Supreme Monarch

Albert left the seventh floor of the west wing in the demon king's castle and headed down, he could tell that for some reason his new master was mentally exhausted. Perhaps it was due to the circumstances that surrounded this castle and the fact that the red ogre settlement had accompanied him, or maybe he had expended a bit too much mana during the fight in the rocky plains.

Albert guess was that Lord Ty had most likely isolated himself for centuries and kept himself in a special state similar to sleep in other to recover from a certain injury. He wasn't completely sure about the details but it wasn't like it mattered to him anymore.

He had already used a demons pact when he offered his life to Lord Ty so he wouldn't betray him no matter who he was. Even without the pact he would still never betray him, after all, he was someone that had saved both his and Erin's lives. Going against him would do a lot more than dishonor his demon heritage.

Albert reached the first floor of the west wing and saw Azar waiting for him. The Chief of the Red ogre settlement turned to face Albert and asked with a serious expression. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Don't give me that. What did you think when you asked him about it? Does he think we were too presumptuous and full of ourselves or maybe he thought we were lying."

Albert sigh as he shook his head. "I think he was just caught off guard by your earlier request, especially since you're all freemen. Besides, It looked like Lord Ty wasn't ready for a large group of servants at the current stage of his plan. He had only went out to seek a healer for his two companions, well I am not entirely sure if they are his companions or not but he had only accepted our pledge out of his endless benevolence. It was obvious with our numbers and our few fighting force we would have died trying to find an unoccupied safe zone, if we had encountered the trolls on our own who knows how many lives we would've lost."

Azar folded his arms to think and soon said. "I guess you're right... Well, what's done is done. After saving our entire town twice, there was nothing worthy of our thanks than our lives. I'm glad Lord Ty didn't reject it.... By the way do you think Lord Ty is him?"

"I wouldn't know, besides I don't really think it matters who he was. My demon pact was made to the man who saved my life and not his past self. Whatever his plan is, i am sure the tides would be changing soon."

"Huh what do you mean?"

Albert turned his head to look around the hall they were in, attracting Azar's attention before turning back to look at him in the eyes and spoke slowly. "Can't you tell, No matter who he was before, Lord Ty is now the second coming of the king. Such a thing would most definitely stir the wheels of fate as the tides of our destiny shall be decided by our Lord's future."

Azar looked at him with a complicated expression, and sighed loudly with a pwaa... "You know, there are times that I just can't understand you at all."

Albert chucked softly and changed the subject. "How's the others settling in?"

"Well... This place is huge, just the servant quarters of this wing is enough to contain 1000 ogres, but it's quite apparent that this placed hadn't been used for centuries. It's exactly like the stories said, no... It's even more extravagant, everyone is really curious about the interior but..."

Azar paused, then he took a step forward and lowered his voice a little before continuing. "We can't just wander around without permission so my wife suggested cleaning the castle instead. She was even more excited than she usually is and has already organized the women to explore... *Cough *cough. I mean clean the entire castle which is why I asked you if we could."

"We?"

"Well of course, you may not know this but i always did love to clean... Hahahaha..."

Albert stared blankly at this half giant who was trying to deceive no one but himself and shook his head.

"Well, unfortunately i already asked and... Yes, he gave you permission to do as you wish but not to push yourselfs to much."

"It's great that Lord Ty worries about us but we're ogres, this level of physical labor is nothing. Apart from the kids the men is also going to join in on the cleaning and make sure the entire castle is spotless before Lord Ty wakes up in the morning."

"I see... So everyone was in on it. What about the trolls and kobolds?"

"Well the trolls must've been more terrified than we thought, they passed out the moment we set up some hay for them in the stables. As for the kobolds... well, most of them have woken up, their leader, the female Dragonwrought kobolds said her name was Tarka Harkail, she is explaining their situation to her people as we speak."

"Oh..."

"Is there something you wanted them to do?"

"Hm, yeah but not now, they should get some rest till morning."

"Alright then, I guess we'll get to explor... I mean cleaning immediately hahahah..."

"You seem overly enthusiastic."

"Haha, what in the world do you mean, my wife is the one making me do this, i swear, hahaha..."

"Okay, I'll leave that to you for now, while i go check in on Erin."

"Leave it me!" Azar said with a beaming smile on his face as he gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Albert nodded and proceeded to head back up to the seventh floor. He soon reached the room where the girls were and knocked. After a while it was Erin who came to open the door and Albert asked. "Is everything alright? How did it go."

