The war meeting—which Harrow called a defense committee even though they were on the offense—was held in an outdoor pavilion tent six times the size of Harrow’s. The extra space was put to good use as not only the VIPs, but the entire camp crowded in to hear what Harrow was going to go over.

  What Jessica was provisionally calling the “VIPs” consisted of a central circle of Harrow, Morkal, Jessica and John, and a dozen animalar of all shapes and sizes who all appeared to (descend from? resemble?) northern animals. Jessica’s favorite was a big grizzly bear man who stood seven feet tall and half as wide and constantly looked like he was falling asleep. Arboria said his name was Kaapuyll??n, though everyone called him Kap.

  Arboria likewise explained who the other animalar were, filling in for Harrow as Jessica’s designated guide. Jessica promptly forgot most of them except for two: Kap the Grizzly Bear, and one who raised a lot of questions.

  “That old lady, she’s not a polar lizard, is she?” Jessica asked, referring to a pale lizard woman sitting directly across in a red, white, and blue reindeer-skin dress. Her tail, eyes, and hair looked like Riza’s except they were shot through with a muted rainbow that reminded Jessica of sherbet ice cream

  “Liskotulet? She is indeed. She’s the matriarch of the polar lizards,” Arboria explained.

  “So they’re not on the verge of being hunted to extinction?” Jessica asked.

  Arboria giggled. “Is that what our little Riza told you? I would love to meet the slavers who would try. The polar lizards are… well, they’re not quite as good at hunting as us Taiga Elves, but they are better outdoorsmen. Anyone who tried to enslave them would wish they were pursued by polar bears instead. They might have a chance of escape.”

  If and when Jessica ever rescued her, she and Riza were going to have a long conversation.

  “Ballsy of Harrow to have Riza get enslaved on the off-chance I would rescue her,” Jessica said.

  “Oh no, the young master would never approve of such a plan! If that is what occurred then perhaps Riza either improvised something or she was caught unaware. Either way, try not to be too hard on her, Jessica. She did what she did for the greater good.”

  There was a lot you could excuse if it was ‘for the greater good,’ Jessica thought.

  Behind the inner circle was an outer circle of people who were the assistants to the VIPs in the middle. Kap had three younger grizzlies who looked like they could be his kids waiting behind him while Liskotulet had four equally old, equally rainbow-colored polar lizards behind her. Jessica got the sense that the who and why was unique to the tribe. Even Harrow had his three elven party members. The only one standing alone was Morkal.

  These two circles and the swarm of rank-and-file rebels created a cacophony that nearly drowned out Arboria’s helpful sides. Then, with a single declaration, the conversations hushed.

  “Hear and see!” shouted Altea, Harrow’s high elf companion. “So begins the sixth plenum of the defense council of this year, one hundred and two years since the defeat of the Demon King. Commandant Harrow presiding. The twelve animalar clans of Kantai are in attendance. The Taiga Elves are in attendance. The Alpine Elves are in attendance. The Glacial Elves are in attendance. The Demon King’s Chief Alchemist is in attendance. The adventurer, Jessica Moon, is in attendance. If there are any who feel they are not fairly represented on the defense council, let them speak now!”

  No one spoke but Altea dragged the silence on for almost a minute before continuing.

  “With all in attendance, so begins the sixth plenum of the defense council!”

  “Ladies and gentlemen of the council,” Harrow said, his voice projecting out over the crowd. “You have heard it a hundred times, but for the sake of our two new arrivals and the fact that it is near at hand, allow me to restate our main objective.

  “We seek to capture Elsifeya City, the seat and capital of the Kingdom of Elsifeya. Once we have done so we will dissolve its feudal mode of government, free its serfs and slaves, and create a Republic which will stretch from J?rvistad in the north to Al-Mazra'a in the south. From the Occident Ocean in the west to the Mountain of Monsters in the east.

  “This land will be ruled by and for the native inhabitants of Tushita. There will be no kings and no masters. There will be no adventurers except those who respect and abide by the sovereign laws of this new republic. This is our unified goal.”

  Harrow glanced at Jessica as he finished his declaration. It was a nice thought, she supposed, but if he planned to overthrow an entire kingdom backed by adventurers with superpowers, he was going to need more than a few hundred rebels with single-shot muskets. Mercy could annihilate the camp by herself.

  “Hear, hear!” Kap said, slapping his enormous, hairy bear thigh.

  “We’ve heard it a million times before, you oaf. Calm down,” said an animalar man with a pair of sleek, white fox ears. He had a haughty bearing and a nasally voice and he was the youngest of the inner circle by several decades.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Oaf? Oaf!? Come over here, boy, and I’ll show you who’s an oaf!” Kap said, his voice rumbling in Jessica’s chest.

  “Unless either of you have something useful to add, be quiet,” said a woman with a long, drawn face and two large hare ears.

  “I am trying to keep us on track, Haigha. You did not need to step in,” said the fox man.

  “Is anyone going to tell me who she is!?” said an ovaloid man in a suit, peering intently at Jessica through a pair of glasses whose lenses were barely wider than grapes. His avian ears twitched in her direction.

  “That is Jessica, Huhu. We’ve been talking about her for the past two plenaries. Please try to keep up,” Haigha said with a tone of annoyance.

  “Who-ah? What-now? She’s not an adventurer, is she?” Huhu asked.

  “Yes, Huhu, she’s an adventurer.”

  “No she’s not! She’s lost her powers!” said a woman with long reindeer antlers and a wide-eyed stare that Jessica would have assumed was predatory if it wasn’t the only expression the woman seemed capable of.

