"Bnuppa, I'm sorry, something came up and I need to be away for a few days."

"That's unfortunate, come back soon! Can I keep Smoothie?"

"No! Absolutely not!"

"But we need our mascot. How about this, I'll pay you, consider it rental fee."

"She's not for rent. She's my child, stop treating her like a commodity."

That tavern owner was relentless, pulling out ridiculous negotiation tactics out of nowhere. However, Smoothie thought otherwise, interjected, "Mother, it's alright. I'll be safe here."

Betrayed! You're mine though...

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. You do your thing. The folks here are friendly so you don't have to worry."

"If anyone try to hurt you, come tell me or Kanoko. We'll put them back in their place, alright?"

"Mm!"

That was basically how it went before I left the city to do my scout duties. Besides just the scout duties, I was creating and spreading clones. They were designed to only have one leaf, but with deep roots and they were spaced at fairly large distances as to not alarm any enemy troops when they marched. My goal was to bind and decapitate as many soldiers as possible and drain them using [absorption]. To combat the current dry weather, I was using my water reservoir stored in |gourmet| to keep my clones alive and healthy.

I wonder if I can create poisonous mist? If they can be made large enough, that would be even better. I better look for plants that could spray things.

While I travelled southward, I tried to look for any signs of an army travelling. It would be strange for an army to arrive within two days without being noticed by the beastfolks. After all, I doubted there was any way an entire army could be teleported in. Before I left Vera, I had confirmed with Kanoko that teleportation magic was restricted to individuals and required tremendous amount of mana. As for my other concern, there were no way for anyone to override the status display for extended periods of time. Such magic or equipment didn't exist in the kingdom. Therefore, the likelihood of spies from foreign countries was next to none.

Occasionally I flew up until I was just below the clouds to check for any signs of moving masses. I kind of wished I had |enhanced senses| or |enhanced eyesight| traits to help me see better. Even without those traits, it shouldn't be difficult to see a huge mass of people. However, I didn't see anything noteworthy.

Thick clouds rolling in from the southwest section of the sky were hindering my ability to see long distance. I could see two small towns, but that was it. To the west was a dense forest, thick enough that even if an army hid there I wouldn't be able to tell. The thing was, to reach the city of Vera from that part of the forest, it would take at least two weeks of marching.

I guess I should drop some clones in there.

Using my own fey magic, spreading clones was fairly easy. Instead of placing fragments with my own hands, I could place them with just magic. And if I wanted them to travel much further, I shaped them into paper airplanes then let them glide to their destinations.

It was quite fun throwing airplanes around. Of course, I wasn't in no way playing around! This was for me to test the effective range of my fey magic.

Around a kilometer radius? Not bad.

In addition to the testing my fey magic, I started to closely monitor the total number of clones and their status through [conglomerate]. So far, the numbers had increased steadily with little to no losses. It would be strange if the numbers didn't increase.

Grey clouds that likely marked the first rain in weeks had covered the entire sky. Of course, I couldn't be happier about that. My plant bodies could all grow big and healthy with lots of water. I had no worries about too much water either. Extras could be stored in |gourmet|.

After two days of wandering around aimlessly in the wilderness, something unnatural caught my attention. At first I thought I was imagining things or perhaps a mind trick but I was afraid that Smoothie's prediction was accurate. Lumps of irregular shadows could be seen within the clouds, moving steadily in the general direction of east.  

It can't be, right? I hope I'm just imagining things.

I zipped up towards the dense clouds as quickly as I possibly could. Drilling a hole through the clouds and absorbing the moistures as I ascended. The turbulence within the clouds were a huge hassle but that merely slowed me down a bit.

Above the clouds was a heavenly scene. White fluffy clouds glowed under the radiant sun. Gliding eastward above the clouds were at least a fifty or more white magitech ships, or I believed they were magitech ships. Of the ones I saw, three appeared to be flagships, at least hundreds of meters long, lined with cannons. There were also openings on the sides that looked like launch pads for the smaller manned ships.  What was more impressive, or scarier, was that I could faintly make out two more large fleets in the distance.

Oh crap. Am I dreaming? Who knew a sci-fi world was on the other side? Never mind that, this is definitely a red card. I need a pay raise.

As much as I wanted to make use of my clones to fight, they were next to useless in air. And, as much as I would like to join the human civilization, they didn't welcome me, as a citizen. How unfortunate! If the beastfolk country was completely destroyed, I would have no safe place to go to. There was no way I would have known the discrepancies in technology was this much from the interactions I had with those four humans. It kind of made me wonder if these magitech ships were their secret weapons. Because otherwise they probably would have invaded much earlier.

I hastily dived through the clouds and darted in the direction of Vera just hours away by flight. Thankfully the wind accelerating me in the process.

Please make it in time!

After a few minutes of flight, a realization hit me.

Wait, I could just teleport back! There's no way I can fly faster than those ships. Gah, I can't believe I forgot about it.

I quickly synthesized a strawberry on the clothes Smoothie was wearing. Then, I immediately swapped positions, landing myself in an unfamiliar setting.

Bang.

"Oww..."

Somehow my head ended up smashing into a shelf and I was sprawled on the ground in an awkward posture. In addition, I was soaking wet from diving in the rain clouds earlier. It seemed that my mastery of [absorption] ability was still insufficient.   

"Mother, what are you doing?"

That brat!

"Smoothie, did you throw the strawberry?" I adjusted myself while rubbing my head. That throbbing pain wasn't to be taken lightly.

"Yes, otherwise you were going to sit on me. You're just too heavy."

"Rude! I'm very light."

"Shhh... We're in the library."

"Huh?" I looked around to find that we were surrounded by bookshelves. Well, they weren't just books but also scrolls and various tablets.

I asked, "Did she give you a green pass?"

"Mm. I borrowed it so I can study magic in your place. Then I'll be useful, no?"

"Oh, is that it? You can just be you. Hold on, hold on! I need to report to Kanoko. Come with me. Red card, red card!" I pulled out the scout's red card from one of my gown's pockets.

"Red card? Are they here already?"

"Not yet. They could be here any moment."

"What are you waiting for? Let's go."

The library was within the inner city so we had to leave the inner city first. Ignoring the courtesies around here, I flew as quickly as I could toward the embassy hall pulling Smoothie with me. At the same time, I was holding a red card to keep anyone from getting in our way. It was kind of thrilling zipping through the city by flight.

"Mother, memory share. There's not much useful magic we could use but any is better, no?"

"Thanks."

The instant data transfer was more than I could ask for. Though, as she mentioned, the magic she learned from the library wasn't useful in our current situation. They just weren't powerful enough without careful advance preparations.

blanksphere

I was going to write another side story but scrapped it.