While looking from a close distance, Zelos saw that most of the people had body tattoos, but most of the paintings were only white. Some people had a mix of white and blue, and others of blue and red. Some only had red, and they looked really pissed.
The group left the boats when it approached a bridge, and then one of the natives began to pull the group. Zelos looked over his shoulder for a moment and then took a good look at the guy who kicked him. He had a serious look on his face and he also had thick black hair that looked like half a ball around his head. Putting his appearance aside, Zelos just wanted to make sure that he would pay this guy back in full when he had the chance.
While gathering the attention of pretty much everyone around, Zelos and the others kept moving toward the center of the area. That took one hour since the place was so massive. Considering the numbers of houses around and their sizes, it was safe to assume that there were dozens of thousands of them there… Since most of them looked tough, they could make quite the army.
In any case, the group was taken to a large building that has a massive long staircase that enveloped this wooden tower. The building itself was at least two hundred meters tall and fifty wide… one could only wonder how such a thing could keep standing like that. There were several doors along the way, and the group heard a lot of groans and grunts coming from them. They could only imagine that people there were fighting.
Regardless, eventually, they reached the top of the tower and found the last room, and it was open. Right there, they found a single person sitting cross-legged while meditating with a red spear on their legs… it was a woman who had brown hair and had several body painting tattoos that were all red. She was probably the most beautiful woman that Zelos had seen so far, but she also had this weird aura of danger on her, even though she didn’t look like most buffed warriors and she didn’t have a single scar in her body either.
She was wearing a simple robe that was yellow and had a mix of plants on it as well. It seemed like a mix of their usual clothing and something from outside. It seemed pretty well made and refined… in any case, the group stopped in front of the entrance, and not even the natives said anything. The woman was the one who told them to come.
“Enter. It doesn’t seem like they resisted.”
“No, leader. They obeyed our orders and didn’t try anything. So, we brought them here.”
The guy who talked was also the guy who kicked Zelos. The other who talked with them before stayed silent for some reason. Zelos couldn’t even tell who he was anymore.
“It is a great honor to meet you, honorable leader. My name is Heirina, daughter of the current head of the Hei clan. Forgive us for entering your territory without proper permission, but we came here following orders from someone from the royal family.”
Heirina bowed deeply while introducing herself, and Zelos almost frowned. She wasn’t supposed to be that polite, after all. Still, she understood a few things about negotiations and she also knew that she couldn’t mess up and worsen the situation between the people of the other areas and the natives.
“Hei clan… it must be the one with that warrior that is trying to coordinate with the others.”
Zelos was a bit surprised. A pompous leader would try to look better by acting like they had never heard of Hei, even though he should be pretty famous, so lying would be a waste of time. Still, it could be done.
At the same time, the woman saying that kind of thing was a bit weird since her people were supposed to be isolationist. Some of her people could be found in some towns or villages, but it was hard to imagine that they would live there permanently.
One of the natives approached while carrying the scroll that the group was supposed to bring. It was completely smashed… even though the group had transported it with utmost care, the natives only saw that as a mere piece of paper. In the end, the woman grabbed it, read it and soon closed her eyes.
“We told you many times that we don’t have any interest in participating in your wars… why do you insist on trying to drag us into your folly?”
“Before I can answer that question, may I ask your name, honorable leader?”
“... Reina.”
“Reina… can I also ask if the emperor was the one who sent the letter?”
“It wasn’t him.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Then do you have any connections with someone from the imperial family?”
“You are asking too much.”
“I do apologize for that. I guess I was wrong for trying to understand why one of our leaders decided to ask for your help at this point in time. Putting aside any possible personal matters, we can still tell that things are becoming difficult on the border. We lose thousands and thousands of warriors every year and soon we will reach a breaking point. At the same time, the people here have been growing in unexpected numbers.”
“We have no duty to protect the lands that you rule.”
