And just like that, I set my pns into motion, and a day passed, and then another, day after day I would just sit watching paint dry, training with Celestial in the afternoon, and generally being not productive at all.
Before I knew it a week passed by, I would sometimes go missing, looking for prostitutes and such in town, but, it seems they rather not take me as a customer, since they think I’m still a minor, I just look young but I’m not a child! I am a proper adult! No point in being angry at them, it’s part of their job, even if I’m willing to pay them properly, I guess I’ll have to do it the old fashioned way, and get them like I did with Heather.
Rushka is in my sight, hopefully soon enough, and she has been a sweetheart helping me with stuff, still no prosthetic though, it was hard to convince her to stay, that AND I had to keep the blunt of the pn under wraps, I wanted to tell Heather as well but, she’s a bit more stubborn regarding right and wrong than Celestial who doesn’t seem to be too fazed about individuals, it’s just a matter of time, at any moment now, I would have everything ready, Just to wait and-
“Midy”
As I was monologuing in my head, Heather interrupted me, hopefully with good news~
“Why do you alternate? I find it odd”
“What do you mean?”
“You call me ‘Milord’ or ‘Midy’ at different times”
“Ah, sorry I didn’t mean to-“
“It’s fine, I want you to call me Marisa, drop the honorifics altogether, not only when we’re alone”
“Understood Mi-Marisa”
“Anyways, what do you have for me?”
“Umm, sorry for being rude but I’m worried about Rushka, weren’t we gonna do something to help her?”
Oh, so still nothing, not what I’m expecting to hear but, well it’s fine then.
“You say that but, hmm...”
I’m just pying dumb of course. For now I need to look like I’m seriously pondering my alternatives.
“Well, I’m still thinking about it”
“Is that so...”
“Don’t worry Heather, I’ll solve it in a jiffy, just you wait~”
“If you say so... ah! One more thing”
“Yes?”
“Umm... it’s hard to say this with a straight face but, some troops have fallen sick these past couple of days”
“Really!? That’s not good! especially when we’re short on troops! What did they catch?”
“We don’t know but, umm... they all have... well, stomach problems...”
“...Hah? Stomach problems?”
“Y-yes, there’s been reports of people leaving their position from upset stomachs, I thought it was a joke too, but the reports are too detailed and from trustworthy sources, it seems to be real”
Finally! It sure took its time, although the way that Heather skirts around the words, ‘explosive diarrhea’ is just so funny to me. I have to do my best to contain my ughter and not blow my cover.
“That’s odd... Do you know why something like this would happen?”
“Not really, sorry...”
“It’s fine, let’s ask Celestial about it, maybe she knows something”
And so, as intended, I proceeded to gather Celestial and when she told me she had no clue, I told her to go ‘investigate’ near the border for something that might be causing issues to our troops.
“Do you think it’s anything in particur Marisa?”
Celestial more than knew what I meant so she simply said yes and left, Heather is the one asking me about it, as she’s the clueless one of the group.
“Well, it can’t be a coincidence! Maybe there’s something that could help us identify the source, I don’t know”
I said lying between my teeth, I really hate lying, but I think it’s for the better right now, either way, the time has finally come, and Celestial came back after some 15 minutes of her losing time in the border.
“I’m back”
“So, did you find anything?”
“Yes, there was a curse affecting the river near the border, nothing too complex, it seemed to make the people who drink it sick, I fixed it already but it might take days or weeks for it to wash over completely”
Yikes, Celestial’s acting sucks! Then again maybe it’s just my imagination, in reality I just want everyone in earshot to hear that, so Celestial was particurly loud, making it less credible in my eyes, I realize there’s a lot of eavesdroppers in the pace, actually there’s a lot of people in the pace period.
“That doesn’t sound good...”
I then look like I’m thinking, and that should be the st of my lies hopefully~
“We’re in a dire situation, I hate to do this right now, but tell the guild to prepare troops to defend the border, and swap the soldiers so we can check their health”
“Wouldn’t that leave the border in a precarious position!?”
