"My lord! Our village is under attack by a sea monster! Please, just this once, can I request your protection. We've been paying you ever since you occupied us under the guise of protecting us, so ple--"
*Shink*
"So noisy."
A man stood on the makeshift throne of luxurious furs, watching as one of the occupied villagers' head tumbled down. Their job, as an occupied territory is to merely pay tributes to him - not bother him with such trivial matters. If the village is destroyed, it's on them for being weak.
He already suffered a loss of another capture crew sent out to return his treasure to him.
In fact, he wouldn't have even lifted a finger at an ever-rising threat if not for...
"My lord, I've... Personally saw the sea monster myself." The cloaked woman steps in and the man turns his head towards her, curious as to what his henchwoman has to say.
"And?"
"From the remains of what we could gather from the capture crew... It seems that the queen is still travelling with that witch. And given what our intel group had gathered - there's a high likelihood that the witch will participate in the hunt.
I have to warn you that the Meredith's hounds are also more than likely to appear. I've seen one of their informants amongst the chaos."
"Is there proof that you're not lying to me, Kristin?"
"Here."
What his henchwoman showed him was a tentacle ripped from the sea monster; and feeling something uncanny, he called in one of his prisoners.
"Bring me Paige."
His lesser henchmen bowed in unison and after some time, a disheveled lady was brought into the throne room, her eyes no longer sparking with life. Her body was covered in torture marks - she's been a prisoner here for a very long time.
"What is this?"
The prisoner, now knowing way better than even hint at retaliation, tells him exactly what she suspects it is.
"A Daemon... Hm..."
He was interested in employing daemons for quite a while now - his megalomaniacal nature always hungered for more. Of course, to him, every Daemon he faced so far was way too weak or was too "sapient" for his liking
This one however, the DAEMON of GLOOM shows a lot of promise
As much as he wants this prisoner to repent some more for her crimes of even aiding his treasure to her escape, he knows he needs to keep his cool. His caligular tendencies have earned him a couple of filthy traitors who were too scared to serve him. His last display of "examples" made his men's minds fragile.
He'll call her when he needs to.
"Dismissed."
The prisoner is dragged away from the throne room and the man retreats into his chamber, telling his henchwoman to break the news. In his chambers, he puts the tentacle in a jar as one of his many keepsakes and lies down on his bed of furs.
He yearns for the day he reunites with his beloved Bijou.
That sparkling gemstone.
How could she reject him?
He has everything she could ever want: if she wants her research funded, he would do it; if she wants the most luxurious and fluffiest fur coat, he would get it; if she ever wanted a beautiful and mighty child; he would give it...
Just why?...
Just why she chose that man instead?...
It's not fair, it's not acceptable...
He would've given her the world...
Well, no matter.
One day she will be his - by any means necessary