On the next Morning, Kuran had taken the opportunity to invite Holur to a breakfast and saw it forth that the man had enough supplies, to which the man was thankful.

Then Kuran also states as they were heading for the gate, "I also got a Mercenary under contract who will be responsible to bring you back in best possible conditions to ensure you can tell your king the problems of his letter."

"Oh? That is considerate of you. may I know who the mercenary is," he wondered?

"I think you heard of her reputation," mused Kuran. "It's Domitia, the Sharp Eye." and upon saying that name, he saw that Holur was suddenly frozen for a moment. "Something wrong? Bad past with this woman?"

"What?" he asks and then shakes his head. "No, no. Not a problem… just… surprised to hear you managed to hire her… I knew her mother. Good woman. Her father doesn't really agree with her career choice though…"

"I think that is something I am not going to but my head in,'' decides Kuran and the two reaches the gate where a carriage in the colours of the Asgor Kingdom, with Domitia standing at the door.

She smiles, "Lord Holur. It has been a long time since I saw you. Didn't expect you to be my escort of the day," and nods.

"It's a pleasure on my side" answered Holur and was visibly nervous… Kuran fought back the urge to rose an eyebrow as he took notice.

"Well, given how important that trip must be, let's not waste sunlight, shall we?" Smiles the woman and gestures to the open door of the cabin and Holur is quick to go in, followed by Domitia and they close the door.

As Kuran watched the carriage to drive away, he mused loudly. "Perhaps somebody should check who Domitia the Sharp Eye really is, within the kingdom." While he didn't get a spoken answer, he felt a small rush of wind and he knew he would know a few more things soon.

Overlord: Kingdom's Rise

After that event, Kuran was quick to his throne room and sat on his throne as the two guards who had night gate duty last night brought before him. To which the Overlord quickly stripped them down regarding their failures and finished up the strip down of the two by sending them back to Halbert… with the official notice that they are FIRED and must WALK back to him.

The two guards looked at each other and began to get out of the place. Gnarl came to Kuran side and mused, "You are too soft a master. If it were up to me, the two would be an exercise for the torture master."

"I am pretty sure that Halbert will not be pleased that his reputation got a hit because two of his guards couldn't think for a second. that and their fear of what will await them should be enough punishment," mused Kuran and stood up.

"Given that way master," mused Gnarl "I think you are evil after all." and chuckles loudly at the prospect before turning to Kuran again "Also the preparations are doing well. In one or two days we can start our operations regarding the dwarves."

"That is good" nodded Kuran and mentally runs down everything they have currently under operation. While he notes to himself that he has only to wait for many of them to report for now, he does note to himself that a bit too many are running in tandem. A matter he wants to resolve quickly as he is aware if he does too much at once, he will lose sight to details… details that many other plans have destroyed in the past. No matter which side of morality one operates.

Then he was ripped out of his thoughts as he heard an explosion. From the sound it cannot be from anywhere of the Nether half of the tower… which means it's from above. Instantly he is on the move to see what is going on, followed by Gnarl. "I swear that those Minions again blew up our bomb storage" he muttered along the way.

Overlord: Kingdom's Rise

Having reached the balcony quite high in the tower, while Kuran took a deep breath while thinking of asking for something that makes all the stairs somewhat obsolete, he observes the surroundings. No army attacking. So that is out.

In fact, an attack would be the last thing he would expect to happen. His next look is the smaller tower that contains the bombs. Still standing. No smoke or the like.

Which leaves for the research tower. And as Kuran had nearly expected it was smoking. Which was and given the position where the smoke comes from, he can guess what happened. He chuckles "Looks Like Laurent accidently let something in his personal lab blow up. Well, I should see if he is alright. He was examining the dragon's eggs and-" his eyes widened "ALEXANDRA!" she shouts and rushes again. This time past a Gnarl who looks quite confused at this type of rush.

"Huh? Seems I have missed something," mused Gnarl, "I must be getting older than I expected."

Overlord: Kingdom's Rise

Kuran just got to the affected level of the tower and shouted "Alexandra! Alexandra! Are you here?" While getting the attention of everybody who is working on getting the mess cleaned.

"Daddy?" asked a weak voice and Kuran instantly rushed to where the voice came from, looking shocked.

Instead of the mostly ants like Chicant with four legs and an ant like head, she saw a red two-legged girl with four arms, that butt thing most ants have and the head sports antenna and black hair… while two golden eyes looked at him, sniffing "Alexandra?" was the only thing that escaped from Kuran.

"Daddy…" she sniffed "What… what happened to me?"

"I… I am not sure" said Kuran honestly and knelt. "But are you alright? Hurt in any other way?"

She shakes her head to which Kuran sighs relieved and embraces his girl, who begins to cry loudly while he patted her back and slowly lifts her up and puts an arm under her to hold her, while she uses all six limbs to hold tight to her daddy.

