BXBX NOVEL Chapter 207: Ballsy reply
"Stop with all this shouting!" walking out of the tent, I called back.
I knew this was the man\'s job to find the two of us… But couldn\'t he take a hint after the first time his shouting failed?
"Mister Peter!" Turning around, the messenger jumped around and rushed to our side right as Fay started to walk out of the tent. "Miss Fay!"
Seeing my girl, the celestial messenger grew even happier, to my own dissatisfaction.
Strangely enough, I only ever wanted Fay\'s presence to make me happy, not some random human-shaped beast from the forest she grew up in.
\'Her kin had all the time in the world to show her sympathy before and they didn\'t. Now, Fay\'s smile, her adorableness, her cuteness, her sexiness… They are all MINE!\'
Looking at the rushing messenger with a sense of infantile superiority, I allowed the man to reach our side and even take some time to stabilize his breath.
"Miss Fay, Mister Peter…" the celestial coughed out, still struggling to catch his breath.
"What was so important that you kept bothering the two of us at the worst time possible to do so?"
I put on a scary face and looked down at the man while crossing my hands over my chest. Behind me, Fay pulled on my shirt a little before raising the intensity of our bond for a single pulse.
\'Don\'t be too hard on him. It\'s just his job.\'
As irking as it was to have Fay speak up for another man… Deep down, I knew she was right. And I was the one in the wrong, chewing out the poor messenger just because he happened to bring news at an unfavorable time.
\'Still, that\'s one interesting way to use our bond.\' My thoughts shifted, appreciating the instantaneous and perfectly private conversations we could have with just our feelings alone when our bond was maxed out.
And when the flash of intimate unity with Fay lasted for a single instant, single pulse, the side effects of our bond\'s inherence had no time to act up.
Still…
"Mister Peter…" the messenger looked slightly down to stare right into my eyes.
He didn\'t appear to be angry… just confused. His confusion quickly morphed into surprise, then shock, and finally… disbelief.
And rather than speaking up, the man simply turned round on his heel and stretched his arm out.
"The Imperial Golden Legion," the man spoke, pointing at one hell of a mass of men gathered at the top of a nearby incline, roughly two hundred steps away from the furthermost part of the mercenary camp. "They have arrived."
My eyes locked on the neat rows of men, split into ranks twenty long and five deep. When it came to their battle formations… I couldn\'t really tell. Due to my lower elevation, all I could see was just the uniform row of men all standing atop the incline and looking down at the bloody battlefield at the outermost edge of the human camp.
The front of the human legion was all uniform, consisting of men donning heavy yet extremely weird armor. It seemed like a mix of all the types of personal protection that historically appeared on Earth.
The major vitals were protected by huge, only slightly rounded plates of shiny steel. Areas of lesser importance were covered with lamellar-like pieces while joints and other flexible parts necessary for movement were covered in a layer of chains.
\'They are fronting heavy infantry right off the bat, huh?\' I thought, adoring the impressive sight of the human army.
This was the peak of what my imagination and dreams from my teenage years could come up with. A grand army of the likes that only history and a selected few movies throughout the ages managed to depict.
\'It\'s a pity they are all out for our blood, huh?\' My face twitched a little. \'Feels like I\'m on the wrong\'s side of a Rohirrim\'s charge here.\'
The line of men all gathered and standing perfectly still…
It was impressive, alright? And it more than tickled all the buttons of a fantasy freak like me, I admit. But it was all less than enough to pull my attention away from one, very specific part of the human army that arrived.
"Mister Peter," the messenger spoke again once he saw sense return to my eyes and displace all the awe. "They\'ve sent a man to ask if we want to fight or talk," the celestial reported before turning to me and looking directly into my eyes. "How should we respond?"
I cleaned out the insides of my mouth before gulping all the saliva I could gather to wet my parched throat.
Still, the messenger\'s question wasn\'t just dumb. It was outright retarded.
Right now, we were at the outskirts of the human camp, with a bit less than two hundred mercenaries in our captivity working hard to gather and bury those who died so far. Save for them, there were maybe a total of fifteen celestials and divines left in the camp.
And just a few hundred steps away, on an elevated position to boot, stood an army of numbers… Well, unknown. Just their front stretched for as long as ten individual units, making their line two hundred men wide and still, five men deep.
