4529 humans and beastmen have become your followers

Total follower count updated. Total followers of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 14706

“Ung, ungh, ungh, ung… Buwaaaaah… Oh goodness, how much did I end up drinking today?” I exhaled in exasperation, too exhausted to actually sit upright.

Probably six large barrels and ten dragorades. That made sense, considering how often I had to go to the toilet today. That thought alone prompted me to massage my throat, slightly worried about my vocal cords, even if I could just heal them up with magic. I was really missing Tasianna.

“Hahaha, yeah, the amount we all had to drink was insane! A whole day of singing will probably knock me out for a few days, but I guess with the money you’ll pay us, I can take it easy until it’s all spent.” I glanced over at the sound of that hoarse voice, noticing Desmond ravenously eating a plate filled with fine steak garnished with sauce, all while sipping on some wine.

“Drink room temperature water, you idiot. Even tea will dry out your throat from the caffeine.” I glared at the bard, annoyed at how he wasn’t treating his cords correctly. A singer’s most prized possession was their voice, after all.

“Haha, arck, haha…” Desmond coughed from his laughter, looking in pain. Singers should keep their vocal cords healthy at all costs, but this idiot was throwing any precaution out of the window. “Gotta enjoy this, yeah? My mates downstairs are probably eating like skorrs. I’ve eaten in a noble’s castle before, but never in a royal palace! The food’s so good! Especially this! Mampf!”

He picked up and bit into an eclair, one of the pastries sold within the merchant and noble district at a pretty high price. While we were performing, I saw him gorging on donuts and berliners like a dragon. No wonder he would like the more fancy pastries.

I let out a sigh and left him to enjoy the royal luxury before standing up. I refilled my glass with some more water while I warmed it up to room temperature to moisten my throat, before walking over to the window. Looking out, I could see not only the darkened skies, but also a queue in front of the commoner’s gate.

So they made it back in one day, huh? Probably the people from nearby villages. More probably coming.

4529 fans. Without a doubt, one of my best performances, although I was a bit disappointed the numbers being a bit lower than I wanted. I suppose that's just me being greedy. I performed from morning to the afternoon, with only a few small breaks to drink, eat, and go to the toilet. Not only that, but I also had to rush and perform throughout the whole city while also having to direct a bloody musical.

I was tired. My sun core was drained from all the mana I had to use today, and I just felt like poop. But at the same time—

Ehe.

— I couldn’t believe how amazing it was. Not only was having flash mobs everywhere I went in the city incredible, but the fact my first musical worked out was a miracle. I felt proud of myself as an idol and a person. Sure, if I weren’t a dragon, this probably would have been impossible, but who cares?

I know you can’t see me Papa and Mama, but your little girl is still going strong in this world. Nobody can bring this idol down!

It also was mind-boggling how the bards I had hired somehow managed to keep up with my energy. Sure, I had to heal their throats with healing magic a couple of times, but it was still surprising to see them perform with me until it was all done. As a professional musician to another, I gotta say, mad respect.

And Desmond was here to pick up the pay I promised his band. At the same time, Prince Markval decided to throw a small feast for the bards, as a thank you for the job they’d done. Which they perfectly earned, as performing for a whole day was no easy feat. However, the reason why I was in the royal palace was different than them.

… Hmm, guess it’s time.

The sight of all the torches brightening at the city’s gate made it clear we were having a real invasion on our hands. People were fleeing from their homes to the capital for protection. I was still not bringing the battle to the grimgarians. The tidal wave of goblins, kobolds, orcs, and so on would not only trample towns and villagers, but would reap everything they got their hands on.

We had to bring the fight to them, stop the influx, but our plans demanded I to be patient. To stamp out the tumor growing inside the city’s underbelly first before I could safely depart. As a Champion, my priority should be to the Divine Quest — to defend the royal family of Yeos and the blood of Yeostar — but the amount of people dying out there made me quiver.

I really am not a hero, huh? A true hero would be able to save everybody. What good is all this power when I can’t use it?

In any case, that was enough self-deprecation. I honestly should direct my attention to finding a solution to this situation now that all my cards have been dealt to me.

