“And old hags who like to sit on their asses cause trouble for the rest of us too.”
The Magilos were quite long-lived, but she ought to have been more than halfway through her lifespan, given that Vijar had heard of her nickname throughout the hills when he was a child.
He could not tell the age of her skin when inspecting her face due to all the cosmetics she wore, but the fact that she was covering it up meant that she must have felt her age too. In addition, surely that floral fragrance surrounding her was a sign of using perfume to mask her old folks’ stench, was it not?
“―Ho.”
Nasrene narrowed her eyes and an icy chill filled the air in the tent. This was a physical, not psychological phenomenon.
“―I’m not lying, am I?”
Vijar straightened himself up as he said that. A Zoastia’s lower body was not a pretty decoration, but something which possessed a beast’s dexterity and explosive power. While his usual fighting style would have involved hunkering down for a charge in order to make full use of his physical abilities, he did not do that now. That was because he wanted to present himself as the one with the advantage, who had simply ceded the initiative to his opposition.
“This isn’t just a matter of lying, is it? I ought to teach you how to address ladies with respect. That’s also my duty as your predecessor.”
Amidst all this tension, Rokesh spoke up:
“Contain yourselves, you two. This is a war council. If the two of you continue making trouble here, I’ll have to report this to Jaldabaoth-sama.”
Now that Rokesh had brought up the name of their absolute superior, the two of them had no choice but to back down. Still, they continued glaring at each other, as though to say “This isn’t over yet,” and “You start a fight and I’ll finish it.”
“Hah… well, as someone who’s strong myself, I know you can’t really help being strong, but you two ought to know what it means to cooperate.”
“Heeheehee, you don’t have the right to comment on others either.”
A simian demihuman covered in white fur jeered at Rokesh’s grumbling with a laugh.
“Hm, that’s true. Now then, Demon Claw-dono. About your question earlier, it is not that I am afraid. The Grand King was a valiant individual, but surely everyone present is his equal, am I wrong?”
Rokesh looked to Demon Claw and Iceflame Lightning, and then to the remaining three people.
One of them was an ape-like demihuman who was covered in long white fur. He wore many protective items made of gold.
He was the king of the Stone Eaters ― Harisha Ankara.
As a superior specimen of his species, he and others like him could gain various special abilities from eating raw minerals. For instance, by eating diamonds, they could temporarily gain physical damage resistance which could only be bypassed by bludgeoning attacks. Usually, only three such abilities could be active at once, but he could stock far more than that number. That was also a reason why he was called a mutant.
Then, there was the Orthros general who had nodded to him as he had entered the tent.
He wore a suit of intricately carved armor. His equally ornate helmet and his cavalry lance lay beside him. His name was Hektowyzes Ah Rahgara.
His nod to Vijar was not out of respect for Vijar’s personal abilities, but towards the Zoastia species as a whole. That was the reason why it made Vijar unhappy.
Still, he could not simply challenge Hektowyzes to a duel to prove his strength. Certainly, Vijar would be the victor in a one-on-one fight. However, Hektowyzes had not gained fame because of his individual might, but because he was a renowned general who could triumph despite having a tenth of his opponent’s forces. The tables would be turned if it came to mass combat, and there was nothing more shameful than crowing about one’s personal strength and saying “I’m stronger than you” while knowing this. That was why Vijar had a hard time dealing with that Orthros.
The last person was the fellow member of his species, who had remained silent all this while: Muar Praksha.
Also known as “Blacksteel,” he was a ranger who was often called a shadow running through the darkness.
He was a rarity among the Zoastia, who typically took advantage of their physical gifts and fought with brute force. He used stealth, surprise, and cunning techniques as part of his fearsome assassination skills. His nickname came from his unshakable will and the fact that he would eliminate any quarry he had marked.
While he did not think he would lose to them, every person seated here would be a troublesome opponent for him in a straight fight.
“Then let’s go back to the topic of why we’re not attacking them. That would be because I received orders from Jaldabaoth-sama in the city of Rimun.”
“What’s that? Is that true?”
Vijar’s question was due to the fact that among this army of 40,000, Rokesh was the only one who had had direct contact with Jaldabaoth. By the time the others had been summoned to this city of Kalinsha, his men were already in fighting order and waiting to be deployed.
Jaldabaoth was always teleporting between multiple cities, so there were few opportunities to receive directions from him in person.
“Jaldabaoth-sama said to give the humans occupying the city several days’ time.”
“Give them time? Whatever for?”
“He said it was to frighten them. There are fewer than 10,000 people in that city. There are fewer still people among them who can fight. In contrast, all of us here can fight… how afraid do you think the humans holed up in that city will be?”
“I see… so that’s it. Jaldabaoth-sama is truly fearsome.”
“Heeheehee, indeed. That said, I do understand how you feel, Vijar-dono. The question now is how much more time we should give them?”
“No, we can decide exactly how many more days to give them. That said, we might have two months’ of rations stored up, but it would not be good to actually give them that long.”
“Is it because we still need to deal with the prisoners?”
There were only 10,000 demihumans left to manage an overwhelming number of human captives. While demihumans were stronger than humans, quantity was a quality all of its own. It was very likely that they would not be able to deal with any riots or uprisings.
“Precisely. That’s why I have gathered all of you here, in order to hash out our plans for the future. Personally, I think we can make our move after another couple of days and wrap things up. Does anyone disagree?”
None of the demihumans present ― Vijar included ― objected to him.
“All right. We attack in two days. We will continue observing them until then.”
There was the possibility the enemy might launch a counterattack, though he did not think it very likely.
“That would mean it’s about time to deal with the humans we’ve brought along, then.”
Some demihumans ate human beings. Species like those preferred fresh food. The Zoastia had no particular preference for manflesh. To them, beef and horse meat were better. However, most of them would prefer fresh human meat to beef jerky.
In contrast, Iceflame Lightning had a look of revulsion on her face. Perhaps it was because the Magilos did not eat humans, as they were visually similar to human beings.
“Heeheehee. How about killing and eating them in front of their city tomorrow. That ought to terrorize them, no?”
“An excellent idea. After that, we’ll declare that we’re attacking the next day…”
“There’s no need to press them that hard. What’ll happen if they surrender? Fighting is only fun because they have hope, and thus struggle with all their might. Nothing’s more boring than killing people who have lost the will to live.”
Vijar wanted to fight strong foes. There was no point in facing weaklings.