Looking out from the wall into the encampment of soldiers, Coran saw many large tents that seemed to be clumped up in a single area. As one got further from that area the tents and overall conditions seemed to become less extravagant.
The entire landscape was painted with soldiers, however he had killed all the ones in the immediate vicinity of the wall quickly and quietly, so nobody had noticed the commotion just yet. This didn't mean Coran was in the clear, though. He had to make his way through the encampment and into the Empire.
What would be the best way to do so?
He could always take a frontal approach and attack, however doing so would likely be detrimental to his mission.
Coran retracted his webs that were placed around the area, so that no evidence of his presence was left behind.
He had killed around 100 men at the wall. This was no small number, and it was enough to put the people of the Empire on a major alert with the knowledge that a strong monster had attacked, however there was no evidence that the monster had made its way across the wall just from this alone.
Coran preferred to keep it this way.
If he were to fight his way through the line of soldiers, then it would be blatantly obvious that the Empire had been invaded by a monster, and everyone in the country would be put on high alert.
That was not part of his mission.
His mission was to seek out human civilization, and live peacefully without attracting too much attention. While he was allowed to kill people if he needed to, he couldn't kill so many that a national crisis was brought to the attention of the leaders of the country. Yet.
With that being said, he wanted to sneak his way through the encampment- but how?
He did not have any sort of stealth or invisibility skills like his masters, and he certainly couldn't fly above the soldiers without any trees or anything to latch onto with his webs.
Wait a minute.
Fly?
Couldn't the woman that he brought along in his bag fly?
She asked for him to carry her on some sort of odd whim, but she could fly, right?
If Coran demanded her to carry him, she would do so, right?
"Alicia."
"Yes, Coran?", Alicia responded while peeking out of the bag, looking around at the bodies around them.
"I need your help. Can you lend me your abilities?"
"What do you need from me?", she responded joyfully.
Alicia seemed to be happy to help.
"I don't want to have to fight my way through all these people, attracting the attention of everyone. I would rather sneak into the Empire mostly unnoticed, only leaving this small commotion. Can you fly? If so, then could you fly us above the encampment so that we don't have to deal with these enemies?"
Alicia's antennas seemed to be wiggling back and forth.
"Y-yes! I can fly! I will carry you then!"
Alicia got out of Coran's bag, and wrapped her legs and lower arms around his waist and chest, respectively. His bag was now hanging from his own feet, which he firmly gripped it with. She then started flapping her wings, and lifted off.
They flew high into the sky- so high to the point where the humans seemed like nothing more than ants. After all, if they weren't so high, then they would easily be seen. Who wouldn't notice the bright yellow and black stripes that covered Alicia, or the large bag dangling from Coran's feet?
They then proceeded forward.
"Um... Coran...."
"What is it?"
"Well, um... when are we going to be able to live together as a husband and wife?"
"Well, we first need to find a small town to observe. We then need to take a passive stance, and hide ourselves away somewhere. We can't rush this mission, as it is something delicate that will take time and care to succeed. I may have killed those men back there to get in, and I don't mind killing people, however that is not the purpose of the mission. I have been ordered by my master to only kill those who are directly interfering in the mission, and to avoid doing so if possible. With that being said, we have to discretely find a target. We need to find a person who is considered a 'good person' by all. Someone who is accepting of others, who would be willing to listen to us if we met. Only after we find someone like this will we make actual contact with them. Once we have done this, we can then move forward from there, using their own word and assistance to establish ourselves, and they will hopefully be able to convince others to give us a chance before driving us out due to our monstrous appearances."
"That seems like a pretty complicated and long plan...."
"Well, it is all for the sake of my masters. I cannot fail this mission."
"Then, I will do anything I can to help you!"
"Of course. You are my slave, after all. You should be doing whatever I tell you, no?"
"W-whatever you tell me?? Like... anything??"
"Well, yes. That is what a slave is. They do anything for their masters."
"I... I see..."
"But, worry not. I have learned from my own masters that it is not right to treat ones slaves harshly. Rather, ones slaves should be treated with more respect and dignity than the people who are not their slaves, for those people have no worth to them- whereas their slaves do. By becoming my slave, you have gained worth in my eyes."
"T-thank you..."
Alicia's face seemed to become red when Coran made this statement.
"What are you thanking me for? I am merely following the procedures and customs of my masters. Thank them, if anyone. I don't even know if I am allowed to take you as a slave, so I intend to ask them as soon as they are not busy to ask about this."
"Please try to convince them..."
"Sigh... I will do what I can."
The two flew above the entire encampment, until they reached a point where there were no soldiers below them. At this point, Alicia started to descend to the ground, where they reached what looked like a large fork in the road, however instead of just 1 or 2 paths, there were actually 6 here going in all different directions.
There was a sign in the middle with arrows pointing in the directions of each pathway.
