Reincarnated as the Villainess's attendant

Chapter 477 156 - Perserios territory - part 4 - Countering the plan that was thirty years in the making (part 9)

　　Miriette stopped staring daggers at the brown-haired corpse puppet and nodded at the black-haired boy with a much more calm expression.

　　"...considering that might be the case, and that apparently the information we have on hexes and curses is less than reliable, how about instead of going on a mission to wipe out the Barbariacca forces, how about we go to one of the tribes and ask them about the situation."

　　The dark-haired girl tilted her head and peeked down at the tiny huts down below.

　　"The direction of our flight isn't random, is it?"

　　"Of course not."

　　Zoemi smirked and asked her – to which Miriette responded, beaming at him with a cheeky smile in a confirmation.

　　"...the little ones will protect us if those people you want to interrogate would turn out to be hostile, right? And I mean protect both our bodies and our minds."

　　Burushi asked in a tense voice, not doubting whether Zoemi's sentinels would do their job, but rather wanting to get assured about it one more time.

　　"Of course, they will. Now then. If you will, let's descend and have a nice, civilized conversation."

　　The black-haired boy snickered ad clapped his hands together while following Miriette's example and looking down at the houses of their potential targets.

　　"Prepare to pacify any and all hostiles. Understood."

　　"Pacify yourself."

　　Xeonith wanted to keep up the mood of the conversation going, but Burushi's scoff brought him back to his initial position of staring down at the green monster's back timidly.

　　Nevertheless, the summon spell in question began her descend towards the ground,

　　It did so in a peaceful circular motion and at first, Zoemi didn't know why that was the case.

　　In the end, the air emperor was a spell that had a proper free flight spell integrated into her construct, which meant that even the people on her back would not experience any negative effects of the sudden change in the altitude.

　　But then it dawned on him.

　　The speed of their landing wasn't for them, the passengers. It was for the people down below on the ground.

　　The Air emperor was giving them enough time to pick an option, with its gargantuan size it could easily wipe off the few huts that comprised of the settlement BUT because of its low speed, if the locals wanted to escape, they could.

　　Still – if they wanted to attack, they could brace themselves too.

　　"...huh..."

　　"...?"

　　Zoemi hummed to himself, but only Miriette paid attention to that – she turned around and nodded up at the black-haired boy, questioning what he was up to, without actually uttering a single word.

　　|Little ones, could you connect me only to my Miriette?|

　　Zoemi thought to himself, or at least he attempted to because the spell that his sentinels ended up using wasn't a normal message spell but his own variation of it, that also shared the thoughts of the people connected with it as long as they weren't focused enough – and the black-haired boy wasn't concentrating at all.

　　"My Miriette?!"

　　"My Miriette?!"

　　Burushi and Xeonith managed to agree on something – although not intentionally, of course - as they loudly gasped in shock, hearing the way the black-haired boy addressed the dark-haired girl.

　　Although their voices sounded identical, they were focusing on slightly different things.

　　Xeonith was shocked that the Zoemi was addressing Miriette using those exact words.

　　Burushi didn't know that Zoemi shared the thought unintentionally and was surprised that Zoemi decided to voice his affection in such a way.

　　"Hey, look, we are landing and the people down below aren't immediately hostile."

　　Instead of confronting the situation, Zoemi decided to change the subject altogether, not even trying to touch on the matter that sparked the controversy,

　　"Exactly, as my Zoemi has said, we should pay attention to the new situation, not to the obvious and completely natural things."

　　Miriette didn't even try to make the situation any better, agreeing with the black-haired boy but also taking it one step further and asserting their relationship without any hesitation – but with a great amount of satisfaction.

　　"..."

　　The other two stayed silent, they were very close to exchanging the confused looks, but Burushi certainly wasn't going to act all friendly with the same person – or the unique shadow of a person – who tortured and threatened her in a way he did, hexed or not.

