While Jin was battling in the Isolation Ward, the Farming World was getting heated up with the intervention of his monsters. The Dark Templars who were killed by Sebastia eventually met up with the Silver Mage as they were acquainted with each other.
Silver explained that Sebastia was killing them to gain favour with the Demon Rats while secretly allowing the resistance members to meet up by resurrecting them for her own master. The Dark Templar Leader who went by the name of Zieg also realised there was a higher power at work and came to understand that Sebastia was a demon herself, just that she was from another world.
“I know, I was also shocked to learn that there were other worlds out there apart from ours.” Gold came to greet Zieg who immediately knelt upon seeing the Lord Scholar of the East.
“Lord Scholar Gold! It is an honour to meet again! We feared the worst when we saw that the Heavenly Windmill had slowed down to a crawl. However a few weeks ago, we received reports that for a slight moment it turned just like in the past. We all hoped that you were still around, still fighting for dear life. To see you all healthy brings me great joy!” Zieg spoke with elation.
“Same to you and thank you for listening to my little cousin. Sorry about the killing. Perhaps it will appease you, knowing that at the very least you and your squad will be able to experiment with your dark arts to the fullest without needing to worry about losing your life.” Gold jested, and Zieg laughed with him
“Yes, yes! However it’s already our honour to learn that it was a demon who bested us instead of a regular human. Maybe, we shall worship her and get her to be in a covenant with us.” Zieg suggested, and the other templars also agreed.
“Erm…you might be surprised that even a ‘minion’ or you could call them footsoldier, in their standards, can beat your Dark Templars the same way Sebastia did.” Gold while patting Zieg on his shoulders to comfort him.
“Anyways, we have understood the situation, and since you granted my entire squad immortality, we shall henceforth be in your debt. Those lands and loot issue do not matter compared to this absolute precious gift that was bestowed upon us. We will be at your disposal. Do you need us to share our headquarter’s location so that Lady Sebastia may proceed to bless our brethren with this very same gift?” Zieg asked politely as he wanted to share this great piece of news with his other Dark Templars.
“Ehh, Silver what did you tell them exactly?” Gold brought Silver one side and queried him.
“Basically the same that you told me, you did say that this master of yours is busy, so that is why he put you in charge right?” Silver whispered back and Gold shook his head.
“We ALL serve for that Master you speak so lowly of.” Gold emphasised that Jin was their ultimate ruler of them all.
“But right now the master is not here, so you ARE the one in charge.” Silver could not comprehend why Gold could not understand the absence of command.
“Whatever, I will explain to them properly.” Gold returned to the Dark Templars and told them that their immortality was not without any conditions and listing what he and Jin’s other monsters were doing. Zieg looked at him and laughed, stating that it was a small price to pay.
“You provide us with worthy opponents to fight and kill. Not to mention space for us to research our dark arts? You sure it’s still a fair trade for our new master? Given these conditions, I say, we shall set out post haste to massacre my remaining brethren, so that I can bring them into this place!” Zieg seemed a little too eager to slaughter his people.
“Well, yes but don’t you think that they have a right of choice to choose whether to die for you or not? Or whether your Commander has a say in things? After all, if I am remembered correctly, he was still in charge.” Gold questioned his moral ethics and his position as the vice commander of the Dark Templars
“About that, my father Sieg had decided to allow me to hold the reins of the Dark Templar’s organisation.” Zieg refused to call his group as a cult. “Thus they now all sworn their fealty to me at the price of their own life. If I demand that they die by my sword, they shall. Those who do not will be killed regardless, as you said, this was a high level secret that cannot be passed around like cheap booze.” Zieg countered, and Gold nodded slowly at the poor analogy.
In the meantime, Flame Ripper and Meomi had met up with their individual organisations, and they were successful in their exchange. The Western Skies Guild was easily influenced by Flame Ripper’s introduction of gold…and something else.
“More bags of gold if you join our resistance. We have retrieved this from the rats so you can definitely see more if you kill those bastards. And Captain? Try to learn not to discriminate against people.” Flame Ripper lectured as he had proven not to be trifled with by initiating a duel of confidence against their captain.
