Chapter 66: 63 – Festivals and Fairies

POV - Degare

"Are you going to the festival with Princess Anastasia today?" Maw Sara asked before she went to work.

"Yeah. Me, Anastasia, and the other princesses have been working on our project the last couple months and I'm gonna help them out for the Midnight Festival later today," I said.

"I see. And you still can't tell us what it is?"

"Not yet!" I stuck out my tongue. "You'll just have to wait like everyone else, Maw Sara." 

There's no way I'll spill a secret Anastasia told me to keep.

Maw Sara smiled at me. "Cheeky boy. Just make sure to guard her."

I rolled my eyes  "I know, I know. Besides. Mitena and Ms. Botill will be there."

"Even so, Botill's duty is to guard Princess Perrin. While you're both out, it's your job to guard Anastasia."

"You've told me a thousand times. I'll make sure nothing happens to her."

"I know you will." Maw Sara bent down and hugged me. 

"Maw! Stop!" I squirmed and tried to get out of the hug. It's still embarrassing to get hugged like this, but I know she won't let go until I hug her back. I ended up giving in and gave her a hug.

She let me go and patted me on the shoulder. "Alright, Degare. The MSF will be doing patrols, so shout if you need help. Be safe and have fun."

I waved as she turned to leave. "Bye, Maw Sara."

Maw Steph left early this morning, and now that Maw Sara is gone, I hurriedly put on my armor and rushed out to meet Anastasia at the printing room.

Walking into the room, I saw Anastasia and Mitena already there. 

"Degare!" Anastasia tackled me like normal. Thanks to her mom I got this armor so now she doesn't nearly kill me each time.

"Hey, Anastasia. You ready to gather these up and go?" I asked. 

"Yup!"

Before I bagged hundreds of books, I took a final flip through one. I think it's really neat what she thought to do. At one of the parties that all the princesses have, Anastasia had the idea to make a bunch of books with the printing press. She got all of us together and had us get as many stories from the humans, elves, and dwarves as we could. Most are all kid's stories, but it was fun to hear new stories from the dwarves and elves. Even the fairies and Anastasia had some unique stories from their moms. 

To me, what really makes it awesome is that Anastasia drew a picture for each story. Lala used her magic to make stone on all of the lines, and they fused a block onto it so that they could print the picture in all of the books. That way everyone gets to see her awesome drawings.

Some of the stories are called "The Turtle and the Rabbit," "Blondie and the Three Grumpy Dwarves," "The Chicken that Laid a Golden Egg," "Emberella," and "The Gryphon and the Mouse." There are a lot more, but it's really awesome that each of the princesses added their own. I even added a couple that the kids on the streets heard, "The Small Match Kid," and "Robin Cloak." A couple of the stories even had different versions that each race knew.

They ended up calling their book Princesses' Fairy Tales. I'm really glad I learned to read.

"Let's go, Degare!" Anastasia called out, breaking me from my weird thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm coming," I said while putting the books in the magic bag.

The plan was for the princesses to have a stall that Mr. Whitewater set aside for them. They would all hand out books to anyone that wanted one, trying to keep it to one book per house. I don't have any doubt they'll hand them all out.

=====

POV - Dalia

"Are your people in place, Sara?" I asked while looking at the little stall where the princesses will be handing out books.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Sara said. "I have MSF soldiers dressed in casual clothing at the shops in the area, ones with invisibility cloaks prone on the rooftops, and the stalls on both sides belong to MSF soldiers."

Was this overkill? ...Maybe just a little. However, I can call it training for the soldiers and it becomes completely justifiable. Yup. They get to train by acting like normal civilians and work on their stealth skills while trying the invisibility cloaks. I'm totally not misusing military funds to be overly protective. Nope. Totally not. Even if I was, it's my money, so haters can go fuck themselves.    

"Good. Thanks for your hard work," I said.

"Of course," Sara said. "I think what the princesses have created is a wonderful idea."

