CH104 Tensions are high.
After a day of toy balloon play Alex and Fufi set back up by the area where Charlotte had rooted for the winter.
“I hope she’ll be okay.” Enjoying an outdoor picnic, Alex sipped tea. “Being immobile for a whole season is terrifying.”
Fufi pointed to a human shaped shrub nearby. “I think the nymphs have things covered.”
Alex cringed. “Remind me to ask Ki how long the punishment is supposed to last for. I hope it isn’t forever. That seems a bit much.”
“Probably not, though I’m guessing it is more than a few days in most cases. I’ve not heard anyone talking about the time they spent as a shrub.” Fufi sipped some tea with her beak.
A little worried about a large portion of the humans’ fate Alex fumbled around with her phone, looking at her stat screen.
Name: Alex Parker
Class: Magical Girl
Level: 5
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Strength: 11
Constitution: 9
Dexterity: 17
Intelligence: 11
Cuteness: 24
Skills:
Cleaning: 3
Cooking: 2
Dancing: 2
Tailoring: 4
Toymaking: 3
Feats: Empower Doll
Crafting: Force Imbuement
Spells: Animate Doll
Magical Girl Transformation
Lesser Grow Plants
Traits: Mental Resistance: 4
“Is level 5 high?” Alex asked Fufi. She wasn’t given a cheat like [identify] to compare the levels of everyone.
“Not really,” Fufi shook her bird-head. “But it isn’t novice low either.”
“What level is high level?” Alex pondered her progress.
“I would say around 15.” Fufi nodded and added. “For most long lived races 20 is the level cap.”
“So if I stayed a nymph then 20 would be as high as I could go?” Alex considered a future where she remained a nymph.
“Yep, I don’t think that is good enough. A level 20 could match powers with a tier 3 demon but a tier 4 would be hard.” Fufi took another beakfull of tea. “Though there probably is always a way if things are planned out well. Just going blow for blow in a fair fight…I don’t think she’d stand a chance.”
“You think that is why Sakura wanted to hide and wait things out?” Alex wondered. “If humanity goes extinct then the demons will have to leave?”
“Given how there hasn’t been a major confrontation with the other races and the demons in a long time I’m thinking most of them have a similar attitude. For long-lived races, outlasting is a viable strategy.” Fufi said. “If Sakura didn’t force you to transform and try to erase your memory would you have considered doing that?”
“No.” Alex shook her head. “Staying human and becoming the most powerful magical girl might appeal to some but not me. But on the other hand, I don’t see how anyone can sleep well at night while a whole race gets treated like cattle and the world gets turned into a wasteland so cultivators can chase immortality.”
After their picnic, Alex expressed gratitude to Charlotte by growing flowers and placing them near her. This was a thank you for Charlotte's tireless efforts in supplying thousands with clothing, bedding, and tents. They then departed from the sleeping wooden-spider-doll-tree girl and returned to the adventurer's guild.
Much of the city had transformed into a refugee camp. Over the past year, the nymphs had used their magic to establish a settlement capable of housing a thousand people. However, not everyone remained in one location. During the warmer, drier summer months, some tribes seeking resources, but unwilling to live close to rivals, stayed just long enough to prepare to move into abandoned farmsteads deeper within the woods. A few hundred individuals, believing it to be safer, chose to settle near the grotto established as a shrine to Luna. Despite these departures, the town was still overflowing. The sewer system required expansion, and the camps outside the city limits lacked convenient access to the fountain. While people didn't object to visiting the river or walking a few miles for water, Alex found this highly inefficient.
After arriving at the stone building with a living vine-grown roof, the pair knocked on Ki’s office but there was no response. “I guess Fumi took her away.”
Turning around, Alex saw a familiar face in the hallways. “Hello guild master Cecil.”
“Hello miss Alice, er Alex I suppose is your actual name?” The man grinned.
“Yeah.” Alex gave a stupid smile and scratched the back of her head. “I thought it would be prudent not to use my real name when infiltrating the kingdom. But I guess I wasn't very good at trying to be a spy.”
“You might not be fit to be an infiltrator but you sure helped a whole lot with making gadgets to move stuff across water.” Cecil shook her hand. “How are you doing? It looked like you and Fufi were held up in the warehouse tinkering the past few days. You made some impressive toys.”
“I just wanted some alone time.” Alex shook the man’s hand back and let go. “The past month has been crazy. Just walking around, all I see is more work that needs to be done.”
Cecil agreed. “I felt the same. Seeing the stores of food and supplies impressed me greatly. My biggest concern was that we’d flee the kingdom only to slowly starve or freeze during the winter months.”
Alex nodded. “Ki and her nymphs did a really good job. The nomadic tribes that joined us didn’t value the farmer class from what I’ve seen. They mostly hunt and gather. How about you? What is your first impression of this place?”
“Me? Well I would be lying if I didn’t have some concerns.” The guild master paused and thought for a moment. “My biggest concern is the construction material for most of the buildings. Most of the new structures are made of wood. If we do get attacked by the demons of the kingdom their favorite element is fire.”
“It is more out of necessity than anything else. A year ago this was a crumbling ruin and if there were any masons in the tribes, no one stepped forward to offer their skills.” Alex said.
“Mason is a common class.” Cecil stated. “Hestia offers it. She is one of the goodly goddesses that would still give blessings to humans. There was a shrine built for her on the road that people would take pilgrimages to. The temple ruin looks like he once had some spots for her at one time. Though other than getting a roof put on it, that place has seen better days.”
