Supreme Monarch

A few days later, Rain was to leave for the Helxoc Region on a strangely clear, sunny day even though it was still the middle of winter, so Tyler came to see her off at the courtyard of the Darknar castle.

The Helxoc region was the region belonging to one of the six families whose representatives had initiated trade talks with Tyler before the start of Paragon City's creation party a few days ago.

This region belonged to the Baxley family, and it was the first step in Rain's mission as an emissary for the Darknar family. She would still have to travel between all six regions to meet them and negotiate with the lords of each family.

The incident with the vampire lord had done little to change the hearts of those representatives. If anything, it had worked out in their favor as those representatives had returned to their regions with a strengthened level of confidence in their decision.

The invitation to the summit of the greats had shown them that even the Great Five had been forced to show respect to the new Darknar family, so none of them had sorted Tyler out to renegotiate or retract their deals.

However, while the invitation to the summit of the Greats could be seen as a good thing, it could also be seen as a bad omen. A way to trap the Darknar family is by drawing their leader away from the Darknar region. Because of this, none of the other representatives changed their minds and no negotiations were conducted.

In their minds, they didn't think the vampire lord had been impressed with the new Demon Lord, given as he had barged into the hall unannounced and in the end, they did not ally themselves with the family.

They felt the invitation was nothing more than a ploy to discreetly dispose of the new demon lord and replace him with a lookalike or clone.

Hence, Rain was still required to visit the few regions that did not waver in order to conduct fair trade discussions. If anything, her job might've gotten even more difficult because of that.

Tarka had already left Paragon City earlier with the representative of the Hervia family on the back of Drago while being escorted by two black Wyverns Tyler had tamed only the day before.

The Hervia family was the only family that had become his vassals so Tyler hadn't gone all out to impress them with gifts and his region's wealth, but had rather opted for the option of showing off his strength.

With the materials from the Darkin mountain range, Ragdek had been able to create a lesser version of those mechanical golems he had gotten from the Brimstones so Tyler had sent a hundred of them over as gifts to the Hervia to increase their strength.

With that, they would be able to fend off the advance of any family that wanted to take advantage of them for swearing loyalty to a yet unknown family like his.

After Tarka was done presenting the Hervia family with the terms of submission, the lord of the family would then follow her back to personally swear loyalty to him under oath, if he finds the terms acceptable.

With that, the only issue was the six families Rain would be paying a visit to whose only goal at the moment was the establish a trade route to the treasured and almost secrete lands of the Darknar region.

There were currently five luxurious carriages parked in his courtyard. One of them was for Rain and another was for her luggage which was a surprise for Tyler because he had given her a storage ring previously but apparently, ladies did not like storing their clothes in another dimension because of reasons he could not understand.

One of the remaining coaches contained gifts to the Lords of these families, to impress upon them the difference between the might of their small families and the Darknar family.

Surrounding these carriages were 20 Undead Doom Cavaliers which Emrys had created as Tyler hadn't found the time to conduct any more of his undead experiments.

It would have been simple enough to just teleport to these regions, not to mention wasting entire carriages to carry things that could be fitted into a single box yet, because of formalities, they had not chosen to do that.

Rain and her party were responsible for demonstrating the Darknar family's power to those minor families that had not personally witnessed the undead war and were clearly underestimating his forces.

That was why they had gone out of their way to hunt down the Magic beasts and converted them into mounts instead of using simple monsters. With Tyler's demonic eyes of domination, it was fairly easy to tame most monsters instantly as long as they possessed low levels of intellect.

He didn't even need to rely on tamers for them to be able to respond to commands for other people besides him. This was because they were semi-intelligent creatures and could understand their situation.

The creatures pulling their coaches were One-horned White Tigers. They were lightning-attributed Advanced class Magic beasts resembling normal tigers but insanely massive with a single curved horn on their foreheads.

To have such powerful monsters that were capable of destroying towns and cities by themselves as mounts, was incomprehensible as the most difficult task was not even capturing such beast without incurring heavy losses but the sheer cost of taming and maintaining them.

What Tyler had done in mere seconds was something even the greatest tamer alive would spend weeks if not months doing. With the risks, such a tedious prove entails, came an exuberant fee that would no doubt run many families to bankruptcy.

"Then, Darl- I mean Lord Ty, please take care of yourself for a while. I'll be sure to come back to your site as quickly as I can."

"Right... please try to be cautious on your journey. Outside the darknar region, we don't have any allies and you can never know who would be seeking to hurt us."

"Of course. I will be careful and never let this leave my person."