"Right?" I chuckled to myself. "I know they wanted to keep it a surprise, so I'll act surprised when she eventually shows me. However, for them all to work on it for a couple months, there's no way we wouldn't find out. No use in us ruining their fun, though.

"They all did a really good job. I don't even think they realize it, but a shared cultural creation like this will go a long way to further unite the people of different races, now and in the future. To think that they did it on their own, for fun, and without realizing…"

Sara nodded. "They certainly worked hard."

"Degare, too. I know he has been helping them whenever he can. He hasn't regretted turning into a vampire, right?"

"Not at all. If anything, he is more than happy to have become one and to be able to stay by Princess Anastasia."

"I see." I raised a hand as I turned around. "I'm heading back to the castle. I told Anastasia we would stop by their stall later in the afternoon, so I'll get some more work done. Thanks for your hard work, Sara."

She saluted. "Take care, Your Majesty."

I went back to the castle while trying out my new invisibility cloak in the morning light. Navi and Tsuki made a dozen to start out with. When Tsuki wasn't helping make books or doing her normal duties, she was learning from Navi. In the months since they started, she became quite good at invisibility magic.

Like we expected, it isn't a perfect form of invisibility. If you look at the area where someone is cloaked, you'll see a blurry person-sized silhouette. However, from the tests we've done through town, most people seem to think they just had something in their eye. As the first items to grant invisibility, these gave a huge advantage. Especially since people didn't know about them, it became easier to trick people into believing they had something in their eye. Even the MSF soldiers who we gave cloaks to had never thought much about someone walking around while invisible.

I've finally come to the point where I believe I can trust the fifty MSF soldiers that Sara picked, with confidential secrets like the cloaks. I always trusted Sara's judgement, but these will be the people in my plan directly attacking the Empire. 

If the public ever discovered the full truth of our actions, my life will get a lot harder. I'll be forced to take total control over the humans and rebuild them myself from the ground up. Likely putting down rebellions as I did so. That would absolutely suck, and the animosity towards me would be high. Most likely, I would have to wait a human generation or two while focusing heavily on state sponsored pro-non-human teachings in schools to begin indoctrinating the human youth. The time and effort will be huge, and it's just not something I want to do.

That's why I spent almost a week with the first invisibility cloak and my shadow cloak, just watching the MSF soldiers to see if any seemed flighty or untrustworthy. I switched between the two when the circumstances would call for it. Thankfully, all of the soldiers seemed competent. Even while spying on them, I didn't feel that any had any ill will towards me or Midnight. If anything, they all seemed to be pretty fervent in their loyalty to us and their desire to serve me.

Afterwards, I personally spoke to each, asking about their reasons for joining and what their goals were. What I found was that almost all of them joined to destroy the Empire and their church. They were mostly people who had lost someone close to them, or who just felt completely betrayed. After seeing how all of the races can interact and what advances we have here, they wanted to tear the Empire down so that it could be rebuilt better. 

I was honestly a little surprised by the intensity of most of their feelings. Sara did a good job in selecting people that felt strongly against the Empire and wanted the power to change it with their own hands. That's good. I can use people like that, and to me, they seem more trustworthy with secrets critical to enacting their revenge. Much more so than someone just wanting a paycheck. 

People will go to great lengths to fulfill their desires, and if I can align their desires with my goals, then we can both use each other. They need me, and I could use them. Mutually beneficial relationships are always more secure than an agreement that is completely one-sided. Thus, I decided to start trusting them more. Starting with the invisibility cloaks. 

I made it back to the lab and teleported to the cavern. 

"Hey, Navi," I greeted.

"What's up, Doc? The kiddos all set with their books?" she asked, momentarily pausing in her work on the shell of the massive weapon.

"Yeah," I said while getting to work. "Not sure about the others, but Anastasia still thinks it's a secret. It's kind of adorable."

"She's an innocent kid, so of course. How's your work coming? Seems about done to me."

