Chapter 224 - Aftermath

After the meeting in regards to Ankhs' punishment was adjourned, Leonidas walked out with a heavy look on his face.

He sighed tiredly, "This is the worst possible scenario...Now, not only do we have to worry about the humans, we've got the beastkin baring their fangs at us..."

"General Leonidas!"

Leonidas halted his steps and looked back towards the person who had called out to him. It was the Empire's Minister of Civil Affairs, the werewolf Incra Baltors.

"What do you think about the Emperor's decision?"

"...to lock away Ankhs?"

"Haha! You know what I mean." Incra laughed at the General's 'joke'. "The Fangs will be in charge of the human cleanup operation while a portion of the Army will guard the Orca-Anglaria Border..."

Leonidas sighed. "It's not the best decision, but in our case, it's the only proper plan of action...with the beastkin now pinning the blame on us for the monster tide, we can't even refute them because we lack the evidence to even prove our innocence!"

"Yes, you are correct...even if we did try to reopen negotiations with them, I did hear about the things Ankhs did at the border. Although the beastkin probably don't know about it, but they probably already have suspicions...now this monster tide happens. Things just haven't just haven't been looking good for us these days."

"Tsk...He could have done things differently!"

"You do know that the target for his...'operation' had killed his only nephew inside the Urrugdrasil Trials, right?"

"So putting his own selfish interests above the collective interests of the Empire is justified?!"

"No, I did not say that, General. What I mean is that, Ankhs did his best to create an opportunity for the First Fang to capture the target. Don't forget that it seemed like the heavens were on our side at the time since the target had oh-so conveniently waltzed on over to the border...He wouldn't miss this chance even if he had a sword hung above his head."

"And that led us to here."

"Unfortunately, the outcome is just as so."

The two walked out of the palace and were about to board their personal carriages. Incra looked around before whispering to Leonidas, "A little birdie told me that a large black wolf had appeared in the middle of the city on the day the First Fangs made their moves."

"Hm?"

"It was exactly when the wolf appeared that the monster tide had suddenly sprung out from the forest. I suspect that the large wolf was the cause of the monster tide, but who knows. We can't confirm anything now since every member of the First Fangs had died in battle."

"...are you saying that the Kingdom's just using this as an excuse to stop the trade relations?"

Incra shook his head, "No, this is just mere speculation. Maybe the First Fangs really did do something to cause the monster tide...at least, that's what all the beastkin are saying."

Leonidas scoffed at Incra and said, "If you aren't even sure then you'd better shut your mouth. For all we know, the First Fangs might have done something in the first place at the command of Ankhs! And besides, even if what you said was true, would it matter now? Would the beastkin even listen to us at this point?"

Incra understood what Leonidas was getting at. Essentially, the Empire had forced the trade relations to happen. This incident was just a good way for the Anglaria Kingdom to break it off while standing on a moral high ground.

And at this point, if the Empire did try to pin the blame on the monster, it'll only look like they were trying to find an excuse to weasel their way out of a conflict with the beastkin.

Incra continued, "Yes...it doesn't matter now. All we can do is mobilizing the army to defend the borders."

"...and the beastkin might misinterpret this as us continuing our offensive after devastating their lands with the monster tide..."

"It's unfortunate, but that is indeed so. Though I can't say for sure whether the First Fang or Ankhs had actually done something, on a moral high ground we are indeed at a disadvantage..."

"We've already caused some friction with the other nations because we were pressuring them, and now this..." Leonidas let out a frustrating sigh.

He boarded his carriage and went off. Incra only stared at his receding carriage and couldn't help, but shake his head.

"A man too righteous for his own good...he would have made a fine Emperor if not for his brother being the crown prince..."

******

Back at the Darkfang Territory of the Anglaria Kingdom, the King's Army had already arrived. With the added forces of the kingdom's army, the monster tide was quickly eradicated.

After quelling the rampage at the Darkfang Territory, the army then began splitting into squadrons to eliminate the remaining monsters wreaking havoc inside of the border areas.

