Chapter 39: We're going camping! (and then killing…)

Upper Fire Month, 24th Day, 600 AGG

"No. Absolutely not."

"I'm not asking for that much."

"You're asking me if I think it's okay for you to dive deep into the heart of enemy territory," Draudillon glared at her idiotic lover. "The answer is no. "

"There's not gonna be anyone there who can hurt me!" Yuriko protested before halting. "W-Well, maybe!"

"What if there's someone that can? Actually, why do you feel the need to go anyways?" Draudillon shot down the angel's reasoning. "Couldn't you send your summons instead? Why do you need to go there personally?"

"Because," Yuriko broke eye contact, fists clenched at her sides. "I should at least look them in the eyes when I k-kill them."

'I see. She hasn't moved on from what happened in Caldevera,' guilt surged up from within; it wasn't enough to dissuade her though. 'That doesn't mean it's fine for her to just… up and leave for enemy territory. What if they have some weapon that can manage to hurt her? Wait, what about her mental state? What will happen to that if I let her go by herself?'

"Then take me with you," there was simply no way in hell she was allowing Yuriko to run headfirst into the heart of demihuman lands immediately after beginning their courtship. "Take me with you to the Beastman Country."

"What? No!" Yuriko's head snapped up. "It's dangerous—!"

"Dangerous," Draudillon pursed her lips and slowly nodded her head. "And you expect me to be happy knowing you're putting yourself in peril. Is that correct?"

"N-No, but if you get hurt…"

"Yuriko, look," Draudillon softened her tone. "If you feel like it's too unsafe for me, then please try to understand that I feel the same way about you going. I'll honestly feel a lot better if I came along with you."

"I get that," Yuriko shifted on her feet, looking supremely uncomfortable while she did so. "But if we like, I dunno, get caught in a surprise attack or something, I…" the angel swallowed, clearly upset by whatever she was envisioning. "I'm not sure I can protect you."

'Have to approach this in a different way,' Draudillon quickly switched to an alternate line of persuasion. 'She'll never agree otherwise. I need to go. The more I think about it, the more worried I get.'

"There's no such thing as an inviolable protection," the dragon queen cupped Yuriko's cheek in one hand. "That aside, do you even have a plan? How will you get the Beastman Country without being detected? How will you ensure that none of our targets flee? Have you considered any of that?"

"... No."

"Bring me along then," this time, it was Draudillon's turn to pull her beloved into a hug. "Together, we can cover for each other. We're partners now, aren't we?"

'I laid this burden upon you. At least let me help you bear it.'

"Fine," Yuriko returned the hug with a fervor that was at odds with her unhappy voice. "But you have to listen to me if we're getting attacked, alright?"

"Alright," Draudillon finally acquiesced. This was an acceptable arrangement. "I will, I promise. Now, when were you planning on leaving?"

"Ummm," the angel winced. "Today?"

'Don't lose your patience, Draudillon,' she took a deep breath and slowly released it. "Right. Right, okay." Focus on the task ahead. "So we have to get there without being noticed."

Yuriko nodded her head. Draudillon had the strangest feeling she could probably say whatever ridiculous ideas that came to mind and the angel would at most offer only a token resistance.

'Ideas, huh?' Their primary goals included: not alerting the upper echelons of beastmen society, gathering the more important members into one place, and then navigating the rest of the country to hunt down everyone else. 'Considering how large the Beastman Country might be, it's unrealistic to think that we'll be able to catch every single man-eater. With that in mind, our priority should be the first two objectives. There's no problem with the third being done over a prolonged period of time.'

Teleportation? They would run into the same issue they did when Mohajar was attacked. Yuriko had no suitable target she could scry and had never visited the Beastman Country which meant 『Gate』 wasn't an effective option.

Smuggle themselves in? Better, but then that was likely to raise questions of just how Varush, Ithit, and Rasthdaan the aarakocra managed to escape from what many beastmen recognized as a superior force. Accusations of collusion was the obvious outcome; they wouldn't make it three steps into a major city without outing themselves.

'What if we don't smuggle ourselves in?' The dragon queen came upon a realization. 'What if we just brazenly march in without any pretense of hiding? They probably recognize Yuriko by her wings, so walking in without those should render her largely unrecognizable. Plus, it'll be easier to get a closer look at the Beastman Country too—a boon considering how much more advanced they seem compared to the kingdom.'

