Fates Parallel Chapter 226 - Diplomacy

It was strange and a little off-putting to see Jianmo split into two tiny versions of themself. They didn’t look younger at all, just...smaller. The feminine Jianmo was still just as voluptuous and scantily clad as ever, while the masculine still showed off his well-defined, shirtless musculature. All of Jianmo’s imposing figure and raw sexuality condensed into two miniature forms. Not that miniature, mind you—they were still both taller than either of Yoshika’s bodies.

“Well, I suppose I can help you out of this mess just this once. Or is it twice? I assume you still owe me for bailing you out of that situation with Shen?”

This time Jianmo only spoke with their masculine body, and Yoshika shook her head, responding with Eui’s voice.

“Stop! No talking—you’re only going to make things worse.”

Jianmo’s feminine form let out an exaggerated gasp and held her hands up to her mouth.

“Oh! How dare you speak to your master that way? I don’t—”

“Shut up! You’re not actually our master anyway, you’re just a simulacrum. We only need you to prove that we have a way to find your master’s tomb. You do know how to find it, right?”

Both of Jianmo’s expressions became deadly serious at once, and they spoke in chorus as they responded.

“I do. I was tempted to leave that out, but I thought it would make a good emergency measure in case something happened to my real body. Has it?”

“Not as far as we know, but we haven’t seen you since you gave us this simulacrum.”

“Alright. Take it away, miss boss. Let’s see how you handle the elementals. I don’t hate that rebellious streak.”

Yoshika took a deep breath with both of her bodies. Jianmo’s irreverence had thrown her off, and she tried to get back into the right mindset. Turning her attention back to the elementals, she spoke in Jia’s voice.

“We assume you can see this construct?”

Jianmo’s male form snorted.

“I’m not hiding my presence, this time. Everyone can see and hear me.”

Yoshika almost wished they couldn’t, but kept that to herself as she proceeded.

“We have the ‘map’ you wanted. It may not be the real Jianmo, but the simulacrum’s knowledge is as true to the real thing as your own avatar, Void.”

Iseul’s face brightened up, her smile very nearly looking genuine as the last traces of her strange manic expression began to fade—Yoshika worried about how used to Ja Yun’s body the elemental was getting.

“That’s great! Now we can—”

“No. We’re not interested in what you have to offer.”

Iseul froze. Her face went slack, and her wide-eyed stare returned as she struggled to find the right expression for the new emotion she was no-doubt experiencing. The rest of the room was just as surprised, as Yoshika received confused looks from Rika, Kaede, Eunae, and even Hyeong Aecha, who had picked herself up at some point and stood by Eunae’s side. Only Kim Yongsun seemed unfazed—in fact, she might have imagined it, but Yoshika thought she noticed a subtle nod of approval from Eunae’s tiger-headed cousin.

Void’s non-voice resounded silently throughout the room.

“Elaborate.”

Yoshika steeled herself. She was no diplomat, but this was her only chance to convince them.

“You have your own goals, and anything you offer will only further those, with no regard for ours. That’s not how cooperation—”

She stopped, shaking both heads. No conclusions, no emotional appeals. Just statements of fact.

“All the pieces are on the board. Two keys and a map. That changes the state of the game—your previous plan is no longer the most effective option.”

Okay, that last part was a conclusion, but it was partly for her own benefit. Besides, she wasn’t going to be able to do this by herself, she needed to walk through her reasoning out loud to get the others to understand.

“We wouldn’t presume to know the inner machinations of a being as ancient as you, but to us it seems as if your plan was to get two of the pieces together in order to accelerate the search for the third. Last we saw, Shen Yu was still chasing Jianmo all over the continent while Qin wages war against the demons. Their attention is split. If the demons fall, then Qin can focus everything on capturing Jianmo as their map. Kaede, what’s your strategic analysis of the situation between Qin and the demonic invaders?”

