Glizumi crunches a hard-shelled nut between a couple of rocks to access the edible part inside, while Levvikami paces in irritation. The latter grumbles, "Banished!? Banished!? What are we supposed to do!?"

"Starve to death," grumbles the gloomy Moelka while stirring a weed stew over the dying fire they managed to scrounge up.

Sodenizia watches quietly as the youngest. She was dragged into the whole situation by the others present, and the fifth and oldest member of their little group, Tulztame, retorts dryly, "Not much different than if we had stayed."

All five of the petite beings are female kobolds, a race of bipedal reptilians said to have descended along one of the bloodlines of the dragons, but diluted far down to the demure and weak race they have become. As such, they have to be clever, and unlike goblins, they are quite successful at making use of their environment to thrive without violence.

That said, in the mountains where they are, survival is more difficult, and during a particularly bad crop following the endless war of the more crowded tribes, starvation among the lower kobolds like the five was growing more serious.

And, because they're slightly larger, males are in short supply and hoarded by the wealthier families of the tribe. Having children is a luxury, and the somewhat-fair argument made is that if the adults cannot thrive, they have no business having children. But, having children is also a way to increase one's wealth in the tribe, since more children eventually means more assistants in the tasks the family carries out, from farming, gathering, hunting, mining, forging, and cloth making.

Unfortunately, unlike some of the other races, clothing doesn't help kobolds much. They are full-blooded reptiles, meaning they are cold-blooded, so clothing only staves off the cold for a time.

"Food, children, warmth… You'd think we just exist to work until we die!" huffs Levvikami. "I just want one or two children! Is that such a grave sin!?"

"It is to our masters," grumbles Tulztame. "And, in case you forgot, they keep all of the males. So, unless males poof out of nowhere and impregnate us, we're doomed to be a bunch of banished wanderers until we die." The kobold woman massages her bicep, which is still tender from the 'Exile' brand that marks them as booted from their own village.

"C-Can't we go to another village and ask them for help?" asks Sodenizia softly.

Glizumi replies as she keeps cracking the few nuts she collected, "No. That mark on all of our arms is the mark of Exile. Our own village did us a sort of kindness by booting us out. Any other village will see us as lower than their own and likely make us slaves."

"I've heard of far worse than simple labor slaves, as well," adds Moelka grimly. "We're better off eating rocks and dirt out here, if it comes to that."

All five kobolds sigh together. They just tried to get a little extra food from the storehouse. Their plan seemed like a good idea, but they were caught in the act. Their sixth member, however, escaped harm due to none of the five who were caught selling her out.

Glizumi has wondered if she betrayed the five of them, but the exiled woman can't be certain. There shouldn't be much incentive to do that, but betraying her friends never crossed Glizumi's mind, so it might have more benefit than she knows of.

Frustrated, Sodenizia kneels on the ground and holds a plant root that she dug up to make tea with towards the sky. "Great spirits of Wisdom and Good Fortune, please, if we are to wander the endless trail of the exile, at least send us males. We'll work hard and create our own settlement, and pray to you three, no, four times a day!"

The other women chuckle, but a strange sound catches Glizumi's ear. "Wait! Shh!" All five women listen, and Glizumi finally asks, "Did you hear that?"

"I heard something. What was it?"

"I'm not sure. I think it came from that way…" Glizumi points, and all five listen again.

Clink-a-clink-clink.

It's the unnatural sound of metal on another hard surface, not specifically metal.

That almost always means people.

And, people mean food.

One way or the other.

All five kobold women share glances, and they nod together.

They quickly snuff out the fire with dirt and spread out, dashing towards the general direction of the sound.

When the five kobold women find the source of the sounds, they all stop in their tracks, keeping themselves hidden in cover as they study the strange pair in the mountains.

Smoke is rising from a rather large fire that couldn't have been supported by the scarce shrubs and grasses decorating the mountainside. The human adjusts actual logs, as in, pieces from a whole tree, keeping the fire large as it cooks meats on a metal grate.

