Chapter 29: Fake Heroics Has Great Results

The Magic Kingdom of Zenovia was fairly advanced in terms of technological innovation, they made many things possible and were very important to the Cornelia Empire. To Sev it was a nation that didn't deserve its success and for Yukiyo she couldn't forgive them because they ran experiments on elves. Yukiyo was all giddy she was going on a trip with several beautiful elves. One could say it was her dream to do this besides she really did want to bond with the elven princesses. Who wouldn't want to become closer over the death of a big benefactor to the Cornelia Empire? If Xagreas was the shield then Zenovia was the sword and taking those away would cripple the empire for some time. The night had already arrived and Yukiyo in the royal palace back in the Dark Elven Capital, she was dancing and humming in her night dress as Shen was watching her do this with tired eyes.

"You look really excited, is the loss of life really that fun to you?"

"They are human supremacist scumbags they have it coming. That's plenty of reason right?"

Shen sighs in exasperation from what she was hearing. Yukiyo was done destroying the Xagreas Kingdom a week earlier and now she was preparing yet another one again, she had to drink a glass of water to calm her thoughts down. 

"And Sev? What are her plans?"

"She wants to steal their research before we send them back to the Stone Age, I mean the Barbaric Era"

"At least she is smart enough to preserve their technology in that way"

"Hey! I am an innovator too!"

Shen looked at Yukiyo with a face that doubted her innovative ways, all she could think of were the unique ways she completely fucked over her opponents.

"Don't you dare look at me like that! I've made stuff!"

"Name one thing"

"The prototype shotgun class crossbow"

"That's for slaughtering people you battle crazed slime"

"Um uh.....aha the drafts for a flying ship that has tons of guns and-"

"Destructive down to the word itself"

"A magic bomb that can raze cities to the ground"

"................do I need to mention why that is the worst idea you've had in a while"

"Okay I will shut up about being an innovator"

"Good. So the princesses and Odin are going with you then?"

"Yup"

"......okay"

"Oh? What's this? Is my lovely Shen gonna miss me? She gonna be yearning for my presence?"

Yukiyo gets even closer to her seeing that Shen was blushing intensely at the very idea that Yukiyo would not be with her for some time.

"I-I said nothing of the sort"

"But your heart is so so honest my lovely dragon wife."

"Flatter me again and I will turn you into slime pancake"

"My, oh my. Don't threaten me with a good time." 

"Move off" 

Shen pushed Yukiyo away due to the fact her heart was beating rather too rapidly because of Yukiyo being so close to her. At that rate they would have ended up sharing a second kiss together. Yukiyo quickly rose to her feet with a proud smile on her face.

"Don't worry though! Our honeymoon would be just you and me! We will spend so much time together, walk by the beach, do a slow dance to one of those cheesy romance songs and finally at night we get to have se-"

Shen threw a pillow to shut Yukiyo up with a red face she went to bed with the fallen slime getting back to her feet and entering the bed hugging her as she does so.

"Such a cute dragon I have for a lover"

Shen didn't respond and merely kept quiet to not fuel her more.

"Stupid slime"

Those were her final words before she coiled her tail around Yukiyo and faced her kissing her forehead, falling into the restful arms of sleep along with Yukiyo.

💀

The border city of New Zorgon was in a state that could be called anxious. This was reasonable because right beside them was a nation that was the ally to the elves, an unlikely union of elves, dark elves and dwarves. None could have imagined what they could have hoped to accomplish by doing this and that is why this city was living in a constant form of alertness. However it wasn't to say they would be invaded, they were not all worried about that happening. Just the information relayed to them by those who escaped and lived to tell the tale of what happened was terrifying to say the least. The elven invasion was so fierce and destructive that none of the nobility excluding the sympathisers of the elves lived. Not even the royal family with all of their connections with the Cornelia Empire could do anything to save their necks. It was this very act of violence that made them very scared of the future. 

That is why they had to tighten their security on the border cities and town , the forts had to be on a constant lookout for any sort of changes within the background , mages had to see whether there were any changes within the dungeons in case a monster rampage would happen or not. This feeling of national helplessness could be described as reasonable to a certain degree, national security was at the top priority at the moment.  

"Shifts increased. Got less pay than before and we are waiting for ghosts to basically haunt us from the grave"

The guard says whilst looking at the empty fields, the sun gave a proper detail to everything for one with an experience eye. Yawning as he sits down holding his spear as he gets ready to eat. He had been patrolling this place from the early hours of the morning to now.

"If that is what we are supposed to fight then we have to be prepared"

"I guess but man just pay me more if that's the case"

"I know right?"

His friend responded to his complaining only to end up agreeing with him in the end. The pay was too low for this kind of job or any of them to care too much about.

