Elias shaded his brow, squinting into the distance. There was, unmistakably, a group of people coming from the west, riding monsters. After the video that had been played in the village square, that could only mean one thing; the swarm.
He had been expecting this. As village head, he knew better than anyone that the empire didn’t care what happened to this little slice of the world that he called home, and they would surely be on the back foot. They could only assume that villages like this would be the first to go; they were not in an important position for military or commercial purposes, and the nearest forts were to the west. If the swarm was coming, those had fallen, and the army would have retreated far to the east.
The elders had had a long discussion regarding the swarm. In the end, they decided that, when their time inevitably came, they would allow themselves to be taken without a fight. The Goddess of Hearth’s words had greatly soothed the worries the village had had, and they all knew that their town militia would be no match for any force the swarm threw at them.
So, as the swarm approached, he stood stoically, waiting to greet them as he would the village’s lord. And, a scant few minutes later, the group in the distance came into easy sight of the village. From what Elias’s failing eyes could see, the group was relatively small, consisting of ten people atop monsters of varying sizes and types.
The group slowed to a stop about a hundred yards away, the woman in the lead dismounting and approaching alone. She was a tall, unmistakenly beautiful foxkin with nine tails, the silver of her hair and fur seeming to glint with all sorts of different colors as the light caught it at different angles.
Elias was so entranced that he almost didn’t catch the first words she said. “I am Lia Yggdrios, Queen of the swarm. I’m sorry to say that your country has abandoned you, leaving you to us instead. It’s an unfair thing they’ve done, taking away your most able hands and then leaving you out to dry, but I can promise that we won’t do the same.
“You might not immediately recognize them, but the people behind me are those who were conscripted from your village. They have all chosen to forgo any further military service in favor of returning home and helping build this village up, and will be the ones helping oversee the conversion of this village.
“This may not be what you would like to hear, but there is no way around being converted today. If you don’t resist, we’ll be able to sit and tailor each of your conversions to better suit the direction you would like to take in life, and this is our preferred outcome, but if you do resist, we will have to resort to force. So, will you fight us? There may only be ten of us and ten monsters, but I can promise you that the people behind me are far stronger than they were when they left your village, and I myself am capable of fighting on almost even footing with someone at max level.”
“We already discussed this amongst ourselves, and decided we’ll surrender, Your Majesty.” Elias said. “We know that struggling is a fool’s errand.”
The Queen broke out into a relieved smile. “I’m glad to hear it.” She said. “If you don’t mind, could you gather anyone in a leadership position and have them meet with me somewhere? I’d like to discuss what we can do to better help you with any challenges that face your village while the rest of the village converts.”
Elias blinked in surprise. “I can arrange that, Your Majesty.” He said. “I’m afraid we don’t have anywhere that would suit your status, though. The elders and I meet in the pub, and that’s not exactly fancy, but we don’t really have a good gathering spot other than that. If you can stomach it, we can meet there, otherwise we’ll figure something out.”
“The pub is perfect.” The Queen said, giving Elias a smile. “To be honest, I’d prefer the pub over some fancy meeting room. I come from a humble background myself, and I’m still not totally at home with finery.”
Elias gave her a shaky smile in return. “Let me inform the people, then. They’re all in the pub now, if you want to follow me. If you don’t, it’s the big building in the center of town, you can’t miss it.”
“I’ll be with you in a moment; I need to give instructions to the people behind me first.” The Queen replied.
Elias gave her a respectful nod and hurriedly made his way back to the pub, where the villagers had gathered when they had first spotted the swarm on the horizon. “It’s them.” Elias confirmed. “The Queen herself is leading them, said she’s brought back the people who have been conscripted. She wants to meet with the elders here to discuss things while the rest of the people get converted.”
“That’s right.” The Queen said, stepping into the pub and drawing the stares of the villagers. “I want to help make the transition as painless as possible, and for there to be a noticeable improvement in your quality of life afterwards. I mentioned in the first broadcast that I’ll periodically be sending out groups to help address grievances you have and figure out what aid needs to be sent your way, and this is just another way of doing that. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to really start on revolutionizing things until the war is over and the Lord of Monsters is dealt with, but that shouldn’t take more than a year or two at this point.”
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She paused, looking at Elias. “I don’t believe I caught your name, sorry. Um…where should I sit?”
“It’s Elias, and take a seat anywhere you’d like. The rest of you, go outside; the people out there are going to handle you while the elders and I speak with the Queen here.”
The Queen took a seat at the nearest empty table, and the villagers quickly began to shuffle out of the pub. After a couple of minutes, Elias found himself at a table with the elders and the Queen. She looked more than a little out of place; she was young, beautiful, and clearly incredibly powerful if her tails were any indicator, but here she was with a group of old men and women who had nothing going for them but their age.
