The meeting adjourned with everything falling into my command. Everyone ended up looking at me like I am some sort of a saint. They applauded of my failsafe plan and started singing praises of my brilliant mind for solving a pinch for them.

And yes, everything I said is total bullshit.

What happened is that we are currently in recess because of my sudden intrusion. Merlin overdid it and shocked everyone too much to the point they need to take a step back and collect their thoughts. About having a solution for the current problem, of course, I don’t have. That is what the meeting is for.

So in short, I am just chilling in my special seat while watching the two sides talk among themselves until they reach a consensus while Merlin smiles in an utter delight of the chaos he ensued. Well, I am equally liable but he did shock them too much to the point of retreating into their corners.

Suddenly, bursts into the encampment come Merissa with a few of her crews and Ferd. Merissa wears her special pirate attire and the cape flutters majestically like how she always been. Merlin, renowned as a skirt chaser, saw Merissa and activated his gentleman mode.

“Greetings, fair lady! Would you like a se--!”

“Shut the fuck up. Don’t you see I’m tanned? What fair lady? I hate it when random uncle calls out to me.”

“Uncle…”

Defeated, Merlin trotted back beside me. I guess being called uncle or old in general did him some grave injury…in the heart at least.

However, despite his mishap, he started ruffling my hair and my face.

“Wha--?! What are you doing?! Stop!”

“You are my only relief, miss. Please let me comfort myself.”

“The purpose of my hair and face is not for your convenience!”

“You’re so soft. It’s just sad that you are flat and short.”

“Cause this body is of a child!”

“I get that.”

“Get lost!”

As Merlin and I bicker nonchalantly, Merissa found herself a wooden chair and sat beside me while her crew stands behind her in a menacing pose. Ferd is the only normal guy among them so I am proud to say I like Ferd the way he is.

Don’t change Ferd. Always be reasonable!

Merissa then stood upright after sitting and bangs her hand on the table that Merlin brought out of nowhere. I can see cracks on the table and Merlin slightly cringed.

“I am Merissa of the S.S. Iowa and the captain of the said ship. I hereby officially join this side to defeat the dwarves with their Ether Technologies!”

Her sudden outburst of words immediately gathered everyone’s attention. Her bright and cheery personality coupled with her stubbornness immediately glowed inside the room.

“We hear and accept you into our force, Miss Merissa, the captain of SS Iowa. I believed you are a pirate and for your reason for joining, I’d like to know about it later.”

“I am Gordio, the current leader of the rebellion. I am glad to have a first-generation dwarf on our side. In the distant future, I hope we could learn from the wise and prideful you.”

The two sides, Lady Hinoki and Gordio, welcomed her with open arms while they break their heads open if they’ll keep me or not…

Merissa nodded to herself in satisfaction and praises and acceptance that she received. She’s getting full of it as she smirked. If Merissa involved herself, her motive should lie towards Ether Technology. I feel like that’s the reason why she was lured in this place.

Once her feeling of superiority subsided, she sat down to a now listening and attentive people in which none happened to me.

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“Alright, our first plan should be…letting Asagao take the lead!”

“…What?!”

JUST HOW IRRESPONSIBLE ARE YOU?!

And everything went square one again as all eyes landed on me. They all sprouted the same conflicted countenance.

“As you all know, this no longer factor the fact that we are just warring with the dwarves. I heard everything from my source and she said that an Etherian is involved and brought a lot of machines for me to salvage.”

“Who is your information source?”

“Not only that, we are sure to face an Arcana Magician, which would greatly tip the battle’s tide if we aren’t prepared. In case of such a thing happens, we need someone who specialized in dealing with them, thus, someone who has equal power.”

“Hey, don’t ignore me!”

“As such, I nominate Asagao. With her odd thinking and unplanned reasoning, we can utilize all her unorthodox tactics to pull through with her nonsense plans that made sense!”

“You just dissed me! Four times in count! How dare you!?”

Merissa’s endless tirade of words goes on and any of my comments are washed away by her rapid words. I can only think that this is just the typical Merissa that I know…

I couldn’t get a word so I just slump my face on my hand.

And of course, everyone was flabbergasted at how much of a motormouth this girl is. They stared at her rambles and did not attempt to stop her. Even Lady Hinoki is creases her eyebrows. Merlin just resumes his his-hand-on-my-hair-and-face shenanigan.

So, Lady Hinoki grew impatient and clears her throat.

“Ahem.”

“Ah, yes, I’m sorry for being talkative. What ya’ want to say?”

“I want to put aside about the matter of Asagao. After all, if she insists to be here, I have no words to stop her.”

