CHAPTER 10 This Was Going to Be a Lot of Work

Keith

Keith pulled out the teacup he'd given Henrietta just after her arrival the previous day. He held it up over the princess and used his free hand to continue manipulating mana into the spell script. Then he cast the spell by whispering a single word under his breath.

[You have attempted to use the Perk: Quick Chant. You have succeeded.]

[You have attempted to use the Skill: Magic. You have succeeded.]

[You have attempted to use the Perk: Sense Motive. You have succeeded.]

In order to test how Henrietta had been feeling during her arrival the previous day, Keith had inscribed an enchantment to connect her with something that she had interacted with. Namely, the teacup.

Keith used the [Imbue] perk to give each and every one of his creations [Identify], which revealed parts of the target's character sheet information, and [Sense Motive], which measured a person's killing intent.

They would scan the kingdom for trespassers and react appropriately. If an identified individual was not a citizen of the Dark Enchanted Forest of Nilheim, they were automatically scanned with [Sense Motive] and removed. Their motive, combined with how willingly they accepted removal, determined how dead they were when they arrived at the border crossing.

The advanced spell cast on Keith's defense golems reacted to any form of harmful intent toward his minions or his person, and to a lesser extent, his lands. The thing about an enchanted forest, and a Dark Enchanted Forest at that, was that the land could take care of itself.

Keith expected only a little screaming as his spell activated, connecting the teacup and Henrietta. The mana would give her a shock equivalent to the strength of any killing intent.

He waited, but there was no screaming. There was also no zap.

"Princess …"

"Yes?"

"Did you not intend to break into my castle, fight my guards, and then kill me?" Keith walked around his magical worktable, looking for any sign of a response to his spell. It should have lit up the part of her body that she intended to attack with. For example, a politician would use her words or mouth, and a swordswoman would use her sword arm. There was nothing except the glow of his own enchantment on the table.

"Well." Henrietta shrugged awkwardly under his scrutiny but appeared otherwise unaffected. "I did intend to enter your castle, but I was hoping the guards wouldn't want to fight. They would get hurt! And I did intend to fight you to the death—my death. I mean, you're a Sage. The best I could do was maybe draw my blade before you roasted me." She then added as an aside, "I wear silk. I'm very flammable."

"I see." Keith had said that a lot these past couple days. "So your true intention wasn't to kill me or my minions, but to die a heroine's death?"

She had the grace to blush. "Maybe?"

"Well"—Keith contemplated his adorable enspelled princess—"that's unfortunate for you."

"Why?"

"Because now I have to run a few more tests." Keith broke the spell. "And when I'm done, you're getting locked up with Rufus in the dungeon."

"Didn't you just send Rufus out on a mission to find some healers?" Henri sat up and stretched, a single strand of her fluffy hair falling forward, begging to be tucked behind an ear.

Keith cursed and turned away to grab his spell-script materials.

"Then we'll finish my tests, and you can get locked up with Rufus when he gets back." He pulled down a few different bottles of ink and mixed them together. "In the meantime, you'll be my prisoner. Don't leave the castle grounds unless I say so."

"Alright!" the princess readily agreed, and Keith wanted to shake her for her lack of self-preservation … but it was better this way. He couldn't have her going off somewhere and trying to commit suicide for her parents' war. If she wanted to die for herself, that was one thing, but right now, he didn't think the princess knew herself well enough to make that decision. And his necromancer was still on holiday.

This was going to be a lot of work.

Keith finally understood why his automaton hadn't reacted and delt with Henrietta when she'd first arrived. And to a lesser extent, he understood why his minions had let her into the castle.

Chikli's report on how excited everyone was for their ruler to be met in honorable combat had been an about turn from the usual kill-it-with-fire attitude his minions usually had to assassins. It was still unbelievable that a hedgehog apron and a smiling princess had swayed his guards, but his tests on the golems had finally put all the pieces together.

His tight security procedures had been bypassed by carefree innocence, some freshly baked scones, and a series of polite misunderstandings.

And everyone in the castle had been over the moon that Keith had been challenged to a royal duel. Like it was a good thing! They had just been so proud that their king had been included.

In the end, he'd told them that any duel requests were to be submitted to his office, and the challenger shown to a guest room—even if they were visiting royalty.

Especiallyif they were visiting royalty.

This was the kind of foolishness that got put into storybooks, when the purehearted hero somehow managed to defeat the Dark Lord with the power of love or some other utter nonsense.

He was of a mind to act as a proper Dark Lord and do something befitting the title to show his minions that he required obedience. That when he told them to let no one into his inner sanctum, he meant no one … but that sounded like work, and he was off for the day.

When he finally finished testing the princess, he bid her goodbye, and then summoned Tulith again.

"Rufus has left already, hasn't he?" Keith took off his glasses and massaged his temple.

"Yesss, Your Viciousnesss."

"Sigh. And no word yet from Chloe?"

"I assume the necromancer will be gone for the rest of the month, Your Viciousnesss."

He actually sighed this time. "I'll need you to find a way to distract the princess until Rufus returns," Keith instructed.

"If I may, Dark Lord," Tulith replied. "I believe I have just the thing."

Keith nodded. "Alright, I'll leave it to you."