"Damn, they got me."
"You live, you learn, Big Bro."
We were almost to Englesia. As it turns out, the king of Blummund was a sly old fox with some pretty smart aides. The negotiation had felt like it was going pretty smoothly. On the topics of sale tariffs and free, safe travel between our nations, everything had gone smoothly. Then, he added in 'protection from threats coming from our nation.' In other words, he wanted a security agreement between our nations. As it stood, most of their monster control was subcontracted out to the local guild branch, so I'd figured that they wanted our help with that. That was no problem at all, so I'd agreed.
Thus, Tempest was now responsible for any threat to Blummund from the forest. Even another country's invasion. Technically, they were also contractually beholden to provide us aid if we ever needed it, similar to Dwargon, but with how small they were as a country, they had an infinite number of ways to get around that.
But at least I'd managed to convince them to buy our potions. The Blummund government was absolutely shocked to know that we had potions capable of regenerating limbs instantly. I'd given the 'Three Fools' samples of my potion, but they'd never tested it on a detached limb. The idea seemed ludicrous, potions capable of reading a person's 'soul' and fixing their body to match, but they believed, once they tested it by regrowing Thegis's lost leg.
And as a last minute afterthought, I made sure to install a teleportation circle in the Blummund Free Guild, so that people could come and go between Tempest and Blummund whenever they needed to.
Risa and I could both independently teleport, but only to locations with a 'Warp Gate' magic circle already there, so this would make it leagues easier to get to and from Blummund in a crisis. I planned to drop a few of these in secluded or well protected places all across the globe, just in case.
…
(BOY POV)
"So… no casualties at all from the Orc Lord rampage? Seriously?" The boy asked his visitor.
Laplace, the visitor in question, shook his head, sitting down casually. "Nope. Figured we'd get at least ten thousand or so before someone strong enough to beat 'im came around, Got about twenty thousand orc deaths, though. Useless, right?"
"Oh, well. Guess getting power like that won't be so easy, huh?"
"He's strong enough, for now, though. Dude's got it in for Leon, a bit-"
"Clayman needs to grow up, I suppose. So, that all you got for me?"
Laplace grinned, "Nah, just a side note! Sure you already got the gist from Clayman, hmm? Enough about that, y'know how I've been going undercover with the Paladins, keepin' an eye on 'em? They're tryin' to start something now that they're sure Veldora's gone for good."
"But what're they after?"
"Wish I knew. I'll tell ya, these Western Church dudes are one mean group. Doubt they're doin' all this good for humanity out of the goodness of their hearts. "
"You're planning on infiltrating deeper, huh?" The boy asked.
"Yeah. It'll put me out of contact for a while, though. You okay with that?"
"Actually, Laplace, Clayman's planning something pretty big. You've got a few months, but I'm gonna need your help when things get going. You've got until he gets it started, alright?" The boy replied, an enigmatic smile playing across his lips.
Laplace sat forward in his chair, intrigued. "Tell me about the plan."
…
"Oh-hoh-hoh! Sounds like a blast. I'll keep an eye on it… Better get goin', though, while the goin's good."
"Alright. But just so you know, the main cause behind your most recent failure's wandering the Western Nations right now. Things are about to get interesting, I'd say."
"Why the heck is the grand pooh-bah of the forest of Jura wandering around human lands?!"
"With his bodyguard." That stunned Laplace into silence.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! Really is a unique little bastard, huh?"
"Ah, whatever. Ain't seen monsters posing less of a threat to me in my life. See ya."
After Laplace left the room, the boy gave out a little chuckle.
"Based on his behavior, this thing definitely isn't a normal slime, for sure. Probably has memories of his past life… Maybe I can take advantage of that. Can't leave him and his partner alone at least, that's for sure. I think I'll start by testing them a bit."
…
Power in this world was basically held by a handful of strong, sovereign nations. The Eastern Empire in the east was separated from the rest of the world by the Canaat mountains, the forest of Jura, and the ocean. As for the rest of the world, the major power lied in the demon lords, Dwargon, the Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion, and the countless other small nations that collectively comprise the Council of the West. The demon lords, in general, didn't tend to interfere with things outside of their own strongholds, except the four, Clayman, Carillon, Frey, and Dagruel.
As for the council of the west, it was basically just a collection of weaker nations held together by their weakness. While some of them were bigger than others, the fact tying them all together was that they only really held sway with the other smaller Western Nations. There were dozens of organizations, like the Free Guild, and the Western Holy Church keeping those together. Englesia was easily one of the most influential of these nations.