Chapter 18 – Pledge inside the shadows

 

I smiled after having successfully teleported an entire town into Void. I was unsure of whether I would have enough Mana to make it work but it seems I had more than enough.

I mentioned it before but Void is a world similar to a vacuum, which doesn’t have any sound, light or air to breathe, which is why I had gone and cast a globe of air enveloping the town. I had also created an artificial sun with Creative Magic.

 

All in all, making Void habitable wasn’t too hard. The most difficult parameter was gravity. In order for us not to drift in the air while walking, I was forced to experiment for hours before finding an appropriate gravity level.

Gravity was an enchantment I had cast in the air. With everything set, it was finally possible for me to live inside of Void.

Soon after the teleportation, I met Alae once more. She was looking at the sky. I approached her from behind.

 

“Hi, Alae ! How do you find the new scenery ? Rather dark isn’t it ? Ha, ha, ha.”

“!!!”

“Hm ? Did I frighten you ? I apologise if I did. But from now on, this is where you and the twins will live.”

“…”

“Not very talkative, are you ? Well, it’s fine. Anyway, I have other things to do, so see you later.”

 

I left her there. She was trembling as I was speaking to her. I wondered if she was still scared of me. Of course, considering I killed her father, she should be.

 

So far, everything had gone according to my plan. The very first step to it was turning Aldenaf into my headquarters.

I remembered what I had told the twins earlier… “Welcome in the Kingdom of Shadows”. A kingdom that would be fair and not soiled by human’s greed.

Right now, it consisted only of Aldenaf. I had also told the 3 children that since they were the only inhabitants of the town, they could choose to live wherever they wanted. I, however, needed a place that showed off my power as the leader of the kingdom.

Aldenaf had unfortunately no such place but it was no problem to me. All I needed was to create one myself using Creative Magic and Earth Magic.

 

I decided I would build my new home in the central place of the village. I gathered my Mana and started the task.

 

***

 

Since the sun in this world is artificial, it is also eternal and it is therefore difficult to determine how much time is spent in here. It also means there is no night time.

Thanks to my teleportation skill, I was able to determine that one second in Void is equal to one second in the other world. This means that the only way to assess the time was to teleport.

I didn’t bother doing that but I think building my castle took approximately 5 hours.

 

It was made out of Earth Magic and was rather huge. Actually, the castle itself was half the size of the original village’s size.
One may have wondered how I managed to build such a big castle inside the tiny village but that’s because I used a combination of Creation Magic and Earth magic to also expand the boundaries of the floating island that Aldenaf had become.

I was rather satisfied with the result. Reshaping the earth around me proved harder than casting regular spells. However, the theory was rather easy, the difficulty only resided in the control of my Mana during the process, something I actually excelled in.

Creative Magic was used to make earth out of nothing and Earth Magic was used to make use of the Earth Cindril contained inside of Aldenaf (which was now a floating island) and turn it into whatever shape I wanted. This way, Aldenaf was now roughly the same size as Naxus and my castle was comparable to the Emperor’s castle.

 

“A castle fitting for an overlord, ha, ha, ha. But it may be a bit too much for a simple joker like me…”
Wahnsinn answered me.”

“Nothing stops you from being the other world’s joker and this world’s overlord, if that’s what you desire.”

“An interesting point of view, indeed. But there is no Overlord without minions and territories.”

“Everyone starts at the bottom. Look at the bright side, you already have 3 citizens…”

“True.”

 

I felt someone’s gaze on me. Normally, I would instantly react and prepare for a fight but this time I knew it could only be one of the kids who were teleported with me.

I turned around and noticed that the two twins were looking at me, both displaying a baffled face.

 

“Hello, Burs, Armius. How do you like this change of landscape ?”

 

Armius hid behind his brother and Burs looked like he gathered all his courage to answer.

 

“I-It’s so black… it’s s-scary…”

“Do you not like it ?”

“We… we don’t really mind but… it is like the dark night… i-it reminds us of the nights we spend alone… W-we don’t have parents you see…”

“Ah, I see. Well, if you stay with me, you won’t be lonely anymore.”

 

Burs hesitated before answering anything else. Hearing this, Armius finally jumped in front of his brother and exploded.

