Eventually I decided to follow the sprite. It was more like she threatened to follow her. Apparently this 'Oldest Tree' was a very well respected creature in this forest. If I didn't go, I may have met some grave situations.
She also told Gorm that he had been invited. The guy ran like hell to get into his armor and look dignified once again. I was a bit creeped out by the complete change in mood with his armor on.
On the way, since I was bored I tried to make light talk with the sprite, but I realized she maintained a 3 meter distance from me and she wasn't responding to my comments. I saw the [Anxious] status next to her and just decided to give up. It wasn't that she hated me, she was just too anxious to speak to me. Been there, done that, didn't end well.
In the awkward silence, I hypothesized that the 'oldest tree' was just some dryad mama with big boobs.
"We're here."
The sprite said, pointing to a huge tree. This tree was so massive that it made no sense how I had never seen it while flying in the sky. And the way it was, it was like all the other trees were planted to simply surround and worship it.
Some glowing blue orbs floated around the tree's branches, beautifully illuminating the dark area and giving off a feeling of ease.
'This is the oldest tree?'
I asked.
"No. This is the Oldest Tree's tree."
'Ah… sure.'
I looked around, but I couldn't find any entrances. When she said her tree, I had imagined a tree house that kids used to make. I guess that was sort of dumb of me, huh.
'So where is the 'oldest tree'?'
I asked.
"The oldest tree is-"
"Right here." A voice came. In front of me, a being walked out of the grand tree before me. She wore a simple white dress and had long flowing silver hair with a tiara of vines over her head. She possessed a beautiful face with swollen cheeks and leafy green eyes. She looked like a young school teacher of sorts, but with a royal air about her.
Her smile was warm and devilish, causing me to gulp after meeting her impish eyes.
"Thank you for bringing the guests to me, little one."
The sprite floated to the woman's side and bowed. The woman patted her on the head. The sprite blushed then proceeded to enter the tree through some weird portal-like thing.
'A pocket dimension in a tree? Classic dryads.'
"I see that you are familiar with how dryads live?"
The oldest tree asked said. I shook my head, feigning any pre-existing knowledge of the dryads.
"Oh, as expected of a random bird who was abandoned in the most dangerous forest in the world."
I glared at her after she said something that hit deep. I already didn't like her.
"Why were we summoned?"
Gorm asked.
"Oh my, I lost track of the matter at hand while discussing with my new friend."
This woman was starting to creep the hell out of me.
"Well, there is a conference happening between the intelligent races of west's leaders. And you, Gorm are the competent leader of the goblins. Yes, out of all the tribes, I picked you to represent them all and you, my little feathered friend, are our most important guest here."
'Huh? Why? Because of Minerva?'
"That and because of your origins."
She said something scary all of a sudden.
'My origins?'
"Now isn't the time. I shall explain further after the meet. Shall we go?"
She had me completely ensnared in her plot now. I would like to know where I came from. This feeling of being lost wasn't really helping me, but would she really know that?
She directed us towards her tree. We walked there and for a second, space distorted around us as we walked through a tree. It felt sort of nauseous but manageable. Simply put, it was very weird. But when I entered, I was in a conference room with a large round table in the centre of a room. The place was lit by glowing orbs that floated around, singing and humming.
Around the round table were six chairs. Out of the six, three had been occupied by a rat man, a nymph, who had a mini- rain cloud over her head and a fat satyr. He scowled at me but I ignored him and took a vacant seat across the nymph. With [Analyst] I found that she had the names Sunalla and she was actually a Rain Nymph, making her one of the more powerful types in her race, with a C+ ranking and a tier 4. Her skills were practically as many as mine if not more and they all seemed quite powerful. She possessed quite a bit of magics and her stats were in a league of their own. Already in the early thousands. Seriously, the difference between ranks were scary.
The rat man had no name and he was a measly D- rank. Nothing noteworthy about him to be honest. Then there was the satyr called Derbyshire. I would rather not talk about him. He was stupidly strong being a C+ rank with a lot of skills, including spatial magic. I wondered how spatial magic worked. If he was here helping us, it could prove quite useful in combat, no? Still, he was giving me this weird vibe.
"Welcome all of you, to the Emergency meeting."
Gorm took a seat next to me, so did she.
"I believe it would be best for all of us to introduce ourselves. I shall begin. My name is Diane, or as you would know me, The Oldest Tree. I am a simple Nature Spirit. Who shall go next?"
After introducing herself, the room was quiet till Sunalla decided to speak up.
"My name is Sunalla. I am a Rain Nymph and I monitor the rivers in the West of Larm, most notably the one closest to the Bee Hive."
Her voice was cold and alluring, but also contained a tiny bit of excitement in it. It was very weird to decipher her. Next was the rat man.
"I am the leader of the rat men."
That was it for his introduction. The giant rat quickly took his seat seeing as he had nothing more to say.
"I am Gorm. I lead the goblins in the village of Ooo. However at this moment, I am representing all the other tribes in the West."
Derbyshire glared at Gorm. He definitely had some hate for goblins, but ah well.
"I guess I should go next then. My name is Derbyshire and I lead a group of nomadic satyrs. If I may, I have a question."
"Ask away."
Diane gave him permission to proceed.
"I'd understand if you had a pet, but isn't it too insulting bringing your pet to the conference meeting?"
What? Did he just call me a pet? I was getting a bit angry. My days had really not gone smoothly. I looked at Diane to see if she would respond and she was looking at me, telling me to respond. I internally sighed and proceeded to project a message to all of them.
