Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 164 – Risky move – Part 2.
<<Honestly.... It was beyond risky.>>
<<Sending out the golems to hunt down these half dead soldiers.... If one them would manage to escape, then it would obviously led to me being exposed to the outside world once again, showing the people that the dungeon has already produced alarming number of monsters.>>
<<But considering the current circumstances and the fact that the outside world already knows how dangerous I’m? The risk was worth it.>>
<<I needed to find out what was going on in the outside world.>>
<<Honestly, I wasn’t sure if those soldiers would understand the orders I gave to the golems... But I guess the process I gave them was good enough for the soldiers to understand.>>
<<The soldiers surrendered and they were captured by my golems before being brough to me.>>
<<Victor.>>
<<It is the name of the person that apparently is in charge of that army... Or more exactly was forced to be the one.>>
<<Apparently, the leader of this army as well as both his right and left hand men were killed in action.>>
<<I’ve found out that this knight who stood out before was really the leader.>>
<<And that this man was truly part of that massive group that I’ve found before.>>
<<Anyway, according to this man, Victor, a war broke out.>>
<<Specifically between two kingdoms.>>
<<The Garmfon kingdom and the elven kingdom of Mowiorano.>>
<<Apparently, the kingdom of Garmfon had a rebellion, which was won by the noble faction.... However! Around half a year ago, the true rulers of the Garmfon kingdom emerged from the hiding and took back their kingdom, slain the traitorous of the kingdom and brough back the peace to the kingdom.>>
<<However, the elves hated it apparently.>>
<<Noble faction and the elves were apparently allies with each other, and with the noble faction being gone and the previous king taking over, the elves apparently feared the retribution, and so they declared the war on barely alive Garmfon kingdom.>>
<<The war apparently lasted around a half of a year, which ended up with the Garmfon kingdom being conquered by the elves.>>
<<However, the extremely hostile and very visible greed of the elves straight up alarmed 3 neighboring kingdoms.>>
<<And this in turn caused two kingdoms, the kingdom of Miorio as well as the kingdom of Warmur, with the kingdom of Gorijy joining shortly after.>>
<<I’ve wanted to know the reason behind the war, the specific reasons. Why were the 3 kingdoms so alarmed about the elves?>>
<<From what that man called Victor told me, the elves used... Very inhuman tactics.>>
<<They were slaughtering the citizens and burning down the villages that didn’t even fought back, since they apparently didn’t wanted to have "slaves that can bark".>>
<<He also told me all sort of other things that the elves did.... And from my point of view? It was pointless.>>
<<But when I’ve asked that man, he said this.>>
"They wanted to be feared and reversed."
<<They wanted people to fear them while also worshiping them.>>
<<They were "Prideful".>>
<<They acted like "MONSTERS" and they never seen anything from with it.>>
<<He said that the elves were straight up shooting "We are the superior race and rest are lesser races! Serv or die!">>
<<However, they were apparently also pretty stupid and weak.>>
<<They couldn’t destroy the almost desorbed kingdom for over half of a year, while also exhausting themselves.>>
<<So, with their actions acting like a declaration of war, the 3 kingdoms decided to get rid of dangerous elves.>>
<<Since not only they showed how inhuman they can get, but also how truly evil they are.>>
<<However, each kingdom also wanted at the same time conquer the territories of the two fallen kingdoms.>>
<<So, while dealing with the elves, two kingdoms would sometimes have small skirmishes between each other.>>
<<However, the kingdom of the Gorijy who joined the war with bit of delay was originally going... Much easier.>>
<<Simple put, they weren’t really trying to do anything.>>
<<At first it appeared like they only wanted to get some territory without doing any direct conflict while focusing their attention to the elves.>>
"..."
"...However.... It just... Changed few days ago..." – said Victor.
"The army bearing the banners of the Gorijy kingdom appeared...."
"But they were different."
"They were far more powerful."
"Not only that... They weren’t alone."
"They had an army of creatures under their command called golems."
