Versatile: Alternate World



The welcome entrance for Queen Tori concluded and now we are in the dining area.

"Haaaa... I can finally enjoy cold food. Eating this stuff in my castle just adds more freezing temperature to my body so I don't think I like to eat any while I am there," Queen Tori happily eat a bowl of ice cream that is exclusively served for her.

"I told you already that you can go and have a vacation here once in a while. Staying there in the cold just going to stop you from enjoying any cold snacks at all," Queen Tanya suggested.

"Nah, it's too much of a hassle and I am also busy with all the beast attacks here and there. Thankfully, none of the behemoths are moving so it's not that much of a problem for us. So instead of going in here for vacation, I would rather fortify my castle and increase the power we wield to fight back against the monsters."

"Eh, you are no fun, sis. It's fine to have fun at times you know."

"But we are not here for fun, right? We are here to go and respond to the SOS from the Kamikaze continent. You know it's serious when the flourishing continent that usually is pretty independent and rich in goods will ask for help from the outside continent and even try asking for the Goddess Titania to resolve the problem."

"Well, you are right but we should also have some good time to waste for a while you know? We don't need to focus too much on it."

"Actually, we don't have much time to waste. I got a spy currently living in the Kamikaze continent and he gave me a lot of intel about what is currently happening inside the swirling winds that block off any kind of ways to observe the continent without entering it."

"Eh? You already got intel? And what the heck, this is the first time I heard of you having  a spy living there!" Queen Tanya was surprised.

"Hehe, unlike you Sis, I am more capable of finding information from the other continents. I don't have much brawn to compete with you but I can compete against you if it was about the brains. Hehehe, don't think I am just sitting there waiting for nothing and going into the battle without any intel."

Queen Tanya can only scratch her head as she didn't expect her sister to be able to beat her on getting intel from a place where Queen Tanya has a limited amount of knowledge.

"Alright, fine. I admit defeat this time around. So what is this intel you are talking about?"

"A bit of a worrisome intel. Chaos is currently brewing all over the place and it seems the guards in that place have been quite stricter than usual. Most of the people there are oppressed and the bandits ran rampant all over the place. As for the common people, they are forced to fight back on their own as the usual guards don't bother to respond to troubles and are just there to stand back and watch. As a result, the violence has increased for quite some time. Monsters are even rampaging all around the outskirts and towns around those places are left being ravaged by monsters. The shogun is focused more on creating a war against enemies and dealing with people who are against his regime. As for the winds, according to the intel, there is a chance that the artifact that is currently the one causing the winds to happen has been tampered with," Queen Tori revealed.

"In short, the shogun was the one who is the main cause of all of this?" Queen Tanya frowned.

"Most likely, yes. However, according to my spy, the shogun suddenly became weird all of a sudden. He was a kind shogun before but all of a sudden, he suddenly changed behavior and suddenly became a man of authority. Not only that but his wife is no longer going out of the castle. It was quite weird as the wife is one that mingles with the common people to share the news with the shogun so that he can continue the good ways of managing the continent."

"Looks like we have a case of possession, I guess," I immediately suggested as a way to make the two learn indirectly that the problem is the shogun himself.

"Indeed, Bladeheart. I thought so as well. There is no way someone would suddenly change like that without being influenced by something and possession is the most likely to be happening here. A malevolent being possessing the shogun? I can see that happening," Queen Tori nodded in approval of my theory.

"So we have the shogun to worry about, the guards that don't do anything aside from dealing with the enemy of the shogun, monsters rampaging, and the artifact that creates the winds. I think I can see a big connection to all of this and most of it leads to the shogun himself. Based on these things, it seems the shogun was the main cause of the problems the continent is facing right now and the winds are just an additional problem created. Yeaaahhhh... I don't like where this is going," Queen Tanya shakes her head.

"Yep. There's no leisure stuff we will be doing once we get there. We will have to solve the problem immediately before we are suspected or much better yet, we wage war against the shogun and deal with him directly," Queen Tori suggested.

"Hey, hey. I should be the one who should suggest that but I disagree with waging war against the shogun right now. Our goal is to find a way to solve the winds being too wild and threatening the populace. The shogun problem is just a second problem for us and I don't think it is a priority unless it proves to be quite something else. Right now, we will have to do it as quietly as possible and then probably deal with the aftermath after this."

"Nah, I can see that we will be opposing the shogun after doing our thing. In that case, we will have to overthrow him, make him regain his senses, and make the populace decide his fate. We will be solving the problem once and for all."