"Would it be better if they just hired the adventurers to do this instead?"

"No. I heard that the higher ups don't trust the riff raff known as the Adventurer's Guild"

"Fuck me....."

He munched on the hard bread as he sighed into more complaining. Shift was almost done anyway so he couldn't go about it much longer. Quietly putting the leftover bread away he gets up and begins to walk just as his friend is finished with eating his own similarly bread based lunch.

As soon as his friend stands up a sudden urge to stare in the direction of the dwarven territory hit them. The sun itself had seemingly taken a sinister crimson tone, perhaps it was fatigue but everything they saw was slowly becoming dry and withered in mere moments as if being touched by the very aura of death. And then they saw **it**. A lone figure walking towards them, followed by ten, then twenty, then fifty and or so rising individuals all coming out from the ground. This figure carried a massive sword on its shoulder walking slowly towards the border. Frozen in pure terror they watched as even more numbers were added to this army, their growls and roars of discontent made it clear what this army was comprised of: Undead. Now they could see the figure closely it was an Undead skeleton with horns wearing black armor with a rose thorn motif, it's cold flare like eyes sparked in interest. 

"RING THE BELL! ALERT TH-"

A spear was thrown right through the head of the guard's friend smashing it into an explosion of red, ducking the next spear he crawled until he managed to reach the outpost where a bell was installed to give alarm to the rest of the city. He peeked his head out to see what was happening on the other side and what he saw was breaking his common notion of undead being slow, they sprinted towards the border city like a rush flood. A sea of white slammed the wall and was rapidly ascending it, no amount of blunt arrows or hot oil could stop them. The guard notched his arrow but was too late as one of the undead had already reached his location, his first instinct was to use the blunt arrow to lodge into its head. The undead acted faster than he was ever trained grabbing his jaw and removing it completely from his face. Staggering backwards with pain running through his eyes the skeleton removed the remaining flesh on the lower jaw before putting it on its own. It danced in joy as it grabbed his neck and tore out his vocal chords placing it on its own body. This unlucky fate of having your body being stolen from you bit by bit was happening everywhere to those who fought these undead. Having no head was far better than experiencing this.

An expected attack had occurred and there were safety measures they had taken to prevent them from being completely overrun by the enemy but what caught them off guard was what kind of monster leading that assault in the first place, an undead knight who was mowing down numbers in quick succession. His massive sword cut down rows of soldiers, adventurers and the very skilled knights without any hesitation. 

"HOLD THE DEFENSIVE LINES UNTIL THE HOLY BARRIER IS SET UP! DO IT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPE-?!"

Despite being in heavy armor that one could feel the tremors of his footsteps he was nimble enough to grab the priest warrior's head and smash it to the ground. Pulling out a crossbow that shot multiple arrows that made those who were struck by them get enveloped in flames, this was slaughter and it was the fuel for this undead knight as he approached deeper into the city. Magical blockades had been set up to prevent the undead from heading any deeper than they should but this didn't stop this undead knight.

"What in the names of the gods are we dealing with?!"

Screamed the lord of this border city as he heard the reports coming in from the mages who were viewing the white rush of undead that were killing numerous people and making them join their undead legion of hate. A loud thud was heard from afar, it had reached close to one of the blockades close to his home. With his own eyes he saw it hit the blockade again, and within the next couple of moments he kept on hitting it until cracks started to form on the blockade. With one final thrust it got in and decapitated the mage who had set it up. The undead knight grabs his head and launches it into the gates which explodes into a burst of flames, the knights shriek in agony as they are covered in black flames. But this undead knight doesn't care as it taps it's massive sword on its shoulder changing its form into a long sword, the white flares of its eyes turn crimson as it dashes forward, kicking the first knight off from the ground before stabbing him into the ground bisecting him into two. It kicks the dead knight's sword into the air and throws it into the next row of knights that run towards it, dismembering the body parts of the knights without effort before kicking one of the corpses through the door. And staring at the many knights who prepare to shoot magic arrows at it.

"Ha.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

It walks right in without any sense of danger and gets hit by every arrow in the room but nothing stops it from moving forward. Fear seeps into the hearts of these men as they watch it continue to walk even after being showered in a literal shower of arrows. 

"I am afraid I have to stop you there!"

A single voice calls out to it, curious to see who it was the undead knight turns around to see a dark beauty with a smile on her face as she notches a arrow into her beautifully designed bow. Being prideful it runs towards her to take her down but she shoots the gold tipped arrow towards it, seeing this as dangerous it dodges and manages to get a cracked cheekbone. Dissatisfied it stares at this woman for longer before pointing it's sword at her and smashing the wall and leaving.

