Special Chapter IX - Truth (part 2)

"Anyway, perhaps it's time we should brief all of you about the actual situation here."

The leader of the dwarves signalled the humans at the other side of the table to speak. And the man with a large sword stepped forward.

"My name is Gajah, the leader of the rebellion."

… What?

Wait, what?

"It's probably unclear for you, but the rebellion… isn't exactly a rebellion. Instead of a rebellion… we are more of a… Separatist."

The leader of the rebellion, Gajah, started explaining. He and the rebellion group were actually a bunch of peace loving people. They all lived in Veldonia's territory for their entire life, and they have seen so many dark secrets to the kingdom. And one day, they decided to leave.

But they thought to themselves, there might be other people at Veldonia who wished to leave the kingdom, just like them. So they formed a group, for people who wished to leave it.

Slowly, they gathered followers, people who wished to leave the kingdom. They even gained support from the dwarven kingdom, to create a civilization of humans on the territory of the dwarves.

For this to be possible, they needed to escape from the kingdom first. But because the kingdom is incredibly ruthless, they wouldn't let them go peacefully. Instead, they branded their group as a form of rebellion, and even sent the military to hunt them down, stating war to the peaceful loving group of people.

This is truly a war crime. That is why Veldonia didn't want any peaceful treaties, because they were never on the peaceful side to begin with. In fact, they started it.

I should let the kingdom, Mazino, know about this.

"It won't matter if we ask for help from another human kingdom. Because if we do that, the other human kingdom will just declare war with Veldonia, and that beats the purpose."

Gajah added at the end of his story, and I quickly got surprised.

"We wanted peace. We just don't wish for any conflicts to happen. If bringing other kingdoms to assist us using violence, then that's the complete opposite of what we wanted.

So instead, we will simply escape the kingdom, and have our own life at the dwarven territory--"

"And you are okay with that?"

I asked him before he finished. Everyone else was shocked when they heard me talking, and Gajah simply lifted his shoulder.

"Yes, it's… much better than living in that hell."

"I see. Then, I will follow. Tell me your plan."

Gajah turned towards the dwarf leader, and nodded. The dwarf leader turned back to me.

"We needed someone… from the outside. Someone powerful."

Everyone from the Mazino group turned their gaze at me. I let out a sigh and raised both of my hands.

"I give up. What do you need me for?"

"Originally, our plan was to fake the death of the rebellion. We planned to use a 'hero figure' to help us with the act, and made him take all the credits for taking the rebellion down by himself."

That sounds so cliché... but it might be effective in this situation.

"All right. Then what's the problem?"

"Have you heard about the rebellion having the ability to use undead?"

Gajah asked this time. I suddenly got interested in this, and I opened my ears at him.

"I have heard about it, yes."

"Tell me about what you know first."

Gajah seemed to want to know about how much I know. So, I explained to him all that I learned from Valon and the news I gathered from Veldon newspapers.

So far, all I know is that the rebellion army had the ability to conjure the undead, but it's not limited to dead people. They can also conjure undead demon beasts, mutated bugs, and even undead dungeon monsters. What's funny is that all of them came with a danger level the same as when they were alive, only that they can regenerate if they don't get destroyed fast.

I mixed some of the information that I heard with some knowledge that I already know myself. I knew about the characteristics of reanimating magic, and I added them to the story.

"That much is true. But, there is one thing that is false."

Gajah stopped the sentence there as he closed his eyes. He opened them, and stared sadly at the table.

"The rebellion… wasn't the one who is controlling this undead."

Gajah continued explaining again.

The rebellion never intended to do any form of physical harm to the kingdom, like war and such. At the beginning, they were planning to simply pull people one by one from the shadows and leave the kingdom through peaceful means.

However, there was a third party.

The kingdom continuously got attacked by this third party. Using undead magic, even the kingdom got quite thrown aback from how powerful this magic is.

And since this third party is acting around the rebel's movements, the kingdom announced to everyone that this undead magician is a part of the rebellion. That way, they can take down two birds with one stone.

"So, this undead conjurer... is the one acting as the rebellion?"

I asked Gajah, who seemed to be shaking his head.

"We do not know for sure how this rumour came to be, but what is valid is that the conjurer was not one of ours. The conjurer is a third party who just hated the kingdom, and the kingdom probably branded him using our name as his identity."

"And it became a huge problem to you."

Gajah gripped his palms harder. His eyes became sharper as anger slowly appeared.

"Yes... Thanks to him, the kingdom pointed their fingers at us. We got attacked, and we have lost a lot of good people."

Gajah's friend wielding the dual axe patted him in the shoulder. Gajah realized he was in a meeting, and quickly came out of his daze.

"A-Anyway, we need to take down that conjurer. That is our current objective. Then we can spread the rumours that the rebellion has been taken down. That is also why we needed a powerful figure who can take down a conjurer that even a powerful kingdom like Veldonia is having trouble with. Once the conjurer is taken down, the kingdom will then brand the rebellion to be down as well."

"And the proof of that, is the defeated undead conjurer. I can see it working."

I nodded at the plan. Now, what's left is the details.

The location of the conjurer has been spotted by the knights, but it's not perfectly clear. It's somewhere around the beach on the west, and we planned to go there to fight.

A small group of fighters will be deployed to take down the conjurer. We will all act as if we are simply warriors from Veldon, and Gajah will be the one to do something if we were questioned.

Eva and Lyona will stay here with Ezerio and the other dwarves. This place is much safer considering it's under the protection of Balenia, the dwarven kingdom. Meanwhile, the captain and his underlings will go back to Veldon to grab their friends, then we shall meet up at the beach.

As for me, I will go with the warriors from the rebellion group. They will also be there to battle against the conjurer.

Based on their intel, the conjurer had some high ranking undead monsters he can summon. Which means we will need all the manpower I can get.

After the meeting, we all headed out to prepare. The captain and his knight were the first to leave the cave. He needed to grab his friends after all, and he will meet us again at the beach.

Meanwhile, I had to stick with the rebellion warriors. They all were quite proud of their strengths, and they asked me about how strong I am.

"I'm technically a White ranked adventurer."

I said to the warriors as we prepared for battle. Right now, everyone is doing their own things at the side of this river, like polishing their gears or packing their stuff.

"Well, that doesn't mean you don't need help, right?"

Gajah replied while putting on his new battle armour, that looked an inch thick. I stared at his armour for a second before turning back to his eyes. 

"I... guess?"

One of the warriors from the meeting, the female with a longbow behind her back, walked towards me.

Her build is so much bigger than mine. She had muscles growing out of her arms, as well as packs on her opened belly. She cuts her hair short, so she won't have any problems during combat.

Those muscles looked scary…

She wrapped her arms around me and chuckled.

"You know, if you need some help, I can always drop everything and run towards you! You have nothing to worry about!"

W-What? I couldn't understand that.

I turned to Gajah, and he laughed.

"Kirene is the best fighter we had. Even though she used a bow, she is the best when it comes to melee."

"True! My plan was to use a bow at ranged battles. But at close range, I took the weapon from my enemies and used them to fight. Doesn't that make me simply invincible at any range?"

"That's… one barbaric method."

I commented, and Gajah laughed loudly again from that.

"Well, she is also the most barbaric..."

"Die, Gajah."

The lady, Kirene, threw a rock at Gajah, hitting him on the chest and creating a loud sound of metal. The rest of the group tried to calm Kirene down, but she is like an exploding volcano.

I watched from a distance as she strangled three grown men with her bare muscles.

Scary… Will I look like that in the future?