“The people come first Heather, besides I'M an adventurer, they won’t get through me”
“I... I guess you have a point”
“Great, let’s go then”
It took a week, but it’s finally set into motion. This is perfect and just what I wanted, why you may be asking? Well I put the ‘curse’ there, it’s in fact it’s just the yucky water from st time, but Celestial knew this, she’s just reporting what I told her to report to me back then.
Needless to say I was quite jolly, even if my face had a furrowed brown, they say a demon lord has to be cunning and shit, anyways, I positioned the adventurers on the border and then I gathered all the healthy troops, along the military reserves and the pace knights, and told them to march towards the northern border, it should take them about a day to arrive, or so I’ve been told, fortunately there’s barely any skirmishes, since both armies are already drained from the water ‘curse’ so it’s even slower paced, which is great cuz it allow us to leave the border unattended for a little while, not completely though, it’s a yered movement, it makes it look less obvious, and it looks like I’m trying to be sneaky about the surprise attack, which is exactly what I want.
After talking with the guild, telling the people to gather at the border, I left Celestial on the western border with the detached small army just in case, while I did something different.
*woosh* I can teleport now! It took a while, and it’s not a portal, I can only teleport myself and the things I’m directly touching, which took practice because naked teleportation it’s, embarrassing to say the least, anyways, speaking of clothes, I’m going to the desert that is the northern border so, a good change of outfit should be good, I change from the normal clothes to the Ice dress, it looks cool and frosted, it should help with the heat of the desert, now that I’m here though, there’s something I need to take care of.
“Rushka!”
“Marisa? What can I help you with?”
“There’s no guards in the pace anymore, it’s basically empty, only the servants remain, which means it’s not safe!”
“I-I see, It’s ok I can take care of myself!”
“No you absolutely cannot, come, I’ll take you somewhere safe”
I said, extending my hand, Rushka understood immediately since she has come with us to the training sessions with Celestial, mostly to work on the ‘thing’, the fact I’ve heard nothing of it, tells me now that Rushka is fortunately, not the spy, so for now we teleported to Celestial’s mountain, inside the hollowed part of course.
“Ah! Sister Mari!”
“Ellie! So that’s where you’ve been!”
Of course I knew of it, Heather is currently mobilizing the army to the desert, and Celestial is currently with the adventures at the western border, so Heather asked Celestial if she could hide Ellie somewhere, and this pce was what came to mind, which is also why I’m hiding Rushka here.
“Mari! Can you stay with me for a while?”
I looked at the watch in my pocket, time is not in our favor, so.
“Sorry dear, I’m a bit busy”
“Bu! You and Big sister have been so busy tely!”
“Sorry, I promise to py with you ter ok~”
I actually find Ellie fascinating, from the weak girl that she was when I met her, to quite a force to be reckoned with, I guess my intervention had something to do with it, but when I saw her accidentally tear a door down when running in the pace, I realized she has quite a surplus of strength now, even stronger than Heather physically speaking, although she’s still a kid, and it’s nowhere near me or Celestial.
“Promise?”
“Promise! Plus you won’t be alone~”
As if reacting to my words, Rushka finally came into existence, she was just looking at us without saying a word.
“I’ll let you with sister Ruska, she’ll take care of you~”
“Eh!?”
Heh, looks like Rushka wasn’t expecting this.
“It’s fine right, it will be safe in here”
Rushka and Ellie know each other, they lived in the pace together for a week after all, although they barely interact.
“Ok!”
“Good girl~”
I said, rubbing Ellie’s head.
“She’s a bit weak so don’t be mean to her, can you do that for me Ellie?”
“Un!”
Great, now that Ellie has a nanny, I can continue with my chores.
“Rushka”
“Yes?”
“Are you certain that it will work?”
“W-we tested it a couple of times, I hope it doesn't break down, we never did such a rge scale test...”
“You don’t sound too sure, but it’s fine, I trust you”
“I, Celestial did the engraving of the spell, I recommend to just overload it, even if the device breaks down, it will at least work the one time that is needed”
“Got it, then I’m off!”