I looked back to the massive circular stage with statues, vertical slab with writing, and clear tube in the center. We added a weak light enchantment on the top that makes the entire cylinder almost glow. It's powered by a bunch of cores stored inside of a hollow part of the stage and should last for at least a couple years.

"Yeah," I answered. "I just need to create the holder for the inside of the cylinder, then I'll be done and can help build the outer parts of the weapons for you."

"About dang time! This is taking up so much mana!"

"I know, Navi. When it's done, it's going to be worth it."

Navi sighed. "So much time for single use items. Oh well! I'm just excited to use them!"

I chuckled. "Of course you are. This is right up your alley."

"Yessiree Bob!"

I spent the next couple hours finishing what I needed and then stored the entire thing away in a bag. By then, it was time to go to the festival.

"You coming with, Navi?" I asked.

"Yup!" She flew over and sat on my shoulder. "Mush!"

(Hey, Ailine. We're heading back. Are you at the castle?) I asked over the FCN.

(Yes, Lia. I'm by the entrance,) Ailine said.

After teleporting back to the lab, I walked to the entrance and met up with Ailine.

"Hello, Lia and Navi," Ailine said.

"Sup, my girl!" Navi waved from my shoulder.

I grabbed her around the waist and gave her a deep kiss. "Hi, Ailine. You ready to go?"

"Certainly," she said with a light blush. "What was that kiss for?"

I shrugged. "I just felt like I haven't spent as much time with you during the day as I'd like, only seeing you in the mornings and evenings. I love you."

She smiled brightly. "I love you too."

We both equipped our armor and walked out of the castle hand in hand. On our way to the city center where the majority of the festivities were, we walked past the church. Sitting out front was Dharma and Alienor who both waved as we walked by. They seem to be getting along well.

After some more walking, we arrived at the main part of the festivities. Ailine and I both had on a shadow cloak over our armor to blend in more as one of the other vampires in the city. As far as royalty being able to disguise themselves to go into town without a fuss, the cloaks are a pretty big cheat since they're standard items all of the vampires have.

At least until someone sees us who knows us or notices the Fairy Queen on my shoulder.

"Mommy Lia! Mommy Ailine! Aunt Navi! Over here!" The tiny armored figure waved exaggeratedly from behind the wooden stall. Hearing the adorable voice coming from the intimidating armor was adorable.

As we walked up, she ran around the stall and dove at us with a book in hand. The fairies shot to the air as Navi flew off of my shoulder to hug them all. The other princesses turned to us and the people in line turned to us and bowed.

I hugged the excitable little girl back. "Hi, Anastasia. Can you show us what your big surprise is?" I looked at the people that were bowing. "Everyone, please go about your business. We're just here to enjoy the festival."

Princess Perrin and Zahra go back to their business handing out books with Degare grabbing them from bags as the others in line awkwardly attempted to act normal. We, the queens, have tried to keep our distance from the townspeople in general. We have the cute princesses as the primary point of contact for the royalty, that way we can keep an air of authority. It seems to have worked.

"Yes! Surprise! Look at this!" Anastasia let go of the hug and held out her book with both hands. 

I took the book and began slowly flipping through the pages with Ailine. We've already read through it in secret, but to her, this is our first time seeing it. "What a great book, Anastasia. I haven't heard of many of these stories."

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"Yeah! The others all added stories they knew and we put them all together into a book! We even changed some of the stories to make them more fun!" Anastasia happily explained.

Indeed. These girls essentially Disney'd some of these stories from what I can see. Similar to how Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid was made much less brutal and changed in many ways to become a happy movie loved by kids. These girls took some artistic liberties with some stories. Primarily, it was in a couple human stories and an elf story where there was an evil vampire. They edited all of the stories so that none of them treated a race as a whole as bad, and even added multicultural elements to them by changing the race of some characters. 

