Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Meeting

That night, I went to sleep anxious, wondering what the future of the village looked like. So much depended on the attitude the villagers and the outsiders had towards each other, and I had no idea where this was going. I tossed and turned, unable to sleep properly until well past my usual bedtime. I woke up groggy and exhausted, before I went to Arne’s hut. He had the same nervous energy I did, and instead of working on making tools for the day, he paced around the hut, occasionally glancing at the horizon. Neither of us spoke much, and neither of us got anything done.

Finally, it was time.

The boats from the other villages arrived near sunset. I, along with many other members of the village who had heard about what was happening, waited on the beach as the other boats began to touch down on our island. I hadn’t seen the leaders of the villages before, so I stood near the front of the crowd and tried to take a good look at the other village chiefs. 

The leaders from the other villages shared the same blonde hair and blue eyes that our village did. Almost every village leader had ten or eleven runes, although a few of the village leaders from the smallest villages only possessed nine runes. There was also one village leader who had twelve runes, making him the human being with the highest rune count I had ever seen. Each boat also had a small honor guard of people, most of whom had eight or nine runes. They had the same shifty nervousness that the hunters from our village had - as if they were continuously prepared to fight or flee at the drop of a hat. All of them had a strong tendency to squint and glare at people who spoke too loudly, a result of the time spent in the forests.

It occurred to me that a huge portion of the fighting strength of the islands was now concentrated here. While those with between four and six runes were definitely able to help during a fight, those with seven to nine runes had far more mana and combat experience than those with low rune counts, since those with seven to nine runes were the hunters who spent most of their lives fighting land beasts. And the seventh rune and above also provided the Perception one needed to keep up with high speed fights, giving people a qualitative improvement in fighting ability. The fact that the other villages had sent their chiefs, backed by the strongest hunters, gave me a sense of relief; At the very least, the other villages were taking this seriously.

The visitors from the other islands didn’t speak to us very much. The leaders of each village simply gave the crowd of villagers polite nods, before asking the fishermen who had contacted them to lead the way.

All of the villagers from our village, as well as the visitors from other villages, walked towards the open area we usually used for festivals. As they walked, the other chieftains occasionally gave the camp of the Outsiders a wary glance, eyeing it out of the corner of their eyes as though it were a ravenous land beast about to pounce on us. Finally, everyone gathered in the center of our village. The other village chiefs and their honor guards sat in a circle at the front of the group, and the miscellaneous villagers from our village sat a bit further away. Our village chief stood in the center of this sea of people, since our village was most directly related to this incident. For once, the incessant nervousness that troubled him when he stood in front of crowds had vanished. He looked calm, serious, and completely focused. Even though there was still a hint of a nervous tremor that held up some of his movements for a moment, it was hard to notice, and could have easily been attributed to nervousness over the general situation. I couldn’t help but feel impressed. Even though the village chief was always shuffling and twitching when he was in front of a crowd, he was surprisingly serious and reliable right now.

“Before our visitors from other villages ask anything, I will begin by saying what our village has come across,” said the village chief, once the other village chiefs had time to sit down.

“The large boats were first sighted several hours away from our island. This occurred right after the renewal festival, when many of our fishing boats were taking along children for their first hunts. After questioning some of the fishermen who were flying the children out, I have determined that a fisherman by the name of Farson was the first to see the Outsiders, at least among those of my village. Afterwards, I questioned Olav, a foreigner who joined our village two decades ago, for further information. Through the assistance of fisherman Olav, I have gained as much information as I could about the Empire of Megailia. I will share my own thoughts near the end of the discussion. Do the other  village chiefs have any questions or concerns, or can we listen to Farson’s recounting of the incident?”

A few of the other village chiefs glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes, but nobody said anything. The village chief waited a few moments, before he turned to a man in the crowd I barely recognized.

“Farson, would you please recount what you saw for the rest of us?” said the village chief.

“Yes, village chief,” said Farson, giving the village chief a respectful nod. He cleared his throat, and increased his volume.