Erin looked a little tired as she yawned and said "Everything's fine for now, she wasn't breathing so I had to use tranquility, that's why I'm a bit tired."

"I see... So you'll be keeping an eye on her for the night?"

"Yes... Liz and I would take turns and since I'm tire I'll rest first."

"My apologies then, you were resting. Hmm... where's the blonde one?"

"I just said her name geez... She's taking a bath first."

"Okay... Then I'll be off now."

"Yeah goodnight."

Albert saw the door slam on his face, he had wanted to ask if he should call up one of the other female ogress from downstairs to help them watch the girl but he hadn't even been given the chance. Lord Ty had asked him to rest but he couldn't just do that, he decided to supervise the clean up operation of the castle and prevent any mishaps from happening, of course he only wanted to make sure the ogres didn't touch something they shouldn't and wasn't interested in their exploration mission, not at all.

He left the seventh floor again and did as he had planned. With him and Azar supervising the group, they were able to explor... I mean clean the entire castle before Dawn. Still, there were places where Albert felt like magic shouldn't be used although not many ogres could use magic to begin with. It seemed female ogress were more likely to be able to use magic. Since the settlement now mostly consisting of females, there were more lifestyle magic casters available since they had either been too old to fight or pregnant. Although most of them could only use lifestyle magic.

Albert supervised his group untill they had gotten to what he believed to be the throne room, it was very obvious due to the massive throne at the end of the room. He had wanted them to clean the room as carefully as they could but upon entering the room he felt a faint pressure emanating from the seemingly metal throne. Although the pressure was almost no existent, he mad the quick decision of exiting the room immediately.

It wasn't that he didn't want to clean the throne room but, it was because he could tell the throne was dangerous. He was sure the thing was an artifact a magic artifact. Carelessly touching something like that was foolhardy.

Even for him he wouldn't approach it recklessly, besides the room looked sparkling clean already so what's the point. He took his cleaning crew back to the previous room. They had cleared out the broken piece of the statues and kept them close to their alcoves just in case their Lord would need them.

With the cleaning of this room completed, they were done with the interior of the castle. Yes all four wings had been completely explor... I mean cleaned and what was left was the outside. The castle was lit up by colourful crystals so they had no lighting problems but there were no such crystals outside. They had to wait for the sun to rise so they don't make a mistake, after all not all of them had °Darkvision° to be able to see in the dark.

The castle was massive covering more than a million square metre or over 250 acres. It was no small feat to clean the entirety of the castles interior within a single night but their passion for 'cleaning' was impressive. Albert praised the ladies sincerely and even felt a small sense of accomplishment himself. He didn't dwell on this thought though as he lead a few ogress to Lord Ty's room. They may have had ulterior motives but it would be an insult to clean the entire castle without cleaning lord Ty's room.

Of course normally, he wouldn't disturb him in the middle of the night but it was almost Dawn and he should be standing there hours before Lord Ty wakes up, then he would use the chance to also request permission for the ladies to clean his Chambers. Albert and two other ladies arrived at the seventh floor in no time at all. One of the ladies was and ogress and the other a bunny girl.

Yeah, she had bunny ears and tail, although she was an older woman, you could also tell the fact that she must have been quite beautiful in her day.

They all stood by their Lord's door as they waited for him to wake up. It was already past Dawn and the sun had already fully risen so Albert decided to knock and let him know they were outside.

*Knock. Knock. Knock.

There was no response, he knocked again and met a similar situation. He opted on waiting for a while just in case but he saw the concern faces on the ladies beside him. Placing his hand on the door knob he twisted and pushed. Surprisingly the door was not locked, he didn't know why he imagined Lord Ty locking the door before but he was obviously mistaken.

The door opened and Albert saw the interior completely. It was of a much larger size than even the other rooms on this floor and the designs on the walls were even more detailed and exquisite. A single large bed stood at the end of the room next to an entrance to a balcony, several exquisite yet dusty sofas surrounded a small coffee table that was placed atop a thick and soft carpet.

An emty miniature bookshelf stood at another end of the room next to a black desk and chair with the door that should lead to the bathroom being on the other side, the room was indeed beautiful even in it's current state, yet, that was not what had caught their attention, they all stared blankly at the empty room as the ladies mouths opened and closed a few times without saying a word.

The ladies behind Albert were shocked. The room was completely empty and judging by how quiet it was there was no way someone was in the bathroom, their mouths finally produced sounds as they silently mutter to themselves "Our... Our Lord isn't here."

"Where did he go?"