“You are right, but helping isn’t something that you decide to do out of obligation, but out of necessity. We keep fighting and fighting, but at this rate, we will lose and soon the country might collapse. When that time comes, other countries will attack your territory. If your goal is to prevent the bloodshed of your people, helping your neighbors that see you as potential allies instead of potential enemies might help you with that.”
“That is gibberish. We can defend these mountains as we have been doing for hundreds of years. This is our fortress. No one can win against us here.”
“When was the last time that your people actually participated in a large-scale battle? Things changed a lot in the last few hundred years. Mountains might be hard to bypass, but the enemies will have the patience to wear you down and destroy your territory very slowly. They might use martial might, they might use fire to burn the vegetation in the area, they might poison the river… They are very determined to conquer as much land as possible. We are being attacked on four fronts and that proves it.”
Reina went silent for a short while… Zelos could tell that she showed a small reaction when she heard about the attacks. It seemed that she wasn’t as unconcerned as she tried to look like.
“We have enemies inside and out, for some reason, people think that it is only a matter of time before our country falls and to prevent that from happening, we need to get rid of our enemies as soon as possible and give the respite that our people need.”
“Our people… my people are here and always have been. Your people tried to force us to leave our land and enslave us countless times. I am truly astonished by you thinking that just a few words would convince me to forget all that.”
Heirina didn’t know what to say after hearing that. All that came to mind only sounded like cheap words that had no real meaning. Trying to appeal to the feelings of the people there would only be counterproductive, since they never felt part of the rest of the country.
Zelos didn’t hear many details about their history, but it seemed that the natives had countless takes about the times that they tried to be friendly with the people from the plains, only to regret it later. Their grudges were so deep that not even the words of the imperial family would be enough to sway them.
“What do you want in exchange for people at the border?”
Everyone was surprised and raised their eyebrows when they heard Zelos' question. For all intents and purposes, he wasn’t supposed to be there, never mentioning speaking, so Reina couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows. At the same time, Heirina could only hope that Zelos wouldn’t make things worse.
“... What do I want? I want nothing, nothing from you all.”
“If that is the case, after reading the scroll, why are you trying to talk to us instead of throwing us into some cell?”
While Reina was thinking about the question, Zelos heard a footstep behind and quickly turned around. When the big guy tried to kick him, he immediately lowered his stance and then used the charging technique. In the next moment, he passed below the raised leg of that guy and then kicked his back while spinning his body… the guy felt on his knees and then hit his face on the floor.
“Now we are even.”
Although Zelos settled the score, he made his friends fall too since the rope was connecting their arms. They looked like they had a lot of things to say about that… even more so when the other natives began to glare at Zelos.
“What? He kicked me before. He deserved this.”
The atmosphere was dangerous, but the natives didn’t try to move at all… the woman kept glaring at Zelos, but he kept his expression the same as always. Completely blank.
“If that letter has no real weight behind it to convince you to help, then you can just say your price. How many of your people do you think that you will need to defeat the enemies? Five hundred? If yes, what do you want for their services? And don’t tell me that you don’t want anything. If that was true, you wouldn’t stay so informed about the front lines or anything beyond the mountains.”
Reina didn’t know what to say. Zelos had a point. Most people assumed that she was well informed because she wanted to stay ahead if someone targeted her territory, but she couldn’t deny the truth and lie like that. Once everyone realized that their leader had such thoughts, they couldn’t help but look a bit confused, too.
“Well then, what is your price?”
In the next moment, Heirina approached Zelos with a smile on her face, a cold one, and then smacked his head. The attack had been too obvious, but Zelos didn’t even try to dodge.
“Forgive this impertinent kid ramblings, Reina. He isn’t aware of how things work in the world properly and we are having a hard time reaching him, since his skull is too thick. We all apologize to him, we certainly don’t think that you have a price to help us. If you aren’t willing to help us, I at least want to go and help my father and my companions that are defending the borders, so I would be thankful if you could let us go.”
Reina went silent for a bit and then crossed her arms before she began to think deeply about that. Heirina couldn’t help but think that she was thinking about how she could punish the whole group.
“Five hundred men and one week.”