Kingdom Building: Civilization Starts with Divinity-Chapter 60: Battle’s Aftermath

A short while later, after Alchemy had calmed down and regained her proper mental state.

She groaned as she looked at the duo, a headache still lingering from getting herself pointlessly worked up.

"Your injuries say you guys had fun. What happened?" Alchemy sighed, petting the horrified Sapphire to help her calm down.

She hadn’t had a good look at Nera earlier, so she couldn’t tell right away, but now that she was in front of her, Alchemy just wanted to roll her eyes.

Nera tried to hide the fact that neither of her left arms was functional, but Alchemy lightly poked one of them, causing pain to course through Nera.

’It’ll take a while, but the holy water should be able to heal that.’

Nera glared at Gravana before she turned away and clicked her tongue. This action caused Gravana to let out a hearty chuckle.

"I suppose you could say it was a draw! To think someone so much weaker than myself was able to injure me." Gravana’s chuckle turned into a full-on laugh.

That was a surprise. Alchemy had expected Nera to put up a good fight. A better fight than she had, at least. But she didn’t expect it to go so far as her managing to break Gravana’s arm.

She wondered how Nera managed to get Gravana to consider it a draw. She doubted he’d be so kind as to give the moth any face if she landed a lucky hit or a sneak attack.

The fact that both of them had broken arms gave her a few guesses, but those felt rather out of character for Nera.

Whatever the case, it didn’t matter. Nera could give her official report later.

"That aside, what happened to you? It was like that damned fogey cast a confusion spell on you."

"It felt like it, too." Alchemy smiled wryly.

"I still don’t think I can confidently recount the details. The chain of events still feels a little unreal. Nera, do you mind?"

"All of it, Mother Goddess?" Nera questioned.

"There’s not much to leave out, is there? If an army of monkeys are going to march into our territory, our only potential ally should probably know the long and short of it."

Nera was hesitant to share any information with Gravana, but she agreed that there wasn’t much harm in sharing it at this point.

Organizing the information, Nera relayed the events of Alchemy’s talk with Rio to Gravana and Sapphire.

The room fell silent. As quiet as it was, tension was nowhere to be seen, as Gravana used every muscle in his body to prevent himself from dying of laughter.

"Uhm... Isn’t it a good thing if he joins us?" Sapphire asked innocently, breaking the short silence.

Gravana couldn’t hold in his laughter as her words echoed throughout the hut.

"GRAHAHAHAHAHA! TO THINK YOU MANAGED TO OUTSMART THAT OLD GEEZER! THIS IS TOO FUNNY! GRAHAHAHA!"

"I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, teacher." Alchemy lamented, turning her attention to Sapphire after.

"It’d be fantastic if he worshipped me as his Goddess. I’d never not be happy about gaining another [Hero]. But if he doesn’t... In the best case, we lose a powerful ally. In the worst, a war breaks out."

"Hmph. He deserved what came to him. Trying to test Mother Goddess like that." Nera scoffed.

The ensuing battle could hardly be called a war by scale. Realistically, it’d only last a few days at most, with a couple of battles.

Luckily, Alchemy wasn’t worried about losing said battles with Tier 2 units unlocked. It’d be a close battle, but if Nera could hold off Rio, then both the advantages of them being a [Species of Mana] and having a [Hero++] could be overturned somewhat.

Truth be told, she wasn’t scared of the younger Knowledge Seekers at all. Her current self could probably deal with most of them alone.

"I wouldn’t be too worried about the old man starting a war, Disciple. You’re not the only one with too much to lose. Our two groups have been skirmishing for so long because he hates disruptions. He’s so terrified that if we keep hunting without care, the Dryads will get involved, and that’d be troublesome for his research or whatever." Gravana explained.

He understood why Alchemy was scared. The smartest ones tended to be the most prideful, but he knew Rio quite well. As long as he could quietly sit in his corner and do his own thing, his people wouldn’t ever leave.

Nera was the same for various reasons. It didn’t take an ace detective to know that Nera would attack at the slightest fault aimed at her Mother Goddess. For that reason, she refused to acknowledge how low of a chance Rio had to attack them.

In her mind, admitting that would be no different than Rio, a mere Vermin, was better than her. As much as she liked the old monkey, she’d never admit such a thing.

"That old geezer wouldn’t be able to move against you for a while anyway. The earliest would be a week, but it’d be even longer with me here." Gravana continued.

"If the Dryads cared about disruption, they would have shown themselves to me, wouldn’t they? A new kid on the block who’s rapidly growing in power. If that’s not disruptive, then I don’t know what it is." Alchemy questioned.

His words made a lot of sense. She didn’t consider the time it’d take to rally a large group of people in such a short time now that this was reality. In A.O.A, it was only a few clicks to start a full-scale war.

Even now that this was a reality, her Verminae were willing to die at the order. If she wanted to start a war, all it’d take was a single word, and all of her units would be on board.

"I suppose you’re right. Although I definitely can’t ask you to participate in this possible war." Alchemy hummed.

"Whether I partake in it or not doesn’t matter. The primate will consider the possibility of me being here regardless. And how could you possibly leave me out of it? Any excuse to put that monkey in his place is a good enough reason for me."

Gravana’s words made Alchemy chuckle a little. It appeared that she was worried for nothing.

"Thanks, Teacher. But will your arm be okay?"

"Don’t worry about it, Disciple! Werewolves aren’t easy to take down. A small injury like this won’t keep me down! It’ll be good as new in a day or two!"

’What a crazy regeneration factor.’ Alchemy said.

It wasn’t quite comparable to what her holy water was capable of, but that was assuming you were fully submerged in it.

"Then our plan for tomorrow is still on?"

"As long as the little Shapeshifter’s wounds are healed. They’re more severe than mine."

"I’ll be just fine. I don’t need your worry, werewolf." Nera cursed the thought.