Author's Note: Not much to say today. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 19: The Ivyred Territory
Tanya stared straight ahead at the merchant the king had recommended to her. Taller than her most certainly, not by much though, and she was confident that the top hat was meant to over compensate for something, his height probably. Tanya turned a suspicious glare behind the man at his merchandise, most of them children not much older than herself, before turning her attention back to the merchant with her suspicion.
"Show me." Tanya stated simply.
"Right this way Sir Hero." There are two kinds of slavers: legal and illegal. Beloukas belongs to the first of those categories and thus is one of few slavers allowed to operate in Melromarc and to his knowledge the only one allowed to operate in Shieldfreeden. What makes the difference between a legal and illegal? He has standards. "I deal in three things: Orphans, the Indebted and Criminals." Beloukas started his explanation with the first, with a makeshift classroom where one of the older slaves was teaching Demi-human children how to read. "The simple fact of the matter is that when a child's parent dies or is not able to look after them there is no existing institution to take them in, at least none in a country as so anti-demi-human as Melromarc." There might be one for humans though.
"So that makes you the closest thing to a matron in this world." Tanya stated looking at the little creep suspiciously.
"I have no idea what that is, but yes probably." The smiling midget stated as he continued his explanation.
"They are given a bare minimal education before being shipped off to be put up for adoption, usually in Shieldfreeden. Repeated cross breeding of different types of demi-humans have left roughly 40% of the population infertile so yes: adoptions are quite commonplace."
"Lovely. So you are the matron of a orphanage." Tanya stated while Beloukas moved on.
"Debtors on the other hand are simply those who have managed to rack up a absurd debt to their previous employers and so if they are unable to pay off that debt in a timely matter I buy it instead." Why? Because he can do so at a steep discount. Let's say for instance that the person who is owed realises they are never going to get their money back in a timely manner. They instead sell the debt off and recoup some of their losses, lets say that Beloukas can then take them somewhere else and have them work a mine for a few years and make back what he spent plus interest. Profit. "Criminals on the other hand..." Beloukas tapped on one of the cages, resulting in a sparking mess of scales and fur trying to reach out of the cage to tear his throat out. "...there's never any shortage of need for disposable individuals skilled in the use of violence. This one on the other hand is only mostly disposable: Shieldfreeden cross breeding is also known for leaving a good chunk of their population physically strong, but also mentally insufficient and insane." Someone like this would need a slave seal just to keep them from trying to tear every soul in sight apart limb from limb, and even then it didn't look like it was working too well the crazy bastard's pain tolerance too damned high. "Your conclusion sir Hero?"
"...You have a good enough relationship with Maple, so you and your monsters get to ride with her into Zeltoble, but your slaves will be under Kuro's protection for the immediate future and the Shield Hero is not to learn about this side of your business." Tanya stated making it clear her terms were not to be negotiated with.
"I will need some of my men to ride with the Sword Hero into Zeltoble." Beloukas stated sweeping the room with his arm.
"Fine. Show me the monsters you have for sale. Capable of carrying large heavy loads and able to take the flight path are non negotiable points in all of this." And so Tanya was led to where the Merchant was keeping his Griffin, a show piece really, for the merchandise on for sale was the eggs that were located in the crate beneath the creature's cage and which led to Tanya to pick one out.
"Excellent. Let us be on our way then." Beloukas stated as he rubbed his grubby little lands together.
The last of the arms and armour from the wave monsters had been gathered up, and Maple soon delivered a down payment to Erhard in the form of a bounty of blades, while Katarina had ensured that no rotting corpses would be left out to spread disease somewhere that they didn't realise it. Thus it was now time to go.
"Oh it's Mr. Beloukas the monster dealer." Maple stated shaking the little man's hand again.
"Pleasure to see you again young lady. I hope the therapy animal that I sold you is serving you well." Beloukas had a look around. "Where is it anyway?"
"Time to go Master!" Filo shouted, dressed in a set of cute blue on white clothes, before she suddenly went poof and assumed her full Filolial form.