“Here you go, three small goldites as arranged. Another one because you guys did an amazing job. Thank you very much.” I went over to Desmond and placed four gold coins before me, causing his eyes to sparkle. “Good working with you. I need to leave now, so don’t steal anything alright~”

“Hey, what sorta scoundrel do you think I am?!” He looked visibly annoyed at my accusation, only to shrug, causing me to giggle at his dramatic reaction. “Mhmm, good working with you… Uhm, Princess Hestia, correct? Well, your Grace, if you ever need us again, don’t be shy to ask.”

… Not a bad idea. Would be fun.

“I will if we meet again, but the world is large, yeah? Oh, and, uh, stay safe, yeah?”

“Sure… but something is telling me this whole show we gave today is there to hide something. Hope you can help out when we need it, Dragon Princess.”

Hmph. Perceptive.

With a smile, I left the room and headed to the war room, where I saw Jethro and Alistar both sorting through messages. Both looked pretty worn-out from the musical, but they were still working hard through everything. Mark of soldiers, or maybe it was just the urgency of the situation.

“Lady Hestia!” Alistar’s head darted up the moment he saw me, walking over with a pretty grim face. “The situation seems to be far more dire than I had originally thought. Here. The Plesia Saint has sent us a message with our fastest equerochs.”

Master?

I took the letter and immediately began to read it.

Let’s see… ‘The invasion force of the grimgarians is larger than you would expect from their sudden appearance. I have managed to scout ahead, locating 15 B ranks generals, in addition to various monster mounts tamed by the beastmasters. Numbers-wise, I guess from the size and the number of generals, my careful guess would be around 10,000 capable warriors, not including the support staff and magicians. Unless you dressed as one, it isn’t easy to notice them and the army was carefully hiding their blue-skinned goblins.’

“The army should have at least a couple of Marsven’s priests. Grimgarians, despite their looks, are extremely religious and devoted to Kronnaz and Marsven,” I stated, remembering Tasianna’s theology lessons.

I remembered the three skirmishes we had with the grimgarian army. The first was against the trolls to save Tasianna, the second against the high ogre berserker, and the third was just recently under Renee’s homestead. In all fights, there was at least one mage amongst them, with the latter two having the most.

In every single one of those situations, there was at least one blue-skinned goblin. If I remembered correctly, the description mentioned them being a mana talented subspecies of the common green goblin. Considering how the descriptions of those shamans and mages always mentioned Marsven or something, they probably doubled as priests.

“I agree,” Jethro rose up from his seat. “The more goblins and orcs are around, the more you need those shamans to keep them in check. I learned that during the war with how many sermons and rituals the priests held. Those conniving goblins can be controlled with religion, who would have thought?”

“Urgh, and there are 10,000 soldiers, huh? Master didn’t specify how many of each, so we should assume the majority are goblins and kobolds, the weakest grimgarian group. Some orc knights and berserkers, then trolls, and then we have the generals. Probably ogres, gnolls, or so.” I gave a reasonable assumption. “So we should assume from these 10,000 enemies, a ton of enemy mages are coming. Holy…”

“We don’t even have 10,000 inhabitants in Elyonda.” Alistar massaged his temples. “If we forcefully conscripted all able-bodied commoners, we can equalize the number, but wars aren’t just won by quantity. Quality is a major factor, too. A single master mage can turn the tides, easily.”

And that is not including the naval invaders and the ones under us…

‘I have collected fleeing villagers and my party has slain six platoons. This letter is being written while we are taking a break and performing reconnaissance. We started from the west and swept to the east, where I learned Lady Renee was missing. According to the soldiers there, they mentioned how she was moving east into Aleistunum for some reason. They presume she had deserted.’

“No way.”

I continued reading.

‘I have sent every villager we rescued with the knights, making way to Elyonda. Messengers were also sent to any villages or towns we suspect will be in the way of the invading forces. Losing home and some farmland is better than lives, no? In any case, while I do not know where Renee is, I suspect the invading force will hurry to Elyonda once they notice my actions. I do not know what the enemy is doing with the other principalities, but I cannot help any of them in this situation. My five-man group won’t be able to make much of a dent into the army, but we are used to guerilla warfare from our time in Aelozonia. We will be slowing them down, until we need to retreat. I am not level 104 for nothing!’

