The Spy

It was a few hours after the sun went down. The streets of the City of Diadel were now deserted save for a few patrols here and there. The fields beyond the walls were full of crops, if things worked out for the farmers then they'd have more than enough food in store for the winter months to come.

Artemis was standing just outside the southern wall that was undergoing rapid reconstruction thanks to his improved construction methods and devices. 

He had spent the last few days making new types of tools that hadn't been invented in this world yet and teaching the head workers how to operate said tools. 

It was tedious work but Artemis pulled through. If he could handle an entire Star System filled with machines, handling a few humans would be a piece of cake.

Or so he thought.

After interacting with the locals, he had come to the realization that may impede his plans.

Humans can actually think in magnitudes better than animals.

They complain, they get hurt, they feel pain, they have so many needs.

It was enough to make Artemis question for a second his overall goal of restoring Earth.

Are humans even necessary? 

Nature itself could survive and evolve well without any human intervention and quite possibly flourish even more without human intervention. 

But still, humans were a special kind of life. Although he massacres them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and for dessert, he still keeps his killings in check if they're really necessary or just not worth the blood being spilled.

It also wasn't helping that he felt a sort of small amount of sympathy towards them. 

But only a tiny bit size as a Tardigrade.

He was still the cold-hearted machine that has killed billions directly and indirectly. 

As the winter breeze drew near, Artemis felt the cold wind blow through his exposed living tissues.

"Maybe a temporary peace afterwards would not be such a bad idea after all?" Artemis whispered to himself. 

He was watching over the fields that were growing the crops at a faster rate than normal.

"Magic can do too many incredible things, if exploited correctly, even the rudimentary advantages of science won't be able to counter it," Artemis said as he turned his back from the moonlit sky in front of him that gave light over the fields.

Artemis walked back to the safe confines of the outer wall and was greeted by a few knights that were assigned night duty. 

Artemis saluted them as if they were in a modern military, the salute, as expected, was not something the knights were familiar with. 

The knights themselves were just conscripts but Artemis was going to change that. He was going to form a standing army as soon as they defeated the Imperial Army sent against them. 

Actually, he already did make one back on base but this new human army of the Machine Empire was about to be fully built.

A standing army of millions of men and women would suffice. Proper discipline, proper pay, extensive combat exercises featuring modern techniques would make a million conscripts into an elite force that could rival an entire army by themselves if maneuvered correctly.

As Artemis walked through the deserted streets, greeted by patrols and waved on by the peasants through their windows, he was sort of a celebrity.

As he reached the palace, Reinhard was there to greet him.

"Greetings, sir, how was the inspection?" Reinhard asked as the knights opened the castle doors. 

"The fields are growing the crops faster than anticipated. At this rate, the farmers will be able to harvest the crops earlier and I believe another harvest can be achieved if this keeps up," Artemis said.

Hearing what the man in black said, Reinhard smiled. The other knights that were there were also overjoyed at the news that there would be more than enough food for the winter. Artemis' promise of big meals for all was becoming a reality.

Artemis navigated through the castle's interior, walked up the flights of stairs and entered his room that was just below King Wart's residence. 

Reinhard was with him all the way, as Artemis entered his room, Reinhard closed the door behind him and bid him goodnight.

Artemis' room was rather luxurious, a large couch in the middle with small couches to the side, purple curtains over the windows and the entrance to the balcony and a dimly lit chandelier.

His bed was a queen-size wooden bed with a touch of gold and silver here and there. 

Artemis stood alone in the room gazing around his luxurious room like he was in a 5-star Hotel, however, Artemis knew he wasn't alone inside the room.

A person with or below <B+> rank couldn't sense the person, although the entity completely erased its presence by using some 9th Tier stealth-type magic spell, Artemis could still sense a tiny leak of magic or energy fluctuations came out of the entity's body, the energy fluctuation was on a microscopic level, almost nonexistent but nothing can hide it from a thousands of years advance machine like Artemis.

But as if the person wasn't even there, Artemis simply walked towards his bed and sat on the side like normal.

But then, his eyes slightly peered towards the position of the entity.

The room was dimly lit and so his eyes glowed, a stream of red light would follow. 

"Ah, as expected, you can see me, not a big surprise," The voice of a lady sprang out. 

Artemis nodded.

Seeing his confirmation, the Lady then removed her spell that made her impossible to perceive. She then slowly faded into Artemis' point of view.

"You're Silvanna, the Elf's little friend, what are you doing in my room?" Artemis asked.

Silvanna, on the other hand, only smiled and took out a magic dagger.

Artemis scans and analyzes the magic dagger in a nanosecond and learns it's powerful enough to wound a peak <A+> rank a bit deeper into their skin, the second part of the dagger surprisingly contains a mass amount of mana within there, alongside with mana poisoned. 

If someone gets stabbed by it, then that poison will affect the person's mana and cause damage to their body.

Artemis on the other hand did not flinch, however he reiterated his question.

"What are you doing in my room?" Artemis asked again.

"You gotta survive this first!" Silvanna, at unprecedented speed, then jumped forward and thrusted the dagger into Artemis' chest.

But the dagger did not impale him. 

It shattered into a thousand pieces.

Silvanna then jumped back.

"Aren't you supposed to be a mage?" Artemis asked as he stood up. 

"Aren't you supposed to be a human?" Silvanna clapped back.

Artemis seemingly sighed and walked towards her. Silvanna, sensing no killing intent from the man in black, or otherwise known as 'Erik' stood her ground and looked him directly in the eye.

Bear in mind that Artemis was very tall, 196cm tall to be exact while Silvanna was a beautiful lady with a height of 175cm tall. 

"Does anyone else know?" Artemis said as his eyes glowed brighter, shivering Silvanna a bit.

"Don't worry I was just testing if you were the real deal!" Silvanna said as she placed her right hand over Artemis' left cheek. 

"Metal Demon," Silvanna whispered.

*****

Silvanna: [IMAGES]