CH176 A sleepy nymph awakens
“What can we do about the gnomes’ homes getting destroyed?” Alex didn’t see an answer. “I was hoping to deliver some food but I don’t see how that could solve a natural disaster. Is it even natural if a demon caused it?”
“Demonic disaster?” Fufi tilted her beak.
“Demons of that tier are a walking natural disaster.” Aqua said seriously. “They can and do change the landscape when they fight.”
After everyone got ready they made their way to the castle basement then took the portal pipe to the pipe nexus, followed by going to the swamp.
“Meru!” Merumeru dove down into the water of the swamp.
“She’s going to try to find out if any of my cousins know about what happened to the portal pipe that isn’t working.” Aqua translated.
“Did you see any pigs in the swamp?” Professor Copperpot asked Fufi.
“I’m not really a bird of prey.” Fufi hedged. “But I think there might have been some? It is hard to notice them when they are in the mud if they are not being loud.”
“We can infect some more demons if needed.” The gnome furrowed his brows. “Though if what Aqua said about the state of the kingdom, I don’t think the border adventurers guilds are functioning like they used to. So don’t think they will be coming into the swamp so might have to try to get demons rather than have them come this way.”
“Merume ru ru.” Merumeru hopped out of the water.
“So imps attacked that island in the river.” Aqua considered this. “But they were defeated by plants? Interesting, maybe Ki’s plan is starting to take root.”
“That’s right.” Fufi perked up. “When we rescued Yvne’s people, the people who came to help planted seeds all around as a parting gift.”
“Exactly.” Aqua confirmed. “Ki and the other nymphs gave seeds to all the tribal people that were going into demon lands and told them to plant them. I’d expect by this point much of the border is littered with these plants. They just had to wait for spring to sprout.”
“Meruuuu” Merumeru complained.
“Don’t need to understand elemental for that.” Alex smiled at the slime girl. “Let's go check out the portal pipe on the river and see if we can fix it up.”
“If you are going south, take some larva with you.” Professor Copperpot grabbed a towel and scooped some mosquito larva in it. “The more we spread these the better. Right now the swine flu is set to have a long incubation time, I’ll use my skills to evolve it to have a shorter time when the infection is more widespread.”
“Be careful.” Aqua warned. “My cousins say that the political situation is not great right now. Most of the big demons were dismissed so there is a real big power vacuum and all the demons are trying to fill it.”
Aqua and the gnome decided to stay behind.
After waiving goodbye, they got the air boat ready, stashed the carriage back into card form and took off towards the south in the cold water. The river wasn’t too bad and they made it to the island by nightfall.
Fufi scouted ahead and flew back. “I don’t see any demons on the island. But it looks like there was some kind of battle and the pipe got damaged.”
“Let's go check it out.” Alex steered the air boat ashore and pulled it up onto the sand. She took the towel out and dunked it in the shallow water, rising the insect larva out of the towel. After confirming the towel was bug-free she dusted it off the water with her feather duster and draped it across her shoulder.
Fufi lit up the area with the pink gem on her forehead.
After going through the underbrush, they discovered some signs of demonic defeat. There were some strange plants, and among them a few creepy sunflowers that looked like they had smile faces drawn on the interior of their flowers. They went forward and saw a busted stone pipe.
“Looks like demons did attack.” Alex mused. “They found out about this portal pipe at least.”
Merumeru rushed forward to the damaged pipe when she got a clear view.
“Merumeru, I don’t think that this is a good spot for a portal pipe.” Fufi gently scolded the slime girl. “If they know it is here then they’ll likely come back. And not too far to the south of here is another kingdom.”
“What is it called?” Alex looked at the flamingo.
“Give me a moment. I think Fuzi mentioned it.” The flamingo squinted. “It has another silly name. The kingdom keeps changing its name with every king or queen. Was the king something like king bacon? First name Chris, and the middle name is something that starts with a P.”
“Criss P. Bacon.” Alex winced. “Someone is very mean.”
“The king of Jass’s first name is Hugh.” Fufi tilted her beak. “At this point, expectations should be very low.”
In a short time Merumeru fixed up the portal pipe.
To pass the time Alex decided to use some of her plant growing powers on the strange local plants. “Some kind of witch hazel?”
“I’m not sure what that is.” Fufi watched the bushy plant grow slowly. “But I can definitely sense Luna’s power. I think this might be something related to someone with a class given by her.”
By the time Merumeru finished repairing the pipe and adding some touches to make it a little less easy to get at, the grove of sun flowers and bushes had grown quite a bit, obscuring the pipe from view completely.
“Hopefully that’ll help if another wave arrives.” Alex patted the plants. “I’m not sure what the weird sunflowers do but the other ones shoot seeds? At least that would be my guess.”
“Meru!” Merumeru hopped in the portal pipe to make sure it worked. She disappeared to the other side.
“Keep the portal safe as best as you can.” Fufi addressed the grove of plants defending the pipe.
“Looks like it is time to head back.” Alex turned the carriage with the air boat back into card form, then she and Fufi climbed in, appearing back at the nexus in Bob and Martha’s farm.
Because it was already night, they decided to be quiet and set up the carriage as discreetly as possible. Luckily chickens don’t wake up easily at night so getting tea started in the carriage wasn’t too bad. After some simple cooking for the group, Alex, Merumeru and Fufi went to bed.
The next day the group awoke at dawn.
As Alex cooked breakfast in the carriage she spoke to the room. “Do you think Kaide is awake yet?”
