“Why not build a Kingdom?”

I’m not sure if I heard that right but he said something about building a country.

“What the hell are you talking about, Vejetar?”

It was a pretty justified question. Not once in my life I’ve been this confused by something. And the look he has on his face says ‘you don’t get it?’.

“I’m saying that you should build a place to live, for The Demons. That’s all.”

Building a Kingdom? How? How am I gonna do that? I know nothing about starting a country from scratch. And all that aside, I never thought about building a Kingdom. I couldn’t. it was out of the reach of my comprehension.

“But…”

Wait. A Kingdom… a place to live. Somewhere we can live in peace. Can I do that?

“What do you think… Caryl? Anikia?”

As I asked them the question, they went into a deep silence. They were probably thinking about the future and the circumstances with the struggle it would bring. I can actually imagine the back-breaking work that would take. But even so, I never would have thought in my previous life that I would consider making a Kingdom. I didn’t even know what to do with my future.

Building a kingdom can’t be easy. Aside from a place to establish the said kingdom, you need labor. Labor for the construction of houses, facilities, and many other things. You need food in order to survive and you need farms for that, also, livestock. You need proper law to ensure security. And does even a population of 2000 need to be called a Kingdom?

“Mother, let’s build a country.”

“Yes, Let’s do it, Great Velkra. For our and the future of coming generations.”

Heh? They wanna do it?

“But wait! We are gonna need a lot of things! Where is the population going to come from? We’d need labor! Food! Shelter!”

As I was trying to make them understand all the requirements, even though I didn’t really know about them, Youlias was deep in thought, his head drooped, while the nobles just watched us with bated breaths, expecting what outcome this meeting could give.

“Great Velkra, may I ask where you could consider establishing this country?”

At last, the man spoke. Youlias asked me where I could build the Kingdom but I really had no idea. If I am right, and I pretty sure am, there is a lot of free land in this world. I could go around and claim it for me and we’d have a place. But…

“Hey Velkra, why not occupy Alfera for yourself?”

“Heh?”

Who’s Alfera?

“You know, The Foret of Alfera.” He said with a nonchalant wave.

Vejetar just bonks my head with another reckless idea.

The day I went and put up a barrier over the gate, I could sense the presence of many sentient and intelligent creatures. Not only that, most of the extremely intelligent ones were humanoid.

“But, don’t people live in that forest?”

I was pretty sure that other races took refuge there and built their own villages and towns. Wait… Since there were people living in there, won’t they be opposed to the idea of someone just barging into their home? I would be.

“Exactly. It’s just what you’re thinking.”

This guy. Does he really intend to drag in everyone? They would be opposed. That is what I think and if they oppose me coming into their lands, it would give another conflict, an ignition to become a wave of adversity.

“You shouldn’t be joking, you know. There are people that live there. If I just went in, barging, they would be angry. I don’t want to make anyone homeless.”

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Everyone goes quiet. Then Vejetar looks at Youlias, exasperated. Did I say something wrong?

“You explain it to her.”

“Eh? Me? A-Ah. Yes. You see Great Velkra, the magic races suffer a lot in this world. About every country on this land has discrimination against the magic race and many despise that fact as well. If you were to build a Kingdom, and that place would be a haven for the magic race, you would definitely get the backing and labor you require, along with the citizens you want.”

I never thought about that. I remember my conversation with him and Carmine about how the Magic Race is persecuted. The most discriminating one is Brinis. And their believers also seem to spread hate. If I were to build a kingdom that supported them, they would come flooding in with support… is this what he’s trying to say?

“You say that, but is it really possible? I’m just dumbfounded that all that conversation led to me building a kingdom out of nowhere…”

Youlias looks at me with an expression that showed his intellect. There was a faint sense of kindness in there as well.

“You won't be building a country out of nowhere, Great Velkra. You will be building a country with the people that come to support you. Those people, of course, being the magic race. Even the humans that have noticed this discrimination might come trodding along. This just requires careful planning and support from those people. It might become something as incredible as you being ‘Benevolent’, ‘Merciful’ and ‘Kind’ to be building a kingdom for these ‘Lowly’, ‘unworthy’ subjects. Those are not the comments humans will pass, but the ones to become your people.”

Uh…? He’s saying that it’ll become a pain in the ass. Would they really call me benevolent and themselves to be lowly?

“Is it really alright for me to be taking advantage of their weakness?” I just asked what I meant from my heart. It just didn’t seem appropriate for me to be doing this in order for my own benefit.”

As I said that, Youlias looked at me. With eyes that were permeating how kind he was, he said,

“Why not just think about helping them? You are helping The Demons, are you not? Can’t you do the same for others? You say that you will prepare a place for the troubled demons to settle but won’t unite the suffering and wandering ones. That is why you should look at this from a different perspective. Not being that you are using them, but that you are giving them a home to live in. an identity.”

