C31: Strategy Meeting

 

A ring bearer and two cats. In my mind’s eye, I see a girl wearing a hoodie with cat ears.

“………Mikazuki, Shion?”

Mikazuki has been captured by the Fauve Kingdom. It’s just small talk between students. In addition, there are plenty of ring bearers with cats in this world……?

“Nonsense. Mikazuki is supposed to be in the Ostrode Kingdom in the first place. There’s no way she could have wandered off.”

If anything happened to Mikazuki, Shinohara wouldn’t be able to keep quiet. In the first place, there was no way Shinohara would let Mikazuki walk around by herself. The students are all smart. It is impossible for them to leave the country alone——

“Sensei.”

Mikazuki’s smile flickered in my mind.

“——What’s this nasty feeling I’m getting?”

I lie down on the bed and look at the ceiling. The possibility is low. But it’s not zero. It’s not just the Magicalize Kingdom. I need to find out who’s the ring-bearer that’s being held in the beast kingdom of Fauve. And who holds the key to that?

“Nachtigal, Queen of the Night——?”

There’s too much to do. Ruins investigation, Ostrode Kingdom, bandit extermination, Nachtigal, students, Fauve Kingdom, and—–Mikazuki Shion.

I’m already losing my mind.

◇◇◇◇◇◇

The next day I made a simple breakfast and the three of us ate it together.

“Mr——Sage, have you been sleeping?”

“Sensei, your brain waves are unstable. You’re not getting enough sleep.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. No problem.”

“No, but you have dark circles under your eyes, you have a bad sleeping habit, and your face is dirty.”

“——Isn’t that too much?”

After breakfast, I went to the bathroom to wash my face and my hair. I feel a little refreshed——Anyway, let’s concentrate on killing the bandits for now. Maybe the ring-bearer caught——is not Mikazuki, and it’s only gossip, it could be gossip.

I slapped both cheeks to get myself together. For now, I had to do what I could. As I walked out of the bathroom and put on my gear, I saw Brunnhilde and Kutone at the door. When I saw Kutone, I was surprised.

“Oh, that’s Kutone’s uniform.”

“Yes, it is. Does it look good on me?”

“Yeah, it looks good on you.”

It’s Kutone, dressed in her school uniform. A white frilly shirt, a dark blue skirt, a robe embroidered with the emblem of the Magicalize Kingdom, and a bag full of books. It’s the same uniform style I saw at school yesterday.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“Yes, sensei.”

“Let’s go to school.”

We headed to the Magicalize Royal Academy of Magic.

◇◇◇◇◇◇

The three of us walked through the town and arrived at the academy. Kutone and I parted ways here while Brunnhilde and I headed for the training center of the Order.

“Take care of yourselves, both of you.”

“Yeah. You’d better study hard.”

“Excuse me, Kutone.”

“Okay, I’m off, have a good day.”

Kutone waved her hand and ran off. Watching her back, Kutone approached a group of girls and started chatting with them happily as she went. I guess scenes like that don’t change in Japan or in other worlds.

Brünnhilde and I also started walking and arrived at the training ground where we headed yesterday. I heard from Kutone that this training ground is also a classroom for the “Magic Knight Department” and that students who can attend this school are looked upon with respect.

It was a good thing that I arrived, but I was troubled in front of the training hall. Is it okay to enter or not?

As I was looking around for a black knight, the door of the building on the other side of the gate opened and a familiar black knight greeted me.

“There you are. Come on in. We’ll get started right away.”

“All right.”

Lucia, the black knight, greeted me. I followed Lucia and went into the building, then we arrived at a room that looked like a conference room.

“We’ll begin the strategy meeting immediately.”

When I opened the door and entered the room, I found a group of similar black knights all over the place inside. What is this, the Demon King’s castle? But some of them have their helmets off and are relaxing, while others have their cheekbones on the table. There were five of them, three men and two women.

The table arrangement is U-shaped, and for some reason the two seats in the middle are empty. Lucia is standing at a place like a podium, so no matter how I look at it, it’s mine and Brunnhilde’s seats. I sat down a little nervously, and Lucia immediately started talking.

“We will now begin our strategy meeting for defeating Night is My Garden.”

◇◇◇◇◇◇

Lucia quickly introduced us.

“First, let me introduce you two. He’s Sage and she’s Brunnhilde. Sage is an adventurer with the search cheat, and Brunnhilde is an adventurer who excels in direct combat. I can vouch for their abilities.”

Then a skin headed man in armor said.

“It’s quite a feat for such a young lady to knock out our leader, isn’t it, Ratz?”

“You’re right, Gron. It’s true that even though he didn’t cheat to defeat the commander——you seem to have good eyes.”

“If he uses a cheat, there’s no way the Commander can lose, right Tomo?”

“Well, well, Eula, results are everything in a game, and it’s no wonder the Commander lost. Isn’t that right, Arato?”

“———the Commander has lost.”

What a unique group of people.

The black knight with the skinhead is Gron, the knight with the thin glasses is Ratz, the female knight with the short brown hair is Yura, the female knight with the blond wavy hair is Tomo, and the knight with the black hair that I don’t understand is Arato.

“The first thing I did was put together a map of the ruins around the Magicalize Kingdom. And I marked the places where there were traces of bandits. Using this as a reference, we will identify the bandits’ location ahead of time and take them by surprise. For that purpose, Sage, I will make good use of your cheat.”

“Of course, I’ll do what I can.”

“Mmm. First, tell me what your cheats can do. Of course, I’m not asking you to tell me everything.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Of course, I’m not talking about my cheat, but some of Holacty’s capabilities. I just told her that it could search within a twenty-kilometer radius and that it could keep track of the number of people. Well, it has other functions, but I think it’s enough to tell them about the search detection.

