My Reincarnation as a Chicken

“I’d like us all to do a quick introduction before we begin. Our names, appropriate name for our race and where we come from.”

I felt like this was necessary in order to get things rolling and everyone would address one another in a way that wasn’t offensive.

“I’ll go first. My name is Hinotori Hyakkiyako. I’m a… um, shadow bird and I come from the West. Who next?”

I hesitated to tell them my race, and ended up giving them a small portion of the actual name. They all looked around, looking for who to go next, then Reiman stood up.

“The name given to me by my master is Reiman. I am a rat man as you can see and I am from the West.”

He then sat down. Afterwards the captains, Tsuna, Nukeme, Yuuna, Taiku, Oki, Shiroi and Yokino introduced themselves to the others. Diane and the sprites in the room acted more like maids than guests. She refused to allow others into the tree to serve the food, so I really had no choice. I could see the intimidation in the eyes of the others.

Well, I couldn’t blame them considering Yokino and Shiroi who were the closest to me were beyond stronger than everyone present in the room, while I was way stronger than both of them. If we wanted, they would all be in a very bad situation.

Normally, I would have wanted Sylphie, Kawaii and Arisu to be here, but since they were protecting Ulva alongside Grimm, there was no point in getting them here. Kara too was with her sister while also trying to figure out the barrier, so she couldn’t make it.

After that, those from the south introduced themselves. Zana started, followed by both unnamed copperhead and lizard man. There were also those viewing through her fog, but they didn’t speak, probably under the assumption that they couldn’t communicate to us through it.

Next was the people from the East. Dulk and the leader of the kobolds. Unfortunately, the leader of the trolls and ogres refused to come, but I would force the East into becoming an impenetrable stronghold whether they liked it or not.

Afterwards, we started the meeting in earnest.

“First and foremost, I am certain you all saw that pillar of light and darkness some days ago. Some of you may know what that implies, but to those that don’t, I will clarify for you.”

I scanned the room to make sure everyone’s eyes were focused on me.

“The demon lord has been defeated.”

With just this one sentence, there was a great turbulence in the room. As if instinctual, those viewing through the fog started to scream. The others in the room had their minds spinning circles, but they didn’t let it show on their faces. I wasn’t sure why.

“Please calm down.”

I asked those on the other side of the fog. They all calmed down at my plea.

“There will be a lot of chaos now that he isn’t around. The demons will try to fill up the role of demon lord by causing as much chaos as they can in the human side. To do that, they’ll have to pass through Larm.”

“Ha! Are you stupid? The Goliath and tyrants will protect us!”

“Stupid bird.”

The ones to speak were those hiding behind the safety of distance. The Marsh Rusalkies and others insulted me, but from reading the minds of everyone in the room, I couldn’t help but smirk in my head.

“How are you not aware of the death of Goliath?”

The one to ask this was Dulk, with folded arms. His expression was scary as he looked at the fog and the Rusalkies responded cockily.

“The Goliath still lives. We can sense his core in this forest.”

As soon as they said that, I realised that if Goliath’s core was still intact, they could sense it. As long as they could sense it, there was no point in me telling them otherwise. Though, any item in my item box shouldn’t have been accessible to anyone in this realm.

I took out the orb and dropped it on the table. It rolled to a stop in front of Zana and everyone in the room was dead silent.

“This was extracted from Goliath’s corpse. Do you have more doubts?”

As if the tension in the room before was nothing, I now felt like I could cut through it. Maybe showing them the core wasn’t that good of a move, but that wasn’t too important.

“Now that Goliath is dead and Minerva is missing, there will be more outsiders in the forest. They will make our lives exponentially harder.”

“W-what makes you so sure that they will come into Larm in the first place? How would they know Goliath is dead, huh?”

The leader of the lizard men asked timidly. I shrugged as I responded.

“To be honest, I don’t know how the humans will know that Goliath is dead. But, since a war is coming and there was someone strong enough to kill the demon lord, what makes you think they won’t send that very person to Larm to kill Goliath and the tyrants? Why wouldn’t they try to pave a path for their war to be in a neutral ground where they have little casualties, huh?”

“Tch. You believe the tyrants are so weak to the point of losing to a mere human?”

The one to speak this time was the kobold leader. I was surprised since he looked meek, but then again, he possessed several scars on his body. He must have been through a lot.

“Honestly, the average human doesn’t compare to the average monster. However, can you stand here and tell me any of the tyrants could defeat the demon lord?”

“Of course! Why do you think the demon lord never attacked? It was because he was we-”

“Choosing the option for peace doesn’t mean a leader is weak. Just because Krull was so belligerent doesn’t mean every strong ruler is too.”

Dulk cut in and tried to silence the kobold.

“Oi, oi. I don’t need to hear that from the scared orc king.”

“Want to see how scared I am in a fight?”

Dulk’s ears were starting to steam and there was a dangerous light in the kobold’s eyes.

“Silence! Both of you!”

