Chapter 202 - The Hammer

"You stupid asshole, do you have any idea what you have done to my people?!", Yao howled, clutching the hammer tightly, "We worshiped Hardy diligently and lived our lives according to her teaching, but you wrought death and destruction on my people!!"

"What are you going on about!?", Giselle asked, rubbing the hammer imprint on her forehead.

"The Dragon you awoke, it burned our village to the ground and devoured dozens of people I called friends and family!!", Yao shouted at her, ready to strike her again., "We fought bravely against that flying lizard, but nothing we did could scratch it. All we could do was run away while our fellow villagers cried out for aid as that beast tore them apart. I watched children eaten alive in front of my eyes, how could you do that to us!?"

Painting the gruesome scene to all of them, one by one the Apostles turned to look at Giselle. Taking a few steps back, Giselle attempted to explain herself to her comrades to avoid being struck again.

"All of you know we were outmatched fighting the other guy, after our patrons started dying it was clear we needed additional power. Since Dragons are roughly on par with our strength, I decided to awaken a Fire Dragon and her offspring to aid our cause.", Giselle explained, "I managed to get there without any problem, but when I tried to enslave them in their sleep…I realized I was in over my head. When I could not enslave the mother, I bolted and got the hell out of there."

"Is that all you did?", Mabel inquired, "Dragons are not that bloodthirsty by nature, you must have done something else to upset it. Dark Elf, were the infant dragons with their mother?"

"No, it was just the adult Fire Dragon.", Yao confirmed.

"Where are the children?", Mortar asked Giselle, as Rory moved to block her from running away.

"Funny thing about that…", Giselle laughed dryly, looking away from us.

Seizing her by the back of the head, Rory forcibly turned her head back toward us causing quite a painful noise in the process. Immediately begging Rory to let go, so her neck would snap back into position, she admitted that there was more to the story.

"Well when she woke up, I was in the process of enslaving her children. Of course, she was not happy to see me and let out an ear-piercing roar that shook me to the core.", Giselle said, "Well when she did that, I may have lost focus and…well…killed her children by accident…"

"Oh hell no…", Granham groaned, as she facepalmed in disbelief, "It is no wonder that the Fire Dragon went on a rampage. The Dark Elves and anyone else affected by its wrath have every right to want you dead now. Do you know how much additional damage you caused?"

"I am sorry?", Giselle asked, hoping that would smooth things over.

"Haha…", Rory laughed, forcing Giselle to her knees, "You owe the Dark Elves quite a blood debt, fortunately, you can pay it. We will wait outside for her to finish with you, then we can go gather everyone else. After this, there is no way we can trust you alone anymore."

"If it were not for the fact that you were Hardy's chosen one, we would ask Cole to replace you with someone else.", Mortar groaned.

"That is still a very real possibility…", I remarked.

Unwilling to take her beating, Giselle shook Rory's grip off and bolted toward the door. Moving in front of her, I punched her in the gut knocking the wind out of her. Collapsing to the ground again, gasping for air, the Apostles began quickly vacating the room. Following them, I looked back at Yao and gave her a nod.

"Take all the time you need, we will wait for you to finish as well.", I told her, as Giselle regained her breath, "As for you, I will even the playing field for a bit."

Sapping her strength from her, I reduced her to a child's level of strength. No longer a threat to Yao, she would not be able to resist what she had coming for her. Feeling her body weaken, Giselle attempted to plead for mercy from us.

"Please do not go, I am truly sorry for what I did!!", Giselle shrieked, "Do not leave me in here with her!!"

"If you cannot do the time, do not commit the crime.", I chuckled, slowly shutting the door, "Do not worry, you will not die…hopefully."

"NOO!!!", she screamed, as the latch clicked.

As soon as Yao heard that sound, she began hurling insults and curses at Giselle. Bringing that small hammer down on her hard, all of us heard bones snapping with every strike. Pulling out a deck of cards, since we would be here a while, I decided to introduce Blackjack to the Apostles, Ghislane, and Tyuule.

—Several Hours Later, Home—

Picking up Malty and Melty on our way back, the two of them headed off to shower as soon as we walked in the door. Thanking them for their assistance today, they assured me it was no problem at all.

"You think she is going to need more time training under both of you?", I asked, unsure how much they managed to teach her.

"Absolutely…we barely even scratched the surface today.", Melty sighed, "Myui is very intelligent, but the fact her father kept her away from anything political makes our progress slow going. She wants to help every single person in the city, but financially they cannot afford to do that. Not only that, she is having trouble understanding how to effectively allocate resources during this conflict."

"While Melty was handling that, I reviewed all of the documents their spy network had been bringing in and found several unexplained discrepancies. For example, they had no idea the enemy force you wiped out was coming till literally hours before their arrival. Based on how wide their information network is, there should be no way that was possible.", Malty stated, "I think they have a traitor in their midst, but I cannot pinpoint them because everyone is being secretive about themselves."

"Honestly Malty, aside from her maids, do not trust a single damn vassal of hers.", I warned her, "All of them have their own agendas and will happily use Myui as a stepping stone. That is why I asked you both to help her because she will drown otherwise. If anyone bothers you, do not hesitate to inform me and I will deal with them."

"We will keep that in mind.", Melty said, with a smile, "If you will excuse us, we are going to wash up and relax for a bit."

Nodding my head in acknowledgment, the two of them disappeared down the stairs. Heading off to their rooms to perform maintenance on their gear, Ciri and Ghislane told me to let them know when dinner was ready. Motioning for Tyuule and Yao to follow, I led the two women outside to meet everyone else as they were outside playing with the children.

"Daddy!!", Eri called out, running over to greet me as I stepped onto the porch, "Come play with us!!"

"Alright, you got it!", I said, scooping her up and putting her on my shoulders, "Let me introduce our guests to your mothers, then we can play."

"Okay!", she agreed.

"Evelyn and Luna, I have someone here who is interested in meeting you.", I stated, walking over to my wives as they sat drinking some hard seltzers, "This is Tyuule, the Queen of the Warrior Bunnies. She wanted to get to know you as she is considering moving the remnants of her people into the Special Region."

"Hmm…", Luna replied, giving her a once over, "You have problems with humans wanting to treat you like toys?"

Nodding her head in acknowledgment, Luna motioned for her to take a seat so they could talk with her. Leaving Yao with Shera, I headed left the women to talk and went to play with my kids.