PoV Unknown
Silence dragged for several minutes, and stifling mana filled the room, borderline choking those weaker than the raging Elders around the table. It was stifling, and the Grand Elder's fingers started to drum on the table suddenly. Every Elder flinched hard as his fingers banged on the table, resounding throughout the room. The force of each of those fingers could kill a B ranker as his fingers came down.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
His fingers drummed again and again on the solid, exquisitely decorated table while everyone looked away from the Grand Elder.
"Can any one of you give me GOOD NEWS?!" The Grand Elder asked his voice booming with mana, and I flinched as did most others as my ears started to ring. The heavy amount of mana was solidfying and it was hard to breathe. The Grand Elder was furious, and I tried to get my breathing under control when an Elder finally stuck his head out.
"Grand Elder," The Elder began, "The City, the Supreme Commander, and an Elf Harem member, is making for some reason is experiencing some issues from what we have been hearing."
"What issues?" The Grand Elder asked, demanding the answer now.
I closed my eyes and sighed.
That damn city.
It was not even technically a City at this point, and everyone knew it. It was making massive fields outside the rapidly growing place. It was completely planned out, and the economy there was completely artificially created. It was also mostly HUMAN in population at this point. Beast-kin were moving to it from tribes all over, but somehow, they were keeping a tight lid on the core information of city building.
"From what I have been hearing, and this is still conjecture, but the Humans are worried that the war ending might destroy jobs there, and with how new the city is, that would be a core part of the economy." The Elder said.
The Grand Elder sneered, "All the information we have received from our spies in the Silvermoon Tower, they plan on keeping those two armies." The Grand Elder said, "So that will not be an issue." He sighed. "At least it is better news that everything is not going perfectly for the Bunny-kin. But why would this be an issue?"
I froze thinking about it, why would it be an issue. The Grand Elders' question is a fairly valid one. The contract would not end just with the War ending unless the growing Bunny-kin Tribe ended the contract or the Armies those uniforms were making. The Logistics Army was being built with that damn city that Chelsea Loveknot was putting so many resources into.
We STILLL did not understand the reason for putting so much gold and resources into that place, and even to the point of impregnating THOUSANDS of women to send their families back to the place. The amount of resources was staggering just to think about. There was absolutely ZERO way that Chelsea Loveknot would allow something like a core component to her plans, which we know nothing about, to affect her city.
"We are not sure," The Elder admitted and held up his hand as the Grand Elder opened his mouth, "Grand Elder, we may not know, but we do know they take this issue VERY seriously. One of our spies was able to read a normal order to supervisors to start deliberately steering conversations away from these topics and even start to spread the idea that the contract cannot end at this point without major penalties."
Odd.
"Why would there be penalties in a contract with themselves?" The Grand Elder asked.
"They wouldn't," The Elder Replied, and I looked at the elder, and everyone started to understand something.
So I decided to stick my head out for this moment. "So," I began, "For some reason, they REALLY, REALLY want people to think that everything is going to be fine," I said, and seeing people nod, the Grand Elder looked contemplative. "I think this is a much better punch-through point than the Duchess Greenwald," I continued, and people turned to look at me.
"What do you mean?" Elder Yellowtooth asked.
"Elder," I replied while everyone silently listened, including the Grand Elder, as I pushed, and it seemed I was the only one to think this. "Think about it, we have been putting out rumors about the Duchess Greenwald, but the moment this fairly benign rumor comes out, they actually ORDER people to start dealing with it. Clamping down HARD on information related to it or calming the humans' minds about it. That means, this rumor is more dangerous to them in some way."
Everyone's eyes widened, but the Grand Elder spoke up, "They did do nothing about the Duchess Greenwald; they just did it more subtly, but you are right, they are being more proactive about this, and people are still shunning our people. We need a way to make them come back or even forgive us for the War problem, and with the war over, and we didn't even have to foot the bill for it," The Grand Elder smiled, "How about we start to make some issues for the Supreme Commander?" The Grand Elder grinned, and I could see he was thinking of something.
All of us waited, and the Grand Elder tapped his strong fingers and said, "Alright, if they are worried about their industry, maybe a few fires? No, that would cause the Bunny-kin to directly attack us in return. It needs to be subtle but attack their tailoring industry."
"Grand Elder," I spoke up, thanking the Goddess above that the Grand Elder already talked himself out of attacking me directly. People were already unhappy with the Dragonic, and we could not be seen directly doing anything else to another tribe at this point. The Grand Elder turned to me, and I continued hoping I would further dissuade direct action. "I believe just confirming the much more natural rumor would be best at this time," I told the Grand Elder simply. "I wish we could do more, but many tribes are dissatisfied with us, and with the Bunny-kin gathering more tribes into their Elder Council, they can fight us. A show of power cannot be done at this time, so this is an opportunity that we can at least redirect thoughts away from whatever is happening in the project that the Bunny-kin people are doing there, and" I grinned more sinisterly, "We can also make more problems in other places while they are focused there."
"Oh, do tell me your thoughts, young one," Grand Elder replied, and I shivered under the Grand Elder's direct gaze, and my mind spun a thousand times a minute trying to come up with something, and I grinned.
"Well, instead of targeting the city, we-" I began to lay out an ill-thought-out plan to the Grand Elder, and the other Elders joined in after I finished.
By the End, the Grand Elder was finally happy, and I could only hope that things went to plan and did not derail at all, or else things would only get worse.
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