.
“It depends on how long it takes her to wake up, at least I’d think so.” Fufi mused. “If you slept all winter I bet you’d be groggy too.”
“That reinforces my decision not to stay as a nymph.” Alex sounded a bit more serious.
“You did get a useful ability out of that incident.” Fufi looked at the bright side. “I saw you growing those cute plants.”
“I like them.” Alex shrugged. “It is a bonus that anti-demon plantlife is spreading.”
“Meru!” Merumeru agreed. She still looked a bit salty, likely because someone destroyed her pipe.
After they had breakfast, the small group went outside to inspect the area around the wall. Similar sprouts of the sunflowers and witch hazel popped out of the ground in a few places. Plants joined the chickens in guarding the stone walls and apple tree of the portal pipe nexus.
Fufi flew a short scouting mission around the farm, seeing if she could find a nymph that was awake. She returned and informed that she met with an evergreen nymph who had been awake all winter. Apparently the winter court had mostly gone and the summer court was still waking up slowly. Ki was in Sakura’s grove but should be ready to check on things in a day or so.
Alex helped clean up the farmhouse for Bob and Martha. Kaide wasn’t awake yet. They agreed to try to grow extra food for the spring but didn’t have high enough levels to feed hundreds let alone thousands with their small farm on uneven terrain. Ki and the nymphs with their plant magic would be a better choice.
One day later, and a short pipe crawl to their old adventurer’s guild. . .
“Hello?” Alex walked out of the basement. “It has been a few months, is anyone here?”
A single evergreen nymph emerged from the door to the kitchen. “Hello. Things have been really quiet the past few months. Wasn’t expecting anyone.”
“We are back!” The flamingo cheered.
“Meru!” The slime girl smiled and waved.
“Alex, Fufi and Merumeru.” The pine-needed haired nymph greeted. “Welcome back. What brings you here? Checking on Charlotte? I don’t think she’s up yet.”
“I was hoping to check in with Ki.” Alex looked up. “Is she in her office?’
“The baroness of beauty?” The nymph yawned. “She just got back up today. She’s still a bit sleepy, maybe I can make some tea for you to bring up to her.”
“Alright.” Alex nodded. “Do you need any help?
The green-haired woman shook her head and went back to go boil some water in the kitchen.
A few minutes later, Alex and friends headed up the staircase to Ki’s office in the adventurer’s guild.
Alex knocked on the door. “Baroness Ki? Are you there? May we enter?”
“*YAWN* Who is there?” A sleepy voice answered from inside. “Don’t just stand there, come in.”
Alex opened the door and entered followed by a slime girl and a flamingo.
“How was your hibernation?” Alex walked to Ki who sat in her chair behind the desk, looking like she wasn’t completely awake yet.
“Still waking up.” The leaf-haired girl rubbed her face. “It looks like the winter court made a big mess of things. Just like I was worried about.”
“Yes, they used us humans to start a civil war in the kingdom of Jass.” Alex frowned. “And I had a really close call with a succubus.”
Ki winced. “Succubi are no joke. Magical girls are especially vulnerable against their powers. Considering how this whole mess started, avoiding getting enchanted by them should be a top priority.”
“If all of them were in the capital.” Fufi added. “Then there shouldn’t be any more in the kingdom of Jass.”
“Other demons can evolve into them.” Ki mused. “But it requires years of cultivating lust.”
“Anyway.” Alex changed the subject for obvious reasons. “We could use some help feeding some people that we rescued. There is a large group of people that we took to the island and I don’t know how well the food situation was during the winter.”
Ki tapped her desk. “That is an easy problem to fix. My cousins can help you get some early vegetables with their magic. Though it would be easier for them to come back. But I am not sure that is a great idea. The winter court was right that having combat classers here was a problem. I would like to keep those that we had to turn into shrubbery out of here. Yvne’s people didn’t cause any problems so maybe we can start with those people? I don’t think those open borders policies that we were doing worked out so well.”
Ki used her skill and pulled up a map of the forest and surrounding areas. It shows some red markers along the river and the southwest border along the swamp.
“You see those red areas?” Ki pointed.
Alex nodded.
“Having my plants growing there, on land that the king of Jass claims is contesting his sovereignty.” She explained.
“What does that mean?” Alex furrowed her brows.
“The system doesn’t recognize plants as people that can claim land.” Ki waved a hand. “However, they are considered hostile to the kingdom of Jass, like a foreign army invading. I’m sure his skills are burning at him that they are being invaded.”
“That might explain why demons destroyed Merumeru’s portal pipe.” Alex interrupted.
Ki continued. “The weird thing is that plants don’t have a system so it doesn’t count as claiming the land. I do have a class so it sorta counts. If more nymphs had the system then they could claim the land, after a countdown then the land would be seeded to another land owning class that the system would recognize.”
Alex thought she understood. “But the gods don’t like giving fey classes.”
“Exactly.” Ki smirked. “I am hoping that the king is captured or stupid. If we can somehow spin this into thinking he has to break vassalage with the demon queen that would be the ideal outcome.”
“That might be hard to do.” Alex considered this. “In occupied lands the demons are considered unstoppable and better than humans in every way.”
“A king is only as good as his supporters.” Ki tried to sound sagely. “If the nobility are largely in favor of such an action then that will also put him in a weaker state. Those kinds of high level leaders live or die by their reputation. If it looks like enemies are going to occupy the whole kingdom then trying to get peace by any means necessary is the prudent choice.”