The women look at each other again hungrily for not just one reason, but two.

The human is a male.

And, better yet, humans are warm-blooded.

Levvikami is arguably the reason all five of them were banished. Stealing food from the stockpile was initially her idea, but she didn't have to argue much to convince the additional five that were involved.

Her idea was sound. Their luck failed them.

And, that same scheming kobold whispers, "We need to capture him alive. We'll tell him we'll restore his freedom after he breeds us."

The three remaining eldest kobolds nod in agreement, while Sodenizia asks sheepishly, "S-So… We're not going to hurt him? We'll let him go?"

Tulztame and Levvikami snicker softly, and the latter retorts, "Why should we? We need to start a village anyways. Who would give up a perfectly good male?"

Sodenizia is a little disappointed with the deceit, but she ultimately agrees. Her own desires outweigh her empathy for the human, especially because they need him alive so desperately, they wouldn't dare harm him.

And, on top of that, he has a lot of food, by the looks of it.

Five bellies growl together, and the plan is set. Levvikami draws out a plan quietly, assigning roles to each of them. They have to move quickly while the human is unprepared.

As long as everything goes according to plan, they'll get what they want and no one has to get hurt.

***

Not long before that, Daniel, Magnir, and the corrupted feldrok land in a pile of bodies on a rocky hillside. The feral creature managed to trigger the teleportation pack that several of Daniel's companions created for him. However, the device is supposed to transport him to the Citadel. Something caused the device to malfunction, and Magnir was narrowly able to dive into physical contact with the mechanic in the nick of time, ensuring Daniel wasn't alone when he arrived.

It's unclear if they were sent to an intentional location as some sort of emergency backup or to a completely random location.

The snarling and flailing feldrok claws and flails free of Daniel, but he reacts fast enough to grab its long tail, causing it to snarl and screech at him. Regardless, he is able to hold it from escaping. But, when he aims his revolver, it whirls on him with frightening speed, smacking his revolver free of his hand. Now having a brief upper hand, Kernuules' core being tries to pounce Daniel, and he manages to stay on his feet. Magnir is busy groaning in agony from some sort of effect of the feldrok's mana, meaning the dragon is minimally useful at the moment.

I need to kill this thing already.

That's when Daniel has an idea. Kaeralegier?

"{Do it, Daniel. I think it'll work.}"

The mechanic draws Nemaisol while trying to protect his neck, and no sooner does the sword break free of the locking ring does the little feldrok twitch before suddenly falling limp against Daniel as the cancerous-looking glowing 'heart' of the seemingly undead feldrok child loses its color and fades to a dark grey.

The otherworlder catches his breath briefly, setting the feldrok on the ground.

"{If you don't want it to wake back up, you'll have to destroy that thing on its chest.}"

Any idea what it is?

"{It's something tied to magic, and it's the heart of the poor little thing's amalgamation of various magic types.}"

Types as in elements?

"{No. Types as in the difference between the Divine summoning spell and a teleportation spell. They're like… magnetism and atomic forces; different fundamental mechanisms. Most of the people you've encountered so far use a rather homogenous magic type, with only a few variations here and there, such as Doephluev's rune magic and the glyph magic Wenlianna knows a little about.}"

Daniel studies the body for a moment. Its chest isn't moving, and he'd be willing to bet that the feldrok child has been dead for a very long time.

Its body is now host to a horrific state of being.

So, is it safe to assume this… corrupted feldrok child is Kernuules himself, or is it just the battery?

"{Both. I'm mostly guessing, but Kernuules was more… reserved than the little one, but they are one in the same. The plants growing out of it are the same as the ones that can rapidly grow and be manipulated by a type of magic no longer practiced on the continent, I think.}"

Great…

Coughing draws Daniel's attention to Magnir. "Magnir? Are you alright?"