“Well, a 20-kilometer radius is a pretty big area.”

“We can at least get a location and a headcount.”

“That’s good enough. Now we need to narrow down their campsite to some extent. We’ll leave in the evening.”

“What, we’re leaving today?”

“Of course. We’ve already had a lot of damage from bandits. And it won’t take long to narrow down the location to a certain extent.”

“———-”

Seriously? Isn’t this developing fast? After that, Brünnhilde and I hardly spoke at all, and the meeting was over. It seems that the knights are going to work out a strategy. My role is to search for the enemy, so I don’t have to join the knights in their meeting.

When I was about to leave the conference room to rest until our departure, Lucia spoke to me.

“Sage, do you have a moment?”

“Hmm, yeah, what’s up?”

“I need to talk to you.”

Brünnhilde and I were led by Lucia to another room.

◇◇◇◇◇◇

I was led to a lavishly decorated room. The urn, the chandelier, the desk, the chair, the shelves…all of them were full of luxury.

“This is my room——Hmm.”

Lucia takes off her helmet. Then, her beautiful blond hair flows.

“Have a seat. I’ll make you some tea.”

“Oh, no problem.”

Brünnhilde and I sit down on an expensive looking sofa. It’s a little strange to see her in black armor making tea. I can see her face, but she looks strange.

Lucia took out a tea cup from the shelf and used her magic to pour out hot water. I see, Lucia’s magical properties are fire and water. By adding the fire attribute in the process of activating the water magic, she was able to make hot water.

Lucia served us a cup of hot tea and sat down on the sofa on the other side of us. I reached for the tea and picked up a cup.

“Let’s hear what you guys are really up to.”

I almost dropped my cup.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t be silly. I have no intention of blowing the whistle on you. I’m a B-level adventurer, but there’s an F-level girl who easily defeated me, even without any cheats, and a ring-bearer adventurer who will expose his cheats just to investigate ruins and help us kill bandits. To put it bluntly, I care about you more than the bandits.”

“Ugh——”

“I know you’re not bad people but I can’t let you go without knowing your objectives.”

“………”

I was seriously confused. Would Lucia believe me if I told her that I was an otherworldly person summoned by the Ostrode Kingdom?

Would she believe me if I told her that Brunnhilde was really an android created a long time ago, and that my cheats had “repaired” her?

Would she believe me if I told her that our goal is to save the students in the Ostrode Kingdom?

“What’s up, Sage?”

“——–No, it’s nothing.”

Besides, I don’t know what she’ll do to me if she finds out I’m from the Kingdom of Ostrode. Worst of all, I might be detained. No, I can’t tell her.

“——I’m just interested in the ruins.”

“————Okay.”

After that, Lucia didn’t say anything else. I’ll take this opportunity to ask her a question, too.

“Chancellor Nachtigal, you went to the Beastman Kingdom, right? Is that to forge an alliance against the Ostrode Kingdom, correct?”

“The Ostrode Kingdom has been on the move. I’ve received information that they’ve brought in a lot of cheats from other worlds. And each of them is a monster. To put it bluntly, it’s a threat on a national level.”

“———”

“If the Ostrode Kingdom attacks now, the Magicalize Kingdom, which is the least defended of the Eight Great Kingdoms, will fall. That’s why Chancellor Nachtigal is planning to form an alliance with the beastman nation of Fauves to keep the Ostrode Kingdom at bay.”

“———if the Fauves Kingdom doesn’t agree to an alliance.”

“———We have to fight. But the odds are against us. Fauve is a country of beasts and magic has not spread there. In exchange for your armed forces, we will provide them with our knowledge of magic.”

Beastmen have little use for magic. They are born with a strong body and live a life that does not rely on the ‘otherworldly power’ of magic. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they don’t have magic power, but they seem to be the kind of brainiacs who think, “If I have time to learn magic, I’d rather go out hunting with a weapon——“

Of course, not all of them are like that.

“Huh——the moment I mentioned the Ostrode Kingdom, your complexion changed, didn’t it?”

“——”

“I don’t know what the connection is between the Ostrode Kingdom and your archaeological research, but it seems they’re not unrelated.”

“——“

It’s like you’ve already seen through me. But……I’m not going to say anything else. Let’s get off topic. I have an important question.

“Lucia, you’re a Knight Commander, why didn’t you follow Chancellor Nachtigal to the Kingdom of Fauve?”

“Of course, because I’m a Knight Commander. I’ve been entrusted with the defense of the Magicalize Kingdom while Chancellor Nachtigal is away. I think I’ve chosen the best and brightest of the Knights to be the Chancellor’s bodyguards. Well, I guess the Chancellor……doesn’t need an escort.”

“I see. Then what about the five people who attended the meeting?”

“Oh, they’re the captains of the Dark Knight Order. Well, you can consider them to be quite capable.”

“Oh, so the captains are taking part in the bandit extermination?”

“Yeah. The five of them, myself, Brünnhilde, and you. This time, we’re going with an elite few.”

“Oh………how many bandits are there?”

“Probably no less than fifty.”

“………seven other people besides me?”

“No problem. If we can locate them, they’ll be finished in a few minutes. It’s up to you to find them.”

“………”

That’s not the problem. Seven people divided by fifty, seven people per head to defeat? No, but Brunnhilde can do it alone…….

“Don’t worry. You don’t have to fight.”

“Of course not. Most of my gear is just for decoration…….”

“We’ll protect you. Brünnhilde.”

“Yes, I will protect you, sensei.”

Brünnhilde……Yeah, I’ll let her use that big sword when the time comes.

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