Chapter 896 The Invaders Part 1 of 3
Although the two were reluctant to climb and go to the little room on Leona's back, they soon stepped in when the Chieftain bravely stepped forward to do it. Once her husband decided to do it, she also followed suit.
The soldiers wanted to come along but like I just said, I don't want them to come and join in the meeting. I needed a clear discussion with both of them without the soldiers trying to manipulate their leaders to do their thing.
Once the two were settled, I returned to the top, followed by Leona carrying the two as well. After the two of us landed, I tossed a big chunk of meat to Leona which my pet happily grabbed and devoured. The two went out of the carriage and marveled after seeing Leona chew her food like a big cat.
I went to Riko first and signaled her to come along with the unconscious girl which she immediately understood. I then returned my focus on the two.
"Follow me."
The two are still confused about what will happen to them but they push on and continue their way, steeling themselves for the inevitable thing that will happen even though I am sure nothing will happen to them unless they do something that can cause me to get angry at them.
They looked around for a bit and then saw Riko carrying their unconscious daughter behind her causing them to stop and approach their daughter.
"I would refrain from approaching her for now. Unless you want our negotiation to fail immediately"
"But..." the chieftain's wife was hesitant at first.
"No worries. We won't do anything to her as long as we get along with this negotiation. If we come to an agreement, I will also agree to release her as well."
Hearing that, the two decided to hold the urge to approach their daughter and followed me to the mansion. Inside, the elves were relaxing for a cup of coffee in the living room when we entered, causing them to turn and look towards us, causing the two to stiffen seeing three elves with us.
"Calm down and sit down on the free seats. Don't worry though, no harm will happen to the two of you as well as your daughter."
The two looked at Riko who put down their daughter on the sofa, still sleeping without a care in the world and not knowing her parents were already talking with us. But even though she is sleeping, the bindings on her arms and legs are still present, as I can't risk her waking up and running away.
I asked Gobu's wife to get us some snacks for the guests to eat while we discussed things before we began our meeting.
"Alright. Now, let's hear it. First, introductions. I am Manato Tsukasa and the others here are my companions. Don't be surprised with the elves as well, they are our companions who accompanied us from thick and thin. I don't need to introduce the others as we will have to do this thing as soon as possible so that we are finished here. Now, the two of you should tell us your name and your current status, whether you are the leader of the tribe or just a bystander. I don't want to keep talking to saying "hey" and "you" to address both of you.
The one who took the initiative was the wife as she looked at his husband who was ready to say something and glared at him, causing him to stop midway and cancel what he was about to say in the end.
"My name is Mimiko, wife of the chieftain and the sub-leader of our camp. I am what you call the rationale and most of the time, the one who manages the camp while my husband is away and not around to do the task. On the other hand, this is my husband, Ragga, also known as the leader of the camp and the one who is the strongest among the soldiers in our camp, which allowed him to become the leader and the one leading us."
"Mimiko and Ragga, got it. Good to know you all."
Mimiko nodded while Ragga stiffened. I guess he still doesn't feel good about my presence.
"Alright then, let's head down to business. I know you all are apologizing but I should ask why you would apologize instead of heading to the violent route. Based on how your soldiers liked to do, you guys seem to like violence a lot."
"I..." Ragga seems to be at a loss for words as he can't deny being a warmonger. Seeing Ragga at a loss for words, Mimiko decided to save him by giving me a piece of her thoughts.
"As much as they love to solve things with violence, in terms of strength, they are no match for you and that is where I come in to do the diplomacy and convince you. We will try to find a good deal that both of us would be happy with the deal while fixing our relationship from being hostile back to neutral. Seeing how you didn't kill my husband and daughter immediately means you all have full control over how things work here."
"Not really. If your daughter provoked others other than me and my mother, then perhaps you and the remaining people in your tribe who didn't participate would be mourning for their dead bodies by now."
"Monsters...they are absolutely monsters. There's no doubt about it, they are the invaders that were told by the prophecies!" Ragga clutched his head and shivered uncontrollably. Perhaps he is remembering the time I brought him down so hard he didn't get to react to what happened next and got sent to the clinic of his tribe. But I have been curious about these invaders for quite a while now.
"Invaders? What is he talking about?"
Mimiko sighed and decided to tell me what it was. "It's something that was told in a prophecy that is being told to us by our shaman every time a full moon appears. She usually gives off normal and positive oracles most of the time but two months ago, our shaman suddenly changed her oracle and an oracle that wasn't positive for the first time has been told on us which was what was supposed to be the invaders."
"Can you tell me properly what this prophecy is entailing exactly? I know we are foreigners but we don't plan to occupy or take over a camp of other people as we are on a journey and doing that kind of thing just doesn't serve a big purpose for us."
"Ah, yes. According to the oracle, "On a peaceful day during the peak of spring and the upcoming summer drawing to close, the invaders will arrive carrying their weapons and ravage the camp, destroying and pillaging both women and treasures that we have. Only the one who bears the Glutton pacifies the Wrath and saves the camp from our imminent destruction." That's what the oracle words. I remembered it clearly as this was one of the first oracles that were not about our good hunt or bad hunt, but a future event that would happen in our camp so I made the effort to remember everything."
I nodded in response as I tried to understand the oracle. It's not as cryptic as I thought it would but there is one thing that made me think for a bit on this matter and that is the line with the "The Glutton pacifies Wrath" that made me stop and think about the situation. I am not too sure about it yet, but there is a huge chance that "The one who bears Glutton" was me as I currently hold one thing that has an insatiable appetite and is the only one who can hold their all with eating.
"Alright, I think I can see it now and I must say that we are not the invaders at all. We don't seek to capture your camp right now as we have bigger matters to deal with than conquering one camp and one thing that will definitely not happen is plundering women and treasures. Although we love to take treasures, we only do this in dungeons and places where the treasures are present and are more valuable."
"What about the women? Just like how you captured my daughter..." Ragga muttered.
I scratched my head and shook my head. "We have many females here in our group our male-to-female ratio is pretty unfair for us as we are outnumbered by the females. We don't want to add more females in our group than our initial numbers and besides, what are we even gonna do with them in the first place? So, it's a big no. We are not the invaders. I don't even see any chances that the prophecy is connected to us."
I don't want to say that we might be connected with the Glutton stuff but I have to keep it for myself for now. For now, the only thing they have to absolutely know is that we are not the one who will be invading their camp.
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