No matter which world it was in, the police, military, and other violent organizations would always arrive late. This wasn't just because of the storyline. It was because receiving information, reporting to the police, understanding the situation, and gathering their forces would all require a large amount of time.
A well-organized organization, excellent training, and advanced equipment would be able to shorten this emergency response time, but it would be impossible to completely eliminate it. It could be said that the time it took for the police to arrive was a direct reflection of the overall strength of the organization.
For the residents of Starwood City, the arrival of the kingdom's reinforcements, which they had been waiting for so long, was a good thing. At the very least, this meant that Starwood City was now safe. But when the reinforcements actually arrived, even the most good-tempered person would be filled with anger.
After all, the battle had already ended for half a month, and the reinforcements had only just arrived. The reinforcements had even fought a battle on the way here, and more than 50% of the reinforcements had died. When the reinforcements arrived, they were all exhausted and injured. Their ranks were filled with stretchers and injured soldiers. Rather than calling them reinforcements, it would be more accurate to call them disaster victims waiting to be rescued. This was truly unacceptable.
"Get the hell out of here! Are you here to rescue us or to kill each other?"
"… Even Marquis Stanley is far stronger than all of you. 'Blood Spear' Salima is protecting us, and what did your domain lord do!? He colluded with the undead and murdered the royal prince! Everyone is in danger! "
The residents of Starwood City had such a strange welcome method that Count Debaron, who was leading the group, was furious. In fact, he even privately considered hanging a few mercenaries and civilians for saying such arrogant things.
"Those filthy commoners, if it wasn't for the fact that we were here to rescue you, we wouldn't have fallen for those traitors' ambush. You actually dare to talk back to me?"
Prince Roland's murder was still right in front of him. If he didn't handle it well, it would be a major problem. Debaron even considered using the excuse of hunting down the murderer to vent his anger. After all, according to usual practice, there would always be many more people buried with the royal family when they were murdered.
But unfortunately, he couldn't do that this time …
Not only were there human guards on the city walls, there were also short elves patrolling the city walls. Gigantic magical flowers and ancient war trees covered the entire city walls. The wood spirits were now in control of the entire city.
If it was only the wood spirits on the outskirts, it wouldn't have been a big deal. However, the airships in the sky gave everyone an invisible pressure. If there were any lucky survivors, the ancient war trees that covered the sky at the center of the city explained everything.
"The Forest of Dreams' Sky Trees? What are they planning to do … "
Sky-reaching Wood was an extension of the wood spirits' Mother Tree. Only when constructing a wood spirit town would such a precious tree be planted. The wood spirits could use this tree to receive support from the Forest of Dreams. Regenerating wood spirits also had many wondrous uses that outsiders didn't know about.
As the wood spirits became more and more famous, the Sky-reaching Tree, which had obtained tremendous results in the battle against the undead, was not only viewed as a powerful weapon of war, but the area where the Sky-reaching Tree was located was also viewed as the wood spirits' sphere of influence.
The wood spirits weren't too far away from the Sala Dukedom, so of course Debaron knew what this giant tree represented.
The shabby city in front of him had already turned into a fortress city. Furthermore, it was a fortress built by another country or another race.
"Invasion? This is a blatant military invasion! "
If he was a pure soldier, he would have drawn his sword to protect the country by now. However, he was trusted by the royal family to deal with such a big matter. He was more of a politician than a soldier.
"Why did they do it? Could it be that the rumors about the treasure are true? "
But even though he had so many thoughts and guesses, there was nothing he could do. At most, he could report his guesses to the Archduke. However, the royal family behind him … would probably be unable to do anything either.
This was the tragedy of a small country, especially a small country that was in the midst of a civil war or a world war. When the original order was shattered by war, the law of the jungle became so obvious and cruel.
If the wood spirits really wanted to take a piece of land here, what else could they do apart from denouncing the wood spirits, who were in the midst of a civil war? Would the royal army, which was currently in the midst of a civil war, start a war against the wood spirits, who were strong enough to rival Undead Emperors?
"… You're overthinking things. We have no interest in such a shabby city. Our peace-loving species won't actively invade. We've actually established a base here for another reason …"
A sudden voice interrupted Debaron's thoughts. However, this calming voice didn't make him feel at ease. Instead, he was terrified that his thoughts had been seen through.
A short, black-haired wood spirit had appeared in front of him. Her small figure was extremely similar to that of a young elf. Debaron had seen such a young elf slave at a banquet hosted by a major noble from another country. That elf slave would be worth an astronomical amount of money to purchase this shabby little city.
However, the wood spirit before him seemed incredibly weak, as if he could easily subdue her. Debaron didn't dare to do anything shady. After all, the average combat strength of the wood spirits was far above that of humans and ordinary elves. This seemingly young little girl definitely wouldn't be any weaker than a Silver-ranked warrior.
The wood spirit's gentle smile suddenly became sinister as a mixture of contempt and angry killing intent swept over Debaron.
"Could it be that you're also a despicable slaver? Or, what do you intend to do to me? "
Debaron didn't know how the wood spirit before him had seen through his dark thoughts, but he was truly frightened and hurriedly denied it.
"No, no, thank you for your support. I was just thinking about how to report this to the Archduke …"
Amidst the chaos, the black-haired wood spirit had completed her main mission. She gave an explanation for her species' actions in constructing a fortress, stating that the wood spirits didn't intend to invade, but that the situation was rather special.
"A Dimensional Door leading to the lower planes has appeared in the ruins. Large numbers of demons are pouring out, and the Dimensional Door is out of control … Damn it, doesn't that mean that this place will be conquered by the demons sooner or later?"
This wasn't good news at all. Debaron was already regretting volunteering to earn military merits. If the demon army suddenly appeared before him, what could his half-crippled army possibly do?
