Spending My Retirement In A Game

"They want to start the war right away?" Eisen asked with a deep frown, "What makes you say that?"

Komer groaned lightly, "I overheard them speaking during the journey. It looks like the Holy Empire wants to re-solidify the status of monsters."

Brody scoffed, "The hell's that supposed to mean?"

Turning toward the half-orc, Komer quickly explained, "With players coming in, there's tons of people that don't really agree with the status quo that's set up here. 'Artificial' Tamers are taming humanoid monsters and making them more intelligent, having them help out in businesses..."

Without even having to finish, it was clear what Komer was saying. The fact that there were a lot more monsters that were treated relatively well, had high intelligence, and were in a public-facing position like many players seemed to be putting them in must be slowly but surely whittling down on the current thoughts that people had of monsters.

If the stigma around monsters became lesser, beast-type monsters would start being treated more like animals, and humanoid monsters would be treated more like people.

To countries like the Holy Empire, who believed and spread the idea that monsters were abominations in the eyes of the gods, that was more than just some kind of annoyance; it was something that they had to prevent in order to keep up their current status quo.

The idea that monsters were 'lesser', horrendous beings was something that was deeply spread in their doctrine, so many people might lose their faith if they realized that monsters weren't actually inherently evil.

"So, what's their plan? Have they said anything about trying to get physical, or will they try to just make the meeting break down?" Eisen wondered, since both seemed feasible enough. Komer slowly shook his head, unsure what to say.

"It could be either, or both, I'm not sure. I just heard them speak about how this meeting 'has to fail'," Komer explained, though he seemed quite sorry about not being able to say any more than that, "I've taken a closer look at their guards, and from what I can tell, they're pretty strong. In the level 200 range at the very least.

There was something weird about their luggage as well; compared to everyone else, they were even more cautious, and got super mad when others got close. It's kind of what caused part of the mess at the harbor."

Eisen turned over to the other originals, "Do any of you guys have an idea of what to do?"

"Well... I've been preparing some music that has pacifying effects that we could play throughout the meeting," Evalia suggested, "I was going to just use the piano instrumentals, but if I add the others that I recorded, it should strengthen the effect pretty well."

Xenia, who was taking some notes on a piece of paper in front of her, slowly glanced up, "I should be able to cast a 'Silence' spell over the room in addition to everything else we have here. It doesn't actually silence us, obviously, but it prevents any sort of spell chanting and severely reduces skill effects. But it's also going to affect us."

"I could quickly go and grow some Peace Lilies. As their name suggests, they represent peace and harmony," Jyuuk offered, "And with the addition of some selective breeding, I've been able to make it possible for them to pacify even a raging berserker if enough of them are gathered. And they aren't particularly calming, they simply neutralize aggression."

"Pah, we don't need all that," Brody leaned back with a yawn, "Not like anyone's gonna try anything with me here. Plus, I bet they all shat their pants the moment they saw Silber."

Eisen let out a deep, long sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "I really don't know why he did that. Would one of you have any idea?"

The moment Eisen asked this, he noticed Jyuuk and Brody glancing at each other, though they both stayed quiet.

"You two. Did you tell him to do that?" Eisen asked, raising his brow, but Brody quickly denied it.

"What? Why would we tell him to do something like that?"

Jyuuk quickly nodded in agreement, "Right, we merely said that it would be quite effective to crush any sort of interference from them."

Eisen let out a long sigh, "Brody, Jyuuk... all that did was make the people from the central continent think that we're completely on the Giant country's side. The only reason why I can appear as a neutral party is because I'm a halfling, and my activities in recent centuries have been mostly focused in the central continent.

But Silber will just look like a giant to them; a giant that's trying to intimidate them."

"Well, yeah... that's the point, right? They're supposed to be intimidated," Brody pointed out.

"Yes, but not only them. Those from the central continent will be intimidated, and think that we're more o nteh giants' side. Meanwhile, the giant envoys will be happy to see the symbol of their country happily and healthily greeting them. They will also think we're on the giants' side."

Evalia seemed a bit confused at that, "Aren't we on their side?"

"What? No, we're not. Why would we be? We're not on anyone's side, we're on the 'let's prevent this damned war' side," Eisen said bluntly, "The giants are more receptive to preventing this war because they know about Samuel, but they definitely won't step back from a war if provoked. We are here to be neutral. To guide this in the right direction.

To unite the two sides; we are impartial. Do any of you actually feel drawn to one side more than the other?"

Everyone seemed to hesitate, unable to really answer that question.

"Right? I feel the same," Eisen explained, "I don't think it's a good idea for us to be too partial to anyone here. So what Silber is doing up there? Not good. At all. But I can't really tell him to stop now.

If he doesn't receive the giants in the same way, it's going to be much too obvious as an intimidation attempt."

"Hm... right, you've got a point. Sorry about that," Brody replied with an awkward sigh, "But really, it's not like we actually told him to do it. We were just brainstorming ideas and he was nearby and helping out. He seemed pretty confident, and he's a smart guy so we figured he's goot at politics, y'know?"

"Good at... everyone, Silber has been a statue for nearly a hundred thousand years. Countries were not even a thing back then. We had clans, and towns, and villages, but the biggest city that existed in the country at the time held a hundred giants," Eisen pointed out, "I doubt Silber even knows the concept of politics beyond what he picked up in the past two weeks."

"... The time you grew up in was really rough, huh?" Xenia looked at Eisen with an almost pitying expression, but before the old man could say anything, Brody let out a loud scoff.

"Oi, I was only born twenty thousand years after him, so stop acting like he grew up in the stone age," Brody scoffed, and the others looked at him silently. Komer was actually the one to speak up.

"You know... human civilization on earth started around 6000 years ago. Plus, the stone ages ended around 4000 years ago," the merchant pointed out. Brody stared at him confused.

"Huh? What's with that? How much did we fucking stunt civilization here?"

"A lot. And that's exactly why a war is the last thing we need," Eisen sighed, "Listen, skills and abilities and techniques have had a hundred thousand years to develop. The only reason this world isn't far off in the space age yet is because we were forced to hold the world back from developing too much. All we need is to jumpstart things, and this world will explode in technological development. Enjoy new adventures from m-v l'e|m,p| y- r

And the first step to that is to stop this war and prevent Samuel from interfering with this world any further. If things work out, this world might be caught up to earth in a decade or two."

Curiously, Evalia leaned her cheek onto her palm, "Ehh... so do you guys think we can get to the moon here? And other planets? This 'world' is more like a whole other dimension with its own universe, right?"

"Hm... Travelling to the moon, that sure does sound fun," Xenia leaned back in her seat, and the others seemed to think the same. However, at the same moment, all five of the originals felt the same thing. A sense of nostalgia that, considering the timing, could only mean one thing.

Evalia jumped up from her seat, smiling wryly, "Guys... have we been to the moon?"