“Well, we’re off, I guess.” Lia said nervously, giving Amelia, Rose, and Connie each a kiss in turn. She was setting off to defeat the Lord of Monsters, and she was about to be separated from her lovers for what was shaping up to be the longest time since she had been reincarnated.
“You’ll do great, and Amelia and I will be keeping an eye on your progress.” Connie said encouragingly. “We believe in you.”
“I’d watch too, but I’m not as good at scrying as them.” Rose said. “I’ll still be making sure they keep me updated, though. And, really, don’t worry; you’ll be back before you know it.”
“You got this.” Chrys said, giving Lia a thumbs-up. “It’ll be a piece of cake.”
Lia nodded hesitantly, giving them one last smile before stepping off to the side, where the members of the expedition party were waiting. She had offered to let them say their goodbyes as well, but they didn’t really have any to say; Septima and the max level people didn’t have any loved ones in the swarm yet, Ophelia, Nailah, and Amphi were keeping a body back at the capital for safety’s sake and thus didn’t really need to say goodbye, and Izumi…said she had said hers already, but Lia wasn’t quite so sure.
Izumi had turned out to not be the most popular person; she was just a bit too different from other people to relate well, and her first impression had been less than stellar. At first, she had been a total flirt, and the capital just wasn’t the right environment for that; most of the people there were relatives of the scouting party that Ophelia had once led, or the families of people who had been brought in for city planning or exploration. It wasn’t a place that had a large population of single people.
Yes, polyamory was accepted, but people generally were only open to it if it was with people they were familiar with, and Izumi…wasn’t that. To her credit, she had picked up on that pretty quickly, but her attempts to make friends had been hampered by the vast difference in cultures between her home culture and the one Lia grew up in.
For instance, Izumi had been shocked that people didn’t immediately like the dishes from her home country. From what Lia had heard, it seemed that Izumi had almost expected people to think the dishes she proposed would be the best food those who had tried them had ever had, and was stunned at the lukewarm reception she got. People just weren’t familiar with the ingredients she used, and most people were used to very subdued food, lacking in spices or overly complex flavors. Lia was sure that, if they were more used to it, they would find it delicious, but the taste would be acquired.
Her other endeavors had had a little more success, but Lia didn’t think she had made any really close friends in her time in the swarm. Lia felt bad about it, but, for the most part, it felt like her hands were tied. She didn’t want to just tell people to humor her, that wouldn’t facilitate the formation of a real relationship, but she also didn’t want to just leave the situation as it was.
So, she had decided to make something of an effort on this trip to learn more about Izumi and her culture. She had the perfect conversation starter, too; kitsune were native to Izumi’s home plane, and Lia’s evolutions had seemed to follow a path that pulled from Izumi’s culture, at least in terms of appearance.
But that would be for later. For now, she needed to be on her way. “Alright, everyone, let’s head out. Ophelia, Amphi, Septima, Simona, will you take point?”
“Of course, Mistress.” Ophelia said, sending one of her bodies out towards the north. Both her and Nailah had opted to bring two bodies on this trip, to better facilitate scouting and to increase their numbers slightly. And, given the dangers of the Spine and the Lord of Monsters’ army, they had decided to group the scouts together and leave a max level person with them as muscle just in case.
A moment after Ophelia’s body left, Amphi, Septima, and Simona followed after, immediately followed by Miki turning to the rest of them. “Would you like to board now?” She asked.
Of the max level people, the former Boundary Witch had been their first choice for the trip; she had become a type of shipgirl called an “Amphibious Assaulter”, one capable of utilizing a shipgirl’s unique capabilities on both on land and water, and received extra bonuses on beaches, rivers, and other relatively shallow waters. Lia suspected that had something to do with her old Job; the Boundary Witch was an odd Job, one that seemed focused on the types of things that were normally outside the purview of other Jobs.
This was most prominent in that it allowed one to work with subspaces, but it also provided several other odd abilities, such as the ability to temporarily fuse things together, or the ability transfer properties between objects, allowing for things like liquid wood and hot ice. Of course, it had more traditional magic as well, and the result was a Job that was incredibly hard to use, but also was very hard to fight against.
