Kyle had a point - the number of people who had died within the cities was rather low, but anyone who hadn't been able to get to the cities in time was in deep trouble. Most of them were just dead - which was not only sad, but from a purely strategic point of view, those who had died were food for the dryads allowing them to sustain themselves longer.

"To think that fire works so well against them," Kyle continued. "And yet - we, a country with a proud heritage of fire elementalists did so poorly." He shook his head. "It's honestly embarrassing. And even if it takes a fortune, I think it is well worth it to build something that might save us in the future." He turned to me. "What do you think?"

Was this guy genuinely asking for my opinion? Or did he just want someone to agree with him? I couldn't tell.

"Well, I've never really been to the border before," I said to him. "So I don't know exactly how feasible the project is… but I don't think the right decision would be to just sit out and hope that this never happens again." The dryad invasion was something that normally only occurred in Hitutsa up till now, and the fact that they had turned and marched into Chipker instead had been quite the shocker. Maybe they would never bother coming back to Chipker again? I could see people who might argue that the dryad invasion was a 'once-in-a-lifetime' event and there was really no need to invest any more resources into infrastructure to deal with it as it was so unlikely to happen again.

Yet, when faced with the brutal reality of how much the country had suffered from this invasion, it was hard to justify not trying to do something that would make future incursions less likely.

Kyle nodded vigorously. "My point exactly! But the nobles… some of them had not even marched with us out into the fray while we took down the fleeing dryad tide that had retreated from Arconia, can you imagine? They simply sat here, safe in the city, claiming they were working 'to defend it' yet they act in this manner." He spoke the last sentence with quite a bit of disdain. Did he know that I had also stayed behind in the city that time? He then paused as he looked at me. "Ah, I didn't mean to say anything against you of course, Master Stefan, after seeing how effective your little spider strategy is, it was only natural that you stayed behind to defend Arconia in case something happened. Arconia is far less well-fortified than this city, after all."

"Ah, right," I said.

I thought that was the end of it, until he whipped his head around once more. "I apologize - but, you said you'd never been to the border before? How did you get into the country then?"

Oh - I had just dug a hole for myself there, hadn't I?

"I mean, I came from the other side," I said hastily. "Not near Hitutsa."

"Is that so?" Kyle asked.

Luckily by that point, a runner came along with a message for him, and he had to excuse himself.

I sighed with relief as Kyle didn't bring the topic up later.

The overall plan though was quite a success and I was sure that Kyle had found his standing within court quite elevated after the attack.

As for me - well, my image as the Spider King of Arconia was even more deeply ingrained into people's minds by now.

Even before this, I had gotten a plethora of invitations to parties and dinners which I tried my best to decline, citing work that I had to do. It had only gotten worse after this little skirmish that we had wrapped up quite nicely.

I guess while I thought of it as 'a little skirmish' the threat was magnified for those who lived in the capital, given that it was their city which had nearly been attacked this time instead of Arconia, even if they could have easily taken a force five times as large and not been in any real danger even without any Liberomancers backing them given the capital's defenses.

That didn't stop them from sending flowers, letters of appreciation, marriage proposals, gifts in the form of coins or things like 'food for my bear' (I think some of them didn't know it was a summon or didn't understand how summons worked), or just wanting to stop by the apartment complex so they could thank me in person. The watchmen had to turn quite the crowd away, and while I did appreciate the sentiment, it was getting annoying to a certain extent.

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Speaking of said invitations, however, I ended up getting one which I wasn't sure whether it would be proper for me to decline or not.

It was from the ambassador from Hitutsa to Chipker, a man by the name of Xu Jun.

He had sent me a letter, which I couldn't read - and when I handed it to Sun Jiao he got to line four in about ten minutes, so I just had someone from the guild read it out for me.

"Ah, it's an invitation to dinner," I was told. "And there's a bit more…"

Xu Jun had heard that I intended to head towards Hitutsa, and so had wanted to speak to me - not just about the country, but about my deeds against the dryads.

He didn't elaborate any further, which is why it left me confused.

I wouldn't decline something like an invitation from a fellow Master Liberomancer, or the king, but where did an ambassador stand?

I was going to Hitutsa next, so it did make me feel a bit antsy about just outright saying 'no.' What kind of pull did he have back in Hitutsa? Would he get offended if I refused and maybe make things hard for me there? I had built a good reputation in Chipker, and I didn't want to risk raising a maligned one in Hitutsa given I might be there for a couple of months.

Eventually, I figured I might as well join him and so sent a message back that said I'd be happy to accept his invitation.

Xu Jun lived in a building which was behind the official Hitutsian Embassy. Just like back on Earth, the land on which the embassy was built was considered Hitutsian territory, and there was a lengthy process to get inside.

I was sure that they knew I was coming and that the process was a bit faster for me than it would've been for an ordinary citizen, but it still took ten minutes to get through the front gate.

"Why do you have a demonic spell?" one of the guards asked.

"Oh don't you know?" one of the other guards piped up on my behalf.

By this time now though, the story of how I'd gotten it legitimately was so widespread and famous I didn't even need to take out the papers explaining how I'd gotten it (I was thankful for that as I hadn't remembered to bring them with me for this dinner) and I was waved inside.

The buildings were all built in the traditional style of Hitutsa's architecture, being made of wood and somewhat reminiscent of buildings in Southeast Asia back on Earth.

In truth, it was a bit hard to distinguish them from buildings in Chipker as it was. Back when relations between the humans and lizardmen hadn't been all that warm and friendly back in Arconia, I had heard two common arguments.

One, from the lizardmen, was that the humans living in Chipker were non-natives and the descendants of invaders, and so never belonged to this country. The counterargument, from the humans, was that they had always lived here.

Both statements were somewhat correct but did not paint the whole picture.

The majority of humans currently living in Chipker were descendants of people who had come over from Hitutsa (though the area hadn't been called that at the time) when the Ruler of the Astral Winds had conquered the region. The humans had basically surrendered without putting up much of a fight, unlike the lizardmen, so as part of his new governing policy the Ruler of the Astral Winds had moved a large number of humans to Chipker at that time, and from what Zeke had told me, about nine in ten of the humans currently living in Chipker were descendants of these people who had come in various waves of migration from this time period.

That said, there had been humans in Chipker even before then - they had lived in small villages and were restricted to some small areas and had never held much if any political power before the Ruler of the Astral Winds came along.

It was because of this that most humans of Chipker were nearly indistinguishable from those of Hitutsa. They shared many of the same customs and societal mores - their writing systems were also remarkably similar, though differences had crept in over the centuries.

I had heard that there were other differences though, which is why I sort of welcomed this opportunity to see them with my own eyes. I had probably seen many people from Hitutsa beforehand, but likely had just never noticed them. The writing around the place looked the exact same to me, so I couldn't even tell which script it was.

I was led by one of the guards behind the main embassy building, where the ambassador and several other high-ranking staff lived. This building was more 'civilian' in nature, though still spoke of elegance and several decades of heritage.

Xu Jun's living quarters were on the ground floor - thankfully, there were not a lot of stairs to climb. Despite my earlier thinking that I really needed to get into shape, I had done remarkably little towards that goal.

Xu Jun was already waiting for me near the house's entrance, a gentle smile on his face. He looked to be about forty; and was wearing a bright red uniform overlaid with a black blazer and gold embroidery depicting a flame along its left side. Although he wasn't wearing them at the time, I could see a marking on the bridge of his nose from wearing spectacles - reading glasses more likely than not. His hair was neatly combed - what was left of it, that is. "Welcome, Master Stefan Dawson! A pleasure to have you with us this evening!"

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