To become a king and a magician

Quetzal Coyatt, the sun god of South America, is one of the three goddesses that Natsukawa Torato must first visit.

She was one of the closer ones to Uruk, and Tomoe Gozen also planned to come here to investigate the whereabouts of Fuuma Kotaro and Amakusa Shiro, so the two of them chose to come this way.

Incidentally, Natsukawa Tiger could have flown directly over, but he walked over instead, mainly because of the monsters. He wanted to deal with the monster horde along the way to relieve some pressure on Uruk.

"Yes."

Tomoe Gozen nodded.

What appeared to the two of them was a rather bizarre situation. Given the nature of Mesopotamia, rainforest landforms that shouldn't exist should have appeared in the first place, but now they occupied a huge area below, stretching all the way to the horizon, giving Natsukawa Tiger the feeling that he had run directly from Mesopotamia to the South American rainforest.

"This dense forest appeared along with the magical beasts six months ago, and since then, Uruk has lost contact with all the cities within the forest. Because neither Lord Fuma nor Lord Amakusa has been able to send back any information, we still know nothing about that area."

"Hmm... this distance should be about right..."

After making a quick comparison with his hand, Xia Chuanhu sat down by the roadside cliff, closed his eyes, and began to concentrate on sensing the situation inside the dense forest.

Unlike the outside of the dense forest, which is teeming with magical beasts, there are absolutely no signs of magical beasts inside the forest. Instead, there are all sorts of birds and insects that are bound to appear in the forest. In addition, three kilometers away from Natsukawa Tiger in a straight line, deep in the dense forest, one can sense a human settlement, which should be Ur City.

"The number of people... is fairly normal, mostly women, almost no men. Their living conditions seem normal, they don't look like they've been harmed... Hmm, all expected... And the important goddess... can you sense one pillar, and the other pillar is outside the range?"

After talking to himself for a while, Xia Chuanhu opened his eyes and stood up: "Alright, I have a general understanding of the situation in Ur City. Let's go and see for ourselves."

"Huh?"

Tomoe Gozen paused slightly, "You already know the situation in Ur? Do you... have clairvoyance?"

“No, I don’t have clairvoyance. I just sensed it,” Natsukawa Tiger explained. “I am a spirit born from the planet itself. Although it is acquired, my abilities in all aspects are no different from those born with them. As a spirit, it is a kind of bonus ability. I can sense all kinds of information about the world itself at any time.”

"Simply put, I can sense every movement within a radius of at least five kilometers around me at any time. For example, right now, Miss Tomoe Gozen, you slightly gripped the ground with your right toe, right?"

"!"

The accurate information surprised Tomoe Gozen.

Besides the ability to materialize fantasy, does it also possess the perceptive ability to grasp the surrounding situation at all times?

"I'm starting to wonder what you can't do, Your Excellency. You're practically omnipotent."

"Who said that? There are many things I can't do, like having a child. I'm a grown man, of course I can't have a child, right?"

"Hehehe, that's true!"

After a slight pause, Tomoe Gozen couldn't help but laugh: "You can joke too, can you?"

“Everyone makes jokes, even the most rigid person will crack one or two jokes now and then,” Natsukawa Tiger laughed. “Well then, let’s head to Ur City. My actions might be a little offensive, please forgive me.”

After saying that, Natsukawa Tora summoned a strong gust of wind, which instantly blew him and Tomoe Gozen into the air!

The sudden liftoff startled Tomoe Gozen for a moment: "Your Excellency, what is this...?"

"They just used the wind to lift us up. Just imagine the wind under your feet as a piece of ground and you'll get used to it. If we were to walk, we'd have to take a huge detour to get to Ur, so let's just fly there like this for now."

"This is Tomoe's first time flying in the air; it's a truly novel experience. So this is what Lord Oda has been seeing all along..."

Among the Servants stationed in Uruk, Oda Nobunaga was the only one who could fly. He could easily fly to the stratosphere by riding on his arquebus, and he even single-handedly dealt with the attacking planes in Tokyo.

After trying out the method Natsukawa Torato suggested, Tomoe Gozen quickly mastered how to move on the wind.

"It's a little more difficult than moving on the ground."

"If there's a chance in the future, I can train you more. Also, it would be best if Ushiwakamaru and the others trained a bit, as getting familiar with aerial combat is very important—but let's talk about that when we get back. For now, let's head to Ur City."

After saying that, Xia Chuanhu swooped down and flew towards the direction of Ur.

18. Not a tiger, but a leopard-man!

Six months ago, due to the emergence of the Three Goddess Alliance, Uruk lost contact with almost all the cities in Mesopotamia. Although contact was gradually restored afterward, and even the residents of several cities besieged by monsters were rescued, many cities are still out of contact.

Ur was one of them.

According to Tomoe Gozen's original idea, Ur should now be under the control of the Forest Goddess, and there might not even be a single living person left.

But after landing in Ur, she was met with an unbelievable scene.

"Are the residents... all safe and sound?"

Just as Natsukawa Tora sensed, Ur City was not attacked by monsters at all; in fact, it was a peaceful place. Although the dense forest had affected the buildings, covering them to varying degrees, there was nothing fundamentally wrong with Ur.

There were no signs of harm to the residents; everyone was safe and sound.

"This is wonderful..."

Tomoe Gozen subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

However, Natsukawa Torata laughed and said, "Is that really the case?"

"Huh? What does this mean?"

