There was an oddity in the way that Rax moved that threw up red flags . The casualness of making weapons of war while welcoming them warmly in a brutal workshop was just one too many contrasting features to feel like anything was truly genuine. It was also in the way that Rax moved. Shara didn’t have humanoid tics. Preferring to stay in absolute stillness and silence when she could.

  Rax wasn’t like that at all.

  He waved his hand at the other Unwanted, giving her a dismissive motion. Shara left without a word. The great doors slamming behind her as she left. Enchantments coming in and sealing the place shut.

  Rax bowed his head slightly, then spoke in perfect English.

  “It is nice to meet the one the Witch Tyrant is raising.”

  All of Ryan’s plotting came to a screeching halt. He raised a finger. “. But please never say those words ever again.”

  Rax scratched its head, another action that Shara didn’t have. “Apologies. Did I make a mistake?”

  “Just… understand that she and I have some serious differences. She isn’t raising me any more than some asshole kicks a puppy to teach it a lesson.” Ryan paused. “Wait, that makes me the puppy. You know what? Nevermind.”

  Rax nodded. “That is… concerning. I was hoping you would be able to explain why she has been absent as of late.”

  He had thought of this while on the walk here. “Probably because she’s leaving me to make the decision.” Ryan glanced at Tar’el, then turned back to Rax. “I think we should speak in your language.”

  Rax just accepted it without question, fluidly changing to its natural language. “Very well.”

  “I think she’s letting me choose what to do here. Allowing me to see what’s going on and then letting me make the decisions. If she forces things too much, it’ll impact my achievements and my future.”

  It was probably true. It also meant that he really was running the show now. Once again, Rax seemed to accept it without question.

  “I was wondering what she wanted me to do with you. Does that mean you will help us on our forces aboveground? I’m sure a conflict like that will help raise your achievements.”

  “No. I’m pretty sure I’ve got the S+ achievement locked down. I think I’m here to help you with another solution. One where you don’t have to fight a war.”

  Rax tilted its head. “I do not think that’s likely. It is also not what the Witch Tyrant wants, ”

  A little bit of the veneer came off of the disguise the monster was using.

  Ryan pushed. “She’s letting decide what to do. She won’t interfere.” Ryan didn’t say, “It’s why she’s not here. She’s letting me choose for your people, and I’m telling you that you don’t have to sacrifice all your lives to be able to go up to the surface.”

  Ryan could not read Rax’s eyes or expressions at all. His brief interaction with Shara wasn’t enough to understand all of the little tics of the Unwanted. All his little human movements were gone.

  Then they were back, like they’d never left. Rax scratched his head awkwardly.

  “But you could be wrong, yes? I only need to look at the history of The Realm to see. Liberation requires threat, a show of force. Or we are only creatures to be subjugated. Perhaps used to search the crevices and dark places where they cannot go, yes?”

  Rax was talking about when Earth used Realmers like exploratory slaves. He did have a point, though only if you looked at past history and thought it would work the same way now.

  “That was back then. The Realm isn’t like that anymore. Not with the realmnet and the Tyrants.”

  Rax was completely back to his normal humanoid behavior. Just with a more creepy language. It seemed he was having difficulty putting them together. Ryan remembered when the Witch Tyrant told him that Pinkie had gotten good at pretending to be a human. This was like that but less competent. At least, that’s what Ryan believed.

  Rax was just discussing things like a regular human being. A false mask. Not his actual beliefs.

  “They also fought for freedom and took lives, yes?”

  “It be solved. Just show the people above that your people can think. That you guys can use magic and enchant things. Hell you have children running around, show–”

  Rax was having none of it, he shook his head vehemently. “You do not understand. We are monsters, hunted, unwanted. Children or adult, they do not care or check. They kill us all the same.”

  “But I’m saying, that’s something they didn’t know.”

  “They will understand when we display our force. We will take something that is important and show them we do understand. It will not kill many of them at first, yes? We are monsters, we must see some blood still.”

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  Ryan wanted to pull at his hair. He was starting to believe that his plan wouldn’t work.

  “You understand that when you do this. No matter how you do it, the assault is going to kill so many of your people right?”

  Rax tilted its head. “You believe we will fail?”

  “No… you’ll probably succeed at taking Gravenmarch. But then what? You set up fortifications with flesh golems that use humanoid limbs. Then set up skulls everywhere? The only thing you’re going to show the world is that you’re monsters. Adventurers will come and attack you in droves.”

  “We are monsters. And proving that we can stop them is part of a show in strength.”

  “You can’t just defend a place in The Realm with people and monsters.”

  “Just monsters.” Rax insisted.

  “. The Realm has missiles and bombs. If you push them too far then they will use it.”

  Rax scratched its head. “We can dig, make shelter. Make it impossible to kill with just one bomb. Have survived the end of worlds. Can show how to survive it all.”

  Ryan could imagine it. The Unwanted digging a great spanning network of tunnels under Gravenmarch, making it hell for adventurers to take back. They could make every single bend a series of disastrous traps.