As I was about to teleport to the desert this time, Rushka grabbed my hand.
“Be careful out there...”
“Worried? Don’t be, I’m pretty strong!”
Interestingly, she’s legitimately worried about my well being, she doesn’t know what the whole pn is, only me and Celestial do, but it seems she picked up on some parts.
“Just come back safely please!”
I rubbed her head as well.
“Promise, and once it’s done, You’ll be able to return home, and in peaceful times as well, just trust me, I always keep my promises!”
“Marisa! Thanks...”
I then gave her a wink, and left Ellie and Rushka in Celestial’s mountain.
I’m going all out now so I then made a bombastic entrance in the desert, where the army is finally arriving. I made it quite an obvious attempt, almost every working soldier was gathered here, on such an obvious rge scale across the border, no way the empire didn’t catch the movement.
“Gentleman, we’re gonna do a special mission now, the situation in the western border is delicate as you heard, but let’s not waste any time, we’ll make an attack to help our neighbors who’re in trouble right now!”
Everyone it’s looking at me with surprise in their eyes. Was my speech cking excitement?
“We’ll circle around the empire capital and cim that territory so that the direct connection towards the dwarf country is completely cut off!”
The pn I mentioned back on the first meeting, it’s a go, which made Heather wince, and everyone looked dumbfounded and skeptical.
“Have you guys lost your spine or something!? Is it perhaps that you don’t want to help our neighbors!?”
Why is everyone looking at me like this? Get riled up people!
“Haven’t any of you lost someone from the fighting!? Have none of you guys felt the tendrils of war grip our kingdom!? Many people have prayed for salvation as citizens get caught in between praying for a knight in shining armor to save them! I’m sure everyone has been afflicted one way or another!”
Now I catch their attention a bit. I somehow remembered the little refugee town, which helped me make some stuff up on the spot.
“I’m sure it’s a sentiment a lot of people have! Some of you had your cities and towns razed by the fire of war, yet no one come to the rescue, there’s no one that extend their hand to strangers after all”
The murmur continued.
“If they don’t exist, then why not let it be us!”
And the murmur stopped.
“Let’s help out, become the shining knights that couldn’t help us, let’s become heroes! And help our neighbors in their time of need!”
It was a bit cheesy, but the crowd of troops yelled in agreement and excitement.
It seems I worried for nothing. I’m terrible at speeches though.
“Marisa...”
“Yes Heather?”
“Was this your idea to help the dwarves?”
“Yep”
“It’s a nice sentiment but I worry about the border!”
“Worry not, I said it before, I’ll have the adventurers over there~”
“...”
I understood the anxiety coming from Heather but if things go according to pn, there shouldn’t be a problem.
And so, the troops were stationed, getting ready to attack. Which takes me to the next point.
“Captain Doe!”
“Midy!”
Doe is the man that Heather saw trust in to leave the pace guards, so I shall trust him as well.
“You’re in charge of the operation from here on out, can I leave it in your capable hands?”
“Of course Midy! We shall carry our duty with pride and honor!”
“Good! Here’s your orders, open and read them when Celestial appears ok”
“Yes Ma’am”
Good boy Doe, I like him a lot, which means the preparation of this border is done! At least from my part.
“Let’s go Heather!”
“Where?”
“To the western border”
And so I grabbed Heather and teleported to the other side, after teleporting I felt dizzy for a split second, which kinda made me rely on Heather for a bit.
“Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’ve been teleporting everywhere today, just a little fatigue, nothing major!”
Using a lot of Mana at once makes you feel sick, I learned it when practicing with Celestial, I’m nowhere near my limit, it’s just the recoil of pushing too much really quickly.
For now I headed towards Celestial, holding my hand up high while I walked.
“Yo!~”
Celestial just looked at me, dumbfounded.
“Hi-fi, it’s a sign, you know, swap and, whatever, you know what’s next!”
“Oh!”
Celestial then gave me the high five, and left, she can be a bit slow at times for social interactions.
“Heather”
“At your orders Marisa”
“You’re job is gonna be of commander of the guild members and the little troops that are stationed here”
“Understood!”