Beloukas's eyes went wide with shock while he jaw hung open stupidly. Slowly the monster dealer indicated the Filolial with his finger and Maple nodded.
"I had heard the rumours but I would've never dreamed...!"
"You know what happened?" Keel asked indicating Filo.
"Yes! Filolials were original bred by the Legendary Heroes as Beasts of war against the Waves!" Beloukas stated observing the girl who was more Therianthrope than monster at this point in time. "It's unbelievable! You must-" Raphtalia's blade, Keel's axe, Rifana's cross bow and Eclair's sword all moved to kill the little man all at the same time. "-raise another and allow me to study the process!" The Merchant finished flawlessly without missing a beat.
"I don't think we can afford to keep another one." Eclair stated recalling how much of their supplies the little bird girl had gone through in the time they've been together.
"What about Katarina, she should still be down a few party members." Maple stated looking over at Katarina who was looking at the large owl like bird with sparkling eyes.
"Men! My Filolial eggs." Beloukas stated snapping his fingers in attention. Elena handled the transaction on Katarina's behalf.
"Seeing how much food that bird has consumed in the two days we've been here we will be speccing for fuel efficiency: poison type, male." Elena specified as Beloukas finished with the transaction.
"While I have the four of you here Sir Heroes perhaps we should see what kind of effect will occur if all four of you take ownership over the egg?" Beloukas stated as he prepared the slave ink. "One Hero has clearly had an effect on the bird girl's development. Perhaps more will improve upon that effect?"
"Well, I do have growth bonuses attached to my shield for Filolials." Maple stated hand in the air. "So you're wondering if they stack together." Kuro asked looking at Maple brow cocked in the air.
"If we can raise up a army of super powered warriors for the wave just by bleeding a little into a dish then it would be cheap at ten times the cost." Tanya stated causing the other two to nod their heads in agreement. "We'll do the same for my griffin. I don't know what getting a class reset for a new born monster or underage Demi-human is like but I imagine it's not good for their health." Which made sense since it essentially meant de-ageing a person back down to a fraction of their size and bodily mass.
"Consider it done Sir Heroes." Beloukas stated with a twirl of his brush the two eggs were registered with their new owners.
The banging of the gavel indicated that the Meeting of the Council of Katarina's had begun.
"The topic of this meeting will be the new born Filolial about to hatch soon." Chairman Katarina stated as various outfits began to fly before them.
"We could dress him up like Keith!" Excitable Katarina stated causing the others to nod their head.
"It'll be important to make sure he turns out like a proper gentleman!" Hotblooded Katarina stated fist pumping.
"If he turns out like Filo though it would be super cute to put him into a dress and raise him as a trap though." Excitable Katarina stated already mentally picturing the new born in a dress.
"Since he'll be a poison type perhaps a dashing rogue like the 'Dark Prince' would be best?" Intellectual Katarina suggested causing the others to excitedly cheer.
"It'd be good to have a reliable older brother too." Shy Katarina stated rubbing her hands together.
"No no no! We are the older one here!" Hotblooded Katarina refused to back down on this point and like that the two of them started arguing.
Elena snapped her fingers again in front of Katarina's face and got no reaction.
"Yep. Off in her own little world again." Elena concluded letting out a sigh. She was cute in her own way, like a excitable little sibling. Still a far cry from the strong handsome man of legend described in the stories about the legendary Heroes. Nor did she expect to end up as Katarina's personal otherworldly tutor as well.
"The place where the Four Heroes will part ways is soon approaching!" Kyurie shouted, flying along the carriage from outside, acting in his usual over the top theatrics, even more so now that his health improved with Katarina's growth bonuses. "Soon our blood lust will get to feast Mwahahahahaha!"
Elena could only laugh at the boy's theatrics, he really only gets this way when he wants to show off for Katarina, but usually she's either too far off in her own world or too dense to notice.
"This is going to crush him when he finds out." Elena stated and Rino agreed nodding her head.