Master…

“What is the meaning of this?!” Jethro suddenly shouted from behind me, having read the letter with me. “That man? Renee deserted?! What is this nonsense, Alistar?! You vouched for him but this is the first thing he does the moment it gets dire?”

“Lord Jethro, please, calm down.” Alistar held his hands out, gesturing for the older man to chill, but from how heated it was becoming, it didn’t seem like it would work.

“That man has been fighting in our tournament as a Yeosian, but what does he do after spouting how he wishes to protect our home as a knight? He flees! Coward! Craven!” Jethro bashed the table, breaking off a piece of the wood. “We need no Champion with that attitude. I will not allow such scum to besmirch Sir Royce’s legacy! Alistar, put out an arrest-on-sight warrant on that— Wah?!”

“Can you please calm down!” I grabbed Jethro’s shoulder and pushed him back into his seat.

“What are—”

“We don’t need an old man screaming head off right now, Jethro. Besides, Renee is not the sort of person to run away like this,” I said with full conviction, shocking the warrior priest. Considering the speech she gave me after our little trip together, no way would she run now when she had to rise above. “Alistar, I hadn’t been able to speak to you about this, but yesterday you whispered something to Renee. For somebody who had just heard this, you don’t seem very agitated. What did you two talk about?”

“Oh that… Yes, I guess I did update him. Which might be the reason why he went off to Aleistunum, if the report is to be believed.”

“Care to share?”

“Mhmm.” Alistar frowned, although he nodded immediately after. “Renee and I had spoken after what happened last week. About the grimgarians and the attempted freeing of the captives you caught. Well, Renee suggested a larger attack would be coming and he wanted me to contact Aleistunum and request help.”

“What?!” Jethro shop up, prompting me to force him back down. “Why are you do—”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Calm down.”

“Urk!” Jethro flinched back after I projected my aura out, silencing him into being quiet.

“Listen to the story. You’re supposed to be a veteran fighter, not a hot-headed rookie, right? Alistar, please, continue.”

“Yes, of course… Well, as you know, Aleistunum and Yeos have a history, mostly because God Istari and God Yeostar were allies when they sealed Karhalantheel. That said, our relationship had not exactly flourished over the years, mostly because Yeos’s past iterations always managed to fall into civil wars or become annexed. So, when Renee suggested this idea, I was apprehensive about it, but I tried anyways.”

“And from the look of it, it failed, correct?” I concluded. “Renee wouldn’t be going to Aleistunum if the correspondence fell off.”

Alistar nodded and frowned. “He hadn’t told me of his plan, but most likely he will try to personally bargain for aid. Aleistunum’s military is magic-focused, so even if they are outnumbered, they can fight back, not to mention whatever secret inventions they had been able to come up with.”

“Why didn’t you inform us of this? I hadven’t heard my nephew or Alberstien mention this,” Jethro, finally chilled out, asked. “Not to mention, what right does this ‘Renee’ actually have to speak to a foreign nation? He doesn’t have the authority of the crown, so even if he were to go there personally, nothing can happen without the Prince’s acceptance.”

Oh, that is true, yeah. I knew politics well enough to understand a random vagabond wouldn’t be able to do much there, unless they had some sort of connection.

“Well, Renee was in Aleistunum recently. Maybe he has a friend there who can help? Neill and Rita, his companions, were also there. Maybe if we asked them, we could understand his thoughts better?”

Neill 100% would know, but she, Rita, and Mother were currently resting in the subspace.

Jethro shook his head. “Impossible, unless he’s personally acquainted with one of the members of the archmage’s council. Your Grace, Aleistunum is not really a normal nation. They are more focused on their academies and their studies compared to a sovereign land like ours or the Empire. Diplomacy is difficult, since they know they have the upper hand on us with the mage’s guild and the fact the magical capital possesses the best university in the lands, open to any friendly country.”

Jethro then turned back to Alistar. The red fluster was gone, but he still had so many wrinkles from grimacing. “You know this. It’s impossible. Aleistunum won’t give us a copper. How can a commoner like him do anything? And also, the fact you spoke with a foreign nation without royal permission can be grounds for your own dismissal, Alistar.”

