Entropy's Servant

Chapter 44 - Patience

Hello everyone, Astaroth here.
Some people have more patience than others.
There are people who are willing to wait for years for a sequel to that movie or game they really liked, and then there are people who can't wait ten minutes for their food to be served at a restaurant.
As for me...
I used to be more patient, but I feel like my rise in power has come with a fall in that aspect.

The Elven Council President and the drakonid chief looked at me for at least twenty seconds more than necessary, and at least two seconds more than I was comfortable with.

"Hurry it up, then," I told them, shooing them away with my hands.

They continued looking without showing any signs of change.

"... Are you going to make me repeat myself?" I asked, clapping my hands in their faces.

"Ah!"
"Oh my~!"

I felt my eye twitch at the reactions I had already witnessed once before.

"Hurry. It. Up."

The drakonid chief's face reflected nothing but confusion.

"Ah, you want us to provide our rewards ahead of time~?" the Elven Council President said, walking over to the elf I presumed to be called Feno. They crouched down and gently started shaking the shrine maiden's shoulders.

I swore I could see the gears grind into place as slow as could be in the drakonid chief's head, and he walked over to the drakonid I presumed Ilgri and he, too, attempted to wake up his shrine maiden.

I was a little surprised they both succeeded at their endeavours within half a minute.

Ilgri slowly sat up, blinking her red eyes a few times. I could pinpoint the exact moment she went from half-asleep to fully awake by the fact that she removed the drakonid chief's hands from her shoulders and pushed him away as quickly as she could, face red as a beet, the moment she woke up properly.

"Chief?! Wh-What are you doing?!" she shouted out, wrapping her hands around herself.

"No, I wasn't particularly..."

I turned my attention away from the bad duo of comedians and towards Feno.

She seemed more adept at waking up, given it took all of five seconds for her green eyes to lock eyes with Sylph's.

"Ah. Lady Sylph is here while I'm conscious? How rare. It's a pleasure to meet you. How've you been? I've been well. We should meet up more often. Would you like to..."

I removed my attention from the one-sided conversationalist who didn't give the other party a chance to speak and turned it back to the room in general.

"You lot," I said, "pay attention now."

I failed to get anyone except my Demon Generals to pay attention.

I stood still, waiting, for approximately half a minute, and made no progress.

"That's enough of your bad comedy routines," I hissed, grabbing both shrine maidens by their necks and placing them on the couch forcefully.

"The heck are you?" Ilgri asked, looking at me with more questions than I could be bothered to answer in her gaze.

"What are you doing? A shrine maiden's body is valuable, you know. You shouldn't just casually touch a girl's body, you know. I'll report you to the authorities? You--" Feno said, speaking twice as fast as any normal person could.

I shut her up by raising my left hand as I buried my face in the palm of my right.

"Would you two shut up for one second and listen to me?" I asked, half in a growl.