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Chapter 478 156 - Perserios territory - part 4 - Countering the plan that was thirty years in the making (part 10)

　　"Why would Barbariacca nation do something like that to their own citizens?"

　　"We are not a part of the Barbariaca nation. Over half of the tribes living in the mountains are not affiliated with them in any way. We do not receive any protection of benefits and we do not pay taxes or even trade with them."

　　The woman responded, also raising her brow as if she didn\'t expect a question like that to be asked by anyone from Bellcephora.

　　"We are highlanders and we do not have a king or any sort of centralized government. I believe this is also the exact structure that the Barbariacca nation is using as a cover-up for whatever reason. The Bellcephora people we are trading with tend to call us barbarians as a whole, or at least they did at the beginning."

　　She continued explaining with a slightly worried expression, continuously glancing a the dark-haired girl and the black-haired boy\'s faces as if expecting them to disagree with her at some point.

　　"Only half of the tribes living in the mountains are independent? What about the other half then?"

　　Miriette asked calmly, carefully observing Eltrenas\'s reaction.

　　"The other half is the troops of the Barbariacca nation – they are disguising themselves as tribes while in fact, they are here only to harass us and the borders of the Bellcpehora kingdom to prevent any kind of peace talks. Still, we do get around that most of the time thanks to the simple explanation of – not all tribes share the same belief, customs, and tradition."

　　The woman with a geometric tattoo on her face looked straight into her eyes and explained.

　　"This sounds like a lot of problems for a small community like this. How do you even defend yourselves from the Barbariacca nation forces?"

　　Miriette nodded before looking around, furrowing her brows at the makeshift wall surroudning the village that was much more suited to fending off wild animals than people with bad intentions.

　　Similarly the people there didn\'t particularly look as if they stood much chance in a regular fight, especially if the opponent had the numerical advantage... or could use magic.

　　"...you believe me...? Just like that...?"

　　Interestingly enough, Eltrena seemed to be most surprised by the fact that Miriette and Zoemi accepted her explanation without questioning it in any way, and just asking some complimentary questions.

　　"Why wouldn\'t we believe you? We already fought with some of the Barbariacca nation forces earlier. Not to mention we were staying at the Perserios castle and heard both about these mountains being settled only by the unorganized tribes as well as the whole thing about Barbariacca nation being a thing. It all makes sense when you take the hexing and curses into consideration."

　　Zoemi shrugged his shoulder and looked at Miriette and then over to Burushi, Xeonith, his two sentinels, and even Miriette\'s air emperor – who all nodded in agreement.

　　"That said – as Miriette mentioned, this place doesn\'t look too defendable, not to mention the hexing and curses that come into play in this situation too. If Barabriacca nation can pull off a massive plan and that threatens the entire nation, how come they couldn\'t conquer you?"

　　It wasn\'t like the group had no doubts and didn\'t just gloss over it Zoemi just voiced the biggest one.

　　"You say that our homes are difficult to defend but that is because you have come from the sky – a mountain trail that leads here is spiked with traps that only we know about. The same can be said about every other real tribe. As for the ability to defend against hexes... this is the answer."

　　Eltrena raised her hand and pointed into the sky before waving it behind herself pointing in the general direction of the gate. She then looked back at the black-haired boy and pointed at her tattoo.

　　"This is a curse that protects the mind from the power of hexes. No matter how strong the mage is, what gives power to the hex is empowering this curse too. To protect everyone, a curse is engraved into the face of any child that can walk and talk so they could not be used as hostages."

　　The chief of the tribe explained, sliding her finger across her geometrical tattoo.

　　"...so you can use curses and at least know about hexes..."

　　"...?"

　　Miriette pointed out, making the woman look at her in surprise.

　　"Of course we do, it\'s the type of magic that we are born with too. Only very rarely a magicless child is born and on even rarer occasions a child who can use attributes like the magicians from the Bellcepora kingdom shows up. We do not hide it."

　　She said with a slightly worried expression as if expecting the people she talked to, to suddenly turn on her and attack her and her community.

　　"Miri, she did say that she noticed the power of her spell getting stronger before, she really isn\'t hiding things."

