Chapter 521 - Twelfth Story: Dragonewt Village ③
After seeing him off with a smile, we all huddle in the secret base to consult.
"What do you think? About that Dark Green just now."
The "Dark Green" Alex is talking about must be the Vice-Chieftain.
"He was wanting silver weapons and armor."
Violet had remained expressionless the whole time, but now she's showing blatant disgust. Silver weapons and armor can be used even by monsters. It should be fine if they use thick hide as a lining so that the body doesn't directly touch the silver parts. However, they'd have to be made quite solidly. But, as long as Dragonewts aren't monsters, it's not a problem. They apparently have dragon blood, and being called Beastmen might just be their outward appearance.
"To want weapons to oppose the Demon Race at this late stage. If they were necessary, they should have applied for trade a long time ago."
For humans, silver weapons and armor mean those made by Elves. What Dwarves make are mostly custom-made items requested by employers and don't circulate in general.
"The opponent might not be limited to the Demon Race."
At Eleanor-sama's last words, all four of us nodded.
"That guy is aiming for the position of Chieftain."
"Likely. Though the weapons he wants are probably silver arrowheads. Easy to assassinate with. He just needs to release them from a distance on a wind spell."
"Imagine mounting ballistas equipped with silver arrowheads on medium-sized bowls. Try attacking the Chieftain's village while hidden. You could probably wipe out the Purples in one go."
"That's a good method. Since Flight Magic isn't known yet, it would be easy. If that happens, it'll be exactly as the Vice-Chieftain wants."
"If we're going to team up, now's the time. Selling a favor to the Dragonewts will be reassuring no matter what happens in the future."
That talk is way too dangerous.
Violet is laughing too.
"Wait a minute, you two. What are you saying?"
Gnome wants the Dragonewt Village to continue, so what are you doing starting a rebellion inside?
"And so, that's what that Dark Green is thinking."
"Umu. And likely, his ambition won't end with just taking over the village."
"He might be planning to rule all the living things on this island."
"Now, what shall we do? I'd like to resolve this as peacefully as possible. Coexistence and co-prosperity are best, after all."
They all look at me with smirks.
Damn it. I've been set up again.
Regardless of the four's delusions, it's better to avoid conflict between Dragonewts. What should we do?
"It's simple. Go to the Chieftain's village and secure a promise of trade. If we do that, the Chieftain will be able to participate in silver trading, right?"
When the Elf Prince says that, Henry-sama takes out the document for plenipotentiary diplomatic negotiations. It's made quite conveniently.
"But it's not simple, is it? The location should be underground by the pond in the center of the northern slope..."
I'm sure the same method won't work.
"That much is enough to know."
It's Eleanor-sama. I wonder if she's thought of a good method.
"It's simple. This time, go near the pond while remaining visible, and throw in not just one, but several rocks in a row. I'm sure the Dragonewts will come out."
Alex and Violet are laughing hard.
The Dragonewts who come out will definitely be angry.
I wouldn't be surprised if they hit us with Prominence right away.
As a result of consulting while eating dinner together, the extremely dangerous calling-out method proposed by Eleanor-sama was approved by everyone except me. No matter how you look at it, it's weird.
However, just in case something happens, Wilson-san's squad... Wilson-san, Will, and Bonnie, who haven't been seen by the Dragonewts yet... will be on standby while hidden. Even if emergency escape is fine because Alex is there, if an attack is suddenly launched, Wilson-san's Wind Barrier should protect us.
And, although we were originally planning to visit the Vice-Chieftain's village, we suddenly changed to conquer the Chieftain's village... that is, the center of the northern slope, first. Moreover, the time is early morning. Eleanor-sama had hinted that she wanted to visit the Vice-Chieftain's village at noon, but it's a setup using that as a smokescreen.
The next morning, at sunrise, we crossed the mountain peak on the bowl operated by Eleanor-sama.
It's my first time at the top of the Central Mountain Range.
The morning sun shining in the blue sky is close.
Amidst the sound of only the strong wind blowing, the sight of peaks shining in silver under the morning sun can only be described as solemn.
