"Are they all here?"
The number of beastmen who had entered the room was 10, but still, Prince Zew, who was half-convinced, wanted to confirm it.
''Yes. They are the Ten Heroic Beasts who were elected last year. Your Highness Prince Zew."
Marshal Sigur had brought the 'Ten Heroic Beasts' with him.
Prince Zew had been in the Bakius Empire's S-class dungeon for about two years then.
Some members of the Ten Heroic Beasts had changed since he had last seen them.
However, after hearing Marshal Sigur's words, Prince Zew was convinced.
The Ten Heroic Beasts were the ten beastmen who were allowed to call themselves the "Strongest in the Albahar Beast Kingdom".
Ten Heroic Beasts was a group of beastmen who managed to win the Beast King Martial Arts Tournament held in the Royal Capital of the Albahar Beast Kingdom.
The winner of the tournament could challenge the Heroic Beast and would be able to call themself a Heroic Beast if they won the battle, only for a year.
I could see their confidence in both their demeanor and facial expression.
"Oh! Your Highness, Prince Zew. It's been a while!"
In such a time-stopped situation, a bear beastman wearing fine armor and carrying a huge hammer on his back stepped forward as if to move the time.
The hammer on his back was probably very heavy as it seemed to be 2.5 meters tall.
The floor shook with each step he took.
"Yes, well, General Hobah."
The bear beastman seemed to be acquainted with Prince Zew.
Some of us know the Heroic Beasts knew Prince Zew, who had left for the Bakius Empire about two years ago.
Prince Zew started to buzz when he realized that General Hobah was there.
"Oh!?What is this?
Saying so, one of the beastmen standing near the entrance sat down at the table and began to drink directly from a small wooden barrel filled with alcohol.
"Lepe is here too?'
"Yeah, I was making love to this chick, and Bek sends his Royal Guards away. This is a real joke. This isn't Rosenheim, by the way. What the hell is going on here?"
"What? How dare you talk to His Highness Prince Zew like that!? And how dare you address the Crown Prince!?"
General Hobah was furious and put his hand on the hammer on his back.
I didn't want him to go out of control and destroy the floor.
"What? You didn't hear?"
The fox beastman named Lepe seemed to have a rather uninhibited personality.
He was wearing something jagged like an African folk costume around his neck or something like that.
(He seems to be the troublemaker of the group. He is also weaponless. Is he the 'Musician'?)
I knew some basic information about all of the Heroic Beasts.
While I was contemplating one of the Heroic Beasts, the troublemaker Lepe, Toko and another Heroic Beast sat down at the table.
A squirrel beastman, about slightly taller than Merle, sniffed the opening of a different wooden barrel than the one Lepe was drinking from and contorted her face.
""Oh! You want a drink too, Temi?"
"You're still the same. Why don't you grow up a little? I don't drink alcohol. Do you have any fruit juice?"
"Yes, maam. I'll get it for you."
Without looking at Lepe's face, he demanded a non-alcoholic drink from Helmios' servant.
He was not interested in the conversation between Prince Zew and Lepe, and began to drink the fruit juice and the fukaman on the table that the servant had given him.
"Oh, isn't that Lord Temi, the Adviser? Oh, that's impossible."
"Oh. This is good!"
Temi didn't deal with the astonished Prince Zew and continued eating the fukaman.
(He is the one who gives advice to the Beast King using astrology. He looks like he's in his early teens, but he's in a pretty good position.)
Temi was an Astrologer, a rare Talent that is said to only be found in a few people in the Albahar Beast Kingdom.
I was told that Temi was in a position to advise the Beast King on the future of the nation in the Beast King's inner circle because of his Talent.
I had even heard that his position was higher than that of most Generals and Ministers.
"Marshal Sigur. What is the meaning of this? Why are all Ten Heroic Beasts here?"
"Well, that's the thing. I want some time to explain."
When asked by Prince Zew, Marshal Sigur looked troubled.
Marshal Sigur had called the Ten Heroic Beasts but couldn't explain why he had done so.
He looked to Sophie for help.
Even the highest ranked military officer of Rosenheim had some trouble.
"Prince Zew, Rosenheim would like to co-exist and co-prosper with the Albahar Beast Kingdom. Therefore, please do not misunderstand today's matter..."
Sophie, who was asked for help, tried to explain on behalf of Marshal Sigur.
Sophie tried to explain in place of Marshal Sigur but froze up in the middle of her explatination.
Sophie seemed to have become self-contradictory as well.
"Hey, what's going on?"
"Ah, since you two don't seem to be able to explain, I'll take your place."
"I knew it. I knew it. It's your trick."
(Trick? How rude.)
Prince Zew was on guard when I began to speak.
He thought that I might do something.
"No, it's not so much a trick. I asked Rosenheim to help me conquer a dungeon in the Bakius Empire."
