Chapter 220: Busy People
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
A six-hour-long marathon-like discussion was just about to finish in Diffindor’s royal palace.
“Then, the next meeting will most likely be in six months’ time. Please prepare the mine production samples and tax-free item lists by that time. In the next meeting, we shall try to finish all business-related agreements that apply to the entire Mist Alliance.”
“In order to show the important of the next meeting, Queen Glina will personally come to sign off on the contract at that time. We hope that your side will be able to give us equal treatment. Of course, the publicity work will also be left to your side since you’re all the same species with the same culture and language, and this is an excellent chance to greatly improve the relations.h.i.+p between our kingdoms. This chance for publicity shouldn’t be wasted.”
“Equal treatment? I understand. I shall inform Princess Reyne. But by six months’ time, she might very well be Queen Reyne.”
“Haha! That’s even better. It’s getting late, so I shall take my leave first.”
Elisa, who seemed so energetic, just earlier sighed with a face filled with worry. She watched the horse-drawn carriage fade into the distance with the young diplomat Wende from Sleuweir Kingdom who she just sent off.
“It’s been so long since I’ve been able to make contact; I hope that nothing bad has happened to him. No, since the entire Earth Elemental Plane has been cut off, then there must be some big incident going on over there. I can only hope that he returns safely.”
“Relax, I watched those two mischievous bratty twins grow up. Neither of them seemed like they would be the short-lived type.” Kelly smiled and there was pride in her tone, but was it really alright for her to be calling Roland a brat?
“Perhaps you shouldn’t be worrying about Roland; instead, worry about that Emordi-something. Don’t judge Roland by how calm he seemed on the surface when he left. Actually, the angrier he is, the calmer he’ll appear to be. He’s definitely bearing a grudge right now. Based on my understanding of him, if he’s in a bad mood, he’ll plot on how he can make someone else even worse off than he is. So, you should be worried right now about his enemy, not Roland.”
In a way, this wood elf was the one who watched Prince Roland grow up, and she made this deduction using her instincts, which was actually quite close to the mark.
“They have their battlefield, and we have ours. We can’t have them looking down on us when they return, so let’s work hard, young Elisa.”
They were actually busy with official work as the background scenery for their chat. Just leaving for a little while caused the doc.u.ments and letters that needed their attention to pile up like mountains.
“Of course. I still need much a.s.sistance from Sister Kelly, and there’s still so many things I would like to learn from you.”
Elisa smiled and nodded. Kelly, who had a.s.sisted over ten generations of Mist Royalty, was basically unbeatable when it came to any political matters. Kelly’s hundreds of years of political experience was astonis.h.i.+ng, and Elisa had learned a lot.
When Roland became the absentee leader and even Reyne followed after him, all the political and military affairs of the Eastern Mist Communal Country were left to Elisa and the others who had stayed behind.
Military affairs were quite easy. With the Red Hunting Hounds and their knights staying behind, the creation and training of various military squads went quite well. There was also no need to change the overall military organization significantly.
But, on the other hand, the political matters regarding the citizens were rather critical. These issues were ones that couldn’t wait for even a single day.
Although East Mist didn’t have the serious problems of Sleuweir Kingdom like reconstruction after battle, just the large numbers of gray elves moving to East Mist and how to accommodate them had all the local officials busy thinking up plans. Increasing the number of living facilities and new cities as well as redesigning old cities all became number one in priority.
Apart from all this, there was also the scheduled expansion of Diffindor’s city limits for the upcoming spring, the planting of new crops, and various annual tasks at hand. The first task would affect nearly 30% of the citizens’ living area, and the second had to do with the upcoming year’s food production. Both were critical tasks that they couldn’t afford to have any problems appearing with.
And, recently, something even more important was adding to everyone’s burden, making the East Mist officials overloaded when they were already at their limits. In just one short week, the number of governmental officials that had been sent to the hospital for overwork had reached double digits.
This headache of an issue that everyone had to deal with using all their energy was the setup of the Mist Alliance.
This was doubtlessly a good thing. Just the news of such an issue would cause the entire country to celebrate. After all, after the Mist Alliance’s flag was finally flown, it would mean that the People of the Mist had finally gathered together again. In a way, this would mean the reconstruction of the already destroyed Mist Kingdom.
But some things were just too sudden. According to traditions, even trade discussions would typically take several months to complete, and it would usually take a military alliance one or two years to finish the negotiations. For something as huge as a mutual alliance, economics, military affairs, politics, agriculture, diplomacy and so on all needed to become unified and reach an outcome that every single country could accept. This definitely wasn’t a task that could be completed with ease.
Ten or twenty years? Perhaps ten years would be realistic, but the time limit that Roland had given them was a mere two years. As the core countries of the Mist Alliance, the Eastern Mist Communal Country and Sleuweir Kingdom were required to finish all the foundational work for unification within a single year. The heavy workload required for this was likely sufficient to send several hundred more governmental officials to mental hospitals in the near future. To be honest, in just this short time, several more patients were registered due to overwork.
