Message From The East

Various messengers of the Ogre king had been sent to the West to deliver a single message.

"Denizens of the West! Your Tyrant has invaded my land, thus declaring war. As such, I am about to decimate your lands. If you wish to live, come serve under me before the next full moon. And if you wish to die, stay with your foolish Tyrant!"

His plan was to strike fear in the denizens of the west so that they would flee to the east and thus, quicken his invasion plan. He wanted to weaken Minerva as much as possible.

However, he had underestimated how much the denizens of the West feared Minerva. No living magical creature in the West would ever go against her. It was one common rule that had been engraved in the minds of even the youngest of the denizens.

Still, this didn't mean that the denizens would sit and do nothing. They all knew what to do. They just needed to find Minerva and that was the end of the matter. They could leave it in her hands. There were 9 days left till the deadline.

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Minerva POV

The hob-goblina woke up and looked around the cave. She was disappointed when all she met was bare ground and fallen feathers. She sighed and got up feeling a bit depressed. She was feeling bad about what happened the day before with her friend. She knew that she should have just ignored it since Tori-kun could have handled it, but seeing her get shot by that arrow just got her pissed.

She couldn't handle it, especially when her first friend had been killed before.

Minerva had only known the pain of losing her loved ones since before. Even when she was in the dark elf village, although she wasn't especially close to anyone there, they had all died. Her father was dead, her mother dead, her friend dead. She didn't want to lose Gorm as well, but when she met Tori-kun, she didn't know why, but she simply couldn't kill her.

She could simply give the excuse that Tori-kun was cute, but she honestly didn't know why she couldn't kill her. In the end, she befriended the little bird. Sure, their time together wasn't much, but she felt a sort of attachment to the little bird.

That was why when the bird was in trouble, Minerva just jumped out. She wasn't going to let her friend die. And when Tori-kun was scared, Minerva was also scared. Minerva didn't like the look Tori-kun gave her. It frightened her. She just decided that Tori-kun wasn't safe around her.

Right now, Tori-kun was probably safe wherever she was.

She was safe, right?

Just to be sure, she could just check, right?

Well, it wouldn't hurt to check up on her, right?

Well, it wasn't like Tori-kun would know if she checked up on her, right?

So she ended up using [Overlord] to search through the west to find Hinotori who was currently hanging out at the goblin village. Minerva was about to blow a fuse when she saw that, but decided to relax and observe more.

After a while, she saw Hinotori just relaxing and doing nothing much. She would play around with her skills and just keep lazing about. All in all, Hinotori was normal and that put Minerva's heart at ease. She was going to stop, but then she noticed something odd in her forest.

Some new guys had entered and it was odd. They weren't humans so she could relax a bit, but then they were kobolds in armor riding on electra wolves. Normally, kobolds didn't have such good armor and electra wolves weren't so peaceful as to not rip off the faces of stupid and weak kobolds.

Also, the kobolds were creatures that lived in the East, so why were they here? Everything pointed to the War Monger. That fat ogre had started doing something unnecessary. Minerva would need to investigate further so she observed the kobolds some more.

They went about blowing horns and waving red flags about. The kobolds then started shouting a notice. Minerva heard this and her blood boiled, but she just shrugged it off. That fat ogre was stupid, but even he wouldn't be so stupid, as to attempt to fight her. The kobolds were just using his name to spread chaos and try to acquire some land. She didn't care much though. She simply needed to protect the west from humans, not other monster races. Even if the ogre himself were coming, there would be no need to stop him.

"This is an announcement from the Ogre Tyrant! The west has been unsupervised for too long! He shall spread his arms over his portion of Larm and make sure it is protected from any form of threat from external threats. So, abandon the Mad Witch and come under his wing! If you refuse, War Monger Krull will accept to fight you."

Ah? That was his plan? To have all of the West's residents turn their back on Minerva and follow him while taking over her portion of the forest? She knew he was a despicable creature but such a plan of low intelligence? She couldn't fathom his stupidity.

At this moment, she wanted to laugh. This was because she knew what all the West's residents would say. It was a simple and short "No".

Why? Was it fear? Was it respect? No. It was freedom. It was because the West was the freest portion of all the portions. All the tyrants had taken over their respective areas, save Minerva and the dragon tyrant. The North was being ruled by the Griffon King who acted like some sort of ancient and wise beast that had a system working on the premise of strongest rules and weakest serve. The East was ruled by an iron fist with Krull working all his servants to the bone like rags. The south was in a constant battle for power because of their tyrant's behavior and that had caused an insane amount of hostility and deaths there.

Here in the west however, the monsters were free to act as they pleased. As long as they didn't disturb Minerva they were safe. She would protect them from humans and they would run wild and free. This was why the West would never dream of betraying Minerva.

