"City Lord, you really are a devil..." Only after a long while did Aenarian murmur those words to himself, his voice barely audible. The further he followed Yu Lin Bloodhawk's reasoning, the more frightened he became.
"Huh?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk had not caught Aenarian's muttering either. "What did you say?"
"N-nothing!" Aenarian said hastily. "I didn't say anything!" He shook his head desperately, but inwardly he thought, Being the City Lord's enemy is dangerous, but becoming his "close" ally isn't necessarily safe either!
What made the City Lord terrifying was not his ability to give someone a fright. It was his ability to describe "devouring people" as "bestowing a blessing" and package "enslavement" as "civilization."
If those stubborn Quilboar tribes that refused to serve as "blades" resisted because the High Elves had come to kill them, enslave them, and seize their territory, then that would be a hatred that demanded one side's destruction. But hatred could unite people, give rise to heroes, and give their tribesfolk the courage to fight with their backs to the wall.
The City Lord's logic, however, quietly uprooted that "hatred" entirely. He had not come to seize territory; he had come to "help" the Quilboar. Nor had he come to kill them. Acting on the side of justice and in the interests of most of their people, he had come to help "condemn" the "villains" within their tribes. Still less had he come to enslave them. He had come to help their people build better lives, so they ought to be "grateful."
Once the Quilboar had full bellies and homes in a safe valley, once they had left behind the days of hunger when their next meal was never certain, once they no longer faced the threat of Centaur bandits and wondered whether they would