Chapter 201: Chapter 191 – Prelude in Scarlet

Once I got the details from Orphne, I got an emergency meeting with all the country's leaders set up.

Of course, my family was sent home under the guidance of Claret, with orders to get Philia's help until I got back home. I felt bad for making the elderly stay up, but this was an emergency.

According to Orphne, while she was enjoying herself over at Edgeworth Village after finishing up with the usual monthly trade of goods, she noticed a large number of presences making their way around the village.

When she went to have a look, she found thousands of monsters marching like some army through the forest directly towards the Hourai Commonwealth.

Considering that there wasn't really anything to note besides our hidden country on this side of Edgeworth Village, there was little doubt that they really were headed this way. The fact that she spotted a bunch of people from the light races following close behind the horde of monsters did little but concrete that theory.

The only good news was that thanks to the upgraded magical turbine engine she rode, not only did she manage to get away without being noticed, but she got a huge lead over the army.

(Despite everybody's opinions of fairies, they really do produce results when it matters.)

It was true that they got bored easily, constantly demanded sweets and got detracted easily. But at the same time, they still had their priorities straight. At least when it came to important things. It was just, to them, there was a deep chasm between things that are important and those that aren't. And things at the bottom of that chasm tended to get lost and ignored in favour of things that they liked, even if they themselves didn't consider them to be too important.

Frankly speaking, the hardest part when dealing with fairies was simply keeping them entertained just enough that they didn't get too bored. Though admittedly, between the dungeon and Goddess' Realm, entertainment was covered to such a degree that I rarely heard of any complaints of an errant fairy pulling some weird prank.

After entertainment, was work. Fairies generally didn't have problems doing normal work, as long as you found the right fairies to do the right job. Fairies tended to grow obsessive over things, and often grew to dedicate their lives on something specific. Fairies like Anthousai who were so obsessive over tailoring that she'd go days without sleep for the sake of their next masterpiece wasn't that rare at all. Though the majority left their obsessions at more reasonable levels, as long as they found something worth obsessing over, and were able to get the means to fuel that obsession, the rate of errant pranks fell to infinitesimal levels.

Like Orphne, who was originally a guard that grew bored all the time and only managed to get to become a captain due to her ability and being a bit more focuses on work than most of the others. But the moment she got involved in Goddess' Realm as well as got her hands on a magical turbine engine, it was rare to see her do anything but those two.

And thanks to that, I was able to use her quite effectively to do the usual trade with Edgeworth, or to transport goods quickly between the two settlements of our nation.

Of course, it was also thanks to that fact that we were able to get such forewarning about an impending attack.

I gave the little fairy a new treat I was working on the side, a glass of cream soda, the restaurant style. So far, it was just highly sweetened carbonated water with melon juice concentrate topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I was sure that she would like it, but I honestly wondered how authentic the flavour would be.

It wasn't like I really missed the old flavours I used to enjoy anymore, but it was times like this I still wished that I could consume normal food. Being unable to taste test my own creations was a little frustrating.

But regardless of if the flavour was authentic or not, Orphne dug right in.

And only a few seconds later, did she reel back, holding her head.

(...Not my problem.)

Leaving the fairy that was determined to consume the chilled drink despite the obvious pain it brought her, I made my way to the elder council room.

 

I sat in a circle, together with the other leaders of our nation. That seat which was empty when I had first come to this place.

We were still using the same council room, though the building itself had been massively upgraded. Not only was it larger and had additional rooms for support personnel, but the council room had been reinforced and warded. Both to prevent anything untoward from entering, nor exiting.

Everything from soundproofing to blocking magic, a countermeasure for pretty much anything one could think up of was installed.

Of course, half of the reason was for things like this.

"So we'll just crush them all!"

Harja, the dragonkin chieftain, slammed her fist down on her desk as she shouted. The sound alone was enough to make me wince a little.

That, was half the reason why we even bothered with the security measures. Everything else was because of loose purse strings and overzealous workers.

I was pretty sure there was no point to strengthening the building itself to resist siege equipment.

But while it was no doubt excessive, the decision to make the upgrade itself hadn't let us down yet. If for no other reason than to prevent late night meetings like this from disturbing the surroundings.

