My Reincarnation as a Chicken

“Oh my, oh my. I wasn’t expecting a call from you so soon, Hinotori.”

My gut churned at the all-too-sweet-sounding voice that betrayed its owner’s personality. Her eyes looked down at me with such sadistic joy, like I was a toy to be played around with.

“Some might say too soon," I muttered, prompting a jab to the side from Reiman. I clicked my tongue and looked away. Reiman stepped up to set the stage for this silly farce.

“Your Highness Princess Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III, we thank you for accepting our impromptu request for a call.”

I couldn’t say I was surprised that Atlantis of all places figured out video calling before the rest of the world. Theirs seemed a little bit more refined than what the agent and I came up with, but ours was supposedly more reliable.

“And who might you be?” Her joyous tone was gone. She was suddenly in work mode.

“I am Supreme Commander Reiman Hideo, advisor to Lady Hinotori and one of the Generals of Pandemonium.”

“Sunalla, I believe you call creatures like himself rat men?" she asked in the background. A voice came from behind, confirming her belief. She then resumed the confirmation. “Why are you allowing a rat to talk for you, Hinotori? Did you fail to learn anything during our time together?”

"You!" Reiman grabbed my wrist, calming me down.

She was still playing with me. Judging from how good of a politician she was, I could infer that she still didn’t respect me as a leader or Larm as a nation. If it were someone respectable or dangerous in her eyes, she would have kept up her mask and played it like we were allies.

Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t dealing with me alone this time. Reiman was here.

“This humble rat man was under the impression we were dealing with the genius princess who had single-handedly taken control of the political sphere. I was not aware that we would be talking with a mere fish.”

I was shocked. Of all the things he could have said, that was nowhere near the list of things I was expecting him to say.

“Pardon?”

“If this is the extent of the wisdom of a potential ruler of Atlantis, perhaps this alliance was a mistake on our part.”

Woah, woah, woah! Reiman, chill. Are you really going to destroy our alliance just like that? She will actually let it crumble, you know? She really doesn’t care for us like that.

There was no reaction from the other side for a good minute. Her gaze turned from one of mockery to one of interest. Reiman was now a tool she wanted to use. This couldn’t possibly end well. She then turned her gaze over to me.

“I see you have found yourself some decent subordinates, Hinotori. Good delegation is also important for leaders.”

She had a pleased expression on her face, like a proud older sister. I scoffed at her.

“Whatever. Will you help us out or what?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”, I was about to pop a vein.

“I would like some compensation for the prank you pulled on my dear Sunalla when she came to the surface as my representative.”

“What prank? Who’s this Sunalla person, and when did she appear?”

“What?”

That’s how you confuse a genius! Just spout bullshit till they give up!

“Did you suffer brain damage recently, or is that how you’ve always been since birth?”

“I did not think the princess would be so rude to the head of an ally nation. Are you sure you should be speaking in such a way?”

“Rude? Who’s this head, and when did we become allies?”

She got me with my own tricks.

“What do you want?”

“Well then…”

***

I let out a heavy sigh and crumpled to the floor.

“I don’t want to see her face for at least another year.”

That was a short and brief conversation, but it felt like I’d spent hours there. She was also pretty brutal when giving us what we asked for. As for what she wanted, it really was of no harm to us. We had so much we could spare to give her just a few.

“We both know that’s impossible.”

Reiman reminded me as he sat up from his seat.

“Ugh. That’s right, we started this whole thing because you were saying you have a way for us to legally get into the Oxaivalon Empire as diplomats of a kingdom."

“It’s not really diplomats when the actual ruler of said kingdom is going, but yes. We set off tomorrow.”

“Aww.”

“With flight, we should be able to arrive there in a day or two. Hours if we take no rest. You said we could receive protection in the Winter Zone if we help this Winter Oni, right?”

“Hm, yeah. Not like we even need it. We can just install someone else.”

“Ahem. I believe it’s a little too soon for us to start playing at continental superpower.”, He scolded, a stern frown on his face.

“R-Reiman…”

“I will be seeing you tomorrow then, Lady Hinotori. Please prepare yourself.”

“Reiman~~”

He ignored my pleas. The doors shut tight behind him, and I followed after, but he was already gone. He really wasted no time when it came to work. Honestly, I’d have to give him a day off so he could just relax.

Welp! No point in slouching. If I had only a few hours to play around, I was going to play as hard as I could.

“Time to slouch off like never before!”

<<I don’t think that’s something a leader should be shouting in the hallways>>

“I don’t care. I’m done being a leader for today. There’s too much happening at once. I’m going to play... uh?”

As I was trying to psych myself up, I accidentally heard the mental tears of a familiar, impertinent voice.

‘Master really hates me, hngh.’

Well, now that’s just depressing.

‘Must have done something wrong. Maybe if I wasn’t so useless.’

Come on now; you’ll make me feel bad.

‘Maybe she would be happier if I wasn’t alive.’

Ok, I’m not dealing with this today.

I glared at the little black lizard that was sitting on the sill of an opened window. I walked up to it and sat next to it.

“You good, lil guy? Gal? Thing…?”

Karma sounded female but actually had no gender. Looking at its stats, it really hadn’t grown any stronger since we first met. It’s like Shiro gave it almost no time for its own development. The only major difference was its size. It could now pass off as a cat. An ugly, scaly cat.

Karma hissed at me and looked away.

“You really are a cat.”

I tried to stroke its head, but it moved away from me.

‘What do you want?’

“That’s no way to talk to your master’s beneficiary, you know?”

‘You are still my junior, Hinotori. I won’t treat you any differently because of simple power disparity.’

It stood up and puffed out its chest.

‘I am Shiro’s third familiar, and you were removed from the group because you weren’t good enough. Know your pla-ow!’

I didn’t let it finish talking before flicking it in the forehead, holding back enough to not crack its skull.

“You can talk all the big game you want, but look at me. I made it. You didn’t.”

‘Did you come to brag?’

“No. I’m going somewhere. Want to join me?”

I wasn’t done with Kaleb Zen’s treasury. I’d left Yurei and the rest of Project CATH back there. I wanted to explore more. The forbidden dungeon already received the weapons I got from Kaleb Zen, so it was happily working overtime. By the time I went to the Oxaivalon Empire and back, it was bound to be unconquerable by any normal means. Not like the average adventurer could even conquer it as it was.

‘No.’

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

‘I refuse.’

“Man, you don’t even have anything to be doing here. Let’s go have a talk in the sky.”

‘The sky?’

“Hm? Yes, the sky. Haven’t been?”

I looked at its back. It had tiny wings, but I doubt it could fly for very long.

Meekly, it shook its neck.

“Well then, let’s go.”

‘R-Right now?’

As a response, I grabbed the little fella and teleported to the skies of the Winter Zone.