Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Her eyes were dazzling at the sight of luxury for she'd never been in a castle, being a demi-human of dubious ancestry beyond her father, Moxy felt terribly out of place while walking behind Raven as they continued down the meeting hall of the Aranuvian council. Keeping close to her man with Reina and Regalia covering her from behind, she kept her hands crossed by her pounding heart as every small sound and movement turned her skittish.

Sensing her hesitance and fear, Raven glanced back at her with a light smile. Conjuring a hand that stretched from behind him, he moved it by her arm and gave it a light squeeze.

"We're gonna be fine, don't worry," feeling his warmth spreading into her body, Moxy finally felt somewhat at peace. Smiling back as she took a deep breath, the fox girl nodded and heaved a sigh.

"That's enough, stand right there!" The voice of a man from the council seats made Moxy jump once again, and seeing the terrified look of shock return to her face, Raven glanced over to the man with burning contempt.

"Did I tell you that you could speak?" He barked and his harsh words shattered the illusion of control around that council.

Looking at the man leading the group with bated breaths, the men, the women, and the demis all froze in their seats and tried to gulp the horror that they'd been trying to mask by appearing more assertive than they truly were.

"Raven…" Nudging him on his sides, Linkle tried to calm him but after days of dealing with one problem after the other, the mage's temper had grown quite explosive. Realizing that he wasn't listening to her and simply kept glaring at the many faces looking at them from their dark seats, Linkle turned to Regalia, Reina, Maria and the rest, but unlike her, they wanted him to show these bastards that in that moment he was in charge.

As he was done instilling the fear of him in the hearts of the crows, Raven turned to look at the throne that now lay empty. Only a grand warrior stronger than the previous king was allowed on that seat, Choux had already informed him about it and thus without a word, he began walking towards it.

Watching him silence with their hearts pounding with fear and angst, the crowd was slowly drawn to a haunting conclusion–one that none of them could accept as the truth at once. But then, turning around at the throne and lowering himself into it, Raven looked around at their jittering figures before confirming their fears as the truth.

"Your king, he's dead and I killed him with my own hands." Silence had taken the council and even as their kingdom was crumbling none could utter a single word of dissent. Instead, raising their eyes to Raven's hands as he brought them forward, they simply quivered in their seats and listened. "I ate through his flesh, drove a crystal through his heart and came on the other end as the victor, unscratched."

"He should pick up poetry," Linkle whispered as Raven took charge of the situation.
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"They teach that at the church first thing…" Maria responded to a question nobody had asked.

Giving the ex-queen a sideways glance, Linkle rolled her eyes and turned back to the front. With the council members at a loss, the room grew silent, and the only person allowed to speak was the alleged new king of the island. Squeezing his fingers at the edge of the armrest, Raven let the light shine on him from above and basked in its warmth for a moment. That is when he along with the rest of the people inside that hall heard in a whisper.

'Aran–the sixth, we crown you as our righteous successor.'

The haunting voice of the amalgamated ancestors sent a cold chill up everyone's spine, but as the sensation washed away, the council looked at their Aran–the king and began descending from their elevated chairs.

Gathering in the middle of the hall, the cowards rubbed their foreheads on the dark tiles. They accepted him without a word, but that cowardice would no longer stand. Just from a glance alone, Raven knew them for what they were–spineless wimps that couldn't get a single thing done, even though they had the minds fitting their exceptional garbs.

Leaning on his head to the side with his legs crossed, Raven stared at them for a while until the council slowly began lifting its head. Even then, glaring right into their eyes, he tried to invoke some emotion other than fear, but nothing worked as nothing was there but fear alone.

"I'll send a devil to help rebuild those broken minds of yours, until then, start preparing for a merger with Elana's people," a gasp echoed at the order, none of them could've expected their new king to shake hands with the enemy, yet not having the courage to say a word, they kept their lips shut. "You're gonna teach them how to build homes, how to run a flourishing society, in return, the people of Lantherem will do most of the farming, hunting and the likes. As for the people of Elanavia, you'll be required to assimilate with them the same way the people of Lantherem will."

The silence had begun to enrage Raven further, but with Choux walking in front of the group, her eyes carrying unrest, he let the matter slide and brushed off the council to start working on the preparation for a minor exodus of people to Lantherem. In the meantime, Choux's eyes stayed focused on the gate on Raven's left–the very same that led to the treasury and possibly to another necroflower needed to revive her brother if the necklace didn't work.

Getting off the throne, the mage gestured to the rest to follow behind him. Walking towards the room where countless treasures were bound to be, he couldn't but wonder if he should simply usurp the treasures or leave them be. However, even before he could do so, there was something that still needed to be taken care of, and that 'thing' was seated before him in the form of a human dragoness the very moment he entered the treasury.