Defense of the Wall

The flight back to the Capital left too much stirring around in Yumi’s brain to allow her a moment’s rest or relief. They made it back into the sight of the city while dusk started to fall. From their vantage point above, there were already signs of people out on the wall working. In front of the wall soldiers dug up the earth. It was hard to tell what their purpose was from the height and the early stage of their work.

As they flew over the wall, keeping out of common sight of the guards far in the sky, they could narrowly see people moving supplies around. The activity of the city changed quickly from when they left. Apparently, the council didn’t waste time in taking action to prepare for the attack. Though they could still see citizens going about as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

Contrasting normalcy and panic left Yumi with complicated feelings on their approach. However, she knew less on the best strategy to take. All she could focus on was fighting. That was the only talent she had been granted by the powers from Yuki. There was nothing more that she could do. She would leave the more complex matters to others better suited to them.

Focusing on her strength had to be her only goal now, Yumi decided.

Chapter 431 – Defense of the Wall

Safely landed in the courtyard of Lord Konjo’s estate, Yumi set down everyone, relaxing her power finally after the long flight. While she got her new bearings back, servants of the Lord arrived quickly. Two women in formal and strict kimonos bowed to them, before speaking. “Mistress Yumi and your companions, welcome back. We’ve been instructed to take you to Lord Konjo upon your return.”

“Yes, I’d imagine he wants to know immediately what we’ve learned.”

“Doubt he’ll be thrilled about this shit,” bemoaned Seiji having recovered from his fear and bothered by his inability to do anything meaningful. He wasn’t the only one affected about the overwhelming pressure of the demons, but that didn’t change his feelings.

Saki nodded in agreement. “This is the worst case scenario. No amount of planning is going to change things now.” Nothing they could do would hold back the grim mood that their recon brought back with them. Hopelessness and futility were terrible things to carry, but their weights made it impossible to throw off.

Guided through the courtyard into the mansion, the servants brought them to the door of the Lord’s office. One of the women knocked politely, calling their Master’s attention to them. “Have they arrived?”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“Let them in.” The door slid open from the inside as another female servant appeared allowing them entry into the man’s office.

Yumi walked in first with her friends behind her. The appearance of the room was different than she imagined. Less flaunting his power and wealth, it had a more practical atmosphere. There was almost nothing in the room apart from his desk and seating for clients or guests. Even the walls remained largely bare with only two simple traditional paintings.

Lord Konjo stood up from his knelt position behind his desk to greet his guests. “You must be tired from your mission. Please sit.” He motioned with his hand toward the cushions on the floor.

“We have important information that can’t wait!” Yumi threw out without accepting the Lord’s hospitality.

“Yes, I expect you do. Please sit though. The tension does no one any good.”

“But Lord Konjo, you should be tense! Take this seriously!”

Konjo sat down taking the first initiative over the others to start things moving forward. “I am quite serious. However, things don’t change because you’re more tense about it. Now sit and let’s hear what you have found out.”

He clearly wanted her to follow some sort of procedure for it. The adamant look in his eyes bothered her a little that he wanted to be so hung up on formality when the matter was so important. ‘Sitting won’t change anything…’ She gave up her ground and relented to his request.

Yumi roughly sat down not thinking about the grace of her posture. Matters more pressing than formal sitting won out. The rest joined her taking up positions around them.

Once he saw everyone finally seated, he told the servant to close the door and leave. They had the freedom of their words now. “So what have you learned? Judging from the dire looks in your eyes, nothing to build hope on.”

“Unfortunately not, Lord,” Saki answered before Yumi started.

“We can confirm the previous report that the demons are gathering a massive force,” Yumi started with the easy part. “More arrived while we were investigating. It does appear that all demons in the land are gathering.”

“So the legendary wars of the past return.”

However, Yumi knew the reality of the situation, much like she expected Lord Konjo did. This battle, war, wouldn’t be like the previous. The Demon Hunters wouldn’t be enough to push the battle into a stalemate. Not even their power would succeed in doing that. “Except it won’t turn out the same way.”

“All of the old blood is gone,” he commented, understanding Yumi’s fear. Though Konjo still seemed to lack the same sort of impending doom that the others felt on their shoulders. “But our fate isn’t predetermined.”

“We also confirmed two Demon Lords present, one being the leader of all the demons.”

“The Demon Hokuren…”

“Yes, we saw him at the center of the demons.”

Closing his eyes and going silent, Lord Konjo turned inward with his reflection. The others didn’t know if he was now actually worried about it or not. His expression remained largely unchanged by the news. Something that shocked them nearly as much as the presence of the demons. But their questions would not go unanswered for long. “That’s roughly what we expected. We planned for the worst case scenario and it made sense for the Demon Lords to be leading them.”

‘They planned for the Demon Lords?’ Yumi thought, still trying to deal with it herself, ‘I mean that makes sense that they would be planning for the worst to happen, but what sort of plans could they even have to make that seem even a slightly realistic idea of being a success.’

