Chapter 318 - Strategy Meeting

We came all the way to the inside of the castle. To the room where Ren and the others were holding a meeting.

On the way, Motoyasu, Who was playing with his three, joined us.

“My, my. It’s the Hero of the Shield, and…”

Following me was Raphtalia and Trash, whose aura had changed beyond recognition.

The soldiers of the castle seemed to sense this too, and they swallow their spit.

For everyone to realize it so easily, I’m beginning to wonder if he’s truly the same person.

He definitely seems like someone else.

I felt it the first time I met him. This sort of… overwhelming Charisma circling around him.

“King-sama.”

The soldier carefully chooses his words as he speaks.

Trash: “Yes, I want to speak with the Heroes, and the Allied Forces. Won’t you open the way?”

“Yes Sir!”

The soldiers salute as they open the door.

And like that, we entered the conference room.

Ren: “Naofumi!”

Ren sees, me, and stands up from his seat. He runs over.

Ren: “Are your wounds alright?”

Naofumi: “For now.”

It’s not like I’m in enough pain to knock me out, and I’m gradually recovering.

I have the blessing of the Shield, and I should recover enough by the time I confront that bastard.

Ren: “Next is…”

Ren looks at Trash, and hangs his mouth open.

Ren: “Hey, is that…”

Naofumi: “Yeah, it’s the same person. Even I was surprised.”

Trash looks over the ones in attendance with an intelligent smile. He displays the cane in his hand.

Who the hell is he?

Genmu: “Hmm… so Melromark’s Hero of the Cane has finally gotten the motivation to fight. Are you sure you aren’t too late?”

The Genmu Grampa begins provoking Trash.

The Shusaku has a similar expression, and they’re giving off an irritating impression.

Trash: “That’s right. My eyes had been clouded, but now it’s different. My wife… The Queen’s will will be upheld. I must protect this country.”

The past Trash would have been enraged by those words. He would have been driven out of the room after throwing it into disorder.

But the current one honestly admits his shortcomings.

Trash: “Melty.”

Melty: “Y-yes?”

Trash points at Melty, and she suddenly straightens her back.

To her, this man should be her father, but her face clearly shows that something is off.

Trash: “Won’t you continue the meeting? Iwatani-dono and I wish to partake in it.”

Melty: “Understood.”

Trash pulls back a chair for me, and sits down in the one next to it.

For some reason, with that simple action, everyone takes a deep breath.

The others must think that he’s completely forgotten his past grudges. He’s even treating me with respect.

Even I find it amazing.

He had an extremely diligent expression as he pulled a chair for me, but something feels really wrong.

Is it that?

When someone who acted as a fool shows his mettle, the gap makes him seem exceedingly cool?

Now let’s see just how far he exceeds our low expectations.

Trash: “What are you doing? Hurry and start it up again. We don’t have much time remaining, correct?”

Melty: “U-understood!”

Melty takes out a document, and sticks them onto a board fastened to the wall.

‘According to the Heroes, Tact is also an Otherworlder’ Is written on the front.

The evidence is his personal history, and his inventions.

And the battle looks hopeless.

It seems that Tact is proceeding directly from Faubley to Melromark in a straight line.

He’s making all of the countries along the way surrender, and he gains control of their land as he progresses. His progress is way too fast.

In a few days, his army will reach Melromark.

The enemy’s new weapon… no, it’s not really new, but the Airplane has been implemented for practical usage. Its dramatic appearance on the battle field spelled the defeat of a few nations already.

That’s how the situation looks.

Trash: “It seems that the Heroes of the Sword, Spear, and Bow won’t be put on the defensive line.”

Trash asks.

Melty and the Genmu raise their hands, and respond.

Melty: “It’s due to Faubley’s hero’s miraculous ability. As long as he’s there, we can’t carelessly deploy them, even if it means putting them on standby.”

Trash: “Fumu… a prudent decision. Airplanes… I have a vague idea of the kind of weapon they are, but are they truly that formidable?”

Melty: “Yes. The one acting as their main base deploys soldiers by parachute, and it mows down all that approach it by machine gun. The high-leveled dragoons of the other countries have tried challenging their planes to dogfights, but it appears that their pilots levels exceed ours by too great of a margin…”

Because of the large level gap, it’s impossible to approach.

It’s a simple advantage, but its simplicity makes for a firm groundwork.

Dropping the planes with long-range magic and weapons seems possible, but their high levels buffer defense and speed. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to hit them.

Naofumi: “What numbers are they coming in?”