The dragon nods as he continues coughing, spitting to clear out his mouth of the remnants of his stomach contents. "Yes, My Liege. My sincere apologies for my weakness… The mana from the creature is too intense."

"Catch your breath and try to mind our surroundings. I have to figure out what to do with this little one."

"Shouldn't we destroy it, Sire?" asks Magnir wearily. He is finally able to take a seated position, but he looks and sounds like he was the one fighting a new kind of enemy.

"I'm not sure how to destroy it without contaminating the area with its 'poisonous mana', as you all seem to view it."

"Ah… good point, my Liege."

That, and I want to know more about the magic used to create Kernuules if we can. And, once we do, I'd like to find the creator and hold him accountable."

"{Why's he gotta be a 'he', huh?}" jokes Kaeralegier. "{I took you for a 'villainy is an equal opportunity field'.}"

Yeah, yeah. Is it safe to put this thing into a void bag?

"{It should be fine. Though, I'd use one that you don't care about, just in case.}"

Right.

Daniel calls out, "Magnir, when you can, extract some rope for me. We're going to tie it up and stick it in a void bag once I stow Nemaisol. I want to study the spell and track down its creator."

"Track down the creator?" asks Magnir nervously.

"Don't worry. I have no interest in expanding his work. I want to make him suffer, if possible, before we erase this terrible magic forever."

The blue dragon is relieved, and he obeys his orders, finding rope in his void bag. He then helps Daniel tie up the creature, though he's extremely wary of the apparently undead feldrok.

Magnir quickly scrambles up to survey their surroundings while there's a moment of peace, and Daniel sets his void bag down. He'll have to scroll through to find one of his extra ones in his 'filing system'.

"There isn't anyone in our immediate proximity," remarks the blue dragon in human form. While he doesn't have much more mana than a moderately strong human mage of Zenkon, compared to the Dragon Empresses and Neith, this puts him much closer to Daniel's end of the spectrum, meaning the second Jomsviking needs to conserve his magic, which is nearly depleted currently. That said, his strength and senses are still those of a dragon, and his sense of smell is particularly keen.

Daniel often worries that his secrets with his mistresses are not secrets at all around any of the dragons. Though, the gatonines also have keen senses as well.

He puts that out of his mind and looks to the dragon. "Can you tell where we are?'

Magnir looks around. Snow stretches pretty far in patches until reaching the summit of the mountain, which is capped with whiteness. They're pretty far from the summit, but by the looks of the areas down-mountain, the region is likely in its 'spring' at best, only just beginning to melt the winter's hold away.

Magnir exhales, and his breath is easily visible. "Given the time of year and the snow, we're extremely far north, which means we're probably pretty far west of the Fievegal and north of where the Orbicharium used to be. I don't know the region well, if I'm right, but I would guess the device malfunctioned and teleported us to somewhere random."

Daniel scoffs. Hekate uses a bastardized form of traditional spells that uses a heavy amount of her mana, which might as well be limitless at this point, to teleport her to wherever she can imagine. It works the same way as the Citadel and Xyreko's teleportation, but on a much larger and more wasteful scale.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Geirahoel is the only one who can do it as well as Hekate, but she can only do it a few times a week.

Daniel instructs, "Alright, give us some distance. I'm going to stash this critter so we can deal with it when we get back."

"Yes, my Liege." Magnir falls back a few yards, ready to react if he needs to, though the feldrok's ability to put him on his knees at short range with nausea will definitely be an impediment.

Daniel sheaths Nemaisol, and the growth on Kernuules' chest starts to glow. He quickly cycles through his void bag once it also powers up, and he finds one of his extra void bags. Once he takes it out, the mechanic checks the contents of the bag to be sure, and he finds it only contains random junk and relatively worthless armor he sorted from the soldiers he defeated at Peony. He doesn't care if he has to sacrifice any of it, so he starts shoving the feldrok in just as it starts to twitch and come back to life.

"Sorry, but headshots and the double-tap didn't work, so I'll deal with you later."

