV)

"I just want to live a quiet life," I mutter as I look over the three armies I'm supposed to lead into battle.

This job I'm supposed to complete is the next part of the plan, and I honestly didn't need all these soldiers… as my army of undead was more than enough.

"Soldiers! You can take it easy if you want! We're departing tomorrow, so don't drink too much alcohol, though!" I shout before jumping off the kingdom's wall and landing back inside my domain.

I'm not sleeping out here…

Just as I arrived back inside the castle, I was met by Arpious and all of her wives except for Kumo, as she was working hard on the front lines.

Dinner was delicious as always, and after, we went to take a nice relaxing bath by ourselves as our children were doing their own things.

Zehar was out hunting, Hades was on the front lines, Luna and Freya went to go studying the art of trade, and Flora was playing with maids to who she took quite a liking.

"I'm tired. I don't want to be at war anymore," I say, and it seems I wasn't the only one as everybody nodded their heads in agreement.

"Yeah, I just want to leave and go far away from here. Somewhere I can relax by myself as I know Arpious wants to leave this plane," Homura is the first to explain her plans once the war is over.

"Sorry," Arpious apologizes after feeling the heavy air suddenly appear.

"Yeah, you should be sorry. That's very selfish of you… Leaving your wives, children, and entire kingdom… and even having the audacity to dump all of that responsibility on your son while taking advantage of his thirst for the throne," I say while squirting my eyes.

"That last part was kind of contradictory… but I'm still sorry in the end," Arpious apologies once again, even bowing her head this time.

"Well, first of all, do you even know how to leave the plane?" Treyni asks while playing with a small leaf that began to almost dance in her hand.

"Oh, I might… Though it's just a feeling. It was a place I visited quite a while ago, and I even almost died there," Arpious says, her face slightly darkening.

Seriously? There's a place that can even make Arpious scared…

"Well, where is it?" I ask.

"It's near the edge of this mountain, and I've even made plans to take advantage of it. I wanted adventures to use it as a place where they can train though it's going to be used mainly for the higher-ranked ones who are struggling to level," Arpious responds.

"I see… I'll check it out later," I mutter before getting up and leaving the bath.

…

(Arpious POV)

[Day 91]

After waking up bright and early in the morning, I took a walk around my kingdom, breathing in the fresh autumn air as if it was the smoke of an incense stick.

It was a peaceful walk until I saw dew drunks along the side of the dirt road, causing my face to crumple in disgust.

"Tch… I should probably make a new law on this…." I mutter as I expected this to happen, but not this early.

This wasn't a thing in my past life, but if I could get rid of anybody intoxicated who has the threat of doing something stupid, then my kingdom would be that much safer.

Immediately, I met up with Mia, who was exhausted like always but seemed to be enjoying her job despite looking as if she would pass out any second.

I told her the law I wanted to make, and she agreed to it without hesitation as she's seen drunks out and about in the main adventures guild.

"Okay, well, we should have this implemented within the next few days, so please don't worry and focus on the war," Mia says with a smile before pushing me out of the room so she can finish her work.

"*sigh*... I guess I shouldn't bother her anymore," I chuckle to myself before leaving the large building.

…

(Aika POV)

"Alright, we're heading out. Third commander, fourth commander, and fifth commander. You three will be in charge of your own armies until we get to the rendezvous point where Kumo is… So don't go slacking off and manage your army correctly," I say firmly to the three monsters in front of me.

We first have the Third Commander, Richard the Immovable Siren Guardian. The Fourth Commander, Adam, the Child of the Forest. And finally, the Fifth Commander, Aaron, also a Child of the Forest.

"As you wish," They all reply before running back to their armies and immediately directing them where to go.

The second step of the first phase has begun… Let's see if Kumo really is the greatest strategist in our kingdom.