Chapter 231. Ripples.

After Amapola transformed, Flor flew out with her. The Rose Fairy that saw them going out was stunned when she saw the new Rose Fairy Queen. The dress she had before was too small, so she was currently wearing one of Flor’s dresses. Due to their difference in build and height, it was somewhat short, but it didn’t look bad on her.

The Rose Fairy blinked, looking back and forth between them, and she asked. “Um… Why did you call, Queen Flor?”

Flor pointed at Amapola and smiled. “Now she is the Queen. I want you to call all Rose Fairies to gather tomorrow night around Liu Shu to pass down my position to her as your leader.”

The small Rose Fairy opened her mouth, stunned by Flor’s words. However, seeing that Amapola has transformed into such a comparatively large Rose Fairy, she really couldn’t find any other answer except that Flor was telling the truth. “O-Okay! I’ll make sure everyone is there!”

Flor smiled and looked at Amapola. “Well, think about what you will say tomorrow night. From now on, the Rose Fairies are under your rule.”

Amapola nodded thoughtfully and flew off. 

After seeing her leave, Flor returned to her office and landed on her desk. She extended one arm and opened and closed her hand to feel her own strength. Noticing the noticeable drop in strength, she looked at her stats. “Hm… Quite a big drop. That’s what, twenty percent of my total strength? Perhaps a bit more?”

Looking at her system, she took a deep breath and asked. “Can I still gain the <Flower Fairy Monarch> title?”

[Would you like to gain the <Flower Fairy Monarch> title?]

Reading that message, Flor’s heart finally settled, and she released a big sigh of relief. “It seems that this path didn’t close when I passed down my title.”

She walked to her personal desk, took a rectangular white leaf, and started writing with a feather to Wert and other people in charge to inform them about Amapola’s change.

One hour later, Flor finished and looked out of the window. The Sun was already down, leaving an orange glow on everything bathed by the gorgeous sunset. 

The sunset’s light illuminated half of the giant World Tree while the other half was covered in shadows. The image gave a sense of peace in her that she couldn’t really put into words.

“Level 21… Who knew that the little Rose Fairy back then would reach these heights, eh?” Flor laughed about her journey. “All because I trusted that a little tree which was shadowed by the surrounding trees would grow into something more than the one we were staying with.”

Rose Fairies had an innate ability to feel flora’s feelings, so from the very beginning, she could tell that Liu Shu was different. Her emotions were much more varied; her actions felt more profound. Flor leaned back and sighed. “And yet I couldn’t tell that the Tree Houses were in distress for so long. That’s probably my biggest regret yet since we started this place.” 

Due to how young the Tree Houses were, their intelligence and emotional intelligence were not deep enough to be easily understood. With everything that was going on at that time, Rose Fairies failed to sense their uncomfortableness. 

Flor looked to the side, spotting a mirror, and flew there, landing on the ground and looking at herself. She didn’t expect to see any change. However, she was surprised to find a visible change. Leaning sideways, she used the light coming from the window to look at herself. “Hm? When did I gain these wrinkles?”

The wrinkles were faint, but unlike her perfectly healthy and pristine skin previously, there were faint but certainly distinguishable wrinkles at the sides of her eyes. She couldn’t help but smile somewhat sadly. “I am getting old. I wonder how much more time the strength I’ll gain from this title will extend my life for.” 

Flor sighed and used her Wind Aether to move the letters with her, placing them in the desks outside her office to be distributed later. 

“Now the question is, should I accept the title now or later?”

Flor took into account the time that had passed since the attack from that army, and she shook her head. “I am sure that this will bring quite a few big changes. I might go into some kind of sleep for several days or more… I’ll do it after. It’s not like my strength will make a big difference in the overall situation. Amapola is already a net gain in strength.”

She flew through the streets of the town and went into the ant nest, reaching Ignatia’s nest room. When she entered, she saw Ignatia sleeping with a few Level 0 and Level 1 ants stacked around her, making her laugh. ‘She really loves playing with the children.’ 

Of course, Ignatia couldn’t really close her eyelids to sleep since her eyes were compound, ant-like black eyes. However, it was easy to tell when she was hugging one struggling Level 1 ant tightly as it struggled to free itself from her mother’s loving embrace.

When Flor entered, the Level 1 ant stopped and looked over. It was around 50 centimeters long, not too big compared to how large the ants had become lately. 

Flor flew over and tickled the Level 1 ant’s head. “Good girl.”

Then, she laid down by Ignatia’s side and looked at the sleeping Ant Queen. The fact that Ignatia didn’t even wake up to her presence showed how accustomed and trusting she was of her, making Flor feel warm and happy inside. 

She felt a few small ants snuggling around her, and because of their warm bodies, Flor couldn’t help but close her eyes and fall asleep. She was exhausted after giving away a large part of her strength. 

While the Golden Sap City was peaceful, other places were quite the opposite. 

“Whose idea was it to send an army of just 1000 people!? Do you take World Trees as a light threat!?”

