After checking the list, Sonya explained each of the nearby villages. There are quite a few that could surrender and submit without fighting, while there are a few that definitely will not surrender, but in general most are not so attached to the current government that they would refuse to submit once defeated.
In addition to Sonya's information, Kaguya also added some details while they waited for the guest.
In the Black Forest, besides Kaito, there are three others who are known within the world ranking. The ranking has one million people, so technically there are many more, but that does not mean there are a million interesting individuals, and in the Black Forest there are only two more worth noting.
Lord Yuki, known by the nickname Ice Princess due to both her attitude and her powers. Thanks to Kaguya's research, her true identity was revealed, Yukino Yukinoshita, from a specialized high class family.
That is, a high class family but only in a specific region, not comparable to the four great families of Japan like the Shinomiya, although they follow them in hierarchy. They are on the level of the Shijo or Hanazono families, for example.
Although Kaguya gave several descriptions about Yukino and her family, Kaito already knew most of them from the anime.
Aside from her, the other problem in the Black Forest is the necromancer, and as redundant as it sounds, he is a necromancer. What makes him dangerous is that his army keeps growing without stopping. No one knows how he maintains it, because the mana needed to achieve something like that is incredible.
While Yukino is in the western region of the Dark Forest, the necromancer is expanding from the north, which is something good or bad depending on the situation. In the north, where the land touches the sea, there is a territory not ruled by the dark elves but by wyverns.
If the necromancer's level is low, they will stop him, but if he manages to defeat them, his army will grow in power explosively after defeating the wyverns.
"I think that is all" declared Kaito, ending the meeting. Now all that remained was to wait for Sonya's guest to arrive.
"Kaito" a monotone voice called him, pulling him from his thoughts.
Kaito looked at Mashiro, who had spoken to him.
"What is it?"
"I have information too" said Mashiro.
"Really?"
Kaito was surprised. Since Mashiro spends most of her time drawing or reading, he asked her to let him know if she found any important information, but he did not expect her to find something so quickly. It was not distrust, he simply knew that the information he asked for consisted of specific details, things that normally go unnoticed but could reveal something from another perspective.
"What did you find?"
Mashiro did not speak. Instead, she handed him a book opened to a page so he could read it himself.
The book looked quite old, yet still elegant, probably an important book. The cover said "Theology of Gaia", a rather short and direct title, but Kaito did not pay attention to that.
He opened the book and quickly began reading.
In summary, the book talks about the god of earth, about how he is the most important of all gods and stands above everything.
Even though the title says Theology, it is not an exaggeration to say that this book only mentions the other gods when trying to exalt the god of earth.
Phrases like "The goddess of water used all her strength to stop a tsunami that would have struck the world, such magnitude of strength and beauty made people compare her for an instant to the god of earth" or "In the face of the rebellion of the god of decay, the whole continent was surrounded by contaminating miasma in seconds, the effect was so horrible that only the temples of the god of earth were saved, so people sought refuge in them" appeared every few pages.
Since it is an officially approved and distributed book, as exaggerated as it sounds, all of this is true, the god of earth is entirely incomparable to the other gods.
As for the explanation of why, there is none, it simply states that he is.
However, there is a theory unanimously accepted by most believers, so it is even recorded in the book.
The theory says that the god of earth is a "real" god.
Just like on Earth, in Gaia religion also says that god created the entire universe.
But there is no proof of that, because the so called gods are actually superior beings, ancient mortals who evolved enough to obtain total dominance over the divinity they now control.
The god of earth, however, is the opposite. There are no records of him prior to his first appearance, he simply appeared during the great war of all races, emerging from nowhere and proving he was superior to all known gods.
But what most reinforces this theory, and also surprised Kaito while reading it, is that his divinity is related to something unknown.
"Unknown? Isn't he just the god responsible for the earth divinity?" thought Kaito, confused.
This sparked his curiosity. After all, why would a god in charge of just the earth element be above others like the water god, or… well, Kaito does not know what other gods exist in Gaia, but that does not change the fact that the earth god is above them all.
"I know why it is important" said Mashiro, matching Kaito's thoughts.
"Really?" asked Kaito, surprised.
Mashiro nodded.
"The god of earth is the god of earth" she said.
But realizing that made no sense, she tried to explain.
"The god of earth… does not control earth, he is the god of…"
"Pfft" Kaito let out a weak laugh at Mashiro's small attempt to explain, though he tried to hide it.
Mashiro heard it anyway and glared at him.
When Kaito was about to speak, Mashiro suddenly changed her expression as if she had realized something.
"Turn off your translator" she said.
Although Kaito did not understand why she wanted that, he still did it.
Just by thinking about it, he turned off the system's automatic translator.