'My name is Hinotori and I am not a pet.'
Derbyshire gulped under my gaze. I hoped he was scared, but I could tell he wasn't. His [Status] showed nothing and that was odd.
"Please calm down. She is Minerva's friend. If you were to upset her, this battle could go badly for us. Especially since she is spearheading this entire meeting."
'What?'
Diane finally stepped up. All the creature's eyes lit up after hearing about Minerva and they focused on me.
'Hehe, please do this for me.'
She asked me through telepathy. I was going to refuse her, but I could feel vines wrapping around me legs. She was threatening me at this moment.
'You are threatening me with Minerva on my side?'
'You cannot lie here. I witnessed what happened between you two.'
'Without further ado, shall we discuss our routes in this battle?'
The emergency meeting had begun and I was spearheading it.
'Ok then. What do we know about our opponent?'
First of all I wanted to find out everything I could about the Ogre tyrant. First rule of war, was to know everything about your opponent. Their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. Things that they were most known for. Anything that could help us out.
The sprite from before appeared next to me and answered
"The Ogre Tyrant is known as the most violent Tyrant and also the War Monger, because he used to wage wars against other races from before he even became a tyrant. He even enslaved the kobold race and made them nothing more than house servants and fodder in battle. He is one of the three tyrants chosen by the first Tyrant because of his power. Also, according to what the spirits say, he's been selling resources to human nations illegally."
The last part caused a sort of reaction from everyone except for Diane who probably already knew of this. But we all were surprised. A tyrant who was supposed to be keeping the resources of the forest protected from humans was selling it to them?
'Isn't that against the whole purpose of being a Tyrant?'
The sprite nodded solemnly to my question.
'Ah? Then won't the forest king go into action or something?'
When I asked that, I could feel the mood of the room suddenly go subzero.
"You speak as if you were just born just a few days ago. Everybody knows that the Forest King has stopped interfering with this world. That was the main purpose of finding the tyrants."
The satyr remarked.
Oh? But you see, the thing is that I was born a few days ago,
I wanted to say, but felt that it wouldn't help the mood to hear a few days old monster is leading you to war against one of the most dangerous creatures in the forest, would it.
'Excuse my ignorance, please go on.'
"Yes. So from what we've picked up, we believe he's waging war with us because he needs more resources to export to the human nations."
"Still, it doesn't explain why he would choose the west."
Sunalla pointed out
"Didn't you hear? The Tyrant of the West failed to prevent some humans from causing a wildfire recently."
Derbyshire said, but how did he know that?
'Minerva didn't fail to do that. No humans caused a wildfire in the forest.'
I went to her defense immediately.
"Oh? And how would you know that?"
'If you are referring to the fire that took place a few days ago, then it was me who caused it. I was fighting and accidentally burnt down that place. Minerva immediately put it out.'
"You expect me to take your word for it?"
'Yes. If you won't I don't know what else to tell ya. Minerva didn't do it and that's that.'
"What she says is the truth. The Tyrant of the West has never failed to kill invading humans."
The rat man stated
'How'd you know that?'
I asked, a little creeped out. Has he been spying on her? Like a stalker?
He then beat his chest and proudly declared,
"There is no creature in the west that's better at gathering information than we rat men!"
"Oh? So that's what the elusive rat men have been doing? Gathering information on all species? For what I wonder."
Diane said as if she had no idea.
Ugh... Not only is he stalking Minerva and I, he's stalking every creature in the West.
At least that meant they were really good at gathering information if even Minerva or my [Mana sense] didn't notice them. That was scary. I wondered what skill that was. If I ate a rat man would I get it? Suddenly, the rat man was looking like a treat.
'...Moving on, maybe it's because he expected Minerva's response?'
I asked.
They all looked to be in thought for a moment then nodded
"Yes, that sounds most likely."
"That is true. If I were to invade a Tyrant's space I would go for the Tyrant who would show the least interest."
"Yeah, that fits and all, but still, he would need a reason to suddenly wage war openly."
Derbyshire pointed out.
'What if he just made up an excuse to attack the West?'
I asked, but they immediately dismissed the thought.
"It would be stupid of even a Tyrant to do that. They could invoke the wrath of the first Tyrant."
'Hmm? So they would want to avoid invoking his wrath at all cost?'
"Of course. That tyrant is known as the Sleeping Emperor for a reason, you know?"
'Sleeping Emperor?'
"Oh? You don't even know their titles? You really are a lost cause."
They sighed and I felt way out of my depth here. What was Diane thinking having me lead this whole meeting?
"Fine, we have the First Tyrant, the Sleeping Emperor Goliath. Then the second Tyrant, Ravaging Winds Sora. The third is War Monger Krull, fourth is Swamp Queen Zana and the fifth is the Mad Witch Minerva."
Derbyshire listed all the Tyrants with their titles and in order of their appearance. So Krull was the 3rd oldest, huh. The middle child in a sense.
'Could we maybe ask the other Tyrants for help?'
I asked and they all looked at me with disbelief.
"Have you not been paying attention? This all happened because the Tyrant of the East claims that the Tyrant of the West was incompetent in her duties. Do you really believe the others would stand up for the youngest Tyrant?"
Derbyshire really debunked my idea, making me seem like some total retard. I really didn't like him, but I understood his points.
'What about the first Tyrant. If we simply explained to him that Krull is selling resources to the humans, wouldn't he side with us?'
"Naturally, but unfortunately he is in a deep slumber."
Diane responded.
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