“But it’s great that you were able to confirm two of them. Now there can be no doubt about the lengths of the defense we’re going.”

“Doubts?” asked Saki.

“The Demon Hunters have been reluctant to render their full support in defense of the city.”

“What?!” snapped Yumi, “They’re supposed to be protecting the city! This is their whole job!”

“Yes and it’s not the first time we’ve had reports of demon movements in the country. So they’re skeptical of the reports.”

Saki crossed her arms with a twist in her bow forming at the answer he gave. “Then they aren’t going to be convinced with our report.”

“Can’t the council guys just order their asses?” asked Seiji.

“Did you forget that the real power in the Capital is the Association, not the Council?

“Damn those bastards.”

“Now don’t lose hope yet.”

“Lord Konjo?” Yumi’s head tilted, becoming impressed at the steel will the man had. Perhaps it was age that granted him such will and resolve.

He stood up and walked over to the desk. Before continuing, he quickly started to write something down. The mystery only dragged out as he ordered a servant from outside back in. Handing over the letter that he wrote, he whispered to the woman quickly and sent her on her way.

Konjo rejoined them back on the floor with matters resolved, apparently. His face looked no different than before, not a little smug from whatever it was that he just did. “Don’t forget that we still have some power to wield as well.”

“What are you doing?”

“The Demon Hunters only need a report from one of the other scout teams that went out. They’ve been holding up full action until then. But there’s nothing to say that the second report must come from you.”

Saki grinned a little as she figured out what he was getting at. She quite liked the idea. “You’re playing a dangerous game though, if they find out you won’t be safe anymore.”

“A small price for the safety of the people.”

It took Yumi a little longer to understand what was happening, but she followed it soon enough. Only Seiji remained in the dark and Saki refused to explain it to him. ‘Lord Konjo genuinely seems to care about the people. He’s not trying to save himself. He’s different than what I imagined the wealthy elite to be like. I can see why people follow him.’ His courage and resolve were things she could admire.

Yumi looked over to the door that went back out to the hall and eventually the city beyond. The countless lives that depended on them without knowing what was coming weighed heavily on her. She focused back on the Lord once more. “So what’s the plan then?”

“With the aid of the Demon Hunters, we’ll increase the wards and defense of the walls to resist the assault. That was the original plan, at least.”

“Original?”

“Your companion’s have some interesting and unique ideas.”

She realized that Yuki and Nerine weren’t present for their meeting. They left them to aid with the protection of the city. So Yumi didn’t know what he was doing at the moment. ‘I’m not surprised that Yuki came up with something.’

“So what did Yuki come up with?” asked Saki, skipping straight to the point for everyone’s sake.

“I think he called it guerilla warfare? He didn’t go into the details with me, but he went out beyond the walls with some of the soldiers. He’ll be back before nightfall, he said.”

“And what about the citizens?” It bothered Yumi that they hadn’t done anything to evacuate the people out of the city, especially knowing that there was a very real threat to the Capital. She wanted to follow a different path than the one she took before, even if it wasn’t intentional. This would be a warzone soon and they didn’t belong here.

A brief twitch in Konjo’s eye broke his previously well controlled façade. “The Demon Hunters have refused to allow the citizens to be evacuated.”

“What?! What the hell?” Seiji’s foot pounded on the floor making the wood bow and warp from the pressure. It was an impressive amount of control given his outburst. He looked like he was ready to attack the Lord, even though he was directing his rage at a party that he couldn’t even see. “What the hell are those bastard’s thinking?!”

Appearing surprisingly not rattled by Seiji’s forceful display, the Lord restored the crack in his armor of calm to address the teenagers. “It’s a case of maintaining their image. If they allow the citizens to evacuate they’ll lose their position. Their entire purpose is to protect the country from the demons and if they can’t keep the Capital safe, then all of their power and stature is just for show.”

“But it is all just for show! They’re all cowards.”

“Seiji, it’s just the reality of things. They are still the strongest force against the demons.”

“There’s us!”

“Don’t overestimate our value in this battle.”

“Saki…”

“My hope is that the defenses and new strategies being employed will keep the citizens safe.”

“But that’s not enough to hope on,” Yumi reminded, even though they all knew that already. She looked around at the others to see if they had any thoughts. But there was nothing to offer. Saki tried to keep Seiji in control, while he fumed. Given the way the Demon Hunters treated them thus far, she really didn’t want to listen to anything that had to say. “Can we just ignore them?”

“Yumi? Evacuating the city is a little different than just falsifying reports. They’re going to notice.”

“Then we just wait until the last moment. I don’t want the citizens being hurt because of something as meaningless as their pride.” A few different ideas came to her mind while she allowed the thought to grow within her. It created a bit of a smirk on her face. The notion of tricking the Demon Hunters alone made the idea worth trying. And in the end, she really didn’t care what happened to them or her.

“What do you have in mind?” Lord Konjo asked.

The smirk turned a little more into a grin as she accepted the plan within her mind. “I know someone that can make it happen.”