Melty: “They’re attacking with only five planes. They board and stock away from the battlefield, and subjugate countries by raining soldiers down on their cities from above.”

It’s likely that those five pilots are high leveled, and the rest are standard soldiers.

I don’t know about Tact’s Harem, but their general soldiers didn’t seem to be too high leveled.

That means they’re focusing their plans around their limited supply of pilots.

Trash: “… Hero-samas, I’d like to hear whatever information you have about Airplanes.”

Ren: “Even if you ask that, I’m pretty sure we only have general knowledge. We may be able to implement one, but it’ll just barely be able to fly.”

Trash: “In your worlds, by what concept did they move, and how were they handled in war? Also, what sort of functions did they hold?”

Ren: “Is that stuff really important?”

Trash: “Yes, if I don’t get whatever information we have, I can’t formulate a plan.”

And Trash thoroughly absorbed whatever information we knew pertaining to planes. I wonder if most of it was actually necessary.

Also about firearms… in that field, Itsuki proved to be quite knowledgeable. He even explained the part names, and their applications.

You’re telling me that he not only not only comes from an ESPer world, he’s also a military otaku?

But he was useful, anyways, so I didn’t say anything.

Well, thinking about it, someone with 『Accuracy』 as an ability would need projectiles like guns and bows for battle, so perhaps it was inevitable.

Trash: “…It’s still not enough.”

“Hah?”

Trash: “There’s still something bothering me.”

Even after his incessant, inquisition, he still presses us for more information.

At first, we looked at him with dubious eyes, but the military heads of the other countries, particularly the ones closer in age to Trash, looked on the scene in silence. They had confident smiles on their faces.

Naofumi: “Oy, do you know anything about that?”

“That’s proof that the Wise King has revived. He’ll continue searching for information until he has enough of it to put together. But the answer he comes to is always correct. By doing that, he was able to make all of us taste defeat. He’s nothing less than reliable.”

Naofumi: “I see…”

“Since he hasn’t settled on a plan yet, that means that he hasn’t been given the necessary information yet. Please cooperate with him.”

I don’t know where this trust is coming from, but this is the first time I’ve seen Trash like that.

Trash: “Iwatani-dono.”

Naofumi: “W-what?”

It’s already strange that he’s stopped calling me, ‘Shield’.

And his eyes are shimmering. I feel that I might get sucked into his pace, and start speaking everything.

Trash: “About their… Hero. I’ll leave him to Iwatani-dono. Is that alright with you?”

Naofumi: “Yes, I’ll knock him off his high horse.”

Ren: “Naofumi, are you sure? Didn’t you have your Shield taken?”

Naofumi: “It’s fine. Ah, right…”

At the same time I remembered my meeting with the Spirits.

The weapons of the other Heroes in the area began emitting a faint light.

Light seeps out of the Sword, Spear, Bow, and the place my Shield used to be. And flows towards Trash and Fohl’s weapons.

“What? Convert…?”

“Strengthening method unlocked?”

They let out such words, as they seemed to be reading an invisible screen with their eyes.

And Trash held out his cane to me.

Trash: “The Cane has suggested that it be offered to you temporarily as a special case. It wants to lend you power. Please take it.”

Naofumi: “… Will you be fine?”

Trash: “My focus is on strategy. It’s not that essential.”

Naofumi: “I see.”

I grasp Trash’s cane.

A similar Icon to the one I saw when I had the Shield appeared.

As an exception, the use of this weapon by the Hero of the Shield has been permitted!

Special Weapon Unlocked!

You have completed the conditions to unlock the Fenrir Rod!

(Note: Fenrir is a wolf, and Loki’s son. He kills Odin at Ragnarok.)

–

Fenrir Rod 0/90 C

Awakening Impossible

…

Equipment Bonus:

Fenrir Force

Ability Bonus:

Gleipnir Rope

Rebellion Against God

Proficiency Level: 0

–

(Note: Gleipnir is the Red Thread used to bind Fenrir. It will snap during Ragnarok)

A status message appeared, and I checked my stats.

Comparing it to the Stats I had before, Quite a bit has changed.

I guess I’ll have to change how I fight to match.

The cane changed shape to that of a staff with a wolf ornament on top. The wolf’s mouth was biting down on the body of the staff.

There are chains wrapped around the base, and it’s a bit hard to hold.

Looking at the weapon book, quite a few weapons have been unlocked.

The method the Seven Stars used to unlock weapons probably converted, and appeared in a form friendly to the Four Summoned.

With just this, my abilities have risen by a bit.

