My Reincarnation as a Chicken

Chapter 318 The Monster Conference

Chapter 318 The Monster Conference

I did it! I perfected my entrance.

After making the guests wait a few minutes, I appeared in a ball of fire on my seat, then majestically introduced myself as the king of the West. As corny as it sounded, I was starting to dig it.

Maybe since I beat the North, I should have called myself the King of the North instead. Yeah, that sounds way cooler. I’ll have to remember to use that the next time I was introducing myself to someone.

Just as I was about to kick off the meeting, there was an unexpected development. With a flash of lighting and a thunderous boom, a storm cloud appeared right above us. The storm cloud rained onto the centre of the table, forming a body of water with the physique of a woman, finishing off with the cloud shrinking to fit the head size of the person.

‘D-Did she just out do my entrance so casually? I… I really thought about it for a while.’

“Sunalla? Where’ve you been?”, Ignoring any and all formalities, I asked.

“I apologise for my absence. I have been busy performing some duties back home.”

“Oh right. I heard all the guppies also disappeared. I’m guessing that has something to do with Elriek’s plans?”, Her sudden appearance made me think to the odd disappearance of all the water nymphs and guppies from the West.

“Yes. The princess has created a… kindergarten for the guppies. Rest assured, the guppies will grow up… um, strong there.”, Her voice was shaky and unsure as she answered.

Reading her mind and seeing what she was seeing, I was starting to feel convinced that Elriek lacked any sort of compassion or empathy. I’d have to compare her to an A.I performing its objective, thinking solely about the end rather than the means. Not like I was any better than her, but now my mood was soiled.

“Um… no offense, but why are you here?”, It was really odd and surprising to see her here especially if she was busy working on something back in Atlantis.

“Princess Elriek asked me to attend this event in her place.”

I mean, I guess I could see that happening. She was a citizen of Atlantis, no less a potential future queen’s attendant. Well, with the way things were going back in Atlantis, there was a high likelihood that she was winning that crown whether anybody liked it or not.

I didn’t like Elriek as a person, but even I aren’t clueless enough to ignore the potential benefits of having Atlantis on my side. If only her brother had a better chance at the throne. From an outside perspective, it looked like he had an equal chance, but it was clear from the inside that he didn’t. I guess he had about a year to prove himself if he truly wants the throne.

“That so, huh? Well, su- how did she know about this event?”, I mean, sure I was broadcasting it to every part of Larm, but I doubted that anyone outside of Larm even knew this was happening.

“The princess has her ways.”, Something about the way she said that irked me.

“So she’s been spying on me this entire time?”, I quickly deduced, taking into account her nasty personality and the old man’s magic to look at people from afar.

“Um, n-no.”

No, no, Sunalla. That’s not how to tell a lie. Make it more convincing. You have to be convinced by your own lie for it to be believable. Like this.

I pointed to a random spot in the air and glared at it.

“I’m warning you to stop this crap, Elriek. If I ever catch you spying on me again, there will be consequences.”, I sent a bit of magic power to the spot I pointed out, and following that was the sound of glass shattering. Sunalla flinched after witnessing the scene I just made. “And that goes for you too, Sunalla. You helped us out the first time against Krull, however I won’t hesitate to kill you if you’re acting to disturb our activities here under her order.”

Maybe I was being a bit rude here. If it were someone else, I definitely wouldn’t have responded in such a way, but it was Elriek. I didn’t like her and I wasn’t going to pretend like I did at any point. She definitely knew as well so she didn’t hold back when acting like the spoiled, cunning brat she was in front of me.

‘You see? That’s how you tell a lie Sunalla! All I had to do was shatter ice before you and you were completely under the assumption that I could sense and shatter her gaze easily. Muhaha... wait. Can we actually do that agent?’

<<Yes… although we can’t break it so easily>>

‘That so? At least we gave Sunalla a scare.’

<<You were pointing in the wrong direction. They are watching from behind us.>>

‘Ah… You couldn’t tell me that before!?’

<< *Cough, cough* >>

‘Whatever. I’ll just lie that I shattered a god’s vision if Elriek ever questions me on this.’

With that out of the way, a seat was added for Sunalla.

We kicked off the meeting and although I was the one to host it, I greatly regretted it about an hour in. It wasn’t like there were any troubles or anything. It’s just, these guys came here, already having formed the opinion that I was the ‘Queen of Larm’.

Absolutely none of these guys was going to argue for the position or my eligibility for it. In fact, right now, they were giving me a list of the problems in the parts of their forest that they wanted me to solve, which I found to be extremely odd.