“Is that normal? Nevermind, I guess if people want to become mansions that is their business.” Alex considered what he was hinting at. “Does that mean people want to help build?”
“Yes, though it is the noble’s job to plan the layout of the area before people start.” Cecil hummed. “Yvne would decide and her maids would notify the appropriate people what they should do.”
“In my talks with Ki, she didn’t say much about layout.” Alex tapped a foot, trying to remember. “I think she needs her barony to be cute. So the most important thing is aesthetics.”
“I see.” Cecil considered. “I could talk to the maids and let them know that the Baroness’s will is that any new buildings should have aesthetics as their top priority. I never got a chance to have a meeting with Ki. She seemed really busy and now she is just gone. “
“That sounds like a good idea. Anything to keep them from running off trying to find the temple of Catalina.” Alex gave a hopeful look. Kicking that can down the street would be an awesome plan.
“That is another problem.” Cecil shifted. “The cultures of the two people are not compatible. My people see the maids as authority figures. The tribesmen see them as people compromised by demonic curses. They don’t think much of non-combat classers as well.”
Alex gave an awkward smile. “Well they are not wrong, just getting them restored to their former selves is going to take a fair bit of preparation for the trip. And I’m not sure it is a good idea in the first place.”
“Why is that?” The guildmaster asked.
“A couple of reasons, first, the temple is very hard to get to if you can’t fly.” Alex took a breath. “Second, the clergy up there are not in a good place right now. The fix they offer might be worse than the problem. And thirdly, some sect of ice demons has set up near there. I had to fight a tier 2 one when we were headed back.”
“Was the tier 2 demon the sect master?” Cecil frowned.
Alex shook her head. “It sounded like he was some arrogant young ice master.”
Cecil’s frown deepened. “That’s not good. It probably means that there is at least one tier 3 demon running the sect. Though I can see why they are up there. Demons that cultivate ice are looked down on. But they need to oppress humans to fulfill their contract and stay in this world. Unless that temple has some strong defenders then my guess would be that they are just harassing the humans enough to fulfill the letter of their contract. If they wiped out the humans then they’d have to find another group and compete with other demons.”
“The rules for demons are so stupid.” Alex rolled her eyes. “It is like the demon queen barely cares what is going on.”
“Who is to say she doesn’t?” Cecil shrugged. “Her palace is far away from here. We are on the edge of what could be considered human settled land.” The guildmaster took a moment to get back on track. “The other problem is how the tribes view citizens of the kingdom. They see them as traitors to humanity. Most of the people can trace their lineage back to the counties that refused to bend the knee to the demon queen. So they think poorly of my people for not fighting the demons. At the same time, generations of living under demon rule have cemented some things that they ought to question as well. For example, our king forbids the common people from taking combat classes. Humans with combat classes is why the demons had to act. They can’t be trusted to not oppress those without combat classes.”
“They actually believe that is the reason?” Alex was getting a headache. “Aren't the demons doing the exact thing that they accuse the combat classers of doing?”
“Yes.” Cecil nodded. “But you have to remember we had a king. A king’s word is law. Questioning a royal decree is a good way to get charged with sedition.”
“It can’t get any worse.” Alex sounded depressed. “From what I am told, a low level combat class can handle an imp fairly easily.”
“It actually can get worse.” Cecil patted Alex’s shoulder. “A chieftain class is like a noble class but instead of residents in the land they own, it provides bonuses for blood relatives. It is like a cross between a knight and a noble so they have an incentive to gain levels by fighting people not in their clan. I talked to one of the nymphs and some of the residents and found out a good number of the people who got turned into shrubbery are chieftains that saw this a good opportunity to knock out some of their old rivals and progress their class. With the addition of a large number of non combat outsiders a common belief is that these newcomers don’t belong here, nevermind that oppressing them for levels is the real reason. I almost wish the demons would attack, it would give us a common banner to rally behind.”
“I hope they don’t.” Alex shook her head. “From my talks with Ki I think once demonkind thinks there is a real fight to be had here waves will come and keep getting worse until we can’t hold them back.”
Fufi added her two coppers. “If something like that happens I think that the right thing would be to gather up the people and leave. The forest was already destroyed once by demons hunting humans. It would be a shame to do it again. Fire is the natural enemy to plants.”
“That would be hard too.” Alex ran a hand through her long black hair. “Where could we even retreat to? If we scattered across the wastelands wouldn’t that just be a repeat of what happened last time?”
Fufi winced. “Yeah, I guess I didn’t think it through too far.”
“Maybe we could build enough boats to head down the river and escape to the sea?” Alex didn’t like this scenario. “But we’d have to go through who knows how many cities in demon controlled lands.”
“We’d have to pass the capitol eventually.” Cecil sounded grim. “The waterways join together and the biggest one flows into the sea. The capitol is where the sea and the river meet.”
“Sounds like the plan is to pray things hold together until a better option presents itself.” Alex huffed. “I wish I had an answer but I’m just as overwhelmed as everyone else.”
“Thank you for your time.” Cecil gave a respectful bow. “If nothing else we can tackle the housing problem. You don’t have to have all the answers Alex. I know I don’t.” With that the veteran took his leave, walking down the hall.
“So what do we do now?” Fufi looked as overwhelmed as Alex felt.
“I would really like a vacation from here.” Alex headed down the stairs to the common area. “You want to play dress up and see where the pipe in the basement leads?”
“Yeah, we should go find Merumeru.” Fufi bounced. “I’d also like to see if Aqua was able to get mister copperpot to leave his room.”
They said their goodbyes, gathered their things, got changed, and stepped through the first portal pipe Merumeru created.