'WHY DID NEITHER OF YOU TELL ME I COULD FEEL THAT THROUGH MY LINK WITH THE KAIJIN?!'

I mean...it's kind of one those educated assumptions, kind of like how the Invulnerable Storm Queen's Kaijin had a whole bunch of descendants. It was implied.

'I did not want to imagine my predecessor/technical mother-in-law randomly o-facing because of kaijin hanky-panky, thank you very much. Also, I just realized I should probably notify Jin Fang, Jinju Ren, and Rianna that I'm still alive...'

You could just say sex, by the way.

'I am having a moment right now, I did not expect to be feeling sex by proxy, thank you very much. I swear I saw a movie with this exact same plot point.'

=To be fair, you normally shouldn't be able to feel such things. It's just that since you forcefully fixed your connection with the kaijin via breaking through to Aether Lord stage, your abilities are still a little janky. We need to examine you back at the library to see what's going on with your internals.=

'All roads lead to Rome, I guess...fine, let's go see how much of this shitty mine we can salvage...actually, now that I think about it, how many people straight up left the mines after this revolution blew over?'

...One morning prep montage later...

"Alright, I miss the bathing stuff that we have back home," Zhen Liu commented after making use of the enchanted bath barrel that Dante apparently kept in his private quarters and reuniting with his cousins and Razorstella outside of the pillaged bedroom. "This man used a very weird soap blend for his baths."

"We've been debating on whether it smells like daisy flowers or sunflowers," Zhen Xing commented. "I'm the former, Zhen Tai's the latter, what do you think?"

"Honestly, I think it's a weird blend of jasmine and...I want to say sarsaparilla root?"

"Huh..."

"Soap debate aside, Zhen Liu, I think you need to change your face a bit."

"Right," Zhen Liu agreed before circulating [Chaos] and donning his [Stigma].

"It's still kind of shocking to see how drastically you change when you put this thing on," Zhen Tai commented as Zhen Liu finished his transformation. "Is that because of all of the [Chaos] or something else?"

"Honestly, no idea," Zhen Liu answered before addressing his kaijin.[Razorstella, you're the only one playing attendant today?]

[More or less.]

'Hmmm.'

A quick check on his Kaijin bonds, at least of the ones in area revealed that the Gallop Brothers, Springerdermain, and Screamira were together in one cluster for reasons pertaining the eldest Gallop Brother's relationship issues, the Doll Twins proto-kaijin were currently running around the mines exploring everything in an unabashed fashion while taking anything that seems useful and valuable, while Nepherage and Balzejudicator were busy helping the newly freed miners deal with their newfound responsibilities.

As for his friend and allies that he didn't have a mental link to, he had no idea where any of them were, but he could at least sense them being present in the mines still.

"Alright, I think I know what I gotta do for the day," Zhen Liu declared with a stretch of his limbs. "Might as well help figure out how to resettle all of the newly freed miners. You guys want to come long?"

This last question was directed at his cousins.

"We'll pass."

"We understand you do this fake identity stuff for a reason, we'd rather not mess it up by mistake."

"Right on."

...

An entire third of the population of the [Mines of Malevolence] had gone and left for greener pastures and uncertain futures.

This third consisted of the more able bodied warriors who still had their own grudges and revenge plots to deal with, and had little to no desire in participating in the future of the terrible place that had almost ground their souls into dust and nothingness.

The remaining two thirds though, were...not as ambitious.

Many of this particular group were either warriors that had managed to find some strange modicum of peace amongst their fellow enslaved kin, slaves that were born and raised for labor so they didn't know what they wanted to do in the slightest, and those who had lost any semblance of a future and decided that being a miner was better than being a beggar.

In other words, they were the type of the people that didn't mind being under the protection of some other powerful warrior if it meant they didn't have to worry about death on a daily basis.

^Greetings, Kaijin Lord! We thank you for freeing us from the tyranny of the false Kaijin Lord and present before you, this offering of treasure from the defeated.^

^Thank you, Kaijin Lord!^*way too many people.

[I...see.]

Despite looking like a six to seven feet tall demon tyrant that crawled from the darkest depths of people's nightmares, the freed miners and revolutionaries looked up to Zhen Liu like he was an angelic savior of some kind.

Honestly, when Zhen Liu and Razorstella made moves to join up with Nepherage and Blazejudicator, he expected the people working with them to freak out and run.

He was technically right about the freaking out part.

'Huh...this is...nice.'

Zhen Liu would be lying to himself if he didn't say it felt great to have literal hero worship thrown at his face, but he had a persona to maintain and a professional reason why he was here. Thankfully, that latter part was presented to him on a metaphorical silver platter...alongside a very strange offer.

^Behold, Kaijin Lord! This is all of the processed [Malevolent Gold] that we have managed to scavenge from the false one's horde, alongside several other crates filled with the other types of malicious metals that we had painstakingly dug from the ground. This was only the first tribute we plan to make to you.^

[Damn...]

Before Zhen Liu stood a small mountain of precious metals that could be used to make all sorts of dangerous aether treasures, or in his case, viciously powerful Kaijin.

And that was after he deducted the amount needed to make the bodies for the three tezcatlipocas and to repair his key.

'Huh...wonder if there's also enough for me to help with Lythero's broken sword situ—wait a godsdamn minute, did he just say first tribute?'

[First tribute?] Zhen Liu repeated in a tone that he hoped came across as him sounding sagely yet distracted and not absolutely bewildered.

Thankfully, the voice modulation helped a lot.

^Yes, Kaijin Lord, the first tribute,^ the leader of the group repeated while nodding before giving a deep bow and a long explanation for their statement. ^Many of the people here were born and raised as slaves or laborers. Others are simply those who want a simple existence and do not wish to risk their lives anymore. However, we also understand that this is a world where those with power will do all they can to maintain and increase it. As such, Kaijin Lord, we the people of the mines beseech you to protect us. In return, we swear our loyalty to you and offer up the same treasures that we were once forced to dig up, willingly to you.^

[Are you not afraid that I am simply the same tyrant as the false Lord that has oppressed you before?] Zhen Liu pointedly asked, aware that there were probably dissenters in the group who shared this idea.

The answer he received was mildly shocking yet expected.

^We have learned from your Kaijin that prior to the fateful battle that you had spent weeks in making sure that our old, sick, and young had someplace safe to hide while all the fighting occurred. During your battle with the false lord, you went out of your way to protect us multiple times. No tyrant would ever do something so benevolent. Fuck it, many aether warriors at your caliber would simply write us off as collateral because we're slaves. That's why I'm certain, no, why we're all certain that you won't abuse us in the same way that Dante had once did.^

[...huh.]

After making that small noise of understanding, Zhen Liu was silent as if he was contemplating the leader's words.

In reality, he was talking to his kaijin.

...

'Real quick, did you guys have anything to do with this suggestion?'

[Nope,] Nepherage answered.

[They literally asked us if you thought it would be okay for them to make this strange vow of loyalty,] Blazejudicator followed up.

'Huh...on the one hand, taking over a place literally known as the [Mines of Malevolence] feels wrong, especially all of the bullshit we went through to free the people' Zhen Liu mused. 'On the other, if we abandon the place there's like a nine thousand percent chance some other evil motherfucker is going to roll up and do the exact same thing but with feeling. Fuck it. Gallop Brothers, this was your cause, you guys have any opinions?'