"Looks like we've arrived on time, I'm sorry I couldn't save your comrades"

An adventurer so strong she could fend off that powerful undead all on her own just who in the world was she? The lord of the city desperately ran into the hall where they were about to lose a battle for survival in this space. He had been watching everything and was quite honestly impressed it took one strong person to push back evil. Heroes were real and she stood in front of him.

"Thank you, thank you , thank you!"

"You're welcome, just a heads up that me and my party managed to stop the undead who broke through the blockades. You guys really have it rough"

"Saviours of Zargon!"

"Don't sweat it"

"If I may ask what is the name of our saviour?"

"The name's Okio, a rank S adventurer of the party known as Wings of Freedom"

Even though there was something amiss with this lady there was nothing that could be thought about her at the moment. She had saved the city from the brink, none suspected her for now because of the hope of being saved from this true horror of dying.

💀

Phase 1 of Yukiyo's plan had succeeded, they managed to create a situation that would require the full attention of the nation. A threat that would continue attacking them, that way they could run shoulders with the higher ups and gain access to many things if they were heroes. Hortus loved this strategy as it would see the collapse of Zenovia as a military force that needed to have an airtight net of information. As a strategist herself she would see all of their failures as a nation firsthand and couldn't be more delighted to see that happen at the front row seat. 

"You look fairly happy"

"Do I?"

"Yes"

Seratta answered confidently after she was done killing the last undead that was threw itself to her. Lightly tapping her scabbard on her shoulder she looked like she had a light workout and rested on a nearby wall.

"It's the first time that we all went to do something"

"Isn't part of the reason also some strategy stuff that I don't particularly understand?"

"Yes it is"

"Wow how honest"

Seratta says whilst staring her down before bursting into laughter. Her older sister always loved learning about history and the kinds of strategies that war brought about. It's also the reason she became a strategist as a job, as for her combat abilities one could tell that she had excellent abilities as a rogue with the skillset of an experienced assassin. Hortus folds her arms and smiles at Seratta who was laughing at her characteristic.

"But I certainly do care about you all"

"I know. You didn't want me to be a knight in the first place and was willing to put me in the position of some useless general sitting in the backlines if I did."

"Bonehead"

"That's just your way of showing love"

These two were having a casual conversation as people were tending to the wounds of the injured, crying over the dead and keeping themselves from soiling themselves from seeing the gore of mangled corpses. Even hardened adventurers couldn't be as carefree as them.

"Eh? You're already done on this side?"

"Of course who do you take us for?"

Clyne had arrived shortly after they were done laughing, she floated in the air and finally touched the ground. Falling right after slipping on femur, Hortus sighs walking over to pick her clumsy older sister up.

"You klutz"

"Ehehe"

"So what do we do now?"

"We just wait for Qu- I mean Okio to give us a response."

Seratta almost slipped up for a moment in public and quickly fixed that , not that there was anyone of worth around here anyway. 

"So we wait at the plaza then?"

Clyne gave the logical answer as Hortus removed the pieces of flesh on her clothes.

"Wait, where's Euphobia?"

"I thought she was with you Hortus"

"Oh For Tanis' sake Clyne......"

"There's our little sister"

Euphobia was panting from having to catch up with Clyne who didn't look like the type to run all that much. She hopped down from the roof and stared at her with a tired look in her eyes.

"Next time please don't go off on your own when you see a magic carriage that operates on its own"

"Ah so that's the reason you ended up finding yourself here"

Hortus made the conclusion that Clyne saw something concerning magic, chased after it, got lost, used her senses to track down both her and Seratta. This was what apparently happened.

"My bad"

"Please don't do that next time"

Clyne smiles gently at Euphobia whilst patting her, the people start looking at them differently: they respect them for saving their lives and this city. Because of their exposure as princesses and people in very high positions they ignore the stares and move along towards the plaza.

"This is actually the first time I've walked anywhere beyond my room and lab"

Clyne was a researcher for magic and studied it around the clock remarking about how she never once got out of either her room or her laboratory. Yukiyo just teleported them near the forest just to act like they were on a journey this was her first time in a different city or nation.

"Well when things die down let's get some skewers"

"Wait Seratta you have money?"

"Of course I do. I am a knight remember, a paid knight no less."

Seratta laughed even louder as she brought her sisters even closer to her, she was taller and more muscular than them all so her hugs were akin to being crushed by a bolder. There were still plenty of people seeing them as beings living in another existence because of their nonchalant nature but it was just they didn't care at all. Upon arriving at the plaza said magic carriage was waiting for them with Yukiyo coming out of it shortly after.

"Yo! Hop in we got things to discuss"

"How did you know that we would come here?"

