Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!-Chapter 254: Why fight if we can just talk?

"If my understanding is correct, the only reason why your leader rushed your entire army to the forest, was to spite Etaria, the golden princess, who I believe to be the supreme commander of all the human armies."

As expected, this simple revelation caused the two men to turn silent. And looking at them, I could see the conflict burning underneath the layer of fake calmness.

Quite interestingly, though, it was the stronger of the two that came to terms with the truth behind my words. Contrary to him, the soldier's better-dressed counterpart clearly struggled to accept the truth.

"Even if you are right…" the nobler of the two muttered before gritting his teeth and raising his eyes to look straight into my face. "Just who do you think you are to…"

Two things happened at the same time.

The rougher-looking of the two raised his hand and shoved it into his companion's chest, as if trying to move him to the back, out of the harm's way. And on the other hand…

"Everything alright, hon?" Fay asked, finally done with collapsing her promoted form, and emerged from behind my back, throwing curious looks at the strange duo that remained on the battlefield.

"Everything's okay, dear."

After all the realizations in the prison of this extremely hard-to-perceive aura, I wasn't going to suddenly forget all about them in the heat of the moment. So, I put my money where my mouth was and ignored the two, turning to Fay instead.

"Just an encounter I didn't expect."

Only once Fay joined by my side, wrapped her hands around my arm, and threw a curious glance down to the two men ahead, I allowed myself to put my attention back to the two of them.

By now, the nobler of the two has followed the advice of his companion and brought his lower jaw up, effectively closing and thus shutting his mouth.

The other of the two still kept his arm extended and pressed on his companion's chest, but his eyes had long since locked on my face.

"I'm sorry for my friend… But if we are to give ourselves up to you, I need to know one thing." The man squinted his eyes and lowered himself slightly to his knees.

This was a make-or-break moment of the encounter. If my answer didn't satisfy them, they were likely to fight until their last breath.

'From the look in his eyes…' I lightly pressed my mouth together as I waited for the man to reveal his question. 'Those two are not afraid of death. And while they do not seek it… they will pick it over an uncertain fate.' freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

It didn't take a genius to figure out what those two… Or rather, the rougher looking and physically stronger of them were worried about. Incorporating terror into the strategy I came up with only made that man's worries stronger; better rooted in reality.

"Why us?" the man finally asked before gulping down a mouthful of saliva. His right hand also started to move away from his friend's chest, getting closer and closer to the man's belt so that he could pull out his sword at a moment's notice. "I've attacked you, a few times to boot," he muttered, glancing over my shoulder to where Fay's promoted ascended form collapsed just a moment before.

"And you just want to… let us go?"

A small smirk appeared in the right corner of my mind.

"Let go? Nope." I shook my head. "Keep you safe and well-kept in our custody with prospects of making you work for me once this silly war is over? Yeah, that's my plan."

I rested my left hand on my hip and leaned my head over to the side.

"As for why…" My body jerked up with a single expression of a chuckle. "First, you are lucky. For how else your attacks could turn out to be the crutch I needed to complete my rebirth?"

Given the situation we were in, there was no need for me to hold this information back. And even though I ended up escaping this dark prison in a way so painfully obviously different than how I was supposed to leave it… the process still went through. And the limits that I previously felt shackling me to my current level of power were now nowhere to be felt!

"You were lucky, that's the major point. But you also appear to have some brains and I believe you know how to use it too," I said before shrugging my shoulders. "And that's basically it."

There was no need to purge myself before them over how I found no joy in killing others, how I wanted to take my time to inspect my inner state after the rebirth, and didn't want to risk getting more of the world's aura shoved down my throat if it could potentially hurt me and thus Fay.

"And that's why you are willing to spare our lives?" the nobler of the two asked while squinting his eyes, clearly not convinced by my words. Explore more at m,v l'e-novelbuddy.net

"Even if you still have faith in your lord, you have to admit that sparing two men makes a lot more sense than sacrificing ten thousand men on the altar on some stupid noble's pride."

I took a deep breath and allowed some time to pass, watching how the two waged a massive battle of thoughts inside their heads.

"Haaa…" I released a long sigh, realizing they only needed one last push. "I hate waste. I hate how some sort of idiotic noble sentenced so many men to wasteful death. And I would hate to waste your potential by killing you. I can get a lot more value out of the two of you by keeping you alive."

It was that simple. Or rather, it was that simple within the realm of what those two needed to know. For what was the point of explaining to them that I was more than just interested in building a new ally for myself that would shake the hegemony of force that currently rested solely within Makary's hands?

"So, if we surrender… What will become of us?" the nobler of the two asked.

"Until this war comes to an end, you will remain in the forest, safe from the death I shall bring to all those who dare to invade my fiancee's homeland," I stated while shaking my right arm on which Fay hung. "After this war ends though…"

I raised my free hand and scratched my chin.

"I do have some ideas for what will happen then, but it's way too early for me to even think about it. In short, though, I will need administrators and officers to help me control the new kingdom I'm going to carve out of the empire to create a buffer zone between them and the forest."

This revelation finally appeared to overcome whatever doubts the rougher of the two had.

'I guess he can understand his own value,' I thought, watching how the face of the stronger of the two slowly started to relax.

"In that case…" the soldier hesitated for just one more second… Before pulling out his sword.

Yet, rather than charging ahead or channeling his aura into it, he rested its blade on the open palm of his left hand before falling down to one knee and slowly placing his simple sword on the ground.

"In that case, upon the name of my father, Kanta, and upon the name bestowed upon me, Arty, I surrender."