But Alistar didn’t flinch one bit. Jethro hammered into him that warning, but the young knight didn’t even shrug.

“… But you aren’t dumb, right? No, not someone like you who was trained by Sir Royce himself. That man would never choose an idiot as an apprentice.”

I raised an eyebrow at that revelation. From our first meeting, I honestly thought Alistar had a woman for a mentor, not a… Hold on. With all this talking, I had almost forgotten that Royce was a woman. She hid her true gender from everybody. It all began to make sense to me.

“What are you scheming, Alistar?” Jethro leaned forward, not daring to stand up after I forced him down twice. “I can smell it after spending so much time with Alberstien. I don’t need another fool like that. I trust you enough to consider you my equal, so as God Yeostar is my witness, I hope you can trust me. Who is that Renee? That medallion he had on looked eerily similar to Royce’s [Windseeker’s Absolution].”

What?

And for the first time, Alistar’s poker face broke down. Cold sweat was forming on his face. “… I cannot answer that.”

Hold on, Renee has what?! Wasn’t that her father’s medallion? So what was Jethro speaking about here? It could be a look-alike… but Renee mentioned how important it was to her. So, wait, hold on. Who is Renee’s father and why does he have a connection with Royce, who is a woman? Renee has been clearly mentioning how her mother was still alive and with her grandparents. Wait, hold on, is it possible the ‘father’ is actually—

“ALISTAR!” Jethro stood up and dashed towards Alistar was I was preoccupied with thinking, grabbing him by the collar and picking him up. “Speak! Who is that—”

“Excuse me.”

And without letting anybody continue this topic, our heads immediately snapped to the entrance when we felt a threatening aura coming from it. There, surrounded by an irony smell, Larent stood with an empty stare.

“I have found their entrance into the city. Lady Hestia, we move out tomorrow. Get some rest. You’ve done enough today,” Larent stated, shocking me how monotonous he sounded. He turned his eyes over to Alistar and Jethro, accidentally breaking them off. “Prepare the arena and the knights. We don’t know how the battle will go.”

And with that, he left us.

“… It is getting late. Well, I’ll leave the rest to you, two.” Strangely enough, the moment Larent told me to get some rest, I really felt lightheaded. After all, I didn’t really sleep yesterday since I had to write a whole bloody musical script in one night based on Yeostar’s stories.

Alistar and Jethro accepted the idea, telling me to get a good rest for tomorrow’s raid as well. I went down the stairs to meet Amelia, who was waiting for us, seemingly having just finished talking with Anasthasia. Amelia told me she just gotten another business proposal when I asked her if something had happened.

“I was just informed of a most troubling bit of news. That an invasion is coming and how Princess Anasthasia wanted me to continue operating Olive’s garden tomorrow, but not around the city, but inside the arena,” Amelia informed me with a frown. “Lady Hestia, I noticed the people at the city entrance from a window. The invasion is not a joke, right?”

I nodded. “I will be participating in a raid tomorrow to stamp out the enemies inside the walls. Lady Amelia, I don’t want you inside the city tomorrow. Please, leave with everybody.”

“Are you sure? From the look of it, your performance today wasn’t your usual concert because of this, right? You needed to control the populace, and from the sound of it, the Yeosian royal family is planning something else tomorrow. My pastries can do that. Those bards, too! Although, I do not know why everybody isn’t fleeing east…”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, I heard yesterday from somebody that you can flee east through the Aleistunum mountains. If a grimgarian army is coming, then why not through there or through the seas to the Empire? I honestly don’t know why this trickery is needed.”

“It’s because of the pirates. A naval invasion is also coming, and through some evidence, we can conclude those pirates are part of the enemy. Going out on the seas is a trap.” I then closed into Amelia to whisper to her. “The demonkins are around. I might be able to defend the fleet from pirates, but what if a demonkin is coming? I can’t assure anything, then, especially when neither Tasianna or the twins are around. Damn! I wished I hadn’t sent those Caedhulen ships out…”

I was still beating myself for that dumb decision. Sure, I couldn’t see the future, but it still felt hard to not fault myself.

“In any case, east? Well, it is nice to know we can enter Aleistunum that way, but maybe it’s a trap. I mean, from whom did you hear that info from?” Amelia told me it was a suspicious cloaked person after she was ready to retire for the day. “… Yeah, that info stinks.”