"There's a Dark Matter hiding in your shadows"

""""Uwah. Creepy.....""""

"Sorry I will not do it again"

Yukiyo scratched the back of her head as she said that. The creation of walkie talkies or something similar wasn't made yet but it's development was close at hand. Yukiyo also wanted to advance technology so much the internet would be in this world as well. Rapid development for a nation was good in some ways but bad in others so she wanted to at least take the more advanced stuff slowly. They each got into the carriage which then expanded itself to accommodate all of them, it started moving towards the mansion of the city lord immediately.

"So the operation was a success I believe?"

"It went smoothly"

Not trusting this thing Yukiyo had placed soundproof bubble around them and an illusion magic that made it look like they weren't talking. Hortus smiled putting her hand on her cheek as she could now imagine what was going to come next.

"Odin's low leveled Death Soldier did just as we told him. By the time this invasion finishes he'll level up and evolve into something else entirely"

"I-I-I am certainly looking forward to that!"

"Are there any strong people in this kingdom?"

Clyne said with a stuttering voice she was interested in the evolution of monster races, followed up by Seratta who bears a fierce grin on her face.

"Yes. There is. The Hundred Sword Magic Swordsman"

"Oh?I am going to find him when the time comes"

"Knock yourself out Sera"

"I just realized where is Rosa? Didn't think to ask that till now"

"She's back at the mansion, she wanted to go with me remember?"

"Is that really okay Yukiyo-sama?"

"It'll be fine"

Euphobia had asked this question because she thought their eldest sister would be left out in this bonding they were having and that would be very sad. Seemingly touched by her kindness Clyne patted her head with the response to that being her blushing. Yukiyo smiles as she sees them act like this.

💀

"You left me out when you were going out!"

"My bad!"

"Okio-sama I want to be closer to my sisters and you as well."

" Don't worry Lisa we have plenty of more experiences together"

Using aliases was the best decision here as someone could look into them later, calming down since it was unbefitting of her to be angry like this she sighs staring at Euphobia who had mentioned it in the carriage.

"Oh Euphia you're the only one who thought of me!"

Rosa threw herself into her little sister's arms and hugged her. Even to the knights who were watching this it seemed that they had a rather good relationship as sisters, it was heartwarming to say the least. From the time they got into this nation they wore magic items that hid their pointed ears and made them more human like. After being hugged by Euphobia Rosa collected herself and wore a serious face with a stern aura about her which wasn't seen previously. 

"Alright then let us greet the lord of the border city."

"Let's go"

They all uniformly walked into the broken door which still laid on the ground in separate pieces, the knights all gave their salutes to the people who saved them because it was both a courtesy and a form of respect to the ones who saved their lives from being snuffed out. The butler leading the way was thankful as well as he continued to ramble about how lost they would be if they lost his master or something like that. Finally arriving to the meeting hall they sat down on the chairs that were provided for them, the city lord who they didn't care all that much to remember his name began speaking.

"I Zanac Velfrud thank you. What you did here was glorious and admirable. I have no words for your actions."

"We did what we can as adventurers"

Rosa said with a clear voice that displayed her elegancy. Yukiyo spoke up soon after Rosa and smiled.

"These are The Wings Of Freedom, my cherished party comprised of companions. Tell them who you are and what you can do!"

"My name is Lisa, I am a sword prodigy class warrior pleased to meet you"

"Clione, a sorcerer aspiring to be like the Great Sage"

"The name's Sera. I am the vanguard shield of the group."

"Horlas, I am a rogue and love learning new information about our enemies. You can count on me"

"Euphia is my name, I provide the role of healing and being an archer"

"And finally there's me Okio! I am a Jack of all trades but master of none so they kinda voted me in the role of leader hehehe..."

Yukiyo scratched the back of her head to appear embarrassed. Zanac seemed to nod to this explanation of their roles. Each held a position that made them important to the party and even had dreams that were in the stars.

"I thank all of you. Your cooperation has saved the day but I must ask for your help again, right before your group gathered together I sent a message with His Majesty, King Quinchell. He seeks to have an audience with you, it's not by force of course and you can refuse if you want to....."

This was an obvious trap, to ensnare them as reluctant heroes who refused a king in his time of need. Yukiyo and Hortus looked at each other with a single glance they had communicated their joy over this great chance. This was like taking candy from a halfling. 

"Certainly. We will offer our services to you. For the appropriate coin of course"

"You will be paid handsomely for this and again I thank you."

"All life is important and we adventurers exist to protect that life"

Yukiyo says with a smile on her face, some of the knights around Zanac freeze over the beauty of such a woman. Had they known what kind of plans she had for this nation they would be frightened by such a grin.