The second day of the talks began.

“Good morning, Fuji. I hope today we will reach the agreement.” The king smiled at me and summoned to come with him. Considering how weak he is I did not refuse.

“I hope today you will not be beating around the bush. I am not going to wait forever.” I pointed at the patrolling group of fighters.

“We suggest ending the war and compensating the duchess’ losses. Are you fine with this?” (K)

“I suggest you remember who started the war and how you attacked not only her, but also me. You tried arresting me, you tried attacking me. You invaded my property. Do you think I, a goddess, will be so forgiving?” I unfolded my tails to show off my strength.

“Go to hell, demon-fox. You might think I will succumb to your threats but let me remind you…”

BOOM

A shell exploded hundred meters away from us.

“As I thought. You only want war, you want to bite more than you can chew. When the people realize your true nature, they will fight you. Be ready, fox.” He showed his teeth at last. The talks are near the edge of jeopardy but we both understand what will be the end of it.

“Esteemed delegations, let us all pray for the peace. May we all find the way to reach an agreement which will put an end to the bloodshed.” The priests opened the second session of our little conference.

Those were the last words of the conference.

After the complete failure of the armistice talks it was the time for the new round of hostilities but I decided to wait for the king’s next step.

He began minor offensive at my allies but the moment I sailed there to send in a few thousand kilos of explosives, the loyalist armies retreated immediately. The war soon started turning into the skirmish warfare, the guerilla warfare. The king’s forces were trying to make the local population turn against me, he started promising them everything and threatening that I will be plundering their already poor lands. His soldiers began attacking allied forces in small groups.

The aerial warfare is nice when it is possible to find enemy and hit them. Our problem is that we have no way to react fast enough. I can’t keep bombers airborne all the time and I can’t wait for them to reach the area when the enemy hits. I started the most efficient operation in the situation.

“Kakka, what is this?” Kasumi pointed at a metal chest in the middle of a carriage.

“This is ‘chest’. Try saying it.”

“Shesutu?” Kasumi was making her first attempts at learning the language.

“Come on, ‘chest’. Why are you all saying things so weirdly?” Albert was sitting on the opposite side of the carriage.

“Shesutu. Was it better?” I tousled her hair.

“Fuji, why can’t we be teaching her?” Elina also was presented.

“Because I at least can explain her where she made mistake. Now, try again but instead of ‘sh’ try ‘ch’.”

“Chesutu?” She was making a steady progress. Kasumi already learned how to say ‘hello’, ‘thank’ and ‘forgive’.

“Why are we stopping?” Albert asked when the carriage started slowing down.

“Go outside, slowly. You don’t want problems with us, I assure you.” A few armed people showed up outside of the carriage.

“Kasumi, they are called ‘bandits’.” Let us continue the lesson…

“Banuditu?” My sweet girl…

“We will work on the pronunciation later, right now let’s learn some more words.” I took the naginata and jumped down.

“STOP!” The bandits tried scaring me back but I decided to teach Kasumi to the best of my abilities.

“This is ‘head’.” I cut away one’s head and showed it to Kasumi. For an ‘unknown’ reason she fainted. Now I can go and do whatever I want.

“You crazy bastard! DIE!” They rushed at me.

Bu-bu-bu-bu-bum

It was the first test-fire of Type 96 AA guns. The results were satisfying but I thought that they would do more than just making small holes in the enemy’s bodies.

I swiftly cleared the bandits with rapid-firing AA and returned to the carriage.

“You are crazy… why would you even show her this?” Elina pointed at the cut head.

“I wanted her to faint before I begin the actual clean up. Albert, go and take the reins, I don’t want to stay here even longer.” That was enough to change the topic but not enough to change the way Elina glared at me with disapproval.

The carriage was about to reach the destination where we will begin executing my grand-plan.