Ashley told a slightly modified version of the time when her and Garett had tortured Fargar.
"And then we said, 'Oh no.... we are exactly like you.', and you wouldn't believe the face he made! Hehehe... it was hilarious!"
"HAHAHA!!! After all, you sure are a strange one, elven girl! You tell the most interesting stories!"
Why did she decide to tell a story that had actually occurred instead of making one up?
The best lies are those which are saturated with truths.
If she made up a story, then perhaps it would have been filled with holes, or she would have contradicted herself. Instead, she simply left out a few basic details and told a story that actually happened.
The Corporal was interested, and sat on the edge of his seat the entire time as Ashley waved her arms about, telling the dramatic tale of the suffering goblins and their evil overlord.
And most importantly, the story of their saviors, the antiheroes. Of course, she did not use the term antiheroes, and simply referred to the antiheroes as themselves. The tale sounded to the common man like a fictional story, one in which someone would tell in order to brag and then proceed to be retributed with a 'that's not how it actually happened.', by the more serious members of the group.
Listernos was a normal human, and was unaware of the difference between wild and intelligent monsters. Most humans did not know that there was a rift in the monsters, and so he thought that it was nothing more than an over exaggerated tale than a real story. It was beyond him to think that goblins could have interactions so complex and human... even the actions of Fargar seemed too unreal for him to actually have existed, despite the fact that his motives were laced with evil and completely monstrous. Listernos came to the conclusion easily that the elf in front of him was merely telling a drunk story... after all, she did seem a bit drunk. Her words were slurring the entire time, and to be honest, Trevor wasn't exactly sure how she managed not to make any slips of the tongue in such a state.
To Listernos, the story was merely a personification of monsters. It was as if one were to see two animals interacting, and create a video with human dialogue overlapping the two. It was nothing more than the creation of the human mind, and there was no way that the lower beings could actually hold enough intelligence to be having such a conversation.
This was not the case, however that was what Listernos thought. Samantha mentally rolled her eyes at how dumb this guy was.
'Good grief. If all the humans are this dumb then I might want to go back to hanging out with monsters. Hah! Never thought I would see the day when I would think something like that.'
Samantha looked at her two hands as she held them out in front of her. While they looked clean and pristine in this elven form, she knew well what was underneath this illusion.
The veiny and wrinkled hands of a demon. That was exactly who she was right now, and she had accepted that. She no longer focused on becoming beautiful as a human anymore, but rather emphasizing her demonic beauty- as twisted as that may be.
She was not about to go and pretend like she was human still. This was who she now was, and she was ready to rise up to the challenge of making crowds fall before her in awe even while she took this demonic form.
If she could do that, one could argue that she had reached the ultimate form of beauty- to be a member of this ugly and corrupted race and still captivate the hearts of people around her.
When all was said and done, the four said goodbye to the Corporal and left his tent towards the west. It was time that they searched out for a human village and started to gather information from all parts of the country. However, Trevor wanted to take a small detour even before doing that.
Their plan was to eventually work their way to the capital, the center of the empire.
Trevor turned to his companions and suggested his idea.
"We will enlist as mercenaries, and carry out odd jobs within the country for the time being, slowly building our own reputation as a reliable group. I would like to establish a sort of base here, so if we were to increase the number of allies we have within the empire, that would be beneficial as well, however to gain allies will certainly be a superficial thing... if they are the allies not of the antiheroes, but rather of the four elves who have shown up in this country, then can we really call them our allies? Well, I will think of something in order to correct this. You all simply continue to stand by my side and put my plans into action."
"You were doing quite a bit of thinking back there when me and Ally were distracting Listernos with that story. Is this what that was all about?", Garett asked.
"Mhm... If we enlist as mercenaries, and become well known, we may be hired in the case that a large expedition happens. Our worst nightmare would be if the empire decided to try to expand their territory all of a sudden. If we are well known, we will likely be informed of any movements."
"That's pretty well thought out. I have been trying to gain information by reading the minds of people, however there is nothing that I have learned which we didn't learn from that corporal there.", Samantha stated.
"I see. No matter. We will have plenty more opportunities to use your skills. Now then, there is a process regarding the initiation as mercenaries. We should prepare ourselves."
----
Claire sat in a golden throne. She had moved the hand-like chairs onto each side of her.
She was not exactly a huge fan of the whole 'Haunted theme' in the village, but she did her best to rule.
Right now, she was busy working on some documents regarding the current allocation of resources. On her left and right were Berith and Coran, putting in their thoughts on the matters.
"Perhaps if we allocated more land in this area to the production of potatoes...", Coran suggested as he pointed to a figure with one of his spider-like arms.
"We should also start to consider new housing... surely their excellencies will return with more slaves.", Berith stated while resting her chin on her excessively long sleeves.
"Ah! I hadn't even thought of that! We sure could use a bigger labor force...", Claire sighed.
It was always a busy time for anyone ruling a nation, even when not much was going on.
Being a leader was a tough job. Claire wanted the antiheroes to hurry up and be back so that she wouldn't have to make all these decisions on her own.
Still, she had the two next to her, and they were very capable. She was thankful for them, and glad that the antiheroes had worked so hard to gain the favor of such wonderful children. While they seemed a bit brainwashed, they held the minds of fully grown adults and were able to work as such. They didn't focus on childish matters, and were devoted completely to their work and serving the antiheroes, along with herself. While they were not necessarily directly devoted to Claire, as the one who the antiheroes recognized they gave her due respect and obedience.
'This isn't child labor! They may be young, but in terms of spider lives... they're probably pretty old! Probably...'
