Vol 3 Chapter 2 (2/2)

The sa would be torn apart, chewed up and sed by the Fla

They had to cover their ears and ignore the pitiful cries of their co them and their wails as they awaited the end They let their friends sacrifice themselves to buy time to escape, and moved to ever more treacherous places or deeper valleys to hide

But a life spent fleeing was no life at all

They had to hunt for their food, but the Elves’ hunting grounds were also the Flaon’s

When they spotted their prey, the Dragon had its eye on theht claim them instead They tried various other means to feed themselves

They peeled off tree bark and boiled it, then ate it as they drank muddy water This was their life

The resources they had brought fro thin Their food stocks were gradually running low Resolving the archers prepared therounds

There were casualties every day

No day went by without the cries of orphaned children, or the sound of voices cursing the Flaon for the loss of their children and relatives

Of course, there were those who took up bow and sword in anger and challenged the Dragon

However, they were like eggs thrown at a rock All their valiant efforts accoon’s lair

The aid of the spirits, theiraron

They thought that et the tips through the scales The on’s lair

The Dark Elves’ hearts were filled with despair and emptiness

There were those who believed in Hardy and who felt the call of the afterlife, and went to it with desperate laughter, like prisoners just before execution It spread like an incurable disease through the tribe There were many who lost the will to live and lay down and died

“This can’t go on,” someone had said

“The Fla out of its eye is proof of that”

There was an Elf who had taken his revenge on the Flae

“There on Look at itsleft arm”

At the same time, the tales of the “Men in Green” reached them

They used a ic staff called the “Rod of Steel” to destroy its left are from extinction These tales were the last, best hope for the Dark Elves, who faced extinction themselves

After that, the tribe decided as one to send an envoy

The one as sent out would have to bear a heavy burden

The envoy would need to escape the Flareen by hearsay alone The envoy would need an iron will, a sense of duty, and a keen survival instinct

The envoy would bear the hope of the village

They would have to beg the reen for their aid, by any means necessary Failure meant the destruction of their tribe, their comrades, their relatives and friends

Such a great responsibility could not be borne by any ordinary person They would need great battle skills and knowledge, as well as the integrity to not give up the mission halfway and run off with the treasures entrusted to them

They gathered the young people of the tribe, and began their selection

In the end, two names were left One of them was Yao Ha Ducy

She was a skilled so the spirits

Her straightforward but earnest attitude ell known throughout the village They were certain she would not give up her mission halfway

There were two candidates, both of ere equal in ability, talent and personality However, the fe beauty would be a powerful weapon in negotiations with the opposite sex According to the rureen were commanded by a male

However, things were not that sihed Frankly speaking, her bad luck was a ainst her

She fell into traps , and when trees were felled, they kept falling on top of her head

It would rain when she went swis, the shops were invariably closed

Her lover was NTRed away by a “good friend”, and when she was finally about tovarious obstacles, he died of natural causes before their wedding day

After that, during the , a man who had confessed his love to Yao before she wasand died Thereafter, no o near her

In addition, she had no luck at all during lucky draws, and the only ti hen she drew the top prize at a friend’s wedding

Honestly speaking, it was enough to erase all her h her luck was bad, she kept pushi+ng herself to keep carrying on with life in spite of her misfortune

Everyone agreed on that The elders could not disqualify her just based on her bad fortune

At this point, the elders told Yao the reason why they had chosen her After that, they asked if she was prepared to offer her body as a reward In truth, those words were not necessary, and theyshe would refuse

In truth Yao was thinking about whether or not to withdraw

However, she had accepted Since she had no luck with men, if the other party asked her to be a slave, a lover, a whore or a ree However, Yao would not sell herself cheaply If the price of her body was the head of a Flaon, she would proudly pay it

Still uneasy about the whole matter, the elders chose Yao as their envoy

Since this concerned the life and death of the entire tribe, a less Therefore, they entrusted her with the most valuable treasure of the tribe

And so Yao began her journey, and after overco bad luck and difficulties, she finally stood before Arnus Hill

Yao’s sleep was interrupted by a roaring noise

She sprang up and looked around to see as going on She was in a beautiful forest whose canopy let the sunlight in through saps

She had come all this way to Arnus Town, but then she was told that there were no ht, she could only leave her business until tomorrow, and so she had chosen to camp out in the forest at the foot of Arnus Hill

Yao had a good night’s rest Perhaps it was thanks to the spirits nearby, who had granted her the blessings of wood, water, wind and tree

A pair of swords was dancing in the sky above the forest, and thunder followed in their wake

They slashed through the air and rose high on s They were F-4 Phantoms

These soon-to-be-retired aircraft were not subject to the sa restrictions as they would be in japan As they took off, the control tower told the as you don’t crash,” which filled the pilots with glee as they were let off the leash

They were veteran pilots, with thousands of flight hours However, since they were over 40 years old, while they were taking the F-15 and F-2 conversion courses, they were transferred to a training unit because of their age and because it was their personal decision They would spend the rest of their careers peacefully on the ground There were no plans to reassehter planes which were disasseh the Gate

All that they had left was the sky There were no passenger planes they had to give way too and no A up their airspace The sky belonged to them, and the freedom to roam it as they pleased was an opportunity any airman would drool over

After takeoff, they folded up the landing gear and pushed their engines to full throttle, cli an Immelmann

The planes turned 180 degrees inthe earth, they half-rolled and dived before pulling up again, in a Split-S maneuver

They had passed Mach 1 during their aerobatics, but there were no town councils here to coht That said, they still had to be considerate of the Arnus Garrison and the members of Arnus Town, and how they would react to the constant thundercracks inof the sound barrier They were friends after all They pushed their throttles to full onceoff horizontally, they levelled theripped the control stick with their knees and pulled back to bring their plane’s noses up

The G-forces from the sudden turn crushed down on their bodies, and even breathing was ith into their waists and used every ounce of strength in the upper bodies to stabilize the aircraft

In the instant the G-forces vanished, they gasped out the air in their lungs and took deep gulps of oxygen They were coer

The copilot said, “They’ve got a lock on us!”