With the coordination of the local lords' armies, the entire ordeal was immediately put to rest a week later. The monsters were being systematically eliminated and the Kingdom was given but a moment's respite.

Garrisoning a portion of the soldiers into each territory's main city, the King had over half of the army remain at the borders.

It didn't take long before news spread about the Empire's Army showing up at the border. This had of course enraged the residents in the border territories since with the Empire's actions, they had basically affirmed of 2nd Princess' allegations towards the Empire.

At the time it was merely speculation, but with the army now present, it had turned into cold hard facts. The Empire had been the cause of the monster tide. It was only but an impulsive statement on Eli's part to rally the Darkfang Territory's soldiers. Now however, it had become much more serious.

During this entire time, Cecil still had not awoken. After being attacked by the beastmen and having his defenseless body exposed to Silver's miasma, his condition neither worsened nor did it get any better.

Speaking of Silver, the wolf had turned back into his normal self the day before the Kingdom's army arrived. The miasma had long since dispersed and it was a good thing that the Darkfang estate hadn't been exposed for too long to Silver's miasma.

Now all they had to do was rebuild the destroyed place. The estate was thoroughly broken apart, but the Kingdom had decided to compensate them for holding out against the monsters and thwarting the beastmen's plans to kidnap Cecil.

Eli and the rest naturally reported to the Headmaster and the King about the attempted kidnapping. However, they didn't say a word about Silver's black transformation. They only stated that the wolf would change into that form when it began using dark elemental magic.

If the party did tell the truth about Silver's transformation then the Kingdom will most likely find out that the monster tide may have not been necessarily caused by the Empire.

*******

"Lucia? How's Cecil?"

Fina walked into a temporary housing place for the Little Kings inside Darkfang City. After the monster tide defense, many of the city's infrastructures had been severely damaged. Even some sections of the walls had been penetrated by the monsters, but fortunately, not many civilian casualties had occurred, however, the numbers of soldiers lost were numerous.

The Little Kings couldn't help out with the defense all day long, they too needed some rest. It was during these times when the airborne monsters went left unchecked and bypassed the city walls to head directly into the city and spread havoc among the populace.

Most of the city's guards were at the walls defending the city, but many of the Darkfang estate's guards and adventurers were patrolling the city to eliminate the numerous aerial monsters that flew past the walls.

However, there were too little of them so casualties were bound to pile up. It was only when the Little Kings rejoined the defense that the situation improved a bit. With a party of Mana Core Stage experts, the pressure on the defense lightened up a little.

Lucia looked up at the girl who had just entered the room and said in reply.

"He's okay, still asleep however. I had mom check up on him and she said that Cel's mind had been poisoned and that's why he's taking a little bit longer to recover...the poison had mostly dissipated so he should wake up in a day or so..."

"His mind was poisoned? Lucia, don't tell me..."

"No, it's not because of Silvy...Mom said that she also found something else other than the poison. Some sort of disarray in his mind that caused his mana to go out of control when he tried to exert control over it..."

"Then...those beastmen did something to him before Silver's miasma got to him?"

"Yeah...the miasma only made it worse, but he's already recovering! Mom already said so there's no need to worry!"

"Alright..."

"By the way, where are the others?"

After the defense against the monster tide, Lucia had stuck close to Cecil within the infirmary ever since and she had only seen her friends, other than Fina and Yuna, visit only once.

"Ainz and Eli have gone out to help the Kingdom's army with the monster cleanup and haven't come back yet. However, Eli did call me to tell you that if Cecil has already awoken, we should head back to the capital first if they haven't made it back yet."

"...okay. Then the others?"

"Velicia and Lucius are helping out with the territory's repairs and cleanup, Yuna and Silver were together earlier, but the two went off somewhere." Fina said in reply.

"Did Lucius and Veli say anything?"

"Same as Ainz and Eli, head back to the capital once Cecil's awoken if they take too long to regroup with us."

"Alright..."

Lucia gripped tightly onto Cecil's hand. He was obviously still breathing, but...his body felt eerily cold.