“So,” she began, pulling out some sort of odd slate, “what’s the biggest challenge facing your village right now?” She paused, looking at the elders, who all were watching the strange slate with mixtures of curiosity and trepidation. “This is called a tablet; I mostly use it to help keep notes.” She explained, turning it around so they could see the writing on it. “You don’t need to worry about it.”
“I’m…not sure we can really repay you for this.” One of the elders said guardedly. “If you’re looking for something from us, I’m afraid we’ll just disappoint.”
The Queen flashed her a smile, giggling slightly. “I’m not looking for anything from you but for you to live your lives the way you want. There might be some taxes, but I can promise they’ll never be more than you can safely pay, and you’ll never be punished for being unable to meet those taxes. You might see some extra rewards if you do meet some goals, but nothing is required of you. The taxes are just a way to help us get supplies to places that might need it, towns in the middle of a drought, or a hard winter, that sort of thing.
“I’ll swear upon the name of the Goddess of Hearth that I don’t have some ulterior motive here. I was raised a commoner myself, and I really do just want to see life improved for people. I have an opportunity to change things for the better, and I want to take it. So, please, don’t hold back for fear that I’ll be asking more of you because of anything I give you now.”
“We are always worried about monster attacks.” Elias admitted. “We’re remote enough that it’s hard to get soldiers here in a timely manner. Usually, things don’t get too bad inside the country, but with the war I’m worried that there won’t be any regular cullings for a while and things will get worse.”
“Oh, that shouldn’t be much of an issue!” The Queen said brightly. “After conversion, you all should be capable of dealing with the threat of monsters yourself! All members of the swarm are capable of converting others, and you don’t even need to deal damage or anything. Here, let me show you…”
A small off-white oval appeared on top of the table, and the Queen placed her hand on it. “This is a cocoon.” She said. “You’ll get an instinctual understanding of how to do all this when you’re converted so I won’t go into too much detail right now, but part of what you eat will be converted into modeling wax, the stuff that makes these cocoons. There’s a rat in this one, and I’m going to undo this cocoon for demonstration purposes, so don’t freak out when it suddenly melts, okay?”
The Queen waited a moment, and then the cocoon melted, revealing a stunned rat, which she quickly grabbed. “You can secrete modeling wax, usually from your hands, and once it’s half-covered something it’ll go unconscious.”
The rat began to wriggle in her grasp, and a moment later that odd off-white substance began to flow across it. True to the Queen’s word, the rat stopped struggling once it was halfway covered, and a moment later it was cocooned once again. When she had finished, the cocoon and the modeling wax that had made up the old cocoon vanished, and the Queen gave them another smile. “Unless something is really strong, and I mean really strong, like, over level two hundred, that’s all you need to do. Whoever sets it converting will get EXP, and then you’ll have a new companion, ready to help you.
“Most villages keep a group of monsters on hand to help with defenses, as well as whatever militia they already have, but you can use them for a lot more, too. They’ll listen to whatever you tell them to do so long as you’re not telling them to do something obviously pointless and dangerous, like jumping off a cliff, so you can use them to help work in the fields, help build things…everything, as long as they’re physically capable of it.
“I’m getting a little off-track, but the point is that you can take monsters that threaten you and turn them into your allies. For the time being, though, you’re going to find that pickings are slim; as the army comes through, we have people focused on catching and converting monsters to use as disposable soldiers. So, you shouldn’t have to worry about monsters not being culled for at least another few months. Uh…what other problems do you have?”
“I think –” Elias cut off as a powerful sensation of…foreboding washed over him. And it wasn’t just him, either; the other elders and even the Queen seemed to be feeling it, their faces tensing as unease gripped their hearts.
The sensation passed after a few moments, and the Queen looked around cautiously. “I’m sorry, we’re going to have to cut this short.” She said, standing up. “From what I’ve heard, that feeling means the Lord of Monsters just appeared. I’ll send someone to come finish this talk with you in a day or two, but for now I’m going to need to start organizing countermeasures.”
That did match with the stories Elias had heard from his father’s generation. “Of course, Your Majesty.” Elias said. “We understand that this is the top priority.”
“Thank you.” The Queen said, flashing him a relieved smile. “And sorry again for not finishing this out with you personally. I really would stay, but…well, it looks like the world had other plans. Amelia’s probably going to teleport me out any second, so just head on out and reassure the rest of your people. We’ll make sure the fighting doesn’t reach here, so you can rest assured that this won’t affect you.”
And then she was gone, leaving no sign that she had been there in the first place.