Hozora Kingdom (14)

"These monsters are communicating with each other.".

As I looked closer at the drawing, I noticed that the three monsters were looking at each other as if they were communicating.

But this isn't that strange. Since I already knew they could talk, why were some people here shocked by this sight?

"The difference between S-rank monsters and A-rank monsters is obviously their massive strength, but also their ability to talk.".

A video of a monster showed up at the scene.

It was a giant orc monster similar to the one that I killed, but this monster was chained to the ground.

'So they have video technology in this world?'.

It shouldn't have been that surprising since I saw a photograph of the family, but I was confused about the level of technology in this world.

They used carriages in battle, with huge earth golems carrying them. But they could communicate with each other with the circular crystal. Which functioned as a telephone from modern earth.

Sometimes the technology seemed old, and at other times it was as good as modern earth.

"Pain!". The monster yelled out as a spear was stabbed into its side.

The video stopped, and the man behind the podium continued to talk.

"As you can see, the S-rank monster talked, but it is very limited in what it can say. It's more like it has the intelligence of a 3-5 year old; however, the monsters that came today were different.".

A lady in a robe walked up the stage, and in her hand was a circular crystal.

She looked familiar, and I knew that I recognized her from somewhere. An imaginary lightbulb appeared, and I realized that it was the woman whose legs had been broken and was hiding behind the king.

"We have a recording of one of the SS-rank monsters talking today." He indicated that the woman should place it on the podium.

As the woman placed it on the podium, a deep voice sounded out.

"Interesting, you humans have become a lot stronger than before. Human, what is your name? Well, it doesn't matter since you are going to die.".

The voice cut out, and the man talked again.

"As you could all hear, this was not human speaking. This was in fact one of the monsters that invaded the kingdom today.".

Whispers started to appear in the room.

"Impossible; SS-rank monsters shouldn't be that intelligent.".

The man behind the podium coughed to get everyone's attention.

"This might sound unbelievable, but we have people who have witnessed this phenomenon.".

The king stood up from his seat.

"I fought this monster, and therefore I can say that the monster did indeed talk. It wasn't like the normal monsters with limited intelligence. The monster as we were fighting was constantly mocking me, trying to anger me to get an opening.".

The king sat down after he made his statement.

Albert pointed at me.

"Rylan Ashencroft has also fought these monsters. Can you tell us about your experience?".

I stood up from my seat, and all eyes were directed at me.

"Yes, these monsters could talk fluently with no problem. And in the middle of my fight, the monster wanted to flee so he could warn his comrades. This is proof that the monsters could communicate with each other, and they have much more intelligence than a 3-year-old.".

I sat down on my seat after I finished speaking.

"As you all know, the monster attacks that happened in the past were always led by one strong monster.".

The video of the orc showed up again, and Albert pointed at the big screen.

"This was the monster that attacked last year, and we thought this was a SS-rank monster.".

In the video, the cameraman held a device in front of the camera.

The device looked like a geiger counter and was rectangular. The slider was flicking all the way to the right in the red zone.

"As you all can see on the mana device, it is pointing at the red zone. We thought that the red zone meant that it would be a SS rank monster, but we couldn't have been more wrong."

He pointed at a woman with silver hair.

"Emilia Graceheart, a SS ranker, fought this orc last year. Can you tell us about your experience?".

She stood up from her seat.

"Well, what can I say? When I was dispatched to fight a SS-rank monster with Arnoldus, I thought it would have been a tough battle. So I was very worried, but as we fought the orc, I realized that the monster wasn't really that strong. And after a few attacks, we quickly defeated it."

"Exactly my point. Normally, to fight a monster of the same rank, you need at least two people of the same rank to win. But the battle was too easy for two SS rankers. Therefore, the way we measure SS rank monsters is wrong.".

He made a small pause and continued again.

"Our scout used the device to measure the three SS-rank monsters at the front. And you know what happened?"

Everyone focused on Albert.

"Nothing happened. It was like the monsters weren't even in front of him. Maybe he was too far away, or there were too many monsters to measure accurately."

He pointed at the circular crystal, which had the recording of the monster speaking.

"But this tells me something different. SS rank monsters are way more intelligent than a normal S rank monster, and the monsters we met today are the true SS rank monsters. Why am I telling you this?"

"The attack that happened 50 years ago in the Diterra kingdom. How many of you were there?".

He looked at the people sitting around the long table, but there was no response.

"Exactly. Almost no one survived that attack, so we thought that the number of monsters attacking the kingdom must have been at least three SS-rank monsters. But what we learned today has put us in a very dangerous position."

'Dangerous position?'.

What did he mean by that?

"The monsters can communicate with each other, and therefore the number of monsters that invaded the diterra kingdom was definitely above 3 SS-rank monsters. Since they can talk fluently, we can assume they must be as intelligent as us.".

"So if there were definitely way more than three SS-rank monsters that attacked the Diterra kingdom, then here comes the question: why only send three SS-rank monsters to attack the Hozora kingdom? That is not a logical thing to do if they want to destroy our kingdom."

"This situation made me think for a while, as I couldn't understand why the monsters made this choice. Until now".

He took a deep breath and drank some water.

"Because the attack that happened today wasn't meant to destroy our kingdom."

The next thing he said shocked me a little.