This and other small tricks, like activating a mode to control the system with his mind instead of typing in the air, were taught by Lala, who could be considered an expert in the system's functions after "studying it thoroughly" twice before.
After Kaito turned it off, he did not feel any difference, since everyone present spoke Japanese. Even Lala spoke fluent Japanese after studying it for a few days.
"Sonya" Mashiro called, asking her to say the name of the god of earth.
Once she spoke, Kaito should not have understood her, since Gaia's language, and the language of the dark elves, is completely unknown to him.
"⟟⟟₣∴grha–ʞ–̸f∷earth–̸"
Even so, the word Earth was recognizable. Although the pronunciation was strange, it was still that word.
"I see" Kaito murmured as he understood the implications. He had always assumed the god of earth in Gaia was the god in charge of the earth element, but the fact that Earth remained understandable even in that language meant that Earth was not originally a Gaia word. If he were the god of the earth element, there would simply be a version in that language.
The only reason Earth would not change is because it is a proper name, and Kaito only knew one thing with that name, something that did not exist in that world and therefore could not be changed: the planet Earth.
"Good job" said Kaito excitedly, approaching Mashiro and lifting her in a hug. This was something he had been greatly curious about, and finally knowing the answer made him very happy.
Especially because of the implications. If the most important god of Gaia comes from Earth, then Gaia can be said to have been made by one or several gods from Earth, and that is something good, very good.
"Kaito"
Kaito stopped his inner thoughts when he heard Mashiro's voice, who was extremely red.
"Ah, sorry" he said while putting her down. Mashiro was different from the others. Even though she had said she loved him, she was still quite shy with physical closeness.
At that moment, a knock was heard at the door followed by a voice.
"My lord, Lady Sonya's guest has arrived"
"Let her in" replied Kaito, returning to his seat.
Korran entered the room, followed by two women, one with a noble appearance and the other with light armor, probably her guard.
Korran bowed before leaving the room, leaving the two women in front of Kaito.
As soon as Kaito looked at them, Luna bowed before speaking.
"I introduce myself, I am Luna of Lunareth, princess of the kingdom of Lunareth, it is a pleasure to be before the leader of this beautiful city"
"Rise" said Kaito. "You may call me Lucifer, I trust Sonya and therefore I also trust you. Do you know why you are here?"
"I…" said the princess, confused and intimidated for no reason. She discreetly looked around the room, though it was not discreet for Kaito, until her gaze landed on Kaito's shadow.
"Sonya will explain my purpose here" he said with a soft smile, looking at the shadow, from which Sonya emerged.
He said it in such a way that he sounded like a ruler giving an order instead of a panicked girl.
"Lucifer-sama" began Sonya, "as the one closest to the situation, no one knows more than Luna-sama about the current state of the elven kingdom, so she will explain it herself. Also, as the first princess she not only has great reputation among the kingdom's citizens, even the current king trusts her. With her help, taking the kingdom could be far easier and more efficient than doing so by force. In exchange, Luna-sama asks to be the representative of the dark elves, ruling the kingdom of Lunareth under your command in the future"
Kaito looked at Luna.
Luna had a confused expression. Although she tried to hide it, she was clearly surprised by Sonya's words, but after a quick internal debate, she answered bravely.
"That is right, I sincerely hope for a happy cooperation" she said.
"Good, as I said before, I trust Sonya, and of course I have methods to know if you do anything suspicious, so I hope our cooperation proceeds smoothly" said Kaito, pretending not to notice what just happened.
"You must have traveled a long way to get here, so Sonya will take you to rest for a while before we speak further about our cooperation"
Everyone nodded and Sonya escorted the two women out.
With that, the session ended and everyone left.
In the end, the meeting had lasted the entire day, so outside the night had already replaced the day.
If that had not been the case, Kaito would have wanted to hear about the situation of the kingdom of Lunareth right then.
Before leaving, both Ai and Koneko kissed him, so Kaito looked at Mashiro, who was watching him while blushing, and teased her.
"Are you going to kiss me too?"
Although Mashiro usually has a blank expression and does not seem to show emotions, when it comes to romance she is quite shy.
Even so, she approached him and nodded timidly.
Kaito wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer before connecting their lips.
As soon as they separated, Mashiro ran away red faced.
Watching her leave, Kaito laughed as he headed to his room.
"Speaking of that, Hope did not show up all day, is she still in bed?" he wondered as he walked toward his room[1]
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)
[1] Fun fact: The reason this text exists is that after leaving the Ben 10 world, I planned to write an R-18 of Charmcaster. At the time I wasn’t really in the mood, so I decided to leave it for later, but in the end I never wrote it. Even so, canonically it did happen, even if it isn’t written.