  “It’s not got to do with the powers, it’s got to do with the attitude,” Kap said. “Otherwise we’d be quarreling with Harrow, eh? Morkal, what do you think?”

  “Jessica is an ally and can be trusted,” Morkal said without opening her mouth.

  “That’s not what I asked!”

  “Oh, who cares what you asked! We’ve deviated plenty already,” the fox man said.

  Jessica looked to Harrow to see why he wasn’t reining this in and found a look of resigned patience on his face. She readjusted her expectations and was therefore not taken by surprise when the next fifteen minutes of the plenary was eaten up by figuring out whose fault it was that they were off-topic.

  “So the off-topicness is, we can say, an overdetermined effect driven by a multitude of causes, yes? We can agree?” said Huhu.

  “Wouldn’t take so long if ya didn’t talk with fancy words,” Kap said.

  “I talk no fancier than Harrow does.”

  “Aye, but he’s got things worth hearing,” the big grizzly replied.

  Harrow cleared his throat. “On that note, let’s begin the discussion in earnest. I would like to put forward the possibility of invading Elsifeya by the end of the month.”

  “What!? The men aren’t ready!” Kap yelled.

  “Our supplies haven’t been organized,” said the fox man.

  “And the adventurers…” said Haigha.

  “Forget all that, what about the walls!? We’re assaulting a castle here!” the reindeer woman added.

  “We have an answer for the walls and the adventurers. And Jessica here is going to help us with it,” Harrow said.

  “One artillery piece? Are you joking?” Jessica said.

  There were frowns of disapproval at her outburst. Clearly they placed a lot of stock in Harrow and his declarations, realistic or otherwise.

  “Three, actually. That’s how many guns we can have working and transported here by the end of the month,” Harrow said.

  “And with three artillery pieces, which don’t work yet, may I remind you, you’re going to take down Elsifeya and all the overpowered main characters inside it?”

  “We are going to try.”

  “Okay… What am I missing here? Because as I see it, you’ll probably make it past Fort Neusa, all the way down into the prairie, and then adventurers bomb the hell out of you with spells before you even set up shop. The only person here with a magic system is— actually, do you have a magic system?”

  Harrow nodded. Jessica stopped herself from saying it wasn’t fair, though she did side-eye Morkal. If the monstress noticed she said nothing.

  “I’ve also got a system,” John said.

  “That’s nice, John. Harrow, you’re not fighting off hundreds of adventuring parties by yourself,” Jessica said.

  “Of course not. That’s what our muskets are for. Just about every adventurer takes the Adventure Fixation bargain which leaves them open to environmental damage,” Harrow said.

  “Is that going to be enough?”

  Harrow shrugged. “Who knows?”

  “You’re supposed to know!”

  “Am I? I may have put forward a proposal but I’m still just the commandant. I’m a military instructor who dabbles in military hardware and industry. As for why I proposed it now? Well, is there any better time?”

  “How about when you’re ready? When you have working artillery pieces in hand?”

  “Jessica, we’re not the only people with spies. The second we get those guns working we’re on a time limit to do something with them. Use ‘em or lose ‘em. And suppose we did put things off, doesn’t that guarantee Riza and Naga will be executed? If you want a shot at rescuing them, it’s now or never.”

  “But!”

  Her brain couldn’t muster anything to append to the ‘but’ but her heart told her this was reckless and crazy. It didn’t help that she’d only been pulled out of a pit an hour ago and that the person who stuck her there was the one telling her to go to war. If she was going to be a part of this she wanted more of a say.

  “I want to know the details,” Jessica said. “Not vague, sweeping promises. I want to know what will happen if I throw myself into this. For starters, what are you going to do with the adventurers who try to stop us? You know that they will.”

  “They’ll be killed,” Harrow said simply.

  “Just like that? You’re fine with— with murdering them?”

  “Have you met any adventurers so far who seemed like they wouldn’t do the same?”

  “I have,” she said, thinking of Kagezora, Ebony, and Jared. At least that’s what she wanted to believe about them.

  “Those are the ones who will be smart enough to get out of our way.”

  “Harrow, these are people from Earth!”

  “And? When these adventurers go out and buy slaves for their harem, or when they butcher another adventurer’s party, is that less evil because their victims came from Tushita? I’m not happy about killing. No one is. But dissolving the stranglehold adventurers have on Tushita means violence. There will be no justice in this world until adventurers and Tushitans are on equal footing.”

  They were ugly words, she thought, but they were true. Jessica only had to think of Barleyfield and its serfs to realize that. She wanted to help them. Maybe more than she wanted to return to Earth. And as things stood now, there was no other way but force of arms.

  “What about the king and queen?” she asked.

  “Samara and Capra? They’ll be executed,” Harrow said.

  by Jarex

  Emotions are fuel. Happiness is ammo.

  Sam just wants to be a good person. It’s why she chooses to use her ability to see the unseen world of werewolves and vampires for good. Mainly, she hugs ghosts to death. But when shapeshifting aliens kill her cat, all the hugs and pleasantries in the world won’t get her back. Becoming a magical girl will.

  Nobody ever said it was going to be easy. However, even equipped with magic, guns, and extra limbs, she is woefully unprepared when an entire alien invasion descends on her hometown…

  +++

  This story definitely contains:

  - Idealistic female lead

  - Focus on Litrpg mechanics

  - Point/stat/spell system

  - A mix of early cyberpunk, magical girl, and supernatural

  - Guns.

  - Spider facts. °°OooO°°

  - HUGS!

  - Lesbian romance subplot

  - Occasional dark moments