Primordial Villain With A Slave Harem

The room was dimly lit, creating a rather cozy atmosphere, illuminated by a few lanterns and the blue glow of a large communication artifact at the center of the large war table. Unlike the portable one I had, this one was embedded into the middle of the table itself. Vargis stood at the head of the aforementioned table with his arms crossed. Beside him were his two sons.

Darius, the first prince, was a towering warrior with scars marking his body like trophies, his expression always set in a grim scowl, greatly resembling his father.

Fenrik, the second prince, was slightly leaner and sharper-eyed, striking me as more of a tactician than a purebred warrior.

The trio were locked in discussion, their gazes fixed on the glowing artifact, from which a voice came through—a deep, commanding tone belonging to none other than Maelstrom, the Vesper Consortium's army general.

"We're en route. Our forces will step into lionkin lands within the hour," Maelstrom reported. His voice carried the weight of thousands of marching troops, an army large enough to crush cities. "What's your status?"

Vargis leaned forward to press his fingers against the map, where various pieces marked out the current positions of the beastkin alliance and lionkin forces. "We're ready to move out at a moment's notice. The bulk of our army will advance along the eastern path, pushing into their border defenses. We expect resistance, but with the Consortium drawing their attention from the west and the other beastkin from the north, we have good reason to believe they'll struggle to defend all borders."

Fenrik tapped the map. "That's assuming they don't have any nasty surprises waiting. The Covenant's been quiet despite knowing their high-ranking member has been compromised."

"Understood. We're continuing our march. Maelstrom out."

With that, the blue light of the artifact ceased shining, letting the lanterns be the sole source of illumination.

"Daughter, you're back," Vargis grunted.

"Hello!" she replied with a cheery smile, perfectly ignoring that her father was visibly unhappy with her day-long disappearance.

"That reminds me, what about the necromancer? Her large army was standing still in the lionkin lands."

My question was met with Vex's coy chuckle. "A lot of things happened in the past day, Mr. Devil. While you were conducting a day-long orgy with your ladies, we killed the necromancer to set her army free before the Covenant got to them. They're rampaging through the lionkin lands now."

Three heads snapped in Kitsara's direction, making the usually shameless woman burst out into a strong shade of pink all across her cheeks. Her ears twitched as she cried out in alarm, protesting Vex's antics. "N-not in front of my family!"

"Nice job, little sis. I'm happy for you; you finally found a man for yourself. I was getting worried you would become a lesbo like those long-eared sluts," Darius smirked with a thumbs up, earning himself a mighty strong growl from Vargis who eyed me like he was debating whether he should tear me apart or just beat me to a pulp. He was still struggling with letting his beloved little princess go, it seemed.

As for what Darius meant with the lesbian long-eared remark, thanks to Malakar killing the first male elf, the male elves got a 'little bit' nerfed, making them die much sooner than female elves. As such, many of them opted to become lesbians, not wanting to get heartbroken by losing their lovers early.

Anyhow. Knowing we were about to move out, I addressed my father-in-law. "Papa Vargis, this kind, humble, and loving son of yours would like to ask a big favor."

"No," he grunted without even hearing me out.

I ignored him. "My allies and I would like to gain access to your armory, our gear is lacking a bit." Back when I joined the resistance armies, I thought beastkin didn't like using weapons and armor due to their great pride, but as it would turn out, that was only true for the apex races that had great innate physical advantages.

The dogkin and foxkin, as well as other non-apexes, had no issue using weapons and armor. Their stuff wasn't as great as what could be found in the other two countries for they lacked good artificers, but I thought I might as well rummage through his properties in search of a few good pieces.

His lips twitched in sheer irritation. "Aren't you adored by that Black Fang woman? Go ask your sugar mommy."

"Now-now, Papa Vargis. Unlike you, Lady Black Fang is not family. She expects I return the favor, and I already owe her for the 500 gold I asked from her."

"Sucks to be you."

"Father, stop being so antagonistic… Just because he rummaged Kitsara to his heart's content doesn't make this guy your enemy," Darius spoke up in my defense.

"B-brother! Stop messing with me!" my foxkin lover cried in protest but only received a second smug smirk.

A fierce staredown followed between the cheiftain and first prince, after which a conclusion was reached. We were allowed to take one item each.

I thanked the surprisingly friendly dogkin with a warm nod of my head, which he returned.

We departed for the armory, and as expected, they didn't have any exemplary pieces lying around. Whatever they took off of dwarves and other enemies were already in use, given to some of their mightiest warriors. We were glad to take some freebies, nonetheless.

Afterward, we rejoined the royal family, who headed to the large army stationed outside Canisgard, the dogkin capital city. This army consisted of about 20,000 dogkin warriors. The size of this force wasn't as big as the Consortium's, which could be best explained by the fact that the syndicate had been lying low for eternity, peacefully building their forces, while the beastkin were fighting other countries as well as their neighboring beastkin.

Anyhow. It was finally time to participate in my life's first-ever large-scale war, and boy… What an experience this one would end up becoming.