Celosia was going back to the Settlement while holding two people (Akira is directly held by Ulrika). She passes right next to Vulkan who questions her decision.

“Are you sure?”

“Elder Vulkan, you can return to your affairs, I will deal with this personally. I will confirm and talk with you later on, but for now, I can handle it. If you don’t mind, warn Rubrum for me.”

“I see, I wish you luck Elder Celosia. Call me if you need something...”

Vulkan then turned around and went back to the settlement. Although Celosia was also entering it, they went through different ways.

The public was still paralysed, it seemed that what they heard from Vermillion was quite threatening. Celosia told everyone in her path to resume their day and assured that nothing would happen, and so, everyone resumed their affairs reluctantly.

The three humans didn’t have much freedom in this situation, the girls were being held tightly by their hips, and while Celosia wasn’t shaking them, it seemed to be to the level that she was only trying to keep their heads upwards.

“Before anything, I want to see this ability of yours, ‘Hero’.”

Celosia was walking through the main main street where Vermillion could still see them, at one point she had to turn to another path and that visibility was gone. Akira wondered how long Vermillion would have to wait, but he suddenly heard she talking through the communication device, but it wasn’t towards them. From the contents of her words, it seemed that she was talking with her Aunt Flare, so maybe she went to keep company, but from the looks of it she was having her own version of “They were humans!? What were you thinking!?”, while Vermillion tried to calm her aunt down.

There was a giant building (at least for human sized people), and Celosia went straight inside.

Akira looked to his left, and there was a small but long set of stairs, as if they were made for normal sized people that would lead to something like a second floor. In the middle of the “first floor” there were 2 giant-sized chairs. Celosia aimed for one of them, but before she placed the humans on the “second floor” that worked like a desk for the giant person. And on that second-floor, right in front of them, they found a somewhat quite short elderly man behind a normal sized desk… Or maybe it was slightly smaller than he expected? Akira’s sense of scale was already bugged since he arrived in this other world. Behind them, only Celosia’s upper body was visible, and she looked serious.

“Old man, I want you to get a collection of every ore that you got, I want this person to do something for me.

You, is there a minimum quantity necessary to start? Or is the variety more than enough?”

Akira looked behind at the serious face towering him from above.

“I-it depends on the material, heavier metals work ok in lesser quantities, but I may need more for lighter ones. For a trial, maybe I could say about 300g for each.”

The person, a Gnome, looked at Akira in confusion.

“Is something going to be made here?”

The confused gnome helped Akira to calm down a little, his tone made it look like Celosia is always like this.

“I believe Elder Celosia wants a demonstration of a certain ability of mine, so I would require a variety of different materials, metals, monster parts, anything that you know can be used to make Magic Items.”

“I see… Then I will ask for it to be prepared.”

The gnome moves to the opposite side on what looks like a sight seeing spot to look at the first floor, there is even a fence. He calls someone, and a giant female head, almost as big as the Gnome, appears, listens and goes away.

“It’s on the way, please wait a few minutes.”

“Shouldn’t you tell that to Elder Celosia?”

“... I’m too old, can’t shout that loud. You see the way she is waiting? She will just wait when she is like that. Although, did you do something for her to be in this bad mood?”

“I see... You could say so. But then, let me do this.”

Akira picked one of the communication devices, gave one to the Gnome, then moved back and extended his hand to Celosia.

“What is this?”

“This is for you to communicate with the old man here, just place it in your ear.”

“...”

She picked it up, inspect it first, then placed it in her right ear. Akira told the gnome to speak what he just said, and once the voice went through, Celosia reacted to that. She tried to pick the device back from her ear to inspect it again, but it was a little too small.

Although her face had shown some surprise, she was soon back in her serious face.

A few minutes later, the giant person from the back returned and handed over a number of small boxes. The Gnome and the humans helped carrying it out of the giant’s hands, and the assistant returned to the back. The gnome then explained:

“We have a high number of different minerals that we mine in these surroundings, and also monster materials from the hunts this Tribe is known for. These are some of the most exotic materials that I have. I don’t know what you plan to do right now, but is this enough?”

“Yes, thank you… Old man?”