This uniqueness, from a shipgirl standpoint and from the inherited Skills she had, made her a perfect candidate for the expedition team. She was able to effectively reduce the size of the main team to one person, making them a much smaller target while having only a minor impact on their overall effectiveness. Mages like Izumi and Lia were more than capable of fighting entirely from within Miki, and those who needed to be physically outside to fight were only slowed by a few moments as they disembarked. Add to that her ability to trivialize travel over water and provide a measure of comfort for the other expedition members, and she was perfect.
The other picks were Simona, Eris, the Synergist, Luna, the Aegis, Peri, the Animist, and Sally, the Shadow Stitcher. Each of them had their own role to play; Simona served as someone who could deal good physical damage, Eris made everyone else much stronger, Luna was great for keeping everyone safe, Peri provided a lot flexible spells and crowd control, and Sally was great at debuffing a single target.
Lia had to admit she felt a lot more comfortable with the situation knowing these people had her back. Between their support, the support of Amelia and Rose, and the fact that Lia was now a Heroic race, Lia actually felt like taking on the Lord of Monsters wasn’t an impossibility for her. At the very least, she would be giving it a try; if she failed, she had a safety net to fall back on, and if she succeeded…well, then she had proved her worth.
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She boarded Miki, and was followed by the other members of the “main” party. Once everyone was on board, Miki began to move, her voice crackling to life over the “speakers” that were spread throughout her. “Get yourselves all set up.” She said. “I’ll let you know if there’s something that needs your attention, but we shouldn’t need to worry about that for a while. Ophelia, just shout if something happens, I’ll relay it to everyone.”
“Thanks, Miki.” Lia said. “I feel bad making you do all the walking for us, so just tell us if you get tired, I’m sure we can figure out a way to carry you or something.”
Miki chuckled. “My Queen, as a ship, I won’t get tired like that anymore, not from just walking. Maybe following mountain trails would do that for a normal person, but I was level three hundred, we’re made of sterner stuff. I’ll be content if you stay in the bridge and support me from there. Oh, and if you have someone pace along my length to scout out places I can’t see from where I am.”
“Just putting it out there.” Lia replied. “Give me a minute to go put my stuff away, and I’ll get to the bridge, okay?”
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Cedric paced back and forth in front of Isaac and Zara, unable and unwilling to keep his restlessness from surfacing. He was having troubles, and, as much as he hated to admit it, they were the only qualified people whom he could fully trust at the moment. “I’m at my wit’s end here.” He admitted. “My army is just so…unmotivated. They don’t seem to be taking the threat of invasion seriously.”
“Are they not taking it seriously, or do they believe that the benefits to joining the swarm outweigh the risks?” Zara asked. “I’ve had people listen in to what the commoners are saying, and, after that last broadcast, many are all for joining, but most won’t seek it out themselves.”
Cedric stopped. “Do you really think that’s what’s happening?”
Isaac shrugged. “As rulers, we live in a bubble, disconnected from regular people. We interact mostly with people who are satisfied with their station and don’t want any change. With the Goddess of Hearth herself confirming that they’ll live just as well as they do now, if not better, many people’s motivation to fight back has been sapped. I’ve run into basically the same problem myself.”
“As have I.” Zara added. “I’ve noticed that, as people’s levels go up, their willingness to resist tends to go up as well. I would suggest cutting your losses with the weaker people who don’t want to fight, and focusing on retaining the more powerful people. It’s less than ideal, but we have one ever-slimming chance at victory, and we have to take it.”
“Tell me honestly…do you think there’s a realistic chance that we win?” Cedric asked.
“No.” Isaac replied. “Before I ran into this morale issue, I might have said there was a decent chance. Now I feel like we’re just carrying out the motions for the few citizens who still have will left to fight.”
“Then what’s the point?” Cedric asked frustratedly. “What does anyone stand to gain with this hopeless war? We’re not losing much and the people apparently won’t be either, so it seems that we’re just delaying the inevitable at this point.”
