The old man picked up the Plec board and nodded slightly,
"Let us discuss the trade first, shall we?"
He started arranging the pieces. He chose the role of the ruler and gave Flieday the role of the insurgent. Flieday smiled as she put the first soldier group down.
"We have been traveling for a long time, picking up herbs and other valuable materials."
Re moon placed the royal guard near Flieday's soldier group as he asked, "Shall I have my men evaluate it?'
"Very well, why not?" Flieday placed an archer group two steps away from the royal guard.
"Now about the contract," Re moon placed a royal archer on his castle wall as he suddenly paused. Re moon shivered before smiling lightly. However, at that time, Flieday felt his fate once again oppressing her fate.
…
Re moon stared at the Plec board and then glanced at the young blond woman.
Today his routine was broken and something new had arisen. That was the sole reason he had let a dirty outsider inside his home, letting her corrupt and eviscerate his holy tribe.
He then looked down at himself, gazing at the chokingly fiery flames around his body.
Hm?
The flames enveloping him suddenly grew stronger, making him shudder. He felt his skin burn and rot away. He felt the smoke entering his eyes and making him blind. The connection to the blind spider broke for a moment as he was consumed by agony.
Interesting.
Sure he relived the moment of him burning every second of his life and lived with the never dying pain, but he had gotten used to it. It was rare for the flames to get far more intense randomly, but it is what it is.
He noticed Flieday trying hard to breathe and used this chance to find the spy on the Plec board.
After all, even the fire was merely a part of his daily life.
…
Gasping for air, Flieday made a fatal mistake, leading her spy to get exposed, giving Re moon an advantage.
"Well, the contract is that the Kra tribe will provide military strength in return for basic amenities from the Moon tribe." Flieday spoke,
Due to now having 'reasonable intent', Re moon was able to dispatch many royal guards and troops. Flieday of course, used the leader piece to declare, 'Innocence' and used the puppeteer to get extra forces by 'public outrage.'
"We will need to monitor your tribe's military strength first and compare it to the militarists." Re moon smiled with an unexplainable charm.
However, because Re moon had the piece 'Corrupt Sadist', he could know Flieday's next 10 moves. Flieday had used Puppeteer once, thus she could not use 'public outrage' on the 'corrupt sadist'. She had to tell Re moon her every move in advance, giving him whole 10 places to make counterattacks.
"The Moon tribe and militaries?!" Flieday chuckled as she figured out what Re moon was trying to say.
'We do not need the militarists, so why would we need you?'
"Maybe because a new type of beast is terrorizing the world."
Re moon chuckled amiably, 'Ah, those cursers? Well, apparently they disappear once they devour a grade 1 beast. Some disappear after consuming a Grade 2 beast."
Re moon slowly disposed of Flieday's pieces, cornering her and using pieces such as, 'Merchant of Misfortune' to degrade her backing.
Flieday frowned. If such were the case, then the Moon Tribe — the self-sufficient tribe with the most amount of graded beasts in their moon ponds, would never need them.
"Then, respected supreme elder, what do you seek?"
The reason he sat with me was, of course, to have a transaction. We would have been ambushed by now if not.
Flieday made a last gamble. She placed as many pieces as she could place and sent a siege, making plans so fundamental that even if she did not tell Re moon her plan, he would have anticipated them.
And she lost.
Her pieces were slowly captured, one by one. Similar to paper being thrown into a river, her formation was chipped apart and broken.
She had 10 pieces at the start. Half of them were partially tarnished when she entered the castle. 4 pieces were captured when she reached the court, 3 pieces were destroyed by the royal guards, and the rest were taken by the king.
She took a deep breath and looked at Re moon. The intensity of the game made her forget about the contract.
"Let us say that your tribe is now under the Moon Tribe, and you will be its representative"
He has not thought of anything yet?
"no."
Accepting to come under his tribe would be accepting my death
"The Kra tribe has fragmented but not disappeared. Our leader is still finding our group and will join us eventually. The world is changing. Having a super tribe as a friend would be beneficial to you."
Indeed, the Kra tribe was a super-tribe, completely obliterated by a horde of cursers. She had tried to find it initially while escaping from a curser.
"...Very well, then."
…
Flieday flew on the birdie towards the group. she had yet to inform anyone of the fake tribe identity, thus she immediately went to Dawn.
She thumped her leg at the entrance of a relatively big tent as a small gust of wind enriched her hair to sway.
Soon the thin leaves at the entrance moved as a young woman walked outside. The great cloud had hidden the blood red light of the sun but it did not hide Dawn's pale, almost corpse like figure. With her deep abyss like eyes one could assume she was dead if they saw her sleeping.
"Flieday? Ah, I was waiting for you,"
Dawn spoke as she walked towards Flieday, entering her personal space and guiding herself towards her ears.
"So, whom did you kill? Did you get those amazing powers?"
Flieday froze as a shiver went down her spine.
A thick tentacle rose from the ground, covering Fileday's whole lower body as it wrapped around her. It broke the thin leaves keeping her layers of animal skin together and let the covering fall.
She shivered in the cold as the tentacles covered her completely, except her face.
"Flieday~ don't you want to rule this tribe, guess what happens if we fight here. Oh, the unity will be broken, and you won't ever be a leader~"
Flieday felt goosebumps as she started sweating profusely. The reason was partly Dawn and partly the warm tentacle covering her.
"And guess if I dismiss the tentacle around your torso?"
Dawn smiled as she turned around.
She is using my goals and the tribe's unity against me!
Flieday however could vaguely sense the lies mixed in facts, but could not properly comprehend them.
"Now, will you kindly tell what happened while you were 'captured by old folk'?"
Flieday sighed dramatically; she did not expect Dawn to figure this out so quickly. But she did not have proof, and that was all that mattered.
"What proof do you have? I am the one representing our Kra tribe after all."