“It’s not that we’re going to start a fight,” I answered as we watched the overjoyed residents of the city.
The torches were casting deformed shadows on the stone-paved roads. Before we knew it the sun had completely set, surrounding us with the dark of night. Still, the people showed no signs of settling down. In fact, the party raged even harder. I wondered if many of them would be able to get to work tomorrow. Perhaps they got PTO for hangovers.
“Mm.”
Tiamat’s response was short, probably because she knew exactly what I meant. Thanks, partner.
“There’s no point in winning that fight.”
Exactly. Why the god of this world summoned another person from our world, I didn’t know. Only god may have known. Literally. There was something I did know, though. Now that the god has summoned one, it didn’t make a difference to summon more. Even if we defeated the one who was summoned this time around, the god of this world would summon someone else. Our battles would never end.
“Besides, war is never better than peace.”
I tightened my fist. The hero had planted some seeds of destruction for this world. That much was indisputably true, and I couldn’t defend that. He had brought over something that should not have existed in this world yet. No choice of words would get him a decree of innocence. But no one could deny his achievement of defeating the Demon Lord and establishing an era of peace.
“Even if Shizuru the Hero destroys this world as a result, I will never condone summoning a Demon Lord to correct that course.”
“I mean, I’m happy you’re that passionate about my brother you’ve never met... But what are we going to do, specifically?”
Tiamat seemed a little embarrassed. A brother of hers might as well be a brother of mine.
“Talk.”
“Talk, huh? Wasn’t that how you were killed before?”
Yes, indeed-io. Totally taken off guard. My big mistake.
“I won’t fall for it again. Negotiations are what I’m good at, anyway.”
“I thought you were a lowly bureaucrat and not a crisis negotiator.”
Don’t call me lowly!
I mean, it was true. I called myself that all the time, but it was annoying when someone else did it.
“I don’t take care of the concerns of our city’s valued citizens for my own enjoyment.”
No one goes to the city clerk’s office just to vent or anything. Precise answers and specific suggestions are always required of us.
Take questions about taxes, for example. That isn’t something that I can ever answer ‘don’t worry about it’ to, nor give them some sort of discount. So I’m left talking about how they can pay their taxes. Can they pay it in installments? How much of their income could they put towards it each month? That’s the kind of discussion I have with people who come to me. If they still have trouble paying their taxes from poverty, I show them to an appropriate department.
We’re not just there to let people vent, but to set up real solutions. That’s my kind of talking.
“A little different from my kind of talk.”
“Right.”
Tiamat was a school counselor in Japan. According to her, the first priority of counseling is to listen. Specific solutions are not often expected of them. Lecturing is out of the question. It was completely different from bureaucratic discussions.
“So, what are you going to talk about?”
“How to coexist.”
“That’s a big one. Humans and monsters to coexist? You think we can do it?” Tiamat laughed.
It wasn’t going to be easy. Humans and monsters coexist in many fantasy pieces without issue, but I had a good idea of how difficult that really was to achieve.
Monsters ate humans. As long as that remained true, cohabitation was impossible. Unless one or the other was completely caged or something. Of course, that was not coexistence, but the set up of owner and pet. There are zoos and bear farms in Japan, too; who could claim those setups to be coexistence? The difference in how we obtain nutrients was a wider divide than most imagine.
“Isn’t it a little dismissive to give up on discourse without even trying?”
“That is true,” Tiamat agreed.
Just because the enemy started a war, it didn’t mean we had the option of giving up on all forms of contact. Brawling to the death was just too idiotic.
“We’ll find their base and negotiate with their boss. I suppose that will be our angle.”
“Yep.”
Tiamat and I shrugged our shoulders. I thought we were contemplating peaceful plans like researching seafood and finding rice bran or a substitute for it. It just didn’t seem like this world was willing to give us peace.
We decided that we would hunt down the surviving monster army. The day after the massive party in the city, I told as much to Earl Agamemnon, who was clearly hung over.
“They are powerful and multiply quickly. If we leave them be, they will soon regain their strength and attack again, as many times as it takes. In order to prevent that, we have to go for the head.”
“Oh, my... To think that you all have Noura at your hearts, Sir Eiji...”
“Not particularly. Nations and borders don’t hold that much importance to us. We are here to save people. That’s it.”
Whether they were from Noura or Azur didn’t really matter. As a result, we were just going to end up helping Noura.
“Master Hermits...”
“That being said, we are unfamiliar with the land in Noura. It would be of great help if you could provide us with a guide. And any passes you can print would be a big, big help.”
This (a little pushy) request was actually to give us a bit of ethos. I was technically an F-rank adventurer, so there was nothing suspicious about me traveling down the main roads for no reason. Since Noura was at war, all people would think was that I was here looking for mercenary work. I didn’t think we would get lost too easily either, since we had Tiamat’s DLC packs on our side.
On the other hand, if we could wave the Earl’s figurative banner, and have his people accompany us, we could roam much freer. Use every connection you have. That’s the Eiji style. I explained all of this to Earl Agamemnon, too. If we were to upset him and be rejected, that was fine by me. It was against my beliefs to use people through deception. If I was going to use them, I would disclose that fact up front.
“You would make for a poor politician, Sir Eiji,” the Earl laughed.
Yep, I know. Already been assassinated once. No big deal.
“I understand your intentions. In that case, please allow my son to assist you in your journey.”
With that, he introduced us to a young man named Ruey Agamemnon. He had spectacular red hair and a gentle face with a body built like a sable. He wasn’t as feral as Baze, nor as neat as Hieronymus, but seemed like an honest man. About as tall as me, too. His stature was extraordinary for someone of this world.
Another looker! One more good-looking guy joins the party! Why am I being surrounded by these guys?! If I was a woman, I might have enjoyed the situation like Don’t fight over me, boys! Teehee! but I, unfortunately, am a man. I had no wife or children, but I did have a fiancée... albeit a dragon fiancée.
“Sir Eiji. I will serve you to the best of my abilities!”
Ruey straightened his back. Oh boy. What a refreshing young man.
“Thank you, Lord Ruey.”
“Please. Just call me Ruey.”
Why are you blushing, Ruey? People might get the wrong idea.
I felt a pat on my shoulder, and turned around to find Tiamat in her human form. Giving me a thumb’s up. I’m sorry. I didn’t have a clue what she meant by that gesture. What were you expecting of me, mi amor?