Chapter 728: There's Already Troublesome Off-Worlders
I looked around after I finished eating the baby castellas, finding myself seated on a picnic mat amongst the girls I had come to watch Mother’s fight with.
It seems like I was back on the cliff again, though I wasn’t sure for how long I was occupied with eating the sweets since the sun was still up.
Katsuki was in the midst of wiping my mouth clean with a napkin while the other girls were busy eating their own sweets too.
“Where is Mother?” I asked.
“The Madam is with the King now, Mistress,” Katsuki answered me as a matter of factly while still wiping my mouth.
I let her finish before I turned my gaze back to the field and it looked like the camp was in the midst of tearing down its fortifications.
Most likely because they already decided there was no need to siege the castle anymore.
Hmm… If Mother is with the King now, does that mean that she already dealt with the Off-Worlder?
“Can I go see her?”
Katsuki handed me my [Mask Of Impossible Identity], which was basically her way of saying that I could.
I looked at the other girls and all of them waved at me.
Huh… Seems like they want to stay here and finish their sweets instead.
I don’t blame them, these sweets are really good so of course they would want to finish them.
Oh well, I’m just going to pop in and ask what happened to that guy anyway. I only really came here for the sweets in the first place and I’ve already had my fill of them.
Maybe I’d just buy some more to bring back home to keep as part of my stash for later but that’s about it.
I stepped towards the edge of the cliff and let my wings unfurl from my back before leaping into the air.
Hmm? I’m not sure if I was hearing things but I think I heard Lisa talking about exchanging pictures as I leapt into the air.
I think I must have misheard that since I don’t think there were any pictures just now?
I flew over the camp and descended towards the tent I remember Mother had gone into the first time I saw her here.
There were two guards standing in front of the tent who immediately went on alert when I landed in front of them, only to relax when they saw me.
They didn’t even stop me when I tried to go into the tent so I guess they already knew who I was.
I went inside the tent and, interestingly, realised that I couldn’t hear anything inside the tent until I went past the entrance.
Like I heard nothing while I was right in front of the tent’s entrance and there was not even a whisper of a voice coming from within. But the moment I stepped inside, I found Mother and the King mid conversation in a volume loud enough where I should have been able to hear them from outside.
They stopped when they saw me enter and Mother immediately moved towards me and pulled me into a hug.
“Ara, ara~ It seems my little one still wants to be pampered by Mama~ Did you like the sweets?”
“Mnn… Yes, Mommy.”
Justinia let out a sigh, “I knew it… Aster was here all along wasn’t she?”
Eh? Did she not see me fight that Off-Worlder while Mother was under his ‘control’?
Speaking of which, how did Mother even resist that effect? I remember that it was a boon that we could get during our character creation before we got dropped into the World.
Wait… Maybe… Mother had asked for the gods to let me be reincarnated as her child, right? Maybe she had requested that she be immune to any of those kinds of skills or effects that Off-Worlders might have?
I guess that makes sense.
Mother giggled, “Ufufufu~ My little one wanted to see her Mama work. Why would I say no?”
“Of course…” Justinia groaned before going over to her chair to sit down on it, obviously not willing to argue with Mother about it.
That was when I noticed a third person in the room near Justinia.
I didn’t spot them the first time as they were tied to the chair and they were facing the ground with their body hanging limply on the chair.
It took me a moment to realise that it was the Off-Worlder over there.
“Erm… What happened to him, Mother?” I asked.
She turned to see where I was looking before her lips curled up into a smile.
“Ufufufu~ Mama made sure to punish the little boy for being such a nuisance, my little one~ There’s no need to worry, he knows he did something bad already~”
I looked at him again.
There were no visible wounds on his body and he doesn’t look like he’s unconscious either since his eyes were open. But then again, I saw him use so many potions to heal himself where he could even regenerate his limbs so he must have some really high quality potions on him to heal any physical trauma Mother might have dealt on him.
I guess his body might be fine but his mind was definitely not fine.
“And what’s his deal then?” I asked.
“Ufufufu~ He’s just a stupid little idiot~”
Justinia sighed, “Madam Nilm… I think this actually concerns Aster so it would not be a good idea to hide it from her.”
“Ara, ara~ This isn’t hiding, little Justi~ Have I told a lie so far?”
“… No.”
“Ufufufu~ That’s right~ But if my little one does want to know, this little idiot is part of a group of Off-Worlders.”
I tilted my head, “He’s part of a group of them? Are they trying to reform the country and starting a civil war or something?”
Justinia was the one who answered my question instead, “Close but not quite… It’s actually much more idiotic than that and I really wonder how these people even lasted this long without someone dealing with them…”
“What do they want?”
“They believe they were chosen by the Gods to lead us ‘savages’, as they had labelled us. They see themselves as our saviours where we are the ones who are lost or deluded and need to be guided back to the ‘right path’.”
Ugh… I don’t even want to comment on this…
I grimaced, “How many of them are there?”
King Justinia sighed again while Mother giggled.
“Ufufufu~ There’s just three of these little idiots, my little one~”
Ok, that doesn’t sound too bad? And it seems like they could have already extracted their location from him so we can just go and deal with them, right?
Justinia continued for Mother, “Three of them located in our country… Forty of them scattered throughout the rest of the world…”
…
Oh…
That err… Sounds problematic…
“Should we be worried?” I asked.
King Justinia sighed, “Oh, I am not worried about these people succeeding, we’ve gone through way worse and way crazier events than this. Case in point, that near demonic invasion that you helped us stop for one. I’m more concerned for Off-Worlders in general.”
I tilted my head, “Why? What’s going to happen?”
“I believe I could safely say that anyone who is in the know or important enough to be in the know is already aware of the existence of Off-Worlders. At this point, I would say that Off-Worlders are just seen as another anomaly that we have to experience so they are tolerated. No offence, Aster.”
I shook my head, “It’s alright, I know how annoying we can be. I’ve already met with a few of them and most of my interactions with Off-Worlders don’t end that great either…”
Justinia nodded, “Then you know why I’m worried, Aster… Even though I say ‘tolerate’, what I really mean is that most of the people who know about Off-Worlders are just unsure of what to do with them at the moment and are just watching for now.”
I immediately realised what she was saying.
“This means… They might cause enough trouble that people start hating on Off-Worlders or even… Initiate a hunt for them?”
Justinia nodded, “We don’t know how many Off-Worlders have been sent over after all… It could just be a few hundred, could be a few thousand or even a few million.
There are a few vocal ones about their status and thankfully they wouldn’t be shouting the weirdest thing if they claim they are from another world here… But some might start some kind of organisation to hunt Off-Worlders down just because they are Off-Worlders.”
I looked at Mother and she smiled at me, “There’s no need for you to worry, my little one, Mama will always protect you~”
No, I’m not worried about myself, Mother…
If there really is a hunt for Off-Worlders, other Off-Worlders might then choose to band together and that might just result in a massive war happening between the people of this World and the Off-Worlders!
That’s something I don’t want to happen!!
After all… I haven’t even explored the entire World and eaten all the sweets I could find yet!!
This is a big problem!!
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