Chapter 54: Cryptic Question

[3rd Person POV]

The Forest of Idun, a day before the banquet.

The forest that spanned for enormous kilometers atleast two times the total territory size of Valentine, the forest that is once just a full plain forest, a seemingly unassuming one that only have the feature of having a giant tree in its middle and having golden fruits that are in demand in many countries, now changed a lot.

It changed a lot that no one will believe that this place is just an official territory because someone so powerful live in it for many hundreds of years, the forest that once have very little amount of clearings now have numerous amount of them, trees after trees are being cut down everyday, those trees will then be  processed by the lumber workshop, the branches will be removed alongside the roots and leaves for it to become raw materials to build several structures like  residential  houses, workshops and more.

Alongside this, there are also quarrying works that is being led by the quarrying workshop, however, they are preparing for a big wall project so they are amassing the stone they collected and the structures of the houses will have woods for its main staple.

This two main raw materials gathering workshops along with the construction workers, stone cutters, wood cutters and many more is of course being led by the construction group that have the  brother of the dwarf that made the sword of Altair as the leader. Similarly, Cancer the Earth Crab is cooperating with the elder brother of the construction group leader as the co-leader of the  ironworks and weaponry group.

Cancer is the one that will lead the miners that are all dwarves to mine ores of metals unique to the forest that can be found and located everywhere in the underground labyrinth that he created because of Cancer's natural instincts of traveling underground.

This labyrinth was not instructed to Cancer or anything, he just really wants to dig things up and when his mother, Idun saw this labyrinth full of metal, she hugged Cancer and even though Cancer is a crab tens of meters in height, he still acted like a child being patted in the head by his parent when he received the praises of his mother.

The reason Idun was so gleeful about this is because of how difficult it is to dig up the mining resources underground, she is contemplating about this and knew about Cancer's labyrinth, but because of her intense health issue given to her by her locking up Arachne when Idun and Arachne's cursed fate was not lifted yet, she didn't know that not only Oroboros metal but all types of metal indigenous on her place can be seen in this labyrinth.

And so, with this discovery, all the dwarves that leans towards mining immediately made a whole mining facility, place in which the miners rest and sleep, storage of mining materials, carts for the ores and equipments to be transported with more convenience and many more is built in the entrance of the cave of Cancer, Idun also have plans for the labyrinth so she asked the miners to not build ceiling support but instead used her magic to strengthen the upper part of the mining areas.

With that, the two crafting groups of the future country of Fairies is in full turn and it only needed to add disciples and workers, to adjust the scale depending on the size of the territory, of course not only this, but preparations for the future trading products of the country is also being prepared.

A portion of the forest is designated as a restricted area and won't allow any logging work, this place will be the gigantic plantation of golden fruits, the most powerful trading weapon of her future country, there are also monster meats that are unique to the forest, tea leaves and the like.

In the other side of the city, militia men gathered and trained, because Libra is currently not in the forest because he is being borrowed by Loki, Idun personally participated and lead the training of her hunters that will soon become future soldiers of her country

Seeing all of this, one could see the skill of Idun, not even a year have passed since her announcement of her eagerness to create a nation using the Forest of Idun as a foundation, she immediately got all of the basic structure jotted down, of course things like education and culture is still not needed because they are still developing.

In analogical terms, they are still in the fetus stage and still not a fully functional toddler, so she have to be patient and keep doing a good job  as the future queen of Marchenwald.

Going back, her skills can already be seen the moment she was freed from the curse, she  knew in her heart that fairies sucks at menial work and can do more magical and academic work, so she invited a veteran dwarf and made the dwarves see how many potential structures they can make by serving her.

Though the factor that all of them are either races that lost their Ruler and cannot produce another one or those who, because of racial weakness didn't have one that is  dependent to her, of course no one in this planet will willingly accept to be subordinated by someone who doesn't have a certain charisma, the best example is Loki, even though he have many affairs and is not loyal at all, his charisma given by his genius and power saved him, plus his looks that cannot be easily rivaled by anyone, this factors soared his fame and made him be a womanizing machine.

This also applies to Idun but the womanizing part is removed, with her ability to be flexible and mingle with fighters, scholars, architects, stone masons and blacksmiths, she naturally became popular in the whole forest.

Of course her name being the name of the forest the different races lives in also became a small determining factor.

All of the population of the territory of Idun is not limited to her race, many variety, Centaurs, Tikbalangs, dwarves, and even some demi-humans that unfortunately didn't gained a footing in Valentine for they are not part of Vanir's family. All of them are welcome here and as long as they work hard and is willing to pledge their loyalty to the lady of the whole forest, Idun will protect them and represent all of them as their Ruler similar to how Selaphiel is the Archangel and the Hero at the same time.

The territory is not without problems of course, first, because of conflicting races, Beliefs would also be clashing against each other, those races who allows polygamy, those who treats it as the most grave sin to ever be committed, those who are arrogant and only wants the predators to be accepted and those who thinks that the predators are brutes  and asks Idun to get rid of them.

