CH 129

Chapter 129 – ([∩∩])<○ Seems Like That

Apparently, someone in the village had been cleaning Sylphy’s house regularly, and it took very little time to clean the house. I washed the water jar that stored the water for daily use, filled it with fresh water that Sylphy had produced with her spirit magic, and then did a quick cleaning.

The household goods had been packed and stored in the inventory before we left the house, so we took out only the necessary items and set them up. There’s still some time before the sun goes down.

“We’re done earlier than expected, so let’s go visit the elders.”

“Alright.”

We should do what we can to get things done quickly. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can enjoy our vacation.

I walked with Sylphy through the Elven village to the meeting place where the elders always gather. We greeted the Elves as we walked by. The people seemed to be more peaceful than when we stayed in the village.

Even though it was unavoidable, they must have been feeling stressed from spending time with strangers, especially since the refugees at that time were half being supported by the Elves of this village. The refugees were forced to bear the hardships that they wouldn’t have had to if they were trying to survive on their own, and the refugees were hardly able to contribute to the running of the Elven village. They must have been very frustrated.

As I walked along, thinking about this, we soon arrived at the meeting place. Sylphy seemed to be thinking about the situation of the people in the village, and she seemed to be thinking about it as much as I was.

As we approached the meeting place, an Elf who seemed to be an attendant of the elders came out at just the right time.

“Everyone is waiting for you. Please come in.”

She invites us into the meeting hall.

“What great timing.”

“The elders are very close with the spirits. The spirit must have told them we were coming.”

“Spirit magic is amazing.”

If you are a master at using spirit magic that can cause natural disasters, the spirit will tell you about such things without you having to do anything, huh? That means that you practically can’t take them by surprise, right? Spirit magic users are fantastic. If you want to defeat a master class spirit magician like the elders, you’ll have to kill them with a single blow from outside the spirit’s detection range. It could be either sniping or long-range bombardment…

I entered the meeting place while thinking about how to deal with the elders. I have no intention of fighting the elders, but I want to think of a countermeasure when I see a threat. It’s the nature of gamers!

“Oh, welcome, Sylphy-chan and Husband-dono.”

“What’s the matter, greeting us instead of just making love? Why don’t you go ahead and have a baby?”

“Well, that’s the thing about you. If you’re too busy, you won’t be able to have a baby. Even a bantam bird can’t lay eggs if they’re just staring at each other.”

“Hohoho, I wish they’d lay eggs like the bantam birds.”

“Husband-dono is getting along well with the Harpies, isn’t he? I’m sure he already makes them lay a lot of eggs.”

“He was getting along well with Isla-chan, too. It seems like there are more of them. I can feel the scent of a lady-killer coming from Husband-dono.”

“The spirits are unusually fond of him. It’s a bit of a hassle to use magic when Husband-dono is around because they get so excited.”

That’s the dragging-on-and-on machine-gun talk of the elders. There’s no room for Sylphy and me to interrupt.

Rather, I’m not sure what they mean by bantam birds… Bantam birds are poultry-like chickens that are raised in this world. It’s a lot bigger than the chickens I know, and they seem to be rather violent, but the eggs they lay are big and nourishing. Harpy’s eggs are bigger and tastier than theirs, though… But that one… yeah. It’s a little more complicated for me.

“Elders, this time, I have come to talk to you seriously as the leader of the Liberation Army. Can you please restrain yourself a little?”

“””…..”””

The elders were silenced by the power of Sylphy, who smiled with veins on her temples. They seem to know when to back off, even if they’re the older ones here. If Sylphy were to go on a serious rampage, the elders would probably be fine, but there would be no trace of the meeting place any more.

“Umu, Sylphiel, the head of the Liberation Army and a member of the Merinard bloodline. Let us hear what you have to say.”

After a whispered exchange of “you do the talking” or “you should go”, the loli-looking elder spoke up with an air of solemnity. But this and that before that ruined a lot of things.

“First of all, I would like to thank you again for your long support of the people of the Merinard Kingdom. Without the support of the Elven village, the people of the Merinard Kingdom would have been left to rot in the wilderness and forests. The reason why I, as the head of the Liberation Army, visited this village in person this time is to return the favor.”

“Fumu, what exactly?”

“The only thing that we can offer that will be of benefit to the Elven village is the provision of goods that are difficult to obtain in the Elven village. Mineral resources such as ores, refined metals, and gems, agricultural products, and foodstuffs that are not grown in the Elven village, as well as products such as cloth and silk.”

“I see. However, they were not obtained by the Liberation Army, but were created by Kosuke-dono’s hands, weren’t they? Isn’t it a little unfair for the Liberation Army to offer it to us as if it belonged to them? Wouldn’t you say that the Liberation Army took the liberty of offering them?”

Indeed, most of those products would not have been obtained without me.

“I am the partner of Sylphy, the leader of the Liberation Army, and I am also a member of the Liberation Army. I don’t see any problem with that.”

I shrugged my shoulders. It’s not like I’m an outsider to the Liberation Army, to begin with. In fact, I’m more of a key player, or a central figure, or something like that. Actually, I’ve chosen to live with Sylphy, which can be considered synonymous with belonging to the Liberation Army led by Sylphy. I will wield this power in order to realize her ideals and goals.

“That’s how it is. In the first place, it doesn’t matter who or how it was obtained; once it’s in our pockets, it’s the same. Please don’t try to force the issue.”

“Mmm, you could just panic a little more, couldn’t you?”

