Steel and Sorcerers – Chapter 25
It was late-afternoon as Demiurge patrolled the streets of the royal capital of Re-Estize. He walked with purpose, carefully examining the layout and taking mental notes. Simultaneously, he was also running calculations and carefully refining his plans for the upcoming operation in the Dwarf Kingdom.
Soon after arriving in this new world, his glorious master, at the time going by the name Momonga, hinted at his intention to conquer the known world in the name of Nazarick. Although they were currently focused on the Dwarf kingdom, and the JSDF, the day would eventually come when the pitiful Re-Estize kingdom would fall under their banner. Indeed, the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick technically lay within their borders, just another reason he was currently gathering information on them.
Although Demiurge didn't mind multi-tasking, it was a shame that there was a lack of suitable entities within Nazarick for these kinds of operations, due to most of them looking inhuman. He was currently wearing a special item which concealed the abnormal appearance of his ears and eyes, and dressed a special cloak which hid his metallic tail. In addition, he had to forego his usual crimson suit for a more common look.
Up ahead, he spotted a heavy steel door open, light leaking out from within. Demiurge stopped in his tracks to observe. Once the door had fully opened, a man poked their head out. Said man looked around, but he did not notice Demiurge, and shrank back inside. There was a thump as a large sack hit the ground outside. Illuminated by the light from inside, Demiurge could see that the soft object inside had changed shape from the fall.
The door was still open, there were no movements for a while. Demiurge frowned, debating over whether to move ahead or go in another direction. Sticking his nose into this would probably lead to trouble. After hesitating briefly, he continued his silent advance along the dark, narrow alley.
The mouth of the sack sagged open. Demiurge's shoes scraped along the ground, and he soon drew near the sack. Just as he was about to pass it, he stopped in his tracks. Demiurge felt something had caught onto his cloak. Looking down, he saw what he had expected. A slender arm, like a withered branch reached out from within the sack, grabbing onto the hem of his cloak. The half-naked body of a woman appeared from within.
Her blue eyes were dark, clouded over and empty of life. Her shoulder-length hair was messy, with split ends from malnutrition. Her face was swollen like a ball from beatings, and there were numerous pale red spots all over her dried-out, bark-like skin. She was a desiccated bag of bones, with hardly any vitality left in her. Surely that must be a corpse. No, she still drew breath. The hand grasping Demiurge's cloak was the best sign of that.
'How amusing,' thought Demiurge. He briefly considered taking her in and using her for experimentation, but she probably wouldn't last long anyways.
"Oi, where the fuck did you come from?" Demiurge was interrupted by a low, brutish voice.
The man from before appeared from behind the door. His arms and chest bulged with muscle. His scarred face clearly displayed his hostility, and he glared hatefully at Demiurge. The lantern he was holding emitted a red light.
"Oi oi oi, the fuck you looking at four-eyes?" The man clicked his tongue with exaggerated deliberation, and then jerked his chin at Demiurge. "Fuck right off, while you're still in one piece."
Seeing that Demiurge remained still, the man took a step forward. The door slammed shut behind him with a ponderous thud. The man slowly placed the lantern by his feet with an intimidating swagger.
"Oi! You deaf, old man?" He worked his shoulders and cracked his neck. Then he slowly raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist. He was clearly not afraid to use violence.
"Hm..." Demiurge smiled. He was done observing, and the door to shutting behind the man was the signal for him to make his move.
Seeing that smile, cold and calculating, and with utter disregard for his humanity, the man stepped back in shock.
"Uh... uh, uh, what're you-" Shaken by Demiurge's smile, the man could not finish the words he was trying to form. He staggered back, without realizing how heavily he was panting.
Demiurge cast a spell. [Charm Species].
The man's composure suddenly shifted, becoming much more relaxed, and with a completely different demeanour from before.
"What is this thing doing out here?" asked Demiurge.
"Oh, you know, just taking out the trash. She's pretty much all used up at this point, I mean just look at her" replied the man. "More importantly though, I should be going now. I don't really want to anyone to see this."
So they were running some kind of brothel here. Demiurge's smile widened at the man's display of selfishness and apathy. He found himself almost impressed at the depths men would often sink to, something he gained new appreciation for after reviewing the materials Ainz-sama brought back from Earth.