Now that he puts it like that, I can’t help but feel mad at myself, why didn’t I think of it that way? I’m going to settle the demons but won't help others, huh?

“Now that you’re saying that, I can’t refuse can I?”

“This is nothing about you need to refuse. It’s whether you want to do it or not. We are never going to force someone great like you to do something. It’s just a matter of understanding.”

Then he paused for a moment. Then spoke again,

“To be honest, I had been thinking about this unity but couldn’t implement it. The resistance is too strong. But you can, can’t you, Great Velkra? You are an Elder Dragon. It doesn’t matter that you are a new one, no one knows that. Just that you will have enough influence, that you could build a Kingdom from scratch. Try doing it. You’ll see soon what I am implying. You will be surprised by how much people love and fear Elder Dragons.”

Huh. Love and fear. This has gone into so much depth that it just feels hard to pull out of. It feels like I’m being absorbed into something very troublesome.

I won’t get to rest soon, would I?

“Then, I’ll try doing it.”

I just noticed right now, but the nobles were all dumbstruck by my sudden change in demeanor and Youlias’ shocking declaration that he wanted to unite the Magic Races. Most of it was me behaving very lax and honest.

“Ahem. So, that’s it. I’ll try doing it then.”

As I cleared my throat with a cough, everyone snapped back to reality. Most of them were entranced by my beauty I think. It might feel weird coming from me but they were actually watching me with red cheeks and ears. My behavior must have struck them hard. I don’t want any trouble though…

“See? You can do it. But uh… before that, we might need to go to Vivania.”

Vejetar encouraged me with some words but he said a name I don’t know about. Vivania? Is that someone influential? Like a politician or something?

“Who’s Vivania? This is the first time I’m hearing about this.”

“Vivania is the Kingdom Of Dragons.”

He said with a straight face but a stir ran through the audience. Apparently, they did not know about this. Everyone looked at Vejetar with bated breaths, but no one could get a word out of their mouths.

“Lord Vejetar, is there really a Kingdom of Dragons? I have never heard about such a place.”

Youlias took the initiative in this conversation and asked what everyone had been meaning to ask from their gazes. They all looked at Youlias with revering eyes, seeing how considerate he was.

“Yes. There is, you humans and magic races haven’t discovered it yet. Especially humans. You can’t fly, can you?”

It’s obvious that humans can’t fly but, What does that mean? Does it have anything to do with flight? All the nobles around the table were looking at him with cocked heads, with their gazes wanting more explanation.

“Care to explain more, Vejetar? Even I’m curious now.” This time, Caryl was the one to interject.

“Yes! Uncle!” then Anikia got all sparkly-eyed.

Ho? Even Anikia is excited? What is he implying then?

“It’s not on land after all. It’s up in the sky.”

Whoa… Like a floating island or something? That really is what would fit a fantasy world. Floating islands, huh? Land of Dragons…

“Hooo!” Anikia let out a cute sound. It really suited her to be a little kid at times like these.

The nobles just looked at her with conflicted faces, probably wondering how she was like a normal kid.

“It is a Floating portion of land, inaccessible to humankind and the Magic race alike. Dragons are the only species that can fly high enough to reach it. Even dragonewts struggle to reach. (Though Zanim would have reached it without problem, he was strong after all, and he had the ability to manifest wings.)” he said that in a whisper so that anyone else couldn’t hear but us.

But I never heard about Zanim, being able to fly. This was something new to me. So Zanim could fly, huh? But wait…

“How come he never used it then?” I asked Vejetar with a puzzled look.

At that, Vejetar just shrugged and said, “No idea.”

“That’s that. I think we’d need to go and meet your other siblings. You’ll need their permission. They have neglected that forest for far too long. Me included so it’s better to give it to someone that’s more qualified than us. You have a use for it, so you can take it.”

Neglected? What was he talking about again? I would need permission from my siblings to have the forest?

“I don’t understand… You say you and your siblings have neglected that forest. Are you guys the owners of that land?”

Vejetar just gave me a wry smile and looked away,

“Yeah. It just seems we have forgotten about it.”

There, he just dropped a bomb. He just said that they were neglecting their duties to maintain the forest. Then it must also mean that they were supposed to protect the magic race.

“Vejetar…” I said with a look that said, ‘It can’t be right?’

“No, No, No. we didn’t take the responsibility to shelter the people there, they came of their own accord. We just forgot that’s it. I’m sure they’ll be shocked when they remember it too.”

It seems that things like these are something they don’t need to pay too much attention to. Well, if he says that he didn’t take any responsibility to protect the ones staying there, it just means that they had the land as their garden. A pretty big garden at that. The Forest of Alfera is huge.

Could it be that, because of this, monsters are more concentrated in the Forest? Because they didn’t pay attention to it?

“But before that, That merchant is here, Jack.”