“The name is Forfotir”

Looking back, Celosia had again taken out her device, looked at it, and seemed to be curiously touching it each time someone says something, but eventually placed it back. Again with the serious face, she then spoke.

“So, what can you do now, you don’t mind me seeing your ability, right?”

“Not a problem.”

So opening the boxes one by one, Akira seemed to be using some sort of faint magic with his hand, and giving his analysis from each box. One could say that it’s a skill similar to appraisal, but in reality it would be more of a debug, where he temporarily activates the effects of each item, but can instinctively learn what they can do. The results were like “This one seems to grow denser and stronger as you add mana, keeping the same weight”, “This one seems to be able to float”, “This other one seems to be able to boost the output of a spell, but requires a lot of mana”, and a variety of different effects.

Forfotir couldn’t understand what Akira was talking about, but Elder Celosia was listening without changing her expression. After everything had been analyzed, Celosia thought for a while.

“I want proof of your ability, are you able to do something now, or should we waste your visit?”

Akira thought of just making a similar artifact to the ones that he tested during his studies, a remote controlled something as an example, and confirmed that he can do it, although it will look crude.

Having separated the required materials, he bundled up a mix of different materials. It looked like just a bunch of random stones collected in a box, he didn’t have the time for trying to make a proper interface, but it didn’t mind as long as he controlled it with magic. Since he also didn’t have wheels, he tried to use the one ore that could float that he never had access before, so this experiment had something new for him to try.

It took about 15 minutes later having just bundled the materials and used some magic on both parts.

“It’s done.”

Then with the bundle of stones on his hand, he concentrates his mana, and the other side starts floating. Celosia seemed interested, while Forfotir was surprised at the unexpected creation.

“As you can see, I’m limited by materials and the format of the object itself, but as long as they are made in a specific way, it’s possible to create a splendid looking Artifact. I would require a blacksmith or a craftsman to help me with the build.”

Hearing the small explanation while observing the motions of the small drone.

“I see, to be even able to control one item with another, I had never seen anything like that...”

“Actually you have, the artifact you have on your ear right now to listen better to us is like this.”

Suddenly touching her ear, Celosia’s face showed understanding and a little fascination upon the idea. Then thinking over.

“I see… Listening to the effects you described, I shall request you an Artifact for myself, you can treat it as me accepting your proposal.”

And with a sharp smile, she resumed.

“I want you to create a weapon for me, you mentioned the possibility to store mana and boost efficiency in magic, and still keep abilities of a weapon. I have never heard of artifacts on this level, so I’m interested in it now.”

From that request, Akira couldn’t reply immediately.

“... So, what do you think?”

“Will you use this weapon to attack humans or the Demon King’s family?”

“Ho… Does it matter?”

“If you say you are going to do it, then I can’t help you. We came to make sure that your Tribe won’t start any attack, the war won’t happen, and we expect you to not do anything to trigger it.”

Akira looks at the face who is away from him, her eyes shows some type of anger, Akira can’t understand why she is acting like that, she is clearly just provoking him for no reason.

“I see... It seems you don’t even know what this war is about, huh…”

Her face that looks down on Akira reminded him that Vermillion and Ignis knows details that were not mentioned to him, thinking about it, it’s not a mere case of an empty war triggered by mistake, but a long running conflict of two different worlds.

“Then to answer your question, I can’t say for sure if I will use it to attack humans or Ignis’ family, but what if I say we have no plans to start a conflict, would it sound better, unless you can give me some guarantee that they won’t attack us first.”

She is good at provocation, however, when he thought that Ignis and Vermillion wouldn’t start any conflicts, he was reminded of the previous threat that she herself received: “If any minimum problem happens, Vermillion will act and destroy anything”. She is using that same absolute violence as her bargaining point.

And then, there are the humans, Ignis mentioned that the enemy are not the Humans, but someone behind them, so it’s possible that the humans would still take the initiative to attack?

In whatever case, Akira knew that he didn’t know everything, and couldn’t be sure on how to respond. Ulrika seemed nervous on Akira’s state, but she didn’t do anything related to do.

“I see, Ignis didn’t tell you everything, but you seem aware. To think that he even warned you about it.”