Good, now to mix with the gang, I head towards the guild people, the soldiers know who I am, but still, I simply fsh my guild card and approach the rest of the adventurers, they range from all types of people honestly. It’s quite a chill atmosphere actually, there’s no sight of movement from the other side of the border, and as such, everyone is just chatting away, it seems I’m the talk of some people, as to why I’m here and everything.
Can’t I be left alone when near adventurer folks? It’s really annoying but at least these guys do not pick on me like in the guild, I did ask for silver ranks or higher, which apparently weeds out a lot of unpleasant fellows, figures that they’d be low ranked adventurers, the ones who make messes.
As for why silver? So that I can participate too of course! Besides if I set it too high we’d be short staffed. Still, people still look towards me, as, the burden of being so good looking I guess...
Anyways, no time to idle! I look at my watch, which tells me, the time is nigh, now we’re missing one final report, which would be impossible to see for normal people, but not so much for me, you see that tree in the distance, that tree is important, for carved in it, there’s a plus symbol, which means, It’s go time! Thanks Lassie~
“Heather!”
I approached her, casually, as if I was talking to any of the troops in here.
“Yes Midy!”
What did I say about honorifics and being undercover! Ah, whatever, it’s too te for the empire to do anything anyways.
“Change of pns, please tell every adventurer to line inside the main camp, this includes me”
“R-right”
“And here, your orders after everyone’s gathered”
“Oh, ok?”
She’s confused since I handed her a letter, she’s used to me telling her what to do, so finding a letter is odd, for now Heather caught the adventurers attention, and we gathered all in the main camp, Heather is looking a bit awry, since I’m in the crowd and everyone is basically with the question ‘what are we doing?’ All over their face, in the end, once I made sure that everything was in pce, I signaled for heather to open the letter, and as soon as she did a bright light engulfed the entire camp, and as it did, a grin escaped from my face, it’s showtime you guys!
—————————————————————————————————————————
***Heather’s POV***
I’ve been worried about Marisa for a bit now, I mean I’m grateful to her, it’s thanks to her that my sister is alive, twice even! But she’s been doing nothing as of te, well I say nothing but she’s doing the town lord job properly, it’s just that she agreed to help Rushka, and she hasn’t done anything, she’s the kind of girl that would usually do first and then think ter, but then again Celestial is keeping her on check.
Maybe she doesn’t care? I find this really hard to believe, but...
Hmm...
It’s probably nothing, I’m just overthinking things! It’s just that... I worry about having a lord like the piggy, and the idea of Marisa becoming someone that overlooks matters like this is worrying to me.
Besides she’s been leaving at times to god knows where, and I don’t mind usually, that’s because she’s going with Celestial and Rushka, but sometimes she’s going out alone, what if she’s meeting with unsavory people? I mean no one taught her to choose her friendships or things like that, the ck of common sense of that girl is really worrisome, I have to make sure she’s not going down a dark path!
Nothing much happened until a report from the border army arrived, the contents were asinine, so much so that I had to personally question a few officials, but the answers were all the same, I really can’t believe people are getting diarrhea...
Sigh... for now I reported it to Marisa and I could’ve sworn she was happy for a moment. I must be imagining things, not long after that Marisa came up with the pn of action.
...a frontal attack...
A part of me felt relieved that Marisa was back to her old self but it’s still a stupid idea all things considered, she says she has a pn but that’s not usually her style.
For now I’m here with the adventurers to protect the border, or so was the idea but...
“Change of pns, please tell every adventurer to line inside the main camp, this includes me”
What? Ok, I don’t really get it, for now I did as Marisa told me and opened the letter she gave me, to which a light so bright it almost left me blind made me look away.
When I opened my eyes again, I was met with the soldiers we stationed in the desert, not the adventurers, did I get teleported!? Such an outndish thought! No, it would definitely be possible for Marisa and Celestial, but this pce, we’re still on the west border! Seeing how the soldiers look confused of their surroundings as well tells me that they were the ones teleported, not me.
For now I’ll read the letter Marisa gave me!