But… the numbers are lower than the ones I’m familiar with.

Is this because the Seven Star weapons are ranked lower than the four?

I open the screen to strengthen the staff.

Naofumi: “Fohl, read out the strengthening methods written in your Help Screen. We’ll also tell you ours, and then, we’ll apply them.”

Fohl: “S-sure.”

Naofumi: “Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki, you understand, right? Strengthening is all about belief. Believe in the strengthening method from Fohl Gauntlets, and from Trash’s cane.”

Ren: “Got it!”

Motoyasu: “Understood!”

Itsuki: “Yes.”

And we shared the strengthening methods in our help screens.

Ren: “Wait a second, that strengthening method. Isn’t that what we tried before, but failed in?”

Naofumi: “It was used in one of the Seven Star Weapons. Unless the Heroes cooperate, I don’t think it’ll work.”

Ren: “… At this point, that just sounds like a pain.”

Ren complains. I agree.

But his complaints are on the mark.

Most likely, the enemy from the wave did some sort of interference… no, that doesn’t sound right…

But despite the differences between the Cane and the Gauntlet, their strengthening methods were the same. How ironic.

I immediately strengthened the Fenrir rod in various ways.

My Status improved greatly.

Even so, it doesn’t compare to the Spirit Turtle Shell.

No, that one received a boost from the Shield of Compassion Atlas unlocked, so it would be rude to compare them.

Fohl: “I managed to awaken it, but I can’t get any equipment bonuses.”

Fohl reports as such to me.

Naofumi: “We don’t have much time, but go do it. You can get materials from around the country, and you can take whatever you want from my ware house.”

Fohl: “Got it.”

Trash: “Have the Heroes finished their discussion Then let’s get back to planning.”

Trash sits down again, and restarts the meeting.

After that, Trash wrung us dry of all the information we had of our world.

So much that I think he would be able to make some groundbreaking technological progress here. By the time I noticed it, the sun had already sunk.

Naofumi: “Is there still anything more you need?”

Trash: “… I’ll need to revise it a bit, but I guess this is enough information for one day.”

Trash began scribbling away on the board.

And the soldiers of the Castle copied down his words.

Apparently, the Genmu ordered them to do so.

After seeing the content, we nodded. He figured out how to possibly turn their weapon against them. How frightening.

What does this man plan to start with the information we gave him?

Trash: “Now then, does this sound fine for a draft of the plan?”

There are proposals numbered one through twenty. Trash orders his soldiers to make the initial preparations for each one.

Naofumi: “Y-yeah.”

Trash: “I’ll have the Heroes work individually in their own squadrons.”

Naofumi: “I understand that, but…”

I look at Trash’s writing, and see the date he put for the day Tact was going to attack.

Naofumi: “Is the attack really coming on that day?”

Trash: “Yes. Faubley’s hero will choose this day without a doubt. If I were on his side, I would choose it as well.”

Yes, I truly would be at a disadvantage if he chose that day.

Right… the day the wave would come.

This truly was the most effective day for them.

Us Heroes are registered at Melromark’s Dragon Hourglass.

According to Ren, and the others, the last one they registered at was Melromark’s as well.

Naofumi: “How are the other countries dealing with the wave?”

Trash: “The waves appear to be centered mostly around Melromark. The others still have time to prepare.”

Naofumi: “I see…”

This is exceedingly troublesome.

We’ll get called to some far off location when we’re in the middle of the war with Faubley.

Even so, it’s not as if we can neglect the wave.

That means we’ll have to split our forces.

Trash: “And so, Heroes, please make preparations beforehand. If possible, act as swiftly as you can with your fastest Filo Rial.”

Motoyasu: “Understood! Now, let us be off, my angels!”

Motoyasu randomly runs off atop his three.

Where the hell does he think he’s going!?

Trash: “Then I’ll assign the Hero of the Spear-sama to this brigade.”

And so, we were assigned our positions.

Naofumi: “Right, Trash. There’s someone I’d like to introduce as a source of information.”

Trash: “Understood. Who is this individual?”

(Note: I’d like to remind you all that Japanese Pronouns are gender Neutral)

It’s quite a simple source

She does have quite a grudge, so I’m sure she’ll assist me.

What’s more, she’s my slave. So she doesn’t have the right to refuse.

The other one, no, that… it would be quicker to just bring him there.

Trash’s probably seen her before, but he shouldn’t know about her ability.

Naofumi: “Getting them here now is… impossible. Come with me.”

I walked away to introduce her to Trash.