“I asked myself the same question,” Isaac replied, “and I realized that the people who would lose out are the more corrupt nobles. Don’t get me wrong, I have no desire to cater to them, but if we were to surrender now, then they would take their armies and force people into fights, likely under much worse conditions than what our armies experience now. Attempting to fight both keeps those people from making a fuss, and provides a chance at victory, however slight and unrealistic it is.”
Zara nodded. “Once they defeat the Lord of Monsters, I’ll be calling the swarm into a meeting and explaining that we’re planning on resisting as little as is required to keep the more unsavory elements satisfied. We won’t need to have any offensive engagements, and we can leak information as needed. The only actual threat they’ll have to worry about is Marcus; we both know he’d never agree to this.”
“Him and whatever max level people wish to fight still.” Isaac said. “Since Priscilla’s defection, three more have already made it clear that they’re not going to be fighting back. They hold too much respect for Rose for that. Whether or not they’re going to defect entirely and whether more will follow suit is up in the air, but we can’t count on them fighting for us.”
“So…you’re proposing that we just pretend to fight back?” Cedric asked, taken aback. “That we ignore the issues and quietly let ourselves be taken over?”
Zara raised an eyebrow. “You were the one considering surrender when you contacted Astrea.” She reminded him. “And we will make an effort, if we’re able to whip up an army of a size we can use to actually try and fight back before the Heroes are finished with the Lord of Monsters. If not, then Amos said it in our last meeting; we are looking at essentially the same life we have now, minus the right to do whatever we want to commoners. We’re not losing that much, there’s no need to fight to the end.”
Cedric sighed. “I hate this.” He said. “I hate feeling so powerless, I hate feeling like everything I do is pointless, I hate knowing that even the gods have given up on us. What did we do to deserve this?”
“I don’t think we did anything to deserve this. It’s just the way the world turns sometimes. I’m sure our situation shares some similarities to that of the rulers who were facing the rise of the Ruby Emperor. Fitting, given that Rose is the Ruby Emperor.” Isaac said, chuckling darkly. “Just like back then, when Rose returns from fighting the Lord of Monsters, we’ll be near powerless to stop her as she assumes control over the world.”
“I’ve been trying to take some solace in the fact that over half the gods haven’t given up on us, they just think this is for the best.” Zara said resignedly. “They are the ones who know best, and their judgement has yet to lead us astray. The best we can do right now is minimize the death toll as much as possible.”
“And…have the other rulers said anything?” Cedric asked. “Do they know?”
“A couple have come to me, yes.” Isaac said. “I have been just as forthright with them as I have been with you. I see no point in sugarcoating things any longer; Astrea was right, and we lost the moment we agreed to help with that stupid lab. And most of those rulers realized that struggle is become increasingly pointless, much as you have.”
Isaac stood, stretching for a moment before he turned to the door that would lead him back to Misthaven. “Go gather what troops you can.” He said. “I’ll be calling together another meeting for everyone minus Marcus in a month. We’ll know then if there’s any point in mounting an offensive.”
“And try and figure out what elements of your court would cause problems if you surrendered outright.” Zara replied, standing up as well. “If you can deal with those, then you might be able to skip the whole pretend fight stage of things and just surrender outright. It’d certainly save you some time in the future.”
Cedric gave a weary sigh. “Yeah, you’re right.” He said. “Thanks for your advice.” He left the meeting place, heading straight back to his bedchambers and collapsing onto his bed.
“Well?” His husband, Michael, asked.
“Everyone else is having the same problem.” Cedric said, snuggling up closer to Michael. “We’re not even sure if we’re going to mount an offensive anymore. And, in the incredibly likely event that the swarm deals with the Lord of Monsters before we can make any sort of significant headway, then everyone plans on only putting up token resistance, just to keep others from getting ideas and trying something on their own.”
“I see.” Michael said, giving Cedric a comforting kiss on the forehead. “Well, in a few months it’ll all be over, and we won’t have to worry about it. Just hang in there, okay?”
“Yeah, I will.” Cedric sighed. “Tomorrow I’m going to figure out who would oppose an outright surrender from us, but…until then, I just want to be held.”