Idun's solution is to use a little force into this matter, but first she studied all of the cultures of the different villages and slashed out the bad and retained the good, making the other part that have Conflicts be aligned into the other without the culture itself being compromised. However, because their are so many things to be studied, Idun is still just in the halves of this study and would not be able to come up with a suitable and organized one culture of her whole Kingdom that encompasses all of the cultures of the races in there, her race included, until a long time.

Second is sanitation and hygiene, they have to have a very organized water system and  using the water in the river that divides the forest in to two without a proper system is risking it to be contaminated, so they have to set a proper system for water distribution that will also take a while, Idun is actually helpless of this and can only take it step by step.

Even so, despite the problems, the people in this place is being united by her, the predators will quickly submit to her when she used her power to speak, something that she is rarely displaying, all in all Idun is satisfied and happy of her progress.

Who knows that their will be something that will dampen her mood quickly and turn it around three hundred sixty degrees. As to what is the this thing, one should go and organize the events that transpired.

Idun with her master servant Virgo gone is having Pollux the female of Gemini the twins serve her and be her clerk, she will be the one who will go and ask people whom Idun needed or wants to talk to to come over to the palace. She's also the one who will inform her if ever someone wants to see the Princess of Fairies.

At this moment, Pollux entered the room, even though her role is that of a clerk she still wore her ninja outfit and stood at the left side  of her master as she walked and whispered on her ear.

"My Lady, Loki-Sama asks for your attendance in a video meeting between the two of you in the Crystal room."

Idun's eyebrows got locked hearing those words, this past months, she's already copped up in her office and rarely goes out because of the work of unifying the cultures of the races inside her future nation, plus a few days ago an invitation for the banquet of the Seven Rulers appeared, though it is said to be optional, a Ruler will lose face if they were absent in such a gathering of prominent individuals, as such she will naturally come.

She tried to rush the humanoid form of Leon but because of the difficulty of designing one for she have one weakness of unable to draw, she just choose Virgo and Libra as the one that will accompany her in the banquet.

And now some horny fuck of a friend of hers suddenly want a video chat, how annoying can that be.

"Yeah, yeah I'll be there."

Idun put down the quill in her hand and stood up, she was helpless, after all, that person is still her friend and the savior of her life, so not answering is like her being an ingrate in which is not acceptable for the childish... I mean honorable person such as herself.

Idun went into the crystal room and saw a holographic image of Loki, communication crystal have different qualities, those crystals that are inserted in the front of the hole of the earlobe are lower in quality and naturally this types of crystals that can make a whole image of the caller is higher quality.

This type of device is a military secret and beside Loki, Eris and Idun, no one in the Seven Rulers have possession of high quality communication crystals that can make "video calls" a reality nor did they even knew their existence.

Idun and Loki immediately talked about many things, they started to talk about the progress of the Kingdom Building quest of Idun, its difficulties, the potential of the resources in terms of the world market, the meeting of the Seven Rulers, who in their subordinates will come and accompany them.

Of course Loki also roughly introduced his new subordinates  while Idun also said to inform Virgo and Libra that they will be the one that will accompany her, after which the topic became more casual, those topics that a normal pair of friends will come up with, those nonsensical yet fun things that gives clarity about them being friends.

In the room of the a Kingdom and a budding one, the King of the Devils and the Leader of Fairies is nowhere to be seen and two friends are only visible.

However, a question, a single question is what only takes for this light atmosphere to disappear.

"Idun... We're friends, right?"

Loki, in the middle of their laughs, suddenly asked, causing Idun to make her child like laugh come to a sudden halt as she looked at Loki with wide eyes.

"Haha... Of course...?"

Loki just gave out a smile, a smile that seem to be... Reassured by her words, yet still have a tinge of sadness.

"Loki, that question is cryptic, why the sudden ask?"

Idun tried to holler questions after questions to answer the terror in her heart, after all, her friend is the one who asked that question, so she would naturally be worried so much that she's terrified.

However, her already trembling heart is shaken further as she heard Loki's reply.

"Well, nothing much... It's just that, who knows we might become mortal enemies after so long, right?"

With that and a causal wave of a hand and "bye" Loki left the Crystal room in Valentine, leaving Idun staring at the crystal room with trembling eyes and immovable state alone.

Loki's words echoed in her mind again and again like an unsolved murder, and she have a hunch that it will only stop, after the Banquet of the Rulers.

Pollux that is outside the room didn't hear anything about  their conversation, however when she looked at her master when Idun left the room, she cannot help but ask.

"Why... is she smiling?

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Author's note:

Shit gets confusing from this chapter on and will be connected to multiple earlier chapter, be sure to check them out to not get too confused.

But this chapter is just the continuation of the last chapter so you're fine if you read it.

That's all, thank you for reading.