Chapter 23: Chapter 22: City council

[City of Andra]

For the citizens of Andra the day started like every other. With the first morning lights its inhabitants filled the streets, making their way to work or walking towards one of the city's many shops. Its high population made the streets look like an ocean of people, with humans, beastmen and even the occasional elf and dwarf mingling together. Luckily for the last bit of order that remained in these masses there were no carriages on the street.

When one looked at carefree atmosphere among most of its inhabitants no one would think that just a few kilometers outside of the walls stood the camp of an army. A large part of this was due to this situation existing for more than three years by now, nearly as long as the Bral kingdoms current ruler already holds power. While his father had tried to improve relationships with the city states, the new king returned back to the previous strategy and forced them to remain entirely inside their walls.

While it has yet to become a problem, being forced into the boundary’s of their walls made the city's population more densely packed with each day. While the city was build to house nearly forty million people and had by now been reorganized to increase this number by another ten, free space became less at an alarming rate.

Luckily they still had the capabilities to supply themselves through trade with nations on the other side of the steel mountains, but the long duration of the journey made disruptions fatal. The situation the city currently found itself in showed a major weakness that nearly all worlds with mana had, whether inside of this multiverse or outside of it.

Mana and the large scale devastation its wielders could bring made most cultures value birthing large amounts of children highly as well as made them concentrate much of the population in just a few well defended cities. While this would normally be no problem, as while mana was the source of a high population it could ensure that they remained nourished by increasing the yield of fields via spells. Nearly no mage would willingly work as a farmer, so most lords used the mages in their employment to add onto the already great effect the pure existence of mana had to an areas plants.

But in cases like Andra, where they didn't have the capability to work fields due to an enemy army standing outside their walls this high population became a liability. No matter how many talented mages and warriors were born from this high population it wouldn't change anything. Especially because talent, no matter whether it means affinity or any other factor like mana pool size prior to training, was largely the result of genetics.

Of course there was always the chance of outliers, talentless people birthing those with talents or the reverse, but such cases were not even one in a thousand and wouldn't change anything in the short term. Of course it is possible to use this chance to slowly increase the number of talented people until the entire population consisted of them, but it took time and would require culling the untalented on a regular basis.

While there were some in the city's ruling class that thought about this idea, they were not desperate enough for it to have many supporters. Even with the recent bundle of bad news reaching them, they didn't descend into panic. While their mood was noticeably worse than that of most citizens, they hoped for the situation to get better or the news to be wrong. They still planned for the worst case, something that brought them together in the current assembly.

Standing in the room were nine men and two women, the current ruling council of the city as well as its military's commander. While they were elected, only the rich and influential could take part in the vote, something that was reflected in the group. Besides one men who wore a simple military uniform with a leather breastplate, the rest wore extravagant clothes and accessorizes.

“Commander Reinold, while I had hoped for it to be good news your expression indicates to me that your investigation confirmed our suspicions.”

“It even worsened them. While the kingdoms army is currently in the process of moving their camp further away, the rumors of the mana beasts in the surroundings becoming more agitated by the day have been confirmed. While we weren't able to confirm anything, my scouts believe the reason for this to be another story that is claiming that a mythical beast recently made its home here.”

At this report the other council members became tense. Their wall and its magical formations and enchantments may be capable of holding back near endless amounts of fourth rank individuals, but a mythical rank entity would tear through it like it was a thin sheet of paper. There was a reason why even the current king didn't dare to act against the beast lord in the west, as the kingdom has yet recover from the loss caused by its last rampage.

Back then one of the current kings brothers had become too arrogant for its own good, causing him to anger the beast lord. The former king hesitated to hand over his own son, so the beast took matters into its own hands or, more accurately, claws. It is said that the sky above the capital were covered completely by the wings of the beast while the sharp winds it conjured slashed through fourth rank individuals like nothing.

That day the kingdom lost its only mythical rank individual along with nearly a quarter of its total fighting potential. And that was when it attacked the most fortified place in the kingdom, a place where it is rumored that even freshly promoted mythical ranks would fail an attack. And while this lead to the loss not being large enough for the city states to be able to conquer any amount of territory, it ensured their survival for at least a few decades by ending the threat the mythical rank provided.

