Chapter 17: Garfield's Weakness?
The girls agreed to arrange another meeting with the Chiefs, except this time, without Garfield being bound.
“Oh, did you finish interrogating him?”
“Chief, our interrogation failed.”
“What? Then why are you back here? It hasn’t been that long. He doesn’t even look injured.”
“He defeated all six of us…”
“What!?” Both Chiefs stood up.
“I was going to have some fun with them, but they requested I meet with you first to pick up the negotiations where they left off.”
“Have some fun…? What are you saying?”
“Is it okay for you to have some fun with the dog-people?”
“Of course! We subjugated this village! It’s ours to do with as we please!”
“In that case, if I subjugate this village, can I do with these six whatever I please?” Garfield asked innocently.
“N-No! This isn’t even our main village! If you want to do that, you’ll need to defeat both the cat and rabbit villages!”
“Oh. So just to confirm, if I defeat you, then subjugate your two villages, I can do whatever I want with all these cute cat-girls and rabbit-girls?”
“Uh…” the Chief was hesitant to agree, even if the logic was sound. The other Chief jumped in to help him.
“It matters not! There’s no way one human can do all that. I don’t know how you tricked those airheads, but you’re still horribly outnumbered in this village.”
“If that’s the case, then you should have no reservations about directly answering my previous yes or no question.”
“Fine. My colleague may be a bit weak-willed but I am not. Yes, if you conquer our villages, we, the losers, have no right to complain about what you do with us. It’s completely impossible though!”
Garfield turned to the six timid girls standing across from him. “What do you six think?” They all looked away, unable or unwilling to answer. “All right, this has been fun, but even I’m getting tired of playing the bad guy for this long. Let’s bring this to a close. «Flight».”
Garfield slowly lifted off the floor. Even the half-delirious hostage dog-girls gasped at the sight. “The reason why I was sent here was not because I’m a great negotiator. It’s because I’m powerful enough to defeat one or two tribes by myself.”
Normally, nobody would ever believe someone who made that claim, but Garfield was actually hovering in the air, defying all logic. His argument, like his magic, carried some weight.
“I’m trying to find a path forward which involves liberating the dog-people, keeping the fox-people safe, and me not having to actually subjugate your villages. Please, paint me a picture of how I could accomplish that.”
“I-I-I’ll offer you the fox-girls! Do you like them too? If we agree not to press south—“
“Are you an idiot? First, the fox tribe are the ones who asked me to intervene. I’m not going to betray them for no reason. Second, my mansion is already staffed by a multitude of fox-girl maids. Why do I need another whole village?”
Everyone looked at each other, trying to decide if he was playing the bad guy or actually a bad guy, considering all the fox-girls he supposedly had at home. Jealousy flashed across the rabbit Chief’s face.
“Let me be clear! Unlike you monsters, the fox-girls at my mansion are employees who are free to leave at any time. I’m not like that!”
“Th-Then, we’ll return home! We’ll return the dog village, and of course, not attack the fox village!”
“That’s a lot better,” Garfield acknowledged. “The only problem is, you’ve already done a great deal of irreparable harm to the dog-people. Simply leaving isn’t enough.”
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“Then, what would you have us do?” While the rabbit Chief hoped to receive guidance, the cat Chief grew impatient.
“No, I won’t submit to some human. GRAH!” He ran and then jumped at the hovering Garfield.
“«Reflect Damage».” The Chief’s swipe drew his own blood as he fell down to the floor and cradled his injury, crying out in pain. “I haven’t been bluffing about my magic, you know.”
“All right!” the rabbit Chief yelled out. “We’ll submit to you! It’s our defeat. Please don’t harm our people!”
“What’s the status of the dog Chief?”
“He’s locked up nearby. We’ll bring him here!”
--
Garfield healed the Chief of the dog tribe and explained what was going on. The Chief thanked Garfield profusely and then took control of the situation. Garfield even lent him the white healing staff which saw a great deal of use.
The cat and rabbit tribes agreed to various reparations and retreated back to their villages. As part of the agreement, they would leave a few of their forces behind as temporary hostages until the other matters were worked out. The four guards who first captured Garfield were among them.
“Um, Sir Smith?”
“Oh, that’s not really my name. That’s some crap I made up. I’m Garfield.” He neglected to mention that Garfield was also some crap he chose not long ago.
