Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1323  King and Queen

"Friend…? You?!" The man snapped. "You're going to put me in an early grave. I haven't slept well since the day I met you. I still regret inviting you to my thousandth birthday celebration. I don't know what possessed me that day. And where is 'she'?"

"'She' is playing with her friends."

This necklace artifact was Felicity's; Quinlan shouldn't have been able to activate it. Thus, the explanation was simple; Felicity initiated the call, then went to play with her friends. It was a much more easily digestible answer than 'I enslaved your teenage daughter and as her supreme master, I own her entire existence, letting me use her personal artifacts with no trouble.'

The words spoken before this mysterious little exchange hit the two leaders like a hammer.

'Thousandth birthday celebration.'

Thorga's face drained of color. "Alexios… that Alexios?"

Serelis swallowed. "The human king… Alexios Valorian. He just celebrated his thousandth birthday this year."

They stared at Quinlan, who continued the call without a hint of urgency.

"Anyway, no," he said casually. "I'm not ready for talks yet. I haven't secured a dominant position over you as of now."

"…" Alexios was audibly gritting his teeth at the arrogance and audacity of the man he was cursed to know. "Then why are you calling me?" he demanded.

"Well…" Quinlan's confident but nonchalant expression shifted into a slow, devilish smirk.

Serelis felt her heart thump harder. Thorga's grip tightened on her weapon. Every instinct inside them whispered the same impossible suspicion.

"No way…" Serelis murmured.

"We might be criminal and king, a wanted man and the man who posts the bounties, but I still think of you in a favorable light. You're a good man, and I pity you for having been blessed with the worst wife known to mankind. So I just wanted to let you know that maybe you should strengthen-"

Serelis and Thorga both shook their heads at him in unison, eyes wide. Their expressions pleaded for him to stop talking.

The Alliance of Elvardia and the Covenant spent immense resources on keeping the king and his nobles in the dark about the imminent invasion. If he learned of it right now, a brutal wrench would be thrown into their plans.

"Strengthen what? Spit it out already. And stop badmouthing my damned wife."

Quinlan stared at the two women for a long second. They nodded together in perfect sync. His proposal was accepted. Seeing that, the man turned back to the call, and his already devilish grin became one of pure, smug amusement. "Strengthen your resolve to call me your emperor in the near future."

There was a beat of silence on the other end.

Then the king erupted.

"You insolent, slimy, bastard!!" Alexios's voice hammered through the necklace so loudly that even Thorga flinched. "I should've left my home a long time ago and hunted a rat like you down with my own two hands! I should've driven your head into the pavement until your skull gave in!"

His breath hit the receiver hard.

A second rant surged through the line.

"Every day since the Goddess cursed me with the fate of meeting you, you've stolen hours from my already short lifespan! I swear on my ancestors' honor that I will drag you across the palace steps-!"

Quinlan listened with an amused tilt of his head. Alexios has always been an incredibly composed man; it was music to his ears to hear the old bastard have such a brutal meltdown. Finally, the king truly looked like a troubled man instead of a supreme being.

He could only hope that Alexios picked up the call while he was surrounded by his subordinates.

And then, while the king was cursing his whole existence out…

"Mhm. I'll talk to you later. Have fun."

He cut the line.

While a certain man went on an expensive decoration destruction rampage inside the Valorian palace, silence settled over the clearing.

Thorga shook her head slowly. "We don't have the authority to decide this."

She reached into her storage ring and pulled out a square metal plate engraved with runic channels. She pressed it into the ground. The artifact lit up, humming softly.

Light rippled across its surface until a projection sharpened into view: a long stone table, ringed by dwarves and elves deep in discussion.

A heavy voice rumbled from the image. "What is it? Be quick. We're finalizing the last preparations."

Serelis and Thorga dropped to one knee.

At the far end of the table sat two figures whose presence dwarfed the rest.

A broad-shouldered dwarf in armor thick enough to shame fortress walls, each plate marked with triumphs going back centuries. With a hammer against his shoulder, his gaze alone could quiet a battlefield.

Beside him sat a woman whose posture carried a quiet, regal stillness. She wore richly decorated elven robes, giving her an air of otherworldly elegance and grace. The chamber lights caught her features in a way that would've turned any normal man into a stammering mess. The elves called her their sovereign; men called her the most beautiful woman on Iskaris.

The Dwarven King and the Elven Queen.

Serelis and Thorga delivered their report in curt words, detailing what they found, what they saw, and what Quinlan proposed.

Before the projection could respond, the first ranks of Covenant undead reached the clearing.

Rows of skeletal cavalry.

Ranks of armored shock troops.

Hollow visors fixed straight ahead.

The leading undead halted when they spotted Quinlan. Their posture shifted, shields lowered, blades angled, attention locked on him. A ripple of hostility churned through their ranks as they rasped at him with immense hatred.

The projection flickered as the Dwarven King frowned.

"The Drowned King," he muttered, recognizing the armored lich commander among them. "I can see you from here. Stand down."

The undead commander's helm snapped toward the projection. "Stand down? You don't get to order me around, Ragnar. We are equals."

"Give us a moment," the Elven Queen, Myrasyn Ael'vyrn, said. Her voice was soft enough to be polite yet carried enough steel that even the undead faltered.

The Drowned King hesitated for a good few seconds, pondering whether he should attack or not. The Covenant was not subordinate to Elvardia, meaning he, as one of its leaders, did not have to answer to either king or queen.

While they were called king and queen, they were not married, just two separate rulers who combined their forces. Ragnar had his dwarven wife, the dwarf queen, and the Elven Queen, who ruled over the strictly matriarchal elves, had no official relationship. But the Drowned King decided to swallow his instincts demanding blood. It was best not to ruin everything the moment before what he and his allies had been waiting for for far too long.

"Encircle the construct," he ordered instead.