"You don't think the chick is going to develop crush on her too right?" Rino asked suddenly looking scared.
"No... really?" Elena started but then thought about it for a moment. People tend to be attracted to individuals that look similar to their own species, objective standards of attractiveness and all that, and the hero enhanced monsters like Filo looks like a human. If he stops ageing at around prepubescent age like Filo he could even find the current Katarina to be very attractive, and by extension of that...
"That little birdie is pulling this entire convoy by herself right?" Rino stated as Elena looked out the window to see that the seven cart convoy was moving at a extremely fast rate across Melromarc's roads and blinked. If you took that and multiplied it by four as they are now experimenting with doing...
"He must not be allowed to touch her!" Elena stated drawing a hard line in the sand.
"Agreed!" Rino stated reinforcing that line.
The four group's arrived at the village on the border town within the day, Tanya's griffin hatched along the way into a black down chick, upon learning of her affinity for lightning magic from the merchant Tanya decided on the name Blitz. For now there were other more obvious concerns they needed to deal with other than the little bird cat.
"I've seen out houses that look better then this village." Tanya stated glaring at the village before them.
The buildings were damaged, the farms were dried up, the people were malnourished and someone clearly wasn't doing their job very well and this severely displeased Tanya.
"Eli, Otto. Bring me whoever is in charge around here." Tanya stated feeding something that looked like baloney to the chick. "If anyone tries to stop you, break their legs."
Thus the two ran off to find the lord of the town while Kuro projected a dining set out of thin air, complete with furniture and table cloth.
"Here's some food for you Filo." Maple stated handing over a large crate to the filolial in question. "You can eat it after you've dropped Katarina off at the docks, then come back immediately."
"Kay!" And so Filo took off before Maple returned to her cart.
"You're not going to leave yet?" Kuro asked watching as Maple set up her usual Maple Leaf business. "Would you be able to leave this village like this?"
Maple stated handing her party members their uniforms and directing them off to get changed.
"Well while you're doing that I'm gonna go off ahead, in comparison to your bird the Merchant's dragon might as well be snail, so if we don't leave now we're not gonna get there in time." And thus, the cage full of what Maple assumed to be a hoard of snarling monsters with lightning powers based on all the wild grabs and lightning bolts that kept coming off of them, left with Kuro's party, most of the trader's men and pulled by his dragon left for Zeltoble.
"Shall we discuss business while we wait for the lord to arrive?" Beloukas stated pulling himself onto the chair.
"You know The region better than us, what can you tell us about their defensive forces?" Tanya stated as she pulled up a map of Zeltoble, horribly out of date, earth magic could tear down and throw up buildings in a flash, and criminal organisations rarely have permanent holdings. Few among the permanent buildings as she understood were the three Colosseum's, and a large mall like complex that served as the market place for less questionable businesses.
"There aren't any. Because as far as the locals are concerned there's nothing worth fighting for that cannot be replaced through the application of elbow grease and magic. If there are any defenders posted, their jobs will be keep looting and rioting down." That wasn't to say that Zeltoble would be completely useless in this matter though. "That said there will be individuals competing for the right to join with your parties. Not for status or religious reasoning mind you." Beloukas stated signature grin on his features.
"The waves are a semi-common event where rare never before seen monsters rain down from the sky in vast amounts." Tanya quoted as she understood what he was saying. "What are the ones responsible for wrangling those monsters going to be like?"
"Lightning magic, large nets and Harpoon guns." Beloukas summarised giving Tanya a idea of what she'd be dealing with.
"And how obstinate are they going to be about stopping us from stopping the wave before they can milk it for all it's worth?" Tanya asked and Beloukas laughed at her in response. "Alright then, give me more details."
"The corpses can be harvested for genetic material if taken alive can be bred to make more, in most cases. Then Melromarc came under attack from a horde of undead." Hard to breed zombies, not to mention that there were probably a few scientists who wanted to dissect those rotten abominations in the name of scientific research or whatever people justify their stupidity with these days.
