Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 576

17 Resolution With The Demons Arc

17-25 The Council of Clans

A subsequent survey from the sky that included magical power detection revealed no further irregularities in the area.

After analyzing the memory Magi Device of "Head" and the Control Core of the Golem that protected the warehouse where the four missing demons had been taken prisoner, there were no other Nega-Dolls remaining in this world.

However, the "how" regarding the discarded Nega-Dolls 001 and 13's survival was still unknown.

It was also unclear what they had intended to do with the four demons they had kidnapped.

Although there were still some unsolved mysteries, it was safe to say that the incident related to the Nega-Dolls was finally settled.

It was already September 12th. A full month had passed since Jin came to the demon's territory.

"The tide is finally turning, huh?"

It was now possible to solve the demons' food situation, and a war between demons and humans could now be completely avoided.

The Nega-Dolls, which hated both humans and demons and were trying to get them to exterminate each other, had been eliminated.

And Jin himself had managed to establish friendly relations with most of the demon clans.

All in all, it was a satisfactory result for Jin.

However, there was one demon that still had something to worry about.

"…Alciel…"

There were still no clues regarding Alciel's whereabouts. And Belials was terribly worried about his little sister.

"This is probably a longshot, but she might still be on the Loren continent."

After Jin shared his thoughts, Belials nodded, though not entirely convinced.

"…Maybe so."

"I will be returning to the Loren continent soon. So I'll be on the lookout for any news regarding your sister. Also, Alciel is pretty tough, right? I'm sure she's fine."

But Belials shook his head weakly.

"After I met you, Mr. Jin, I wonder what it actually means to be tough…"

Such were the conversations being had as Jin and the others headed back to the Kaigyaku clan's abode.

Of course, Donacia, who had returned to her original self, as well as the three demons who had been sent after her, were also on board.

"Oh, Donacia!"

Bafrosk's joy was through the roof. It was to be expected, since the Kaigyaku clan had only 20 surviving members in total.

"Clan chief, I'm sorry, I…"

Feeling terribly ashamed, Donacia explained what happened to her. Bafrosk listened in silence, and after she was done, he tapped her on the shoulder, and simply said "Don't worry about it."

"I guess we all have to change our way of thinking. It's the same for me. So really, don't worry about it."

"Clan chief…?"

"I have to think about the future. Mr. Jin has offered his help as well."

Donacia was taken aback by the clan chief's attitude, which seemed to be so out of character for him.

After all, Bafrosk had openly expressed his concerns about his fellow clan members.

"This incident made me think a little about the way we do things. And I don't feel like being hostile to the Magi Craft Meister."

Though he didn't admit to Donacia that he knew he owed Jin a great debt of gratitude.

Though the demon population had been hit hard by the Nega-Dolls' schemes, for better or worse, the food shortage wouldn't be that much of a problem for the time being.

After all, the once nearly 400 radicals had been reduced to about 270 in total.

Their current stockpiles should be enough to feed that many demons for the rest of the year. And by that time, the "rye" they had planted would be ready to be harvested.

＊ ＊ ＊

"…So, any objections as to the division of work regarding agricultural products, farming, hunting, fishing, and mining?"

"No objections."

"Hmm, no problem."

"That sounds alright."

"I have no complaints."

Three days later, the momentous first council of all clans was held.

The venue was the abode of the neutral Shinshoku clan.

This "Council of Clans" was a meeting of representatives of all of the moderate, neutral, and radical clans. Alectus of "Gospel" acted as chairman on this occasion.

The purpose of this meeting was to determine the roles to be fulfilled by each of the clans. And such a meeting was possible in the first place because all clans realized that they were in the same boat.

In that sense, one could think that Nega-Doll's plan had actually ended up facilitating this meeting.

Jin ('s double) was attending this meeting as an observer, and the real Jin back in Hourai Island -who was controlling the double at the time- was deeply moved.

(The humans on Earth wouldn't have changed their mind like this even in a situation similar to this… Did the demons change their mind like this because it's in their nature, or was it a result of their population being so small?)

Jin had no way to know for sure. But the important thing here was the results obtained.

(At least, they no longer seem to have the will to invade human settlements, so I can safely say that we have fulfilled the mission we set out to do when we first came here.)

"There's this village called Kaina Village."

Hearing a familiar voice pulled Jin right out of his thoughts.

