Maggie watched patiently from the walls as the two groups of Emissaries approached the South Walls where the meetings were held. As usual, the final distance was covered on foot, as she had established a no-fly zone around the castle walls to discourage any attacks or attempts to infiltrate tthat might come from the air.
The Human Supremacists who currently have the Upper hand within both Landis and the desert have been trying for ages to find Lancelot and the Princess, both of whom are safely hidden away in the underground levels of the castle, letting anyone in could jeopardize the safety not only of the guests but of the Guild Members that call the Castle home.
So far, she hasn't had to call on her Summoner for anything, managing to accomplish her assigned tasks of Castle defense and operations alone.
Well, almost alone. The earnest Orcish Lieutenant is accompanied by the Tengu called Sora, but the small Youkai hardly seems like a reliable assistant to her. The girl would much rather play with her friends than do anything productive and only comes to the walls a few times a day to check on the reports her summons have given her.
By contrast, Maggie is on patrol every other hour, spending a total of 12 hours a day along the walls. She would spend more time patrolling if she could, but she's also responsible for making sure things run smoothly inside the castle. That means calling Water Elementals to purify and refill the cistern, checking on the guests, ensuring the food orders have come in on time, and many more tasks.
They've currently got a big meeting happening outside the walls to be concerned about, plus a VIP guest. Earl RhickJaymz is going to be here representing Assah. They've been having troubles with soldiers posing as refugees entering the city and attacking both merchants and actual refugees.
He's determined to make the attacks stop, but Maggie isn't sure he can do it without breaking the ceasefire that the Demon King negotiated.
The group of Human Supremacists is already here, calling themselves the Human Liberation Front. They're just waiting on the group from Assah and the Landis Loyalists groups to arrive.
"Hey boss, RhickJaymz is almost here, I can sense Red coming along with some other Dragons, but I don't see any other groups in the sand," Sora calls down to Maggie from where she's playing tag with one of her summons in the sky.
"Should we scout and see if something happened to them?" One of the Guild Members asks hopefully.
"Only after they miss the meeting. If they're going to try something stupid, I don't want any of our people outside the walls." The mage nods in understanding, then wistfully wishes people could just stop doing stupid things in their general vicinity.
Maggie is so cute and happy when nothing threatens the base, but when she's in work mode, she's a big grump. Lately, that's been all the time.
The final two groups arrive simultaneously, both coming over the sand dunes on foot, the group from Assah walking their Dragons in all their scaly glory instead of asking them to transform.
"About time you all showed up. Are you ready to turn over the criminals yet?" The Liberation Front representative asks as the Earl, and his group gets close.
"You know the agreement. Refugees are allowed to pass through our port. We won't allow you to keep attacking people within my city." RhickJaymz says, shaking his head.
"And why did you call that ragtag bunch of terrorists here? They've already lost; everything from the Serrah Woods north belongs to us." The human insists.
"Not yet, and not ever." The Beastkin counters.
"Landis was never yours, and we won't be handing it over to a bunch of traitors who would kill their rightful leaders. Your filthy zealots even killed the children, but you missed one, and now the nation's control panel will never be yours."
Without removing the last Royal, or gaining control of the Capital City's System Stone, which Lancelot took with him when he fled, they can't properly rule the country. They can act as if they do, but the system won't enforce their mandates and taxes.
That point has been their most significant failure, and the Loyalists taunt them with it at every meeting.
"We've flown a long way and I'm short on patience. Will your people stop attacking Assah, or should we consider you to have violated the ceasefire?" RhickJaymz asks in a tone that gives between bored and annoyed.
The Human Liberation Front can't afford to openly break the ceasefire, as the Demon King wrote it so that they would be declaring war on him as well if they did, so the politician tries to talk his way out of the problem.
"The attackers weren't part of our group. We've never sanctioned attacks on neutral cities. I demand you retract such slanderous accusations."
His proclamation makes the man from the Landis Loyalists smile and drags forth a prisoner. "I believe we all know who this is. He had some very interesting things to say when we captured him, but the most interesting is that bracelet on his wrist. Now, why might a level two hundred guard captain from Landis have on the entry pass of a level 60 merchant?"
RhickJaymz steps forward to check the bracelet, finding that it hasn't been tampered with. Either they managed to fool his Guards, or he had a traitor on gate duty who made them a duplicate bracelet.
"We don't know this man. Interrogate him all you wish. Eventually, the truth of who he works for will come out." The Liberation Front have tremendous confidence in their Omerta enchantment. If a captured soldier from their army talks, the curse will kill them. The fact that this one is still alive shows that they're just guessing at his motives.
"Give him here, and we will interrogate him. I have a great skill for just this purpose." One of the Dragon Riders with Earl RhickJaymz smiles, picking the captured man up off the ground and returning to his dragon.
"We will adjourn then and meet back here in one week with the results. I expect there will be no more incidents in the meantime."