“When the other sailors and I were sailing, we saw a bunch of strange giant cloths in the distance. They looked kind of like fur clothes, but much bigger and smoother. They were attached to tall wooden poles for reasons I don’t understand. After dropping off the child we had taken along, we flew over to the odd boats to observe them. We stayed far enough away that they wouldn’t feel we were preparing to attack them, since we weren’t sure what stance we should take towards the Outsiders. 

“After observing for a while, we flew back to the island again to report everything to the village chief. We were instructed to take two hunters with us on our boat, just in case, and then we sailed back out to observe the foreign boats some more. After another period of observation, one of the foreign boats began to collapse.

“We started helping the foreign sailors fly back to land, since just leaving them to drown seemed wrong. Afterwards, something from the deeps came up and attacked us. We haven’t figured out why, or identified what it was. One of the foreign ships used some kind of golden light to cut off the tip of the sea monster’s tentacle. We don’t know whether that golden arc was created with an individual ability, or with some kind of unique material similar to floatwood. However, it was very strong. Unlike our attacks, it did noticeable damage to the creature, and managed to cut off the tip of the creature’s tentacle. Then, the foreign ships finished evacuating to our island, though some of them were smashed to pieces first. The creature from the deeps seems to have been afraid of our island, although I’m not sure why. Regardless of the reason, it refused to get within a certain distance of our shores, and so once we got home it stopped attacking us. The Outsiders landed on our beach, before requesting a few days to deal with their wounded and dead. They are now on the east side of the island. That is everything I’m aware of regarding this incident.”

The village chief nodded and gave Farson a smile. “Thank you for recounting your experiences, fisherman Farson. Do any of the other fishing boats have anything to add or any details they wish to dispute?”

After a moment of silence, one of the hunters spoke up. “The rune count of the outsiders is high. Some of the members of the ship had rune counts equivalent to mine. Luckily, they don’t seem to have many people with ten or more runes. However, the average rune count of the Outsiders is abnormally high, compared to Olav’s information about the average rune count of the Empire of Megailia. I do not know what this means.”

After another few moments, one of the sailors from another boat spoke up.

“The Golden arc of light that severed one of the tentacles looked like it came from a piece of… some sort of shiny gray rock each ship had installed near the front of it. Several of the foreign sailors placed their hands on it at once and began throwing mana into it before it activated. I suspect that this strange rock is a material similar to floatwood, which does ‘something special’ when enough mana is supplied. Which would mean it wasn’t an individual ability. But I couldn’t get a good look from my position, so don’t take my words as the absolute truth. Since I don’t have a seventh rune, so my vision is a bit weak and my ability to keep up with fast movement is lacking.”

Shiny gray rock? Are they trying to describe metal? I wondered absently, as I watched the meeting. Olav had also briefly mentioned that if the outsiders decided to trade with us, they might be able to offer metal as a useful exchange. Shiny gray rock certainly sounded like metal, at least to me. However, it was also concerning that the average rune count of the Outsiders was higher than anticipated. If they had a strange material that allowed them to hurt giant sea monsters, as well as a sizeable number of people with 9 or more runes, did that mean this was a boat of soldiers? Curious to know what Olav made of this, I glanced at him, only to see his mouth tighten into a grimace. Clearly, this information was news to him, and he didn’t like it. 

I glanced at Sallia and Felix, who were also deep in thought after hearing the hunter’s description. The idea of a boat of foreign soldiers landing on our shores was completely different from a boat of merchants or something landing on our shores, and, like me, they also didn’t know what to make of this information yet. While we thought and listened, the meeting continued on.

A few other sailors made comments about how the foreign boats didn’t seem to be able to fly, as well as what kinds of wood they thought the boat’s construction seemed to be made of. A few others recounted the strange clothes of the foreigners - apparently, many of them wore strange clothes that were shiny, and had a color similar to orange, but softer than the orange of the sunset. They had no idea what to make of these strange clothes, and so after it was noted a few times, people mostly moved on from that detail. There were also plenty of people who focused more on the giant sea creature, discussing the way its tentacle seemed to stretch towards the heavens, or how unfathomably powerful it had been. The village chiefs seemed to put equal weight on both matters, questioning people about further details and occasionally rubbing their chins in thought.