"We can pretend to be slaves," the outrageous suggestion formed in her head and slipped out her mouth. "Given how the beastmen delegates came by themselves, it's unlikely their colleagues expected them to achieve anything other than die upon approaching our borders. I doubt they would bother to scry what they believe to be a pair of walking corpses."

'There's some grim satisfaction to be found in this hypothetical. They'll believe themselves safe in their 'victory' only to die before realizing the deception.'

"So they wouldn't know what we're planning here?" Yuriko tilted her head. The angel was surprisingly perceptive sometimes, Draudillon thought fondly before turning her attention back to what they were saying. "Meaning we only have to be super careful when we get close to their country."

"Precisely. You don't have any objections?"

"Eh? No, it's a good plan, I think?" A pleasant shiver ran down her spine as Yuriko absentmindedly rubbed her back. "They wouldn't be suspicious if it looked like they defeated us, right? But, are you okay with the idea?"

"What do you mean? I'm the one who came up with it."

"Like," the angel bit her lips. Draudillon wanted to bite them too—focus, focus. "These are the people responsible for all the bad stuff that happened, and you're gonna have to act like a slave in front of them? It's just… is it really okay with you?"

'It's not like I'm unaccustomed to debasing myself anyways,' Draudillon wryly reflected on the childish form she so often took in the past. 'In fact, it's more unusual that she should agree to my idea this readily. But she's always been like this, hasn't she? Always willing to sacrifice her time, energy, attention, herself for the sake of others.'

"It is," and then in a lower voice she mumbled. "Take care of yourself too, won't you?"

"Huh?" Yuriko flustered, high points of color appearing on her cheeks. "I, I heard the first part, but I didn't catch the rest. S-Sorry."

"Take of yourself too," Draudillon repeated, louder this time. "Okay?"

"Um, I really don't mind though—"

"Not just for this," Yuriko cutely scrunched her face as the dragon queen pinched her nose. "You're always telling me to rest; make sure to take your own advice as well. If anyone is allowed their fair share of selfishness, it's you."

"... I already take breaks."

"Not enough, clearly," Draudillon sighed and decided to shelve the topic for later. "Forget it. One thing at a time."

" 'Kay," Yuriko's eyes awkwardly flicked to the side and back to her. "Hey uh, I know I said 'today,' but it's definitely okay if we take some more time to think about it. We had all those plans and stuff after all, right?"

'This is a terrible time to be having this discussion,' Draudillon silently agreed. 'A confession of love, an offer of courtship, and now a plan for infiltrating a foreign nation at the behest of my beloved. All one after the other. Maybe we should take some more time to think this through—allow calmer minds to prevail and whatnot.'

"That might be a good idea," she mulled over the problems of accelerating their decapitation plan. The lack of administrative manpower was the main constraint, but the imprisoned beastman delegates might be able to mitigate that. "But the longer we wait, the less viable this plan becomes. Their friends back home might suspect something is amiss if too much time passes."

"Makes sense," Yuriko bobbed her head. "Should we go talk to the beastmen guys about it then? Since, uh, they seem like a big part of the plan."

"Mm," come to think of it, how long was this whole trip going to take? Taking such a long hiatus from work was unconscionable… though managing relations with a troublesome neighbor could be seen as work in its own right. "Could you bring Mira and someone else to the dungeons to observe?"

"Sure," Yuriko frowned after a moment of thinking. "Um, why though?"

"So they can deal with Martin in our steads."

"Ooooh," the angel's eyes widened as she hurriedly agreed. "Okay, okay. Good idea. Let's do that."

"..."

Draudillon closed her eyes and leaned against the angel. In spite of the vast undertaking that loomed before them, neither were willing to release their hold on each other.

"Draudillon," Yuriko tapped the dragon queen's shoulder after an indeterminate amount of time that she only knew to be far too short. "We should go. Mira and Vicente are on their way already."

"A little longer," she murmured. "Just a little longer."

A little longer until they had to dive right back into the thick of things.

Varush blinked and uncomprehendingly stared at Queen Oriculus.

"You want us to bring you along as… slaves."

"Is that too difficult to understand?" He was getting slightly more used to her coldness now, though she did seem significantly less hostile than earlier. Did something good happen? Varush had no idea of knowing. "I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, High Vizier."

"Ahem," Varush cleared his throat. "It's not that your request is difficult to understand, but more of… well…"

'Take the Goddess and the ruler of the human kingdom as slaves' Varush felt faint. One misstep during any part of Queen Oriculus's plan and their lives were forfeit. 'This is insanity. It's irresistible bait for the Council, but oh gods, just one mistake…'

"Well?"