"Who do you work for?"
"Well, this brothel is run by the slave trade division of Eight Fingers, so them I guess."
Demiurge had heard of this criminal organisation before.
"Do you know where any of their other establishments are?"
"Erm… well they don't really tell me much, so I'm not really sure."
'It seemed his usefulness was at an end. It was a shame the man didn't know very much, but he could always come back later to do a more thorough investigation later.'
Presenting a small blade in his outstretched palm, Demiurge gave an order. [Stab yourself in the throat with this dagger.]
"Wait wa-argh-" There was a choked gurgle. A look of bafflement appeared in the eyes of the man who had just pierced his own throat with the blade he had taken. His eyes clouded over like marbles as he collapsed to the ground like a puppet who's strings had been cut.
As Demiurge bent down to retrieve his dagger from the man's corpse, he noticed that the half-dead woman was still hanging onto his cloak.
Wiping off the blood on the dead man's clothes, he decided against ending the woman's suffering. Her fingers slipped from the hem of his cloak as he casually strode off into the distance.
It was about half an hour later when CIA agent Cara Hawkins came across the horrific scene. A man was slumped on the ground, lying in a pool of his own blood from a cut in his throat. Opposite him, the battered remains of a woman poked out from a rough sack.
She was currently collecting scrolls from the Kingdom's Magicians' Guild, and had been advised to avoid trouble if possible. Still, although the man was almost certainly dead, there was a chance the woman was still alive. There was no evident danger currently, and if worst came to worst she could use her suppressed pistol.
Carefully advancing up to the woman, she bent down. "Can you hear me?"
She felt for a pulse on her bruised skin. It was there, but weak.
Given the girl's state, she might not make it all the way back to the gate, and she wasn't confident she would be able to nurse her back to health.
The best option then would be to take her to one of the temples, which had magical healers. Based on her state, it would probably be expensive. However, if it meant potentially saving a life, then it would be worth it. Also, although she hated to admit it, that wasn't the only reason to help this girl.
Having another indigenous inhabitant of this country in their debt would aid in the gathering of information, and since they were familiar in their customs, they could be decent spies. Although, this all depended on the individual in question. Cara was optimistic, but there was a chance that the girl wouldn't be cooperative. Even in that case though, it would still be worth it for saving her life.
Itami's squad trekked through the dark caverns beneath the Azerlisia mountains. The most important areas of Feo Raizo had been secured, so they were now beginning what they anticipated would be a long and difficult advance to Feo Berkana.
Since work was still being done on trying to make a sturdier bridge across the Great Rift, they would bring their vehicles through the caves from Feo Raizo to the other side of the bridge at Feo Jera, where supplies could be carried across to them and maintenance done. From there they would then travel towards Feo Berkana itself. It was a much longer alternative to going directly from Feo Jera, but without armoured support casualties would likely be immense.
Accompanying Itami's squad were a couple of other JSDF and US squads, as well as several dwarves who acted as pathfinders. They travelled in an armoured column with two Bradleys in lead, while the infantry trailed some distance behind.
Despite having the dwarves with them, they had faced a number of unexpected ambushes along the path to Feo Raizo as they didn't have a complete map of every single cave along their route.
These engagements were short but brutal. Quagoa would swarm out from a dark crevasse and begin attacking the lead Bradleys. Their claws were sharp and powerful enough that they could tear through metal, and it was difficult for the Bradleys to engage them in such close quarters. This was what the infantry hung back for. Once the Quagoa were occupied attacking the armoured vehicles, Itami and the others would move up and subdue them with their lightning-enchanted rifles.
This strategy was effective, but resulted in the Bradleys often taking excessive damage, and having to be swapped out of lead. Due to how expensive these repairs were, older M113 armoured personnel carriers were starting to be used instead, since it was the armour that mattered and not the weapons so much anyways.
"The 9124th meeting of the security council is called to order" announced the delegate for the Republic of Korea. "The provisional agenda for this meeting is the situation in Japan."
"The agenda is adopted" he said, banging a gavel.
"In accordance with rule 37 of the council's provisional rules of procedure I invite the representative of Japan to participate in this meeting."