Besides dashing their hopes to conquer the city's, the mans death was a great loss for a multitude of reasons. Due to the low mana density in comparison to the rest of the continent, the area had only one humanoid mythical rank individual in recorded history. This made advancing even harder as no one really knew how to reach the mythical rank, while the only one who managed to do so died after not even a year without managing to fully teach others.

Thinking about these massive ripple effects one beast lord caused, they shuddered at the thought of another similar individual appearing near their city. After a minute of thought, one of the two women spoke up.

“You said that the presence of a beast lord was unconfirmed, how likely is it that the information is wrong?” she asked. Hearing this a spark of hope formed in the rest of them but it was quickly dashed when they looked towards Reinold's dejected expression.

“I wish I could bring you good news, but I can't. On the contrary the news may be worse than I already told you. While there being a beast lord is more or less guaranteed, there has yet to emerge conclusive evidence to its species. Still the current most likely ones are far from good.” Finishing those words he looked at them and waited till they prepared themselves for the bad news.

“Give us the names and also your own guess. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we trust your instincts.”

“The current candidates are too many to list, but we are quite sure that it is a reptile of some kind or a similar creature. Luckily it seems to have no flight capabilities but that is also the entire extend of the good news. We have not confirmed whether it is a legendary creature, like a salamander or others, or if it is just a normal mythical creature. The greatest source of worry I currently have is that we managed to determine two of its elements, with them being fire and space.”

The last part made those gathered even more nervous. Most beasts are only capable of innately using between one and three elements, nearly always those they have the highest affinity towards. If one of these is space, their problem just became even greater. Of course it is possible for it to have learned magic and used this to influence the space element, but they knew that the chances were slim.

Despite living longer than humanoids, beasts also had a limited lifespan and would find it difficult to prolong their life indefinitely without transcending mortality. Few among them would wast time learning magic or aura when this time could be spend on their beast cultivation.

“I hope that at least your guess is positive, otherwise I doubt my heart could take it.” One of the men said after the room had turned silent for over a minute. While some of them smiled slightly, his joke didn't manage to lift the mood.

“While not exactly positive, I believe that we are in less danger of being attacked, but at the same time I am quite sure that the beast is more dangerous than we expects. And before you say something let me finish.” At his words those that had already opened their mouth to ask him a question calmed down leading him to continue.

“What I mean with that is that the danger we are in is quite low if handled correctly, but I am quite sure that one mistake would be our end. The reason I believe this is that there have been no indicators that the beasts that attacked were ordered. Instead I believe that they fled from something, likely the beast lord. And I know of not even a handful of reasons why a mythical rank beast would care to keep beasts below the fourth rank away from its territory, with the most likely being a child.”

“Why are you calling this anything except excellent news? The beast having a child that it protects means that it won't move far from its layer. All we have to do is avoid that region and we can take full advantage of the kingdoms retreat.” This caused many to nod.

“Hmpf, you all think too small. Lets just grab the child and use it to have its mother help us. Lets see how arrogant that king will be when we stand at the gates of his city with a mythical beast under our control.” This idea caused two extremely different reactions. While two other council members showed support, the rest looked at the man in complete disbelieve.

“Are you out of your mind Philip? Never mind how to deal with them afterwords, how do you want to abduct the child of a beast with the space element? As soon as it senses it, the child will be teleported to who knows where.”

Hearing his idea being rebutted this strongly, Philip became red with rage. He had hoped that by succeeding with a plan like this he would finally regain some reputation for his family. Ever since their decline following his grandfathers death they became a laughingstock in the city, something he planned to change.

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“Of course I had taken it into account. But as it seems that my ideas aren't welcome here I will take my leave.” With those words he stormed out of the room. The remaining group kept their eyes on the door for a few seconds after it closed, expecting him to return, but he didn't.

“Commander while I hate to burden you and your men even more, I must ask you to look after him.”

“I know Marcus, I will tell some of my men to ensure that he doesn't do anything stupid.” Hearing his confirmation, Marcus nodded in gratitude.

“We should have reduced his family's influence long ago. His father was already irrational enough, but it seems that he is so even more.” One of the men said with a sigh.

“You know that this would rile up all other old nobles against us. They may no longer rule the city but their power and influence can't be ignored.” Reinold said.

