Lord Of Puppets

Chapter 259 – Dungeon Master And Emperor.

"Well then, quick round of introduction." – said Ariava as she stood up.

"I’ve introduced myself before, but I will do that again."

"Greetings."

"I’m Ariava Byrawa."

"Also knows as the Witch Of Mad Lust." – as she looked towards Thauma.

"This guy right here, is the owner of the dungeon. Thauma."

{"Pleasure to meet you."} – the humanoid mannequin like golem written on the piece of paper in big letters.

{"I’m Thauma, the dungeon master of this dungeon."}

{":)"}

(Smily face?) – thought the confused emperor and vampire.

"Sorry if that confuses you." – said Ariava.

"Thauma here doesn’t really have anything like mouth to use in order to speak, so his only way of communication is with signs and writing." – Ariava explained.

"I see...." – replied the emperor.

"Well, I guess it is my turn now."

"Greetings!"

"I’m the emperor of the Gorijy empire."

"Gustav Warmin The Third."

"And I’m Korwan Von Kurwiad."

"I’m the head of the Kurwiad family as well as the leader of the Red Ivy clan."

{{Info}}

{{Vampire clans are usually referred to with the names of the plant alongside the specific color.}}

{(Each member of the family is usually granted to type of symbols. The superior symbol which the family that rules the clan possess, and the lesser symbols that the other family possess.}}

{{Some clans possess more than single symbol in order to establish some form of more detailed hierarchic.}}

{{By the way, there are families or clans out there that also uses plant symbols, but that doesn’t automatically means they are vampires, in the past there were some misunderstanding because of that.}}

"Well then, this is introduction time over." – said Ariava.

"Now, your turn to ask questions."

"?"

"What?" – asked the bit confused duo of rulers.

"Hm? I mean, you have some questions, don’t you?" – asked Ariava.

"It is honestly for all the best if we just deal with it already before we even start the peace talk."

"Ah."

"As for the reason for the peace talk and what not, we will talk about it anyway, so I don’t think you need to waste your questions now."

"..."

The two men looked at each other, unsure what to say.... Before moments later the vampire leader nodded his head, fallowed up with the emperor nodding his own.

"Then, if I may." – said the vampire as he raised his hand.

"Go ahead." – said Ariava.

"..."

"That being. That golem. Thauma." – said the vampire as it looked towards the humanoid mannequin Thauma’s body.

"It is truly a dungeon master?"

"Hm? I’ve already introduced him as one, didn’t I?" – said Ariava.

"I think I get what he is talking about." – said Porai.

"Korwan."

"This guy is indeed the dungeon master."

"And this is really a dungeon master."

"This isn’t some fake or anything."

"I’ve talked with him and spent some time with him."

"So I can vouch for him."

"He is the real being."

"..."

(So that means that the dungeon isn’t fake nor the dungeon master.) – thought both emperor and the vampire leader.

(But is this a bad or good thing!?) – thought the emperor who was somehow keeping up his pocket face, while clenching his fist to hide his fear.

(Not only that... This also begs another question in turn.)

"If I may ask question now." – said the emperor.

"What exactly is the relationship between you two?"

"Hm.... Honestly, I would keep it private for now." – said Ariava.

"So sorry, but I can’t answer that one question."

(Bitch!) – thought the emperor.

(You told us to ask questions and you are not willing to answer one of the most important questions!? What the fuck woman?!)

"..."

"Then can I ask something?" – the vampire raised his hand once again.

"I can see that Porai is alive and well... But what about the rest of her group? There is also one person who was in charge of this region that worked directly under me.... Are they also alive?"

"Nope. I’ve killed them all." – replied Ariava without waiting.

"!?" - the vampire obviously was alarmed by the news.... And when he looked towards Porai and saw the woman’s expression, he realize that Ariava wasn’t kidding.

"The only reason why I didn’t killed Porai is because she is not only useful, but she is also important figure in the empire that I cannot just willy-willy kill." – said Ariava.

"Am I right?"

"Any more questions?"

"..."

(Do you want to go?) – the emperor gave eye signal to the vampire.

(....No.) – the vampire shook his head.

(Honestly, I do want to ask many and I mean MANY questions.) – thought the vampire.

(But at the same time, there are some questions we shouldn’t be asking right now.)

"..."

"So.... Anybody?" – asked Ariava as the two men stood in silence.

"..."

"No... I think we are fine to proceed with the meeting." – said the emperor.

"Great!" – said Ariava.

"Well then, let’s get right to it." – said Ariava as he opened up her own pocket space and took out a piece of paper as well as a feather pen.

"First thing first."

"Let us get a story straight."

"As of right now, I will be speaking for Thauma right now."

"This guy here, doesn’t really want to have any conflict with you."

"If anything, he just wants peace and understand the outside world."

"However, he can’t do that since you are attacking him nonstop."

"And I won’t be beating around the bush."

"He did committed the genocide on this territory out of his free own will." – said Ariava, alarming somewhat both men.

"There is no use denning that."

"This was a war and what not."

"However, if you agree to the peace offer, this guy will swear that he will not unleash his dungeon on your people or anything like that."

"Not only that, but there will be several benefits that will good for you."

"First thing first."

"You will receive my support when it comes to stabilizing your nation."

"One of your main problems right now is the fact that you created empire way too quickly."

"But with my direct help and manipulation, you should be able to stabilize the nation."

"Obviously, it would be for the best if I would try to stay out of sight."

"But if it comes to it, I may end up some things into my own hands."

"As for your second problem, the hostiles nations."

"I honestly don’t wish to be used as your tool of war and if you want your empire to grow, then you cannot relay on me too much."