Finally, once the factual recounting of the first encounter with the Outsiders and the sea creature was finished, it was Olav’s turn. He stepped in front of the gathering, before he recounted the same things to the village chiefs as he had when he was just speaking to the other members of his boat and the village chief. He discussed the history of Megailia, his assumptions about the origin of the islanders, and his own story before he washed up on the shores of our village. Afterwards, he recounted his assumptions about the military strength of the home country of the Outsiders, as well as his belief that the Outsiders would be interested in the pearls and floatwood of our islands. However, he added in a final bit of information, now that he had heard the other fishermen and hunters speak up.

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“I have two new things to add in to my previous explanation, now that I’ve heard more about what’s happening. First, I want to point out something. From my experience, the shiny gray rock that the Outsiders used to attack the sea monster is something called ‘Astrellium,’ a rare kind of metal the Empire of Megailia has access to. It allows a lot of people to pool their mana together, before launching one incredibly powerful attack.” Olav frowned. “Most importantly, it isn’t available for civilian use, because Astrellium is very rare and hard to come by. Only ships helmed by a leader with at least twelve runes are allowed to carry Astrellium weapons with them, and they are primarily used in sieges to blast down city walls. Combined with the descriptions other people have mentioned, I’m sure that what you encountered was a group of soldiers. I don’t know why they’re in this area, but they’re wearing something called ‘bronze,’ which is a little bit harder than the fish bones we make tools out of. The Empire of Megailia’s more important troops are usually equipped with a set of bronze armor and a bronze weapon, making them hard to hurt during a fight. I haven’t the faintest idea why a group of damaged boats carrying Astrellium weapons and high-level troops showed up on our island, but I wished to let the village chiefs know of the potential danger and power of the outsiders currently present.”

Many of the village chiefs frowned, parsing over this information. Then, I saw the village chief with 12 runes stand up. 

“May I ask how trustworthy you find fisherman Olav to be?” he asked, turning towards the village chief of my village as he spoke with a calm and steady tone. “I do not mean to question your village, but this information could decide the life or death of the people of my village. Thus, I wish to hear your thoughts on this matter.”

“Fisherman Olav has been part of our village for about two decades. I have never known him to be someone who tells tall tales. He is good at looking after children, an excellent fisherman, and someone who is good at keeping his promises,” said my village chief. “I believe he is telling the truth.”

“Thank you for your input,” said the village chief with twelve runes, before sitting back down and continuing to think.

“How can such a big village exist?” Asked one of the village chiefs with nine runes. “The amount of food they would need… I just can’t picture it. How many fish do they hunt per day?”

“Outside of the islands, people have dealt with a lot of the weaker land beasts and taken parts of the forest for themselves,” said Olav. “They began doing something called ‘farming,’ which is where you take a bunch of seeds from various kinds of food and then plant them into the ground. By watering them each day, and taking care of weeds and pests, you can start to consistently harvest food over and over again at the end of each year. It ultimately provides a great deal of food for the villagers of each area, although it’s quite reliant upon having good types of soil available. The sand most of us live on here in the islands wouldn’t be good enough, for example…”

The village chiefs of the other villages began to go slightly off topic, questioning Olav about how the outside world worked. Olav also mentioned that, outside of our islands, fish were usually only two or three times the size of a grown man’s head, which confused the village chiefs to no end. Things like farming and metal tools were also foreign to them, but they were able to grasp how the entire system worked after several minutes of questioning..

Eventually, the village chiefs finished questioning Olav, allowing him to sit back down as the village chiefs discussed.

“First and foremost, do we have any confirmation that the Outsiders are guaranteed to be hostile towards us?” Asked one of the village chiefs with 10 runes.

“None, so far,” replied my own village chief. “However, as I’m sure you’re aware I called this meeting for a reason. While the outsiders have not been confirmed to be hostile towards us yet, the possibility certainly exists. It would be foolish to completely ignore it until we can confirm their intentions. So I wish to at least discuss our contingency plans first, before discussing how we might confirm their intent. Having multiple plans to respond to future situations is the most prudent way to keep our people safe, after all.”

“I say the answer is obvious - we should attack them now and then kill them all,” said another village chief, this one with eleven runes. “You all saw the giant tentacles which came out of the water yesterday. This is clearly a signal from the ocean mother herself. The creature did its best to ignore our boats, while doing its best to crush the outsiders,” He said. “This means that the outsiders must be bad news for our islands. Since that is the case, we should strike them down while they are weak.”