Especially with all the drinking parties we've had here.

"How nice is it to not have the ability to think." Elli shrugged her shoulders while sticking her tongue out a little.

"What was that?!" The dragonkin chieftain growled at the dokkalfar elder.

The rest of us could only sigh as the hotheaded chieftain got so easily provoked by the childish elder who was by far one of the oldest occupants of this room.

(How come the older they get past a hundred, the more childish they act?)

I knew that there wasn't really any real correlation between the two facts, but frankly speaking, most of the most childish people in this room were past a hundred years old. Though that being said, most of those people were fairies, who were a people who never grew up mentally in the first place.

Though, while all of us were used to it, I still couldn't help but wonder why Elli never properly acted her age. Looking back, she seemed more like someone relatively young, who wanted to be some wizened granny, rather than actually being one. She even had a great granddaughter, yet the few times I saw them together, they hardly acted like it.

"I think that's enough playing around for now. Can you resume your report, Elder Aurae?" Frigg, the demon elder gestured to one of the fairy elders.

"Ah, okay. So, we sent our scouts out. They wooshed, and zoomed! So high, and so fast!" Aurae threw her hands around, imitating what I imagined to be representations of the fairies she sent. Of course, each equipped with a magical turbine engine. Or else they wouldn't have been able to scout out this danger to our nation and reported back fast enough to allow us the leisure of having this meeting.

"And wham! All that! Stars for eyes they had! I say they had! Do you know how many treats I had to give them to calm down enough to give their report?!"

(No, I'm sure they just duped you for those treats.)

Though, there was the fact that half the members of this room thought the same thing I did. That those scouts were asking for a bribe just to do their job.

But even as those thoughts ran through my mind, I knew...I've been duped in the exact same way. Those fairies just had a tendency of disarming you. Maybe it was their cute innocence. Maybe it was their absurdly low standards for what constituted a bribe.

"Details, woman!" Losing his patience, Alvaldi, the titan elder, pressed.

"Ah, right. Okay, so, first, I gave them milkshakes. You know, those with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup drizzled on to, and tiny pieces of strawberries mixed in! Ah, when I had them made, I just had to get one myself, and it was so sweet and tasty! Oh, and the pudding we had after! The way the caramel sauce oozed out from underneath the whipped cream crown, and the little toffee bits sprinkled on top!" The fairy's eyes glazed over as she started to drool, completely forgetting why she was even here in the first place.

All the while, the other fairy elders leaned in, some even forgetting to wipe their mouths as they grew transfixed by Aurae's words.

"Not those details. He means the scouts' report." Frigg interrupted the daydreaming fairy as she let out a sigh. Frankly speaking, she wasn't the only one to be annoyed by how easily distracted those fairies were.

Normally, I wouldn't mind, but the fact that it happened even when we were on the verge of something so important was problematic.

"Ah, okay. I'll leave dessert for later then." The fairy elder looked a little down for a bit, but was immediately replaced with a serious expression.

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That said, I couldn't let my guard down. Fairies took their treats and fun quite seriously in the first place. Those things tended to be placed much higher on the priority list for them compared to what the other races considered important.

But in the end, she gave her report properly.

And the contents, was something we had to take quite seriously as well.

"This...is bad, isn't it?" Even Alvaldi, being an elder who was closely connected to the artisans of our nation, could tell that the armed force approaching our nation was quite a threat.

"We...we'll still crush them." Harja was still defiant and pushed her hard-headed strategy again, though with far less enthusiasm as before.

"No, rather than that, shouldn't we be considering an evacuation first?" Elli on the other hand immediately pushed for the difficult decision.

"Ah...erm..." The fairy elders though, it was obvious from their expressions that they considered that the worst case scenario.

After all, the city most threatened by this approaching army was theirs, the one built on the southern side of the Hourai Mountain. The other city, the one originally settled by the dark races, was located on the western side of the massive mountain. Meaning that it was reasonably protected thanks to the distance between the two locations.

And that didn't even take into consideration that, chances were, nobody even knew that the city even existed.

Parts of the southern city was seen by those assassins all those years ago, so it was certain that it was in danger. It was even possible that it was the target even. But the western city was almost guaranteed to be safe.