Sylphy’s eyes narrowed. Seeing this, the noja loli elder hastily raised her hands. It’s a pose of surrender, I guess.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m at an age where I feel like teasing. Please forgive me.”

“We’ll have to discuss the exact amount, but for now, we’ve brought ores, jewelry, cloth, silk, and other items that don’t need to be carefully preserved, and we’ll deliver them to the shared warehouse in the morning. As for foodstuffs, I think it would be best to have them shipped between our rear base and the Elven fortress in the wilderness.”

“Well, it’s hard to deal with a sudden influx of foodstuffs. I think that’s reasonable.”

“If there is anything else we can do, we will help you as much as we can. We now control the southern half of the Merinard Kingdom. We have freed many of our people from slavery and have increased our manpower.”

“Oh… you’ve increased your power to that extent? Sylphy-chan must have worked hard.”

“Stop calling me Sylphy-chan… Well, to be honest, we rely heavily on Kosuke’s power. Right now, we’re in a stalemate with the Holy Kingdom army, but we’re in the process of starting diplomatic contact.”

“Diplomatic contact? With them? Talk to them?”

“It’s not possible to talk to them, is it?”

“Yes, yes.”

That seems to be the perception of the elders. I can see why. After all, they are a religious nation that has as its state religion the religion of Adel, which has as its doctrine the enslavement of subhumans and the supremacy of humans.

There seems to be a dual structure of power with two heads, the Holy King who controls the country and the Pope who controls the Adel religion, but both of them are united in their human supremacist ideology. This is why the Holy Kingdom is united in fighting against the Empire, which is a nation of multiple races, and why it was able to attack the Merinard Kingdom, which was also a nation of multiple races, bring it to its knees, and make it a vassal state.

“But there are factions within the Adel religion, it seems. We were able to get in touch with the nostalgic faction of the Adel religion through Kosuke. It seems that the nostalgic faction suspects that the current doctrine was falsified a long time ago. There is a high possibility that such a move took place after the fall of the Omit Kingdom.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while. When did they start getting excited?”

“Well, if you put it that way, I’d say it was after we crushed the Omit Kingdom.”

“I think it’s more likely that the defeated from the Omit Kingdom got into the Adel religion and tampered with their doctrine.”

“””…..”””

I put my thoughts to the elders, who began to whisper something to each other, and after a few moments of silence, they suddenly began to change the subject.

“By the way, that dragon was amazing. Husband-dono must be very impressive to be able to tame a dragon.”

“Yes, that’s right. Such a husband is a perfect match for our sweet little Sylphy.”

“That’s what you call the best couple!”

“Too obvious! Your eyes are swimming too fast!”

All of them averted their gaze from us and began to flap their faces with their hands or take out something like a fan and flap it. Some were even wiping sweat off their faces with handkerchiefs they had taken out of nowhere.

“There’s so much we could say, but there’s no point in talking about something that happened hundreds of years ago now, is there?”

“That’s right, that’s right! Young people have to live for the future.”

“Right.”

“Sylphy-chan is in her rebellious phase…”

The noja loli elder cried out in blatant lies. The other elders also begin to blubber uncontrollably.

“Seriously.”

“I honestly didn’t think there was anything wrong with the rooted cutting.”

“I thought I had carefully destroyed the underground facilities.”

“So, to put it simply…”

“””Ehe☆”””

All the elders winked at each other and stuck out their tongues. I wondered how they were able to pull off such a sophisticated and flawless tehepero*. Are they practicing or something?

“Okay, let’s start the twists.”

“Good luck, Sylphy!”

And then Sylphy lost her temper. I evacuated to the corner of the room and cheered for her as she turned into a silver gale. I felt like a child watching a hero show.

“Ahhh! Sylphy-chan, no, no, no! You can’t do that!”

“We’re weak old ladies! No extreme skinship, please!

“This is not good. Sylphy-chan is very angry.”

“No, no, no, no! You can’t just turn that way!”

A storm of violence! The old Elves are running for their lives! But the noja loli was caught!

There must have been a lot of pent-up frustration. By the time the 30 minutes had passed, all the elders had been captured by Sylphy’s hands and were hanging upside down, wrapped in vines that grew from the trees like bagworms.

“Put me down.”

“This is a bit harsh, isn’t it…”

“There’s nothing we can do about it if it’s physical at close range… We can’t just shoot it up and destroy the meeting place.”

“Hey, are you sure about this, Sylphy?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to go back over what happened hundreds of years ago, but I didn’t like the way they were acting. I lost my temper and did it, but I don’t regret it.”

Sylphy’s mouth was smiling as she looked up at the elders, but her eyes were not smiling… Actually, it’s scary.

The Elven villagers who heard the commotion looked up at the hanging elders and were dumbfounded for a while, and then when they saw Sylphy smiling lightly, they nodded in agreement and let the elders’ cries for help go through. Some people came out to watch the elders swinging around with drinks and snacks in their hands, while others brought out easels and canvases and started sketching the elders hanging upside down.

“It’s a hobby of mine to record the curiosities of the village in this way.”

The painter Elf says to me as he draws a rough sketch on the canvas with charcoal. Is he a god painter?

“All right, let’s go home, Kosuke.”

After confirming that the elders’ abominations have been sufficiently exposed to the eyes of the village Elves, Sylphy makes a refreshing expression.

“Aye, aye, ma’am!”

I followed her like a loyal dog and headed home. After all, I must not disobey my master. I don’t know how many times I’ve done this, but I’ve made it clear to myself again.