Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 48: The Siege of the Citadel Part 1

Daniel approaches the group in the large dining hall of the Citadel, being fed by Xyreko's golems. It's the newest guests to the Citadel, as well as the rest of the dragons. To his surprise, though he suspects he shouldn't be, he rather easily recognizes Kera'tai and Shek, the Chi'rinnis and goblin respectively, whom he met when he was recovering the survivors incapacitated by his defense of Fort Peony.

Shek notices him first, pointing and saying, "Master! Master alive!"

Kera'tai jumps up, smiling broadly, before Hekate swoops in. "No! No more mistresses! Daniel's mine!"

Shek approaches her, retorting fearlessly, "Shek belong to Master before you! Shek come to be with Master."

Hekate, who finally has someone shorter than her, stands tall, unintimidated by the goblin woman. "I'm not budging. You may live here, but Daniel is mine."

The two stare each other down, and Daniel says politely as he pets Shek's head gently, "Good to see you're safe, Shek. And, you too, Kera'tai. We'll have to catch up later, though. There are some things I need to ask Lady Vaergraes."

Vaergraes rises to her feet, excusing herself from the others. Daniel encourages them to finish their meal, and he'll meet with them later to see what all they've been up to.

Hekate, Daniel, and Vaergraes head to a private room to meet with Ryuogriar, Reignleif, Geirahoel, Ryukana, and Xyreko, now that the dragons have their eggs again. Aoloan, Treia, and Gwenesphia are also present, but they stay out of the way for now.

Daniel greets Vaergraes properly, "Lady Vaergraes, I'm glad you're alright. You're welcome here indefinitely, of course."

"Thank you, Daniel. I appreciate you allowing Lady Xyreko to accept us even without proof."

Daniel shakes his head. "Xyreko gave me a top down view. Sorry that I didn't tell you that we had you followed by golems."

She smiles, saying gratefully, "You saved our lives. I assume I witnessed your dragon slaying staves in action?"

Daniel nods once. "Xyreko controls her golems, and the weapons won't fall into unwanted hands."

"According to my analysis, my staves are not nearly as powerful as Daniel's, but I am confident anything less than dragons and drakes would be little match for mine. And, it leaves no traces of operation, unlike Master's."

Daniel nods in agreement. After she made self-sabotaging weapons in the event a golem is defeated, he also asked her to make the bullets for the security golems out of sharmelkolle using the magic infusion that can return the bullets to a designated location in the Citadel for reloading, even after they've been fired. The casings are ejected into a catcher to prevent anything that could be reverse engineered from being collected after the fact.

Vaergraes explains her last meeting with the covenant leaders, and how they said she's no longer useful.

Daniel sighs. It's as he feared. They made 'logical sounding' excuses, but it seems peace is the goal of a lot fewer of the rulers of the demons than he hoped.

"When I realized that I was being effectively forced out, I collected Thymeria and Illianna to leave, which is when a group led by Guillemsah attacked us. Thanks to your golems, we escaped unharmed, but... I didn't think they'd try to kill us."

Daniel nods as he listens. "If you survived and pieced it together, you could potentially know what I suspect; this war will continue because certain people in power want it to continue."

"What!? Why!?" asks Vaergraes, horrified that he would even suggest it.

Ryuogriar replies to her with disappointment in her voice, "I felt the same, but the more I see that Daniel compares to his world... I know our former lord didn't help matters by just being a war monger anyways, but it sounds like Daniel might be closer to the truth than we would want to admit."