The Empress (GirlxGirl)

Chapter 13 - The Devil Of The North

  Astoria's POV
 
  "Oh my-"
 
  I was surprised when I saw the once proud Claymore Knights looks like a walking dead. I'm not even sure if they're alive or not.
 
  "You didn't give them any hard tasks, right?" I asked Arthur who seems to be full of spirits.
 
  "The empress gave me full reign of how to reshape them into proper knights. All I did was giving them the same instructions as I did to our knights." Really? But they don't look too good.
 
  "Anyway. Why are you here, countess? You should have stayed home and let us handle things here. As you can see, the monsters are mostly back to their land. All we have to do now is scouting their nearby nest and destroy them." I see. But-
 
  "Have you hunt all the monsters corpse?" Arthur shake his head.
 
  "Adolfo said he wants to examine the monsters properly. He is currently over there examining them as we speak." I see-
 
  I walked towards Adolfo and watched him talk to his assistants.
 
  "Countess! Actually I was going to see you myself. I have a few questions regarding these monsters." Questions?
 
  "From what I can see from my observation, your knights used different method to deal with these monsters. Why?" Oh-
 
  "Simple really." I walked to one of the monsters and said,
 
  "As we all may know, like us, monsters too has their own rank. For example, low rank goblins are the weakest among its peers. But the higher rank goblins are immune to all four elements of magic. In that case, we have no choice but to face them with sword imbue in aura or holy magic."
 
  Adolfo was actually taking notes.
 
  "There are two types of dragon. Those who conquer the sky and those who conquer the land. We mostly had trouble with the one who conquer the sky since we can't fight them while they flying above our head. Knights who knows how to wield wind magic will have to take care of those flying dragon."
 
  I take a step closer to one of the most annoying monsters I have encountered.
 
  "Centaurs- now they are quite a handful to face. These creatures loves to kidnapped women and little girls. They are weak but their fighting spirits is something else. The only way to deal with them is by using fire magic or cut off their head."
 
  I look around to see if there's any other monsters. Oh-
 
  "Chimeras- this must be its leader. Chimera usually acts as the leader. It leads the other monsters. They have excessive amounts of mana and regenerative abilities. Their weakness is holy magic. After all, they are spawn of demons."
 
  Adolfo hummed as he writes all the details.
 
  "How did you know all of this? Even if you've been in the battlefield since you were a child, that doesn't mean you could grasp every single detail like so." I smiled at Adolfo.
 
  "My mother, the former countess was a researcher before she went crazy. I'll show you my mother's work once we at the castle." Adolfo smiled befor thanking me.
 
  "Countess, Im not sure of your closest person had told you but I don't think the former countess is crazy. We found traces of poison when we examined her conditions. The priests can vouch for this claim because it was him who said so." My mother is not crazy?
 
  Poisoning?
 
  "My mother was poisoned?"
 
  Adolfo nodded.
 
  "We don't know what sort of posion yet but the physicians is doing their best to find the cure while the priests use their holy magic to dispelled the poison in her body."
 
  As we were talking, I heard screams of people saying 'monsters' not far from where we are.
 
  "It seems we are being attacked." I smiled at Adolfo as he grabbed his wand. Wow- this is my first time seeing wizards wielding his wand. It looks rather cool.
 
  "The North is pretty interesting. We haven't been able to rest after the last invasion and yet here we are, walking to our death one again." I laughed as I unsheated my sword.
 
  "Welcome to the North, Lord Adolfo."
 
 
  Later that night,
 
  I was cleaning my sword with a cloth when a group of Claymore Knights suddenly kneel in front of me. What is happening? Even Adolfo is kneeling with them.
 
  "What is going on?" I asked Arthur.
 
  "I think they are indebted to you, countess. After all, you did fought off that land dragon all by yourself while they were all about to accept death."
 
  Oh- I see. But the dragon was weakened though. It all thanks to Adolfo that the dragon was distraught enough for me to land the last blow.
 
  "But it was Adolfo who weakened the dragon." Adolfo kowtow.
 
  "I have done no such thing. My spell didn't work on the land dragon. It was all you, countess. We are here to pledge that we will do whatever in our power to help you rebuild the North. The empress has given us approval to live here in the North and be your vassals." What?! When did the empress-
 
  "Butler Bolton? What are you doing here?" Bolton bow.
 
  "I was here by the order of the empress. Her majesty saw how you defeat a couple of the land dragon all by yourself through Adolfo's crystal. She was impressed." Impressed?! Crystal? What is happening?
 
  "Adolfo wore a crystal pendant that sends live images to the empress. Her majesty is worried for the countess and she ordered the wizard to wear it. The knights seems to have some sense of respect for the countess. They even called you the devil of the North." Bolton chuckled.
 
  The devil? Is that a praise or insults?
 
  "Don't worry, that was a praise from the knights. The empress wish to use what she seen here today as a way to lure more nobles from the capital to invest in the North. I hope you don't mind." Mind? That's has been my life long dream.
 
  My ancestor build the Northern Territory from nothing. It was once a place for dreamers to dream and warriors to be hero they always wanted to be. But now- after my father died, it's nothing but a place for death.
 
  "And countess- once you're home, there is someone waiting for you."
 
  Huh? Probably the empress. I smiled before telling the knights and Adolfo to get up from the ground.
 
  "Get some rest. Tomorrow we shall travel back to the castle."