“Eh? So there’s that kind of matter? I am much comfortable if Asagao is here, to be honest.”

“I see. For now, I’d like to talk about the current situation. For that matter, I’d like to hear it from the rebels of the dwarves.”

Lady Hinoki turns her sight to Gordio who, until now, has just only been listening. The dwarves behind him stiffened as they are now being watched by Lady Hinoki, Merissa, and me.

The lighthearted atmosphere by Merlin and my antic created is now replaced by a heavier and serious with a hard tone.

“Before I say anything about the Ethers and the factions inside our kingdom, I’d like to go to the details as to why. The reason that the dwarves aggressively attacked the Elves and why a man claiming to be an ether supported us, or rather, the faction that wants to overthrow King Osthorio.”

“A year ago, the dwarves declared war against us elves for a petty reason. That time, your advance was halted and your side took a blow in both resources and time.”

“That’s correct. King Osthorio was overpowered by a man that we guessed as one of the summoned heroes after lighting up a huge spell in the sky that rendered all of our soldiers incapable of a siege.”

I know…Susanoo and Priscilla. They were such nosy at that time but whatever, they did what they thought to be the best.

“Of course, King Osthorio’s motive is the resources that the elves have. We may have gotten a little greedy, but the dwarven kingdom doesn’t have much greenery on our land and we live by constantly eating meat and drinking liquor. Some dwarves grew weary of that lifestyle and wanted more.”

“Thus, targeting us, the elves?”

“Yes, it was a serious issue with us. For the past hundred years, the dwarves life expectancy is getting shorter and recently, we discovered that it was because of our habitat and lifestyle.”

“I fully comprehend where you are coming. The dwarven land cannot grow plants and only capable of growing selected trees for lumbers. Since the Demon Kingdom is in a decline due to the late Demon Lord Baal’s mismanagement and a recent famine, they could not do a proper trade and diplomacy.”

“Yes, and the Beast Kingdom only picks up supplies from the elves. If they do get from other sources, they’ll be getting it via en-route trade in the sea. If we try to buy those, of course, the price will inflate absurdly.”

“And so, the idea of waging war with us…since ancient time, the dwarves and elves have hated each other…like how the humans and demons…the fairies and dragons…”

“That’s why, when the banding of race is proposed and the center continent became a haven for such, King Osthorio was happy even though at first, he has negative thoughts about it since the congregation. The congregation was the first step for bringing all the races closer. King Osthorio planned on raising the white flag and to make up with you…”

“We have changed our ways now. All the elders that wanted to keep the faulty traditions were all punished and silenced. It was an unhealthy tradition and stunted the growth of the elves civilization. In the end…King Osthorio has that thought but…a faction wanting to continue the war appears.”

“Stern Lostfell swayed the majority of the dwarves who are hot blooded. Stern was one of King Osthorio’s aide and has always been aiming for the elves’ land. However, this desire of his became even stronger when we discovered something…”

……

Somehow, my guts felt uncomfortable, giving me a really bad premonition. What I am about to hear might drastically change everything from inside me to the people around me…

My nervousness shots up and I started clenching my fist, however, Merlin places his hands on my shoulder that calmed me a little.

Suspicious…

“Queen Hinoki, have you heard about the war called King’s Last War?”

“I…I don’t…”

Lady Hinoki answered quite painfully as there are things she doesn’t know, however, I immediately notice how Merissa flinched from the words alone.

“It’s a story regarding our nation’s hero, Ishranor Talon, the dwarven hero, the half-human and half-dwarf warrior who was given a blessing by our Goddess Esoterica.”

“I am certain that everyone here knows about the dwarven hero, however, we have never heard about the King’s Last War.”

“The dwarven her--!”

As Gordio was about to continue his story, Merissa stood up from her chair.

The dwarven hero is alive and well but the reason why he is serving Fonfon is still unknown to them. But one thing I know is that they disqualified Isthal because of his blood as a half-human even with his heroic feats from the past.

“From this point on, I will tell you about everything.”

Merissa declared with eyes I’ve never seen before, eyes that are burning with utter wrath and as dead as it can be and staring at it for just a second made me cold on my feet that I retreat my butt further on my seat.

“This is all regarding the era where the titans invaded the eight continents and ended with the so-called King’s Last War. This is an era where the King of the Titan was slain, the realm of the god was thrown into utter chaos… and…”

Merissa took a deep breath before landing the last word.

“The era where the Goddess Nivalis made another grave sin…on the account of her countless ones…”

My whole body shivers and I can feel my breath getting ragged. The situation has escalated to the point I can only sit and listen even if it tears me apart…

I can already tell…

This won’t end well for me…