"A most innovative idea," the Minotaur decided upon saying. "But, how to say this, a scheme that revolves around that sort of situation is uncomfortable—"

"I did not ask whether you thought it was comfortable," Varush's blood froze at her chilly reprimand. "I asked if you thought it to be a plausible course of action."

He and his companions would need to strike the perfect balance of lording over their 'slaves' without crossing some invisible line. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that what might be a casual gesture for them could very well be the height of rudeness for a human or Goddess.

"If it's our deaths you want, you could say as much without insulting us in such a roundabout way," Ithit tiredly glared at the pair. "What's the point of this farce?"

The Goddess frowned. Ithit promptly shut his mouth.

"Setting aside the details," Varush tried to brush over the Vizier's verbal blunder. "The idea has some merit."

"Oh? Do tell," Queen Oriculus's eyes snapped to him. From what he could see, her mind was already made up; Ithit was correct in implying that there wasn't any point in asking them. After all, it would be foolish to expect one's enemies to come up with an improved plan to destroy themselves.

That being said, coercion—divinely backed coercion at that—was more than enough to get him and his fellow inmates to comply.

"The Council would certainly be curious to see the ones responsible for foiling their plans of eastern expansion," Varush decided to hedge his bets. "Coming as uh, slaves might allay any concerns of double-dealing as well."

"Might, or will?"

"It's hard to say. On the off chance anyone back home has been keeping an eye on us, then this whole suggestion is doomed from the start," Varush bit back a grimace. He didn't have the queen pegged as someone who would get irate at having their suggestions denied, but it still felt precarious to do so.

"The dungeons and throne room are warded against divination," Queen Oriculus shrugged. "I'm sure you'll be able to come up with a believable tale on how you managed to subjugate the foul queen and her champion before making a narrow escape."

"Y-Yes, of course," the Minotaur was quick to agree. If their captors were willing to go this far, then it was in the Republic's best interest for him to comply. "Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but how will we explain the continued existence of the angels? My colleagues would surely find that suspect."

"Just say something like 'We managed to bend the angel to our will, so now we can use her summons for our own purposes.' Hm, with that said, try to avoid situations where you need to show off her abilities. The more harmless we seem, the better."

Shockingly enough, the Goddess appeared to be in agreement with Queen Oriculus's absurd plan. Did they really not mind the humiliation of walking around as a slave, faked or not? Just what did the queen do or offer to them?

"I suppose that's manageable then," Varush resigned himself to the role of temporary 'slave' holder, a position he had absolutely no personal familiarity with. "Are we to set out now? Your clothing might be a bit, um…" He didn't have the nerve to finish the sentence. Even Ithit and Rasthdaan shot him looks of disbelief.

"That's a good point," Queen Oriculus turned her head towards the Goddess. "We'll have to find some suitable—oh. How long have you had those?"

"Erm," the Goddess sheepishly grinned while carrying a bundle of tattered clothing she had seemingly pulled from the void. "A few weeks? I guess I forgot to take them out…"

'What was that rift? What's with this difference in her behavior?' Were the queen and Goddess both prone to bouts of caprice? 'The longer we're here, the less I comprehend.'

"You really ought to clean out your Item Box sometime," Queen Oriculus gently chastised the Goddess; just what in the world was their relationship? There was none of the deference a person would normally show towards someone who was overwhelmingly more powerful. "These should work though. Thank you."

"H-Hooray," the Goddess did a small fist pump that Varush might've thought endearing were it not for the destruction he knew she was capable of. "Oh, hm. Is that all we need? We're gonna have to travel on foot for a lot of the trip if we wanna stay secret, right? Maybe some camping stuff—"

"Yuriko, we can just use 『Gate』 if there's anything we really need," upon hearing Queen Oriculus's words, the Goddess's excitement leaked out like water from a damaged waterskin.

'『Gate』? What kind of spell is that? Some type of teleportation magic surely, but the extent of my knowledge ends there.'

"Oh…" The wings of the deity drooped.

"I'll ask some attendants to prepare camping supplies before we leave," Queen Oriculus sighed and directed a tender smile at the Goddess. "I suppose it'll save on mana if we keep supplies close by."

The ragged garments fell to the ground as the Goddess suddenly embraced Queen Oriculus, her face and expression buried and hidden in their shoulder. "Thanks, and um, sorry for the trouble."