　　"I know. I am just interested in her reaction. For now, she seems to be saying the truth. For now, is the key part."

　　Zoemi leaned towards the dark-haired girl and muttered into her ear, at which she nodded in understanding and responded by raising her head and almost kissing his ear back.

　　"We truly do not wish for conflict with the Bellcephora kingdom. If there is something that we can do to show honesty..."

　　"It is okay, you not trying to hex or curse us until this point is a good starting point."

　　Eltrena lowered her head and pleaded while clenching her fists, very clearly afraid of the next move of the group that showed up on a beast that looked straight out of some legend – but Miriette, the same person who reignited her nervousness, waved her hand dismissively and assured her with a smirk.

　　"But our trust is not enough to keep this village safe now that we are here. This girl is quite easily spotted, after all."

　　The dark-haired girl added, turning back and pointing at her air emperor coiled peacefully on the ground behind them.

　　"...ah..."

　　Eltrena\'s eyes widened and she let out a small voice looking between the vibrant-green snake, the group that traveled on her back, and the members of her tribe.

　　"The thing that empowered your curses and hexes is a territory-wide cursed altar – or at least that is what we expect it to be. Fortunately for you – or not, depending on your point of view – the Barbariacca nation movement had more to do with the Bellcephora kingdom than it did with your tribes... what is it...?"

　　Miriette wasn\'t done talking, although the latter part was more of the dark-haired girl trying to be nice, then Zoemi put his hand on her shoulder while furrowing his brows deep in thoughts.

　　"Actually, that might not be the case..."

　　The black-haired boy spoke up, looking up with a troubled expression, getting others to look at him in surprise.

　　"You see since you are affected by the curse altar and your tribe lives outside the Perserios territory, it\'s rather obvious that the Barbariacca nation went out of their way to spend a lot more resources on setting everything up. They might try to kill two birds with one stone... in a rather cruel way too."

　　Zoemi said, unintentionally caressing Miriette\'s shoulder – to the great happiness of the dark-haired girl, who wasn\'t actually bothered by the entire situation at all, despite everything that she said before.

　　"...please explain what you mean...?"

　　The chief of the Far-South Tusk Tribe asked nervously glancing at the black-haired boy with a worried expression.

　　"Before we learned about the free tribes like yours, we thought that the Barbariacca nation forces are here on a no-return mission. But with the new information, it is far more possible that the people they want to sacrifice aren\'t their soldiers but all of you. With how things are, the tribes might get attacked by both Perserios troops and the Barbariacca nation forces."

　　"Wait... what...?! But...! How are we supposed to fight back against magicians?! The cursed tattoos that work against hexes are enough to equalize the chances of winning for either us or the Barbariaccans, but when magicians with their attributes and different spells are a completely different matter altogether...!"

　　Zoemi cleared out his point fairly simple, and his words certainly hit the mark with Eltrena who gasped and took a few steps back looking as if she was about to run off and grab herself a weapon.

　　From her perspective the situation was dire – to say the least.

　　What made the situation better for her, without her even realizing it, was that she didn\'t ask the magicians in front of her for help.

　　Well, Zoemi would agree anyway, but her behavior certainly scored high in Miriette\'s eyes...

　　"We will deal with that. I can\'t say for certain that we will be able to watch over every free tribe, but I give you my word that the Far-South Tusk Tribe will survive this whole nasty situation without losing anyone due to any fights that might happen."

　　"...!"

　　The dark-haired girl announced benevolently, causing the panicking woman to flinch and stare at her in disbelief.

　　Then, without any warning whatsoever, a bright gold light flashed slightly to the right of the group.

　　"Aww, failing to keep your word as soon as you gave it, pretty disheartening, wouldn\'t you say?"

　　*kshhhhh*

　　An unpleasantly familiar voice laughed, followed by the sound of a drop of acid falling onto the ground and melting it on contact.

　　*CHOMP*

　　"?!?!?"

　　*kshhh*

　　But just as the voice was saying it, the vibrant-green air emperor sprung into action, causing even more noises of acid melting everything it touched.