Turning around he looks around "Who can tell me what happened?"

"Minions happened," said Laurent as he came over, having bloody wounds nearly everywhere. "I was busy checking up on her… as two minions decided to play with a mixture I acquired. It was found in the ruins of the home of an alchemist. Known for Metamorphic Elixirs. After the examinations I intended to study and experiment with it. Of course, I instantly went to interference. Then in their fun they tossed the bottle towards Alexandra but instead it hit a wall, broke and the contents got into contact with the torch below."

He looked at the young Chicant: "Honestly… I wasn't expecting the tincture to still be that effective given the Alchemist is dead for nearly a century by now." and sighs "At least she isn't hurt by any means though my experiments in the lab are now broken. And one of the eggs got covered by a random mix of all kinds of mixtures I have here. I cannot tell if it is safe to approach."

True to word, the egg laid in a corner, and nobody dared to get close as some of the puddles around it gave off mists in different colours. Not the most welcoming sign.

"I will have those two taken out of the well… so they can get their punishment for their stupidity." muttered Kuran and looked at Alexandra who was still clinging hard on him, sobbing.

"Mylord… there is one thing I have to address regarding her." stated Laurent "Some of the Chicants that are here as well, are confused due to a sudden change of scent of hers. A quick questioning confirms that they still recognize her as a growing queen, but no longer as a normal Chicant. they are unsure how to treat her."

"I see. I take care of that soon." he nodded to her, as he is still her caretaker in the eyes of the Chicants… his word has weight as long they still think Alexandra is qualified to be their future queen. He looks at the egg. He had the feeling he should keep an eye on it and stated, "Once it is deemed safe to be close to that egg, I want it brought to me."

"Of course, my lord" nodded Laurent "Shall I examine your daughter?"

"Not now… now she needs comfort. And you are hurt. Send somebody who can do that for you once you get patched up." told Kuran and looked at Alexandra, "how about we go and see Aunt Lehid and her egg?"

To which Alexandra stopped her sobbing and nodded slightly to Kuran and he smiled at her "You are a strong girl my little one." And moved one of his hands to stroke the back of her head "I am glad you are not hurt."

She gave a sniffle "I… I am glad that you are here daddy" and holds him close again, her head against his head for comfort.

A deep breath escaped Kuran as he began leaving with Alexandra… knowing that some things are going to be quite different than he anticipated.

Overlord: Kingdom's Rise

As Kuran reaches his quarters with the still sobbing Alexandra, Lehid was there, checking on her egg as she turned and saw Kuran with Alexandra. Thought given the girls different looks now, the Skeith had first a moment where she didn't recognize her.

Though then she recalled a couple of things… First, she heard an explosion at Laurents lab… and only now her mind recalls that the little Chicant was supposed with Laurent for a check-up.

(Sometimes, together with Gnarl, she wondered where that mage got the qualification. That researcher seems to have the kind of knowledge or qualifications for EVERYTHING they could ask for)

Putting the warming blanket back on the egg, she moved over to Kuran and Alexandra and asked, "What happened?"

"Minions playing with stuff and tossed some of it to fire." summarized Kuran simply and looks down on the Chicant "I am glad this is all that happened… she could have been seriously hurt from the blast. Especially as she was closer to it than Laurent."

"Alexandra." began Lehid and got the attention of the little girl "Are you in pain? Do you need something?"

The red insect-like girl sniffed and looked at Lehid "Do I look… ugly now?"

"No. No" shakes Lehid with a smile "No matter how you look… I won't view you as ugly".

Sobbing a little less now, Alexandra fumbles a little given the change of the numbers of arms and legs on her body she wipes a tear off her eyes and reaches out some of her hands towards Lehid. Who in turn smiles and slowly moves to take over holding the girl. Said girl then climbed upon her aunt and held her close. "Do you think… Mommy will like it?"

To which the faces fell a little of the two adults. It was still not really registering in Alexandras mind that Kuran late mistress is dead… and won't be coming back. No matter how much they tried to make her understand without pressing it too much. And neither of the two really know how to break it to her in a way that she understands… but not fully break her young mind.

"I am sure she would" he said with a slight tone of defeat, while stroking Alexandras head a little and mused then "Thought now how you look like… I fear we have you to get used to clothes now."

To which Alexandra blinked oddly and tilted her head. "Clothes why? Before that you didn't think I needed them." Slowly forgetting that she was crying or sad. Just confused.

"Because before you looked like regular Chicants with the usual features. Now you look close to other species. Like your aunts, me or your mommy." explained Kuran with a smile "So people will expect from you to wear clothes."

Her face fell "But I don't wanna wear those clothes. It's odd that you and the others wear clothes." and pounded while turning away her face. Kuran chuckles to that and strokes her now haired head gently while shaking his head about the behaviour of his little daughter.

"Don't worry. I make sure they will be comfortable for you so you can slowly get used to them." Promised Kuran to her while Lehid giggled slightly while Alexandra held a little tighter upon her aunt.

