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"Leonidas! What is happening? Why have you stopped the charge?" asked Alesia as she appeared from behind the group of males ready to fight to protect their tribe.
?
Leonidas had grabbed Ervas from the head and was inspecting it as if a treasure.
"Eh? What are you doing with that kid? Do not be rude! From where did you find it? Did it escape from the tribe?" asked Alesia, as she stole Ervas from the brute Leonidas and made him rest in her arms.
"Hello…" said Ervas.
"Eh?! You can talk at such an age?!" asked Alesia… she had been instantly charmed by Ervas and thought that he was a missing Ghoul child.
"Could you please… let my son go?" asked Jason from the sides.
"Hmmm?" said Leonidas, inspecting Jason…
"Wait, who are these people?!" asked Alesia.
"These are your 'invaders', they're a very small group of people, and they were being led by the kid, so I don't know why you were so worried," said Leonidas.
"Eh? Eeeeehh?!" shouted Alesia, glancing at Ervas and quickly realizing that he was not an albino Ghoul child but a human… half-demon.
Jason was inspected by Leonidas, as he approached his face and smelled him.
"Hmm… you're strong, aren't you? Let us fight!" said Leonidas.
"…Wait, what?" asked Jason.
Veronica then decided to step in.
"Err, everyone, please, let us calm down… first of all, that kid is Ervas, and he's with us. He is this man, named Jason, son. And I am Veronica, I come with all of these people, we are all from different tribes, who had unified below a single nation… we come in peace to do some peaceful negotiations, nothing more nothing else…" said Veronica.
The Ghouls glanced at her with their dark eyes, feeling a presence similar to Ervas, but even more entrancing and delightful… they could not help but feel like they were drawn into her.
"Negotiations… Sounds good, right, Alesia?" asked Leonidas, waiting for the chief response.
Alesia glanced at the cute Ervas resting on her arms, he has not moved at all from her embrace as he felt it was very comfy.
"I suppose… We have not done trade of products in years… but. Oh? Could you be Ismene? Oh, and Riaan and Mysticia!" said Alesia, she knew the former chiefs of each tribe at the very least, as she had met them a dozen years ago when she did various trades of products, mostly crafted items and magic items such as potions with them.
"It has been a while, Alesia," said Ismene.
"Ahaha, yes, it has been truly a while! We didn't want to step in because we were waiting for miss Veronica to finish her introduction…" said Riaan with a gentle smile.
"Yeah, yeah, what the old man said! You're looking just as cute as before, little Alesia" laughed Mysticia while waving her raccoon tail.
Ismene, the chief of the Squirrel-kin, alongside Riaan and Mysticia who were the chiefs of the two Raccoon-kin tribes already knew about Alesia, but were never close friends with her or the Ghoul tribe due to the large distance they had with each other… and well, Ghouls preferred isolation from other cultures if possible.
However, Alesia also remembered another chief.
"Where is the rabbit?" asked Alesia.
"He's in here," said Veronica, as she took off her helmet, revealing that she had no head and making Pekoran jump off the hollow inside of her body, which was made into a large and comfortable space thanks to the 'Space Expansion' and 'Comfort Maintenance' Skills.
Although Veronica being a Living Armor was a big surprise, that she had someone else inside of her hollow body made it even weirder!
Alesia and Leonidas, alongside all of the Ghouls that saw this had their eyes almost popping out of their sockets.
"W-What was that?!" asked Leonidas.
"Veronica, right? Just what are you?" asked Alesia.
"She's my sister… And she is also a Living Armor, so please don't discriminate if possible… She is very polite and a good woman" said Ervas.
"Y-Yeah, and this is Pekoran!" said Ismene, presenting the Living Armor… Living Armory, Pekoran.
"Hello, Alesia, it's been a while," said Pekoran, as he took off his helmet and showed the phantom projection of his face, which was materialized, giving him his former appearance, but incredibly pale, with crimson eyes and white hair… but the large and distinctive rabbit ears were still atop his head, even after projecting himself through Phantom Form, this was because Pekoran own appearance has been impregnated on his mind. Even if he was no longer a Rabbit-kin, he still saw himself as one and showed it in the rabbit ears on his Phantom Form projection.
"That voice and the silly smile… I guess you're really the rabbit man, Pekoran… did you just died and became an undead?" asked Alesia.
"Long story short, yes," said Pekoran.
Alesia couldn't help but sigh over the many questions she had in her head, resting in her hips.
"Sigh… Okay, let's get inside, we were about to have lunch, so feel free to join us" said Alesia, walking inside with Ervas still in her arms.
"Ervas, wait for me!" said Jason, entering as well as the rest of the party.
