Chapter 308: Festival Preparations
Five minutes after all my leaders left the war council, I called three people back.
-Yataro, Kotetsu, Rina, come back to the meeting room
"I'm back. What is the matter?"
"Hmm, just Rina, Yataro and me, huh?""What's up?"
"You're the only ones whom I will tell the full details of the upcoming operation."
"Hoh."
"Will the others have a different mission?"
"The details of the operation...?"
The two old men cheerfully smiled at my comment while Rina looked rather puzzled.
"This time's operation is-I told the three about the secret agreement us upper class demon kings reached in the thread.
"I see. That's why you're going to leave the defense short of hands, huh?"
"So, are those other demon kings people that can be trusted?"
"A united front of the Thirteen Evil Stars?"
"In regards to the question whether they can be trusted, I can only admit that it's unclear. We've been in contact on the forum for more than a year, but we never met in person.
"That's a fairly risky operation then, isn't it?"
"It might be risky, but we cannot afford to keep twiddling our fingers and just watch the situation getting worse, right?" I told them my honest view.
"Okay, but what's the reason for you telling only us three and not all the leaders?"
"It's because I can trust you three in various meanings...I suppose," I answered Rina's question.
"In various meanings, eh...? What a fitting phrase."
"Takaharu, Sarah, and their surroundings will wreak havoc without caring whether there's something going on in the back. And I doubt that there's no need to worry about the other leaders betraying us either. But, it's possible ins that they let something slip by accident."
"Well, for better or worse, we got a lot of pure folks, after all."
"Since you'll be on defense duty with me, Yataro, I think it's better if you know in advance. Rina and Kotetsu, you guys won't be able to focus on your invasion if you have to worry about the defense of the Aster Empire, right?"
"I believe in your power and knowledge, Shion-sama. I'll simply obey the orders you give me."
"—————gh! I also believe in you, Shion! I will perfectly carry out the mission assigned to me!"
"Don't get so riled up. I guess it was needless worry then."
I smiled wryly at Kotetsu's aloof expression and Rina's passionate rebuttal.
"Well, now that we're all here anyway, let's talk about Plan B."
"Plan B?"
The other three cocked their heads when they heard my remark.
"Plan B is the case when the other demon kings don't make their move."
"Hoh, so you say such a possibility exists as well?"
"One should always assume the worst case, right?" I replied to Yataro who was looking at me scrutinizingly.
To be frank, I cannot anticipate whether the upcoming operation is going to work. Are Sati- Storm King Hayate and Nina- Nanashi really going to make a move?
"What do you plan to do if they don't move?"
"If they don't, we'll limit the damage as much as possible. Or to be precise, it'll go in the direction of surrendering a few sectors to the humans."
"Hoh... No resistance to the bitter end?"
"In case they don't move- -the aim of the two demon kings will be for us and the humans to wear out each other. I wouldn't want to humor them to such an extent. In such a case, our side will lose a few sectors. What we gain will be- -the evaluation of Storm King Hayate and Secret Nanashi."
"The evaluation of Storm King Hayate and Secret Nanashi¿?"
"You can't trust them. The two will be assessed as clear-cut enemies. In the same way, the upper class demon king thread will lose all its purpose, so we'll be able to exclude it from all our future strategies."
Making each other's positions clear will likely be helpful for designing future strategies. I'll be able to dump pointless expectations and dependencies.
"What will you do if one moves and the other does not?"
"The moving demon king will be judged as trustable while the other one will simply be flagged as an enemy. In such a case, it's also a feasible option to form an alliance with the demon king who moved, and target the other demon king together."
"What will you do if both move? Will they become alliance partners like the demon king of Komatsu?"
"Hmm, the relations on that forum are distorted...I don't know whether we'd reach a level you could describe as an alliance, but I think I'll keep a friendly relationship with them in the future."
"Hoh...the upcoming operations sounds like it'll become a major crossroad."
"That's how it is."
If the operation goes smoothly, the demon kings will become allies or the enemies of your enemy...but not enemies themselves. This time's rule change favors the humans way too much. It's probably about time for us demon kings to alter the way we do things.
"Getting back to the main topic, when we enter Plan B, the idea will be to offer several sectors to the humans, I guess? As far as I'm concerned, I'd like to secure a certain foothold in Itoigawa."
"In other words, you're not going to ease up on the invasions even if we become isolated?"
"A complete take-over of Itoigawa will likely be impossible, but the question will be how far we invade...how many of our sectors we
offer...and when Rina and Kotetsu's corps would come back to reinforce the defenses."
"No casualties among the leaders, right?"
"That's the plan."
"In that case, we should abandon a sector if the enemy reaches the 30th floor, I suppose."
Right now I'm level 32. In short, the deepest floor of each sector is the 32nd floor.
"I'll set up 【Transfer Gates】 to our headquarters on the 32nd floor of all sectors adjacent to Gifu. Everyone will retreat at the same time as we abandon it. Afterwards, I'll delete the 【Transfer Gate】 at headquarters. ...Would that be alright?"
"I think that's a safe approach. The number of sectors we'll offer will be all the domains that were invaded simultaneously at the start, right?"
"The sectors of Nanto and Toyama City, huh...? There's quite a lot of sectors neighboring Gifu."
"Going by numbers, it'd be 21."
"I believe the humans won't attack 21 places at the same time....."
"going by the trends so far, it'd be ten at most."
"If we lose ten sectors, it'd hurt, but...I guess it'll be an unavoidable price to pay."
"Staying alive is all that matters, yep."
"For the time being, Rina, Kotetsu, pull back your troops urgently if this situation should occur."
"You have my word."
"Roger."
"Okay, please resume your preparations for the attack."
A Plan B to make double sure. Even while praying that I wouldn't need to put it into practice, I prepared for the worst-case scenario.