Hayakawa Kaede started, as if surprised she was being addressed—much less by her given name—but she rallied quickly, adopting her usual cold demeanor and stepping forward smoothly.

“Reports are mixed, but the demons have largely been fighting defensively. Keeping the bulk of their forces behind the shield wall while they amass power by conducting raids nearby and kidnapping mortals and low level cultivators to convert or consume.”

Yoshika tried to keep the horror off her face. She hadn’t heard about that.

“Do you believe they are in any danger of falling to Qin’s forces?”

Kaede shook her head.

“Not within the next decade. The formation left behind at the academy is a match for anything in Goryeo. In fact, now that I’ve seen them in person, I suspect that Do Hye’s craft has surpassed that of the original shield walls.”

Yoshika nodded.

“So the demons aren’t likely to lose—what about Qin?”

“Not a chance. The Empire is the largest nation on the continent, and by far the most powerful. The only reasons they haven’t conquered the entire continent are Goryeo’s shell being too tough to crack, and the size of Yamato’s army spreading their forces too thin. For every acre of our land they take, we respond by taking two of theirs.”

That was probably a bit of nationalistic pride on Kaede’s part, exaggerating her own country’s ability. After all, they were here to form an alliance because Yamato was in danger of falling. Still it demonstrated the point.

“So neither side is likely to fall, they’re at a stalemate, right?”

Kaede nodded.

“In fact, the lack of real aggression from the demons leaves Qin open to focus their efforts on expanding. They’ve increased their attacks on Yamato lately—taking advantage of their otherworldly allies to press the advantage against us.”

“So there you have it. Neither side can defeat the other without intervention, and if you thought your intervention would be sufficient, you’d have given it already.”

There was a long, awkward silence in the wake of Yoshika’s words, but now that she was whole again, she could see the domains of the elementals reaching out to each other and mixing their auras together. It had never occurred to Yoshika that the aura and domain could be manipulated independently like that—something to investigate later.

When their silent conversation was complete, Void’s aura reached out to touch Iseul, and she jumped as if startled.

“Ack! Oh, um, okay...please don’t get mad at me but...uh, taking the map and giving it to either side would be enough to tip the balance. If Qin puts their full force behind the attack, then Grandpa calculates that the elementals and mage colleges together will be sufficient to break the siege within one year.”

Yoshika shrugged.

“Try it and we’ll just destroy the simulacrum.”

“What?!”

Yoshika ignored Jianmo’s interjection.

“We have no doubt that you’d be able to extract the information you need from the simulacrum regardless of its cooperation, but we’re confident that we’d be able to destroy it before you got the chance to try.”

That was a bit of a bluff, but Yoshika stood by it. She could destroy Jianmo’s essence fragment, but whether she could do it before the elementals killed her and took it for themselves was another question entirely. She was banking on the elementals not being willing to take the chance.

Void spoke for itself once again, perhaps more willing to speak without Iseul as a mouthpiece now that Yoshika was making an effort to speak in a way it understood. Or maybe its message was simple enough not to need translation.

“Alternatives.”

Perfect. Yoshika directed her attention to Eunae.

“Eunae, by your estimation, how would Goryeo fare in a war against Qin?”

The princess cocked her head and thought about it for a moment.

“In its current state? Hopeless. The noble families hold the vast majority of the nation's power, and with the military crippled, the colleges will have their hands full managing internal unrest during the transfer of power.”

She was remarkably calm, considering she was talking about a coup against her own family. Yoshika chalked it up to her estrangement, but she was probably also putting on a brave face for her little sister. Haeun had also woken up and was now silently watching the proceedings by Eunae’s side.

“And if the nobles, including the royal family, were freed? Assuming cooperation from the elementals.”

“Better. We’d still have to worry about raids from the demonic enclave and our borders with Yamato. Our shield cities are strong, but we’d be unlikely to survive if we left our lands completely undefended. Plus, the military is still broken and would likely need to undergo purges to eliminate the traitorous elements—internal strife still becomes an issue.”