Essentially, these girls made widespread propaganda without knowing it. Especially since many of these stories will be brand new to the people of other races that didn't grow up with them. Just like with Disney, I have no doubt that if this storybook gets printed and distributed to all of the races on a larger scale, these versions of the stories will become what future generations think of when they hear the title. 

I'll make sure the maids keep printing these so that in a few years, we can have them spread through the human lands. I'll make sure that whoever takes over as leader of the humans creates a decent system for education. As bad as it sounds, a book like this will be great to begin indoctrinating human children to be more open-minded of the other races. 

"You did an excellent job, Anastasia!" I said as I ruffled her hair.

"I think so too," Ailine said. "And did you make all of these drawings?"

"Yeah! Lala helped to make the block for my drawings so we could print them."

"Good work, my sweet little girl." Ailine squatted down and gave Anastasia a hug.

"It looks like you've almost given out all of your books," I said, seeing the quickly decreasing pile after Degare upturned his magic pouch. 

"Mhmm! Everyone says they like it!" Anastasia grabbed our hand and pulled us over to the stall.

"I see. How couldn't they when you all worked so hard?" I turned towards the dwarven princess. "Princess Perrin, be sure to keep a copy for your family. I'm sure they would enjoy seeing your work."

Perrin smiled. "Certainly, Queen Midnight."

"You too, Degare. Be sure to give a copy to Sara and Steph," I said.

I could almost physically see the brat roll his eyes behind his helmet. "Yeah, fine. I'll give them one, I guess."

It wasn't even fifteen minutes later that the last books were given out. They could've likely given away four times as many books if they had them. Oh well. I'll make sure to print a couple thousand copies over time. I'll have the maids start working on it and get a book-lover, like Shane the dwarven advisor, to proofread through them before printing. 

After the girls closed up shop, they all wanted to go explore the rest of the festival together. Anastasia even dragged Degare along by the arm. Well, with Mitena with them along with Perrin's bodyguard and the hidden MSF soldiers, nothing should happen. Even so, I'm still glad she has her armor on. 

We waved as the group ran off through the crowd. A dragon being behind them does a good job clearing a path.

I reached out to the dragon mentally as they went off. (Take good care of her, Mitena. Keep an eye out.)

(Hmph. Like you have to tell me. I'd like to see someone try to get past me,) she haughtily replied.

Pretty sure anyone would be screwed with a dragon after them. At least if they didn't have a bunch of spiders to petrify the dragon.

Ailine and I walked back to the castle and enjoyed some quality time together.

For the next five months, my days were a blur of the same monotonous work. I would wake up, go to the lab and help Navi with our project, go home to Anastasia and Ailine, and go to bed. Again and again. However, after these five months, the weapons were coming along well. 

We had the shells of a couple built and just needed strong enough cores along with the insides. The majority of the cores we would use would be from dragonids, but we needed dragon cores for another enchanted weapon.

That's why, yesterday and today were different from the past five months. 

Yesterday, Navi, Ailine, Sara, and I all attacked the dragonid fortress without Navi using her rocks. The reason was simple. Besides Sara, it has been quite a while since we all fought stronger monsters. Even longer since the four of us have fought together. We needed to shake off some of the rust. Thus, we spent the day engaging armies of dragonids together.

Today, after over two years since we first killed it, we would be fighting the dragon again. This time, however, we would be doing it with our new armor and weapons and without the massive ballistae. 

Our largest worry before was piercing the scales, and dealing with the dragon fire. Thanks to Mitena and the spider dungeon floor, I confirmed that our armor can indeed withstand dragon fire. From the letter we got when we beat the dragon, Ailine's bow and Sara's spear should be able to pierce it when the enchantments are fully activated. Navi also wants to attack its weak points. 

Before, since Navi didn't have any armor at all, it was too big of a risk for her to get close. If she made one mistake, she could've died. If the dragon covered the area in fire, Navi would've burned. Keeping her back during that battle was the smart choice.

Now, with her armor, she could fight how she wanted to without worrying about being barbequed.    

