If I may, Scarlet."
"Yes?"
The moment we were outside the tannery and the door closed, Elli turned to me.
"If you have some time, I would like you to meet with some of the others before you return."
"Ah, I guess that's fine."
And with that, Elli lead me further through the town.
The sun was finally starting its daily retreat from the skies. It was only a matter of time before the stars would be shining in their full glory.
Like every day.
But that little detail was of little concern to me. It was still the best time of the day to me.
The crimson skies blanketed the town in its light as people made their way around. The sounds of talk and laughter growing more numerous with every step we took. Smoke rose up from fires made out in outdoor fire pits or the chimneys from many of the buildings.
The scent of meat being roasted and soups being boiled reached my nose, though the smells were quite plain. It seemed like they weren't really using any spices or herbs to liven up the flavour.
(Is that because their food culture is that simple, or because they don't have the resources yet to indulge in more complex meals?)
As I pondered about the scents that I detected, Elli stopped in front of a large building.
It was one of the restored structures, its walls made of solid bricks smoothed out evenly, and its roof complete with fired clay tiles. This building was also larger than most others. Even the front door was bigger. It was easily twice as high as I was tall, and probably a bit more as well. There were some fancy inlays splitting the doors up into six partitions, an emblem on each one. As to what the emblems stood for, I had trouble guessing, but there seemed to be some anatomy connected to them. Finally, the walls sported tall yet narrow windows that stretched out just a bit shy of the roof. They were closed however, the shutters blocking any view of the inside.
Without bothering to knock, Elli opened the huge doors and went in. Not wanting to be left behind I followed. The door closed behind just as I cleared it, and I was treated to the view inside.
There was a short hallway with another door of equal size.
It felt a little like I was being teased somehow, but we quickly went through the second door, ignoring whatever purpose the hallway was made for.
The interior of the building turned out to be quite simple, at least from an architectural standpoint. After the hallway was a large circular room with a large podium near the middle. Along the far wall was a row of seats with desks, each one of a different size and decorated with different things. One had an ornately decorated leather sheet covering the table, another had chains made from gold and silver dangling from the edge. Yet another had its lip covered with a dense row of fangs from various monsters, and yet another had what looked like random stuff laying precariously across the desk, much of it overhung carelessly. One more was covered in a folded cloth mat with bead covered threads dangling over the edge, and the last was completely undecorated, but was painted bright red for some reason.
Each desk aside from two had someone behind it of a different race. Not just their race, but their build and demeanour were all far apart from each other. Not even their age seemed consistent, as some looked quite a bit younger than the others.
"Scarlet, I would like to introduce you to the leaders of the town. Starting from the right, is Alvaldi, he is the titan elder."
A literal giant of a man sat there with his arms crossed. Even sitting he looked to be twice her height, making him probably closer to triple my own. His head might have touched the high ceiling. He was probably the entire reason why the building and its features was so tall. Despite a heavy beard which fell loosely down his chest, his extremely strong jaw line was still visible. It was linked together with very prominent cheeks, as if he had spent every day of his life doing nothing but laughing. The way his lips were in a permanent upturn suggested maybe he really did live like that. His grey, almost white hair on top flared out before sagging at the end, like a sad mad scientist, though I could only suspect with how there were some leaves in his hair, that hair style wasn't intentional and he just had some poor hygiene habits.
He was wearing some sort of leather vest, but due to his beard I couldn't see much details. Otherwise from what I could see, only metals rings of various materials at key points along his upper arms and almost entirely covering his forearms.
He sat behind the desk decorated with overhanging chains.
"Next to him is Frigg, she is the demon elder."
An elderly looking lady with dull red skin nodded. Together with the raised platform her seat was on and her inherent height, I was forced to look up to meet the elder's strong gaze. Her well chiselled features were almost overshadowed by weariness as if the burden of age had almost overtaken her. But even then, there was clearness in her eyes and her back was held pretty straight with dignity. Her long white hair was tightly weaved into box braids together with some sort of black threads, then hung over her right shoulder in a loose braid. Her head was topped off with a pair of black horns that stuck out of her forehead and went up and back over her head. She wore sleeveless robes made of small quilted together sheets of leather from a wide variety of creatures, each a slightly different colour and texture from the next, and overlapping to create quite a few layers.
I couldn't quite tell if it was hot or cool wearing such a thing, but perhaps there was more meaning to her garb than was obvious at first glance.
Her desk was the one with the heavily decorated leather on it.
"Beside him is Harja, she is the chieftain of the dragonkin."
Even taller than Frigg, but still not even comparable to Alvaldi, was probably a relatively young woman sporting what looked like a permanent scowl. The woman's figure was similar to Magni, but a more lithe figure, yet she had distinct curves in all the most important places. In addition, she clearly looked taller than him as well. She had a sharp chin and even sharper looking eyes that looked like was sizing me up as if I was some sort of prey. Her skin was a darkened ashen pink, but her scales were akin to polished obsidian. The dragonkin wore a leather vest covered in metal loops and studs. There were small imprints akin to the shape of rounded bars all over its surface, but it didn't look like it was part of its aesthetics, but caused by a series of something hard underneath. Her arms were also covered in similar types of armour, with the cylindrical rods running the full length of her upper arms and forearms, ending in a leather plate over the back of her hands with large claws covering her fingers.
The desk she sat behind was the one covered in various fangs.