**********************************************************************************************************
Heyoo~
You’re probably wondering what the hell just happened, it’s a very long story so the details will be omitted right now I’ll expin to you when we see again but for now your new orders.
Invasion of the empire, I want you to take the troops and take the next city over. I don’t expect you to find a very strong resistance, if any at all, but the priority is that as many as you survive, if you see it’s a futile endeavor, retreat immediately!
K’ cool, thanks
**********************************************************************************************************
And also a very poor drawing of the border city and a line of the path we’re taking, what a short letter...
Sigh... I have to at least try. I guess, a part of me was happy that Marisa was back to her old self, and well, something tells me this is gonna work, I trust her enough to know she wouldn’t do anything to endanger us willingly.
“Listen everyone!”
—————————————————————————————————————————
***Back to Marisa***
All right it fucking work, I’m a bit worried about Heather but the empire took the bait, of that much I’m certain, for now, I’m with the adventurers, but we got promptly dispatched to the border by Celestial, so I used this opportunity to talk to her, after getting through my nausea from teleporting everyone here of course.
“Yo~”
“Marisa, I know I agreed about this but-“
“Yeah yeah! I promise I won’t do anything mean, we’re trying to help remember”
“Still... it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth”
“Sorry, I’ll make it up to you somehow I swear”
...eh!? Did Celestial just smile!? That’s weird coming from her!
“It’s fine”
“Oi! don’t ruffle my hair!”
Anyways, for now I go to the adventurers.
“Hey missy”
“Yo~”
A random adventurer responded to my salute, it seems they got used to my presence.
“It’s odd that the town lord would teleport us, this wasn’t part of the pn”
“Isn’t this a breach, shouldn’t we just pull back and report it to the guild”
Oh crap! The adventurers want to leave!? I seriously didn’t think of that, of course I won’t leave and I’m more than enough to protect the border but, actually at this point, it doesn’t matter anymore! Still, I don’t want them to just leave if possible.
“I’m-“
“Rex guys, it’s not a breach of the request”
I was gonna say something but one of the adventurers stepped in, she’s wearing a cloak and covering her face, she’s really shady! The idea of the other 2 guys from the auction came to mind, but she’s not one of them, in fact is weird. I feel her presence, but I can’t hear her heartbeat…
In fact I only know it’s a she from the tone of her voice, that and she’s small, extremely so, about the height of Rushka.
“You say that but...”
“We’re still on the border, we got teleported to the northern part almost to the neighboring town”
She is surprisingly composed, did she realize it from the beginning?
“So what? This isn’t what the request said!”
“The request said to protect the border, it never specified which one”
Wait, it didn't!? clever past me! Even though it was a coincidence.
“Even so...”
“It’s fine you guys, besides what are the odds that the empire will strike this forsaken pce”
Oh wow, no, you know what! yes! please jinx the hell out of it, this was the pn anyways.
“What is the new town lord thinking...”
“I think the town lord is a pretty smart person”
“Have you met him before?”
Oh crap, I shouldn’t have said that.
“Yeah, maybe...”
“Who are you anyways? Not everyone can get so casually close to the officials like that”
“I’m just an adventurer!~”
As I said this the cloaked girl approached me.
“Who are you really?”
Has she discovered me!? Too bad she’ll never know because-
“EVERYONE!! THERE'S TROOPS MARCHING TOWARDS US!”
That’s the adventurer in charge of keeping watch, for now I’ll head to defend the border, so I won’t answer her. But also, the empire is attacking, which means the pn worked~
Looking back on it, it was pretty clever!
—————————————————————————————————————————
***A week ago***
“Celestial, I have a pn to put an end to the war~”
“Oh really? let’s hear it”
“Well, let’s start with the spy in our midst”
“What will you do?”
“If they’re reporting everything back, it’s just a matter of them reporting their own demise~”
“How so?”
“Ok, so first and foremost, the geography of our nd, remember a certain river crossing near our border? Both armies use it for obvious reasons, what if, we poison the water supply~”
I said holding the yucky water and shaking it in my hand.