"!"
(Golems?) – thought interested Thauma.
"You mean like me?" – written Thauma.
"!?"
"Wait, you are golem!?" – asked Victor.
(He does somewhat look like one, but his appearance was completely different compare to the ones we saw.) – thought Victor as he raised up his guard.
"Yes." – replied Thauma.
"Were they like me?"
"..."
"N-no. They were different." – said the scared knight.
"You.... You are not with them?"
"No." – replied Thauma by showing already ready note.
"If I was, then why would I ask questions?" -written the golem.
"T-true..." – said still shaken up Victor.
"Continue." – written Thauma.
"Well... This happens around the time we had defeated a crumbling elven army. We had destroyed them since they were easy targets... But as we made our way to the next settlement that should had been the real challenge for us, we found the place already conquered by the forces of the Gorijy kingdom."
"When they met us, they gave us warning."
"Turn back. This and the entire Garmfon and Mowiorano territory now belong to Gorijy kingdom."
"The general obviously told them no.... We had good numbers and everything.... But we were destroyed completely."
"It was a one-sided defeat."
"This....This wasn’t normal. We were completely slaughtered."
"Honestly, they could had killed us all... But the only reason why they didn’t done that was for us to act as messenger.... To tell our kingdom to give up on these lands."
"..."
"Is this normal for kingdoms to wage wars so often? I only knew about the war between Garmfon and Marok kingdoms as well as noble and royal faction wars." – written Thauma.
"Noble and.... Oh wait! You mean the rebellion that has happened in the Garmfon kingdom?!" – said surprised knight.
"Yes." – replied the golem.
"..." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
"No.... Well... Honestly, I don’t know...." – replied the man.
"Sometimes... They just happened."
"Sometimes it is quiet for long time.... Or sometimes they just sprout left and right without warning."
"Still, at the center of all of this is the Garmfon kingdom, always has been in each and every recent wars."
"And now even after the kingdom has fallen, another war has started, revolving its territory."
"..."
(Well... This now makes things complicated.) – thought Thauma.
(3 whole new kingdoms joined the war.... But the Garmfon kingdom, the one that owed this territory is no more.... And there are 4 different kingdoms trying to gain control over this territory.)
"..."
"Was the kingdom of Gorijy always strong?" – written the golem.
"Well... They were strong, but not THAT strong." – said Victor.
"They were somewhat medium sized kingdom with quiet decent army, based on the information I was provided with."
"But.... ’THAT’?! We were never told anything about this!"
"I’m not talking about these golems here! I’m talking here about these soldiers! Some of them were real monsters!"
"They just tore apart our people like they were nothing!"
(Hm.... Can’t really tell yet. Maybe they got unlucky and ran into some sort of elite army of soldiers?) – thought Thauma.
(Then again, I did saw that large army AND he already confirmed it for me that he and the rest of the people here are what remains of that group.)
<<I’ve continued asking the leader and his group about various other things.>>
<<The state of the kingdoms.>>
<<The state of the war.>>
<<And what is going on with the elves.>>
<<The information I’ve received was both something I desperately needed.... And something that terrified me.>>
<<Now I have a proper understanding why the hell there were these long pauses between attacks. Wars.>>
<<I mean, I did suspected it already to be the case... But based on the information I’ve received, I now understood that something of much bigger scale was going on.>>
(Still, this is an opening.) – thought Thauma.
( can focus without worrying about developing the dungeon, probably for another half a year or so.... But that is just theory.)
(I can’t say that I’m not worried about that whole Gorijy kingdom.)
"..."
"Who are the most important people gathered? The highest-ranking members and those who posses most information?" – asked Thauma by writing.
"...Why..." – Victor tried asking the question, but before he could, Thauma showed off its claws, straight giving the man a sign to answer the question in an instance.
"..."
"Me... Him, him, that guy.... And him." – said Victor as he pointed at 4 people beside himself.
"We are the only ones with high ranking amongst the group."
