The laws of the new world and ours differ greatly. Even though this has resulted in countless dimensional tears between the worlds, these tears are simply too small to allow anything greater than a Two-stars undead to cross over…we have tried our best to widen the tears yet their self-regenerative powers are simply too much for us…I beseech your Highness to dispatch more reinforcements…with our current manpower, it would be difficult for us to enter the new world given how attuned we are to the laws of our current world…
—>
“Just a while more and we’ll reach the battlefield, I hope you’ve prepared yourself mentally.” Standing at the head of our little troupe, the kitty cat who was noticeably more wilted after a run-in with Princess Meisian, turned around to address us. Just looking at him now, I could have sworn that his entire feline self was about to crumble.
“Prepared?”
‘Please, this brother has slain countless undead and devils during his time in the Prison of the Dead. No matter how bloody your clan’s battles are, there’s no way they can compare to my vast experience…-truly those were harrowing times…days where corpses piled as high as mountains.’
Seeing me so nonchalant, Anmi elected not to explain any further but merely said so in a steady voice: “You’ll understand once you see it yourself.”
Since he wasn’t willing to dwell any further on this subject, I decided to ask something else instead: “Anmi, is it really alright for us to…cause trouble for the Eldest Prince, Weiderly?”
Normally, an outsider’s interference during a civil war tended to draw the most hatred to themselves. Just thinking about that point was already enough to give me a headache as is.
“Don’t worry, while Meisian might not be the most reliable cat in a number of matters, this task of hers is definitely not a trap. As long you all don’t cause any lasting harm to Weiderly, the elders won’t interfere.” With regards to this mission of ours, Anmi seemed extraordinarily confident about it, going so far as to say: “Moreover, Weiderly has already dispatched his armies to fight against Meisian’s. Those guarding him shouldn’t number more than twenty. That, I’m willing to stake my life on.”
‘Hmph, such confidence, you’d better watch out for when those words come back to bite you.’
“Oh right, exactly how does your clan settle its succession disputes?” The importance of a succession dispute was never in doubt, else why would the three siblings ever come to blows over it. However, there was one point that left me confounded even till now, if they knew how important the war was, why weren’t they commanding their armies? The fact that the majority of their armies were outside fighting while less than twenty of their soldiers stayed behind as guardcats just seemed a little odd no matter how one looked at it…
“How huh…” Anmi paused for a second before saying: “It’s actually really simple, both sides send out their armies to fight over territory. Once one side has successfully claimed the territory as theirs, it counts as a victory for them. Also, a castle is a private belonging of each cat, even if another cat wants to claim it, that can only be done at the last battle.”
“Is calling for outside help even allowed?”
“It is, to us, being able to call in outside help is a show of one’s success. However, such help must not infringe upon the clan’s interests. If a candidate betrays the clan’s interests, the elders won’t acknowledge him or her even if that cat wins.”
Having said all that, Anmi lowered his head and fell silent, clearly not intending to talk anymore. Seeing that, I glanced at Sinmosa next to me and gave a helpless shrug before moving on. As of right now, all we could do was handle the issues as they come.
Honestly, if the worst was to happen to us, I had already planned for Sinmosa to leave us behind and escape with Mo Na. After all, we were visiting an enemy’s castle here, no amount of preparation was enough and a single mishap might just lead to our downfall.
With nothing else to talk about, the journey proceeded quietly till Anmi stopped in his tracks a short while later.
“Past this black forest is the battlefield…” As he said that, his mood was noticeably sullen.
For Anmi to have such a crestfallen reaction was actually…rather understandable. After all, this was his clan’s civil war, no matter what the reason was, the casualties at the end of the day would always be their cats. Was it so strange for him to be sad then? Did these rulers really have to use such barbaric means to settle their disputes; was there truly no better way or did the river have to run red before they would finally be satisfied?
“Don’t be scared Mama, Mo Na will protect you.” For some reason, Mo Na seemed rather attached to this whole concept of ‘protecting me’ and would often throw out those words at the drop of the hat. Even though she was just a child and couldn’t be that strong in the first place, my heart calmed down somewhat upon hearing her sweet voice. Was this what people called kinship? Right here, right now, all I could think of was how to guarantee her safety and that no matter what, I didn’t want her to get hurt.
“Good girl, Mo Na, but you seemed to have a made a mistake there, it’s Papa who will protect you.” Patting her on the head, the worries on my face seemed to disappear with each rub and all that remained behind was the pride of a father. “If something happens, remember to hide behind your Papa.”
“Kay~” She somewhat reluctantly acceded to that. “…but Mo Na is really strong…”
“Mhm, Mo Na is strong but as long as Papa is here, it is Papa’s duty to protect Mo Na, that is what it means to be a Papa.”
“What do you mean duty??” Blinking those lovely eyes of hers, Mo Na gave me a perplexed look. Even though she had her inherited memories to teach her, it seemed like duty wasn’t one of those lessons passed down. Perhaps the devils didn’t really have such a word in their dictionary.
“Duty huh, duty means to do what has to be done. Just like how Papa has to protect Mo Na when she is in danger, that is ‘Papa’s duty’.”
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login