The rest of the saint meeting went by without much happening. A few people heard of the orc incident, but it didn't really lead to all that much. Or at least I think it didn't. I heard some whisperings when I passed by people, but it didn't seem like they were saying anything bad about me.

Soon, the time came for the saint meeting to end. I no longer felt the pull of the equinox when I went away from the camp.

When I was just finishing packing up what little things I brought to the camp, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank the gods, it's almost over," I said.

"Did you not enjoy our little vacation?" Dalv gave me a playful smirk.

"I have neutral feelings about camping at this point," I replied. "But this was one of the worst camping trips of my life. Or, rather, lives."

The Voivode shrugged.

"It wasn't that bad," he stated.

"Your peoples' bug spray helped with that, but the only thing I really did was walk around camp for a few days. And we were almost killed by orcs," I said.

"Oh, yes, there was that," Dalv shrugged. "But it could have been worse."

I nodded.

"Yes. It could always be much, much worse," I agreed.

We were never able to find Laestrygon's body. From wha

t we could discover, King Doomhell and a good portion of the orcs survived the battle, but most of the orcs were killed. I had no doubt that Laestrygon was still alive and waiting for the right opportunity to make his return.

"Well, Drac, I'll probably see you anywhere from a few weeks to a few years. I have no idea," I said.

"Does that count crystal ball calls?" Dalv asked.

"No," I answered. "If that was the case, I'd say I'll probably see you in a few days."

He nodded.

"I suppose so," Dalv stated.

Baron Fridus approached us.

"Well, Gustav, I suppose this is goodbye for now. It's a shame that we didn't have time to get to know each other better," he said.

"That really is a shame," I replied. "Even if you were English, you were a medical genius by all accounts."

Fridus chuckled.

"Yes. And I'm glad that my queen wishes for you to eventually be her king, even if you were French," he stated.

It felt really bad that I had English people, or formerly English people, to thank for a few things. However, I comforted myself with the thought that they weren't English anymore since they reincarnated.

"Though, I do have a question," Fridus spoke up. "It seems you aren't going back with Dalv when you two came together. Why is that?"

The voivode let out a deep sigh.

"Saint Gustav here came up with his latest plan, and he's going to start enacting it on his way back. I wanted to preserve my sanity and not risk overhearing anything he says," Dalv said.

A sense of apprehension crossed over Fridus.

"Is it that bad?" he asked.

"It isn't bad at all," I answered. "It seems fairly obvious to me, after that ex-pirate told me about Motteburh's native wildlife and Astrid confirmed what he said."

Fridus opened his mouth to ask another question, but Dalv interrupted him.

"Don't ask more questions if you value your sanity, Fridus. The best thing to do when Gustav comes up with some scheme is to either go along with it or avoid it.

After some hesitation, Fridus nodded.

"I will take your word for it," he said.

Then, he turned to me and gave a slight bow.

"Well, then, I bid you goodbye, Saint Gustav. Until next we meet."

"See you later," I replied.

Soon, I was walking by myself in the woods. However, saying I was by myself was a bit wrong. You're never alone when you're a saint. And I contacted Dʰéǵʰom.

"Have you set up the three-way call?" I asked.

"I have. Though, it's a bit weird calling a three-way telepathic communication a call," he answered. "Even for a god, this wasn't easy."

"How hard was it?"

Dʰéǵʰom sighed.

"The main issue was setting it up in a way that wouldn't damage your sanity. Thankfully, I was able to."

"So, you didn't have any problems getting her to join us?" I questioned.

"None at all. She's the mother of the native humans of Australia, so she's one of my allies. She's also one of the gods involved in this world's creation, which means her interfering doesn't break any divine laws or treaties. And she's also in on the whole reincarnate godslayers plan. So, she knows who you were before you reincarnated."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Then, Dʰéǵʰom's voice became slightly faint.

"Hey, you can come in now. Gustav's mind will be fine."

A feminine voice entered my head.

"Testing, 1. 2. 3. Testing."

"I can hear you," I thought.

"That's great news!" she said. "I haven't had a saint in millennia, so I'm a bit out of practice, talking to someone like this."

"You aren't really well worshipped here either," I noted.

Dʰéǵʰom then contacted me.

"She was busy with other worlds, that's all."

"Yes, I was very busy," the feminine voice agreed. "Honestly, I forgot just how casual saints were with gods."

I nodded.

"Alright. Now, for introductions...I am Saint Sir Gustav, Lord von Blitzburg. And you're the goddess of emus, right?"

There was a moment of silence.

"The goddess of...emus? I am the mother of all Australian wildlife...so I guess that counts. And a few of my children are in Motteburh," she said.

Dʰéǵʰom sighed.

"This is what Gustav's like. You'll get used to it," he stated.

"Oh, right, of course," the goddess replied. "I am Eingana, the Dreamtime Snake. I am a goddess of death, but I also birthed all life in Australia. I am glad that some of my children were recreated in other universes as well."

"Great! Now, I need your help with the emus in Motteburh," I thought.

The sound of slithering entered my ears.

"What about that?" Eingana questioned.

"I'm not sure if you know this, but the leadership of Motteburh are massive dicks," I explained. "So, I'm planning on launching a multi-pronged economic attack on Motteburh to force them to make internal reforms."