Once the feldrok zombie is secure in a void bag, Daniel stows that void bag back in his main one, ready to address the newest problem on his plate.

"Now then, Mukori, if any of you are listening, can you identify where we are?" He looks around, but after a long period of time, he doesn't get an answer. "Xyreko? Are you there?"

He collects his revolver as he prays that someone responds, but the silence remains.

"Oof… Mukori's not going to be happy about this."

Magnir was listening, so he easily makes the connection.

"I would ask which of their Graces you mean, but I suspect the answer is 'yes', my Liege."

Daniel laughs. "You're not wrong. But, five seconds have gone by without receiving any reply from anyone, so something must've happened to the spells on my helmet. Let's move somewhere to sort this out."

"Of course, Sire."

Daniel hands the dragon a polonium round after withdrawing a couple from their case, which will hide their mana. Neith can suppress his own mana, but Magnir doesn't have the strength or magic control to hide his aura.

He accepts the 'anti-magic' bullet, and the two quickly jog away.

Daniel opts not to hide their footprints, since it will draw their enemies towards them, while Daniel and Magnir seize the advantages of higher ground and defensible positions.

"Doesn't your armor have the tracking glyphs in pretty much every part, My Liege?" asks the dragon.

"That's true, which means that if someone doesn't show up on top of me in the next couple of seconds, we're probably outside of her range. Until someone shows up, we should assume we're on our own for the time being." The mechanic then remarks dryly, "This has been a hell of a week, hasn't it? I think I'm going to retire and just cuddle with my children from now on."

Magnir laughs. "I envy you, your Grace. Please bless Roeta's and my child when it hatches."

"Certainly, but as your Emperor, I should probably encourage you to be prepared to have more."

The blue dragon grins warmly. "Try and stop me, my Liege. Roeta simply wishes to space them out. We're not as brave as you and the Empresses."

"Just the Empresses, I'm afraid. If they were doubtful, I'd be terrified."

They both share a warm chuckle.

Once they've headed relatively southeast from their arrival position a good distance, Daniel and Magnir start setting up a cooking area. "I'll start us a meal. If you would, survey the area and figure out where we need to go. Once you have some idea of where we are, we can probably fly back."

"We could just pick a direction, my Liege."

Daniel shakes his head. "I don't know your stamina's range, but there are too many risks navigating by air with no sense of destination. If we had a secondary means of escape, maybe, but I don't want to risk you being spotted in the air and attacked. For all we know, we're on another continent, and there's a whole different horde of dragons who hate the ones from our continent."

Magnir ponders these words. He can't think of any objections. Everyone knows that Neith has travelled the world, but Magnir wouldn't be able to withstand as many threats. If he stumbles the two of them across another Yaulwembor, or even Tyror or Rohgattobor, Magnir might not be able to protect Daniel and defeat the monsters at the same time.

"Honestly, I should have awakened Yaulwembor," replies Daniel. "Something tells me she's both the stalker type AND really good at tracking down whatever she wants at extreme ranges."

Magnir scoffs. That was exactly how she was attracted to the battle with Rohgattobor when Magnir, Helbeit, and Resken inadvertently provoked her. She lost all interest in killing the trio, assuming she noticed the latter two, and cast them aside. She then launched an attack either due to feeling her nesting ground was threatened, or because she was desperate to weaken and capture a mate; which would have been Neith until Daniel defeated her.

She still needs to be awakened after being captured and trapped in a void bag, but because of her devastating power and adaptive talent with magical spells a 'non-sentient' being shouldn't be capable of, the entire inner circle is hesitant to try to deal with her.

Regardless, for now, they're on their own, and they have to be tactful with how they use their resources.

"With your permission, my Liege, I would like to use my remaining mana in the air to try a telepathic connection. I won't be able to say much more than a single word, but it might be a good idea to inform the Empresses that we're still alive."