"Why are you apologizing for providing helpful input?" Varush tore his eyes away from the sight of Queen Oriculus scratching the back of the Goddess's head without any hint of reservation. The intimacy of the scene was mildly uncomfortable to watch. "It's no trouble at all."

Ah. It all made sense now.

'They're bonded mates,' it was a clean and straightforward explanation. 'That explains the incongruity of their interactions. I was assuming a more professional relationship when that wasn't the case.'

Still, a deity shouldn't be so pliant to the whims of a mere human. Just what kind of monstrous existence was Queen Oriculus? Varush was no expert on what humans found beautiful, but he was certain beauty by itself wouldn't be enough to ensnare the Goddess.

He mentally revised his estimation of Queen Oriculus up several notches. Anyone who could seduce an existence like the Goddess was surely a person with countless, unfathomable layers of complexity to them.

Varush glanced sideways at Ithit and Rasthdaan. Judging by the looks on their faces, they had also come to a similar conclusion—though perhaps with a few differences here and there.

'Speaking of which, how long are they going to…?'

"We'll『Gate』as far east as we can and then make the rest of the journey by foot. The more limitations we can make it seem Yuriko has, the better," Queen Oriculus finally returned her attention to the beastmen. "Prepare to leave in… two hours."

"As you command," Varush bowed his head alongside his comrades. "Your humble servants await your return."

Whatever happened next, he supposed it would at least be interesting.

"Is that everything? Let's go."

"『Gate』," Lady Yuriko swiped her hand through the air and created a swirling portal for the group of five to pass through. "See you later guys!"

"Bye~" Mira enthusiastically waved back, waiting for the eclectic bunch to depart before dropping her hand. "Welp, off they go."

Mira and Vicente stared at the spot where the portal once pulsed. "When do you think they'll be back?"

"A week at the very least," Vicente's shoulders slumped with a small sigh. "Her Majesty has been prone to taking bizarre vacations as of late."

"Hmm," Mira stroked her chin with a thoughtful air surrounding her. "Her Majesty and Lady Yuriko… they looked really weird today, don'tcha think?"

"There were more pressing matters on my mind," Vicente dryly replied. "They both appeared to be in good health and spirits which is all that matters."

"Well yeah, but," Mira's eyebrows couldn't get any more furrowed than they already were. "Hm… can't put my finger on it. Just—something's different."

"What's different?"

"H-Holy shit!" Vicente flinched while Mira leapt into the air at the sudden arrival of the Prime Minister. "Lord A-Asturias, how are you doing?"

"As well as could be expected in these times," the gray-haired man coldly regarded the two Royal Guards. "I assume Her Majesty and Lady Yuriko left?"

"Yeeees?" Mira slid a half-step back as she kept her full attentiveness on the Prime Minister. "They'll be back really soon though!"

"How soon?"

"Oh, you know," she nervously chuckled. "Just a week or two. Bye—blegh!"

The guardmage attempted to turn around and run away, nearly succeeding were it not for Vicente tripping her. "Tr-Traitor!"

"They're traveling to the Beastman Country in the guise of slaves, Lord Asturias," Vicente ignored the enraged spluttering of his spellcaster comrade. "It would appear that Her Majesty has deemed fit to accelerate the timetable for the counter-invasion."

"Is that so?" The Prime Minister blandly replied. "It's strange I wasn't informed of this decision. When was this decided?"

"Todaaaay?" Mira cringed backwards.

"You two are wholly unfit for your positions. Expect double shifts for the foreseeable future."

"No…" Mira's knees buckled as she propped herself against an unenthused Vicente for support. "My free time…"

"I want a report on my desk by the end of the day," the Prime Minister flatly piled more work on top of their newly assigned double shifts. "List every single thing that was said, done, and considered. In the meanwhile, I will go and deal with the details of Her Majesty's sudden departure."

"Yes sir," Vicente suppressed the urge to groan. "We'll do that now."

"Good," the Prime Minister walked away without a single glance back. "I imagine we will all be quite busy in the next few days."

"I hate busy…" Mira pitifully continued to bemoan the loss of their downtime. Vicente wasn't able to bring himself to feel bad for her; he couldn't help but feel that this was all a result of her constant meddling in the queen's personal affairs.

Of course, he kept his mouth shut on that.

He didn't want to hear Mira ramble for an entire day, after all.