"So if another horde of undead pops up in Zeltoble then we can expect them to do everything they can to keep the body count down so that they can be harvested to be sold off at a absurd price or thrown into their arenas." Tanya stated prompting Beloukas snapped his fingers with a smile.
"You have a good read on my people Sir Hero, you'd do well there." The Slave Merchant stated as Raphtalia brought over some food for them to eat.
"I trust people to act according to their nature. Therefore before I trust I learn of what I am dealing with." Tanya stated as she began to eat the sushi Maple had made for her, enjoying the taste of proper Japanese food for the first time years.
"A wise policy." Beloukas stated finger in the air.
"Which now leads us to another relevant topic, where are my people with the two bit clown I sent them to fetch?" Tanya stated as she got up to investigate.
"HHHIIIYYYAAAHHH!" Some poor unfortunate guard was being thrown about his leg in a fully transformed Otto's mouth while Eli had switched from swords to a pair of chair legs and was using the blunt instruments to beat another pair into submission. While they were doing that Tanya spotted a carriage zoom off down the road leading out of the village and wordlessly fired off a skill into the back wheel of the carriage knocking it over in the process.
"Bring him to me." Aranaya tore the door off of the side of the carriage and pulled the person inside out, a fat nobleman dressed in various finery who still looked very panicked for himself.
"What are you doing here?" Viktoriya asked looking quite confused at the turn of events.
"You know him?" Tanya asked looking at Viktoriya suspiciously.
"He's Rufus Greyrat of the Greyrat family. This village is Ivyred territory." Viktoriya stated bluntly.
"Where are the Ivyred's?" Tanya in turn questioned directing her glare to Rufus of the Greyrats.
"Do I look like I have answers for someone who-GAH!" Aranaya slammed the fat man's fat face into the ground.
"Bring him to the trader." Beloukas happily helped Tanya conduct her interrogation through the liberal application of a slave seal, from there it was rather easy to locate the Ivyred's including their young daughter, who suffice to say had seen better days. The young woman was laid out on a bed spread out and naked if not for the sheet covering her person, her face and what flesh was exposed had been heavily beaten and the look in her eyes was that of a dead person. "Beloukas. As I recall your lecture earlier you are allowed to sell criminals into slavery. What would the Lord Grayrat go for?" Tanya asked her tone of voice filled with a quiet steel.
"In Siltvelt? If we said that the Shield Hero was the who was selling him off, quite a bit." Beloukas's grin was smiling massively at the situation.
"Eli, extract the names of everyone complicit in the Lord Grayrat's actions and then make the arrangements with Beloukas." Tanya instructed prompting the man himself to bow and walk away. "Otto, I need to know everything Maple fed to her shield to augment her medicinal abilities." Most of said Material was actually just enhancing the potions Maple made, the one she needed here was enhance potion effectiveness. Tanya could've just got Maple to do it, but honestly she didn't need to see this. After the potion Tanya assigned Viktoriya to clean the girl and see to it that she's in proper working order again before taking her over to Maple to get some food into her.
"Filo's back now." Maple stated as she pulled out several Bio-plant seeds, and a large amount of purple potion in a barrel.
"What's this?" Tanya asked looking at the sinister purple liquid suspiciously.
"Herbicide." Maple stated as she threw out a spread of bio-plant seeds. "I left some in Riyute too." Maple explained as the seeds grew into a series of reasonably sized bio-plants. "You can have the fruit, but whenever I come through here I want to have free reign to pick as much fruit as I need." Maple indicated Filo who was already stocking up for the trip. "Deal?" The civilians nodded their heads in the positive. "Good. Use the herbicide if the plants try to kill you." Something that made them look significantly less happy. "Everyone here is fed and treated, we're going to Zeltoble now." And thus Maple's group were soon on their way.
"Warrant Officer." Eli stated as Tanya's attention was turned to Eli with two people next to him.
"Presenting the Lord and Lady Ivyred." The two legitimate rulers of this area stupidly looked at Eli while Pointing at Tanya, to wit he nodded in the affirmative. They looked at Tanya again before turning back to Eli and he confirmed for a second time.