"I see. But as I said before, I told you that the Crown Prince Bek would never allow it."
Prince Zew understood that I had called the Ten Heroic Beasts to the Bakius Empire through some trick.
But he didn't know how exactly.
Crown Prince Bek was absolutely against the Ten Heroic Beast leaving the Albahar Beast Kingdom after all.
I wanted to clear up that question.
"Actually, there are still remnants of the Demon King's army in Rosenheim. There are vicious magical beasts and they are hindering the reconstruction of cities. The elven army, exhausted from the battle with the Demon King's army, can't do anything about it. I'm hoping for the help of the Ten Heroic Beasts, who are renowned as the 'Strongest in the World', to help us. Well, that's how I managed to get them to come to the Bakius Empire."
With that reasoning, Marshal Sigur flew to the Royal Capital of the Albahar Beast Kingdom on a Speed-based Magic Ship and asked the Beast King for help.
"I see."
"In return, I also gave him 3000 Elven Elixirs."
After hearing that much, Prince Zew also understood the general situation.
Since it was Marshal Sigur asking for help, Beast King believed that Rosenheim was really in trouble.
And in return, he also received precious Elven Elixirs.
Prince Zew knew about the effects of the Elven Elixir.
He had asked Sophie for Elven Elixir, for a beastman who was so badly injured that even Recovery Magic and other items couldn't heal him.
A high ranked person requested for help while providing some compensation.
Prince Zew thought it was believable.
''I understand, but was that really all it took to get the Ten Heroic Beasts to kill magical beasts in foreign land?"
But still not convinced, Prince Zew asked.
"I can understand him agreeing to send out about half of the Ten Heroic Beasts for support, but did he really send out all of them?
Even when dealing with the Evil God Sect, he did not send the Ten Heroic Beasts to help Shea."
Even in the meetings of the Five Continents Alliance, there had never been a time when all Ten Heroic Beasts were present at once.
The Ten Heroic Beasts were the ultimate trump card of the Albahar Beast Kingdom.
The Beast King did not set up this Ten Heroic Beasts system just for the sake of popularity and national uplift.
Prince Zew didn't believe the Beast King had sent all of the Ten Heroic Beasts, especially Lepe, the Musician, who never listened to anyone, and Astrologer Temi, his Advisor, to defeat magical beasts in a foreign land.
Prince Zew knew that if something happened to Astrologer Temi, the future of the Beast Kingdom would change.
Prince Zew didn't believe that the Beast King would send such an important figure to defeat the magical beasts that even Rosenheim's army couldn't handle.
And sending Astrologer Temi wouldn't have been easy, especially since Crown Prince Bek opposed you.
"I don't think that just 3,000 Elven Elixirs were enough. What else did you give as compensation?"
Prince Zew asked Sophie, but Sophie just looked away.
He then looked at Marshal Sigur.
"As expected, the future Beast King seems to understand this situation."
I complimented Prince Zew.
"What do you mean?"
"Yes, actually, I'd like to keep this between us, but I made a secret deal with Crown Prince Bek."
I probably looked like a villain in Prince Zew's eyes at that moment.
Or rather, I was probably worse than anyone who had ever been imprisoned in the Beast Kingdom.
I said to keep it between us but there were about 50 people in the base.
"Oh, what have you done?"
"No, I only made a few secret promises. Then, Crown Prince Bek even persuaded the Beast King himself, and he really helped me out."
"Tell me! What on earth did you promise him!?
''If Prince Bek were to attack the Central Continent, Rosenheim has promised him that they will do nothing for a month."
"What?"
''Even if the Albahar Beast Kingdom breaks the Five Continents Alliance and attacks the Central Continent, Rosenheim won't issue a condemnation statement and silently accept it, and they won't send reinforcements or aid supplies to the Giamut Empire, well, it's like that. I'm already really grateful that he cooperated with us right away. Marshal Sigur, isn't that true?"
Marshal Sigur had called Crown Prince Bek into his private chambers and gave him a verbal promise in private.
"..."
Marshal Sigur didn't give any reply but everyone understood.
Marshal Sigur was long past the stage of caring about anything in that situation. He just wanted to get out of the situation as soon as possible and wanted to return to Rosenheim as soon as possible.
Crown Prince Bek was in a position to strongly advocate without hiding that he would invade the Central Continent once he took the throne.
Crown Prince Bek, who had made a secret deal with Marshal Sigur, even persuaded the Beast King to send the Ten Heroic Beasts.
"Oh, my God, what have you done? It's impossible. Absolutely impossible..."
Prince Zew collapsed to his knees as if his entire body had lost its strength.
"Prince Zew!"
The fact that Prince Zew had collapsed caused General Hobah to panic, and he held Prince Zew in his arms, who seemed to have lost consciousness.