\'As for how many there are beyond the crest, we don\'t know,\' I thought, scanning the line of the men with my eyes for yet another time.
Either way, even if the entire army was now on full display, they still had an ungodly advantage in numbers. Judging by the class of their armor and how all of them were armed with the same, rectangular shields and either a short sword, short spear, or a one-handed axe…
\'This is a proper army, huh,\' I thought struggling to peel my eyes away from the sight.
"We are not here to fight with them. Not now, at least," I finally produced a response to the messenger\'s question. "Go and grab one of the mercenaries then go and pass my message as follows."
I cleared my throat before closing my eyes and gathering my thoughts for a second.
What were the major points I had to cover to turn this tense situation into one I could benefit from? How could I stop the imperials from slaughtering their former allies and then force them to sit down to negotiate a cessation of hostilities?
"The men gathered at the camp are here just to bury the dead. They will neither fight either side and, upon completion of their task, shall return to the forest where their allies are held. As for the talks, we are happy to partake as soon as you send out someone with the necessary prerogatives to make binding decisions."
I crafted what had to be the peak of the polite, diplomatic talk that I could muster.
"Prerogatives…?" the messenger asked, a look of confusion taking over his face and thus wiping all the other emotions he had in regards to the message.
"Authority," I explained to the world, once again reminded that while I could somehow speak in a language locals would understand, it wasn\'t perfect. Or rather, the difference of depth between languages, where one language simply lacked the necessary terms to describe something could be the reason for the messenger\'s reaction…
Or maybe he was simply too stupid to understand whatever word came out of my mouth when I tried to say \'prerogatives\'.
"Will do. And with that, I will take my leave," the celestial spoke as he lightly nodded his head. "Mister Peter," he gave me a quick nod. "Miss Fay," he lowered his head before Fay.
And without speaking another word, he turned around and left, finally leaving the two of us alone.
"That message of yours…" Fay spoke out, strangely restraining her voice whenever in the presence of others, especially those she didn\'t know in advance.
"What about it?" I asked, encouraging her with a gentle voice and a slight, restrained touch of her shoulder.
"Do you think this is the right way to speak with humans?" Fay asked while turning her eyes towards the long line of men that stood at the top of the ground\'s incline. "I don\'t mean to draw parallels between worlds at all. I\'m not trying to say all humans are like that either…"
I took in a deep breath, quick to figure out what was Fay\'s current problem.
"Just speak your heart. There\'s nothing wrong with generalizing, and I would much rather listen to what you really have to say rather than its moderated, censored version."
Fay gritted her teeth and escaped with her eyes to the side. Yet, after a short but careful consideration, she shook her head and looked back up to my face.
"Humans of this world are arrogant. It\'s supposed to be all the more of a case for those with actual power. And those who boast both personal strengths and have standing to back it up…"
The displeased grimace on Fay\'s face told me all I had to know about her opinion of the humans of her own world.
And I could also understand that she was so hesitant to share said opinion because… well, I was a human myself. She didn\'t want me to take her general opinion of humans as her view of me personally.
"Humans are arrogant, that\'s correct," I sighed. "But we are also slaves to appearances," I added, the momentary, grim expression on my face quickly giving way to a vile, nearly sadistic smile. "Just look at all those soldiers on the incline. Don\'t they look glorious?"
I turned my eyes towards the human army yet again. And so, my smile only widened.
"They look glorious, so everyone will assume they are strong and thus fearsome," I stated before releasing a single chuckle and turning my face back to the girl right as the messenger from before, in the company of one of the captive mercenaries, walked out of the camp and headed for the gathering of the human army.
"That\'s why I\'m low-key arrogant in my message. By showing a different attitude to what they expect when their advantage is so blatant, I hope to spark some curiosity," I explained my plan while fully aware of the chances of it working…
Were maybe not abysmal, but extremely low.
After all, for my plan to work out, everything had to go precisely as I hoped it would. And just like an ancient saying taught, if something can go wrong…
"Wait, it\'s actually working?" I released a shocked sigh when the massive front of the human army suddenly parted only for a small party of horsemen to ride forth, stopping only by the messengers. After exchanging a few words, they all turned towards the camp before making their way over to where the last battle took place.
"Miss Fay! Mister Peter!" the celestial shouted again. "Her Majesty Golden Princess is here to talk terms!"