Chapter 100 - The Inferno General

"The plan is pretty simple," I smiled. "I already paid a little visit to Charles, and gave him a bit of a fright, which means that he should now be extremely terrified, and even more paranoid."

"Wait," Jeremiah said, holding up a hand to interrupt me. "You snuck into his palace and spoke to him?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "But don’t worry I was concealed the entire time, he won’t be able to recognize me."

"You should’ve seen it, by the time I left he was literally pissing himself." I couldn’t help but laugh.

"The fact that you can basically sneak in anywhere and do what you want without anyone ever knowing, is pretty terrifying though," Jeremiah mumbled.

"It’s not that bad," I said with a smile waving my hands.

"It’s pretty bad," Erick and Jeremiah said together.

"You can literally go around and assassinate people at will," Erick added.

"I wouldn’t do that!" I exclaimed. "And besides, Julia can do the same, actually her entire career was once to do the same."

"Julia?" Jeremiah asked with a frown.

"She’s one of my lovely wives," I said, unable to keep the soft smile from my face.

"The Shadow Killer," Erick added.

"You’re married to the Shadow Killer!?" Jeremiah exclaimed again.

"And also to the Inferno General," Erick added with a smile.

For a moment it looked like Jeremiah had actually blown a fuse or something, he just looked at me with wide, completely frozen eyes, and a completely slack jaw.

"Wait," I said, turning my gaze to Erick, completely ignoring Jeremiah’s surprise for a moment. "People call my Cat... The Inferno General?"

"Yeah," Erick nodded simply.

"That... kind of suits her perfectly," I smiled.

"You..."

"They’re..."

"You’re married to the two most powerful, and most feared women in the human kingdoms?" Jeremiah finally stammered out. "And all you can say is that her moniker suits her?"

"Well... yeah," I shrugged. "Because it does."

"That’s not the point!" Jeremiah exclaimed. "How did you even manage that? Catharina is notoriously hateful toward men, and extremely protective of her little sister."

"And you actually managed to marry both of them?!" He finally finished with a shout.

"What can I say... I’m a very charming man," I answered, spreading my hands.

"Don’t worry, I still don’t know how he managed it," Erick said from the side.

"I just told you!" I exclaimed. "I’m extremely charming."

"No you’re not," Erick said with a deadpan expression.

"Screw you!" I exclaimed.

For the first time in my short life in this world I was genuinely offended, how could the man I saw as one of my best friends say that I’m not charming. That should have been blasphemy, or treason, or a breach of the bro-code.

Honestly it should have been punishable by death, if he wasn’t one of my only male friends in this world, I might even have dished out the penalty myself.

"Wait, wait," Jeremiah interrupted the heated argument I was about to start before I could even get into it. "Didn’t Charles try to have Julia killed?"

"You knew about that?" I asked.

"Yeah, I found out about it just after she and Sir Ronald left the city," Jeremiah answered. "Is that why you’re here?"

"Yes it is," I answered honestly. "Initially that was the only reason I came."

"Call it a mission of retribution," I said. "The man had tried to kill my wife after all."

"But then I saw how he actually governs his territories, and I decided that there might be a bit more of a reason to get rid of him," I finished.

"Now can we get back to the plan again please?" I finally sighed, deciding to let go of Erick’s blasphemy... for now.

"Sure," Erick nodded with a smile.

"Okay," I sighed, trying to get my thoughts in order again. "So with Charles being completely paranoid now, we can make that even better by using this time to rescue Jeremiah’s mother."

"But wouldn’t that just make him start to lash out?" Jeremiah asked.

"That’s exactly what we want," I smiled. "The next thing he’s going to do is probably to either try and kill you, or to banish you."

"And that’s a good thing?" Jeremiah asked.

"Yes it is," I answered. "Because from what I saw today, the army is a lot more loyal to you, than they are to him."

"I don’t know about that," Jeremiah said. "Some of the lower ranked soldiers maybe, and definitely my battalion."

"That’s all we need," I smiled.

"But won’t he start to lash out against the citizens more?" Jeremiah asked again.

"He probably would have," I smiled. "But I made it pretty clear to him that that would only lead to his death. So I doubt he’d go that far, but if he does, or at least tries to, that would only make our jobs all the easier."

"And lead to the suffering and deaths of a lot of civilians," Jeremiah said with a frown.

"Don’t worry about that," I smiled again. "I have a couple of contingency plans in case he tries that."

"Plans?"

"I’ll tell you about those if it comes to it," I answered.

"But the important part is what happens when he inevitably banishes you," I said. "We’ll use that time to have you, and all the men that want to join you, go to our little village and undergo some... training."

"You want us to leave the city under the control of that maniac, and go to your village for training?" Jeremiah asked, the frown on his face deepening even more.

"Yes," I nodded. "In the meantime, Erick, me, and some of your men who are loyal will stay behind in the city in case he goes completely off the rails."

" And ," I continued, holding up a hand to interrupt him before he could say anything. "We’re also going to send an envoy to the king with some evidence and dirty little secrets of Charles’ misconduct."

"And even if your king is an unsympathetic bastard who cares nothing for the common man, he won’t be able to ignore the fact that Charles has basically been cheating him of his taxes." I smiled.

"Which is where you’ll come in," I said pointing to Jeremiah again. "He’ll need there to be a successor after all."

"You want me to take over once Charles is out of the way?" Jeremiah asked with a shocked expression. "No, no, I can’t do that."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because I have no desire to become a lord of a territory, and be responsible for all of its people," Jeremiah answered, shaking his hands in denial. "And I wouldn’t even have any idea how to run a territory."

"And that’s exactly why you will be a much better leader than Charles ever was," I smiled. "Those that don’t want to be leaders, tend to be the best leaders."

"As for having no idea how to run a territory," I shrugged. "That’ll simply have to be part of your coursework in the village."

"Coursework?"