Inside of the Crystal Palace, the round-table meeting room was quickly, physically, heating up from the intense debates taking place. The root cause of these debates still had the scholar Ye Surumi sighing internally.

Their lord had developed a girlish crush on the third prince of Andorin Kingdom, whom she had never met, and wanted to instigate a war in some twisted justification of their meeting/marriage. It seems like that motive was supposed to be a secret, but it slipped out surprisingly easily.

The scholar removed his glasses and massaged between his eyes.

Lord Vyra’s brother, Varoon was drinking a bowl of water brought in by a servant. It seemed he had originally won the argument over whether there was an ulterior motive behind the war they were planning. But he had failed to convince his sister to temper her response.

Varoon’s mate, the Oni Irsha, took a deep breath and spoke tentatively. “I agree with my mate. It’s fine to have friendly relations as individuals and trade deals from time to time, but humans—descendants in general—are ultimately a hostile species. If it were a commoner you wanted, it might be fine, but a prince is way too important.”

“Oh come on,” Olga chuckled. “They’re just humans. Even if we go to war with every human country besides Andorin Kingdom, it won’t be the end of our species. They’ll go back to fighting amongst each other, redraw some national borders, change some names around, and any feuds would be ancient history.”

“I do suspect,” Surumi spoke up, “that weighing a single marriage against the fate of two species is an unfair comparison. It very frankly isn’t worth it.”

“Father?” Vyra looked to her left.

Rigdam, a Noct in Orc form, folded his burly arms and nodded. “You should be with who you love. It shouldn’t matter who or what they are.”

“SHE HASN'T EVEN MET HIM YET!” Varoon exploded, crushing his empty clay water bowl in his fist. “How can you love someone you’ve never met?!”

“Brother, do not shout and break things in the conference room.” Vyra eyed him.

“So I’m the irrational one here?!”

“I said enough.”

Gradually the din ceased and the room became quiet. Orc Lord Vyra took a deep breath.

“Our goals are these: first, to allow me to meet the third prince of Andorin Kingdom, Corinth Andorin, to verify my feelings for him; second, if this turns out to be more than just a fleeting feeling, to allow me to take him as a mate in a way that at least doesn’t violate his cultural sensibilities. This is not up for debate. The matter currently resting on this table is how to accomplish these two goals without endangering our city and its people. Momma.”

“Yes~.” The mayhem orc held up a metal tablet. “Right now, the only suggestion on the list is to start a war between Andorin Kingdom and a third party, and to offer them our aid. In theory, we can reveal ourselves as an ally to the top officials of Andorin Kingdom, and Vyra will have a chance to meet the third prince. If she likes him, we will achieve great merits during the war, and then request a marriage with the third prince. What does everybody think?”

“Who would this third party be?” Surumi asked. And why am I in this meeting? he wanted to ask.

Unfortunately, the black cat beastman was stuck here in this monster city. His home country was surely in utter chaos with the withdrawal of their ancestor goddess. Any plans he had of leaving this place had been indefinitely delayed. So while normally, an outsider wouldn’t be allowed in such a meeting--no matter how well-informed--he could no longer consider himself an outsider.

“We could force some monsters to attack?” Irsha offered hesitantly. “Like the Onis or the Fomor slaves.”

Varoon sighed. “That’s too easily traced. Sending another human nation after them would be better, but we don’t have those kinds of connections.”

Vyra looked at her tutor. “Surumi, which human nations does Andorin have bad relations with?”

The grand scholar unfolded his fan and waved it, since the room was still quite hot. “Claymore Kingdom to Andorin’s North has marched on them in the past, due to conflicts with their shared river. Espert Kingdom to Andorin’s Southwest abstained from aiding them during that conflict. They have cultural differences on the importance of different hair colors and don’t get along. The other three nearby nations have historically been Andorin’s allies.”

“Tell me more about these river conflicts.”

“Andorin is upstream of Claymore, so Claymore’s water is often polluted. Additionally, Claymore mined all the clay from their riverbanks, making the river’s course unstable. They experience frequent flooding.”

The Orc Lord frowned. “That should be easily solvable with magic. Why don’t they just purify the water and replenish the clay?”

“Claymore has no earth mages. They have some wind and fire mages, but most of their trained people are archers.”

“Why archers?” Irsha asked.

“How were they even a threat to Andorin if they only have archers?” Varoon furrowed his brow in confusion.

“A battalion of archers aided with wind and fire magic is surprisingly deadly, as long as they have the initiative and sufficient mobility,” Surumi said. “But it mostly developed that way because the Claymore kingdom is frequently harassed by harpies.”

“The bird monsters who live west of the black mountain, hm?” Oolga chuckled. “They squabble a lot with the nagas who share their land. Perhaps we can use them somehow.”