The mountainside is covered in clouds in places. In the direction far east of the group of multiple peaks sticking out from the clouds, a huge pentagon was visible. It must be the Mountain. There are no mountains as high as this around here. Except for the Mountain, as far as the eye can see, it's a world above the clouds. Likely, there are no high mountains until you go near the north. Those who control the Mountain control the White Island, and those who hinder that control this land... Those are the words of the Vice-Chieftain and Eleanor-sama. Only god-like beings can be imagined living here. I well understood the meaning of the "high place" the Dragonewts spoke of.
Looking south, from the mountain range to the plains, the change in the number of types of colors can be gradually seen. It's as if the more colors there are in the landscape, the more living things there are in that land.
Looking north, I could see as far as the sea. Moving my gaze to the right, the coastline extending to the northeast is swallowed by spring haze and becomes invisible, but beyond that, it must continue to Medioland.
"How is it? The view from the mountain peak? It's not as cold as you thought, right?"
It's as Eleanor-sama says. As long as you avoid the wind, normal Green Marble is enough. Besides, there's no snow on the Mountain, which is higher than here. I don't know how many hundreds of years it will take, but I want Gnome and the Earth Dragon to do their best.
"This mountain range is in the center of our country, there is the Demon Realm, there is the Earth Dragon, and even the Demon Lord will be resurrected. And in the areas surrounding it, there are various spirits and monsters including Water Spirits, Elves, and Dwarves, and five hundred thousand humans live there. Our country can be said to be a microcosm of this island."
Now that you mention it, that's true. Other countries don't have the habitats of races this close together. Sertoria even has some overlaps. Regnentes and Primordia have no places where the Demon Lord is resurrected, and in Medioland, Engrio, and Morandine, humans hold overwhelming dominance in the vast plains excluding the Demon Realm. Northern Gram and Finis are the opposite.
"If coexistence and co-prosperity between races cannot be achieved in our country, it might not be possible in any other country."
Conversely, if it's possible in Sertoria, other countries where segregation is clearly made for geographical reasons should be able to do it much more easily.
"If the Dragonewts living in this mountain range would take our human hands... with their power, segregation from the Demon Race might become possible and a non-aggression pact might be concluded."
If that happens, it will be a landmark event. The cave where the Demon Lord is resurrected is at the foot of the Central Mountain Range, in a deep forest where humans do not enter. And next to it is the Dryad's Forest. At the back entrance is the Earth Dragon. A secret pact has already been made in the Northeastern Forest. Currently, a pack of monsters led by a single Demon Race lives in the northern part of the Northeastern Forest. Partly due to Renata's wishes, forest restoration work is also progressing there.
Of course, realization will be difficult. After all, the Demon Lord hates peace. He seems to be an old man who can't be satisfied unless he's fighting. What a troublesome geezer.
"There! Amphiptere? It's flying."
There's nothing where Violet is pointing...
"Heh, that guy. It's wriggling, it's like it's swimming in the sky."
"It's using magic. It seems to be catching the wind well."
"Those small wings aren't flapping. Is it controlling ascent and descent like a ship's rudder?"
"Umu. Only the torso is moving, and the position of the neck is stable. It's just like a snake crawling on the ground with its head raised."
The other five all seem to see it. I'm the only one who doesn't know.
When I asked where it was, they gave me a strange look.
"Jeanne. Close your eyes and try to feel only the magic."
It's Eleanor-sama. I closed my eyes as I was told. I don't usually do magic detection. I can do it, but I leave it to magic-users with higher sensitivity.
"Enhance the image. It's the image of magic being emitted. When you release Holy, you gather magic in your palm and then release it all at once, right? Recall the sensation of that moment of release."
I see. Holy, huh. It's different from the method of magic detection, but let's try it.
With my eyes closed, I thrust out my right hand in the direction everyone was looking. Eleanor-sama holds my arm and corrects the angle.
The image before releasing Holy... and the image and sensation when releasing it...
Eh?
Suddenly, I felt a massive amount of magic. No, this isn't magic. It's an image. An image of a long, thin object releasing magic floated up. Or rather, I should say I was able to feel it.
I unintentionally open my eyes.
I saw it!
Perhaps because of the distance, it's like a piece of lint that fell on the floor.
"I saw it!"
I unintentionally give a fist pump.
"Isn't that direction close to where we guessed the Chieftain's village is?"
"Umu. It's one of the two places disguised with magic."
"Follow it? It hasn't noticed us yet."