Hense, it was important to consider evacuating the southern city.

After all, the force which was slowly approaching was quite substantial.

Several tens of thousands of monsters, all marching towards us like they were somehow possessed. And behind them, was thousands of people. The vast majority of them were elves, but members of the other light races were also present. Adding wagons and beasts to pull them, and the sheer size of the army was staggering in my eyes.

"Even before that, shouldn't we discuss how we're going to deal with this army? How can something like this even exist?!"

That was what got me more than anything else. How could monsters move in anything remotely resembling an orderly fashion. It was one thing to be done inside of a dungeon, but another thing entirely outside of one.

And the scale of it on top of everything. It boggled my mind.

"The only way, would be enslavement magic." The answer to my question was something which made me instantly drop my face into my hands.

(To think that such a thing exists.)

Even without knowing the details, the terminology by itself was enough to disgust me.

Maybe, I've been just lucky so far to have not encountered it. But I personally abhorred slavery. Though in my mind, I was well aware that the literal term was well insufficient to cover the breadth of modern forced servitude that was actually quite common on modern Earth, depending on how broadly you defined freedom. But when one blatantly ignored one's will and forced them into servitude like this, I found few things more abhorrent than that.

"Enslavement magic is illegal to use normally. But even then, it isn't used normally. Because slave collars and controllers requires orihalcum to be made, on top of the one enchanting them needs to be extremely skilled just to make it work. And even then, the control wands need to be used constantly because the magic overrides the target's will. They become nothing but mindless puppets that won't do anything without orders. Normally, there's no use for it on top of being one of the most illegal things in any country."

The explanation from the fairy elder adding on top of Aurae's statement explained why I've never even heard of it.

Simply put, it was expensive and mostly useless. The law was just a formality. Rather than simply forced obedience, the subject loses all autonomy. In most places where one could want to use some form of servitude magic, there simply was much better ways to do so. Like explosive collars, or even iron shackles. Both of which would be magnitudes cheaper on top of working better.

But then, these people found that one use case that justified using such abhorrent magic in the first place.

While extremely costly, a disposable army like this wasn't a terrible idea in the first place. After all, they were all monsters in the first place. Most were probably sourced from a dungeon on top of that, though I've never actually tried taking a live monster out of a dungeon before, I didn't see why it couldn't be done.

The way it was done, it was hardly any different from training attack dogs on Earth. Maybe more expensive and limited in use, but the monsters were far more disposable.

I didn't like it, but I could appreciate the thought that came with it.

That said, this was nothing but a blatant threat towards our precious nation.

"Harja."

"What?" The dragonkin chieftain looked at me, that scowl she always gave me was still there on her face. But the meaning behind that scowl had changed in the years since we first met. It was one I could trust.

"Can you and yours do something for me?"

"What is that? A favour?" Harja gave me a sneer.

"No, it's a challenge." I put my hands on my desk and met the chieftain eye to eye. "Prove to everyone, no, prove to me, that you can do what I can't. That, while we can both rampage to our hearts content, but when it comes to it, you can hold the line. Something I can't do."

"Hmph! Is that it? Of course I can do what you can't!" Harja grinned, showing off the sharp spikes she called teeth as she crossed her arms.

"Elli, Frigg, can I count on you two help box the enemies in? To stop them from trying to circle around Harja's warriors?"

"Understood." The demon elder gave me a firm nod.

"You are so demanding on your elders. Are you unable to treat the elderly nicely?" Elli shrugged.

(Maybe if you actually act your age, I'll start treating you like it.)

It took me a while, but I've finally learned how to treat Elli, one of the oldest of our nation. Though Aurae was even older, she obviously didn't want to be treated that way.

That said, Elli's words were comforting. Despite being nothing but complaints, I knew that it was just her way of accepting her role.

"As for the fairies and imps, I want the ones with turbine engines to regularly scout the enemy until they get close, then switch to relaying messages. The warriors, on the other hand, are to patrol the areas behind the front lines and deal with anything that gets past the cordon."

A series of enthusiastic replies came from all around.

"I'll tell the spirits to watch for anything strange going on from above. And as for me..."

I stood up as my lips curled up into a grin.

"I'll do what I do best. Bathe in blood."

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