Vyra drummed her fingers on the round table top, accepting a bowl of mint tea that the servants brought in to offer everybody. It was already chilled and quite refreshing.

“Alright,” Vyra set her bowl down and ran her gaze around the room, “what about this? We exploit the relationship between the harpies, nagas, and Claymore to get one of those two monster groups to ally with Claymore. I have a spy in Andorin Kingdom. The next time he returns, I can order him to leak the information about the arms Andorin is using our resources to make. They’ve fought before, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get them to fight again.”

“Doesn’t mixing in monsters just complicate things?” Rigdam asked with a confused look. “If you have a spy, that should be enough.”

“Three reasons,” the queen orc held up three large tan fingers. “First, Claymore lost to Andorin before because Andorin had allies. If Claymore has allies, they should be more willing to fight again. Second, if monsters are involved on the enemy side already, it will be much easier for Andorin Kingdom to accept our aid. They can have us get the monsters out of the way for them. Or, if they want the moral high ground, they can just exterminate the monsters while leaving the human army to us. I don’t really care which they choose. And third, I don’t want Claymore pulling out of the war early because of harpie trouble. Marrying the prince will be harder if my forces don’t accomplish enough during the war.”

Surumi hid his twitching mouth behind his fan. He always suspected deep down… that anything and everything he taught this girl would end up being used for war. He had always avoided directly teaching her about war, thinking her natural talents were already more than the world needed to see, but studying in general might’ve made her a sharper thinker.

He sighed quietly and glanced at the lord’s mother.

“Lady Oolga, do you have any thoughts on how we could get the harpies or the naga to agree to an alliance with Claymore?”

“I have some ideas, yes. The harpies just want to eat humans, it doesn’t matter who. The nagas aren’t likely to leave their homes. Since I’ve met them before, I volunteer to be our negotiator.”

“Thank you,” Vyra smiled and nodded. “Now, the only other detail to nail down is whether Claymore’s river has flooded yet. If it hasn’t, I’ll have Fiara figure something out to make sure it does. We’ll take out their food stores if we can, just to make sure they’re desperate for someone to blame and kill.”

A wicked, bloodthirsty smile stretched the queen's lips and showed off her tusks.

Another servant came into the council room. “My lord, you have visitors: a group of black goblins and two beastwomen who claim to be royalty.”

Rigdam abruptly stood up from his seat. “Did you say black goblins?”

The high goblin servant stayed calm and nodded. “Yes, Lord Rigdam. They were goblins with black scales.”

The large orc started beaming and looked at his daughter. “Can we end this here for today? I know those people. I mean, I kind of know them.”

Vyra blinked. “Well, I think we covered the most important things. Shame we bickered so much at the start.” Varoon snorted. “Alright, thanks everyone for coming. The meeting is over for now. Father and I will go and see to these guests.”

***

King Claudius Claymore couldn’t believe his luck. Not a day had passed since he started arming his people and arranging what little supplies they had than they were visited by a small group of harpies.

Normally, this would be a terrible thing, especially right after a flood when the people were already unhappy. The harpies from the East had a habit of making off with children and even sometimes adults, flying them off to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what. When Claymore’s well-practiced archers fought back and shot enough of them down, they would come back in greater numbers to pick a proper fight.

It just wasn’t the kind of distraction King Claymore wanted right now while he was preparing for war.

However, destiny was strange, and the harpies this time hadn’t come to cause chaos.

A group of five of them hovered above the filthy flooded river, like they were waiting for something. King Claymore had hurried out with a group of archers and wind mages when his servants informed him about them, but the center bird quickly spoke up in human language.

“Don’t shoot! We are messengers!”

That truly gave The king pause. For how many years had he been plagued by these birds? He never knew they could speak. Perhaps they had learned it from their unfortunate captives.

“May we land? It is rude to talk while flying.”

The archers tensed, but the king told them to stand down. A harpie on the ground was barely a threat.

The five birds flew to the nearest patch of dry, empty land and touched down. King Claymore had seen these monsters up close before, during their skirmishes, but this was the first time he really had the chance to take them in. They were vile animals, like thin women with tight skin, no ears, and two slits for nostrils. They were tall, but with poor posture. Feathers grew from their long arms and legs, which ended in sharp, black talons. A mixture of hair and feathers grew from their heads.

Harpies came in many different colors, but the leader had oily black feathers, which seemed to be the most common variety.

King Claymore had only ever seen female harpies, as far as he could tell. He wondered just where in the world these creatures spawned from. Perhaps they simply climbed out of muddy holes in the ground.

“What is it you want to discuss with us?” the king asked.