All of the adventurers laughed hysterically at first, seeing their captain who was nearly twice as tall and older was challenged by the small innocent boy that they were ‘negotiating’ with.
The outcome, however, had stopped their laughter. Especially the moment Flame Ripper took his dagger out. The captain who was swinging his blade as if he was performing some swordplay, already had the dagger by his throat before he could do anything else.
Any movement from that poor fellow would have cost his life. Usually, Flame Ripper would let things go but that captain had insulted him so much that he decided to play a prank on him.
By ripping his pants off.
The rest of his adventurer crew could not help but giggle at the choice of underwear their captain was wearing, but that embarrassment also proved that Flame Ripper could take his life away and it would not cost him any effort.
“That was a terrible lie, that gold came from the System and from my coffers!” Gold complained to Flame Ripper once he reported the transaction to him even though the dagger goblin told Gold that it was a small price to pay.
“Stupid small boy! You will get your just punishment!” The Captain of the Western Skies Guild grumbled, but the rest of the adventurers told him off. He of all people should have learned his lesson not to underestimate people.
“We will contact you again on where to strike. Take this little bird. It will tell you where to go next. Till then, stay frosty…and windy, especially you, Mr Pink Kisses.” Flame Ripper giggled as he threw a magpie at them for communication purposes.
——–
In a separate location, Meomi met up with the spies from the Southern Stars Organisation and a person from the opposing side was nearly shocked to see the face of the Lord of Ording Town to be meeting them.
“Sire, I thought you were dead?” A lady with masked scarf came forward to speak, but she was held by another agent, who was supposedly the leader for the negotiation group.
“State who you are. We have received evidence that Lord of Ording Town was dead.” The leader demanded while brandishing his sword out.
“The Lord may have died, but before you stands the New Lady of Ording Town. I can still recognise your voice, sweet little Nightingale.” Meomi said as she disabled the bald figure disguise that she was wearing and showed her human form to Nightingale.
“Mistress Meomi?!” Nightingale ignored her leader’s actions and went towards Meomi trusting her fully. The rest of the Southern Stars agents continued to watch them with their guard up since they did not trust any contacts until their leader told them to stand down.
“I heard you disappeared with Lord Scholar Gold when he asked for your help?” Nightingale questioned as she pressed onto Meomi’s neck as if to check something.
“Touch all you want, only you know the secret,” Meomi whispered as she relaxed herself and let Nightingale to caress her neck.
“She’s real. I can vouch for it.” Nightingale said to the others, and the leader decided to give them some space.
“Since she was your past acquaintance, you conduct the negotiations. I have faith in you. The rest, fall back for now. Keep a sharp eye for any Demon Rats.” The leader ordered his agents, and they all proceeded to their assigned duties.
“They have so much faith in you?” Meomi asked with a tinge of sarcasm which made Nightingale lightly punch Meomi on her shoulder.
“Hey! So rude! They trust me because I worked hard, alright?! Before you stands the vice leader for this negotiation team! Especially since I grew up here.” Nightingale became more friendly and casual in her tone. “And with you.”
“Thank goodness, we sent you to the Southern Stars for your spy training even though we northerners hate the tricks the southerners always use. At least you were one of the only few from Ording Town that escaped the Demon Rats outbreak.” Meomi hugged Nightingale by the waist as they both swayed their bodies together in delight.
It had been a long time for the two of them meet up with each other. One was supposedly just an ordinary maid while the other a noble’s daughter. However, Lord Ording had a criteria for his team of maids. To be sufficiently strong during a fight because the Lords of small towns could only have that many knights under their disposal. In fact, only three were assigned to that small little town in the north.
Poppy, Pippy and their father, Porke had been the only three knights under Lord of Ording. However, the brotherly knights’ father and mentor perished during the outbreak as he and Lord of Ording defended the town for the rest of the Townsfolk.
Meanwhile, the maids and knights assisted with the escape of the townfolks, causing many of those maids to lose their lives protecting them against the Demon Rats. This was because they were assigned to protect the back of the crowd as Poppy and Pippy were guarding the front. Thus, all of the maids of Ording Town perished, except for Nightingale who was a year older than Meomi, stayed with the Southern Stars for training.
