Chapter 96 - Taking steps

"Alright!" Kane began with a loud and stern voice, making sure he drew everyone's attention, including Aelia and Anna, who were, respectively, sulking and talking to Ella. 

"Now that power has been restored, and Ella has taken control, it's time to wake up the rest of your people and clean the mess the men left behind when they died," he continued seriously, casually mentioning the clean-up of corpses. 

But first he frowned, and asked, "By the way, how high do you think the resentment will be over the deaths of the men? I mean, you four obviously didn't care much, but what about the rest?" 

The four women shared a few looks, before Aelia turned to Kane and shrugged, "To be honest, the men and women of our crew were largely separate entities. You can imagine that, with people like Ian around, the men felt quite unrestrained, so we had to protect ourselves by banding together." 

"I'm not saying there won't be anyone with some resentment," she continued casually, "but there weren't any real relationships, nor will there be any love lost." Then, she smirked, "I'd be more worried about them resisting your leadership, and that mark of yours." 

But rather than worry, her suggestion caused Kane to chuckle, "Well, it will be your job to convince them, won't it? Because if you don't, you'll be leading an empty crew." 

At first, when he offered this situation to Aelia and the others, he was still willing to let anyone who hadn't seen his beast form live, but that wasn't the case anymore. Now, he was moving in, and that meant he had to keep the existence of this base from leaking out. 

Incidentally, that meant there would be no more exceptions. They would all either accept his mark or die. 

Naturally, his reminder caused Aelia to flinch, but before any resentment could spread, Kane continued with an enticement. 

He grinned mysteriously, "Although, to make that job a little easier, you can tell them all that I'll share an appropriate second stage Mystic technique with anyone who joins. I have plenty of them, for any element." 

Techniques were divided in the same stages as Mystics, which alluded to the fact that you generally needed a second stage Mystic technique, to become a second stage Mystic. 

That wasn't a hard rule, however, as you could still fumble your way to the next stage on your own, but most people needed a proper technique to do so. 

"What?!" 

Instantly, five voices blended together to announce their shock. The only one who didn't react that way was Ella, because even Luna next to him looked bewildered. 

So far, Luna had simply acted as the menacing guard walking just behind him, for the simple reason that she didn't have much to add, and Kane didn't ask her to do anything. It was the role of a Valkyrie to support their master, after all. 

But now she couldn't keep her shock inside. "Is that actually true?!" she exclaimed at him telepathically. 

Kane chuckled back at her and nodded, "It is. Mána actually knows every technique that any volfar on Alfheim has ever known, and Ella has a treasure trove of techniques available as well, from her time as an elven princess." 

Luna guffawed, "Wait, so was there even a point in me learning the Sanguine Spark I got from that bald fuck? Do either of them have a better technique for me?" 

Wryly, Kane shook his head, "Unfortunately, while they do possess techniques beyond the fifth stage, you know that every technique is bound to a specific element. And since they naturally have fewer techniques for higher stages, they also have less variety in elements among them." 

He continued with a shrug, "Which doesn't help us, because the techniques from Archibald are already at the fourth stage. I've asked them both, and neither Ella nor Mána has techniques that suit us better than the ones we got from him." 

Kane and Luna had two elements each, so for the best results, they needed techniques that catered to both elements, even though they could get higher-stage techniques for just one element. 

In fact, Kane technically had three elements now, because of his Dreadwolf essence, so that was already not ideal. Fortunately, the Crescent Moon manual was of extremely high quality, which compensated a little. Ideally, however, he'd one day find a way to integrate the techniques. 

Luna pouted sadly but nodded that she understood. 

An amused Kane chuckled in response, "Don't pout, now. We both have appropriate fourth stage techniques. Could you have even imagined such a thing, just a week ago, when we were scrounging around hoping to find even just a second stage technique?" 

The catling, however, did stop pouting, but now grinned greedily instead. "That was last week, this is now. You need to keep your eye on the future, Master. Today's appropriate technique, is next week's trash." 

Kane couldn't help but laugh at her greed, before kissing her forehead, "Right you are, my beautiful Valkyrie." Luna actually purred a little in response. 

Meanwhile, the four bandits had recovered from their shock, and asked the same question as that Luna did originally. 

"Is that really true?!" 

Naturally, Kane gave them the same assurances. "Of course," he nodded confidently. "Despite my insistence on the mark, and the occasional threat, I do want to earn the genuine loyalty of you and your people. It would be a poor decision on my part to start that effort of with a lie." 

Although most of them seemed convinced by that, Aelia, unsurprisingly, still seemed sceptical. Yet, she did nod in acceptance, "I guess we'll see if that's true then…" 

"Yes, you will," Kane smirked, before waving his hand. "Now go. I want Aelia, Mira, and Lyra to start waking up the others and convincing them to accept my offer. Remind them that the way to the exit has been blocked. And remember, it doesn't matter who's seen my beast form anymore. They all accept my mark or die." 

Then, he shrugged, "After accepting the mark they may still refuse to join and choose to leave, but they'd also be giving up on the second stage techniques I'm offering." 

As long as they bore his Mark of Loyalty, they would be prevented from talking about the bunker, his status as a beastling lord, his beast form, and Ella. Basically, all his secrets would remain that way. 

Then, he continued casually, "After you're done waking everyone up and figuring out their stance on things, bring them all to the training room that I came across in the first part of this bunker. There, I will give techniques to you four as proof, before handing out both marks and techniques to everyone else." 

Finally, he raised an eyebrow, "Lastly, feel free to tell them about my status as a beastling lord, if you think that will help. Understood?" 

Aelia actually appeared a little more convinced by now, as she Mira, and Lyra looked at each other, before nodding at their new boss. 

"Fine," Aelia nodded. 

"Understood!" Lyra smiled. 

"Alright," Mira casually grinned. 

After that, they walked off, and Anna now looked at him with confusion, "So what do you want me to do?"