“You bastards—!”

He immediately threw his plane into a Scissors inary bandit locked onto them Heaven and earth spun round and round the cockpit Once they got the bandit off their tail, it was their turn to lock onto them

While flying the Knife Edge, they went into a horizontal corkscrew roll right now, they would even lock onto an F-22 to show everyone hoas done Just byalone, they were already of a world-class standard In the past, they even ed to conduct a si an old F-104

They soared through the sky as though freed from their shackles, like innocent children at play

They were silver swords, slicing through the sky

The silver swords see in mid-air

Yao watched the sky dumbly for a while, and soon discovered that they were man-made objects Elves had exceptionally keen vision, and her field of vision could see the h the sky

Then, she smiled, even as her tears fell

“They were true, the stories were true…”

The Fla on the helpless ground dwellers

But now, the sky was no longer ruled by the Fla swords were faster and sharper, better than the Flaon in every way It was only natural that anyone who possessed these things would also possess the Rods of Steel which could chew off the Flaon’s arm

To be frank, Yao had doubted the truth of the tales she had heard After all, stories tended to grow in response to people’s hopes In order not to have her heart broken, she constantly thought about what she would do if they turned out to be false

But now that she saw the flying swords dance through the sky, it told her that her journey had not been wasted, and it turned into proof for her hopes

Yao had the feeling that her task would be over soon

All she had to do was return to Arnus Town and reen

Asking for help, no matter how difficult, could not possibly be harder than the road she had travelled until now It seeh her comrades back home would be saved at last

With those thoughts in athered up her determination and set out toward Arnus Town once more

As the thickets gave way to grass, her steps becah she was unwilling to walk all the way then, and in the end she broke into a flat-out sprint that sliced through the wind

At Arnus, 3rd Recon, led by Itami, finished their equipment checks and convoyed up

To one side, 1LT Yanagida was holding his clipboard as he did the final checks on the contents of the theeled pushcarts

“Silk, lacquerware, pottery, porcelain, pearls, whoa! They even have sake, and it’s high-class too, ‘Koshi+no Kanchubai’ Could I have a bottle?

“Give ida-san These are our ammunition”

The man who replied to hiida was kidding, but his ansas sincere

“Really? You mean you won’t drink it yourself?”

“You’ll have to trust us on that”

With the contents on the inventory list, they could open a departoods from all over japan This see

Because ile, they had to be wrapped properly Since there were e

“After that, cases of gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins We’ve checked inside them”

They needed funds to do business in the Imperial Capital, and those funds were in those wooden boxes Theup bases in the Capital, as well as recruiting and paying off informants There were all sorts of other activities and fees to pay, so they often ran out ofoperations

“Women, food and drinks It’s siuests We’ll find fallen nobles or people unhappy with the current regime and have them spread rumors to make the opposition’s job more difficult”

Although he was still learning the language, one of the young diploion He knocked on a case of gold coins as he spoke

The japanese govern them from the ALC

The ALC received japanese yen in exchange for the currency, which they used to buy all sorts of japanese goods

“People in the governhtforward, they’ll ask you for bribes up front It’s like ere negotiating the Chunxiao business with the Chinese diplomats, they even threatened us with, “Oh, you won’t mind if we send our shi+ps over then” I was pretty envious of how they could do things I wish I could say, “Do it if you dare We’ll see who’s stronger”

“You mean you can’t just tell them that? I mean, here”

“Well, that’s just how diploer in the colonial era We need toclose ties with the locals, to avoid leaving causes for conflict behind Noe’re just going to focus on beefing up the pro-peace faction”

As he said this, a CH-47A Chinook landed behind him

The doash from the rotors stirred the sand and dust into a storm

As it touched down, the amount of dust it threw up blinded everyone nearby

The rear loading raeant Major Kuwabara’s order Yanagida and the diplomats loaded the carts onto the Chinook

They securely fastened the cargo inside the Chinook to ht After that, everyone sat on the seats lining the inside of the helicopter and fastened their seatbelts

After ensuring that the diploida spoke to Itami

“Then, I’ll leave the rest to you Make sure they reach their destination safely”

Itami raised a thumb

The rotors picked up speed, and the dust flew again

Yanagida got off the craft and the rear door closed Then the Chinook took off

And so, they fleard the capital

Arnus was about 10 days away from the capital by horse By Chinook it would only take about half a day However, in order to avoid people’s attention, they could not land too close to the city In the end, they chose to land in the hills far away fro from there to the Capital would take about one and a half days on foot

Before she entered Arnus town, Yao heard the noise and looked up to see a boat passing over her head Flying swords dancing in the sky, rods of steel, and now flying boats… with all these so close by, the ht as she entered the town

Note

1: Koshi+ no Kanchubai (越の寒中梅) is a brand of japanese sake You can find out ata-meijocom/