The first rain of the windless season came a little earlier than in previous years.
Before dawn, a light rain began pattering down from the treetops.
Mu En noticed that he seemed to be gradually losing his sense of time.
More precisely, he was beginning to gain control over his subjective perception of time's passage.
For example, the night of the festival had been vivid in his mind just a moment ago, yet after a brief lapse of attention, it was already the next morning.
Still, it was hard to say that was a bad thing.
After all, he could do nothing now except observe the Blessed or send his consciousness deep into the Stone Platform to check on the seeds' growth.
If he still perceived time like an ordinary human, he would probably go mad with boredom.
Of course, it was another matter when he had something to do.
The threat of invaders was imminent, after all, and the festival's success did not mean he could rest easy.
Even the rain could not disrupt the plans he had made long ago.
Nausicaä, Mito, and Yupa braved the drizzle and came to the woodland, where the cleanup was not yet finished and traces of the festival remained.
Behind the three of them, ten selected male militiamen stood in a row in the mud, gazing intently at Mu En.
They had been told that "Lord Divine Tree" had summoned them to entrust them with an important task.
"Mr. Tree, these are the soldiers selected according to your requirements. They're strong and loyal to the Valley of the Wind. But according to Mito, some of them seem... a little hard to discipline."
Among them were two soldiers who stood ramrod straight yet kept letting their eyes dart around. One look was enough to tell they were the troublesome sort.
Mu En noticed that the militiamen were all very young. Even the oldest was only a little older than Nausicaä.
It seemed that the truly elite, seasoned veterans in their prime had already followed Chief Jihl to the battlefield in Tolmekia.
"We'll have to put them through a proper test to see whether they're troublemakers... By the way, I noticed you seemed to be searching the castle?"
For the moment, Mu En ignored the troublesome soldiers and asked about something else.
After the festival ended last night, he had seen Nausicaä and the two Blessed elders suddenly lead a group in a search of the entire lower level of the Valley of the Wind's castle.
It was the first time Mu En had learned that so many secret passages crisscrossed the ancient castle.
"Yes, things got a little complicated last night. It started when Master Yupa interrogated those traitors..." Nausicaä reported truthfully.
As it turned out, after the festival ended the previous night, Yupa had gone to the cells on the castle's lower level to interrogate the men, who were being held separately, and draw information out of them.
Under Yupa's overwhelming pressure and with the help of a few "little tricks," each of them talked faster than the last.
Yiduo, who looked the frailest and most honest of them, was the exception. He stubbornly insisted that he was the one who had rendered a great service to the Valley of the Wind, seemingly trapped in a delusion he could not escape.
What he did not know was that Jijinsi, the only "clever one," had confessed the whole business of being ordered to sabotage things in secret before Yupa could ask many questions.
According to Jijinsi, Yiduo and the others had gotten something on him and gradually dragged him into it.
Thus, even though Yiduo refused to talk, Yupa still learned that an "insect tamer" was hiding in the castle.
The news shocked him. He had known these men were secretly in contact with an outsider, but he had never expected that person to be hiding in the Valley of the Wind's most important castle!
However, by the time he reached the hidden chamber where the insect tamer had been hiding, he found nothing but a protective suit that had been burned to ashes.
He immediately joined Mito and the others in a thorough search of the castle, but they found no further clues.
"So what exactly is this 'insect tamer'? Some kind of specialized profession in Tolmekia?"
Mu En, who had never read the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga and knew nothing about insect tamers, asked curiously.
"No, you could say insect tamers have nothing to do with the Torumekian Empire." Through Nausicaä, Yupa explained this world's "common knowledge" to Mu En.
They were a group of fanatical worshippers of the Sea of Corruption, similar to the fundamentalist naturalists of Mu En's previous life.
They believed the Sea of Corruption was the order of this world, while civilization was merely something that went against nature.
They usually lived deep in the Sea of Corruption, keeping company with giant insects. In the eyes of ordinary people, they were simply a bunch of incomprehensible lunatics.
Heaven knew why they had become Tolmekia's lackeys and infiltrated the Valley of the Wind as spies.
"I suspect someone may be deliberately diverting our attention," Yupa reasoned. "Almost everything we know about that person comes from their account alone, and a single suit of clothing isn't enough to establish their identity."
After listening, Mu En fell into thought.
If the insect tamers really were followers of the insect race, as Yupa said... then was the relationship between the insect tamers and the swarm the same as that between the Valley of the Wind and him?
Did they all act in accordance with the swarm's will?
If so, things were even more complicated.
"All right. In any case, we need to prepare for both possibilities."
Mu En intended to end the discussion. Without catching the person responsible, there was no use saying more.
On one hand, the reform of the Valley of the Wind's system of governance had to continue.
Before last night, Nausicaä had been the chief of the Valley of the Wind, while Mu En had been an outsider.
But after she followed Mu En's advice to enact reforms and successfully held the festival, she had consciously changed roles and become his aide.
Both of them understood the change in their positions without saying it, and by tacit agreement, neither had even brought it up for discussion.
Without Mu En's help, the Valley of the Wind would probably have fallen apart by now, and she naturally would no longer be its chief.
The Erdtree was now the Valley of the Wind's true leader.
Thus, Mu En had already instructed Gol directly through their mental link to have the carpenters speed up production of the items he needed.
On the other hand, there were the approaching invaders to deal with.
Mu En looked at the militiamen standing straight. Even though they were soaked through, the eagerness in their eyes had not dimmed in the slightest.
The Valley of the Wind was a country with extreme imbalances in every respect.
It possessed powerful ancient-technology gunships, yet still relied on human and animal labor to farm. Basic education was widespread, yet it continued to follow an ancient tribal system.
These imbalances, however, spared Mu En certain troubles commonly encountered by transmigrators.
For example, the headache of having to begin basic training by teaching soldiers to tell left from right.
Besides the fact that nearly all the valley's people had received an education, he also had the Torumekian Empire to thank for laying the foundations for him to build an elite force.
That was because every one of these soldiers had been trained by battle-hardened veterans like Mito.
And those veterans had all drilled alongside the strictly disciplined Torumekian troops.
In theory, these militiamen's abilities should not be too poor.
Even so, before bestowing blessings on them, he still had to test them using his own methods.
"You will become the first warriors in the Valley of the Wind to receive blessings." Mu En's words reached every soldier through Nausicaä.
"But I need you to prove yourselves with your strength."
"I will select a captain from among you to lead the others."
"Now, fight! Only the last person standing will be qualified to become captain of the Blessed warriors!"
The command landed like a boulder crashing into water.
"Huh? Just like this, with our bare hands..."
"Wait, shouldn't the captain be chosen directly by Your Highness?"
"Princess, what is this?"
The soldiers were at a loss for a moment, looking at one another and wondering if they had misheard the order.
Bang!
But before the others could react, one of the shorter soldiers had already swept a comrade beside him off his feet.
"Por, what are you doing?!"
"Cut the chatter and take this!"
He immediately followed up with a heavy punch, knocking his opponent unconscious.
Those who were slow to react were still stunned that someone had actually dared to strike first.
Those who reacted quickly followed his example and lunged at the nearest comrades.
A melee erupted.