Shinya stood in front of the king with a perplexed expression on his face. They had just finished going to war with Terra Kingdom in the demon nation and now the king wants to go to war again after just a week's rest? That sounded absurd.
"Uhm.. are you sure about this? The forest is home to another Traveler like me, so I don't think he is just going to let another kingdom take his home." Shinya tried to reason with the king.
"Another traveler? And from what summoning stone did he come?" Terrence asked.
"Erm… I… got no idea, but!" Shinya continued, "Why would you need to own the witch's forest, your kingdom is like miles away from it, and not to even speak of you already own three additional kingdoms… is the forest that important?".
Terrence sighed, "This is the first time you've questioned me this much, I thought you enjoyed war".
Shinya looked away with a nervous expression, he enjoyed war but couldn't tell the king his reason for not wanting this is because he met another Japanese hero like himself.
"Considering you are one of my best heroes, I'll explain it to you, for a long time now the witch's forest has been a diplomatic setup for different nations and kingdoms.
The forest is filled with riches and every natural resource you can think of, gold, oil, plants, even magic cores… but that's far from why most military states want it".
"If not for resources, why else will another county want it for?" Shinya asked.
"For two things…" Terence said, rising his finger as he mentioned them, "One, for strategic defense and offense static, the forest in an unclaimed territory if a war were to break in, the forest will most likely be a backup, and not to mention whoever owns the forest has every angle of both the human and demon territory held down to a lock".
"And secondly, the story of the goddess alliance being sealed in the forest has been spreading throughout the kingdom for years, anyone who claims them will most likely have the strongest military force in all four territories".
Shinya sighed, trying to process the information as little as he could, "Okay then, no biggie, I'll just infiltrate the forest and get the goddess for you".
"And you think I hadn't thought of that?" Terrence picked another grape and tossed it in his mouth, "If you even hope to put a dent in that seal, you have to be the sole owner of the providence, many have tried what you said, and we haven't seen them return, there has to be a reason".
"I think I understand now…" Shinya uttered, "Fine, I'll help you with this, but on only one condition… you let me speak to the people in the forest first".
...…
Back at the Gateway.
While Sato was sitting on his chair, he noticed all the witches had their eyes on him, like they were looking at some kind of mythic object.
*Sigh* 'Why are they looking at me like that? I don't have time for this.' Sato muttered to himself.
<<I believe they are finding it difficult to read what you are since you are basically nonexistent to this world>>
'Eh? Been a while since I heard you call me non-existent… '
"Sato Inugami was it?" Levia raised a question, she was able to have a good look at him since she was opposite him at the table.
"Yes, I already made it clear." Sato replied.
Levia clicked her tongue before she looked down at the table, "When did you arrive at the forest and begin building a village?".
"I don't remember." Sato gave a quick response.
"What do you mean by that? You don't remember the day you decided to make the forest your home?!" Kirah chimed in angrily.
"Precisely".
Yuri carried a nervous expression on her face because she could feel some of the witches getting irritated by Sato.
"I'm willing to let that slide… but then another question hits me… why did you decide to cut down the trees of a land that doesn't belong to you?".
"I didn't know anyone was in charge of the forest at the time." Sato answered back, 'And also because someone decided to hide that fact from me'.
<<Hmph!>>
"You expect us to believe you haven't heard of the witches of Lilivil?" Ava added, glaring at Sato from afar.
"If I did, I would have found you myself and made you work for me, the fact that I didn't, proves I know nothing of your existence." Sato replied back.
"If you thought I wanted to kill you before." Ava stood up from her chair and pulled her longsword, "I wanna kill you even more now".
"Ava, don't cause a scene, sit down." Terafona spoke out.
Ava gritted her teeth before she sheathed her sword and sat back down on the chair, but her glaring didn't stop.
"I don't know how and where you got the idea that the forest belongs to you, just like every other person, you found this place." Sato said, keeping a straight face, "Sure you arrived first and named the place, but did you take any necessary approach to prove the land was yours?"
"You must be very ignorant," Levia hinted, "This land was given to us by our Successor and he left it for us to look after… we don't need to prove anything to anyone".
"You're the ignorant one." Sato asserted, "You don't have a clue of the world outside this forest, do you? regardless of if you created this, if no kingdom or nation recognizes this place as a sovereign state or nation, then it's still open for other nations to grab… how can you not know this?".
"You don't…"
"And while we are on that note" Sato spoke before Levia could say anything, "Did you even know, a few years back the Kingdom 0f Orland and Sint Vuis, fought over who would lay claim to the forest? Or even now, I and my village are helping you defend this forest from falling to The Fiona kingdom?"
"Yeah that's right, I didn't think so"
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om