IsekaiSS part 7

>You roll off the haybed.
>you must have fallen asleep at some point, somehow
>there is something not right about that chocolate. You haul yourself to your feet.
>you need to get ready for that meeting kamikaze was talking about. The absolute last thing that you feel like doing is dealing with other people, especially as your rapidly developing headache shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
>oh Christ it hurts.
>fuuuuuuuuuuuu
“KAMI-KAZEEEEEEEEE” you shout to the room
“What you want!?” comes the reply from under some hay.
>kamikaze’s head make’s itself visible above the hay pile
“what?”
“heals plz” you say as you clutch your pressure-bomb head.
>kamikaze begrudgingly heals you.
>you set about cleaning yourself up. You brush the bits of dirt, hay, ash and other various materials that have accumulated over the past few weeks. You look down at your frankly unimpressive uniform, plain collar tabs, no medals, no shiny bits in general. You climb down to the ground floor and up the Tiger. you rifle through the storage container on the rear of the turret, you find a new jacket. Complete with shiny officer collar tabs, shoulder boards and a small gold Nazi party badge. You also find a silver-corded infantry officer’s cap.
>you look at the great machine beneath you. should you ride it to the meeting? Fuel is blood, but a first impression is pretty important.
>eh, why not
“HAAAAAANS” you shout at the mezzanine “WE HAVE A MEETING TO GET TO”
“GO BY YOURSELF ANON”
>this guy.
>what would the sarge do?
>after some ‘gentle persuasion’ Hans is a little more open to the idea of a field day.
>Henrik and Kamikaze decide to tag along so they can do a bounty or two while you and hans are at the meeting
>After a short while of making Hans presentable, which involves replacing almost all of his partially burnt clothing and taking away his many concealed grenades, knives and small crystals that you do not recognise.
>finally, you all get into the tiger and begin the drive to Axis.
>The day isn’t particularly hot, but its plenty to make the interior of the tank uncomfortable enough to coerce everyone but Hans, the driver, out onto the vehicle’s roof.
>you once again get to admire the world you have found yourself in. it reminds you of paintings you had seen of Germany during the middle ages.
>you begin to plan your moves at the meeting. There are too many ways that a situation like this could go.
>you decide to check out the situation when you get there.
>and while you’re at it, see if fuel exists so the tiger can be deployed more frequently.
>your advance draws plenty of looks of confusion, fear etc. but you make sure to smile and wave so that someone doesn’t start throwing fireballs or something.
>you can hear the change of the tracks’ thunder as the road changes from dirt to stone. You cringe as you hear the weakly constructed road crack under the weight of the Tiger.
>as you turn onto the main street, you notice a few carriages and some slightly-more-important-than-usual looking adventurers.
>their clothing is way less shiny than yours.
>excellent
>The tiger grinds to a halt at the guild building.
>you straighten your cap and disembark while the surrounding adventurers stare in disbelief.
“Guten tag” you say coolly as you pass the bewildered adventurers
The usual tavern-like layout of the guild has been changed
>all of the tables have been pushed together to form a large square.
>Alice hops over to you.
“Hello Anon! and Hans, welcome”
“hello Alice, so what’s the deal with this meeting?”
“well” she averts her eyes “it was called by the other factions, they’re a bit angry because you claimed here and Strom”
“so what you’re saying is..” Hans begins
>Hans begins shooting suspicious looks around the room and reaches into his jacket, he slowly begins drawing his C-96.
“oi, No, Bad Hans”
>you could have sworn you got all of his weapons. The pistol is quickly confiscated and slipped into your jacket.
“alright, now that everyone’s here…” Alice says
>Alice walks over to the head of the table and pick up a large bell and a hammer. she rings the bell and calls “Everyone get in here! We’re ready to start!”
>the adventurers from outside enter and take positions at the sides of the table. Alice motions for you and Hans to take the seats at the end of the table. A few other townsfolk stand around the room as spectators.
“now, why don’t we introduce ourselves” Alice prompts
>the four men on both sides of the table stand and sound off.
>a man in leather armour introduces himself as “William, representative of Swords of Ares”