Githard (N)- Population 2500
Erthos (S)- Population 400
Vythguard Wall (E)- Military Encampment
Turak (W)- Population 35,000
Porta (NW)- Population 75
Lornew (SW)- Population 125
"Hm, it seems that we have 2 options here. We could either make Porta our target, or Lornew, as they are both more or less within the population range that I would like to focus on.... the question is, which of the two? A greater population means a greater risk, but also that there will be more people, and thus a greater chance that there will exist a person who is willing to negotiate with us. What do you think, Alicia?"
"As long as I'm with you, it doesn't matter..."
'That's no help. I suppose I have to decide on my own.'
"I think we should take the less populated one. While it is true that there will be less of a chance of someone decent living there, out of 75 people there should be at least 1 who is reasonable. On the other hand, there should be less risk of being caught, depending on the population density. These are small villages which my masters have not visited as of yet, so I have no information on them, so either way it would be a gamble."
"Alright."
Alicia placed Coran down and the two walked side by side along the pathway. There were no people in sight, so it was fine to just walk out in the open like this. Coran was not trying to completely hide his presence in the Empire- only to make it so that it wasn't a big deal, and thus keep the knowledge of him and Alicia to as few people as possible.
"Porta, eh? Just what will await us? A town of uncompromising and stubborn fools who refuse to see us as people, or a group of naive and sympathizing idiots who will accept us without question, allowing us to do as we please? Or perhaps even a group of people who are reasonable and wise? I suppose there is only one way to find out for sure."
----
Veronica sat in her room at a wooden desk while furiously scribbling down numbers, calculating her finances.
She was a beautiful young woman, with long black hair and slim eyes- which seemed to stare at the numbers as if her very life was dependent on them.
Of course, it was.
Money.
Production.
Capitalization on profits.
From the beginning of her life, Veronica was raised to understand that he who controlled the money controlled everything in this world.
Orphaned by her parents, who she never met, she was left as a baby at an orphanage in the town she was raised in.
She learned quickly, due to being surrounded by other children that life wasn't something which you could just stumble through halfheartedly.
The other orphans were older and more spoiled.
If she wanted to use a toy, they would usually see her playing with it only to walk up and take it from her.
"This is mine, because I'm older, so I get the first privilege."
Veronica would be left with nothing. The other children didn't take the toys from her because they wanted to play with them.
They took them because they wanted to show her that they had the power to do so.
They wanted to show her that they could do what they wanted, because they were older, or because they were stronger, and that she had no rights.
She had to obey them.
When she was very young, she often cried out when something would happen- to learn that it was not effective.
The head of the orphanage refused to do anything about the pointless quarrels between the children, as that wasn't her job.
Her job was to simply ensure that the kids were fed- not that they were raised. She was not a bad person, but she was not going to bother with the conflicts among children so long as nobody was hurt.
Being raised without the love of a parent, and in this competitive environment, Veronica soon came to the understanding that there was no point in crying.
There was no point in complaining.
Complaining would only make you seem like a nuisance to others. You would annoy them, however they would only become angry with you rather than give you what you wanted.
If you had time to complain, then you had time to do something about it.
This was what Veronica believed.
She eventually came to the point where she stopped caring about the toys altogether, and the older children would do as they pleased. She didn't have the strength to stop them or do anything about the situation, and nobody was willing to help her, so she simply gave up and focused on something else.
She started plotting instead.
She spent the entire day thinking.
Thinking.
Thinking.
And thinking some more.
How can I do what I want?
How can I beat these other kids, even if they are physically stronger than I am?
How can I get them to listen to me? How can I get them to do what I want, without them realizing that they are playing to my tune?
Veronica then came up with an idea.
'What if I were to hide everything?'
'If I cannot have anything, then they can't either.'
'Heh heh... what are they going to do? Cry to that woman? She won't care. She won't do anything. And most importantly... they won't have anyone to blame.'
One night, Veronica snuck out into the playroom and little by little, she started hiding all the toys in the bathroom cupboard.
It wasn't exactly perfectly hidden, and if someone was seriously looking they would find them, however the children were not technically allowed to look in the cupboard, and there was one of those child locks on it which prevented children from opening them.
Veronica of course, had figured out how to undo this lock as a result of her endless boredom and thinking. None of the other children were smart enough to figure it out though.
One toy at a time, one night at a time, she started hiding them away.
Little by little, the playroom became duller and duller.
The overall amount of toys started decreasing. There were only 10 children in the orphanage at that time, and since there were originally around 30 toys to begin with, at first nobody noticed them disappearing one by one.
Even though 30 was a number which should have been plenty for the children to share if they weren't trying to exert their dominance over the weakest child, their relentless bullying of Veronica had resulted in a scenario where she was not allowed to so much as use a single one.
Nobody seemed to notice that they were disappearing until there were only 8 remaining.
"Hey, where are all the toys? There used to be a lot more here.", one boy questioned.
The only reason he questioned this was because there were now not enough toys for everyone, Veronica aside.
They didn't even notice when there were 9 remaining, even though Veronica did not have one for herself. This was of course, because they never let her play with any in the first place.
However, as soon as there were not enough for everyone else, they noticed.
'Hehe. It took these idiots a while to realize. I mean, they've been disappearing for weeks now!'
Veronica of course played dumb, and didn't even pay attention to the commotion, but she found herself laughing as she saw the confused faces of the children around her.