"In that place, all the villagers formed one strong community."

The one speaking was none other than Shion.

"The fields are managed by the whole village. And the harvest is distributed equally… Or should I say fairly, amongst them."

Some demons then asked what the difference between "equally" and "fairly" was. Shion promptly answered that question.

"Sharing equally means that if there are 20 people, the harvest would be split into 20 equal parts to be given to each of them. But that also means that they would receive their part even if they didn't work for it. And that just won't do, will it?"

Shion was an enthusiastic student. The results of her research were clearly visible.

"Sharing fairly takes the amount of work every member of the community does, as well as their family composition, before determining how much to give to each person."

She had managed to come up with a fairly easy to understand way to explain it.

The attendees listened with great interest, and more than anything else, it served as an opportunity to ignite a sense of "good rivalry". One of them even said "There's no way we can't do things the same way humans can."

There was something that took Jin by surprise.

"…Mr. Jin created Farming Golems for us…"

The one speaking was Bardius, chief of the Shinra clan and Shion's grandfather. Jin wondered what he would have to say.

"I would like to jointly manage them as an asset of the entire demon race."

A commotion echoed. He was right. Golems were valuable assets for the demons. A roar spread. It would be so. A golem is an asset. Especially those made by Jin, which were comparable to ancient artifacts.

"The reason for this is quite simple. It helps prevent corruption."

Bardius put his hands forward as if trying to get the crowd to calm down, and then continued.

"Golems are certainly wonderful. They allow us to harvest our crops without actually doing anything ourselves. But not doing anything ourselves is a double-edged sword."

Some of the demons nodded in understanding the meaning of his words.

"Getting things without actually working for them can lead us to lose the will to work. And losing the will to work can, in turn, often lead to corruption."

Bardius spoke earnestly.

After 15 minutes of long-winded speech, the attendees unanimously accepted Bardius' opinion.

(Impressive… The humans back on Earth… No, not even the humans of this world would see things like this.)

Although humans and the magical beings known in this world as "demons" were biologically the same species, there was a huge difference between them in terms of spiritual nature.

Shion had presented Kaina Village as a model for them to follow, but Jin was wishing he could take Bardius with him and have the ruler of each of the human countries listen to what he had just said in this meeting.

The moderates, neutrals, and radicals would each have three representatives per faction, for a total of nine members. Then, the chairman for the council would need to be someone from the Gospel clan.

This was Shion's idea as well. She seemed to have got it from a book that she found when she was in Nidou Castle.

(Laojun, what kinds of books are you writing…?)

Jin was both impressed and a bit shocked.

It was a system that hadn't been adopted in the countries of this world. Perhaps that was precisely why the demons, who have a sense of rivalry with mankind in general, had chosen to adopt it.

"Then, does anyone here have any objections to discussing our future in this way from the next time we convene onwards?"

Muffled words echoed through the room. Though not all of them were entirely intelligible, they didn't sound like they carried any objections.

At this point, Jin -who had been completely enthralled by this meeting's development- wondered if humans shouldn't be striving to emulate this power of solidarity.

"I don't think we can eradicate our grudges and hatred of humans right away. However, we ought to realize that we must not be so blind as to commit the foolishness of starting a pointless war against humans."

Surprisingly, those words had come out of the mouth of Bafrosk, the chief of the radical Kaigyaku clan.

"Conversely, I don't think it will be possible for us to build friendly relations with all of mankind right away either. I believe we should start by making a pact with Mr. Jin here."

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"No objections."

"Makes sense."

This was also unanimously accepted. Jin felt a bit embarrassed.

Then, he read out loud a list of special products such as magical beast leather and Magi Crystals as some of many items that could be exchanged for seasonings and rare ingredients from the human lands, he made a list of special products such as magical beast leather and Magi Crystals, and asked Jin for his consent.

They also decided that they should meet at least once a year so that they could follow up on these agreements on a regular basis.

Jin was also surprised to have been asked about borrowing the book that Shion had read.

This led Jin to believe that the Shinra clan had a strong desire for knowledge, and that they had both an excellent memory and a superior ability to understand things.

Thus a pact was struck between Jin and the demons, although it was still in its early stages of development.

"Next, we need to figure out where in the world has that Lardus guy gone…"

Bafrosk whispered to himself after the Council of Clans had finished and everyone else had left the room.