Right now, he was already considering whether or not he should find an excuse to escape. However, he hadn't accomplished anything at all and had suffered heavy losses. Returning with his tail between his legs would be no different from dying in battle. Perhaps he would even get honor points and "Noble Points" if he died in battle.
However, the wood spirit named Mu En shook her head. She didn't make the most difficult request for Debaron to make — to have his army station here to protect her citizens.
"Out of control means that both sides have lost control of the Dimensional Door in this area. Right now, the Dimensional Door leading to the lower planes has become a random Dimensional Door. Every once in a while, it's possible that a resident of the lower planes will be sent here. However, it's impossible for a large army to invade. In order to prevent these demons from harming Starwood City's citizens, as well as to prevent the demons from entering other areas, we constructed this fortress."
This was a good enough reason. Debaron calmed down a bit after hearing that the demon army wouldn't be coming. However, he felt that there was something fishy going on here. However, with his abilities, it was impossible for him to tell if this was real or fake … With the Sala Dukedom's power, even if they knew it was fake, what could they do?
Mu En paused for a moment before continuing.
"Everything happened too suddenly. We didn't have the time to report this to your country's royalty. Please send our apologies to the Archduke."
International diplomacy was very particular about the use of words. "Report" and "apologize" seemed polite, but it was actually more than enough to simply inform Roland. Roland didn't care what Roland thought.
"That's right, I'm sorry for taking over your territory … What? You want me to take it back? Have you woken up from your dream? Saying 'sorry' is already giving you a lot of respect. "
Building a fortress in another country, and in such an exaggerated and overbearing manner, was basically the same as grabbing Roland's neck and asking "Do you admit defeat?" But Debaron secretly heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this overbearing "apology." This was the way that he was used to in a major country. If the wood spirit before him had really carefully explained himself, Debaron would have had to carefully consider the true meaning behind it.
Of course, while he was relaxed, he probably didn't have the mentality of "I can't do anything about this anymore, so I'll just leave it to the royal family to deal with". Perhaps he also had the mentality of "I was so lucky that nobody blamed me for losing in such a major event".
As for the rumored hidden treasures and ruins? He wouldn't give up, either. He would send out his own spies and thieves, but he wouldn't need to consider a direct confrontation until he received more information and orders from the higher-ups.
On a different level, his safety would be guaranteed. This was all for the sake of the wood spirits' reputation. As long as he was near this fortress, the Marquis' rebel army wouldn't be able to continue chasing after him.
What Debaron didn't know was that although the wood spirit before him didn't know how to read minds, there really was someone on the fortress wall who could. Debaron's little scheme had long since been exposed.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Although it's basically the same as I expected, sending such a person to command the battlefield would be no different from sending soldiers to the undead if it weren't for the fact that they met us."
I felt rather helpless. Although it was a good thing for us that the Sala government had sent out such a person, it would have been better to hope that Aichy would suddenly revive than rely on such an army to fight against an invader from another dimension like Conservation.
"That might not necessarily be the case. Although Amelia has been thinking about herself the entire time, she's still a graduate of a formal military academy. She's quite skilled at commanding battles. As for being selfish, cowardly, and afraid of taking responsibility … aren't all nobles like that?"
Amelia didn't even try to hide her disdain for the nobles. It was as if she had forgotten that she was also a member of the royal family. Perhaps it was even more likely that she had long since stopped treating herself as a human.
Amelia didn't even bother to hide her ability to read minds in front of Roland. She simply explained her thoughts as usual. In fact, she didn't even remember when she had been seen through.
Originally, she had already mentally prepared herself to be distanced from her. After all, no matter how good of a relationship she had with those who knew about her, they would either run away and never meet again, or they would be worried that their secrets would be exposed and would even try to kill them to keep them quiet. Yet, Roland's reply was still fresh in her mind. It was a new level of understanding that made her wonder if Roland's brain was normal.
"What a convenient ability. Then when I communicate with you, I can open my mouth and don't have to worry about not being able to explain myself clearly. It saves me so much time and energy."
Lies were meaningless to Amelia. The truth that Roland had told her back then shocked her even more than a seamless lie. He really wasn't worried about being read by others at all. In fact, he even saw it as a means of communication.
Should one say that he was simple-minded or that he was open-minded? Even though he had a belly full of evil tricks and wasn't a good person, Roland wasn't worried about being seen through at all. While Amelia was secretly surprised by this "trust", it also made her chat with Roland her favorite pastime.
"This feeling of being trusted and being able to say whatever I want is probably something I can only experience when I'm with him …"
And this time, while Roland was still full of evil tricks and plotting how to set up a trap for others, Amelia unhesitatingly became his accomplice.
"When will our real reinforcements arrive?"
"Soon. Based on the distance, as long as he doesn't get lost, he should arrive in three days …"
"In that case, should we make preparations?"
"No, he's quite fast on foot, but he'll be lucky if he can arrive in ten days. It'll be normal for him to arrive in around two months. And that's if he's too insistent on leading the way himself and listening to others …"
"He's able to find us in two months. We're half a continent away from each other, so he doesn't have a terrible sense of direction … Pfft, I get it."
Amelia covered her mouth and chuckled. She had already seen Roland's epic journey across the continent in his instant memories. Looking at it from this angle, Captain Rolo really didn't have it easy back then.
"Yep, in the first month, I'll make him give up and admit that it's impossible for him to find the way. In the second month, I'll make him fly back even if he walks to the end of the world …"
I had a pained expression. This was all a lesson I learned through blood and tears. Having a terrible sense of direction wasn't scary. Having a terrible sense of direction who didn't look at maps or ask others for directions wasn't scary either. Having a terrible sense of direction who firmly believed that he was the best pathfinder in the world would truly make others feel helpless.
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