>an aristocratic looking guy is “Gaston, representative of the Revolutionary Front”
>a hunched-over figure in a hooded robe introduces itself in a garbled voice, which Alice helpfully translates as “Merlok of Zenith”
>The last guy, a really bulky dude is “Big Gerald from the Corner Store”
>Apparently the thought he could lower his taxes by making his store a faction.
>It didn’t.
“I am Anon and this is Hans, we’re from the Frontier Reich”
>with the introductions out of the way, Gaston gets right into it.
“How dare you claim our territory! In any other situation we would have declared war already!”
“not just yours, Strom is in our territory” growls William
“you idiots have picked a fight with the two biggest factions on the continent!”
“well, it’s your fault for leaving the towns completely unguarded, there was literally no one here to tell us not to, and Strom was getting fucked by goblins” Hans pipes up
>Merlok garbles in what sounds like agreement
>Gaston stares daggers at the mass of robes
“of course, Zenith doesn’t know how to handle territory, you’re barely a faction at all!”
>he spits out the word ‘Zenith’ as if it is below him to even utter it.
>Merlok buzzes angrily at the uppity snob.
William nudges Gaston and points at you.
“oh yes” he murmurs “We request that you officially hand the towns back over to their rightful owners, us”
>you can see where this is going.
“and if we don’t?”
>Gaston smirks
“I suppose we’ll have to fight you” he says smugly.
“don’t you think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself? You’re supposed to give the peaceful option first you know” you smirk back
“so that’s how you’re going to be, eh” Gaston snarls “well you know what, fuck it, this was going to happen from the start”
“what’s going to happen?”
“we’re going to fight, now we just need to know who’s supporting who”
“you didn’t see our big war machine?”
>William starts laughing
“if you think that’s going to save you from the might of the Swords of Ares, then you’re gonna get a really rude awakening”
>Merlok unleashes a torrent of his strange speech, buzzing noises and small sparks of energy.
>Alice clears her throat, and begins translating.
“Fuck you, you uppity cunts, I’m sick of your shit, what kind of fucking retarded do you need to be to not even be slightly worried by that gigantic steel monster. You are actually goddamn stupid, this is why I didn’t join you bastards, Frontier Reich could take all of your territory and I wouldn’t give a shit, i’ll throw my lot in with them just so I can see you knob-jockeys wiped off the face of the earth”
“Now we know where Zenith stands on the matter” says Gaston flatly “now you, in one week Revolutionary Front and Swords of Ares will send a division of soldiers each to the fields surround Axis, if you don’t turn up, you forfeit the territory, if you lose the fight, you for forfeit the territory, if by some miracle you win, we’ll try again later”
>with that Gaston and William get up and leave. Big Gerald, who had not spoken a word the entire time, finally breaks his silence
“I’d best get back to the store” he says as he stands up
“why did you bother coming here?” hans asks “you didn’t actually do anything”
“it’s not everyday someone messes with those two factions. They’re a pretty big deal you know”
“I guess it’s time to see if they’re worth that big deal”
 “it seems so” Gerald laughs as he exits.
>Once Gerald and most of the other townspeople leave, Merlok turns to you
“I cannot promise any of the others will come help, but I will assist you in any way I can” he says, it still sounds strange but it’s understandable.
“the others?” you ask.
“Zenith is not a regular faction, it was founded some hundred years ago to allow sorcerers and the like to share research more easily, but nothing more so we don’t have many obligations to the faction itself”
>after a while of talking with Merlok he agrees to teach Hans what he can in magic.
>you say your farewells with the promise to meet again at the battlefield.

---------

“Oy blyat! Pierre look at this!” says the Russian man, passing a newspaper to the leader of the Revolutionary Front
>Pierre takes the paper. His eyes widen in panic as he reads.
“MERDE, WHAT IS THAT MORON DOING!?”
>he tosses the paper onto the table
>Bruce pounces on the newspaper and, after reading, he holds it up for all to see.
“Check this out mates”
“Oh my!” exclaims Theodore, his monocle popping off its perch
>the American simply laughs manically
>the headline reads ‘Swords of Ares and Revolutionary Front to declare war on minor faction Frontier Reich’