The denizens sacked Krull's messengers out of the forest. They told them to deliver the message that they would fight if Krull were to persist. Some of the messengers were killed.

Minerva then canceled her skill and went out to attempt to get a breakfast. However, what she got were monsters running towards her place. She knew what they wanted, but she didn't speak first. One by one different races came forward till a majority of the West's races were present before her cave.

"Great Tyrant, Minerva! Please help us!"

A fat satyr beseeched. Minerva looked at him and he smelt quite unfamiliar to her (He didn't smell of Larm).

"Where are you from?"

She asked threateningly. Noticing the danger in her voice, the satyr began to tremble.

"I-I belong to a group of nomadic satyrs. We were just passing by to the Dourean Deserts for a pilgrimage. But it would take us about two weeks to leave this place to the South and the ogre tyrant said he would be coming in the next nine days. We don't wish to get caught up in this mess."

Minerva looked at him suspiciously and couldn't see his followers. She immediately checked up on the group with [Overlord] and visually confirmed that what he said was true. Still, none of that mattered to Minerva.

"Huh? Minerva will not fight."

She told them.

"EH?!"

They were all confused. Various murmurs in the crowd and several complaints rising up!

"Ok! If not you, what about your pet!? It's powerful, right?"

A voice came from the crowd. The races then began murmuring amongst themselves. However, this was a grave mistake that could have ended with everybody present dying.

"Involve Tori-kun, and Minerva will fight y-"

'Wait… Tori-kun can't know that Minerva cares about Tori-kun.'

She conflicted with herself and came to a sound decision based on her feelings.

"Run."

The Tyrant stomped on the ground and delivered and order with [Overlord] and all the creatures felt overwhelmed, immediately running away.

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Day 17

So… I was dead meat. Minerva had just signed my death sentence.

I know what you're saying. Hinotori! You don't need to fight! Except that I do! I live in this damned forest!

All the goblins were looking at me. They had created a weird sort of distance from me and were just observing from the shadows of their cave. I wasn't really buddy-buddy with them but this was just really weird.

I just decided that I would find somewhere else to get a nest. Maybe I would create spawns and have them protect me while I slumbered.

"Hinotori-dono please wait!"

Gorm called out to me before I could fly off. I looked back and the guy was currently not wearing his armor so he was bare chested with a loincloth covering his private organs. That felt quite indecent, but what could I expect from goblins?

'What? Why?'

I asked him. He went on his knees then bowed before me. All the other goblins were looking at me from behind. I could feel Oda's surprised gaze on him, then a slightly angered gaze on me.

What did I do?!

"This may be absurd, but please! Hinotori-dono! Help us fight!"

Of course, he requested something that was truly absurd.

'WHAT?! Why are you asking me? Are you actually insane?! You do realise I'm just a chicken, right?'

I reminded him of the fact that I wasn't especially strong. It was completely selfish and stupid of him to ask me to do something like this, especially after I fed his village twice in his place.

"I know! That is why you must fight!"

'Eh?'

This guy just lost me.

"It is because you are a weak and frail chicken that when you fight, Minerva will have no other choice than to participate in the battle! She wouldn't want you to fight in this."

'Like hell I'd fight if it's for that reason! You damned bastard!'

I shouted at him in my brain. That was the most offensive thing he could say to me. Goblins really had no manners. Even this bastard who I thought had common sense had none. I sighed and spread my wings, about to fly off the branch.

"Please stop there."

I heard a voice. This time, I recognized it as a voice in my head. [Telepathy], perhaps? I looked around for the source, but I never found them.

'Who said that?'

"Look beneath you."

When I looked down the branch, I saw a young girl. She looked to be sixteen years old. She had short blonde hair with green tips and was wrapped in tree leaves forming a sort of clothing for her. Her skin was pale, almost ghostly and her eyes were a dark green.

A human? At least that was what I had hoped, but when analyst activated, I was surprised.

STATUS

[Name: -

[Species: Spirit Sprite Level 25/30

[Status: [Excited]

[Age: 4 years

[Rank: D-

[Race Rank: Tier 1

[Titles: |Of World|, |Rare Species|, |Larm Protector|, |Loved by The Light Spirits|

[Blessings: |Blessings of The Heavenly Crafter|

[Level: 25 Exp: 120/1,030

[Health: 700/700 Stamina: 1000/1000 Strength: 110 Speed: 450 Defense: 100 Dexterity: 105 Intelligence: 25 Luck: 40

[Skills: -

Her stats weren't really impressive, so normally I would assume she wasn't really a threat. But then I couldn't see her skills even though her rank and everything were low. Did she possess some kind of unique skill? I was instantly put on guard.

'Who are you?'

She giggled when I asked and her elf-like ears flinched cutely.

"The oldest tree wants to speak with you."

She told me as if that made sense.

'Who or what is the oldest tree?'