Daniel nods in agreement. "If you can, please do. It's certainly better than nothing."

Magnir agrees, and he uses a minimal amount of mana to summon his wings, even in his human form, and he takes flight to survey the area as Daniel instructed.

The mechanic feels a little bad. When it comes to non-combat roles, especially in the field, his weaknesses become all the more glaring. He can't outrun gatonines, or even trained knights in full armor carrying a rifle weighing as much as a young woman. He can't fly, he can't smell threats, and he can't hear abnormally well.

He can cook, he can build a tent, and he can do his best to strategize. Otherwise, he is one of the most useless field-operatives the Fievegal has.

Maybe I should look into adapting this personal teleporter so that I can at least summon soldiers… Grendel Six has really proven themselves. My own Goblin Navy Seals… Daniel laughs at his ponderings as he starts grilling meat over the fire he has been building up. I hope they'll be able to recover.

Something feels off suddenly, and he glances around cautiously. Magnir should hopefully be aware enough to be keeping an eye on Daniel, so as long as the human can defend himself for even a few moments, the dragon will be able to return in time.

He places his hand on his revolver, and suddenly a figure falls out from behind a wiry shrub towards his right. Daniel stands up, but the figure is a person, given the green cloak being worn, which is woven, rather than being made of thick fur.

The distraction works, and Daniel realizes it far too late.

He is pounced from behind by a goblin-sized attacker that latches onto his back by wrapping arms around his neck, trying to pull him to the ground.

Unlike a goblin, though, this being has a tail in addition to the strong legs that wrap around his lower torso. Daniel struggles to pry the short being's arms off of his neck, feeling leathery scales like an alligator. His right hand goes for his revolver, but the reptilian tail bats at his hand to interfere with it, and he can feel a reptilian chin press against his right shoulder to help maintain leverage. An androgynous voice chatters at him, but he can't understand a word.

The mechanic calls upon his courage and senses, snapping his right fist up into her nose. The being yelps, and he can feel the grip on his neck shift.

Before he can capitalize, he notices two more hooded and cloaked beings charging at him. They're roughly the same height as goblins, maybe three and a half feet tall if they stand at full height.

The mechanic reaches for the base of the being's tail on his back, gripping tightly. His middle finger finds a soft spot, and he grips tightly, but this only causes her to yelp.

Thankfully, this grants him a moment's reprieve when her grip loosens and he uses her right arm to yank the small being over his shoulder.

One of the two charging at him from the front sees their ally flying towards them and dives away while the other one is caught by the being, and they topple together.

The human mechanic starts to reach for his dagger, but another one of the small beings yells a war cry, and he flinches as a net sprawls across his torso.

"What the hell!?" snaps Daniel.

He finally gets a clear glimpse of the beings attacking him. If, rather than appearing as humans with a few dragon features, his dragon companions took on simply bipedal bodies of their original forms, that would be how he would describe these small beings. They have crested reptilian heads with distinct horns angled back away from their skulls, leathery skin like an alligator, and surprisingly curvy thighs and legs, but with reptilian appearances.

It's hard to say for sure if he's dealing with males or females, since their bodies don't have breasts the way humans do, instead having a relatively flat chest.

Frustrated, Daniel lunges towards the fire and kicks the metal grate of the simple grill as hard as he can. It clangs with a sharp metallic ring, and he uses his superior weight to yank on the net's pull rope. Given their size, Daniel has likely three times the weight of the mini-dragons.

Since he knows no other term for it off-hand, he decides to call them kobolds in his head. As far as he knows, kobolds are typically depicted as a small race of reptilian humanoids in fantasy settings. They're usually smarter than goblins, but not much stronger, relying on traps over direct attacks.

The meat that was being grilled topples into the snow, and a fifth kobold halts as it runs past, whirling to dive onto it. It takes several bites out of the unfinished meat while one of the others yips at the ravenous one.

The group is split on what to do, and Daniel realizes that they're starving more than aggressive.