"It is so decided" he said, banging the gavel again.
"The security council will now begin its consideration of item two of the agenda. I would like to warmly welcome his excellency the secretary general Mr Antonio Butierrez and would like to give him the floor. Excellency, you have the floor."
The secretary general then began to speak.
"Your excellency Mr President, excellencies. The world is following events in Japan with concern and deep disquiet about how the situation is being handled and what may lie ahead. All of us have seen the images and videos. Fear, uncertainty, and misinformation. I call on the Japanese government to act with sincerity in order to dispel these doubts and help facilitate a return to stability. Thank you."
"I thank the general secretary for his briefing" announced the delegate for the Republic of Korea. "I now give the floor to the representative of Japan. You have the floor please."
The Japanese delegate prepared themself to speak.
"Your excellency the president, excellency Mr Secretary General, excellencies ladies and gentlemen. Thank you Mr president for this opportunity to speak at the first council meeting on the situation in Japan. As I'm sure you are all aware, approximately 42 days ago on the 23rd of June, a mysterious gateway suddenly appeared in Ginza, Tokyo. Out of this structure, a number of alien hostile beings emerged and began attacking citizens indiscriminately, before being put down through the brave actions and initiative of the police and bystanders.
Through subsequent investigation, and sending teams through this structure we found it led to a previously unknown realm, the landscape inside being harsh and desolate, only inhabited by scarce numbers of beings similar to those that initially emerged from the gateway. Since then we have made it our goal to investigate this realm, which we have designated as the 'special region', and have taken actions to safeguard it so that further attacks on Japanese soil may not take place again.
Now, I would like to address the controversies. Images and videos of supernatural phenomena, claimed to have originated from within the special region have been spread online. These are all inauthentic, and likely edited. While the entities within the special region are certainly abnormal compared to what we have on Earth, they are not fantastical and possess no supernatural abilities of any sort.
The Japanese government, with aid from the United States, will take full responsibility for the management and safeguarding of all matters pertaining to the gate and the special region. Thank you Mr president."
"I thank the representative of Japan for his statement." announced the delegate for the Republic of Korea. "I will now give the floor to those council members who wish to make statements.
I give the floor to the representative of the Russian Federation. You have the floor please."
The Russian delegate began to speak.
"Thank you Mr president, I welcome the presence and the strong messages of the secretary general, although found myself disappointed by the remarks from the Japanese delegate, who seems to have simply re-iterated earlier statements. It has come our attention the level of secrecy and disinformation surrounding the gate and the special region, with the official statements from the Japanese government having an apparent mismatch with leaked media.
Through their actions, it has become clear that the Japanese government intends to keep any knowledge of the special region, and any scientific advances that could be gained from it for themselves and their close allies.
The gate and special region should be an international responsibility, as their exceptional nature is something that can only be managed optimally through joint cooperation. We have already seen that the Japanese government is incapable of competently managing this region, as soldiers mysteriously disappear after having been deployed there, not to mention the incident caught on camera, where a large beast made its way through the gate into Ginza before additional reinforcements had to be called in to eliminate it.
Thus, I call for a vote, that the special region be made an international responsibility. If there are any members that would like to make a statement before the vote then please do so… That does not seem to be the case. Will those in favour of the draft resolution please raise their hand."
A large number of delegates raised their hands, notably from countries such as China, Russia, and France.
"Those against."
Japan, America, the UK and Australia raised their hands.
"Abstentions."
A small number of delegates raised their hands, such as the Republic of Korea and other countries with close ties to the US and Japan.
"The result of the voting is as follows. 7 votes in favour, 4 against, 4 abstentions.
The draft has not been adopted owing to the negative vote of two permanent members of the security council."
The following day, a large number of countries unilaterally declared sanctions against Japan. Most notably China, which was one of the largest trading partners with Japan.
Japan's economy, already struggling with an ageing population, was hit hard. Many began calling upon prime minister Yamato to resign, which he did so three days later, just 11 days after he was initially elected, signalling the beginning of a new round of election campaigns. Some joked about the rapid change of leadership over the past couple of months, saying whoever the new prime minister was would only last a week at most at this rate.
PSA: RIP Sebas x Tsuare for now at least.