As the highest-level female official as well as private tutor in the royal palace, even if she didn’t have an official governmental position, Kelly was indeed the core of the newly-born Eastern Mist Communal Country. But even the wood elf with extremely high stamina was also quite fatigued by the recent heavy workload.
*Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!*
Kelly lightly clapped her hands to attract the attention of all the busy officials. As she looked at everyone’s tired faces, she came to a decision.
“It’s almost dinnertime; everyone should rest up early tonight. No working overtime—we’ll just continue tomorrow.”
“But we haven’t finished our work yet, and the Shawen tribes are coming tomorrow. We still haven’t prepared the new contracts, and the report from the intelligence department hasn’t even arrived yet.”
“Only by pacing yourselves will you be able to go farther. I don’t wish to see everyone here in the hospital. No matter what work remains, do it tomorrow! This is an order. Could it be that when Reyne and Roland aren’t here, none of you will listen to me?”
In everyone’s eyes, Kelly, who seemed to be smiling ever so cutely, was actually rather scary. But, her seemingly forceful order was also filled with concern that warmed their hearts.
“Heh heh, even if Reyne and Roland were here, they probably wouldn’t be of any help, and would only add to the mess.”
Elisa’s words, however, caused everyone to start laughing uncontrollably, but this was indeed the truth. If Reyne had been present, she would be nothing more than a rubber stamper, and someone would even need to be sent out to find her as she would always skip out on work. It was pretty much the same if Roland was present, with the only difference being that there was no need to send anyone to look for him. That was because as long as Roland himself didn’t show up, n.o.body else would ever be able to find him.
“Why are they both so similarly skilled at giving other people trouble?”
“Hmph! When he comes back, he really needs to pay us well for doing all this.”
While complaining, the two of them began working on various tasks. Neither of them was an ordinary person, and both of them had excellent bodies, so it seemed that they wouldn’t be able to escape from overtime.
As for me, I was far off in another plane, and I couldn’t possibly know about the things happening in my homeland. Nor did I have any time to think about them, as the powerful Earth Elemental G.o.d was the only thing on my mind, giving me enormous pressure.
Even though a major battle was clearly about to occur soon, I spent much of my precious time before the battle in the library. Of course, there was a good reason for that.
Information was key to winning one hundred percent of battles. If I couldn’t even find out what aces Emordilorcan had up his proverbial sleeve, of course I wouldn’t be able to prepare for combat against him. If I had to use human lives to block him in the end, that would make me lose the advantage of proactiveness.
As the most ancient of the Elemental G.o.ds, even if there were records of him personally fighting before, they would likely be from several thousand years ago. Although the two Elemental G.o.ds on my side provided a little information, not even mentioning the fact that it was likely outdated, the fact of the matter was that Emordilorcan had never been truly forced to the brink before. It was only natural that the other two Elemental G.o.ds didn’t know if he still hid any aces.
However, with the a.s.sistance of several top-level archmages and hundreds of acolytes, we checked a countless number of books and discussed all our combat experiences. Anything related to earth magic was counted, and we summarized hundreds of rules and common methods by which earth elementals used earth magic along with their highest-level magic.
Our final anti-Emordilorcan plan contained a full 30 volumes and filled up an entire bookshelf. Not only did it involve plans against Emordilorcan, it was also a foundational summary of earth magic, which would be incredibly useful in earth magic cultivation and research in the future. At the time, Kaid was incredibly overjoyed and said that the result of this time’s research meant that he wouldn’t have to worry about research funds for at least the next ten years, which made Amelia rather jealous.
There was an old phrase in the magic society: “How much power a mage has depends on how long he has prepared for. If the mage has prepared for long enough and has a sufficient amount of backup plans and resources, it is possible to even slay a G.o.d.”
“If someone simply goes up to his enemy with caring about anything at all, wouldn’t he be no different from a musclehead?” If it weren’t for the fact that Margaret kept glancing in my direction out of the corner of her eyes as she said this, I would have readily agreed.
After confirming my enemy, I would observe my target and collect information before formulating a plan. Apart from an incredibly few, most of those of a job cla.s.s such as a mage were extremely inept at melee combat. Never facing someone from the front was the most natural thing of all. In many previous situations, we had been forced to battle so there wasn’t enough prior preparation. This time, however, we had plenty of time, and all our combat extrapolations and preparations were more than plenty. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have come to attack Emordilorcan in his own home.
“He really is just a turtle hiding in his sh.e.l.l. This sh.e.l.l of his is so hard. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.”
Similar to what we had seen in the mortal plane, Emordilorcan finally came out to greet us in the basic form of a stone giant. In the mortal plane, his form had made people feel somewhat internally conflicted upon viewing him, but the current Emordilorcan’s appearance made everyone feel helpless on how to comment.