"Shall we hide ourselves and approach from above?"
"That's right. Let's hide ourselves. Jeanne, I'm counting on you for Magic Reflection."
Um, everyone. You could praise me a little... no, it's nothing.
We track it while hidden. Instructions to standby were sent to Wilson-san's squad via a letter-sending magic circle. When we accelerated and went above, we came out diagonally above and behind the object that seemed to be an Amphiptere. It comes flying while wriggling as if swimming through the air.
The opponent is flying near the mountainside, and perhaps because we are higher up than that, it doesn't notice. It just keeps flying wrigglingly.
"Isn't it about time for the Dragonewt Village? That pond, that's it, right?"
"Yeah, it's disguised with magic."
"The valley in front of it is also one of the places we guessed. That place is also disguised with magic."
"That's right. Since the magic that can be detected at that valley is weak, it's the place I thought was the real deal."
"It changed direction. It seems to be flying toward the valley."
"It looked this way."
Following Violet's words, the bowl stopped.
The Amphiptere is flying in a circle in one place. It seems to be on guard of its surroundings.
"Were we noticed?"
"No, that's not it. It's like a bird flying around its nest. Likely, it's going down into the valley."
Just as the Elf Prince said, it must have confirmed that no one was there after circling three times. It went straight down toward the valley and...
"I-It disappeared!"
It vanished in mid-air as if erased.
"It entered the area disguised with magic."
"Yeah, likely that valley itself is the disguise."
"Let's follow it. However, please slow down."
Where the Amphiptere disappeared is a deeply cut valley. We go down into the valley as if following it. It's a valley where shrubs are growing, but when we approached close to the shrubs, the scenery changed midway.
The valley covered with shrubs became a cliff with exposed rock faces, and several side holes are open. It's just like the Lindwurm's nest we subjugated before. Since there were Wyrm holes around, there were many nests open in the cliff. However, since the Amphiptere is much smaller than a Wyrm, the holes are also smaller accordingly.
"This is the nest."
"Likely. But it's clever to disguise it."
"It's probably the same magic as the one disguising the pond."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. Just a hunch. The sensation of the magic is the same."
That's amazing. She can grasp who cast the magic by the sensation of the magic. Everyone is surprised. In other words, only Violet can tell.
"Well, yeah. I may not look it, but my magic control is fairly high."
She's blushing and acting bashful, but that means it's higher than an Elf's or a Dwarf's. It's more than "fairly."
By the way, if that's the case, then the one disguising it with magic is a Dragonewt. What on earth does that mean?
"I found out by getting this close, but the sensation of the magic drifting from the nest is the same as the Dragonewts'."
In Violet's sensation, Dragonewts and Amphipteres are the same.
"In other words, is there a possibility that Dragonewts are transforming?"
"Hmm, I don't know which one is transforming."
She returned a surprised word to the Elf Prince's words. It seems there's a possibility that the Dragonewt form is a temporary form and the Amphiptere form is the true form.
"Its eyes were golden. That's a disguise."
Is that so? That means, as expected of a monster, the real ones are red? If that's the case, it won't be of dragon lineage.
Since she hasn't seen the undisguised form, Violet doesn't know the real eye color either. However, the eyes of the Amphiptere we saw earlier were red. In other words, it's a monster.
"Originally, Dragonewts were a type of Beastman and were considered monsters. Therefore, I thought the color of those eyes was strange. It was a disguise. Did the Elf and Alex notice?"
"Rather than the eye color, it was clad in magic all over its body. I didn't notice as far as transformation, though."
"That's right. I thought for sure it was covering its body with magic to strengthen its magic defense."
"I don't know which one is real. I think the Amphiptere has stronger magic control itself."
The four are talking about various things, but I can't keep up at all. Henry-sama also doesn't seem to understand well, as he's just listening with a smile.
The discussion continued like that, but it didn't reach a conclusion, perhaps because there was no decisive factor. What I understood is that the one with the highest magic control among the group is Violet. Though, it seems the three who were discussing already knew that.
"Well, we'll ask the Dragonewts. Further exploration here is dangerous."
Violet said it's about time to go.
Since she's saying it's dangerous even though Eleanor-sama is the bowl operator and the Elf Prince, Alex, and Henry-sama are there, it means it's not an opponent we can win against by fighting.