[Akira, I can’t hear the whole discussion properly, but you have been silent for some time. Elder Celosia is not a bad person. If there are any problems, I will take responsibility for that.]

A voice came from the communication device, only the human trio and Celosia who had a receiver could hear her however.

“What a surprise, to think that Vermillion would butt in our discussion.”

Akira reminds Celosia that Vermillion has been listening all along, but because she is a little too far from their emitters, her voice may not be passing through properly. Vermillion confirms what he says mostly by guiding herself through Akira’s words.

“I will accept it, Milly told me that you can be trusted, so I will trust you with an Artifact Weapon. However, let me warn you that I don’t have much experience in weapons, and while I have some experience with my ability, I’m looking out into visiting multiple villages to check on new material to make them, you will also need to think about what you want on it.”

“... Sure, then I will see what I will be looking for on my Artifact. So for now, I will be friendly.”

“After you decide what you want, pass your ideas to me, and I will see how the weapon needs to be made, then you can call a blacksmith or something. I’m guessing the gnomes are the specialists in that regard.”

Akira looked at Forfotir behind him, the gnome is still too astonished with the contents of the discussion and the surprises of what Akira created, so he is still unable to reply. Celosia considers the idea.

“Then I shall make my preparations and will send an envoy to Ignis’ castle when it’s done. Old man, prepare yourself for a big job soon, also, tell the ones in the other villages, we need examples for every ore and send them to Ignis’ castle, or send them to me and I will arrange them to be sent there. And that’s all for now.”

“Wait, can I take some of these examples with me at least?”

Celosia thought for some time…

“Although I’m acting friendly, I’ll first expect you to do your part. We can deal with that when we proceed with the finished weapon. Wait until then.”

The imposing Elder stands up, and after receiving the confirmation from the Gnome for what she asked, she again takes the trio, although this time a little more calmer.

Forfotir told them to wait as he returned the device that Akira had lent to him.

----

This time, without anything being said, they moved through the main street through some buildings, but then Akira noticed a change on the people walking, although many of the buildings still have giant entrances, there were more smaller people walking: The large ones walk in the center, the smaller on the sides The difference however is not that big, the smaller ones although normal sized, sometimes still seem to reach about 4 meters, and the native Banebdjed are around 11m, there are no Titans here.

It was an interesting view that he didn’t remember seeing when they got in, so Akira guessed that maybe this is something like a special district. Celosia stops in front of a building and lowers the humans to the ground.

“I believe you may be able to find what you need around here. I will stay around to keep you in check, also to stop Vermillion from doing anything drastic. I don’t think you need me to babysit you, right? Any place you find, tell the owner to confirm with me.

… Also, don’t waste too much of my time.”

It was finally the time to check on clothes while Celosia sat on a giant box next to a building to wait.

Ulrika and Anastacia complied with the warning and went around checking the”‘stores” that seemed to have a variety of clothes. They entered one building that seemed to have more clothes on their sizes, when the 2 went inside the store, it seemed that the owner was a Lamia.

The human side of the Lamia seems to have the same size to that of a normal human person. Meanwhile, their lower bodies are very long, easily exceeding 10m long for adults, the snake part connected to the human part is also quite thick. She properly placed herself at eye level when talking with two clients, although the Lamia looked smaller relatively speaking when comparing their upper bodies..

Akira didn’t really have much to do, he wasn’t in the mood for waiting while women chose clothing, surely they know that they must not wait too long, and he was bored since he himself was getting nothing out of this, so he just looked around, checking on the other places, and kept the communications through the devices. The girls didn’t request of him to suggest clothes either, maybe because they weren’t exactly expecting much.

----

[We are finished]

Upon receiving their call, Akira notices that he walked quite a while. Sure the settlement is big since it’s made for people over 6 times his size, so he tells them that he went a little too far and is returning.

Listening to the talks on the communicator it seems they bought many clothes, and Celosia is complaining while still helping carrying them. Akira starts to think that while she looks all serious and bad mouthed all the time, she can still be nice when looked from another angle.