As scheduled, Ailine and I walked out to the Tutorial Dungeon entrance and saw Navi and Sara already there. 

"Hey, girls. You both ready?" I said as we walked up.

Navi flew behind me and started pushing me on the back. "About time, Walrus! Let's go! I wanna do this! Come on!"

"Alright, alright. Let's go kill this dragon again," I said.

We took the teleportation pad to the Abyssal Dungeon and made our way to the fiftieth floor boss door.

We stopped at the door and I turned to the others. "We came up with two different plans yesterday. Does anyone have anything else to add to them?... Okay. Then we'll start with Navi trying her idea. If that doesn't work, we'll go with the coordinated assault. You sure you're up for this, Navi?"

"Yup! I soooo want to try this!" she said, nearly vibrating with excitement. 

"Just be safe," I said. "Then let's do this!"

I pushed open the door and we walked through with weapons drawn. Inside of the cavern was the massive dragon, same as it was a couple years ago. Seeing a fully grown adult really makes me realize how much Mitena still has to grow. It's also a good thing she got her size transformation skill. I wouldn't want to make a large enough barn to house her.

Before the door could even close, Navi shot off towards the dragon as fast as she could fly. 

Navi had her arm outstretched with her tiny Godsword in hand. "LEEROYYYY!"

She looked like a little dart as she quickly closed the gap on the dragon that was still moving to get to its feet. 

In only a few seconds she impacted the dragon, stabbing her sword through its eye. As the dragon began a pained roar, we watched as Navi channeled a light magic laser through her sword and directly into the dragon's brain.

The beginnings of the roar were cut short and the massive body fell back to the ground, shaking the cavern. 

"Hahahahahaha! Yes! Don't frack with fairies! Hahahahahaha!" Navi began cracking up as she kicked the dead body that eclipsed her small size a couple times.

Meanwhile, we're still at the entrance. Even though Navi told us her idea yesterday and it made complete sense, we're still stunned. Seriously. How big of a cheat are fairies?

"Dalia," Sara said. "Navi frightens me…"

Ailine nodded.

"I agree," I admitted. "Fairies truly are ridiculously powerful. If it weren't for their insane flower weakness— fuck, even with their weakness— they're a seriously broken race. Especially Navi. What the fuck are you supposed to do against an enemy that is that small, can go invisible, has armor that can survive dragon fire, and can whip out boulders to drop on you? If it wasn't for her flower, how the fuck can anyone beat her?"

We simply stood there for a minute more before Navi was done kicking and insulting the corpse. A laser to the brain. This fight was over before the dragon even knew what was going on. This fight was so anticlimactic that I still don't know what to do.

I take back what I said. If the gods ever wanted to kill me, they wouldn't send an assassin; they would send Navi.

Over the time she spent with Tsuki working on their light magic, Navi became extremely adept at creating a light beam. It doesn't have much penetrating power against armor, but when condensed small enough and against flesh? What a frightening thing. While watching her use it, it makes what that elven general did look like a match vs a blowtorch. There isn't even a comparison.

Eventually, the three of us walked over to Navi and the dead dragon.

"Did you see! Did you see!" Navi excitedly shouted. "I was all, whoosh! Then, shing! And finally, pew! Dragy didn't even stand a chance! Hahahaha!"

"We definitely did, Navi. Damn good job, if a bit scary," I said.

"Yes! Be scared of the fairy overlords! Grrr!" Navi very cutely made cat-scratching motions with her hands. 

The cuteness of a tiny fairy looking adorable like that mixed with the dead dragon behind her is simply too big of a gap.

"So, Navi," I said once my brain worked again. "Think you would be up for power leveling the three of us while we collect the materials?"

Navi excitedly flew around us. "Sure! Go ahead and take a drink from Dragy to get your extra EXP and we'll reset and go again!" 

Doing that, we took the core and materials after it dissolved and exited the floor, just to come back again with it reset. 

