Great, I'm the New Bad Guy...

I was back at the Tower watching as the new smelter was installed next to the old smelter, which had appeared with the Tower Heart, along with a book of magic and a small amount of money. If this was just a game then I wouldn't even bother with the denurium smelter and just save my resources for the arcanium smelter. However this wasn't a game, and it wouldn't take gold to make the armor and weapons... well it would cost money to get the proper ore's and other things that are needed in smelting.

I knew that it wasn't necessary for me to be here, and that by being away it would only give the Queen of the Bee hive time to betray me to the other Queens... which was something I wanted her to do. I needed to make sure that my minions could hold their own against a prepared, coordinated and well established force. If they couldn't, then there was no way that I could keep this going for long. The illusion of power can only go so far until it needs to be reinforced with actual power, and I only have so much of that myself.

While I would prefer to not actually be there when the test happened, I would need to if I wanted to take the dark energy from the other Queens as I had with the one I had forcibly emigrated. Speaking of, I checked the horns growing out of my body and reassessed my mental standing... Needless killing, nope... Torture, only on those who deserve it... Stealing, not for unimportant things... I didn't think that any part of my psyche was altered, and I didn't feel any incentive to hurt others... maybe I should just ask Gnarl about it.

I knew that he couldn't be fully trusted, but so far he seemed to only be an average minion. As such I would trust him until he proved me wrong.

I left the minions who were setting up the smelter to go look for Gnarl. I say look for him, but in reality he almost never left the throne room, for reasons I will never care to know. I found him right where I expected to, talking with another Brown. When he saw me he waved, or rather shoved/kicked the minion away.

"Yes sire? What is it?" He asked.

"I have a question about the corruption. I know that it will make me stronger in the short term, but I need to know if it will alter my mind. If I can't trust myself while using it, then I won't, however it would be very useful if I could." I asked him.

He looked somewhat surprised at my question, but quickly had a look of understanding and said "Sire, I understand what you're worried about, and I can assure you that there is nothing to fear! As we are dark creatures, the corruption has no effect on us other than strengthening us. Now, if you were to be anything other than a creature of darkness, then you would have something to worry about! If anything, I would worry about using too much light magic, trust me it would only hurt you, in the short and long term."

"So it won't incentives me to do more messed up things? I won't suddenly start trying to end the world or some other stupid thing that dumb evil things try to do?" I asked.

"No, sire. Not unless you actually decide to do that yourself. The corruption is only a name for the intense build up of evil energy, it will not actually corrupt you, it will only... 'reward' you." He said as he laughed with his mouth closed.

"Hmm... Thank you Gnarl. I will think about this some more on my own however." I said as I began to walk away.

"My lord! Actually, there was someone here who wished to speak with you, if you have the time that is! They could always be sent back to their home if you don't have time for their nonsense." Gnarl informed me, with emphasis on the sending them home part.

I sighed and went to sit on my throne, waving the person in for whatever it was they wanted to talk to me about. Gnarl turned to a nearby guard and pointed down the stairs surprising me, as I expected the visitor to arrive through the water portal.

The mayor of the sheeple village walked up the stairs, looking nervous and somewhat deep in thought as he walked up to the throne.

"S-Sire... I've been thinking about what you said... about ch-changelings... and... I agree. If there is any chance of them being anything other than a monster, then we need to give them a chance! So, my answer to your question of them being accepted into the village, the answer is yes sire. We will happily accept them with open hooves." said the mayor his voice, as always, weak at the beginning, yet it seemed that he was getting used to talking with me as his voice quickly gained confidence.

I hummed in satisfaction. "I am very pleased to hear this. It is good to know that my people are accepting of others, no matter the background. I can only hope that you keep this viewpoint, it will serve you well in my domain."

The mayor stood there for a few more seconds, as though waiting for something else, before bowing and heading back down the stairs. Once he was gone I slumped into my throne, I felt unduly tired for reasons that I didn't know, but I suspected that it was related to the pressure of ruling. That being said, I very rarely felt any stress or worry... about things I can control.

Honestly, so far all that had changed for me since coming here is the sudden increase of violence and magic. Managing resources and people? It was almost any game I played for fun, just make sure that you never go into a deficit and keep your people happy. That being said I knew that it would be harder in real life, but not by much... It was unfortunate, but people were easy to understand once you knew what they wanted.

Take Gnarl for example, what he want's is a master who deserves the title, i.e. someone who is 'evil' and as long as I am that he will be loyal. Thus, conquering the surrounding area to show him how 'EVIL' I am, pleasing him just enough to keep him loyal and productive... plus it would make a good safety bubble in case anyone wanted to attack me.

Or the changeling Queen, all she wanted was to keep her hive safe and well fed. The reason she would betray me was because it would draw her even closer to the other Queens and make them indebted to her, all of which would just feed into what she wanted. It was why I wasn't upset about it, why I was counting on it!

All of this was one reason why I was so quiet, so I could hide what I wanted. As long as nobody knew what I wanted then nobody could influence me in any meaningful way. I also just had little to actually say.

Case and point, I had spent about three hours just silently sitting on my throne, saying and doing nothing while waiting for the forge to be installed and new armor and a mace to be made from denurium for me. I wanted a mace for some variety in my killing implements, I was tired of hearing 'thunk' whenever I hit something. Why not try for 'crunch' instead? Plus it would be faster than cutting them in half... so, kind of more 'humane'?

It didn't really matter to me, dead was dead, but appearances are important and people like merciful rulers. I sure am glad mom and pop taught me what everyone thinks is right and wrong, otherwise I would have a much harder time of pretending to have the same views.

Giblet, the forge master, came up my throne and pulled on my arm, he talked even less than I did but I assumed that he meant that my armor was ready. I followed him down to the forge, which was on the lower levels, and found a full suit of denurium armor and a mace of the same material. Over all it looked much better than my current dressings and appeared to be better as armor, having a kind of chain mail coating over the exposed parts of my body.

Gnarl had followed us down to see how the armor looked. "Oh, very intimidating sire! I think I can feel the, uh, 'Changelings' quaking with fear already! How does it feel my lord? Any complaints? Any pinching?" He asked with all the awe of someone who had met their hero five years ago and now really were just trying to be nice to the poor guy... Poor Shia Lebouf.

"It fits perfectly, and it's not even all that heavy to be honest. I think I haven't given the Queens enough time yet though... and it is rather late... Yes, this will be all for today. Tomorrow, we go to kill some changelings." I said as I began to walk up to my room, Gnarl heading back to the throne room, and Giblet going back to... what ever it is he does when no one is in the forge.

"Tomorrow I am going to get hurt, there's no way around that. I wonder what my pain tolerance will be in this body, and what the queens will do if/when they learn there is no hope..."