Chapter 9:
Making Peace with the Ogre God
FOUR DAYS AFTER THE BATTLE, the group that had gone to the Second City of Irelil as envoys came back. They brought us a reply from the Biheiril Kingdom. It was all written in a letter that went on at length about this and that.
“The king says he’ll meet with you. He said that if you do something about the force on Ogre Island, he’ll consider the matter of the Superd.”
That was the general gist of it. It at least sounded like he was likely to allow the village to continue to exist. Despite the speed of their return and the messy handwriting—like it had been scrawled in a hurry—the seal was genuine. The force on Ogre Island would be Moore and the others, left there by Atofe. They’d taken all the villagers on the island hostage and barricaded themselves there, on Atofe’s orders. At this stage, it didn’t look like the Ogre God was going to go beat them into submission… I guessed that meant we’d be talking about how to clean it up.
“…All right.”
It wasn’t like I had any pressing requests other than the Superd. I did have to ask about Geese, but that was all.
“Then let’s go.”
I’d take a few Superd with me. We still had negotiations to go through, but if the Superd were going to keep living in the Biheiril Kingdom, they ought to reveal themselves so the citizens would accept them. Otherwise, they could end up in another situation like this. It was also possible citizens’ groups who saw the Superd might stage a protest. Much as I’d like to have a ceremony where the Ogre God and the Superd village head shook hands…
Anyway, while I was musing about that, I chose my team members to take to the capital. First, in case of battle, I’d bring Eris, Atofe, Sandor, and Ruijerd. Cliff of the Millis Church would be negotiator, and Elinalise would accompany him. Finally, we’d take two Superd warriors with us. The rest would stay behind in case the village was attacked. They weren’t team members, but we’d also return the prisoners. To tell you the truth, the king hadn’t asked for their return. It was tragic, but I was a man of my word. Well, I say that, but it was always possible negotiations would break down. I’d leave one behind as a bargaining chip.
With that, I went to the hut where the prisoners were staying. The two of them sat inside in dazed silence. They looked at me with suspicion in their eyes.
“How did you like the Superd village?” I asked. There was silence. “It’s a pretty nice place, don’t you think? Lots of pretty women and happy children. The food’s a bit heavy on vegetables, but it still tastes good. The warriors are a bit brusque, but they’re not hostile to humans. Have you understood that?”
For the few days they’d been here, the prisoners were free to move around the village. I made sure they were guarded, of course, and they’d surrendered their weapons. In order to check they weren’t in disguise we’d stripped them, but apart from that, they’d been met with hospitality. After I’d emphasized to the Superd that they were to look after the prisoners like guests, they’d been kind to them. We hadn’t kept them tied up or anything. They walked around the village as they pleased, and we even let them go outside the village so long as they had a Superd guard with them. I wasn’t worried about them escaping; I was worried they might get attacked by Invisible Wolves. While they were out, the Superd had hunted the Invisible Wolves for the past two days, and we’d shown the prisoners the kind of monsters they were. They got the same food the villagers ate. There was still some concern about the plague, but there was nothing else to eat, so we had to make do. For the time being, we gave them Sokas tea to drink with their meals.
“…I guess I realized we’d been misled by rumors.” The knights had looked despairing when we captured them, but now I was pleased to see they felt at ease.
I still hadn’t told them all the great things there were to know about the Superd, but they were bound to leave with a good impression regardless. I’d keep one of them here to enjoy himself for a bit longer. It was scary to think that the moment I was gone, he might pull his mask off and declare, “Haha! I was the Man-God’s minion all along!” To be fair, though, we’d chosen them at random, and we did a thorough physical check when we brought them back to the village. Orsted and Cliff had taken a good look at them and vouched for them, and I was leaving a few of my allies here… It should be fine.
“We’re going to negotiate with the kingdom, so I’m bringing one of you home with me. I’d prefer to leave the higher-ranked one of you here, if that’s all right.”
“All right.” One of the knights nodded and the other stood up. They just did what I said.
It’d suck if it turned out that they had some sort of beef with each other and this guy just abandoned the other one. But the king had, in theory, accepted my conditions. There was nothing left but to meet and discuss it.
With that, we set off from the Superd Village.