Rain brought the bracelets in are arms closer to her face before ultimately resting the God-Class Item on her soft chest.

"Right. Those should eliminate most of the threats along the way and give you an edge against stronger opponents. They should be able to negate the effects of those Magic sealing barriers used against you guys last time. Remember though, if you ever come into contact with those girls again, don't try to eliminate them and stay cautious of traps."

"Understood, besides, I'm an assassin, I don't have to fight head-on, Am I right…"

Raim tilted her head adorably at Tyler as he couldn't help but remember when he had said those exact words to her after finding her passed out on the snow under Liz's ice prism.

"Kuku... I'm glad to see you've grown a bit since then."

"Hey!... why are you teasing me." Rain pouted at Tyler's words but her beauty could not be tarnished by any expression she made. One could even say this only improved her charm.

"Kuku... All I want to say is, don't be careless because you're strong. Although I don't think you'll make a mistake like that again."

Come to think of it, Rain had never been outside on her own until now.

She had grown up with Rain trapped underground in the Alcar family castle. The only time she went out was with her team of Darkelfs and the last time she went to the Darkin mountain range with Liz they were attacked.

Because of this, Tyler felt worried, as though he was letting a child go out on an errand by themselves for the first time.

"Try not to get distracted along the way and make sure to remain alert and do not be careless. You're an assassin with the Foresight skill so if you ever feel there is danger, retreat immediately and hide in the shadows. You don't have any teleportation skills and using a scroll might cause a delay so it's better you simply run. With your speed, I do not believe there would be anyone capable of keeping up with you around your route. Of course, there may be some enemies capable of using teleportation or would try to seal up your movements. Have you thought of a way to handle that? There might also be enemies who distract you with bait before ambushing you. Don't be fooled by your enemies' strengths or supposed weaknesses, alright? I'll have Zelda shadow you in secret so have her contact me the moment you sense something. In addition―"

He thought his lack of preparation was the reason he had been so taken unaware during the Mammon incident so he made it a priority to not just have backup plans but to always cover all his basis. As he did so, he sprayed Rain with a stream of words at machine-gun speed.

He couldn't remember how long he had spent coming up with all these tactics in order to keep up with everyone around him especially since even Uriel was beginning to have too high expectations of him.

He had only stopped after he realized that both Rain, Cora, and Albert were staring at him with an awed expression on their faces.

This was terribly embarrassing.

Tyler coughed.

"Well, you get the gist. I don't think you will slack off on your preparations. I apologize for delaying you. Take care on your trip."

Tyler hurriedly tried to recompose himself as he faked a cough but that only made the smile on Rain's face grow to broaden as she replied with even more enthusiasm.

"Understood, Lord Ty."

There was still something that bothered Tyler about sending Rain out by herself. It was Z. If he had received his report about the various powers and the current fragile state of the demon continent, he could have had Uriel plot the safest route that avoided any unnecessary confrontation but that had not happened. In the end, he simply needed to trust in her ability.

"Then, Lord Ty. As the Lightning General, I will show you results that will not humiliate your name. Those nobles would be dancing in the palm of my hands."

Rain spoke in a reassuring tone with the same levels of confidence as ever. Normally, her smile may have made Tyler worry but this time was different.

"Right, I'll expect nothing less."

Tyler nodded in satisfaction, he felt as though he was no longer talking to the carefree Rain that he had come to get used to by now. Rather, the person before him was the same person that had gotten Liz safely out of the insanely guarded Alcar castle and was one of the greatest assassins in this world.

"There is one more thing I have to say. While you are highly resistant to sickness and diseases. I'm told there are certain regions' climate conditions that dark elve physiology does not agree with. I've tried to avoid those known regions but there may be a few unexpected ones along the way."

The transition between the four seasons was not very clear in this world but it was even worse for the demon continent as various regions would experience vast changes in their weather and climate during each season.

Even as he said that Rain still had the same sparkly-eyed expression on her face. …It didn't seem like she was worried about such trivialities but it seemed as though she had happened upon a devious plan.

As Tyler thought it might've been a bad idea to openly show his concern for her health, Rain excitedly volunteered a suggestion, with a look on her face like a freshly-bloomed flower:

"Lord Ty! There's a magical remedy that's sure to protect me against all forms of ailments, negative conditions, and even diseases."

"Hoh…?"

Tyler felt as though he had walked himself into a landmine but at this point, there was no turning back.

He hope he was just imagining things and she was actually talking about medicine like an herb or potion but he still didn't look forward to what she would say next.

"A kiss!"

"…A kiss? Of course, why am I even surprised."