Chapter 1238 - Preparation Period
Thus, going down, conveying, and receiving (dot-emphasis: receiving) in a non-stop single flight.
After sharing the sight seen from above using Ri-na's phantoms. I received commands from Gossan and the map completed early on by Rotta—
"Yo!"
"Whoa, you startled me! Don't land so close, you're so noisy...!"
Soaring through the sky toward the diagonal for a few seconds. As I landed with a slide at the starting point of the Western Faction (Vestol) and called out, the person I aimed for slightly jumped her shoulders and immediately threw complaints at me.
My bad.
Anyway, while brushing off over two hundred other gazes and attention,
"Here, this is from our mapmaker."
When I handed over the scroll, the leader of the West in this Four Pillar War—
"Ah, I see... as fast as ever with your work."
The current second seat of crafters and my exclusive magic craftsman, [Flame Player (Kagura-san)], smiled faintly and calmly while swaying her crimson hair in her usual kimono even on the battlefield.
She didn't seem to possess even a fragment of tension.
Despite easily breaking character in normal times, when it came to such a grand stage, she didn't waver at all, just like during the previous conquest of 'Green Connect'. As expected of her dignity.
Anyway,
"Can you use it?"
"I can. I'll make full use of it."
The map Rotta completed was extremely simple, showing the exact scene I saw from above. In short, I couldn't read any simple, clear, and easy-to-understand benefits like the conventional labyrinth maps—but it seemed to look different to the crafter's eyes.
"Oh, the Insight boy is indeed impressive. He's very considerate."
Following Kagura-san who nodded immediately, the old man (dot-emphasis: old man)... the previous (dot-emphasis: previous) eighth seat [Big Spender] Oz-ji-san, who was nearby, praised Rotta's work while peeking from the side.
...Insight boy? Rotta is a boy... well, yeah, putting that aside.
"Then, I'll leave the arrangements for the construction and stuff to you, old man."
"Sure thing, Kagura-chan. Leave it all to me."
The map I handed to Kagura-san was further passed to Oz-ji-san... one of the West Faction's leading construction-specialized magic craftsmen (dot-emphasis: construction-specialized magic craftsmen), and the small, bald, white-bearded sage waved his hand casually and left the circle.
Thus, where he was heading. While returning a greeting to Oaks-shi, a member of 'Zoodiac' who found me and waved grandly in the midst of the crafter group that also excelled in the construction field,
"Now... for now, is it as planned? Messenger-sama."
To Kagura-san, who jokingly asked for instructions, what I conveyed in accordance with my mission was straightforward.
"Yeah, commanders' meeting. I'll take you there, so choose between princess style or sack-of-rice style (dot-emphasis: choose between princess style or sack-of-rice style)."
—Thus, a few seconds later. Having both proposals rejected, I politely tucked the selfish lady into the transport pocket dimension (Dias Lunaria) and soared through the sky of the empty fortress once again.
◇◆◇◆◇
And, a few minutes later.
"—Reporting the current situation as much as possible."
At the center of the empty space. In the midst of the fortress, which was repeatedly narrower than the usual Four Pillar stage, but normally or rather needlessly wide when correcting the crazy scale.
The Southern Princess... namely, the [Sword Queen] Ashe, among the four faction commanders who had gathered lightly with the help of the easy air-transport taxi, took the lead with her usual perfect expressionless face today as well.
Thus,
"Well, we don't know anything. For now, the unit division is in progress, though."
The Eastern general,
"Same here. We can't even access the crystal, so we have no idea what's going on. The materials we brought are also limited, so for now, we can only make assumptions and arrangements."
The Western lady,
"Same here. Ah, as planned, the kids of the North (ours) are scattered (dot-emphasis: are scattered). Look."
And, the Northern leader.
Jin-san pointed at the members of the Northern Faction who could be seen starting to move even from a distance, and that was all. As a result, it ended in a sharing of the current situation with no reports or anything, but it couldn't be helped.
"Nn... same for the South (us). Helena is reorganizing the units according to the scale of the fortress, but depending on future developments, it will probably be necessary any number of times."
Even the invincible Princess and the 'Queen' who supported her banner couldn't think without information. Therefore, if they fulfilled as much as possible (dot-emphasis: as much as possible), the sharing meeting would proceed without delay.
—Thus,
"...Ten minutes (dot-emphasis: Ten minutes)."
Six hundred seconds of continuing to perform what could be done in our own way while knowing nothing.
Ashe carved her words to mark a division, tracing the timing when the meaningful time in the conventional Four Pillars... namely, the 'preparation time before the start of the war' ended.
In the previous faction competition format, right before ten minutes passed since the teleportation, a light tower announcing the appearance of the "Pillars" would rise, followed by the opening of the entrance to the giant labyrinth zone.
Therefore, inevitable vigilance. Even if Ashe didn't say it as the representative, everyone, including me, was probably paying attention to the event clock displayed at the edge of their vision.
"......Nothing."
"Is happening."
That was why, both right before and even now, relaxed voices came out toward the stage where only silence dominated and there was no movement. Jin-san hopped onto Kagura-san's murmur,
"Well, if they're giving us longer time, that's just what we want."
"Yes, indeed..."
Gossan took the situation positively, and Ashe nodded.
Well, it was as Gossan said. It was a mistake to view it as a disappointing stagnation; currently, we were a flock of sheep thrown into the unknown, not knowing left from right.
Because no matter how much time we had to prepare our posture and prepare our hearts for the coming "something," it wouldn't be enough... while the taxi watched silently like a taxi.
"......Nn. We will standby like this for a while. Each of us will remotely command our respective factions."
"Yeah."
"Sure."
"Okay, Roger."
When Ashe made the next judgment, the other three immediately returned their assent.
In this reborn Four Pillar War, the conventional 'General' system... the feature of choosing one person from the faction and granting huge merits and demerits, had been lost.
But instead, it was renamed to 'Commander' and some merits continued—none other than the 'Telepathy' feature, which seemed to be freely usable in the exact same way as before.
In the exact same way (dot-emphasis: exact same way), meaning it was impossible for a commander of each faction to connect 'Telepathy' to a player of another faction. Therefore, if we wanted to cooperate closely with all personnel, this was it.
There was no choice but for the commanders of the four factions to gather in one place.
Note that regarding the South, the one carrying the official position wasn't Ashe but Helena-san.
However, because the Queen was currently desperately adjusting four hundred people, the largest number this time among the East, West, South, and North, the Princess came as a proxy. Well, since the brain of the South usually operated like a three-legged race, there was no need to worry about the communication and cooperation between the two—
At that point... the taxi slowly raised his hand.
"Ah, is it okay for me to standby too?"
It was the same for me that I couldn't move in the face of the silence, but standing around truly blankly beside everyone who was silently engrossed in thought communication was a bit uncomfortable.
Though it wasn't meaningless for me to be here to instantly transport each person if necessary, in that case, I'd like an instruction to 'stay'... or so,
I, too, had no intention of letting my guard down, but I suppose I was somewhat relaxed.
Ah, crap, saying useless jokes and needlessly disrupting concentration... Whether she knew my inner thoughts of reflecting in a second or not, Ashe turned around and smiled faintly—
As if "events" preferred to visit (dot-emphasis: visit) at the very moment the air relaxed.
"Yes, Haru, you stay here too—"
The moment the banner-bearer of everyone tried to spoil me in a low voice.
A violent vibration rushed beneath our feet, and the stage creaked, not as a metaphor.
has ended as of now.