"This joke is old already." Tanya stated firing arrows in between the lord and lady's heads so that they could get down to business already.
According to them the Lord Grayrat harassed them using hired mercenaries to the point that they had completely gone under, they would wake up one day to find the fields burned, the buildings smashed, monsters attacking them and then the Lord Grayrat forced them into a unreasonable debt and hired the same mercenaries to 'protect them' taking their daughter as collateral.
"Yes. We found her earlier." Tanya stated avoiding making direct eye contact. "Your country is sick."
"Yes. This is becoming apparent." Lord Ivyred stated as he could only sigh in response. "Rishia can't stay here, not with the baggage of what Grayrat did to her."
"You want her to come with us?" Tanya asked cocking a suspicious brow.
"Great purpose has a way of helping people move past trauma's." Lord Ivyred stated shrugging his shoulders.
"They have a way of inducing trauma's too." Tanya stated as she rubbed her temples.
"Fine. I'll bring her along with the next batch of recruits." Tanya stated cracking her neck.
"Warrant officer I think you misunderstand the point." Eli stated prompting all eyes to focus on the cleaning obsessed soldier. "We want to help her move past trauma, not induce more." And thus the Ivyred's came to understand that they have made a huge mistake.
"I'll leave Eli here with all of my authority in Melromarc to have this place fixed up." Tanya stated opting to ignore the man in question's statement. "Eli I want a list of everything we need to get this place into decent shape by the time I get back from Zeltoble."
"Personnel is going to be a big one." Eli stated plainly. "As would be destroying Zeltoble's capacity to launch raids on neighbouring territories such as this one."
"Right then." Tanya got up to leave. "We'll grind on our way to the mountain, then take the air currents over to Zeltoble." Tanya's bow made it most convenient for the group of Seven, Tanya, Otto, Aranaya, Ake, Vicktoriya, Blitz and most recently Rishia Ivyred to carry everything that they would need to make it to Zeltoble. Of course Tanya had no delusions of making Blitz carry them all over to Zeltoble, even after growing to full size, and after getting growth bonuses from four heroes it'd still be too much for her. Chief among the supplies she was keeping in the bow was a mass of bramble big enough to make a basket for all of them, and enough of Aranaya's silk that they could put together a reasonable approximation of a hot air balloon to carry themselves over towed by Blitz.
"Umm. Sir Hero..."
"Warrant Officer." Tanya corrected looking at Rishia.
She somehow looked more pathetic wearing simple plate mail armour with a mages robes underneath than she did beaten black and blue in the bed.
"Warrant officer. What are we doing here, with a shovel?" Rishia asked looking at the implement in question.
"Excellent question." Tanya stated as she scanned the horizons looking for something. "You see large scale magical bombardment is a entirely viable strategy to fend off the waves and as such it is important that the people who are on the ground about to be caught in the middle are able to not die from that. So preparing basic defences are important, hence the shovel."
"I don't see how the shovel fits into things." Rishia stated bluntly, ignorant to the mass of magic attacks that were howling off through the air heading towards her.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: It will be. Theoretically possible but difficult to pull off.
Captain Imaginat: Thank you for saying so. He hasn't quite gone as far as to break off all connections to Malty, yet, but there are limits to how much of her stupidity he's willing to tolerate.
drmcgraw186: I have one idea to implement Gaston in the future, still debating the merits of using him but there was one scene from the Web Novel that I think he would be perfectly suited for. Good to know, looking forward to listening to 21 via audiobook.
reinDank: I would but is there any real point? Have you seen RotSH's villains? They're all one dimensional two bit losers who exist for no real purpose other than trying to destroy the world.
abciluvpie: I meant to convey that it was taking place over two weeks, I based it on the special forces training Tanya created back in the anime with some of it removed for the sake of time conservation and removing the parts that have them up against other people.
Salem Ruby Rose: Who said I have no plans for Mein? I didn't.