I stared at the village chief who had spoken up for a moment, trying my best not to say anything. I was doing my best to keep an open mind about the potential for gods to exist, since I had no clue whether they were real or not. But to attack the outsiders solely based on the ‘judgment of the ocean mother’ seemed dubious, especially since the creature hadn’t shown any ‘benevolence’ towards us besides ignoring us. I seriously doubted that thing was a messenger of the Ocean Mother, if she existed.

Luckily, the other village chiefs didn’t seem particularly swayed by this religiously inclined argument.

“The way I see it, there are two questions here,” said one of the village chiefs with 10 runes. “First, a question - what do we do if the Empire of Megailia, or at least the boats that washed up on our shores, initiates hostilities against us? Second question, should we attack them before they have the chance to regroup? What are the odds that the people who washed up on our shores takes news of us back to the Empire of Megailia, eventually leading to the destruction of our villages? Based on Olav’s stories about the Empire of Megailia, we stand no chance if they bring their full military might upon our islands to subjugate us. Thus, if letting these boats leave our islands would subject us to a future attack from Megailia, it would be best to simply stifle the problem in its cradle by ensuring nobody leaves the islands alive.”

I was surprised, hearing the village chief’s second suggestion. To attack a group of people that hadn’t shown any signs of hostility towards us yet, based on the possibility that they might bring future trouble to us, was shockingly brutal. However, I could also understand the rationale. If letting these outsiders go might result in the destruction of our islands in the future, it was logical to remove the threat before it bloomed, even if doing so was brutal. If one of the outsiders put my parents, or Sallia or Felix at risk of dying or tried to hurt them in any way, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill them and protect the people I cared about. Killing the outsiders before they exposed our existence was definitely a few steps further than that, but it still made a certain kind of sense.

Many of the other village chiefs frowned, thinking over the man’s statements, before a female village chief spoke up. “I will say two things. First, if the Outsiders attack any of the villages in the islands, I am willing to step up with my village and support them. If the Outsiders are truly hostile, I believe that we must stand united. Many of our villages have traded with each other for generations, and all of us have a certain amount of trust for each other. While distance makes it hard, I’ve always believed that if I needed help dealing with a land beast or if a problem occurred, the other villages of our islands wouldn’t hesitate to send aid, and I’ve never hesitated to help the other villages in the islands as well, if they encountered a crisis and my village was able to assist them.” I saw a few of the other village chiefs nod in agreement. I was relieved to know that most people agreed with the female village chief’s sentiment. At the very least, if a war broke out, it seemed like everyone was more than willing to work together.

“However, I’m also not willing to just attack a group of people with no provocation, especially if I haven’t met them myself to assess their personality and how they’re likely to act in the future. The Outsiders may be weakened right now, but they are still strong enough to kill many of us, even if all of the islands work together to purge the outsiders and prevent them from leaving the islands. Losing a bunch of hunters in a painful and dangerous confrontation with the Outsiders would place my village in a more dangerous situation, since we would have less protection against Land Beasts in the future. I know many other villages are in the same situation.  I will not risk the lives of the hunters of my village, unless I confirm that the Outsiders will become a threat in the future.”

I saw a few of the other village chiefs nod at her second statement. I also wasn’t sure what the correct solution here was, so I simply watched. In any case, I was seven years old - it wasn’t like they were about to ask me for my opinion on the matter. I was just here to make sure I knew what the village was planning. The village chiefs continued talking, but most of them seemed to share the opinion of the female village chief who had spoken up. Everyone was more or less willing to work together if it came to a fight, but they wished to make sure a fight was actually needed before they initiated any hostilities with the outsiders. Even our own village chief didn’t dispute the need to further assess the attitude of the outsiders, since we truly had no idea how the empire of Megailia would react to our existence.

Thus, it was decided that in two days, after the Outsiders had time to finish burying their dead and were in the proper mood to talk and negotiate, the village chiefs and their honor guards would visit the Outsider camp and have a talk with them. Until that time, the Village Chiefs would be guests of our village, and would be given appropriate food and lodgings until then.