Chapter 214 – We Decided on a Banquet Hall!?

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We returned to Fendel from the royal capital. At this point, everyone was used to controlling the airship, and so it did not take a full day to get back.

And on the following morning, Solm and I were on our horses as they trotted down the western road from Fendel.

Behind us, Iria and Melk were also riding on horses. Only Asuha was flying.

Everyone was quite good at handling horses now.

While sitting astride his horse, Solm muttered to me.

“The lands of Varthburg are surrounded by rivers. Of course, we intend to accept some of the human alliance armies, but… There is not enough space to accommodate hundreds of thousands.”
“There are empty grasslands in Fendel… But some of the demihumans will be cautious. They are still not ready to trust armed humans.”

Concealing the existence of the Fendel Alliance would be difficult.
It would be best to assume that the slave hunters and others had already spread the news, and the royals and nobles of the other countries would have heard about a gathering of demihumans.

And so we had no intention of hiding. However, we also did not want to actively contact them either.

Solm nodded and said,

“I’m sure that is for the best. We humans from Varthburg and the kingdom have already had exchanges with Fendel. Humans from the south generally have more opportunities to see demihumans. However, it is different for the empire and the northern countries. There will definitely be conflicts.”
“That’s what I think as well. That’s why I’m going to avoid overt contact.”

I would ask the Ents to create a wall of trees and plants around the Fendel forest. Of course, the humans also had flying squads, so we wouldn’t be hidden completely. But that could not be helped.

Solm then answered.

“I will also tell the people of Varthburg to not talk about Fendel, when possible. After all, there may be criminals who hear rumors of the demihumans, and turn into slave hunters.”
“Thank you. That will help a lot.”
“Leave it to me. Still, considering that, you probably should hold the banquet in a distant place. Do you have any ideas?”

And so I answered Solm.

“I know of the perfect place. According to Asuha’s report, if you go a little south down this road, you should be able to see some gentle mountains. It’s mostly rock, with few trees growing, and there are flat fields in the area.”
“So the soldiers could camp at the foot of the mountain, while the royals and nobles could rest on the summit… Yes, it sounds like a perfect place.”
“Aye. Not only that, but there are even hot springs on the mountain.”
“Oh. A good place to rest one’s wings then.”

Said Solm, and I nodded.

“Aye, an appropriate place for a banquet. I’m thinking about flattening the slope a little and building a mansion.”
“But if you make it too comfortable, they might want to stay for a long time.”
“That is what I want. We need to buy as much time as possible.”

I wanted Ylis’s banquet to be long. Delay the clash between the human alliance and the demon king for as long as possible.

Ideally, the humans and demon king would agree to a temporary truce.

This time, both sides were bringing great armies.
If both sides knew that the other side’s fighting force was on such a great scale, their leaders might consider the amount of lives that would be lost, and hesitate to bring things to a decisive battle.

Furthermore, I was hoping that Olto the Lizardman would be able to tell the real Demon King about my will to negotiate.

Or we could try to sneak into the Demon King’s castle… No, that would be too dangerous.

However, I could use Hide. So perhaps it would be best to at least plan for the possibility.

After all, we might not have the luxury of choosing the safest route later on.
It would be best to think of other ways, including contacting the Demon King army, or taking royals and nobles as hostages, in order to force the humans to retreat.

“In any case, let us go and inspect this mountain first.”

And so we urged our horses on, towards the low mountains that came into view in the south.

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