"..."
"Take off your armor." – written Thauma, ordering the selected men to take off their protection.
The men knew they couldn’t trust the golem... And yet they didn’t had any choice.
They knew that the creature in front of them wasn’t normal.... Nor it was alone, as an army of golems were standing ready, aiming with their crossbows at the soldiers.
Any form of resistance would be met with instant death.
"..."
"There." – said Victor as all of the selected people did not had even a piece of armor.... But even so, Thauma checked them just in case and managing to find a hidden knife in one of the men pants.
After making sure that nobody else was had any weapons on them, Thauma put cuffs on each one of the selected people, before then having them walk.
"Wait! Where are you taking us?!" – asked Victor as he tried resisting, only to then be met with set of claws right underneath his chin.
"Okay! Okay! I get it!" – said Victor as he and 4 other men were dragged through the dungeon.... Before then arriving at the prison.
"Hm? Feeding time?" – said the human prisoner with lifeless expression as he turned towards the exit.
"!?"
The new "prisoners" upon witnessing where they were instantly began resisting, however Thauma was able to keep them all in alongside the prison warden golems.
However, Victor managed to quickly slip by and instantly tried firing off his ice magic.
But before he could, Thauma punched the man square in the face, straight up smashing his entire head against the ground and causing blood to splatter everywhere.
"..."
(He isn’t dead. I guess I was able to hold back enough.) – thought Thauma as it then threw the new prisoners into the empty cell, before then locking up the doors.
"H-hey! Where are you going! H-hey! HEY!" – shouted a desperate brown-haired man as he grabbed onto cell bars while Thauma just left the prison.... Before moments later returning back to the main room.
"..."
(Well, there is no need to have so many of them and I’m not doing a human experiments anyway.) – thought Thauma as all the golems in the room suddenly became active.
(It is better to just kill them and have the dungeon feed on them.) – thought Thauma, before moments later it and the golems began slaughtering the soldiers as their screams could be heard throughout the dungeon.
And as the last life was extinguished... So was the silence brough back to the dungeon.
<<Well.... Shit.>>
<<I’ve finally managed to get information about the outside world.... But there were only a lot of bad news for me.>>
<<More kingdoms means more chaos.>>
<<More chaos means that the chances of me being involved in that war increases.>>
<<There is good chance that like before, I may not end up being directly involved for the entire war.... But again, if the things are truly THAT chaotic, there is no telling what could happened.>>
<<....And that kingdom.... Gorijy.>>
<<A army of golems as well as army of elite soldiers that was able to obliterate a large army all by themselves?
<<But the information.... No. They didn’t lied.>>
<<They didn’t had reason to lie, since I’m not with any of the kingdoms they are fighting with.>>
<<But if they really told me the truth, then what was the deal with Gorijy kingdom’s actions?>>
<<If they truly possess such power to easily destroy army that was much larger than them in the head on combat.... Then why they were holding back at the start?>>
<<Were they by any chance waiting for the other two kingdoms alongside elves first weaken themselves.... No. The timing isn’t right.>>
<<They should had pretended to be "peaceful" for much longer.... Why now?>>
<<Were they by any chance playing.....>>
<<...>>
<<They were stalling for time.>>
<<This is logical explanation.>>
<<They were planning on taking on all 3 kingdoms on their own, but they needed to finish some form of preparations.>>
<<But also according to that man, Victor, the kingdom of Gorijy never had such thing as army of golems.>>
<<Was that army of golems kept a secret?>>
<<....No. It also doesn’t make sense.>>
<<If they had it, why they didn’t just used it from get go?>>
<<Things are not adding up properly.>>
<<...By any chance, are these golems not from Gorijy kingdom? Did somebody maybe had given them to?>>
<<It would explain why they weren’t used from get go, since the Gorijy kingdom didn’t had them yet in their possession.>>
<<But if that theory is correct.... That means there is not 4 factions in the play, but a total of 5.>>
<<But who is the fifth one?>>