“Wait… this is the most dangerous forest in the world, filled with powerful monsters of all sorts and treasures the outside world seeks… I remember my first few days here; I couldn’t catch a break. Why the hell are you guys so damned organised and civil!?”

I was on the verge of flipping the table in blind rage when they all cocked their heads at me in confusion.

“Hmm, isn’t that how it always has been?”, The cyclops king asked.

“I mean, sure, Larm is presented as dangerous to outsiders, but we’re all just trying to live as peacefully as possible in here. Wasn’t that what Larm was built for?”, The orc king said.

‘Eh? What are these guys saying.’

“Well, it is true that Larm is dangerous to outsiders, but I think it’s been pretty calm to those living inside of it as long as we followed the rules of the tyrants.”, Kiara answered.

“Come to think of it… I remember Goliath saying the West might be doomed because of its tyrant.”, Zana added, thinking back to something she’d heard before.

“What do you mean?”, Unable to hold myself, I asked.

“Well, once every decade, Goliath wakes up to hold an inspection or perform management as the Emperor of Larm. Usually this was to give us orders or to check up on our progress. Amongst those orders, were a list of laws to govern our territories in Larm. ‘We may be seen as monsters from the outside, but there’s no point in living like savages in this utopia’, he said.”

‘Huh?’

“When I think about it… I guess, Minerva has never attended a single meeting. Aside the fact that she’s the youngest tyrant, meaning she’s been alive to witness only one and that she chose to skip the meeting, I guess it’s safe to say, Minerva never could create a civil enough environment for the West.”

“Ah… so you’re telling me the West hasn’t been civil since the first time Larm created it?”

“I mean… it sort of was? I haven’t been doing this tyrant thing long enough to actually know, but before I became a tyrant, the South was in disarray as well. Even after I became a tyrant, it took some time to make things sort of civil. I wasn’t nearly as efficient as Krull or Sora. Those two really knew how to control territories.”

“Ah… they just had to be the bad ones, huh?”, I muttered, depressed. That didn’t matter though, since I had both their memories in me… somewhere. I’d explore them completely later.

“Well, at least I now know that all sides of the forest are cooperative. There’ll be some changes to how each side is governed, although I don’t want to change your established dynamic too much since that’s the only way some of you guys get your food and stuff.”, The latter part of that was mostly directed to the North who lived in a strong eat weak world. Literally.

Even if I wanted to change it, there came the issue of what they’d eat afterwards. I doubt wyverns would be satisfied after 5 horned bunnies. Maybe 100 of those would be enough for a light afternoon snack or something. I also couldn’t suddenly force them to become vegans or make meat miraculously appear out of nowhere… wait. Maybe that could work?

‘Yeah, I’ll just tell that to Reiman and have him figure out the best way to implement my plan.’

“Ahem, regarding the border patrols…” Kiara brought us back to business. “The demon army has yet to make any noticeable movements in the East. We’re still waiting to see if they’ll choose to use Larm as a route.”

“Oddly enough, the humans also haven’t made any moves to attack the demon country.”

‘Eh? The humans and demons aren’t going on a rampage?’

“Are they not simply preparing in silence? Bidding their time to attack?”, Zana asked.

“Well, it is possible. After all, the humans were the ones to instigate this. That must mean they are waiting to be attacked, right?”, The cyclops king proposed.

“If they attacked first, wouldn’t it have made more sense for them to continue striking instead? I mean, the demons did just lose a major fighting power. That’s a devastating enough blow to cripple them, right?”, I asked.

“Well, not really. Demons, although small in number, are quite powerful. Taking out their demon lord just leaves the group of demons that wanted to become the demon lord, all of whom possess power comparable to the demon lord. If anything, the humans were merely lucky to have been able to kill just a demon lord.”

‘Seriously? What the heck was that hero thinking then?’

Sure, he soloed the party, but then what does that mean for the other demon lord candidates? Could he have done the same thing for at least three times the number?

‘Do the humans have something that gives them the upper hand against the demons in this?’

“Don’t the humans have an alliance with the Fairy plains and Oxaivalon? Surely, they felt confident with such numbers.”, The cyclops king asked.

“The Fairy Plains is currently in the middle of a civil war, so they can’t be relied on for a war. The Oxaivalon Empire is non-affiliate and will most likely ignore anything that doesn’t affect it. The only forces the humans can rely on are the Dhijan Hero Nation, Sundane Kingdom, Holy Mexar Empire, New Kyoto Empire and the Allied Nations Force. That totals about 5 million troops guaranteed.”, Kiara placed the numbers before us.