"Don't kill them!" shouts the human, startling the ones that are still insistent on trying to keep him trapped, while two of the kobolds feast on the meat as quickly as they can tear pieces off.

Magnir slams into the ground with a splash of snow, startling all five of the kobolds. He roars loudly, and all of them flop onto their butts away from the blue dragon.

Daniel manages to get the net off of himself and draw his revolver, firing it into the air. This causes the fear to escalate, now that the kobolds realize they're surrounded by two enemies. They were struggling with just Daniel, and if they have any idea of what they're up against with Magnir, they know they're already beaten.

All five kobolds immediately kneel low, holding their tails across their up-facing palms. It's pretty clearly some kind of pose of supplication, but the specifics would be beyond the human mechanic.

They chatter desperately, forming a partial circle as they spread who is facing Daniel and Magnir as evenly as possible.

"They're begging forgiveness, now, my liege. They claim to have been addled by hunger, and they meant no harm."

"I'd say they meant a little harm," retorts the mechanic dryly. "They did try to incapacitate me."

Magnir translates Daniel's reply, and the kobolds all tense.

"They only wished to stop you from stopping them, so they say." The one that seems to be the group's leader continues speaking desperately, and Magnir translates. "They've been trapped and abandoned on the mountain, and they've been starving and cold. They were hoping we would help them at least for a short time."

"Help them you say? I suppose we have plenty of supplies…"

Daniel still carries a sort of magical file system worth of magic void bags, and among them contains the small army's worth of supplies he captured from defending Fort Peony. He never bothered to shed the supplies, since they could come in handy in scenarios exactly like this one, though he did reduce the number of excess void bags he has stored in his primary one. And, one of the few he still carries now holds some kind of archaic evil.

He does notice that, for 'being cold' and reptilian, they are only really wearing their hooded cloaks and a simple tube top and short skirt with likely village patterns from their tribe.

Daniel replies after thinking, "Tell them that, as long as they agree to do everything we say, they can camp with us, and we'll keep the fire going to keep them warm."

Magnir nods and translates.

"What do they have to do?"

"Simple. They'll turn over all of their weapons to us while we're camping together, and when we part ways, we'll return them. If they do that, we'll feed them their fill and keep the fire going."

Magnir explains all of this, and all five Kobolds look up in disbelief. They turn their gazes to Daniel, giving him puppy-dog eyes that somehow look rather endearing on their reptilian dragon-like faces.

The five look at each other briefly and share a few brief bird-like warbles with each other before disarming themselves hastily, Magnir flinches as if it's a surprise attack, but Daniel holds his hand up. He's watching them, and their movements aren't hostile.

"Alright, Sir Magnir, I'll gather the weapons. You keep an eye on them. Don't be too hasty, even if they try to touch me or offer me something."

"I'll gather the weapons, Sire. You are…"

"Magnir, you know me. I'm not so pompous as to make the front-line attacker police weapons while I try to keep watch."

"V-Very well, Sire."

Daniel cleans up the weapons and stores them in an empty spare void bag he was carrying, showing it to the kobolds and keeping it on his belt instead of putting it back in his main bag. He'd rather they steal their bag instead of attack him, though, of course, if they're going to rob him, they're probably more likely to abandon their bag in favor of stealing his.

Especially when he and Magnir begin setting up a fairly nice camp using all of the supplies, complete with blankets, magic-stone powered space heaters, and a shell shelter. It'll be cramped with all seven of them, but Magnir decides to stand watch as night begins to creep downwards.

Magnir and Daniel hash out their plan with the kobolds as they happily enjoy the meal of grilled meat from both mantaroucks and from Tyror, a simple stew, and even grilled vegetables similar to corn and carrots, which surprises Daniel a little. Though, he knows it shouldn't, since the dragons eat virtually everything that humans do.

