The lizardmen were unyielding, and the ogres thought of themselves as stronger than the other races. More than anything, they disliked mankind to begin with. Plus, their territories were relatively small. They were, however, located the closest to Fei Lu.
The heads of the three biggest demi-human countries all fell silent. Rondered and Lico looked around the table with pensive expressions. The one to speak up was the Saikorea representative, Ordes.
“O-Our country is geographically closest to the Mythical continent. King of the Mythicals, could your continent, well to put it simply, accommodate our people?”
“Yes, we could,” Curalius nodded. “We will accept into our domain the people from the eastern side of your continent—Saikorea, De Luf, Yasha-Miz, and…hm, yes, Caro-De as well. That is as much as we can accept, however.”
“O-Ooh, thank you!” Ordes stood up and bowed deeply to Curalius.
“Our country, too?! Thank you so much!” De Luf’s queen rose from her chair and curtsied to Curalius as well.
“You have our gratitude, King of the Mythicals!” Yasha-Miz’s leader said.
That’s all the eastern and northern countries! That’s very generous of Curalius!
But that meant that the other countries…
“Very well. Forestria will accept the humans of De Marl. That country has been our ally for many years. What say you, comrade?” Elf King Gaelon said.
“Ah…! We greatly appreciate this kindness!” Rondered said.
“King Gaelon,” Shida said, surprised by the elf king’s generosity.
“You approve, yes, Shida?” King Gaelon asked him.
“It’s not my place to object, but am I to assume my family is included in those numbers as well?” Shida asked carefully.
“Of course,” King Gaelon said without an ounce of hesitation. “Your father and his comrades came to the demi-human continent to supply us with information. Tell them they are welcome when you see them next time.”
“Hmph. I don’t see them all that often…”
But for all of Shida’s pouting, he did sit down for drinks with Sirius every so often at Rofola Lodge.
You really are a contrarian, Shida…
But I was relieved. De Marl’s people and those living in the Rofola Lodge were guaranteed a place. The only problems remaining were the smaller countries and those living in roadside inns. There were also the people working in Deshmel to consider. Since the Sugula was plummeting directly on top of the fortress, they needed to be evacuated.
“E-Excuse me, what about the people working in Fort Deshmel—” I tried to bring the matter up, but a louder voice drowned my words out.
“Then what about Fei Lu?!” the Fei Lu representative asked. “We can evacuate to Segyadis… R-Right?!”
“No,” the dwarven king shook his head. “I’m afraid not. De Marl is too large. Isn’t that right, King Gaelon?”
“Yes, our country isn’t large enough to accommodate all of De Marl’s refugees,” the elf king said.
“My country will take half of them,” the dwarf king offered. “My apologies, but my country is limited in how many we can take in, and we also have deep ties with De Marl. You will have to depend on another race.”
“I don’t believe it…” the Fei Lu representative mumbled. “K-Kobold king, please…?”
“Oh, you want to come over to us?” the kobold king, a cat kobold called Zio, asked with a feline smile. “I’m sorry, but we already decided to take in merchants and traveling caravans.”
Merchants? People like Mister Giyaga?
“We will accept the traveling merchants and adventurers. They get along with us well, so we prefer that to an influx of strangers,” King Zio explained.
“B-But what… What are we supposed to do?!” the Fei Lu representative cried, despair washing over his features.
“P-Please wait!” another human country representative called out. “What is a small country like ours supposed to do?! Where will we go?”
“Th-That’s right! All you care about is the larger countries! Where are the people of our small country, De Lulua, supposed to run…?!”
“And don’t forget about the people of Ah-Demokis! P-Please, won’t someone offer our people shelter?! Somebody!”
The representatives shouted nonstop, but all sides were justified in trying to find a safe haven for their people. But the accommodating side could only take in so many people, and with the demi-humans having different cultures from humans, some were bound to refuse. Some races might have felt like they were too occupied with keeping themselves safe to be able to help.
Meanwhile, the people from the countries Curalius accepted started making demands. Protect us. Ensure we have enough food. And most importantly, don’t argue with us over differences in our culture.
Without cooperating and working together, people who used to live on different continents couldn’t hope to live side by side. That much was true.
But the people from Fei Lu and small countries like De Lulua and Uru Ki would end up having to bear the full brunt of the falling Kaguya’s impact. They needed somewhere to evacuate, or if nothing else, to get as far from Deshmel as they possibly could.
“What should the people in Deshmel do…?” I finally managed to ask. In a sense, I was their representative.
“There’s about a hundred people living in the fort, right?” Shida asked.
“Y-Yes.”
“Hm, in that case, they could just hide underground, beneath the fort. This is where the Sugula is set to fall, but the olden king’s friend will destroy the Sugula here as well. If worse comes to worst, this place will take the least damage.”
He’s right!
The Sugula was set to fall on Deshmel, but this was also where Renge would intercept it. In which case, the Kaguya would scatter, and very little of it would fall here.
So does that mean Deshmel’s relatively safe, and I shouldn’t worry about it? Really?
“What about food, though?” I brought up another concern.
“The fort is already self-sufficient as it is, no? And there’s you, with the power of purification. The monster-attracting barrier is intact, too,” Shida pointed out. “The fragmented Kaguya will rush to the fort, just like the monsters. And you’ll deal with them as you have until now.”
I fell silent. There were no other problems I could come up with.
“There’s no preventing the fragments from falling everywhere, though,” Shida continued. “The Sugula is just that massive, and even the olden king’s friend wouldn’t be able to fully burn it away with his flames. Those fragments are bound to rain on the human continent.”
“Y-Yes…” I nodded anxiously.
“Fragments of significant mass will fall at great speeds over all the countries and farmland. You should have been preparing to take great losses. And despite all the warnings, you humans didn’t make any preparations…”
“I did think three years might be too short a time…” Eure, who stood behind me, appended.
Shinsen nodded next to him. Shinsen was the one who worked with Dad for these last few years and helped him teleport around the continent, which gave his nod a slightly different meaning.
“How was the last time it fell, friend of the olden king?” Shida asked.
“Hm? Oh, sorry, I don’t really remember. Things were very hectic back then, so it all feels like a blur now,” Renge said apologetically.