　　With that in mind, the air emperor did land in the middle of what looked like a small village.

　　Zoemi wasn't joking or just saying things all willy-nilly just to get the blond girl and the brown-haired corpse puppet off of his back, there really were people waiting in the village square, looking up at them without trying to attack.

　　The black-haired boy took one look at what must have been one of the tribes and raised his brows.

　　Those people, kids, and adults were all looking scared, but also kind of hopeful. There were some who had the appearance of seasoned hunters, but not a single person looked or held themselves like a warrior.

　　It was a rather curious situation, really.

　　"Hello there, kind people. We have come here to exchange some information and confirm a few things. Cooperation would be much appreciated."

　　Not held back by anyone, Miriette raised her hand benevolently and cheered out, jumping off of her air emperor and landing gracefully on the ground.

　　The village was just as rural as one would imagine, rustic not even properly able to describe it – there were no cobbled roads and even the village square was unpaved.

　　The cheerfulness was of course caused by Zoemi's unintentional slip-up, but funnily enough, the locals all looked relieved at the dark-haired girl's words.

　　The villagers all looked at each other and after a moment of hesitation, a woman in her late twenties stepped up and approached the coiled-up air emperor and the group who just joined Miriette on the ground.

　　All of them, except the youngest children, had some sort of face tattoo, some had their full faces covered with intricate shapes while others had only a small mark here or there.

　　"Greetings, citizens of the Bellcephora kingdom. The Far-Souther Tusks Tribe welcomes you to their humble village."

　　The woman dressed in a hunter's garb and with the muscles to confirm that she wasn't just play-pretending to be one, bowed her head and lowered her back in an unsteady attempt of mimicking a proper curtsy.

　　She had much to learn in that regard to actually make that action look graceful, but in terms of intention that counts, she scored full marks.

　　"My name is Eltrena, the chieftan. What can we help you with?"

　　The woman straightened her back, showing off the full tattoo of geometrical shapes beginning over her left brow and cascading down the side of her face and the cheek, stopping at the jawline.

　　"It is a pleasure to meet you, chief Eltrena of the Far-South Tusks Tribe. My name is Miriette Lisea Espine. I'm sorry to impose on you all of a sudden, but some unfortunate circumstances forced us to go on a rather unexpected excursion, and here we are. Do you know what is happening in this region recently, by the way?"

　　Miriette followed him up without hesitation, giving the woman as much honor as if she was another high noble.

　　Burushi seemed to be shocked by her behavior, but neither Xeonith nor Zoemi acted as if it was anything special.

　　After all, it was common practice, at least to the nobles who treasured their honor, to not belittle the leaders of any friendly location, no matter the smallest village of the biggest country.

　　"We can feel the strength of our hexes and cures increasing – the dear I wanted to slow down suffocated because breathing out took it that long... We are worried that the Barbariacca nation began making their move against your kingdom..."

　　Eltrena tugged on her long braid nervously, before realizing what she was doing and hurriedly putting her hand down.

　　She really looked worried while speaking about the subject.

　　"You seem to be deeply affected by that. Is this village perhaps a trade point with Perserios territory or something?"

　　Miriette furrowed her brows and asked, disregarding her original intention and inquiring about the information that she got her hands on just then.

　　"No. Lady Miriette. Our tribe does have a friendly relation with a neighboring territory, but it is not the Perserios one."

　　Eltrena shook her head and spoke up, addressing the dark-haired girl with the exact amount of respect she should to not get herself in big trouble.

　　"As for the reason why I seem affected... it is because the Barbariacca nation has always found our small communities as an eyesore... If they are on the move then that means they got tired of tolerating us and want us gone. I'm terribly sorry that you got involved in this mess."

　　The village chief added with a bitter expression on her otherwise composed face – she did tense up as if holding herself back from saying anything else though.

　　"...?"

　　...and that certainly didn't escape Miriette's or Zoemi's attention...