The plan as it stands changes slightly with the kobolds. They plead with the two Fievegal members to let them accompany the two men on their travels at least as far as the next major town, which they offer to guide Daniel and Magnir to. It sounds a little suspicious, but only because the kobolds glance at Daniel and Magnir suspiciously in turn.

In fairness, all five of them are females, and their petite bodies and relative weakness to even Daniel means that they are at risk of harm if they aren't careful.

At least, that's Daniel giving them the benefit of the doubt.

"{Please! Please let us share warmth!}" pleads Levvikami.

"{Yes! We have children! Must keep warm!}" adds Tulztame urgently.

All five of them crowd around and cling to Daniel, and he keeps his hand near his main void bag to prevent pickpockets. In all honesty, he has a myriad of dangerous tools they could steal from him, including bullets, knives, and even the experimental mini-torch Wenlianna made using ignityal from the dragons.

He's not sure how she obtained it, since Daniel has to 'earn' it when he asks for it, and it's very dangerous if it can be ignited.

However, they all seem set on pressuring Daniel into their request with desperate begging, rather than robbing him blind. Magnir translates with a mostly-neutral amused face, serving as best as he can to keep up with the Kobolds. Daniel is receiving broken translations from Magnir, but even when only one of the kobolds speaks, it seems to be how they're talking.

I need to be careful with these ladies. They were talking fluently before, and now, are speaking in a broken dialect of their own language. Something's amiss, but they seem friendly enough at least.

"They said 'children'?" asks Daniel. None of them have noticable curves to their bellies, but Daniel only has the actual dragons to compare to in terms of egg-layers, assuming kobolds do as well.

"Yes, Sire. They still are, in fact. They almost sound like they're arguing whose children… will get warmed up first? I think they're either rushing their speech, or intentionally dumbing themselves down to be harder to understand. Their accents and dialects at this speed are too thick for me to keep up with. Forgive me, my Liege."

"Nothing to forgive. I just… GAH!"

Daniel's outburst at the end startles the kobolds into shrinking their shoulders, but they don't release him. "Tell them 'Fine. We can share a blanket and I'll give them my warmth.'"

As soon as word is given to the reptilian ladies, they gleefully cheer and hug Daniel.

The mechanic murmurs quietly, "Try to keep an eye on them. Something is off about their behavior."

"We don't have to help them, my Lord. Their fate doesn't change much once we part ways."

"I'm not getting cruelty or maliciousness from them. And, if I killed every sus lady I ever met, I wouldn't have the harem I do."

"I think you did kill half of them, didn't you?" retorts the blue dragon. He, too, experienced Daniel defending the Citadel first hand, though it was over before the blue lesser dragon could really process how he was defeated, and he was waking up later in a prison cell with Roeta having pleaded for his life.

Daniel twitches, trying to remember exactly. It's undeniable that Geirahoel and Doephluev crossed the threshold into Death's grasp, and now they are his most spoiled mistresses. No small amount of guilt plays into that on his part, but he does genuinely love their personalities and find them beautiful. Better, neither of them abuses the guilt he feels, instead strong-arming him with affection and clinginess.

Other than those two, he only wounded the others at worst, since they were enemies at the time. The Emperor clears his throat. "Regardless, we have plenty of supplies, and they know the area. I don't want to abandon a bunch of prospective mothers on a mountainside."

"Understood, your Grace. Though, I wonder if they were in as dire of straits as they claim."

"I'll store my weapons with the exception of the revolver and have you hold onto the gear, just in case, if that's alright."

"Certainly, my Liege," replies the blue Einherjar.

The five kobolds giddily talk to each other quickly, though Magnir confirms it's just a strange level of excitement about escaping the cold and receiving warmth. They pull Daniel into the shell and keep the pressure up, insisting he take his armor off.

Daniel will take some damage if they attack him without his armor, but that's why they'll be removing any weapons from their grasp. He's fairly sure he can push around a couple of them long enough for Magnir to respond if need be.

Though, the attack Daniel is to face isn't quite what he was expecting.

***

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