“No. The New Kyoto Empire is unavailable and even if they were, they’re seen as a thorn by the Holy Mexar Empire. I greatly doubt they would ever join forces no matter the cause.”

So, that meant the humans had the Dhijan Hero Nation, Sundane Kingdom, the Holy Mexar Empire and the Allied Nations Force to combat the demon country. From the sound of things, that alone might not be enough.

‘The humans decision makes less and less sense the more I think about it.’

At least, we knew that the potential danger itself was in disarray. If we focused a majority of our defence to the East to ward of the demons for a bit, while watching from the West in case the humans struck, we should be good to go. Though, if I were to actually become a demon lord, I could cancel out one party, but that would lead to me being thrown right at the fore of the war.

Honestly, why did these selfish bastards’ decisions have to affect me so much. Was it too much to ask for me to live my life unbothered?

Oh wait, that’s right. I just needed to become so powerful that none of their actions could affect me.

‘I’m already S-rank, meaning a lot of things in this world aren’t even a bother anymore. If I master both Chaos energy and divine energy, I’ll become unstoppable. Just a little bit more and I can live the life of ultimate peace.’

“Alright then! It doesn’t matter what the humans or demons do! We’ll fight back hard and win!”

“It’s great that you’re excited. In that case, we should start talking about how to circulate resources between all portions in Larm and the new rules you’ll be putting in place.”

I immediately zoned out and let the agent take over for this part. I took a trip into the bottomless pit that was stomach to check up on the other mes, only to get ignored by them. All in all, it was a very boring 2 or 3 hours before the award ceremony would begin.

__________________________

“Shiro, are you alright?”,

“Y-Ye—", Before she could finish her sentence, the silver haired girl fell over the side. Kana moved in quickly to grab her from falling. The other two drew in closer to help hold up the girl.

“What’s happening to her?”, Kana asked, beads of sweat starting to form.

“I’m not sure. We haven’t heard anything about her having any sicknesses.”

“Look at her leg. It’s bulging.”, Daisuke pointed, raising up her foot for the others to see. There was a red swelling on it with two holes in it.

“Bite marks.”, Akari clicked their tongue then looked around to see if the perp could be found. Unfortunately, the snake was out of sight.

“Uh, do any of you know healing magic?”, Kana, acting a bit more frantic than usual asked. Akari shook their head and Daisuke grabbed Kana by the shoulder.

“Our families are more battle-oriented specialists, so we don’t possess any such skills.”

The Minamoto clan was filled with martial artists trained for the sole purpose of absolute victory in combat. The Saito clan were a school of ruthless swordsmen who lived for the thrill of battle and considered wounds acquired as badges of honour. The Taira clan, although the smallest in number, were blessed with an absurd body that allowed them to take on massive amounts of damage and recover quickly.

All three of these clans were not particularly interested in learning about the art of healing, and as such, it wasn’t unnatural for the next generation clan heads to have no idea about such things.

However…

“Hmm, I may not be able to perform magic, but with the right ingredients, I should be able to force the poison out of her system.”, Daisuke commented, making the others turn their heads, looking at him with confused glares.

“I have experience with poisons, ok? Please watch over Shiro while I look around for ingredients.”

Not wanting to explain any further, Daisuke started to look around. The story of him developing knowledge in poisons is one so shameful he wouldn’t be able to live with himself should that come out.

The others didn’t care though, and instead, returned their gazes back to Shiro. Just then, as if the universe was actively trying to annoy the teens even further, two men appeared before the group and an extra female from behind.

All of them were wrapped in dark cloaks of designs the group was familiar with.

“Aren’t those…”, Daisuke croaked out with sweat snaking down his cheek.

“Looks like they came to finish the job.”, Akari silently drew her blade.

However, before any of them could make a move, there was a streak of blue lightning, flying right into the woman at the back. When Daisuke looked back down, he saw that Shiro was on the ground and Kana was nowhere to be found.

“She acts fast.”, Akari whispered, then jumped off towards one of the men in front of her.

“Wa-… what about Shir- ugh, guess that also falls on me, huh?”

<A/N:

Me: Let me write just one more chapter before I go to bed.

A few moments later, hears the birds choosing violence in the morning.

Hi, I'm a little tired from no sleep and my brain is kind of dead at the moment, but pleasure to be back again. Alright then, We're back again for hopefully at least 2-3 months before another exam pops out of thin air.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave power stones, comments and reviews!>