But at the moment that Akira’s turns around, he notices someone at a space between the buildings. A giant woman sitting while leaning on the building next to her, she is very thin to unhealthy levels, her clothes are almost like scraps, and they are quite dirty. Her eyes can’t be seen from behind her black hair. This was something that captured Akira’s eyes, the woman had the size and horns of the native Banebdjed, but from everyone he saw, the hair that he had seen all the time were colors on the ranges of Red to Orange, yet this is the first time that he sees a pure black hair.

And that’s when he noticed that she was touching something on her lap, at first he was confused about what that black thing was, but then confirmed it was just another black haired head just seen from an uncommon angle.

Although this district seems to have more visitors than natives, she remains here. Her head moved, seemingly having noticed that Akira was looking at her, she extended her hand on the ground, and with a faint voice:

~... Would you have something to help us? Like food, any amount helps, for my daughter…~

The hair was long and unkempt, her eyes were mostly hidden behind it, but he could vaguely see that they were black too. Akira wasn’t sure what he could or should do at this moment, the giant woman asked for help, she seems to be a beggar, and the owner of the head in her lap moved, he could notice a child, she too had small horns and black hair.

When the girl looked at him, she seemed to have expected something usual, but then she looked surprised.

“Brother…?”

“Eh?”

That was another surprise, the mother however also didn’t seem to understand what her daughter meant at first, when she did however.

“I-I’m sorry, it’s our first time seeing another person with black hair… Dia, he is not your brother.”

She reproached the child who seemed confused, her appearance was as if she was about 12 yo, the mother also looked young, but because of the long lived race characteristics, although she looked more like an older-sister to the child, she could be much older. As he was watched by the two pairs of eyes, he felt some small shakes on the ground approaching him.

“You were taking too long, so I came here to get you… What are you doing?”

Celosia arrived seeing that Akira wasn’t answering back. Then she noticed the two who he was looking at. Upon noticing Celosia, the mother seemed really nervous, and the daughter shrunk back behind her mother looking scared.

“Huh, so you are still living?”

The mother and child didn’t answer, but they lowered their heads. Akira didn’t like it.

“Do you know them?”

“They are just trash, thought they were dead, but seems like they still live. No need to give them any attention, I will send you to Vermillion-”

“Can’t you help them?”

“Why?”

“You are the leader aren’t you? Shouldn’t you care for peo-”

“What nonsense are you spouting out? Why should I care? In this tribe everyone takes care of themselves, we take pride in our strength. I told Vermillion I wouldn’t fight with you, but are you trying to start a fight now? Vermillion won’t be able to help you if you do that.”

Akira wanted to complain, but he noticed that this was no Kingdom, no Country, as the term itself, it’s a tribe, a settlement where people live, it didn’t seem to have one ruler that had control on the decisions. She is the leader, yet she says she isn’t responsible? Akira felt that this world was too barbarian.

“... I would like to help them.”

“Do I look like I care? You have to return to Vermillion now.”

Ulrika and Anastacia were being held by Celosia, and although everything was fine until now, they are not sure about the contents. Ulrika herself never did something like helping the poor, although that’s mostly because she never saw someone like that, but seeing the woman’s state, she felt like listening to Akira’s help.

“Elder Celosia, if you don’t mind, could you please let me down? I would like to-”

“You are just wasting my time.”

Celosia seemed irritated, but let the 2 women she was holding on the ground. Ulrika went straight to the giant woman, and used healing magic on them just to be sure they wouldn’t have any problems. The woman was surprised by the small person running towards her and using some magic, but she felt slightly better afterwards. Ulrika walked over the mother’s legs to do the same with the daughter.

This is also when Akira noticed Ulrika’s clothes, it seems that she was using native clothes, they were showing a lot of skin, considering that her skin is almost pure white, it was a really strange sight. Anastacia was wearing similar clothes too.

“Milly, can’t you do something about it?”

[I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what is happening…]

Vermillion’s voice seemed to be apologizing, but without a proper description of what is happening, she is confused. Celosia however doesn’t care, while Ulrika tried to help Akira.

“Just tell these three idiots to return, our negotiations are already over.”

“Please wait! Can’t we negotiate somehow?”

As Ulrika approached Akira, and looked back at Celosia, she knew it was asking a little too much, since they had nothing to offer back. Celosia looked annoyed, but then she had a smirk on her face.