“A truce, or perhaps, an alliance,” the leader immediately replied, stroking her talons along one of her wings to remove a few bugs that had gotten caught in the feathers. Swarms of gnats were hovering over the flooded river. The harpie frowned distastefully, her mouth was full of sharp teeth.

“We’ll, that’s quite the sudden change,” Claymore raised a salt-gray brow suspiciously. “It would be wonderful if we didn’t have to worry about your attacks anymore, but why the change of heart?”

“We can bother any humans,” the harpie, named Chitrathia, said. “Starting today, we will bother the humans south of here instead. Do you like those humans?”

“Indeed, I do not!” the king’s eyes were wide, and he started to grin despite himself. Not only were the harpies calling off their attacks on his people, they were going to redirect them to the Andorin Kingdom instead? What providence!

“Then we can have an alliance,” Chitra nodded.

“One question,” King Claymore hesitated. “Did the Andorin Kingdom do something to you? What made you target them instead of us?”

Chitra shrugged and scratched behind her head feathers with a talon. “It’s… annoying that the water smells bad,” she said amblingly.

Claudius Claymore suppressed a laugh and reminded himself that monsters were simply beasts with just a little more intelligence.

“Of course! If Andorin is gone, you can have clean water again!”

“And now we have an alliance?” The harpy leader asked again, seeming eager to confirm this fact.

“Haha, yes!” King Claymore was in a wonderful mood. So wonderful that he was even willing to shake this monster’s filthy talons--not that he did. “We have an alliance. Be careful not to fly in the way of any of our arrows. We’re fighting on the same side now, after all!”

Four of the five harpies started flapping their wings again and rising up. “We will tell the broodmother about the alliance. Endeavor not to choke on filthy water, humans.”

The king’s smile twitched in mild irritation. “We’ll send a letter when the campaign starts. It would be helpful if we could coordinate our attacks somehow.”

“We cannot read. Send a person,” said Chitra as she too began to take off. Another harpie chittered something at her in their monster language, and the leader squawked at her, smacking her with a wing.

In another flurry of wind and feathers, they were off, soaring high in the air back to their desert cliffs. Again, King Claymore smiled and basked in his incredible fortune.

Perhaps it truly is time. This may be a divine omen that the southern rivers will soon be mine.

***

Nefuna was a bit nervous. She had lived in palaces her entire life, but they were nothing like this one. Her old home was short but very wide, filled with gardens and made of wood. But the Crystal Palace was very tall and imposing, made of stone, metal, and crystal. The interior was wide and open and very sparsely decorated. It felt almost otherworldly.

Naturally, this wasn’t a place where one could walk in freely. Two very tall and strong-looking Orcs had been guarding the entrance, and inside was one of the people-like Orcs waiting to greet them.

“Good morning. May I inquire as to your names and reasons for visiting?”

Nym Airi and Nym Nefuna bowed perfectly (and nearly perfectly) at the same time.

“Former Empress of the beastfolk, Nym Airi. Here to meet Lord Vyra.”

“Former Princess of the beastfolk, Nym Nefuna. Here to meet Lord Vyra.”

Nefuna’s great grandfather waved a hand casually. “A couple of black goblins, here to meet Lord Vyra.”

The servant was a bit caught off guard by their lineup, but he recovered himself quickly. “Thank you. I will guide you to a waiting room. This way.”

The room they went to was easy to reach from the entrance. It was better furnished than the hallways outside were, with an intricately patterned, glossy rug on the floor, and a glowing crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Nefuna politely took a seat on one of the couches that were available. It felt soft, yet firm, and cool to the touch. It wasn’t leather, and the princess couldn’t figure out exactly what material it was upholstered with.

Another servant came to see to them while they waited, and a guard came to stand at the door, while the first servant left, presumably to inform his master that she had guests.

They were served small bowls of cold mint tea while they waited. Nefuna found it unusual, but refreshing.

The group didn’t chat among themselves while they waited. They had already chatted so much during the long walk to get to this city; now, they simply waited for Ashtante’s favored child to appear.

Eventually, the first servant returned, stepped in and to the side of the door, and bowed his head. “Lord Vyra has arrived.”

Everyone’s attention turned toward the door and the giantess who stepped through it. She was several feet shorter than the goat monsters outside, but several feet taller than any other Orc Nefuna had seen in the city, and very well-built. Her skin was tan, covered in sleek golden armor and airy green fabric. Her hair was blood red, wound into tight tubes that reached midway down her back, and she had three yellow eyes. Two white tusks protruded from her lower jaw, and her ears were similar to an elf’s; long and pointed.

Simply put, the only reason the princess wasn’t trembling was because she and this monster were supposedly family. Otherwise, a beautiful, terrible, and deadly Orc Queen would be something she could only offer up her head to.

Someone else walked in after the City Lord; an ordinary pink-skinned Orc. Nefuna barely had the presence of mind to notice him.