“You think? I honestly thought that person was trying to help me, I mean, she really loved the donuts I gave her for free… Although, how did that person know to say that? Maybe she did know something about the invasion. Actually, now that I think about it, you might be right. This might be a trap.”

I nodded.

God Yeostar, could— No, wait, sorry about that. I stopped myself before asking him if he saw something, remembering what he told me about relying on gods too much. Besides, this wasn’t that important to know. It didn’t matter who that person was, it only mattered that this might become problematic.

“Lady Amelia, I want you to decline the idea, alright? If something happened to me, you would be stuck here, unless somebody with my subspace comes to rescue you. Even then, I don’t know if the magic would last if I were to die.”

“Hey! Don’t speak like that!” Amelia suddenly scolded me. “Lady Hestia, you are too strong to say something like that. Besides, we’ve only become friends, right? The last thing I want is to lose a friend through something unfair, like in the past with Ellaine.”

Right, Ellaine did stop meeting up with Amelia due to her inferiority complex. Amelia would be bothered and worried if something like that would happen again.

“Got it. Sorry.” I bowed slightly to apologize. “However, then you better do me a favor and not accept Princess Anasthasia’s proposal, yeah? They can think of something else. If you consider me your friend, then I consider you to be one of mine too. And I don’t want to lose another one like with Eshe.”

“Yes, it is a deal. I will have to pick something up tomorrow at the local merchant guild, but I’ll bring some knights with me. It’ll be quick and then I’ll return home. Is that alright?”

I agreed and we both returned to the subspace where I informed Mother, Neill, and Rita about everything. Rajah immediately jumped up like an energetic kid, telling me he was ready to gain experience, making me really worried this was what he inherited from our time together in Belzac. And to my chagrin, Neill did the same!

“Alright, finally! No more stupid supporting stuff! Rajah, let’s do this, alright!”

[“Yes, Master’s sister! We will kill them all good! Gwwraaah! Nobody will hurt master while Rajah is around!”]

“Buwahh, I’m more of a wallflower, not a fighter. Sure, I can summon roots, but they aren’t exactly tough, as you could see in today’s musical,” Rita said with a tired face. It was night time and she expended a ton of mana today, so it was obvious she would be a bit exhausted.

… Those two have the minds of monsters.

“Mother? What will you be doing?” I asked her out of caution, hoping she would help out, but as expected, she shook her head.

“I won’t help you clear out ready-to-be-reaped enemies, Hestia. But… I will wait, in case that leviathan is freed. So, do your best to prevent it.”

I took her warning to heart. If Karhalantheel were to be freed, it would drown the city, but that would be hard with Tehmrayn around. As long as he was around, nothing would go past him. At least, according to him.

And then the next day came. I rendezvoused at the castle with Neill and Rajah, where Larent, Alistar, and some of his knights were waiting for us. They informed us the castle had hired Desmond and the bards for the day to replay the musical with Jethro and Alistar leading the facade. Since Rita made some notes on the show yesterday, they thought with her help, they could replicate it like yesterday’s, so I had then call Rita over.

Due to the popularity of the show, the nobles and commoners both wanted more, so it was the perfect excuse to bring everybody to the arena and use the newly-made shelter within it. They had announced it through city criers, informing everybody had to attend it for “their education.”

Anasthasia and Alberstien had hired a ton of the Empire's and other foreign merchants to help out, putting up stalls and so on to provide everything that was needed for people to enjoy the festival underground. With the Prince and the rest of the royal family staying there for the remainder of the raid, it also acted as an excuse for the people to get to know their ruler.

Wow, only two days, and they got that much handled? Then again, I organized that weird flash mob yesterday.

With everything settled, our raid group departed. Neill, Rajah, and I were in one group, while the knights would act as our support group. After all, with Larent around, the knights knew they only needed to support him to succeed.

Larent led us towards an alleyway near the marketplace of the city, avoiding as many people as possible to not make them suspicious as they went to the arena for the show. Once there, Larent opened the door to a building, showing it was empty. He handed us some cloaks.

“You two, I need you to transform into your perfect human forms.”

