Receiving a Bride

Rudeus received their intentions and offers of aid with open arms. Though he had no intention to stay here that long, he welcomed any form of help that could let him grow stronger quicker. He did feel bad that he was essentially scamming them, since he was planning to follow Hitogami's advice and escape within a year.

But he made a promise to himself, that even if he was able to successfully leave, once he grew strong enough he would return and defeat Atofe to repay the kindness of his seniors.

"This promise is good enough for us, newbie. You are our only hope, so grow strong quickly. The faster you defeat Atofe, the sooner we get to taste true freedom. Be it training partners or mentors, we are at your disposal. We are not ashamed to admit that we are no match for Atofe, but none of her Imperial Guards are weak. You might think we are bragging when we say this, but after training at Fort Necross for so long, any one of us can kill a dragon with a single strike."

Another knight chimed in, "Let's start immediately. We can plan a training schedule for the newbie, and cover any shifts he will start to undertake. Things like guard duty and monster extermination, you can leave those to us. All you need to do is focus on getting stronger. All your time has to be devoted to reaching the pinnacle of North God style."

Rudeus looked a little worried at that, though feeling very grateful at the sentiment, "Wouldn't Atofe get angry if I am slacking off like that? And if she found out you guys were helping me so that I can eventually defeat her and free all of you, wouldn't she try and stop me by nipping it in the bud?"

"No, Atofe wouldn't do something like that. I told you, though she can get stubborn with certain things, what she cares most about is only strength. She welcomes challengers, even from her personal guards. If she found out we are trying to help you grow strong enough to defeat her as quickly as possible, not only would she not stop us. She would even encourage it." Grayson refuted.

"We have even tried ganging up on her a few times. More than 30 of us Imperial Guards combined our strength to take her down. We managed to cut her up a couple times, but the Demon King was still able to out last us with her immortality." Another knight added, shaking his head while trembling at the memory.

"You can't imagine what it feels like, watching your opponent reattaching her head casually while her body is still jumping around and swinging her sword. In the end, all those fights came down to a battle of attrition - and no one can win against Atofe when it comes down to survivability and stubborn persistence."

"Take this as your first lesson, newbie: Atofe's regeneration does not require mana. It is simply a characteristic of her immortal demon clan. The method of killing one of the immortal demon clan is undisclosed - not even chopping them up into minced meat is enough. Given enough time, those of the immortal demon clan will just revive somewhere a few decades later..."

Rudeus truly was astonished beyond belief. Watching Moore reattach the two halves of his body was already shocking enough. What good was a sword when even fatal wounds could be healed in moments? And if incinerating her into ashes would only result in the Immortal Demon King reviving a few decades later, then how could anyone hope to truly defeat her?

Grayson continued.

"Atofe doesn't hate losing. It's just that she is very particular about whom she acknowledges is stronger than her. Till this day, there are only two people she acknowledges and respects – the first North God, Kalman I, and the Demon God Laplace. So you can imagine how hard it is to gain her respect. However, if someone can defeat her with their own strength, then not only will they gain her respect, she will willingly become that person's subordinate."

"It was for this reason that she followed Demon God Laplace in the first place. Because he defeated her so she willingly joined his army to wage war against humanity 400 years ago. And she left his service after being defeated by North God Kalman I, who told her to help humanity fight against Laplace."

Rudeus nodded in understanding. The guards who served Atofe for many years clearly had great insight on her history and her personality. He was starting to get a clearer picture of what Atofe was like.

Definitely, Atofe was just like Eris, who only respected someone after if they were stronger. The difference was that Eris wasn't heartless enough to kill people she designated as weaklings. And Atofe was strong enough that a casual punch could obliterate a regular person's skull.

Strength was the only thing she cared about. Atofe had a bestial rationalization on this - if you were strong, you had a right to talk to her as an equal. If you were stronger, than naturally she was willing to submit. And if you were weak, then it was also only natural for you to submit to her.

But if someone was too weak to even become her subordinate, then their lives and continued existence meant nothing to her. Killing them or letting them leave, none of that mattered since Atofe simply did not care one way or another about the life of such a meaningless existence.

That was why she did not care if she followed Laplace to wage war and slaughter humans, or listened to the first North God and helped humanity fight back against Laplace. The consequences of the decisions did not matter to her. The only thing she cared about was the person being strong enough to give her orders.

