What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy? Chapter 1183: Nekinumi Civil War

Great, we’ve got witnesses now! Look what you’ve done, Masuyama!

What do we do now?! Is it ok for people to disappear here? Is this place being watched? Could I kill them and get my Shadow Guards to replace them sohow?

Maybe we’ll just stage an attempted assassination and claim that these two guards were also part of that group or sothing?

I think that might work! Should we just go with that--

"Lady Aster. It is an honour," One of the guards bowed.

Masuyama waved at them, "Ah yes. This is the first ti both of you are eting her, right? Aster, these two are also part of the group that Miss Emilia infiltrated into the palace to gain information. They’re one of our people."

...

Couldn’t anyone have told this before I ca here?! Do you know how hard I was panicking just now?! I almost killed them just to keep your secret, you know?!

I sighed internally but managed to keep a smile and greeted them, "Good day, gentlen. Seems like Emilia has been working all of you quite hard?"

The guard on the left lowered his head, "It is our privilege, Lady Aster. We owe our lives to you and Miss Emilia."

? What did I do to make you guys be indebted to ? I have literally never t any of you before!

Ah, I get it... They must have been in the sa position as Masuyama and Emilia saved them sohow using her business. And since I was the owner of the business... They saw it as owing their lives to or sothing?

Well... If that’s how they feel, I wasn’t going to say anything about it and just accept it I guess?

"Just curious," I muttered, turning to Masuyama. "How many of our people do we have infiltrated?"

He scratched his cheek, "I actually don’t know. Only Miss Emilia knows the number and from what I can guess... It’s quite a large number. Most of the ti, you might not even know the person you’re talking to is part of the group until they are ’activated’."

"Activated? What do you an? Are they so kind of robot?"

Masuyama leaned over to and whispered, "I ant ’sleeper agent’ kind of activated..."

Scary!

Emilia!! What have you been dealing with that you saw the need for sleeper agents?!

Then again... Seeing that you literally inserted one of your n into this Kingdom’s governnt... I don’t even want to know anymore...

Sohow I feel like if I find out more about this, I would have lost sohow...

I sighed, "Ok... So what’s the next step of the ceremony?"

One of the guards straightened himself to gesture down the hallway, "You will be escorted to a nearby waiting room, Lady Aster. When they are ready, you will be called to the main hall and receive your dal as well as your honorary citizenship."

Oh wow, they have dals too? That’s cool.

"Which ans I will be eting with the Royal Family, right?"

Masuyama nodded, "Yes. The King will be there. Just rember what I told you about the rules and you will be fine, Lady Aster. If anything happens, I will cover for you."

"I don’t know if I should be reassured that I have you or be worried about your lack of faith in ..."

"There are... A few nuances that are hard to explain if you aren’t a local... But I believe they should be willing to overlook most of it since you are an outsider anyway. Just follow my lead and everything will be fine."

The three of them then escorted through the palace which was completely different to the palace back at Crown Capital City in terms of aesthetics.

Ironically, the inn that Emilia had made actually looked more beautifully designed than the palace itself.

More because I believe this palace should actually be called a castle instead since it looked like it was designed with practicality in mind rather than aesthetics.

There were spaces that looked like they were reserved for fortifications and there were even barricades that were left in a pile ready to be set up at a mont’s notice as though they were expecting a siege.

"Why does this place look like it’s getting ready for a siege?" I asked.

"Because it is, Lady Aster," The guard on the right answered. "You might not know this but we are almost always at war."

I frowned, "With who? Last I rembered, the Lehcarouc Kingdom is at peace with you aren’t they? Don’t tell it’s the Trasifs? Or is it monsters?"

"No. The threat isn’t external. It’s internal, Lady Aster. We are always at the risk of a civil war."

"Ah... It’s the City and Nomad thing isn’t it?"

"No one wants to admit it and most would just claim that it’s just a rivalry... But on both sides there are people who believe the right way to fix this ’problem’ is the eradication of the other side."

"But that’s only limited to Nekomatas, isn’t it? Isn’t this Kingdom for both Nekomatas and Inugamis?"

Masuyama sighed, "It’s a little complicated... And it has to do with the current Royal Family... The current monarch is a Nekomata and Inugami couple and the current heir to the throne is a Nekomata. Both sides wish to influence the heir to their side in order to sway the Royal Family to favour one side over the other. For the mont, things are kept in check because of the Inugami faction who want nothing to do with the rivalry and both sides recognise that dragging them into this fight will not be beneficial... So an uneasy peace is maintained."

"That still doesn’t explain why you’re at war?"

The pri minister gestured at the guard, "Like he said, there are extremists on both sides and so groups might resort to more drastic actions in order to gain political power. For example, staging an insurrection and storming the castle to take over by force."

"Has that happened before?"

"Yes. Three tis in the last year by both sides."

I blinked at him, "Wait... That ans this castle was attacked three tis in total?! But the city doesn’t even look like it’s at war!"

"Ahahaha. A lot has changed after I took over," Masuyama chuckled, looking quite proud. "Before I assud this position, things weren’t running that smoothly and people were always on edge. But when I was planted here by Emilia, I knew that if this continued, it would be bad for business so I revolutionised the governntal system and strengthened the security. The talismans you saw at the border of the city? Those were made by ."

"What are they supposed to do?"

The other guard answered, "For one, it deters monsters. Which I will admit is also another factor that contributed to the state of this Kingdom... We used to need to man the walls at all tis since monsters might attack the city almost every other day."

Masuyama grimaced, "Oh you should have seen the city back then... They were less focused on cultural and technological advancents since everything needed to be geared for warfare. If Lady Aster had visited this place a few years ago, it would be a completely different experience. Those three tis that they tried to take over? They were imdiately repelled at the city gates without being able to enter the city. Before I ca, there were tis they managed to fight their way into the castle itself."

Ok... I completely did not know that...

I guess this was why Masuyama was so respected since he brought quite a big change to the people huh?

He continued, "Anyway... I will admit I had help from Miss Emilia to gather the necessary stuff to enchant those talismans so it wasn’t all because of . The second effect of the enchantnt was acting as a literal wall which prevented anyone from coming in except through designated entrances. You could have a dragon try to fly into the city but all that would achieve is hitting an invisible wall."

I tilted my head at him, "Could it be destroyed though?"

"Theoretically... No. It’s linked to the mana of the forest so if soone wants to break it, they would need to have the power to destroy the entire forest in a single hit. But well... We all know there are people in this world that are capable of doing sothing as ridiculous as that..."

That is true... I can imagine Mother being able to do that.

"I’m assuming that this is the sa enchantnt that was placed on those trading outposts in the forests as well?" I asked.

"That’s right. And before you ask why we don’t expand to make even more cities and towns with this enchantnt... It relies on the forest to fuel the effect so if we were to cut down trees to build more cities, the strength of the enchantnt would also decrease."

"Is that why you guys don’t build roads and cut down trees?"

"Oh that was already in place before I took over. The forest itself served as natural defenses against invaders so it has already been a tradition of theirs not to engage in overlogging. It’s just that my enchantnt gives us an extra incentive not to do that."

Interesting... I’m learning quite a lot about them... I didn’t even know they had all these problems within their society.

Anyway... Looks like we’re here. Ti to wait for them to call for I guess.