Overlord: Kingdom's Rise

"Ahh! What a night." signs Sunkren and stretches herself as she comes back of the tower "SO many summons without proper preparations." and shakes her head "One would think that people who get their hands on those stuff would read the warnings and proper preparations… but nope." and popped he 'p' with a disappointed look "They straight out jump to the part how to prepare the summon self and are surprised that they get attacked outright by their callings." And she mused "Not to mention that many of them did try those summoning to kill Kuran."

To which she laughed to herself "As if the majority of them would dare, given the Overlord bears my mark." a mark, which she mused in mind she still needs to finalize with a contract… but for that she wants the wedding.

Though as she reaches the higher floors of the tower, she sees the unusual activity and tilts her head "Did I miss something?" and went straight to the very person that should know: Gnarl.

"Oh Gnarl~" she sang with a smile as she found him, causing him to groan and turn towards her.

He eyed her slightly before finally asking "What do you want, Sunkren?"

"Just wondering what happened here. It's unusual for this activity. Did Orez escape his room again? Or Bomber?"

"If it were any of the Chaos, things would be much easier." grumbled Gnarl while crossing his arms "Then at least I know where to put the blame and at least "Adept" to punish them. But nope. Regular browns thinking it's smart to play with a potion bottle until it hits a torch."

Sunkren gave a slight whine as she realized the implications of THIS alone. "That explains why repair material is transported… but not how scared some of the browns look."

"Alexandra was caught in this… and got heavily affected by the potion." told Gnarl "We are lucky that the Chicants that have seen her after the fact didn't react so much as noting her new scent. Else we would be properly busy with bug extermination right now."

To which the succubus nods "While I must see the changes myself… and properly must hire somebody to check her over, I assume the changes of hers are not big enough to make her lose the marking as a growing queen. And the Chicant nest that we control is queenless, so any queen will do in their state." and understood the panicked state of the browns now.

Kuran is properly tending to his adoptive daughter right now… despite knowing that her adoption was for pragmatic reasons, Sunkren could see that he took her to heart. And was quite protective. So, she won't be surprised if he is going to tear the responsible Minions apart. Even if he must resurrect them. Over and over if necessary. With a grin she mused how vicious the Overlord can be at slights against those he cares for.

"Well… I'm going to see Kuran later then." decided the Succubus with a nod "He is going to be busy to tend to his little girl."

"And then taking the Browns that are responsible to the Torture Chamber," added Gnarl with a nod and chuckles. "Wonder if he manages to make the Torture Master puke again." Which followed by an evil laugh.

While Sunkren only felt a bit sorry for the torture master. That guy is most days sitting down there, with only a few minions as company. Trying to teach them to play cards. And WHEN Kuran goes to use it… well… he prefers to take matters in his own hand.

She recalls in one of the few talks she had with him, that despite being in the job for nearly 20 years, he had learned a few things… he preferred not to have seen from Kuran. Upon the question where Kuran learned it… brought Sunkren only a shrug of the Overlord.

"Well, if anybody is looking for me: I have kidnapped Alisa again for some lessons on how to handle our Overlord." mused Sunkren and turned around.

"Do we have to worry about earthquakes?" was Gnarls simple question then.

"Nah. Tsunamis from one of the bathrooms. She needs some more lessons for bath times." was the Succubus only reply to that with a big grin.

"I get the blues ready for cleanup and resurrecting drowned minions." sighs Gnarl and grumbled about how it would be nice sometimes if Minion had two instead of a single brain cell and walked off, grabbing a random bug he saw on the wall crawling to take it as a small snack.

Overlord: Kingdom's Rise

Laurant eliminates the remains of his lab as a few green Minions are running and removes everything that seems to be poisoning… while blues deal with anything that could cause medical harm.

As they did, he saw that the access to that one dragon egg was now free and moved over to it. The mage examines it with his eyes alone for a moment to see why his lord wants it delivered to him directly instead of being put back to the other two eggs… until he notes something…

No… it shouldn't be possible? Or… yes. Those signs are gone. But how? Even with a random mix, there is no way it could change the fate of this…

But if it still did somehow? Laurent, having studied so much in his life that there is properly little where he doesn't know the details or couldn't have a clue where to find the details cast upon the object of a spell… and widened as he got the result of this spell.

"If I could recreate this… the applications… by the gods." he muttered and turned to look at one of the ruined windows that allowed view towards the main tower. Did the Overlord feel what happened? Or a good guess? Or instinct?

"Doesn't matter." he whispered finally "Important is… that he needs to be informed" and called for his assistants. That is too important to let Minions handle the transport.


The story will enter from here on a short hiatus.

Reason is

A) IRL stuff happens that keeps me from writing in peace.

B) I co-work on a NSFW project with a friend, as well explore on an idea of rebooting my Kingdom Hearts Stories.