 

“Y-Y-You ! How could we ever stay with someone like you !? Y-You’re a murderer !”

 

At the sight of his brother throwing a tantrum, Burs looked surprised. Then he seemed as if he remembered something and he looked at me with a face that showed both shock and anger.

 

“Y-Yeah ! That’s right ! You killed some villagers ! You’re a monster !”

“A monster ? Ha, ha, ha. That’s funny. You have never seen anyone kill or get killed before, have you ?”

“We…”

“Ugh… why would we !?”

“Unfortunately, that is the world we live in. I can understand why kids your age would be horrified by murder but what I can’t fathom is why you are defending the very villagers who were always cold to you and who treated you like insects ?”

“ ! “

“What !? How do you know that ? Or rather, that’s not true. There is someone who always treated us kindly. There was another child our age called Hell. We asked him to play with us but he was often too absorbed in his training to spend time with us… however, his brother would spend time playing cards with us and teaching us about things he read in his books !”

“Y-yeah ! That’s right ! Zwölf Kreizig wasn’t like the other villagers ! Did you kill him as well ? Or perhaps you forced his out of the village !?”

“Zwölf Kreizig huh… so you two still remember me I see…”

“What ?”

 

I removed my mask, disabled『Shadow Skin』and showed the two of them my face.

Their anger soon turned into an expression of pure shock and surprise.

 

“Zwölf… is that you ? Is that really you ?”

“Yes, it is. I had quite the makeover, didn’t I ? Ha, ha, ha.”

“What… happened to you ?”

 

I put the mask and back on and enabled『Shadow Skin』once more.

 

“I was… held captive. By the Empire. The rotten Porcephone Empire. They tortured me and killed my family. For no reason other than their own justifications. But I have escaped. I have escaped them and come back here. Even then, I wasn’t able to save Mother and Hell. You see… the current emperor is greedy and so is his son. This empire is fated to be an unfair threat to my survival and it must therefore be eliminated. That isn’t however an easy task. For starters, I have currently no army to face the Porcephone Empire. So I have decided to create one.
To summarise, I guess you could say I am mainly going to destroy the Empire because of my own selfish reasons more than anything, ha, ha, ha. I will become the new Overlord and overthrow the Porcephone Empire. And no one will stop me.”

“So… Aldenaf is part of your kingdom now ?”

“Exactly. Aldenaf is my recently created Kingdom of Shadows’s capital. The villagers I killed tried to resist me and therefore died. They may not have been evil or anything, but from my point of view, they were the ones in the wrong, so I simply erased them.”

 

Burs nodded in acknowledgment and whispered.

 

“I see… there is no good or bad side… no just or evil. Basically, everyone who opposes you is to be erased… Then it’s simple ! We just have to be on your side, right ?”

 

This may have been a simplistic judgement made by a 11 years old, however it was exactly what I also thought.

Armius looked like he had calmed down and listened to my explanations very carefully. Out of the two twins, he was probably the smarter and more pragmatic one.

He looked as if he had an idea and finally spoke his mind.

 

“If we stay with you… we won’t be alone anymore, that’s what you said, right ? Then we accept.”

“You made the right choice. You may have known me as Zwölf in the past but I would like you two to forget about this identity and simply pledge your loyalty to your new Overlord.”

 

Armius looked at his brother, they both nodded and said it together while resting one of their knees on the ground.

 

“… I swear to obey your orders and devote myself to serving my new lord, solely known as the Joker Overlord.”

 

It wasn’t a perfect pledge but it was good enough for 11 year olds.

I nodded in acknowledgment and answered.

 

“Well done. I expect a lot from you. Don’t disappoint me, ha, ha, ha.”

 

Just like that, I gained my two first loyal servants. Considering their age, there wasn’t much they could do right now and I therefore decided that I would start training them thoroughly from now on.

 

I was preparing to leave when I got surprised by an energetic voice shouting in my back.

 

“I-I… I swear to obey his orders and devote myself to serving my new lord and master, solely known as the Joker Overlord ! My mind and body both belong to him and I shall not go against his decisions ! He can do whatever he wants with me, for I now am his sole property !”

 

As I heard that, I turned around only to see a bright red Alae kneeling in front of me, bending her head as low as she could, in proof of an extreme respect.