“Thank you, Nerun,” the lord said to her servant. “I’d like to speak to these people privately.”

The high orc nodded and stepped outside, along with the other servant. They shut the doors, and then it was just Nefuna’s group and the two Orcs in the room. While the Orc Queen took a seat, the other one suddenly transformed into a black-scaled goblin and trotted over to hug Nefuna’s Noct relatives.

“I was hoping others would start to gather here! It’s nice to meet you! My name is Rigdam.”

Nefuna’s great aunt, the one currently being squeezed (though the scales protected her), chuckled and hugged the young Noct back.

“That’s an Orc name. You must have been born in a monster settlement, child?”

“Yes. I have a little sister too. Our mother was one of us, but she’s not around anymore.”

“I see, I see. It’s a difficult life we lead. Well, it might just be turning up soon.”

Nefuna glanced at the Orc Queen, sitting regally while allowing this reunion to take place. She spoke up when it started to dawdle into smalltalk, though.

“Father, you can get to know them more later. For now, take a seat.”

The Noct in question pouted, but he returned to his seat after an encouraging pat on the shoulder from his kin.

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize.” The city lord scanned her eyes over her guests. “Now then, I see Lord Ashtante has decided to grant you citizenship without my permission. No matter; I would have accepted you anyway. A former Empress and Imperial Princess… do either of you have experience managing a country?”

“Unfortunately not,” Nym Airi shook her head. She sat with just as much regal aura as the city lord did, but while the white fox was a picture of grace and tranquility, the orc Queen felt dominating and powerful. “The royal women in the beast empire were tasked with upholding culture and religion. We were given no political, military, or financial power… Perhaps that is why our traditions lost the respect of the people.”

“That is a shame. Well then, why did you want to see me?”

“Why wouldn’t we want to meet the person our mother goddess loves so much?”

Vyra blinked and shifted into a slightly more casual posture. Nefuna felt the invisible pressure in the room lessen by a small extent. “Ah, I see. I thought you might be here for political reasons. Could this be called a casual meeting?”

One of Nefuna’s relatives laughed. “Of course, just relax. We’re all family here, in a city watched over by our mother goddess to boot.”

The Queen Orc frowned, and Nefuna felt the pressure rising again until she had cold shivers traveling up her spine. The fur on her tail stood on end despite her self control keeping her sitting politely.

“No, you’re lying to me. I don’t need family who lie to me. If you have business to discuss, just get it over with.”

Nefuna’s great grandpa scratched his scaly cheek. “Well, there is business, but we thought it could wait until after getting to know each other a little.”

Vyra scrutinized the old Noct, but she didn’t appear to find any additional fault with his words. Gradually, the pressure began to decrease again, until the room had returned to a state of calm. However, the city lord’s eyes remained cold when she looked at them.

“Let’s just deal with your business first. What do you want?”

Nym Airi bowed her head slightly. “Our mother goddess sent us a vision when she withdrew her blessing. There are those among the beastfolk who remained faithful to her teachings until the end, and so she would like to take them back. For that, they must come to pray at her statue. We will be doing some missionary work later to guide those people here. Will they have a place here in your city?”

“As long as they accept my rule, they are welcome here. Our food and space are sufficient, and we need more working hands.”

“Thank you.”

The air was clearly still tense. After a stretch of silence, the lord’s stern expression relaxed a bit, and she let out a breath.

“I am sorry for my outburst. You are Ashtante’s faithful. You should have no desire to harm any of her children… Not every family has good intentions toward strangers. I was raised like most monsters to hate the gods for abandoning us, so I’m still new to her teachings.”

Aside from Nefuna, who was equally new to this sort of thing, the other members of her party looked to the chief’s father for an explanation.

“She was raised by her mother due to cultural circumstances…” he said uncomfortably.

Nefuna gathered up her courage and asked a question that had been on her mind for a while. “Lord Vyra, would you be an Orc or a Noct disguised as an Orc?”

“I'm an Orc.”

“But how?” One of the black goblins asked. “If you stayed in monster form, you should be a Noct, and if you left monster form, you couldn't still be an Orc.”

“That’s if I was born a Noct,” the lord said. “I was not. I am not just the lord of this city; I’m the lord of my people, of all war and violence. I'm the Orc Lord, so I couldn’t be born as a Noct.” Vyra leaned back in her seat and folded her arms. “I don’t know what exactly Lord Ashtante likes about me.”

Life under an eccentric goddess was strange, Nefuna thought, and it just kept getting stranger. In a world where the imperial princess of the beastfolk could be cousins with the Orc Lord, was anything really impossible? Perhaps the only impossible thing left would be if anyone had asked this wander-weary girl not to faint at that moment.