Claire lied to herself and pretended that the two were fully fledged adults, however deep inside she understood that in reality they were only children who had been matured much quicker than they should have as a result of exposure to traumatic events.
Even so, she knew that Coran and Berith were working hard, and she saw the dedication and respect in their eyes when they spoke of them.
They shone with brilliance.
Claire had assigned Arlo and Hiru to patrol the walls while Oraguth and a few goblins who had been training under him were patrolling the city and ensuring that everything was peaceful and prosperous. Of course, it was.
There was no place on this planet that had a greater sense of community than the Dictatorship- and this was all due to the great respect that the people had for their rulers.
The people living here wanted nothing more than to please their absolute overlords, and to show them that they had been productive and done something for the city. It was beyond idealistic. Not a single person living in this village would even consider the parcel they lived on to be their own property.
As a matter of fact, their loyalty was so great that they did not even consider their own bodies to be their property. They were merely the tools and assets of the antiheroes to use as they saw fit, and what more could a tool want than to be used properly and effectively by the person who owned it?
On considering the state of the Dictatorship, Claire then wondered what ever happened to the leaders of the other villages.
She had not heard any news recently, so she assumed that nothing major had happened, but she could be wrong.
'I wonder if they were able to come to terms with each other and stop fighting... if so that would be good. I would like to visit their villages again if I have the chance...'
She bitterly smiled as she thought this, remembering back to the insane memories of those villages.
'Or maybe not... no no... I am the Determined, the leader of the antiheroes! I have to properly do my job and help others! Perhaps I should try to get the antiheroes to go and visit those villages when they arrive back from the human realms... to improve our standing with them... it isn't because I don't want to have to go back and deal with them! Absolutely not! That isn't the reason... it's because the antiheroes were the ones who decreased our standing in the first place!! Well, they were righteous in doing... whatever they did. I don't particularly know the details, as I wasn't present after I left with Helen... but they certainly looked angry... I can only imagine what they did..."
After shuddering and hoping that they did not go too far, Claire pulled out a roughly drawn map based on all the intelligence they had gathered thus far.
They didn't know much. In the center was the dictatorship, to the west was 'Unknown human lands', and to the southeast was the birdmen village. To the northeast was the lizardmen village. That was about it.
'Perhaps we should explore more to fill in this map... I suppose that's what the antiheroes are currently doing. We need to get a better grasp on this world if we are to help everyone after all...'
Claire continued working with the spiderlings on managing the city.
'If a single city is this much work... imagine if we were to gain control of even more villages... erg... I hope they give up the whole domination idea....that would just be too much for me to handle... I don't know about them, but... geh... just thinking about all those documents and managing all those people makes me want to quit this role... agh! Why am I so lazy? I need to work harder to help people, or many will suffer... if I don't use the power I have for good, then what good is it? That's right! I am the Determined! I will do everything I can to help the people around me, whether they be members of this city or another...'
Claire looked down while biting her lip.
'But maybe for now I will just focus on the people of this village... it's not that I'm being lazy or anything... I just have my hands full, of course!'
----
Gone.
The entire stock of food and provisions that the birdmen had saved up was gone.
They had worked hard to store a large emergency supply over time, and over the past two weeks, they had partied like there was no tomorrow. Their entire resources were beginning to run dry.
"Whats that??! Out of drinks?! Don't be speaking nonsense, Relu. We still gotto party!!!!", Erasalis screamed in a drunken fervor as Relu tried to calm him down.
Erasalis had been like this ever since coming back from that meeting.
Relu, Fergo, and Yirald had been the only ones who came to their senses out of the entire group of birdmen. Erasalis had gone nuts and told everyone to party, and everyone went along with it like there wasn't even debate to be had. Even those three had done so at first to vent their frustrations, but at this point things were just going too far.
Tora locked himself in his home and refused to leave. If anyone knocked, he would began to scream in terror until they went away.
"LEAVE!!!! LEAVE!!! NO MORE ROASTED EAGLE!!!"
Relu, Fergo and Yirald left with worried looks on their faces each time they tried to talk to Tora. They were the only ones who knew what he had gone through, aside from Erasalis himself, who was completely out of it.
How were they supposed to return things to how they should be in this situation?
Their charismatic leader was no longer who he used to be.
One of their proudest warriors was now a fearful shut-in.
And the rest of the clan was partying like there was no tomorrow, without a care in the world.
Something had to be done, but what?
"Perhaps... Perhaps it's time we left.", Relu gulped.
"Left? Where would we go?" Fergo reprimanded.
"I think you already know... we should leave to beg those monsters for mercy." Yirald admitted.
Erasalis had preached while he was drunk about how the doomsday was coming, how he had seen demons with unlimited power with his own eyes, and how the birdmen were to soon be eliminated.
If something wasn't done, the birdmen would never return to their former glory- no. Even worse. They would all be the cause of their own doom.
Rather than wait around for a calamity, they were instead creating a calamity of their own by refusing to move on. The moment that someone believes they cannot do anything is the moment they cease to do anything about their problems.
"I suppose so... what do we do about the children?"
"Do we take them? Do we leave them?"
"No. We cannot take them... not to that place... not until we know for ourselves which fate is worse."
"Sitting around here and rotting, or setting off for a fresh hell... pick your poison. Hahaha... what a farce... how did things come to this..."
The three gathered their belongings and the small amount of courage they had left, and set out for the Dictatorship.
Even if their small amount of resistance to what seemed like an unchangeable fate was futile, it was better to do something than to sit around doing nothing to change things.
Little did they know of the fluctuating flight which fate was about to take them on.