Her name was Goliath. In direct contrast with Freesia, this petite Succubus had a cutesy aura. Perhaps she was on the timid side, because she seemed somewhat tentative as she joined the conversation. She certainly didn’t live up to her name…
“…I see,” Takuto said.
The escort Succubi were assigned to Takuto’s party on direct orders from the Succubus Queen—Witch Vagia. Takuto didn’t know her intentions, but she must have held a very important position to be able to act as the empire’s Commander. And since these Succubi also held important positions within the Succubus Empire and acted on the orders of their queen, then their words had legitimacy.
Setting aside their ultimate goal, Takuto was glad to have learned what motivated the Succubus faction at this stage. But he also understood he was facing down the barrel of one of his worst-case scenarios.
The Elves had been absorbed by the Succubus Army all too easily. As things stood, he wouldn’t be able to instigate the Elves to revolt and carry out guerrilla warfare within the country to weaken it. He had always considered the possibility of them being subsumed, but the Elves being fully assimilated into the Succubus faction was a worst-case scenario.
“Prosperous coexistence… D-Does that mean the Elves living in this country get to have raunchy sex with hot Succubus every single da— OW! Ow, ow, owww! St-Stop! Stop it, Miss Ai! I’m sorry!”
“You stupid, perverted Master!” Ai cried. Then she muttered, “Seriously, if you just said something, I would do those things for you, Master…”
“Wha? What did you just say?”
“Nothing!”
The useless RPG duo was having a blast on their own as usual.
What are those idiots doing? Takuto swallowed the insults that were on the tip of his tongue. Even if they were idiots, they were power horses as individual units. Both Yu and Ai had admitted that they sucked at strategizing. Takuto just had to take all the thinking onto himself.
The right man for the right job. It’s more important to assign people to the tasks they can do rather than focus on what they can’t.
In that sense, Takuto still had a job to do. Collecting as much information as possible before the All-Faction Conference. He had a strong feeling that something was off about this occupied town, and he believed figuring out what that was would be key to cutting his opponent off at the heel.
“Come to think of it, I don’t see any women. Elf women, I mean, not Succubus… What happened to them?” Takuto asked.
“Hm? Enjoying the yuri life, cultivating themselves, and stuff? Living for their hobbies and taming petsss?” Goliath drawled.
Wow, they’re really living it up, aren’t they?! Takuto screamed on the inside. Actually, his real body back in the Accursed Lands ended up shouting the words out loud.
Given the nature of Succubi, they should only be interested in men. Since there were no Incubi around to feed on women, Takuto assumed the Elven women were in a tricky position. However, contrary to his expectations, the Elven women were simply elsewhere, and the Succubi were doing what they could to keep them happy. The Succubus Queen’s policy was for everyone to live happily ever after together, and it was looking more and more like that was more than just empty lip service.
“Fortunately, the Elven women have come to terms with their situation,” Freesia explained. “Of course, there are some who can’t accept reality. They have formed a political activist group and are holding daily demonstrations outside the council building to release their pent-up frustrations.”
“I-I see…”
“I can see the Elves are being well cared for. But if I may ask, why did you resort to invasion tactics when you are willing to be so considerate of other races, like the Elves? You could have founded your own country in some empty territory and used your beauty and charm to lure in immigrants,” Vittorio-Atou asked, continuing the queries in Takuto’s place. He must’ve assumed Takuto was temporarily out of action from the astounded look on his face.
Vittorio jumping in here was a huge help to Takuto. While he had better insight than Vittorio, there were plenty of things he overlooked. Being able to tackle the problem together with Vittorio would help him gather a more varied selection of information. Vittorio’s question just now was a perfect example of that. Takuto also wanted to delve deeper into that topic, but was afraid asking too many questions would make them clam up. They were more likely to answer Atou, who hadn’t said much.
Well, if what they’ve said so far is anything to go off of, I have a feeling it’s going to be another absurd reason. Vagia seems to have a rather comedic personality. And looking at the rest of the Succubi here, I’m guessing they came from a gag game. It’d make sense they’d avoid unnecessary death if they do.
Takuto was starting to get a rough idea of who he was up against. If nothing else, he was narrowing down the options.
But then the two Succubi scrunched up their faces like they couldn’t comprehend the question. This wasn’t the look of someone who didn’t understand the phrasing or wasn’t allowed to answer. It was the dumbfounded look of hearing a concept for the first time. Of being faced with an idea beyond comprehension.
“Oh dear,” Vittorio-Atou said. “Was the question too difficult? I am asking why you chose to invade El-Nah. If you could have achieved the same result, wouldn’t you have preferred to take a more moderate approach first?”
Even with Vittorio’s elucidation, the two Succubi remained baffled. They even exchanged glances this time, seeking in each other how they could possibly answer this query.
It was at this point that Takuto realized his opponent did not have simple and clear-cut circumstances, but that they were operating according to their own distinct rules and concepts.
After a few long beats of silence, the two Succubi answered in a way that seemed as though they were trying to insist their reasoning was correct.
“No, that’s incorrect,” Freesia said. “We never even considered it.”
“Expanding is the correct path for the livinggg.”
“I see what your logic is now. My query was unreasonable. My apologies,” Vittorio-Atou said, ending the conversation. It seemed Vittorio had nothing more to ask of them.
Takuto stifled a sigh. It was now clear that it would be impossible to find a compromise between the two empires at this point.
Now I see. This is a tough one.
At the start, the two Succubi had pointed to themselves and claimed that they were not locusts. But if they harbored no qualms whatsoever about their excessive need for expansion and proliferation, their claims rang hollow.
Is their ecology closer to that of an insect? More in line with the hive-minded ants and bees? And to make matters worse, they’re the chimera-type that assimilates others to expand their forces… Reminds me of the type of creatures that infiltrate spaceships in science-fiction horror movies. Eugh.
Takuto shifted his gaze to the traffic in town. The Elves and Succubi looked happy at first glance. But to Takuto, the scene felt like a temporary dream shown to victims inside the stomach of some great, unknown beast.