“That’s-”
“Before you say anything, I’m not actually gonna poison the river, but they must store the water somewhere, what if we only poison their stored water instead”
“I see, still you shouldn’t participate directly, plus, how are you gonna do that? The army will probably see you approach from miles away”
“Oh, I won’t do it, simply, someone else will dilute it in their water supply, and I’m certain she will never be caught~”
This is where I’m gonna need the help of that girl from the orphanage, I shall request her help, it would be amazing to have her hiding skills with us actually.
“If you say so, but then the empire will suspect why their troops are getting sick”
“Because the river is poisoned, which is also why we will also make our own troops sick, that way they will never suspect foul py, if it’s affecting both parties”
“Ok, you’re stalling the fighting even more, what would be next?”
“Next is the northern border, we don’t fight there, because it’s a desert, and hostile to keep troops stationed, so we never bother, still, it’s undefended by both armies, so that’s our entry point, we gather all the troops and march them through the desert to the next town, that way we take control of it, and the empire supply chain for harassing Rushka’s country gets severed”
“I see, but that would leave our border unattended, plus moving the army like that will definitely be reported to the empire”
“I know, and that’s the pn, We then hire adventurers to cover our own western border, which would immediately alert the empire of a gambit”
“Then?”
“Then think about what the empire would do? We are wasting resources and money in the paid defense that can’t attack, and the army is mobilized and generally vulnerable since invading is harder than defending, this leaves the empire with 2 choices, whether they continue through the western borders razing the adventurers, or, do what we did and receive us in the desert, leaving the adventurer guard useless and maybe bleed us some more”
“I see, but in that case your putting ourselves at a disadvantage”
“And that’s exactly what I want them to think, the desert attack will be everything we got, which will force them to give their all to face our might, that’s where you enter Celestial”
“Me!?”
“Yep! I want you to interchange the pce of the army and the adventurers”
“Oh! I see”
“Thus we have two outcomes, the empire tries to go through the adventurers, I stop them and the army advances into the empire unimpeded through the desert, or the best outcome, they face us in the desert, which then swap pces so the army can go through the western border without resistance, and I stop the empire army in the desert, if they decide to attack us as a ditch effort when they realize!”
“That’s, surprisingly, devilish, why is the second scenario better?”
“No way they have a second border and barracks they can improvise and the town on the west is super close to the capital. One final push and we can kill the emperor and take down the empire for good!”
“Marisa, what did I say about conquest”
“I know, but they’ll know as well, We will be in a completely overwhelming advantage, so much so that the empire will not doubt when offered a peace treaty”
“A treaty? And what would it entail?”
“End of the war, for the empire towards us and the dwarves, if they comply we give them back their town, if not, we destroy the empire”
“Hmm... I don’t like how much attention you’re bringing to yourself, but it would certainly paint you in a different light”
“See, so we all win, war is over”
“For now, what if they break the treaty?”
“Oh don’t worry, I will personally do the treaty with the emperor, and I’ll scare him good so he doesn’t even think of doing so”
“Still, it all boils down to whether we can teleport the army around”
“Yep, although it will not be needed if the empire doesn’t react to the desert attack, but with that, we have the empire dancing in the palm of our hands~”
I’ll have the orphanage girl inform me if the army moves or not, so I will have my own insider information.
“That’s mean, are you sure that would work?”
“Maybe, it makes a couple of assumptions, so experimentation is in order but, if it works, we can minimize casualties to hopefully negligible for both sides!”
“Hmm...”
“Pretty please! I’m gonna need your help!”
“More like the little dwarf’s, we’re gonna have to build two ptforms, and the cost in catalysts would be ludicrous”
And finally, Rushka’s help, apparently teleporting would be difficult for just Celestial, so Rushka helped us with wooden pads where Celestial imbued the spell, and both her and me will use them when it’s time, contrary to an autonomous device, since it’s powered by us and doesn’t require catalysts and other fancy ways of interaction, it would be easy to do just mana consuming. We buried the pad in the desert, to get ready when the time to use them comes.
Joanne_carper