A bear woman’s rugged voice spread around as she looked at gathered leaders. Those at the table looked away while a bearman spoke softly. “Love, we thought that the World Tree was just a newly grown World Tree. Some advisors thought that the army we sent was too strong.”

SLAP!

The bear woman raised her hand and slapped the man flying. “Then get rid of those useless advisors! Who in the branches above thinks a WORLD TREE will be weak!? Was Fortuna easy to invade when she was young, or what!?”

A human woman coughed. “Madam, Lady Fortuna was protected by several other powers-“

SLAP!

The human woman flew across the room, slamming against a distant wall. “AND NOBODY THOUGHT THAT… I DON’T KNOW… THIS OTHER WORLD TREE MIGHT BE IN THE SAME SITUATION!? JUST BECAUSE A FOX BITCH GOT KILLED, WE DESTROYED ONE OF OUR MAIN ARMY BRANCHES!”

The people around didn’t speak anymore, seeing how furious the bear woman was. The tall and muscular woman sat down and looked around. When her furious gaze landed on someone, they would shrink slightly out of fear. 

After a few moments, she released a sigh and spoke in a much calmer tone. “Okay. We just fed an army of a 1000 people to a World Tree. This will accelerate its growth and the growth of those around her. Moreover, at first, we weren’t that involved in this matter due to the distance. Now we are.”

A human man spoke softly. “May I speak?”

The bear woman looked over with a bored face. “Go ahead. Say something stupid, and I’ll rip your head off, so be careful with what you ask.”

The human man cleared his throat. “Madam, while a World Tree has very strong defensive capabilities, they are usually lacking offensively. How about we just ignore the deal altogether and try to remedy our relationship? We have many years before either Fortuna or the new World Tree can spread their roots here.”

The bearkin woman squinted, making the man start to sweat. However, after a few moments, she hummed. “Well, that doesn’t sound too stupid. It is a cowardly suggestion, though. Clever, I’ll admit, but cowardly nonetheless.”

The human man risked his neck and commented further. “Powers that aren’t under the influence of a World Tree are either too weak to even be looked at by the larger powers, or they have a treasure or person who can deter even those powerful beings from taking action. I don’t think we have anyone or anything like that, at least not to my knowledge, Madam.”

The bear woman looked at him and nodded. “Well, you are not wrong. We are relatively free because we, the <Deep Prairie Merchant Alliance>, are just that, a merchant province with enough military power to defend ourselves.” 

A snake woman at the side smiled and spoke. “Madam, what if we take a side in the conflict and help that one win?”

“Denied,” The Madam didn’t hesitate. “If the side we supported loses, we are done for. We leave ourselves with the option of taking a step back. It’s better to stay neutral and then approach the victor. While we lose a chance to ally ourselves with a powerful World Tree deeply, we will also manage to keep our neutrality.”

The snake woman blinked and hummed. “I wouldn’t call them powerful.”

The bear woman snorted. “When two World Trees fight, the victor usually comes out many times stronger. If right now they feel somewhat menacing, when they are done fighting, you’ll feel that they can swallow you whole with one bite.” 

When she saw that the bearkin she first slapped was awake, she asked. “Hey, what is the situation in the surrounding provinces?”

The world was divided into Villages, Towns, Cities, Provinces, States, Countries, Empires, and finally, Continents. Some provinces, like the one Liu Shu was in, had separate cities fighting for power. Still, it was much more common for all cities in a province to be under the command of a single governing body. 

The bearman rubbed his cheek and commented. “Without taking into account the Provinces beyond the <Wall Forest> and the <Dark Aether Swamp> further south, they are pretty much in a wait-and-see situation. The <White Forest Province>, where Fortuna and the new World Tree have emerged, are in a state of restlessness. The most powerful families there have started trying to fight for more dominance, knowing that one World Tree is about to swallow the entire place soon.” 

The bear woman hummed. “We know of our <Deep Prairie Merchant Province> situation… Tell me about the other four.”

The bearman sat down again and nodded. “Yes, Madam. The <Glimmering Stone Peaks Province> is not too interested. Due to their mountainous terrain, they don’t fear World Trees much.”

The Madam snorted. “Naive.”

“Meanwhile, the <Veiled Amber Marshlands Province> is difficult to assess. The powers over there are quite… Well, they act very erratically. Right now, they don’t seem interested, though.”

The Madam hummed. “Fair.”

“<Sunbound Shores Province> is where a man named Lord Stormrider has started to gain a lot of strength thanks to owning a very powerful flying mount that he uses cleverly.” 

“I heard about that man. He was going to involve himself in the <White Forest Province>, right? But, in the end, he changed his intentions… Investigate into that.”

“Understood Madam. Finally, the <Ironwood Highland Province>… Well, they are there. Nothing new.”

The Madam waved her hand. “They have degraded almost into a vassal province to the Glimmering Stone Peaks, so they are not that important. Keep an eye on them, though.”

“Understood, Madam Thalgryn.”

The bear woman sighed and looked at the chandelier in the middle of the room. “It seems that things have started to get a bit messy. I wonder what those big shots will do?” 

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