“Wha—?!” Neill let out her voice, surprised to hear that from Larent. However, seeing him stare at us seriously, it seemed we underestimated him a bit. “Tsk, sly fox.”

“We need a cover-up, your Graces. I will apologize in advance, so please play along.”

He really is too smart.

[Humanize (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

With our cloaks on, and Rajah hiding under Neill’s, we entered the basement. Through a ladder and some tunnels, we eventually made it to a suspicious-looking door. Larent knocked on it, causing a man’s voice to appear from behind it.

“Who’s there?”

“Group Deadlight. The arena has been boobytrapped,” Larent altered his voice to sound slightly higher.

After a couple of seconds, I could hear the man’s voice again, only this time, he was looking at us through a peephole. “You’re late. Where were you? And where is that leader of yours?”

“Got caught like an idiot. Fought back, died. I took over.”

Probably the truth… after he retrieved the information needed to come here.

“… Who are those? The small one and the big tits? You didn’t have women in your group.”

Suffice to say, Neill was stacked. You could see her girls through the cloak without any problems, but who was he calling small?

“Witnesses. Brought them back. Reason why we came back late. Begged they were the princess’s associates, so I brought them back to torture for info.”

“Wha—?!” I let out a yelp, acting like a posh lady-in-waiting. “Y-You scoundrel! You told us you would free us once we told you where the princess and the prince would go today! How dare you go back against your world! My family will— Mhppmgh!”

“We can slice you up now and see how the other girl feels about it? You wanna try?” Larent grabbed my cheeks, revealing my face to the guard while I acted as if I was seeing something scary in the Belzac forest.

It really helped that I did this maneuver once already, ha! Already got the practice in as a vulnerable young lady.

“Hey, hey, hey! Stop, you idiot!” The man behind us shouted at us. “You shit for brains, we need to earn some money after this whole gig! Those damn demonkins ain’t paying us shit. Those empire pigs love their fallen nobles, so come in, already! Don’t kill’em!”

And the door opened. Easy peasy, but at the same time, Neill, Rajah, and I immediately took in a waft of the foul stink coming from inside. Pinching our noses, we entered only to notice the amount of lowlives inside.

To my surprise though, I also noticed there was a small pond nearby, reminding me this place was probably under the sea — the beach entrance the saurians found. With how it looked, it was probably an underwater cavern from all the stalactites stalagmites, meaning they didn’t make this place. They found it.

Entering the place, I could help but constantly hear people whistle at us, noting Neill’s general appearance and mine. While Neill seemed to be composed, I couldn’t help but feel intense disgust for all them. They were already speaking about me as if I was their slave and the ways they wanted to “play” with me.

I knew this was what I got myself into, but it really felt like my fuse was burning. With my sun core full again, I really felt like exploding and burning all these lowlives to ash in one go. Honestly, why exactly were we playing around? We could just blow everything up!

“I found them,” Larent whispered, directing our attention towards where he was looking, only for my own eyes to widen.

Skull masks!

The very same mask that the assassin during the tournament was wearing. There was a group of them just huddling a corner, speaking and sharpening their weapons. I really should stop second-questioning Larent. This guy gets things done when I just play along.

“Move and then upon my signal, we—”

“Hey~ You little manablood.”

“Huh?” I turned around, only to see a taller man, mostly unkempt and dirty, lick his lips as he stared at me. Without any warnings, he reached his hand out, moving it towards my bu—

“Hey, dude, mind if I just— Yuawaaaak-YEEEAAAARCCCKK!”

In a flash, his arm was in my grasp. With just a bit of force, I crushed it like a juice bottle.

“That’s the signal…” I announced while glaring at the arse squirming in front of me, feeling no pity for this piece of dirt.

“Got it! Shiehahaha!”

[“Enemy!”] Rajah pounced at the man before boring his fangs right into his shoulder, paralyzing him with his venom. Whether it was lethal or not didn’t matter to me.

“Oi! What the fu—” The people around me wanted to voice out, but not in time before Neill and I activated [Humanization].

Humanization!

[Humanize (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

“Kraaaaaaaah!” I roared, swinging my wings to remove the mana mist. “Beat them all up!”

And before Larent could complain, I unleashed my [Hellflame Breath].