Shiroi ordered, and her being the more terrifying presence, they decided to keep quiet. The whole atmosphere was weird till Unmei cleared his throat and started to speak.

“Hinotori. I understand where you are coming from, but I’m curious as to why you are so sure that humans will pass through Larm. The name of Goliath is still an effective deterrent for those who can’t sense such things.”

As if agreeing with him, I saw some people nodding.

“Consider it as me speaking from past experience. I’ve had the chance to witness the cruel and heartless nature of humans. They will do anything to ensure success, especially when they have such a super power. They are cunning. You think they won’t use this chance to cut down one problem if not two? Why not kill Goliath? Why not make the Larm Forest safer for us to take its resources? Why not distract the demons with the prospect of war while focusing on strengthening our true defences? Humans don’t just think about purely fighting like beasts. They will always have an ulterior motive. Do you think they just got up and decided to kill the demon lord without actually thinking about a lot of factors?”

I watched a lot of war documentaries and read some cool manga and novels. Strictly speaking, all my experience came from these as I myself hadn’t been put in such a situation before. In a way, I wasn’t lying to them.

“Besides, what makes all of you so sure that they won’t? All I’m saying is that we should up our defences in case of that possibility. Especially when we don’t have a proper means of protecting ourselves. Don’t wait for the sword to cut you before you buy a shield.”

After telling them that, they all kept their mouths shut and stared at me. Reading their thoughts made me blush as they were praising my foresight.

‘Oh shucks. That’s embarrassing.’

“Kuhum. If you have nothing else to say, I would like to hear your suggestions on how to protect your sides of the forest from humans.”

With all the useless comments out of the way, the true purpose of the meeting could finally begin.

________________________

Dhijan Hero Nation, the chamber where all the paladins were currently having their Odysseus.

The atmosphere was a bit odd now. This was mostly because of the new uninvited member in the room. His appearance was more than shocking to say the least.

Excelcior, feeling like they couldn’t waste time just sitting there, coughed to gather everyone’s attention.

“I know this is unexpected, but it seems we have a new member this time. Some of you may know him already, but for those that don’t, we’ll let him introduce himself.”

With that, Excelcior sat down and the young man walked up. He stopped his trotting next to Seiko’s seat and waved at everyone.

“Hello. My name is Hiro Tatsumaki. I’m a child of the Tatsumaki Clan as well as this era’s [True Hero]. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

At the mention of [True Hero], they all flinched.

In one way or another, everyone in the room had met Hiro. They couldn’t deny the fact that he was the strongest human they had met in their life, but to claim to be a [True Hero], that was taking it a bit too far.

Instinctively, their eyes turned to Jeanne. She nodded her head, then spoke up.

“It is true. A few years ago, the church found out about this, but held off announcing it as Hiro was deemed missing. In truth, the church believes demons have been kidnapping the [True Hero] of every era, which is why we haven’t had one in so long.”

She just dropped a bombshell on some members. Those that weren’t really related to the church or having any true connections with higher ups widened their eyes in surprise.

However, Charlotte started laughing.

“What is so funny?”

“Nothing, nothing. I just find it funny that the church has been keeping such a huge deal a secret. Goes to show that they’re a bunch of self-absorbed lunatics that want to control humani-”

“Mind your next words carefully.”

Fubuki interrupted Charlotte, but the latter could only giggle at her threat.

“Or else what? I’ll get kidnapped by demons too?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Jasmine blurted out, but covered her mouth immediately. Charlotte was more than happy to respond to that question though.

“It means, the church is responsible for all these supposed “demon kidnappings”.”

“That’s it!”

Fubuki slammed down on the table and jumped up, reading to fight. Charlotte did same, visibly agitated by Fubuki’s behaviour.

“Enough. Sit down both of you. I will not say it again.”

Excelcior ordered, his eyes glowing green with power. They clicked their tongues and returned to their seats.

“You can continue, Hiro.”

Hiro couldn’t feel anything from what he’d just seen. He proceeded with his introduction.

“Um, so I’ve been off going on adventures in a quest to get strong over the past few years. Over time, I met a lot of people, fought a lot of monsters, learnt a lot of things. I eventually killed the demon lord and his generals.”

He paused for the last bit to sink in.

The demon lord was by no means an easy opponent. Admittedly, it’d take everyone present in the room to fight the demon lord and his 4 generals together. In a round about way, he was trying to let them know that he was stronger than them and wouldn’t mind fighting all of them.

“Why would you kill the demon lord? Do you know the kind of chaos that will cause?”

“That’s right! Things are already tough on this side. Humans aren’t ready for another large-scale war with demons. Especially when we don’t know which side the Oxaivalon empire will take.”

The Oxaivalon empire which had control over the sea side could decide whether demons could invade secretly or not.

“It’s because the one thing we, humans, need right now, is to create the most intense amount of chaos imaginable.”

<A/N: Please give me your power stones, golden tickets, comments and reviews! Also, join the discord!>