"Finally is Geirskogul, he is the chieftain of the imps."
Skipping an empty desk, the red one, was a figure with blue skin hovering rather than sitting there. He had the appearance of a young child, maybe two or three years old, but the size and proportion of one no more than a single year. He had faded blue skin, stubby horns sticking out of his short but wild hair, and stubby bat wings sticking out of his back. His large, inquisitive eyes stared at me as his round cheeks rose up in interest. His clothes were of a simple leather shirt and pants, roughly cut and covered in decorations, half of which looked like were stuck on with nothing more than spittle.
His childish expression quickly turned to boredom as he yawned and he started to play with one of the random things on his overcrowded desk.
"Umm, what about the last two?"
I couldn't help but ask about the empty seats, but my question was quickly answered in part by Elli moving over to the last one.
"The last seat is my own. I am the elder of the dokkalfar."
Hardly a surprise considering how that was how I was introduced to her.
Elli sat down at the seat with the desk covered in the layered beaded cloth.
"Then the last one...?"
"That one is the seat of Lord Scarlet. Even with what had happened, we had decided she deserved her seat to be preserved, in honour of her contributions in founding the original town."
[Master! They really know what to say! Quickly! You must take your seat!]
[Not now Claret. That's for the previous Scarlet, not for me.]
[I don't understand, Master. How is that different?]
[...It just is. If you don't understand, then don't worry about it.]
After all this time, I had no idea how to just explain it in a way which she could accept it. One day I should probably just accept her version of things, but until I achieved things which was equal to my predecessor, that felt like simply cheating.
"So? Why did you beg for this emergency meeting?"
The dragonkin chieftain, Harja, started.
"Before that, allow me to introduce everyone. This is Scarlet, the owner of the territory of Hourai Mountain."
"The owner?"
Along with Harja's skeptical question, the others stirred at the sudden declaration.
"That is right. This young vampire had arrived when she discovered some of our hunters intruding upon her domain. Thankfully she had agreed to discuss our usage of part of her territory."
"Haa? Why should we listen to such a weak looking girl?"
The dragonkin chieftain got up and made her way over to me. She leaned down as she tried to peer through my hood, though entirely unsuccessful due to how it covered my upper face.
On the other hand, I did my best to keep my back straight. This had already turned into negotiations, and showing signs of weakness would quickly become fatal. That much was obvious due to how she was so blatantly trying to intimidate me.
Or rather, successfully intimidate me. It took quite a lot just to stop myself from backing off.
I took a deep breath and slowly let it out before peeking out from under my hood and glared back at the woman.
"I'll forgive you since you hadn't heard before, but this area had become my territory for the last several years. Due to its size, I going to allow your people to settle here, but if I'm to be met with hostility rather than gratitude, then maybe I should just change my mind?"
"Oh? You think you can force us, force me away?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
I bared my fangs. It was already impossible to back off now, despite the pounding that reverberated from my chest.
This was my home. I didn't mind neighbours. They didn't even need to pay me anything, as long as they got along and didn't cause me trouble. But if they were going to be hostile, in a place where I had to hold on to no matter what so I would have a safe place to raise Alicia in, I couldn't afford to back down.
I wasn't going to live my life raising a child scared of my identity being revealed, constantly on the run from people who wanted me dead. That was no way to live with a family.
Alicia deserved stability, she needed it.
But before I knew it, a sharp pain struck my face, then two more dull impacts on the back of my head and back.
For a few moments, I was simply staring at stone and wood, unsure what had happened. Shock more than pain had stunned me.
(That's the ceiling.)
It took me a few more moments to realize that, which was when I moved to sit back up.
I was lying on the floor, past the broken doors and in the hallway leading to the large audience chamber. Harja stood there, in a pose which blatantly spoke of the punch she had just used to send me flying.
[I'll kill her!]
[Wait! Stop, Claret! Heel!]
My ever loyal familiar untangled herself from my back and was just about to rush the chieftain when I called her to stop.
[That was a test. There's no need to kill her over a test.]
[But...]
[I said it's fine. Don't worry about it.]
[Yes Master.]
I got up and my overly protective spirit wrapped her arms around my shoulders like she usually did, and rubbed her cheek against my own in an attempt to sooth me as well as herself.
Even though it was probably meaningless, I was still thankful that Claret hadn't used [Materialize]. Thanks to that, she had phased through the heavy door and the floor when I collided with them, and hence she was gone without getting hurt.
"Is that all you're capable of?"
Wiping off the line of blood that ran down from my nose, I internally swore at the fact that I would have to clean my robes and hoped that the blood could be washed out. In a handful of steps, I was standing in front of the dragonkin again, glaring back at her from under my hood.
"Bwahahahaha! I like this one! She's got guts!"
Behind the chieftain, Alvaldi laughed loudly as he slapped his knee. Elli was simply sighing in exasperation while Geirskogul was 'ooh'ing and leaning forward in interest. Frigg on the other hand had closed her eyes and had an expression of disinterest on her face.
"Hey, hey? Can I try next?"
Surprisingly, that line came from the imp chieftain. The tone was quite similar to how the fairies often talked, but the context was completely different.
"Leave it. Or we won't get anywhere."
Finally, the demon chieftain spoke. Despite opening her eyes once again, she was still going on with her poker face.
"Hmph!"
The dragonkin chieftain spat on the ground beside me, but obediently returned to her seat and once again crossed her arms.
[Ignore it.]
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