Simpleminded would be an easy way to understand her mentality. To put it nicely, she was straightforward and uncomplicated. Using one's fists to speak instead of their mouths, that was the only type of conversation Atofe was interested in.

Grayson then leaned in closer, and said in a hushed tone, "And you have also noticed, right? Atofe is astonishingly beautiful. I think it is safe to say that she is the woman all men of her Imperial Guards dream of conquering one day."

Rudeus gave him an odd look, before noticing that the other knights nodded their heads in agreement.

Grayson continued, "But no one has ever tried to make a move. Partly because we respect her too much to think of her that way, but mainly because she once said that she will only marry someone who she acknowledges. After Kalman I passed away, there was no one else able to defeat her and win her respect. Some of us have theorized that her welcoming challengers is also in a way her method of finding a husband."

"Though many of us have tried to conquer the Demon King, none have succeeded. If you are a hot-blooded man like us, use that as your motivation too! Anyone who can succeed where we have failed will earn the eternal admiration of us Imperial Guards." Another knight added.

Rudeus fell his jaw slacken a little. Were all grown men in this world perverts? Perhaps he judged his father too harshly when he was young. Rather than calling them perverts with the sensibilities of the modern Earth, the culture and their mindsets probably normalized things like this, right?

Admiring a beautiful woman and desiring to bed her, that was part of the primal nature of men. Within the deep recesses of our primitive reptilian brains, such thoughts were completely normal, animalistic instincts. It was only that suppressing these so-called perverted thoughts deep in our minds had become what was considered appropriate in the modern world.

Of course, acting on these urges and assaulting a woman was a completely separate issue, something he thought of as unforgiveable. But as long as these thoughts were harmless, it was perfectly normal for them to cross our minds occasionally.

Defeating the Demon King and conquering her… Rudeus would be lying if he said that didn't get him a little excited.

Of course, his priority right now was running as far away as possible from this place. And he would do so as soon as possible no matter the temptation. But now, he had two reasons to come back when he became strong enough. The first was to free his kind senior as he had promised, and the second was to receive a bride.

Grayson saw the flush on his face and laughed, "But that is still too far away for you. Just focus on getting stronger for now. You can think about your little friend after you defeat Atofe."

Rudeus' face reddened even more after getting called out like that.

'That's rude! My little friend is still a slumbering wyrm… although, recently the wyrm has started to rouse and occasionally grow into a dragon. Is it because I am a Greyrat? Why is this body of mine maturing so early? I can't recall when was the first time I had a boner back on Earth, but 9 years old is definitely too young right?'

Thinking about the first time his wyrm grew into a dragon in front of Ghislaine still made him want to dig a hole and bury himself in it. The worst thing about living in a mansion full of beastfolk was that they could literally smell your arousal.

Ghislaine had smelled the hard on he had in his trousers, which was a result of seeing her slowly go through sword stances while the melons on her chest jiggled and wobbled whenever she moved. Her reaction had been minimal, since she was probably used to noticing such reactions from men, but she had smiled and said "Rudeus is growing up well" upon noticing it from Rudeus.

AHHHHH that was so embarrassing he wanted to commit seppuku right there and then.

And his body had an overactive hormonal system as well. Boners became more and more frequent as he aged, even if it was from innocuous stimuli like noticing one of the Boreas beastwoman servants bending down to pick something up. If it was so bad when he was still a prepubescent child, he couldn't imagine what it was going to be like one he hit his teenage years.

If he wasn't sure that altering his hormone producing glands would fuck up his body chemistry, Rudeus would have tried adjusting it using Healing magic long ago. As a result, he was resigned to, but dreaded, living in a body that was going to overflow with testosterone and its related physical reactions for the adolescent stage of his life.

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A/N: Second half of this chapter got a little preachy but wanted to address the matter of Rudeus growing into a teenager and thus experiencing the associated physical changes early on. I know its funny to say, 'go to horny jail, bonk!', but I think that is going to be an inevitable part of Rudeus' journey through the horrendous exploration of puberty. This is not going to turn into a smut story, so don't get turned off by this chapter, or disappointed to find that out later in the story if you like such things.