"Why not just invade them and force them to?"

I shook my head.

"Aside from the massive loss of life that would involve, I want Motteburh to be able to keep its independence. If they were invaded, Motteburh would get split up between Vandalland and Greenrivers," I explained.

Then, Dʰéǵʰom's voice entered my head again.

"Eingana, remember that he was reincarnated from a different world. The values that he has are different from those of the people of this world. And those values include what could be called 'self-governance' or 'nationalism,' at least to an extent."

"I wouldn't call myself a nationalist," I thought. "But I suppose even people who despise nationalism from my old world are nationalists compared to people who believe in feudalism."

Dʰéǵʰom burst out laughing. It was completely uncontrollable from what I could tell.

"Umm...he's going to be okay, so don't worry," Eingana said. "So, you need my help because emus are native to Motteburh?"

"Yes. I want to recreate the Great Emu War," I explained.

Stepping over a rock and ducking under a tree branch, I kept moving as Eingana contemplated what I just said.

"You do realize that the Great Emu War only happened because the Australian government tried to use a machine gun on emus, and guns don't exist in this world?" she asked.

"I'm aware of that," I answered. "I'm also aware that the Australian government issued bounties on emus after the war, and these bounties were carried out successfully. Meaning that the human Australians won the emu war in the end."

Eingana's voice turned contemplative.

"You are awfully well-versed in Australian history for a former Frenchman, Saint Gustav," she said.

"Thank you," I replied.

Dʰéǵʰom's voice came to me once more.

"Not a nationalist, he says...well, I suppose humans of his old world differentiate patriotism and nationalism. So, by his," the god grumbled for a moment. "Never mind that. Gustav, just explain to her why you think your plan will work."

I nodded.

"Of course. Normally, emus would be no threat to anyone in this world. There are far more dangerous monsters out there, and any spellcaster is more than a match for a horde of emus. However, the nobles of Motteburh won't defend their commoners' crops from emus. And, I'll need to double-check to be sure, but I doubt the nobles of Motteburh allow commoners outside of the army to own weapons. If they don't, then I can keep the Motteburh nobles and their armies busy with the other prongs of my attack while their commoners aren't able to deal with the emus," I explained.

Eingana's voice contained a tone of realization.

"I understand now," she said. "You intend to lay siege to Motteburh, to starve the commoners out."

Shaking my head, I responded.

"No. I'm not going to let them starve to death. I intend to use this to get the Motteburh commoners to support Greenrivers and Vandalland-backed reform efforts."

Now, I had Eingana's attention.

"And how do you intend to do that? Greenrivers is already having trouble paying its war debts, but the best way to gain the Motteburh commoners' support, under those circumstances, would be to supply them with food. The effort that comes with that would cost a lot of money."

"It would. But thankfully, I have connections with merchant guilds present in Blitzburg. And I have a dragon who is willing to act as their bodyguard," I told her. "This will not be a purely governmental effort. I intend to get the merchants involved too. In fact, they're the main arm of my plan."

I stopped and started drawing on the ground to illustrate my grand scheme.

"Merchants don't work for free, but I could give them information about an upcoming famine in Motteburh. In exchange, I'll make them put a price ceiling on the food they sell in Motteburh. A price ceiling is a limit on the maximum price. The merchants will still charge more than usual, but it'll be in a way that the peasants can still afford it. Cinnamon will spread the news that a Greenrivers noble is behind the food arriving and the price ceiling, and he'll make sure that the merchants actually obey the price ceiling. I'll also send shipments of food over to the Motteburh peasants with my personal funds. Then, peasant support will go in favor of Greenrivers."

"And all because you rescued them from a famine you started," Eingana pointed out.

I nodded with grimness. A sense of guilt pulsed through my body, but I pushed it aside for now.

"Eingana, I am fully aware that what I am doing could be considered incredibly immoral by my old world's standards. However, if my plan succeeds, the people of Motteburh will be less oppressed by their nobles than before. It might evne lead to more reforms in the future. And the peasants of Greenrivers will not end up getting more oppressed. All the while, Motteburh gets to keep its own independence."

With a deep sigh, I stood up.

"If you think it would be better for Greenrivers, Vandalland, and possibly Weltai to invade Motteburh and violently overthrow its nobility or for a peasant revolt to wipe them out...I will defer to the wisdom of the gods and go with whatever plan you suggest, Eingana."

A sense of determination welled up in my heart.

"However, I do not want the horrors of the French Revolution to repeat in Motteburh. I do not want this world to go through a reign of terror. The moment I was reborn as a noble, I knew I would have to get my hands dirty someday. And if I have to do a small evil today to prevent a worse evil in the future, then that's the best I can hope for as a noble."

Then, a moment of silence passed. Tension built up in my body. I wished I could see the gods' faces. It would at least give me some idea of what they were thinking. As it was, I had no idea what they thought of my plan.

Would they like it? Would they hate it? Even my patron god hadn't heard the whole thing before today.

Just as my body started sweating heavily, Eingana's voice came into my head.

"War is a dirty business, and your planned economic war would do less harm than a full war. You are quite clever, human," she said. "I will assist in your plan. Tell me, what do you need me to do?"