Not many Northern Region Lords had such amicable relation with the Southern Stars, and those who had were only a handful since relations were strained due to a past war between the both of them. However, the Lord of Ording had been one with friendlier relations to the Southern Stars because he assisted to smuggle some Litoride for the Southern Stars as well as supplies that had proven to aid the spy organisation greatly.
Thus, they took in all of the Lord’s maids as a sign of gratitude towards him (Some of those maids would also spy on the Lord, keeping him in check). This was also one of the reasons why out of all the organisations, the Southern Stars was the only one from the South who had decided to help the North. (in return for riches.)
“I did felt regret that I was not able to do anything for our Lord.” Nightingale admitted, but at the same time, she also thanked him selfishly for sending her away from the town when the outbreak happened. Meomi appreciated her honest thoughts and subsequently started to discuss with her what the Southern Stars cpiöd provide for the resistance.
Through their conversation, both Nightingale and Meomi had noticed that they had changed rather drastically, in both appearance and the view of the situation. Nightingale was thinking about the benefits for her organisation since she had been graciously taken in by the Southern Stars after the Demon Rat outbreak. Meomi was thinking about the eradication of the Demon Rats and reinstating law and order again.
“Do you wish to be Queen of the Northern Region?” The short haired assassin asked, and Meomi laughed at that question.
“Assuming I could make such a choice? No. I have a master that I am grateful for having given me the opportunity to do some good in this land. After all of this is over, depending on the calls of the people, I will assist with the redevelopment and build the Northern Region up again. Else, i will follow where my master goes. I believe it’s similar to how your Spymaster treats your organisation… I hope.” Meomi answered, and Nightingale was able to relate her feelings to a certain extent though she was very curious who this master was that she talked about.
“He’s just a human, to be honest. Alright, maybe that is a bit too far fetched right now. You could say he’s a martial arts master, eh …hmmm that’s also not too fitting a description…” Meomi could not fully explain what Jin was unless her sister figure Nightingale sees it for herself.
“You know what? Just work with us for a while, and you might get to see him. We are currently running reconnaissance for him and gauging the amount of resistance this region has to offer before he makes a move.”
“Sounds more like a general or tactician rather than a martial arts master,” Nightingale replied, and Meomi felt that was also not the right way to call him that too. “In any case, I agree to your terms of negotiation. You provide us with bags of gold for now, and anything that we find, we will split half.”
“One more thing. I do not wish to surprise you, but you have the right to know since the region is small enough for you to eventually bump into each other anyway. The Western Skies Guild is working for us too.”
“Oh huh…that’s fine. If there is no competition, it would not be fun anyways.” The way Nightingale took it so casually seemed to indicate that she already knew that the Western Skies Guild were being called in too.
“Hahaha, I guess nothing can escape the ears of the Southern Stars. But let me introduce you something that might improve your way of communicating.” Meomi offered as a portal opened and four blue Magpies landed on her shoulder before the portal closed up again. Nightingale was bewildered by the sudden show of magic though Meomi iterated that portal belonged to her master as she was merely borrowing it.
“Enough of that, this is more important. This birds can allow you to communicate far range. We will loan you these four birds to assist in your reconnaissance of the area. All we ask is to give us the most likely locations of the various major bases of the Demon Rats be it overground or underground.” Meomi demanded and told her how the birds worked.
Nightingale called her leader who was nearby through a series of sound signals, and when they both tried it, they were immediately amazed by these magical birds.
“How…where can we get more of these birds?! We are willing to negotiate more for this!” The leader asked excitedly, but Meomi said they belonged to a colleague of hers. She could only loan the birds to them for a period of time, unless they managed to prove worthy like the Goblin King Sol and Orc King Frost Echo who used it to keep in contact with Master Jin or Qiu Yue.
“I see, then we will do our best not to fail you,” Nightingale promised on their behalf to Meomi as they made their way with the four magpies and a bag of gold.
