Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

form and long hair, gleaming in the firelight, Ben assumed it was a female. Behind her, two more figures cowered, shivering.

“We dealt with the ogres,” Ben said, still not relaxing his guard. “From what I saw, you were their captives. If that's the case, you’re safe now. Neither Melody nor I are planning to harm you, but we’ll defend ourselves if you try to hurt us.” Ben did his best to sound authoritative, knowing that the beings could have magical powers that would make his sound all but useless.

“We won’t go with you,” the foremost woman said. She was short, not much above five feet. She was clad in what would be considered a bikini on Earth. Whether that was the doing of the ogres or her own choice, it wasn’t clear. She had shoulder length hair and pointed ears. No more detail was visible in the shadows.

“If you want to make us your slaves now, we will fight you.” The woman’s tiny fists were raised.

Ben lowered his scimitar, hoping to make a more friendly impression. “ Easy—I don’t want to make you my slaves.”

“But you slew the ogres, our slave masters.” The woman’s voice still sounded suspicious. “Surely that means you want to take us as your property. Why else would you kill those men?”

Ben sighed and glanced at Melody. She shrugged. It seemed he really would have a difficult time convincing people in this world that he wasn’t a bloodthirsty slaver and murderer. That wasn’t entirely a bad thing. A scary reputation could be useful. But at that moment, he wanted to help these women, so he needed to convince them of his good intentions.

He figured he didn’t need the scimitar. Even if these women did turn out to be a threat, he figured his magic and Melody’s ought to be enough to neutralize their attacks.

Ben threw the scimitar to the ground behind him and held his palms out. “I mean you no harm. I killed those ogres because I wanted to rescue you. I don’t want to make you my slaves.”

The woman’s fists wavered, but she still hesitated.

Ben took a step forward—slowly, then turned all the way around so that they could see he had no weapons. “I am unarmed,” he said. “Now please, step forward so we can see you as well.”

Slowly, the woman at the front took a couple of steps forward into the flickering firelight coming through the window. Her companions stood up straight and followed her. The three of them stood in a row, shivering, but with their jaws raised defiantly at the same time. None of them looked like they could fight, but Ben didn’t want to take any chances.

The woman who had spoken before stood in the middle. She had a slender figure and small, round shoulders.

Her skin was dark. The hue reminded Ben of the shade of tree bark. Her hair was a vivid green, as were her eyes, which reflected the firelight, and stared piercingly into Ben’s eyes. Her ears were pointed, like the ears elves would have. Her clothing was the same bright green color as her hair.

To her left was a taller woman, with pale skin and long, wild blue hair. The light of the fire glinted in her eyes, which were also bright blue. She too had elf-like ears. Her loosely curled fists appeared to have webbed fingers.

She wore a short skirt made of stiff strips of some material. On her torso she only wore a garment to cover her breasts. A cord went around her neck and held up two sparkling golden triangles of cloth. She was taller than the other two, close to Ben’s height, and had a much larger frame. While still looking quite feminine, she was physically imposing.

And to the right stood a short, petite woman. Her skin was very pale, almost like chalk. Her hair was bleached white and frizzy. Her eyes were totally white, without visible pupils. Her ears also were pointed, though not as long as the others. And the skin of her arms was covered in cracks. These cracks appeared to form symbols, marking her skin like tattoos. They resembled the cracks one might see in dry earth.

Her clothing was also white. She wore a long skirt, which trailed below her knees and flared out. It had a summery appearance to it. On her upper body she wore a white garment that looked like it was made from strips of cloth, like what a boxer would wear on his fingers.

This curious trio stood in front of Melody and Benjamin, shuffling nervously. They were trying to look intimidating, but their knees were shaking.

They were terrified, and Ben understood why completely. These women were clearly in a fight-or-flight state. Ben and Melody certainly looked less intimidating than their captors, so they would probably choose to fight. Ben would protect himself and Melody if it came to that, but he had done the work of neutralizing those assholes outside, and he didn’t want all this work to go to waste.

What if I use my powers to take away their fear?

Ben searched within himself and found that he had very little mana after the fight. If he wanted to do this, he would have to be careful and not expend too much mana when using his Drain spell. These women seemed not to want to be afraid, so perhaps this subconscious willingness on their part to have their fear removed would help the process?

But was this wrong? Did he need to ask for consent before tampering with someone’s emotions? He didn’t think asking these women if he could extract their negative emotions using spells would be received well. There were no moral guidelines on this sort of thing in his world, for the understandable reason that it was impossible.

As the reincarnated would-be ruler of this world, he was going to have to establish his own moral guidelines. And in this case, allowing these women to understand that Ben and Melody were there