Yoshika suppressed the trembling in her bodies, steadying her nerves as she approached the critical point. The hard sell.

“And what if, on top of that, we had an alliance with Yamato?”

Eunae smirked.

“Well, then the threat of raids would become protectors of our land. With full cooperation and trade between our two nations, we’d be able to ease civil unrest at the root rather than suppress it with force. Military downsizing would no longer have such a drastic impact, and we’d be able to commit the full force of our strategic resources to the fight. But...”

Her smile dropped slowly into a frown as she trailed off.

“It still wouldn’t be enough, Yoshika. The Qin Empire’s dominance is not for show. If an alliance between Yamato and Goryeo were sufficient to defeat them, we’d have done it long ago.”

Yoshika wasn’t sure if that was really true—history wasn’t exactly her best subject, but the strife between the three great nations went quite a bit deeper than that. Which is why she was so worried about what she was about to say next.

“And what if...instead of fighting against Qin, we worked with them?”

A cacophony of voices followed. Eunae and Hayakawa speaking over each other, Iseul trying to ask for clarification, and Jianmo’s copies just laughing their asses off.

“Stop!”

Yoshika’s voices cut through the susurrus, amplified by her ki with technique inspired by her martial arts master Ienaga Yumi—who had been renowned for her powerful voice back at the academy. Yoshika went on calmly in Jia’s voice.

“We’re not talking about an alliance, or even any kind of formal agreement. If we focus our efforts on the demons, then Qin will take advantage of it, right?”

Hayakawa frowned, crossing her arms.

“No doubt they would—but it’s a question of how. Would they join the attack on the former academy, or would they strike at our undefended backs like the vipers they are?”

Well it seemed pretty obvious which way Hayakawa thought they would go. Eunae seemed a bit less certain, tilting her head one way then the other.

“It’s...not impossible. It would be a significant risk, though. If Qin took the advantage to strike at either Goryeo or Yamato then our alliance would suddenly be stuck fighting on two fronts—against both the demons and the empire.”

Hayakawa took the opportunity to cut in.

“Not to mention that all of that is contingent on the elementals cooperating, on the nobles being released, and on an alliance being formed. There’s a lot that can go wrong.”

Iseul was the next voice to interject, and Yoshika was starting to feel a bit ganged up on.

“Grandpa also wants to point out that a nation of mortals—he means houtian cultivators—won’t be enough to turn the tide.”

Yoshika latched on to the one thing that she could actually address.

“Don’t underestimate us! Yamato is a nation that specializes in punching above its weight! We personally witnessed Master Ienaga Yumi fight off two xiantian demons, slaying one and gravely injuring the other in a single strike. And she claimed to be the weakest of our instructors! Xiantian cultivators aren’t invincible—a skilled group of third stage cultivators can overcome the odds.”

Hayakawa narrowed her eyes at Yoshika, speaking in a warning tone.

“Jia...”

Yoshika shook it off, riding the momentum of her passionate rant—almost entirely forgetting that the elementals wouldn’t be swayed one wit by emotional appeals.

“In fact, after everything we’ve been through, I wouldn’t be surprised if those of us here would be enough to take on a xiantian cultivator.”

Iseul gasped, and the room went otherwise entirely silent in shock at Yoshika’s bold declaration. Then, without breaking the silence, a single word in a soundless voice shook them to their core.

“Demonstrate.”

Yoshika felt both of her bodies go cold with sweat.

“W-what?”

The smooth, glassy form of the magma elemental strode forward, its blindingly bright core glowing within its chest. It strode up to the center of the room, forcing Iseul back from the sheer heat radiating off of it. Though its smooth dome of a head didn’t have anything like eyes, Yoshika nevertheless felt its fiery gaze upon her. Void’s alien, soundless voice called out a second time.

“Demonstrate.”