“Oh. Sir Garfield, we’re really sorry for how we treated you.”
“You are? Personally, I enjoyed our time together. It was fun!”
“Huh?”
“It was so hard to keep a straight face through most of it. Your brilliant idea to stop me by all piling on top of me with your bodies was a wonderful miscalculation if I say so myself.”
“Uh…” She took a moment to gather her nerve after remembering that moment. “Since you’re so powerful, why did you go through all the trouble of letting us capture you? Couldn’t you have just defeated us all?”
“Yes, but where’s the fun in that?” The girls all looked at each other again. “More than that, winning with strength only is usually a hollow victory.”
“Why?”
“Hopefully, your tribes learned a thing or two about why what you were doing was wrong. If I just defeated you with overwhelming power, you’d think the only mistake you made was letting yourself get overpowered.”
“I see.”
“Trust me. I have a lot of practice with this of late.”
“Ah. Well… how much practice do you have with this!?” The cat-girl hugged Garfield in a very familiar way.
“Uhm…”
“Hey, what about us!” The other three tackled Garfield in their effort not be outdone.
As he found himself impossibly pinned, one of the girls noted, “Hey, this really is his weakness!”
--
Ultimately, the dog-people asked Garfield to clarify if he wanted to be rescued or not. Instead, he used the time-proven method of teleporting out of danger. With his business done in the dog village, he returned to the fox village.
“Duke, how did it go?” the Chief asked.
“I think it went well. The dog-people reclaimed their village. The cat and rabbit-people agreed to various reparations and are retreating back to their villages.”
“What!? Already!?”
“Garfield, how did you do it?” Yttria asked with a surprisingly serious look on her face.
“I showed the cat and rabbit-people the error of their ways.”
“How, exactly?”
“I convinced them that if they don’t surrender, I will subjugate both of their tribes and take all the cat-girls and rabbit-girls as my slaves.”
The Chief’s instincts warned him it was time to flee. “I-I must deliver this news to my people! I’ll leave you two to discuss this further.” The Chief demanded assistance from Hannah and Solana, so they reluctantly went along with him.
--
Garfield’s party appeared in front his mansion. “Yttria, I imagine you’ll be reporting the results to your father right away.”
“Oh, I think there’s something even more urgent for me to deal with than that. I’ll explain inside.”
“Okay…”
--
“Hannah, Solana, can you leave the two of us alone to discuss something for a while?”
“Okay!” The girls accepted Yttria’s request. Back when Hannah didn’t have a playmate, that may not have worked so well. Yttria shut the door to Garfield’s bedroom.
“Garfield, you have cat-girls and rabbit-girls on the brain, don’t you?”
“Not at all. I haven’t thought of a cat-girl or rabbit-girl in weeks.”
“Weeks!? You…” Yttria took a breath to collect herself. “I’m honestly overjoyed that you rescued my brethren and their allies in the Tribal Lands. However. However, I’m very nervous based on what I heard about what you did while you were in the dog village. Were you mistreating the warriors simply because they were female?”
“I don’t see where these accusations are coming from. Despite how long I had those cat-girls at my mercy, I didn’t reach out and grab either of their tails a single time.”
“Oh. Did you do it… multiple times?”
“No!”
“So you like tails?”
“No! Well, yes, but…”
“Exactly how long were they at your mercy?”
“I didn’t time it.”
“Please, explain to me in detail, exactly what happened while the cat and rabbit-girls were at your mercy.”
“I just want to point out that I’m quite innocent, but if I’m at all clumsy with the words, it will make me seem like the bad guy.”
“Okay. So if I find those girls right now, and ask them about it, what will they say?”
“Do you want an honest answer?”
“Of course.”
“I think they want to have their way with me.”
“…And why do you think that?”
“Because the last time I saw them, they tackled me and tried to have their way with me.”
“I… I wish I didn’t ask…”
“There’s no need for you to be jealous, you know.”
“What?”
“I was being honest when I said I was restraining myself by not seeing what their tails felt like.”
“Is this supposed to make me feel better!?”
“Their tails aren’t the only ones I’m interested in.”
“I… I see…”
“The dog-girls also had tails.” In response to his quip, Yttria shoved Garfield on to the bed.
“Shut up and grab my tail already.”