“Greetings, you may rise.” I said, while having mixed feelings. Making an impression was good, I just hoped I had not intimidated them too much. I wanted to recruit some of them. But it was important that they made the decision freely, not out of fear.

  “You honour us with your visit.” The lead dryad said, as she stood up.

  “I am Amaya Delphinium, these are Lucy Delphinium, Lily, Lilith, Erin, Adhira, Shani and Francis.” I introduced everyone while pointing at them.

  “Queen Lilith, demon lord and ruler of the succubi!” Erin added.

  The lead dryad gave her a small bow. “I believe we felt your presence shortly before the storm.” Then she looked back at me. “Let me introduce myself. I am Ash, leader of this grove. How may I help you?”

  “We are on our way to the frozen wastes, looking for Beira. She is a frost archfey. If you have any information on her it would be appreciated. But I am also looking for people willing to work for me.” I replied.

  “Work for you? In what capacity?” She asked.

  “Do you have fruit trees? With tasty fruits?” Lucy asked.

  Ash blinked. “Um, maybe? I am unsure as to your tastes…”

  “So, I am recruiting people for multiple purposes. I am trying to turn Iron Rock, a city in the mortal realm, into a centre of magic. I need some fey there at the academy. Further, I do have a county next to the black forest, in the mortal realm. Dryads could help guard my lands from monsters. In exchange you can feed on them. I could also provide you with monster corpses from hunts. And we could negotiate other compensation.” I explained. I was not sure what exactly a dryad wanted. Money was an option but were they interested in such things?

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Are you asking for the entire grove?” Ash wondered.

  “What? No! Just volunteers. But everyone is welcome and you are free to decline. I am simply offering employment and I am willing to negotiate a reasonable compensation.” I explained.

  “I can offer a similar deal. If anyone is interested in working with a demon lord.” Lilith added.

  A lot of them started whispering.

  “I… I am not certain...” Ash replied.

  I nodded. “That is fine. The offer is for any dryad. And you will have some time to think it through. As I said, I am currently looking for Beira. I won’t have time to transport the trees of any willing dryad for some time.”

  “Um… What would the soil be like?” The question came from one of the dryads in the back. Her skin was dark brown but I could see small bits of pink as well.

  That was an excellent question. Sadly, I had no idea. “Well… I have no idea.” I admitted. “But I would be willing to help acquire fertilizer. And I have a large storage space, so I could bring soil from somewhere, if it’s not too far away.” I mused.

  “You would be willing to help improve the soil?” Ash asked.

  “Yes.” I confirmed. “But I am not an expert when it comes to plants. I do have an alchemist working for me. And Thessia, a dryad and priestess of Sylphania, is moving to my county as well. And I might be able to negotiate for some help with Lady Izanami. She gave us the location of your grove.”

  “Blood is a great fertiliser! We should get them a lot of blood!” Shani suggested.

  “You would share the bodies of your foes with us?” Ash asked.

  Actually… “I still have the corpse of a demon lord. I don’t really have a use for it.”

  A lot of exciting murmuring followed that. I had no idea if there was any power left. Magical storage preserved things rather well. So far we had only used a little bit of blood to rebind his armour to Lily. And I still had a lot of things in my storage from the game. Was there anything ectopic that could help plants? Not a question I had asked myself so far.

  What about the bond and ritual magic in general? Could I make dryads into maid knights? They were rather stationary. Well, the trees were. They could move a certain distance away with their body but it left their tree more vulnerable. Was there a way to fix that too? Could you connect a dryad body with their tree through a bond? Allow them to roam? If I added a dryad to the maid knights, would I add the tree, or the body?

  I felt like there was a lot of unexplored territory here. Or maybe someone had tried in the past and had failed. Then again, how many archfey, or equivalent powers, were there? And how many had a bond network like I did? I was not the first to create an elemental knight but I might be the first who had a kitsune in their bond network as well. The additional power of a second immortal might change things.

  I was so lost in thought that I did not notice the dryads reaction at first. They were all kneeling again.

  “If you are offering such priceless gifts, like the corpse of a demon lord, we are willing to serve you.” Ash said.