“Lets ignore that matter for now and refocus on the reason for this meeting. Commander, I take it that you already prepared a strategy and only require our confirmation, is that right?” One of the women asked.

“Yes lady Amanda. For now I plan to simply continue sending scouts to gather information. Once we have a rough estimate on the beast lords area of movement, I plan to start pressuring the beasts that make their way towards us away. While we will need to be careful to not intrude upon its territory, I believe that once the beasts learn that they will encounter opposition into one direction they will avoid it. With the simple act of letting a few beasts escape we will reduce the risks for us and maybe even send more of them towards the kingdoms army.” Finishing his explanation he looked at the others in the room before adding, “Any additions?”

“Reinold, none of us hold any expertise in military matters. The reason why we gave you this post is because we trust you, our vote is merely symbolic. I believe we are all in favor of this plan, or?” Marcus asked, raising his hand together with all other eight members of the council.

“Then it is decided. Before we end this meeting, does anyone still-” He started bus stopped when he noticed a symbol on the device in front of him glowing. This was a communication magic item, with the symbol was a call signature, something similar to a phone number. Communication magic is the most common type of magic, with nearly all people who are proficient in using any form of mana knowing it.

This was largely due to its simple nature, consisting of only three spells, one to display and share ones unique signature, one to store the signature of others and a last one to use one of the stored signatures to create a connection. The type of connection can be chosen freely, but which type of connection is used influences the range together with the users power.

Magic items like the one on Marcus desk are an artificial signature source, being used most frequently to communicate over larger distances than ones own power allowed. They could be operated to use all functions of this type of magic that living being could use.

When Marcus injected a tiny bit of mana into the device, an illusion started to take form above it. This incorporation of illusion magic to display received images was commonly added to such communication devices, increasing their uses as they allowed multiple people to receive them without the initial receiver being proficient in illusions himself.

Once the picture fully formed itself, the council members were seated around the three pirates that Darganth had encountered.

“What is the matter?” Marcus asked the three of them, slightly annoyed.

“We recently found information that may interest you.”

“Let me guess, the price for it is to house another group of slaves that you saved. While I hate that practice as much as you do and the valuables we receive from you are going to be sadly missed, we no longer have the capacity to house many more people. So as long as that is the price you expect in return, I will have to deny any offers.”

“Don't give us that annoyed tone, I know that you are annoyed our persistence in this matter. But I promise you this, when you put the information we offer to good use it may solve your problem. Heck, maybe you could even bring down the entire kingdom” Hearing Ruby's words his annoyance quickly vanished. He knew that her hate for the kingdom was especially great and wouldn't joke about this.

“What is this information about?” Marcus asked.

“It concerns a group that should soon reach your city. While you don't have any great influence on the exact extend that one of its members is going to take against the kingdom, you should be able to convince him of slight changes that would better profit you.” Dell said.

“Then you have a deal.”

“Great, we will send a ship with the usual amount of refugees and valuables in the coming days.”

“And the information?”

“We recently came into contact with a tribe that managed to cross from the beast continent. While the tribe isn't that special, what is interesting is the being they managed to convince to help with their crossing. Imagine our surprise when we found them, with a dragon of an unknown species helping them?”

This caused a great shock to everyone present. While they didn't know of what species, as apart from those concerning the two known species there were few records about dragon species. This made even identifying its tier difficult, but it didn't matter for them. Even the weakest of dragon species would grow to the mythical rank with enough time and such a being had nearly no opposition north of the steel mountains.

While the council members were deep in their thoughts, the three pirates ended their call. While Parton had proposed to either negotiate for even more refugees to be accepted or even to help directly. After all, once the kingdom fell a large part of the organized slave trade would break down, saving thousands if not more from a fate as property.

“Lets first find their ship and greet them. With the current information we can't make a detailed plan so lets not even try. We will just see how the situation develops and act spontaneous.”

Hearing no opposition to this, he continued:

“Then let us make our way towards the harbor. And please interject at any point when you deem it necessary.”

With no further words all of them walked out of the room together. While the sight of nearly the entire council making their way towards the harbor together caused a small commotion, they reached there with no major problems. Due to it being the only one not under the city's flag, they quickly identified the ship with the tribe on it. Motioning for one of the officials to come over, Reinold told him to direct the ship towards the pier they were currently standing on.

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