What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy?

Ok… So when I said that we would go and deal with the problem at the roots… I was expecting the people involved to be nearby…

But when I asked Katsuki where this group of sponsors were…

“They are in Crown Capital City, Mistress.”

I blinked at her, “At… Where again?”

She shook her head, “You did not hear me incorrectly, Mistress. They are based back in Crown Capital City.”

Ok… Thinking back on it, I guess that makes sense…

The sponsors for these illegal slavers are definitely rich and influential so they should be living somewhere else instead of near this forest in the middle of nowhere.

I grimaced, “Does that mean we can’t do anything to them?”

Katsuki tilted her head at me, “Why would you think so, Mistress?”

“I mean… How are we supposed to go all the way back there to deal with them? We’re basically going to need to negate all the travelling we’ve done so far, right?”

Lisa tilted her head at me, “There’s no need to do that, Aster? We could just get a Grey Walker to teleport us back, right?”

Oh yeah… I totally forgot about that…

“Well… I guess in that case… We might as well clean up the illegal slavers here first before we go back to confront those guys? Since it’ll take a while for us to deal with those guys in the capital if we actually return there…”

Katsuki bowed, “I believe that would be the best choice of action, Mistress.”

“Right, so where are these illegal slavers holed up at?”

“Does Mistress wish to deal with them right now?”

I tilted my head, “I mean… It’s night time so shouldn’t that be the best time to launch a sneak attack on them? Unless they are the type who is only active when the sun goes down?”

“Not at all, Mistress. I would have suggested tomorrow night instead so that you have a proper rest tonight, Mistress. Especially given what you’ve been through today.”

Awww~ Katsuki you cutie~ You don’t need to worry about me!

Unless… She’s the one who needs rest and she just doesn’t want to say it?

As though reading my mind, Katsuki bowed, “You do not need to worry about me, Mistress. I am ready to go whenever you are.”

I turned to the others, “What about the rest of you? Shall we rest for tonight or…?”

Odeta grinned at me, “Sister Aster~ Since when have I ever turned down the opportunity for a good fight? Wahahaha! Let’s go deal with them right now!”

Emilia also nodded, “We might as well just finish them off before they do more damage that may end up being irrevocable.”

That’s true… For all we know they might be planning to destroy the world tree tonight…

Once again, I’m pretty sure I did not activate the Ring of Shared Thoughts but Katsuki somehow managed to read my mind and answered, “They do not have plans to destroy the Tree of Life within the next few days, Mistress.”

Right… Thank you, Katsuki.

I leapt up on my feet, still carrying Delmare in my arms, “Alright then! Let’s go and deal with them right now!”

*

Katsuki led us through the forest, circling around the Tree of Life to the other side of the tree.

Apparently they had quite literally set up their camp right underneath the Trasif noses and took up residence under the tree itself.

Since the city was only located on one side of the tree, they just went over to another side and set themselves up there instead.

The Trasifs would assume that the area directly under the Tree of Life to be the safest and any bad actors would be outside the Tree of Life’s direct sphere of influence so no one actually bothered to check the area around its roots.

As we pushed our way through the undergrowth, we reached one of the giant roots that arched above the ground, leaving a large space underneath it where a camp had been very clearly set up.

Even from this distance, I could see cages which I assume were meant to hold slaves that this group had captured which meant that this was our target.

“They really just hid here right next to the tree…” I muttered, surprised. “No one even noticed them at all?”

“Very few would come over here, Mistress. And the ones who are unfortunate enough to do so end up being captured by them anyway.”

“How are they able to get so close to the tree though? I thought this place hides the Trasifs from being found and misdirects anyone who wishes to harm the Trasifs?”

“I have also searched into that, Mistress. It seems like they are using the same tactics as the previous slaver group we had dealt with.”

I turned to her, “You mean the one where they basically seduce the Trasifs into being their willing slaves?”

“That’s correct, Mistress. We looked further into them and the previous slaver group also had connections to the same group of sponsors which means there might be other slaver groups that were sponsored to do this as well.”

Damn… This operation is bigger than I thought…

The other slaver group was probably paid to just get more Trasif slaves while this one was paid to get rid of the tree’s protection permanently.

I guess if we really want to get rid of this problem permanently… We really have to target the sponsors.

“So what’s the plan here? Do we just charge straight in and attack the slavers? Do they have anyone that’s strong?”

“As Mistress already knows… There is a Comissar on their side and we believe he is quite capable and has the favour of the God he serves.”

“You’re telling me there’s a god that is supporting him in doing this?”

“I do not know, Mistress. I dare not question what goals any of the Divines might have for mortals like ourselves. Only someone like Mistress is able to do that.”

I can’t even come up with a rebuttal for that…

I sighed, “Alright then… How many of them are there?”

“If we assume that the Trasifs they have captured have been brainwashed and would also be on their side, we are looking at a group that is about a hundred strong. If the Trasif slaves were to switch sides because of Mistress’s presence or were not brainwashed, we would be dealing with about three dozen of them.”

That means there’s about seventy Trasif slaves currently in that camp huh…

I’d like to refrain from hurting them if I could, so this means we have around seventy hostages on their side that we need to keep an eye out for…

I turned to my girls, “I guess we can treat this like a normal bandit subjugation where they have captured hostages that we need to save. If the Comissar turns out to be a problem, leave him to me and focus on the other slavers.”

I paused for a moment before turning back to Katsuki, “Actually… Is the Comissar an Off-Worlder?”

Katsuki hesitated, which was really rare of her, “We… Do not know, Mistress. We have found no indications of him being an Off-Worlder but we also found no confirmation that he isn’t one either.”

Hmm… I would have thought that him actively working to destroy something the gods created would mean he’s an Off-Worlder but I guess that’s not it.

“Let’s operate under the assumption that he is an Off-Worlder then. In that case, leave that guy to me and focus on the other slavers and rescuing the Trasifs they captured.”

My girls nodded in approval and we started heading towards the camp.

As we got closer to the place though, a sudden flash of light appeared above us to shine down on top of us, clearly revealing our location for everyone to see.

I immediately tried to use [Shadow Wrap] around the light to try and shut it off but the light seemed to defy the darkness and shone through it like it wasn’t there.

“What’s happening?!” I cried out.

Lisa scowled, “It’s an enchantment, Aster… They had the area enchanted to reveal people who get close to their camp within a certain radius…”

Damn it! That means we fell into a trap!

Sure enough, the camp exploded into activity and several of the slavers were already running towards us, weapons in hand.

Screw it, this changes nothing aside from the fact that we had lost the element of surprise.

I pulled out my swords and my girls also prepared themselves for battle, all of us preparing to counter charge the slavers.

That was when a figure flew out from the camp and stopped to float in front of us with his white wings flaring like he was some kind of messiah to look down on us.

No doubt, this guy is the Comissar that is involved with the illegal slavers.

He stretched his hand out towards us, “Kneel before me and your lives will be spared.”

…

Dude… This guy is cringe…