  Despite it adventurers would still keep coming. The stuff to guarantee that was all in here. In this workshop along there were piles of enchanted metal. Possibly thousands of realmcoin worth of materials per pile. That wasn’t even counting what looked like ancient artifacts at a pile in the corner.

  Rax followed his eyes. “You wish for some of them? I can give to you if you take the Fifth Trial now. Or help and I can give you more.”

  Ryan wrinkled his nose. “Adventurers will come for those. They won’t stop if you show them that. Holding down the only way to advance to realm five showing a bunch of unknown artifacts will just make you the juiciest targets in The Realm.”

  “It will be no harder than staying down here. With the monsters and broken golems. Dying to strong creatures is nothing new.”

  Ryan pretended to lose his cool. “And I’m saying that doesn’t have to happen! You can climb out of the dark and be accepted. Realmnet exists, the internet exists! You can contact the other Tyrants. You just have to show that you’re a people.”

  Rax almost hissed. “. You are the second person out of thousands to see us Unwanted as people. It is wrong. Even the Witch Tyrant understood in the end that we will not be people. Yes?”

  “. She changed her mind because of her own issues. When did she change her mind? Ten? Twenty years ago?”

  “I do not know the time. Only know that after enough time observing us that she changed her mind. As I expected.”

  “And I’m telling you that you are just doing as she wishes. You’re becoming sacrificial lambs to raise strong adventurers. You’re just throwing away your lives when there’s a very clear path that doesn’t involve so much of you dying. My plan can work, right?”

  Rax was silent for a moment. “Maybe.”

  Rax scratched at the ground. His fingers naturally made the tough rock give way around them. He lifted his dirty hands as proof.

  “We are monsters. We have found a Fifth Trial entrance here. You can take it and leave if you want.”

  Ryan grunted, pointing at the elf on his shoulder. “I can’t bring my little tourist in there, I’ll need to go back up first.”

  Rax’s eyes bore a hole into Ryan’s, as if reading his very thoughts. “You cannot go back. Unless you are going to kill all of us here, yes? Save us the time?”

  “I’m not slaughtering ”

  “Then stay until we go. We are almost done. Maybe you can watch and see. Find out that we Unwanted really are monsters. Nothing more.”

  “So… you do know you’re throwing away the Unwanted’s lives? That you’re just lying to them about a bright happy future up above?”

  Rax gave him a big smile. Rax understood that Ryan had seen right through him. A psychopathic monster Rax may have been. A practiced one he was not.

  “Yes we will die. Yes we are monsters. We are not people. We will never be people, we will kill you and you will kill us. We deserve nothing less.”

  Rax moved past him and opened the door. Shara waited dutifully outside, hunched over, both limbs on the ground. She did not turn around to greet Rax. He just talked , like she was a golem.

  “Show Artigan around the city. If he runs, collapse the tunnels he came from. He will not find his way back before we move.” Then Rax paused to think. “Then throw all the young ones into the tunnels after him.”

  When Shara turned her head in hesitation, Rax hissed at her. She straightened up.

  “.”

  Tar’el who had really understood half of the conversation squirmed as Rax walked away.

  “What just happened?”

  “Nothing important. The bastard was just arguing in bad faith.”

  Ryan had been in enough online arguments to have identified it early in the discussion. That wasn’t the reason why he had kept pestering Rax. No, it was to get the confession out.

  After all, his phone had never stopped recording.

  Not since Ryan made that stupid video when he first entered the city proper. It was something he’d thought about during several hours of walking with Shara.

  From then, his plan had revolved around figuring out and exploiting the differences.

  During the discussion with Rax, Ryan was growing increasingly desperate, believing that the little leader knew how to be careful with his words. No, it turned out the monster was just throwing out crappy arguments without actually believing in any of it.

  The only thing that did get a rise from Rax was when Ryan kept calling the Unwanted people.

  The fucker really believed the Unwanted were just all monsters. Now that was some real self-loathing right there.

  Still, Ryan didn’t expect the differences to be this drastic. At first he believed he could get a confession that Rax was just following orders. Knowingly sending the Unwanted on an impossible task.

  But no, Rax was no fanatic of the Witch Tyrant. The leader of the Unwanted refused to listen to Ryan’s orders despite being the one the Witch Tyrant was ‘raising’. Rax to go to war. Whether it was because of bloodlust or something else… it didn’t really matter. He had his recording.

  And the contents were from what the rest of the Unwanted were hoping for.

  Or at least he hoped it was.

  Ryan turned to Shara.

  “Say, Shara. You called Rax your sire right? Doesn’t that make you a princess?”

  Tar’el coughed as Shara glared at him. Or at least, he was pretty sure it was a glare.

  Ryan got his game face on and removed his Apex title. The drain on his stats making him wince a little. From the looks he was getting, both of them could tell his presence had diminished as well. Then he switched to his [Rebellious] title.

  Just to get in the mood.

  After all, it was time to stage a coup with a foreign elven princess. What better than a dashing [Rebellious Rogue]--

  Shara shattered his boyish dreams. “We call him sire because he is the one who has led us out of darkness. Yes?”

  “Well that’s just disappointing.”

  It was time to stage a coup with a foreign sorta-elven princess.

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  24 chapters ahead!