We pushed open the boss door, and Navi flew at the dragon once more. Like a video on repeat, a nearly identical scene replayed itself before us as she stabbed into the dragon's eye and shot a laser through its brain.

For two months we leveled on the dragon together. There was a limit that we found for how many times we could kill it in a day before the door refused to open. Apparently dungeons weren't made for the final boss to be used as fodder.

The levels have become ridiculous for us to increase, but after two months of constantly grinding the level 75 dragon, our levels were:

Me - 78
Navi - 76
Ailine - 76
Sara - 76

The reason my level was higher was from my blessing. The extra EXP I have received from it for all of these years is small, but it has added up. It seems that the higher level we get, the larger my gap becomes. I'm actually approaching level 79.

Only four times during the two months did Navi mess up and miss the brain. On two of those occasions, the dragon let out flames all around it, making the armor she had the only reason she lived. Ailine began firing tungsten-alloy arrows that indeed broke through the scales. With an explosive enchantment on them, they did a decent amount of damage for how quickly she could pepper the dragon. 

On all four occasions, Sara and I jumped into the fight. We found out that the dragon has two eyelids, like an alligator. It has a clear set that Navi can still pierce, but a solid set that is similar to its scales. Without Navi being able to get up to speed, she couldn't use enough strength to puncture deep enough for her magic to be as effective. Thus, in these four fights, Navi retreated while Sara and I flanked the dragon. 

With the enchantments increasing our strength, we were able to stab into it. Slashing with my sword was almost completely ineffective, as one would imagine when going against hard scales. Sara would target its stomach while I would use my magically created platforms of air to reach its neck. Ailine would constantly be firing arrows all the while. 

Eventually, we brought the dragon down each time. Three of the four times with me stabbing a vein in its neck and fucking it up with a water jet and the dragon bleeding out. The fourth time, Ailine blew away some scales on its chest and Sara was able to stab through the hole and hit the heart.

These few instances really hit home that Navi should be the only fairy doing this since she has her armor. It also emphasized that no matter how many times we do something, screwing up one time could potentially lead to our deaths. Yes, Navi makes this fight almost a joke. However, it's still a fight and we shouldn't be careless. It was a good reminder for why I always want to make certain someone is dead, and why I'm going so overboard with my plans. I refuse to have a screw up or needless oversight be the reason I lose someone or can't live peacefully with my family. 

Nothing is more frustrating than an enemy being left for dead, just to come back stronger. Fuck that shit. I refuse to have someone go into a dumb 'second form' or something. Being overkill is completely acceptable to me. Are the weapons we're making overkill? Fuck yes they are.  

When Sara finally hit level 76, her gains dropped off like the rest of us. Even so, the amount of cores and materials we were able to gather were staggering.

"So, Navi," I said when Sara told us she hit 76. "Do you think we have enough cores now?"

"Yup!" She excitedly said with her bloody sword sitting on her shoulder. "We should have more than enough. While you people have been sleeping, I also finished the mixture for the stuff you wanted! With that and the cores, we can finally finish all of the weapons and items you want in about a year, if I had to guess."

"That's great! For both of us, most of our time is going to be spent finishing those." I turned towards Ailine. "Ailine, now that the farms are producing more than enough food for everyone and the farm equipment is operating well, can you watch over Anastasia?"

Ailine smiled, a bit of dragon blood on the corner of her lips and her beautiful blonde hair slightly disheveled. "I'd be happy to, Lia."

"Thanks, Ailine." I looked at Sara. "I have a job for you and the MSF soldiers, Sara. Steph will also be a part of it."

Sara looked slightly confused. "Dalia, Steph isn't a soldier and hasn't trained as one."

"I know that." I looked between Ailine and Sara. "However, I promised you all years ago that I would give you the opportunity to take revenge. With Navi and I finishing the weapons for our first move, the time has come for us to place our pieces on the board, and for both of you and Steph to kill those who hurt you."

A malicious grin split my face. Yes. After all this time, the end of the Empire is approaching.

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