“Hoo, I see, you want to help them… Then I shall give them to you as pets.”

“””W-What!?”””

The human trio was surprised at the proposition, Akira felt really angry.

“How could you treat people as pets?”

“What people?”

“These ones!”

“That’s just trash.”

“...”

Upon Celosia’s rebuttal, Akira understood that Celosia would in no way treat them properly, and since she is one of the leaders in this tribe, her authority is higher than his. This reminded him that this is the Demon World, although ironically, the problem he is facing is something similar to one that could be seen in human society instead of horror-like scenes.

However, now Celosia was placing them on his responsibility, which Akira couldn’t deal with himself, but if he told her that, he would just be called a hypocrite. He wants to help, but thinking again, that requires others to do the work that he demanded. Looking at it like that, he is being quite impertinent.

Although right now Celosia is just irritated and impatient.

“Vermillion, I hope you have some space for pets, it seems your idiots want some, so I’m giving them to you, you can consider this a freebie from our negotiations. I just don’t want any more of this annoyance.”

[I’m not entirely sure if I understood what was happening there… But I think we can always talk?]

While Vermillion’s voice showed confusion and seemed to be expecting an explanation, Akira’s tension with the situation filled his thinking in what to do. Celosia wasn’t giving him time to respond, and Ulrika knowing how it is to be a leader knows there are limitations in what one can do besides national policies can’t simply impose her rules over someone else, she had the impression that anything she did would just create more problems. Akira looked at Ulrika and Anastacia, but they just shook their heads, they don’t hold any authority, and can only rely on Vermillion here.

“Good, now you shut up and return with me. And you trash, stand up and follow us.”

“P-Please, j-just leave my daughter-”

“And keep this trash here? I don’t want to dirty this place any more than it already is. Both of you, move”

The woman was trembling, but didn’t say anything, the child who was hiding behind the mother was crying, but seemed to know that if she says anything it will be worse. The mother tries to help the child, but is suddenly forced to stand from her hair being pulled.

Ulrika approached Akira, then picked him with a hug.

~I’m sorry…~

She could only whisper these words to him, Celosia then crouched and, while still holding a large bag in her arm, picked Ulrika and Anastacia from the ground. The woman and her daughter stood up and followed Celosia behind. Thanks to the way Ulrika held him in a frontal hug position, Akira’s face was aiming backward, but he couldn’t see them properly with Celosia’s arm in the way.

-------

Back at the entrance, Vermillion seemed to be still talking with her aunt who was sitting on her shoulders while eating something. Noticing that Akira’s group was returning she was almost lifting her arms to welcome them back, but she then noticed the strange atmosphere with the two behind them and stopped midway.

“And here they are, you heard the talks so you know how it went. Here are the humans back to you, and your new pets. Now you can go home. I will see for my plans to be delivered to you by tomorrow, so expect a visit, tell that father of yours not to attack anyone from our tribe”

“Hmmm, not a problem, just please tell the messenger to wait outside, we filled the castle with traps, so it could be dangerous for anyone else to go inside. And about those two...”

“My gift to you, do whatever you want… Oh, in exchange, I will be taking this back with me, I guess it’s not a gift anymore… Who cares.”

Celosia pointed to her left ear while saying so.

As the humans were returning to the ground, Akira looked back at the two who were just addressed. Both were looking so high, the mother’s legs were trembling so much that she suddenly fell, and embraced her daughter as if to protect, then she turned back facing Vermillion stood up and placed her daughter behind her.

“P-Please, Lady Vermillion, if you wish to punish someone, please, let my daughter go, I will accept any punishment.”

“WAAAAAAAAAAHHH! MOM!”

The mother protected the child as she cried, Akira wanted to calm them down, but he couldn’t be heard, and Celosia was not caring, she left the luggage that she was carrying for the girls on the ground and left with no extra words.

Since Vermillion was away certainly she was not hearing as much as the humans below, but their pleas and cries came from both their our mouths source and the communication device in her ear, that duality was a little annoying. She placed a piece of meat that she was eating on her hand and lowered it to be in front of them.

“Stop crying, here, eat something first. And listen to the little guy there, he was trying to call you, and you ignored him.”

Vermillion was serious.