This was when the hierarchy was further formed in the orphanage.
While at first Veronica was the only one subject to isolation by the other kids who had formed a clique against her, the situation was now different.
Now that there weren't enough for everyone, the ones remaining had to stay on top.
The boy who didn't have a toy forcefully took the toy from the girl next to him.
"You don't need one! I will take this."
She started crying, but he didn't care. He only cared about himself, and continued playing and having fun with the other kids, leaving Veronica and the other girl together without anything.
Veronica smiled.
'Heh heh... I can use this....'
She walked over to the young girl who was crying, and put a hand on her shoulder.
"It's ok! He cut you off because he didn't really care about you, but we can play together even without any toys."
"R-really? Sniff..."
"Of course! Do you know what my favorite game involves?"
"W-what?"
"People. I like playing with people."
"People? How do you play with people?"
"Come over here and watch."
The two girls went over to a set of cushions and sat down next to each other, and Veronica pointed over to the group of 8 people who were remaining, each playing together with 1 toy. Some of them were playing war with soldiers or robots, while others were building with blocks and forming towers. There were a total of 7 boys and 3 girls among the orphans, so all the toys were meant for boys, however the girls had adapted to this and figured out ways to play with the toys how they wanted.
"Take a look at how many toys are left. There aren't many, are there?"
"There are only 8..."
"Why do you think that is? There were so many before."
"Uh... I don't know."
"It's because I've grown bored of those toys, so I wanted to see what would happen if I were to play with a new set."
"A new set? Do you mean that the headmaster will purchase more soon?"
"No. The new set are the eight over there. They move and speak too! When one plays with a toy, they usually have to speak for them, and pretend that they are the toy. You set up a scenario, and play pretend as if you are the toy. But what if I set up a scenario, and the toys figured out how to react on their own?"
"I don't get it..."
"Just watch what happens. Right now, you've been eliminated. I was eliminated from the beginning. Who do you think is next, Emilia?"
"Well, probably Marilyn..."
"Because she's weaker than the boys?"
"Yeah..."
"And then what? What do you think will happen after Marilyn gets a toy taken away? Will she fight back, or will she join us over here?"
"She will join us probably.... she can't fight back against any of the boys..."
"Then what? Who do you think will be next?"
"Um.... probably Arnold. He's weak, so he won't be able to fight back."
"And next?"
"Carter?"
"And then who?"
"Um.... I don't know. All the other boys are strong, so they will probably get into a big fight over it."
"Exactly. And what will happen after that big fight?"
"Mmm.... I don't know."
"Do you think the headmaster will allow us to continue playing as we are if all the boys got into a big scuffle over the toys?"
"Mmm.... probably not."
"But, if we don't fight, then we won't get in trouble, right?"
"Yeah.... that's right."
"So then, only the ones who would fight for the toys will get in trouble, right?"
"Yeah...."
"That's what I want to see. I want them to lose their privileges."
"I see....but why?"
"Because it will be fun. People are the funnest toys to play with. Heh heh heh...."
----
The series of events which followed went exactly as Veronica had predicted.
She continued to remove and hide the toys one by one, and in the exact order that had been described, the children were kicked out of the clique of people allowed to play.
They were all too dumb to realize that somebody was removing the toys, until they had already lost their privilege.
Veronica would approach the children one by one when they lost their privileges to the toys, extending a hand to them and allowing them to join her new clique.
She formed a group of children who had lost their privileges- united in that they had nothing but weakness- yet it was exactly this weakness which made it fun to watch as the strong fought one another.
Finally, when the remaining toys had been reduced to 4, the bomb dropped.
The 5 remaining boys got into a huge brawl over who was allowed to play, and none of them gave an inch. Pulling of hair, kicking, biting, and punching ensued.
The 5 in Veronica's group did not take part in this skirmish.
This led to a separation of the groups.
The headmaster found out about the fight, and punished all who took part in it with solitary confinement.
They were locked in their own rooms, and not allowed to play with anything or anyone else.
The 5 who did not take part in the scuffle were allowed to do as they pleased, after which Veronica then took out all the toys once more and the entire group played with whatever they wanted.
Veronica grew up plotting, and using people from a young age.
She learned that even if she was weak, that she could use the strong against themselves.
However, right now she was at a crossroad.
For the first time in her life, she felt pressured by someone above her.
She continued to stay at the orphanage to work there in order to eventually become the headmaster, where she wanted to put the jackass kids in line who thought they could do anything they wanted, however before she was able to make it to that position, the headmaster died.
This should have meant that she would take over, but instead, the sister of the headmaster made her way to work at the orphanage.
The orphanage was then transformed.
With the new leadership, the orphanage was remodeled into a labor camp.
The turn of events were so sudden, and while Veronica well understood the financial benefits of it, but she saw the current headmaster as a snake.
"She's just like them.... forcing their way in, taking what they want... using those weaker than them.... but that's fine. I can deal with someone like that. It will take time, but I can do it.... I can remove her from her position, just as I removed them from their positions. I need time, preparation, and allies."