Chapter 52 Foundation
"As always you\'re late, where did you go today?" Gin was the one to initiate the conversation.
"Some issues old man, nothing serious let\'s start the meeting," I said while taking my seat which was situated at the end of the table.
The meeting had a total of 8 people without including myself. Mother and Delviny were standing on either side of me while the old man and Juno with another bear-kin while on the other side were Aunt Asumi, Charlotte and the other chief who supported us greatly even though he retired from his position.
"It\'s nice to see you again everyone, so what\'s the topic today? Are there any interesting things happening here?" I started the meeting while giving his proper morning greeting to everyone.
"Nothing is happening here, Everything is rather peaceful and everyone is getting along, if someone told me that humans and beastmen can co-exist together before I would have most probably laughed at him but now I know that it\'s not impossible," Juno was the one to answer my question. During these 9 years, Juno became more friendly with everyone including myself. She was rather wary of me at first but after talking with her I found her to be a rather interesting girl. When I met her she was already a grown-up girl but now she looks absolutely stunning with her tiger ears and tails which I want to touch but I heard that beast-kin only let their partner touch their ears and tails since they are sensitive especially in females.
Juno, Delvi and Remi were known as three training monsters among soldiers becuase they were literally battle freaks. When they enter the arena or training area all three of them are like some kind of bloodthirsty monsters.
"Veli, what do we do with the slaves you brought here, I don\'t think it\'s a good idea to keep demons here as slaves," Aunt was worried about them.
"Let them stay here for a few days after that put them into some suitable work for them, don\'t worry if something happens I will do something, as for the elves, I cannot let them go right now so tell them to stay here until I contact elf forest," I gave the orders to her after thinking about the best option he can take right now.
Daphnia also agreed to his idea of waiting and seeing how it happens rather than taking action suddenly.
"I have some hot news to share with you guys," everyone was curious about what caused him to call it hot news.
"Shortly, there will be war between the kingdoms and empire, the borders are already invaded and the kingdom had formed an agreement to deal with the new emperor," I said while noticing the changes in Mother and Delvi\'s faces.
"W-what? Why would they declare war without a proper reason?" Mother was the one to ask the question with a little shock in her voice. Even though Delvi didn\'t react to it as much as her mother she also got some unpleasant memories back about that hellhole.
Even if Daphnia didn\'t have lingering feelings and loyalty toward the empire she still had a mother in the empire, She was the only person who she genuinely love in her family except for her children. She knew Empire\'s military force is not to be underestimated but if the kingdoms formed an agreement to deal with the empire it won\'t be an easy fight.
"Tch~ What are those old geezers doing without stopping that moron from doing everything he wants?" Daphnia thought while remembering her days in that castle in which she always had a knife on her neck while living there, unlike the freedom she had in here.
"Veli, where did you get this information? Are they reliable?" She still couldn\'t believe why they would declare a war that will be definitely disadvantageous to the empire.
"I\'m very sure about this information, mom" I couldn\'t lie to her since she knew about the treasure we found in the dragon cave but I couldn\'t tell her since we are in front of others. I hinted at her showing my ring that help me to cover this problem. She understood that it must be from some kind of treasure so she tried to cover for me,
"Ah~ Yes, Yes it must be from that person, right? Sorry I forgot"
Delviny felt that something was wrong with both of them but she didn\'t care about them lying because at the end of the day to her only her family matters.
"And now the main part of this problem, what we\'re going to do in the future when this war starts, we can\'t stay hidden forever and the reason they couldn\'t send any knights here was becuase of the war but if the war ends, they will definitely find this place," I said while emphasizing the problem.
Everyone went silent after hearing this becuase even if the kingdom wins or the empire wins this war that didn\'t matter to them, only the survival of our alliance mattered to them.
"Should we send a message to the kingdom before they declare as rebels," Charlotte was the one to propose the idea.
"If we do it now we will most likely be attacked, we have our beastmen friend, you know kingdom enslave beast people and look at our walls and resources, they are better than a commercial city in the kingdom," Aunt was the one to reject her proposal which Junk gave a smile becuase she didn\'t want to leave this alliance or be away from Velian.
"Then what do we do? Ask help from other kingdoms?" Even though the old man Gin was a beastmen he had a vast knowledge about humans and dwarfs.
"No only union will be able to help us but even if that happens they will most likely steal our resources in vast amounts," Asumi answered his question.
Velian was listening to all these with a calm expression while trying to think about the best plan for the safety of the alliance.
"No matter what, if we now our heads they will cut it from the throat so why don\'t we stay without bowing our heads," Velian proposed an idea that others didn\'t understand.
"Simply, we will attack before they destroy us and we will take the advantage of their confusion, If you want me to make it more simple for you we will build a kingdom," I said which caused others to open their mouths in shock. Even Delviny and Daphnia were no exception,
"W-what? Building a kingdom? Veli, are you serious?" Aunt was the first one to break off from the shock.
"I\'m a hundred per cent serious,"
"But how can we, do we have enough manpower to against a kingdom?" Daphnia questioned quickly feeling a little excited about this idea.
"Don\'t worry, first we will capture the Nobel lands close to our alliance and convince their citizens to join us, the kingdom will be busy with empire while we attack the kingdom and if the kingdom loses we will capture the kingdom without many efforts but if they win, We will attack them, until then hone your skills and don\'t tell the people about this until it\'s close, tell them to practice and make many weapons, I will take care of Nobel lands so that people will join us automatically after we defeated the nobels," I said while looking at the shocked faces of everyone.
"Don\'t worry I\'ve never fought a losing battle until now and you guys know it, Whoever wins the war, it will be our victory at the end," I assured them so as not to make them too uncomfortable which can affect their future performance.
Juno and Gin had a battle-hungry smile hearing my words. It must be their instinct if there is a battle they always get super hyped up no matter how small the battle is.
We talked about a few more things regarding this topic and ended the meeting. All of them were convinced to keep quiet about this matter until the correct time.
I saw the mother and Delvi discuss something right after we ended the meeting in secret. I was curious but the distance was too much that I couldn\'t hear it clearly except for the word empire. I had a faint idea what it was about but I choose to wait until they voluntary tell me.
"Veli, we have something to discuss with you, so come home early tonight," Mother said while going back to her workplace which is the simple school we built to teach small kids. She was teaching some language and basic maths there.
"Ok mother, see you at night," I gave my farewell and went back to my actually non-existent work.
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Author note:
I want to ask a question from my readers, I did research with my friends regarding their type of woman and most of them disliked tomboy women with little muscular bodies ( Kyla\'s Illustration in Comment Section of Character Introduction). Do you guys also find it less appealing?