"Tomoe Gozen, you've overlooked a key point, but I'll explain it later, so let's leave it at that for now—"

Approaching a woman who was with her child, Xia Chuanhu politely asked, "Good afternoon, beautiful lady. May I have a moment to spare? I have a few questions for you."

"Huh?"

The woman being questioned paused slightly: "You... came from outside the dense forest?"

"Yes, we came from Uruk. King Gilgamesh said that there had been no news of Ur and that something might have happened to him, so he specially sent us to investigate." Natsukawa Tora casually made up a reason that seemed reasonable from all aspects.

Upon hearing that Xia Chuanhu came from Uruk, the woman quickly put the child behind her and bowed slightly, saying, "You two have really gone through a lot of trouble, coming all the way from Uruk."

"No, this journey isn't too arduous. However, the situation in Ur is quite unexpected. I thought it would be terrible, but it seems peaceful. Could you please tell me what has happened during this time? Has the goddess of the dense forest who governs this place posed any threat to you?"

“Thank you for your concern, Ur is perfectly safe now,” the woman said. “The Forest Goddess has not harmed us either, everything is peaceful, and there is no need for Uruk to worry—please go back and report to King Gilgamesh.”

Is there no need for Uruk to worry?

Natsukawa Tora smiled slightly: "That's good. Also... maybe it's just my imagination, but there seem to be quite a few citizens in Ur. Has something happened? And there are too many women, while I don't see many men."

After Natsukawa Torata said that, Tomoe Gozen immediately noticed this as well.

Looking around, you could see almost entirely women; there were very few men, maybe one in twenty or so. The rest were all women and children.

This is not the situation a normal city should be in, nor is it the Land of Women in Journey to the West. People don't just disappear into thin air, so the only thing that can be assumed is that something bad has happened.

"Was she offered to the goddess of the forest?" Natsukawa Torama asked gently, his words carrying a simple hint of magic. "If you'd like, please tell me everything you know, beautiful lady."

"Yes......"

Even humans from the Age of Gods are ultimately just ordinary people, and can be easily hypnotized through suggestion magic.

Where have all the men in Ur gone?

"One a day, they've all been taken deep into the forest by the goddess."

"As the price you paid for your deal with the goddess, is that it?"

"Yes. The goddess promised to protect our safety as long as we follow her rules."

The residents of Ur probably all think that sacrificing one man a day in exchange for the protection of the Forest Goddess is a profitable deal no matter how many times it is done. Although there may be opponents, as long as the overall opinion of Ur is in agreement, individual opinions will not have much impact.

Therefore, Ur is in its current state.

"Hmm...it's probably about what I thought."

"Your Excellency, did you already know this?" Tomoe Gozen asked.

"I noticed this when I was sensing things on the cliff edge before. There were unusually few men, and there were no magical beasts either. I could easily guess that from that."

Although I had actually read the script from the beginning.

After asking some more questions about the rules set by the Forest Goddess, Natsukawa Torama used a suggestive magic trick to make the woman leave.

"You are not allowed to leave here, you are not allowed to resist, you must hand over a man every day... and there are other rules. As long as you follow these rules, you can survive in the dense forest and receive the protection of the goddess."

"It's a bit different from the Three Goddess Alliance we know."

In Tomoe Gozen's understanding, the Three Goddesses Alliance should all be evil goddesses like the Beast Goddess, who want to destroy Uruk. However, judging from the rules they set up, it seems that the Forest Goddess is not purely evil.

“Well, after all, it’s Quetzal Coyatt. As the chief goddess of South America and the pinnacle of goodness, she can’t possibly be an evil goddess,” Natsukawa Tora laughed. “Her decision to take action against Uruk was probably based on her own ideas. As for the details, we can ask her about it later.”

"I... no, wait a minute, Lord Natsukawa, how did you know the true name of the Forest Goddess?"

Because Natsukawa Tora spoke so casually, Tomoe Gozen didn't realize at first that he had directly revealed the true name of the Forest Goddess.

It is something that I still know nothing about.

"Huh? Didn't I say that?" Natsukawa Tora held up three fingers. "The specific members of the Three Goddess Alliance are Gorgon, the monster goddess who is currently attacking Uruk, Quetzal Koyatl, the chief god of South America, and Ereshkigal, the mistress of the underworld."

"You didn't say that!"

Tomoe Gozen couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Why didn't you tell me such important information sooner?

"I only arrived in Uruk yesterday, okay? Besides, even if I didn't say anything, you'd naturally find out as the battle progresses; there's no need to tell you beforehand. Also, more importantly, you should pay attention to what's coming next..."

As he spoke, Natsukawa Tora grabbed Tomoe Gozen's arm and, before she could say anything, pulled her into his arms and leaped backward!

next moment--

"Thump—!!"

A lightning-fast flash of light suddenly shattered the ground where Tomoe Gozen had been standing.

"—A troublesome enemy is coming."

Natsukawa Tora's second half of his sentence came belatedly.

19. Don't underestimate the power of comedic characters!

Although he already knew, even Natsukawa Tora felt somewhat "mentally exhausted" when he actually saw it.

It wasn't because of what's happening now, but because it stirred up some very old memories for him.

Looking at the figure that suddenly descended from the sky and shattered the ground, Natsukawa Tora's memories of being a high school student about twenty years ago were instantly brought back.

"Seriously, you can't be a Servant who just randomly ended up here like Rin..."

If that were true, Natsukawa Torato wouldn't be able to handle it.

It would be best if the Tiger of Fuyuki stayed within Fuyuki City and wreaked havoc there; venturing outside would be disastrous in every sense of the word.

"Are you alright, Tomoe Gozen?"