Unlike his pitch-black outer sh.e.l.l in the mortal plane, Emordilorcan’s stone giant body seemed to be constructed out of precious white jade, which seemed exquisite yet frail to the point that just a casual touch would shatter it. However, the fact that just his very steps were causing the ground to sink doubtlessly proved that his extravagantly beautiful heavy armor of white jade was of a scarily high quality.
The forbidden spell was still sending out waves in the Elemental Tide, and he rushed furiously in our direction. All the obstacles along his way were viciously sent flying; he ignored all spells and projectiles. With at a preliminary glance, anyone would know that the stone giant before us was definitely a tough one who would be difficult to even scratch.
But this was also within my expectations.
Once his direct route of charging towards us was basically confirmed, of course we would activate the trap we had long since prepared for him.
“Realm of Flowing Water.”
The plentiful preparations beforehand reached the conditions necessary to bring enough water element here for the Water Elemental G.o.ddess to activate her own Divine Domain. A river suddenly descended from the sky, causing a mud-filled flood to cover this entire land.
The sand and water created a muddy flow that seemed solid but was actually flexible. The moving sand and rocks were far more difficult to deal with than the flood itself; sinking into it would mean that even thousands of kilograms of strength wouldn’t be sufficient to pull yourself free.
This was a trap created by nature, and had absolutely nothing to do with magical resistance. This was a death trap created just for Emordilorcan who had peerless physical strength. When Emordilorcan got trapped in the mud flow, he struggled fiercely at first, but when he discovered that everything beneath his feet had turned into muddy water where he couldn’t use his strength, he gave up resisting and allowed the muddy river to carry him with its course.
Although he was now stuck, the fact that his eyes were still filled with the intention to fight us seemed to be telling me something.
“Even if you can trap me temporarily for the time being, so what?”
That was the self-confidence in his body’s defense power. And he had every right to have such self-confidence. In all our combat extrapolations, that Elemental G.o.d body of his built up over thousands of years had basically unbeatable defense. It had given us so many headaches.
The Water Elemental G.o.ddess’s Divine Domain was extremely limited here, and the mud river would quickly lose its momentum. But for us, this was sufficient.
“Frigid Ice River!”
The descent of ice caused the river to instantly transform into a frozen river as the newly-formed ice solidly trapped Emordilorcan within. Right after this, the remaining demons were already beginning to attack him. At this moment, Emordilorcan’s reinforcements as well as those looking to cheaply gain the accomplishment of slaying a G.o.d all descended upon him.
“Die, Emordilorcan!”
The furiously roaring Wind Elemental G.o.d Camdian transformed himself into a Storm Giant and was intending to engage in melee combat with Emordilorcan in a repeat performance of the combat situation from the underground labyrinth.
*Roar!*
Before he even reached Emordilorcan, the frozen Emordilorcan broke free from his bonds and sent a white jade-like huge fist that was even faster than Camdian’s roar.
*Boom!*
There was no magic involved at all; it was merely a full-force blow. Yet Camdian’s body was already shattered! When he reformed his physical body from mist at a nearby location, he was noticeably smaller than earlier, evidence that he was definitely injured.
The Wind Elemental G.o.d had overestimated himself. In the mortal plane, he was still able to exchange a few blows with Emordilorcan, but in this Earth Elemental Plane, Camdian was the one who was weakened while the Earth Elemental G.o.d was now using his true body. Plus, Emordilorcan’s power was multiplied even further in his home plane. The power gap between the two was ma.s.sive.
Another reason that Camdian’s body was shattered in a single blow was that as a mage cla.s.s, he actually went out and tried to engage Emordilorcan, the pure warrior, in melee combat. In the end, it was still him underestimating his opponent; he used his past experience to measure Emordilorcan’s true strength and ended up suffering mightily with just a single exchange of blows.
But to me, none of this was that important. From the very start, I didn’t consider the possibility of killing Emordilorcan using any sort of frontal attack. Getting him stuck here was enough for me.
“Beifeng, you’re up. Do a good job for me in digging up his ancestors’ graves, and don’t leave behind even a single stone.”
Just as I finished speaking, Beifeng’s reply caused me to feel uncomfortable all over.
“Relax, with me going out there, I promise I won’t leave even a single mouse or c.o.c.kroach behind!”
I had always wondered about a certain question. Why was it that such normal-sounding words would always make people feel uncomfortable when he was the one saying them?
And, right now, on the outskirts of the battlefield, the escaping Giant Sand Worms were blocked by a certain smiling half-dragon Legend-ranked hunter, who was already beginning to use his super charisma against certain targets.
Soon, those restless huge beasts actually began listening to Beifeng’s command, for only the reason that he told them there was one thing that could help them gain freedom and become even stronger.
“Our target is—”
“To not have any cavities in our teeth!” Adam was joking and messing around even at such a time.
“No! The Elemental Throne, dig it up for me! There’s going to be no more Earth Elemental G.o.d for at least the next two thousand years! We’re going to make this b.a.s.t.a.r.d lose his foundation and become homeless.” I angrily shouted and pulled out my longsword as I watched the combat situation unfold in front of me.