Slime Girl

Chapter 277


- Shari -

So the trip goes all the way back to the castle. I suppose it fits, given how central it's located.

On the way, I notice how the purge is underway. We pass several checkpoints, soldiers are patrolling the area, and occasionally there's shouting and the sound of quarrel to be heard in the distance, indicating that another raid commences. I guess the whole thing got its own dynamic. Even if not all soldiers are, with their whole hearts, into this, the fact that they're part of this and know their comrades are too has some peer pressure going. They can't back out, or they'd find themselves quickly on the other side. Which, albeit questionable, is in general a good thing for the city.

After splitting with the prisoners we took, we head to the upper levels of the castle. Apparently, Vela managed to arrive before us, given how she doesn't seem occupied with her troop. Oh, and she looks rather upset with my companion.

"There you are! God, do you have any idea how freaked out I was when you decided to just rush naked into the woods?!" (Vela)

Yeah, there's quite a lot one could be freaked out about. Fortunately, Peras arrives to save us from the impending tirade.

"Officer Vela. I assume your mission was a success?" (Peras)

"Yes, Captain! As far as one can expect. We apprehended Baron Moreau, suppressed any hostile forces with him, and took control over their encampment. A list of found goods was already created, and preparations are underway to transport them into town." (Vela)

She did all that with, what I assume, could only have been a bit of a time advantage?!

"Very well. I want you to attend the debriefing of today's events. It may prove beneficial." (Peras)

"Yes, Sir!" (Vela)

"Good. We will then talk another time about you letting an S-rank creature run unsupervised into the woods." (Peras)

Ouch. Don't make eye contact, Shari, otherwise she might direct whatever she feels back at you. Don't make eye contact, like that slime right next to you!

"Grmph!" (Vela)

And she angrily turns around and walks briskly away. Sigh.

"I think she wasn't happy." (Liqu)

"Yeah, you caused some trouble for her." (Shari)

"Trouble?" (Liqu)

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I thought she would already have been better at this.

"Vela was responsible for the group you went with. Sometimes you need someone in charge so things proceed in an orderly way." (Shari)

"Oh, like you when you have one of your plans and don't want me to meddle with it." (Liqu)

"Exactly. You basically meddled with Vela's plan here. Of course, she doesn't like this." (Shari)

"I'm sorry, but I wanted to find you as soon as possible!" (Liqu)

Her tone indicates she would do so again if given the choice.

"Look, Liqu. I'm not saying you should mindlessly follow everyone's orders. That would be wrong and mean you could be taken advantage of in a bad way. But you could still show some mindfulness and try to understand the general situation and why someone might expect you to behave in a certain way." (Shari)

I know this slime still has a long way to go, but this doesn't mean we shouldn't work on developing her common sense.

After this is settled, we walk to the council hall. We enter this room, which is on the larger side, and wait for everyone to assemble. Peras, Gareth, Soma, Vela, of course, and some other officers and officials I'm not quite acquainted with, even the guild master. Once this happened, Peras is the first to speak.

"First, I want to thank everyone for their great work. Today was indeed a good day for Rakis!" (Peras)

Is this truly the case? We encountered resistance of severe magnitude, and there might be more of this in the future. These aren't too great prospects for the country in my opinion.

"What about possible attacks from the west? We may have to expect further troops sent our way." (Shari)

"I established patrols and checkpoints along the road. If anything comes this way, we'll know." (Soma)

"So, is that it? Is the cold civil war hot now?" (Shari)

"To a limited degree, one might think so. But it didn't fully blow up yet. What we faced were the private armies of the nobles native to Siras. However, according to our informants, there was no general mobilization till this point. They may want to restore their losses from those fights, though. An official declaration of war hasn't occurred yet." (Soma)

"And what if this happens?" (Shari)

As far as I know, they might already have prepared something like this.

"That remains to be seen. The battles we fought were of considerable scale, but for now, still contained. The enemies' next step may decide how much further things will escalate. Fact is, whoever starts making the first move is going to bear repercussions to their reputation. It's to our great advantage that the populace is, to a great degree, yet unaware of how dire the political situation is. So the aggressor will be required to provide sound arguments to assess their legitimacy. In this regard, it does help that we were able to deal with most incursions without involving civilian life." (Soma)

If I understand it right, the best outcome for the royals would be to keep things as is. While the enemy probably has numerous covert missions going as well, ours are successful in so far as we could continuously manage to weaken their position considerably. Thus, we may bring them down one after the other before they can muster all their manpower. That's probably preferable to an all-out war with many, many victims on both sides.

"Thank you for sharing your insights, Captain Soma. At this point, there's not much we can do but to consolidate our position. Winning Ekoras to our cause not only grants us formal control over the whole south, but the fact that we managed to retain its infrastructure and the guild intact means that the town can further serve in its role as a blocker and grants us access to its wares, which will be a great help to our cause." (Peras)

I suppose that stuff like the various plants, potions, and enchanted weapons are going to make a difference. Stuff like clearsprout or flaming weapons sure are helpful.

"In this regard, how did things progress here since our departure, Captain Gareth?" (Peras)

"As I mentioned before, things are going according to plan. While we faced the expected severe degree of resistance and counterattacks, we could hold all our positions with reasonably low casualties. The checkpoints are by now all secured, and the personnel we can spare from guarding them work instead to progress our strategy, working themselves through the districts, one house after the other." (Gareth)

"This is great news. If things proceed like this, we may be done by the end of the week." (Peras)

Well, it's a rare occurrence to see Peras genuinely content, so things must be as good as they seem.

"However, there's one thing I'd like to discuss before we conclude this meeting." (Gareth)

It would've been asking too much to leave it at that, huh, world?

"That would be?" (Peras)

"What are we going to do with the prisoners?" (Gareth)

Right... I really didn't think about that part yet.

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