"Thanks for letting us in," said Veronica.
"Hm, feel at home," said Leonidas with a serious expression, but he was a rather polite man.
The group then gathered around the recently grilled Giant Lizard that they were about to eat, quickly realizing that it was in fact, a Giant Lizardman.
"A Lizardman… a Giant Lizardman? Did you found a group of them roaming in here?" asked Veronica.
"This? No, some Lizardmen appear in a nearby Dungeon, it is a three floors dungeon filled with swamps where these lizards appear like mice, we hunt them mostly" said Alesia, cutting out a large piece of meat from the Giant Lizardman's torso and offering it to Ervas.
"You eat meat?" she asked.
"Yes, thanks," said Ervas, happily eating the piece of meat while resting in Alesia's arms, her breasts were soft and she smelled sweet, so Ervas was almost in heaven.
"Err… will you let go of my son?" asked Jason.
"Well… I don't know why but I felt the impulse of taking care of him… Do you really need him right now?" asked Alesia to Jason.
"N-Not really… I guess, Ervas, are you okay with it? You just met her…" asked Jason.
"Yes, she's very nice," said Ervas.
"I guess it is fine then" sighed Jason as he received a piece of meat from another Ghoul woman and sat down near Veronica and Ismene.
As they had lunch, Leonidas joined in the group, so the two 'representants' of both Ghoul men and Ghoul women could hear what they wanted to say or offer.
It was a rather simple request, and it was made by Ervas and Veronica themselves.
"A Kingdom?! In this forest?!" asked Leonidas.
"And you want us… to join it? That simply?!" asked Alesia.
Ervas and Veronica were never master of words nor liked to trick people into doing things they did not want to, so they were upfront in what they offered… a new and safer home with better conditions in pretty much every aspect… in exchange for leaving their tribe.
"Yeah, with the menace of Oggoth, who had tried several times to invade and steal the tribe members of each tribe, which he succeeded once with the rabbit-kin resulting in Pekoran's death, it would be better if everyone were to be together, protecting each other and taking care of each other," said Ervas nonchalantly, as he drank a small cup of fresh Lizardman blood.
"Wait… so the explosions we heard the other day…!" said Alesia.
"Were they the battle you had against that demon god army?!" asked Leonidas.
"Pretty much. We fought against two armies that tried to conquer both Raccoon-kin tribes. They were made of around a hundred Orcs, Lizardmen, Goblin, and Kobolds, and led by a large group of Rank 6 Gazer Monsters, greatly adept at magic" said Veronica.
"That's… wait, how many Rank 6 monsters?!" asked Leonidas, he was the strongest of the tribe, but even then, without access to Job Changes, he could barely fight a Rank 6 monster with the group of Males and survive… he could not imagine just complicated it would be to fight against a dozen of them all by themselves… Certainly, the people before him were incredible in every aspect.
Especially the kid, Ervas, who he thought was a mere toddler, was, in fact, the one who got rid of many of such Rank 6 monsters by himself.
"Are you really that strong, kid?!" asked Leonidas, grabbing Ervas from the head with his giant hands.
"Yes," said Ervas confidently.
"But you're so tiny, I can grab you like this!" said Leonidas.
"Being tiny doesn't mean that I am weak…" said Ervas.
"Hmmm… I guess we will have to test that! And that man over there too!" said Leonidas.
"I guess he has decided… we will accept your offer… only if you fight against the strongest Ghoul of the tribe and win in a battle against him. He doesn't believe your story very much, so he wants to prove your worth as a warrior… I also want to see how strong you are" said Alesia.
"Wait… Leonidas, Ervas is a mere child, why would you fight him?!" asked Jason.
"I won't believe that this kid can be that strong!" said Leonidas.
"I am also as strong," said Veronica.
"Hmmm… Very well then, we'll bring the other two strongest! I will not believe a word from all of you until you show me your worth! This is how we Ghouls trust people!" said Leonidas.
"Fighting? You trust people by fighting?" asked Jason.
"Yeah!" said Leonidas… he was not the brightest, fighting against someone would usually bring more of a grudge than trust… but these were the cultural differences between tribes.
Another two Ghoul men appeared from the crowd, they were just as burly and strong as Leonidas, they were his right and left arm, one red and the other blue named Izquierdo and Derecho.
…They were also his younger siblings.
"Don't worry aniki, we'll show them what we Ghoul men are made of!" said Izquierdo, the red-skinned Ghoul man.
"Yeah, we won't believe a bit of what they say without giving us a good fight!" said Derecho, the blue-skinned Ghoul man.
"Eeeh?! E-Ervas, Veronica, are you okay with this?!" asked Jason… he was not worried about them, but about the Ghouls.
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