"However, I could maybe somewhat help you out in getting stronger OR I could maybe somewhat make some chaos in other nations in order to buy you some time and delay the wars."

"Obviously I can’t really brainwash everybody and what not, since it could make situation.... Stupid to say the least."

(Or more exactly, I don’t want to make my involved too well known.) – thought Ariava.

"How does that sound?"

"..."

(Honestly... It is perfect.) – thought the emperor Gustav.

(But at the same time, it does sounds too good.)

(She is only speaking of be-)

"And to top it all off." – Ariava continued.

"This guy here will be producing some golems that will be serving directly under you."

"?"

"What do you mean?" – asked the confused vampire.

"This dungeon, it can produce golems." – said Ariava.

"Usually, the dungeon monsters upon their full manifestation are not fully loyal to the dungeon and can at moment notice just leave it and completely abandon its control."

"Meaning, they are somewhat uncontrollable."

"But this guy here, can make golems using his authority as the dungeon master."

"A monsters without need or personally."

"When the dungeon monsters are still dungeon monsters, they are just hollow creatures that pretty much have nothing when it comes to personality."

"They are just dolls."

"However, when they fully manifest and become the real monsters, they are born for real, allowing to obtain personally as well as needs."

"Which in turn could result in the monsters rebelling against the dungeon and going their separate ways."

"But with this guy here, even if the golems fully manifest, they are still them."

"They are loyal puppets that will do anything."

"And if they are made to serve you, then upon their manifestation, they will serv you."

"Obviously you won’t be getting a large numbers of them as the time would go by."

"However, you won’t have to spent any materials or anything on their production, now don’t you?"

(Honestly speaking, that kind of deal should be theatrically physically impossible.) – thought Ariava.

(Dungeon monsters upon their manifestation and transformation into the true monsters very often betrays the dungeon, leaving the dungeon and going their separate ways.)

(Some dungeons do have means of somehow "recruiting" or controlling their monsters after they got manifested, allowing them to not their forces to grow instead of decreasing.)

(But then there comes the "maintaining cost".)

(Even if the dungeon obtain miasma from the dungeon monsters and from their full manifestation, they would still need to spent good amount of miasma to change up their dungeon, providing a living space as well as food.)

(But Thauma? HE DOESN’T NEED SHIT!)

(His golems are just regular golems!)

(They are not like him!)

(They don’t need to sleep or eat!)

(All he needs to do is to make the dungeon somewhat more spacious, but he really doesn’t need that either.)

(Why?)

(BECOUSE HE CAN JUST LEAVE THEM OUTSIDE!)

(The strategy of "giving" soldiers should never work with ANY dungeon!)

(But because this is the golem dungeon, this impossible strategy is straight up possible!)

"Free soldiers that do not need food or anything."

"You don’t even need to waste your materials on their production."

"And as the dungeon would grow, then so will the number of the received soldiers."

"How does that sound?"

"..."

(A free army?) – thought conflicted emperor as he and the vampire leader were currently analyzing the situation.

"..."

"If I may... How exactly would that work?" – asked the emperor Gustav.

"What I mean to say is, how many soldiers we would be receiving as the time would go by?"

{"It depends."} – written Thauma.

{"It takes time for the dungeon to manifest monsters."}

{"And stronger golems do take much more noticeable amount of time to create and as well as other conditions."}

"You probably know the common ways how the dungeon grow." – said Ariava.

"The monsters in dungeon."

"The manifestation of the monster dungeon."

"And the feeding of dungeon."

"These are the 3 common ways the dungeon can grow."

"If you leave Thauma alone and the dungeon isn’t attacked even once, it will be able to produce more and more monsters each time."

"And as the dungeon would grow in size, so would the number of monsters it could produce."

"And if you have something like criminals that you want to get rid of? Just let the dungeon ear them and you will get money in return."

"The dungeon break will not be something that will be used against you, but instead you will harness it and use it as your own weapon."

"It maybe not much and not very powerful now.... But as the time would go by, you would not only get stronger monsters, but also obtain them in much larger quantities."

"So, how does that sound?"

"..."

(A free army production?) – thought the emperor.

(If this dungeon can truly produce army for us nonstop.... Then our own military strength will receive somewhat nice boost....)

(Not only that.... If the golems get destroyed, we could use their materials to build new golems or something else!)

(This dungeon produces iron and steel golems according to the intel!)

(That means it would mean that we wouldn’t just be getting a free army, but also a free mine of iron and steel!)

"..."

"In the nutshell." – said the emperor.

"We will be getting 3 things."

"First will be your support."

"Obviously it won’t be necessary an extremely powerful one since you want to stay hidden."

"But still, we would receive your support to stabilize the empire."

"Second thing, we would be at the peace with this dungeon, no longer making it hostile or anything like that."

"And the third benefit would be the fact that we would be getting a free army production of golems that will be completely loyal to us?"

"Like completely? We could even destroy them and harvest their materials if we want to?"

"Correct. They will be completely yours." – said Ariava.

{"I can confirm it as well. I can make the golems produced by the dungeon to be loyal to the empire."} – written Thauma.

"..."

"Then.... If I may ask something else now." – said the emperor as he grew nervously.

"What do you want in return?"

"Is there anything else beside the peace threat between our two sides?"

"Yes. There are 2 more things." – replied Ariava.

"The first thing will be somewhat simple."

"A trade."

"Simple put, sometimes this guy will want to buy something from you."

"Like, not demand it, but just buy it."

"As for the second thing."

"It is maybe somewhat bit more demanding."

"The Mevon territory where the dungeon is located at."

"We want its entire ownership transferred to our side."