『Strategy Meeting』 In the end, we couldn"t finish the game before the end of the summer holidays, so even after the new term began both at school and at Kobayashi-san"s house, we would still be aiming at the 【Greatest Happy Ending】.
Today was the first day after the beginning of the summer semester. “Let"s have a strategy meeting!” Kobayashi-san suddenly declared as we were eating our convenience store bought lunches at her place, since cla.s.ses were only on for a half day.
【The Grand Council of the G.o.ds Who Hold the Fate of Another World in their Hands】she may have called it, but I still thought it was a pretty cool name for what was basically just two high school students having a chat over lunch.
“Now then, the time in the world of the game is about to move into autumn, so if the event with the Ancient Witch happens at the autumn festival just like in the game, then we need to take this time to build up the forces backing up Finne, right?”
Kobayashi-san said that with a surprisingly serious look all of a sudden.
But, she was right. At the end of autumn, during the festival, the monster will be resurrected. Even if we can get rid of the risk that Liselotte will become possessed by it and transform, we have to be ready for anything.
“Our best bet would be to get the remaining two capture targets on our side, then we would have the same strength as the reverse harem from the game so it should be an easy win… But, saying that…”
Taking the chocolate pudding off the desk, Kobayashi said that with a difficult expression.
“Some kind of problem?”
“Yeah, I mean, going by the game those two had to be aggressively pursued to capture them, it"s not as if they would be interested in Finne from the start, right?”
Kobayashi pressed her hand against her cheek as she mulled the words over.
“The last two are the oldest and youngest characters, there are the older teacher Leon-sensei and the shota character Fabian Ortenburg, the son of a viscount… or Fabian-kun, but… Fabian-kun is still just a child and he"s pretty innocent in his route, so it might not be too hard to have him lend the party a hand, but Leon… well…”
Since my only real memories were of the reverse harem route, the main thing I remembered about these two guys were how they fought. Fabian was the gla.s.s cannon type, with low defense but high magical power, with all sorts of loud and flashy attacks. Leon, meanwhile, uses a lot of status magic like paralysis, sleep and poison, as well as direct stat debuffs like lowering enemy defense. They would both be invaluable in battle.
“Is Leon really that troublesome of a guy?”
I was always a little wary of him, since he definitely seemed like the sort of smiling black-bellied type, but I never got the impression he was such a bad guy he"d abandon a student in need. Wouldn"t it be fine to try and ask him for help? Seeing the confused look on my face, Kobayashi-san sighed before continuing.
“Leon-sensei, how should I put it, he"s the kind of character who likes to hide his true nature. He was the son of a mistress who was separated from his mother by his father, who sought an heir, but once his real wife gave birth to a true son, he was cast aside. So, in order to avoid the dangerous world of politics and high society, he withdrew from the path that had been set up for him to become a high ranking court mage to become a teacher instead. That was strange enough for such a talented person… In other words, Leon-sensei is trying to hide his true power in order to avoid attention from his old house and high society in general… In order to convince him to do otherwise, there"d have to be something drastic, like, say, falling in love with Finne-chan…”
“Well, that"s not gonna happen now, huh…?”
Since Baldur and Finne were going together so well now, Finne wasn"t exactly going to try and tempt another man and we definitely didn"t want to force her to either.
In the first place, Leon supposedly wasn"t the kind of person to pursue a romance with a girl who is engaged, or at least is seemingly going to be engaged, with a person that she loves.
“So, what I"m saying is it will be hard to get absolutely everyone on side…?”
Kobayashi-san rested her elbows on the desk as her chin sank into her hands sadly.
“But, the Ancient Witch, I think it"s sort of a demon, right?”
I decided to double check on something that has been bothering me for a little while.
“I guess?”
Kobayashi-san didn"t seem to have much motivation as she began to slowly eat her pudding.
“If the witch is left alone then, she might not just destroy the country but the entire world, right?”
“That was one of the bad ends, yeah.”
“…Then, why is something so important only left to students to deal with?”
Kobayashi-san looked like she hadn"t ever considered it before as I finally let the question on my mind out.
“That"s right… If you really think about it, isn"t it strange that children are the ones left to solve a national crisis like that!?”
Realizing what I mean, Kobayashi-san suddenly shouted that after jumping up from the desk.
Right. It was fine if it was just a game, but if this was a reality now, then this was the kind of thing that the adults in charge of the country should be confronting with their full strength before it became a grave situation.
Well, Leon-sensei is an adult, but he"s still only twenty-four years old, so basically, the party a.s.sembled to fight the final battle was made up of only young people. I don"t think there would be any government or military that would actually order something like that, so it seems a bit strange.
“Thinking about it normally, wouldn"t they have other people deal with it? Like the police or the knights? Or why not the whole army? In any case, the adults in power should be the ones to fight, right?”
As a story for a game, it was beautiful to see teenagers overcoming an apocalyptic evil with their own power, but it didn"t really make any sense realistically. It was impossible, even. It could never be allowed to happen.
Thinking about what I said, Kobayashi-san kept nodding over and over again.
“Right… That"s right… Actually, since it"s Liselotte and Finne who are in danger, shouldn"t their father be the one to intervene…?”
Kobayashi-san looked deadly serious.
“Liselotte and Finne"s father, or rather, the most important general in the country with all of his men. If we can get them to help, wouldn"t that be far more helpful than a single Leon-sensei, no matter how strong he might be? Finne seems much stronger right now than in the reverse harem route as well.”
Definitely, when it came to mental and physical strength, all the main characters actually seem quite reliable right now.
Finne was a crazy gorilla, Baldur was training even harder to keep up with that Gorilla Finne and the Crown Prince had already asked for Baldur"s help earlier. It seems like Liselotte has been happily training alongside Finne ever since they came to live together and Art, who looks like he has been browbeaten into becoming one of Liselotte"s followers, has been learning how to become an Acolyte of the Punch just like Finne. They can definitely win.
Kobayashi-san, following my train of thought, slowly began to smile.
“Alright then, let"s give up on Leon-sensei! Our immediate strategy is to get Rizepapa to partic.i.p.ate in the fight against the witch, and also invite Fabian-kun into the party!”
So, that"s our plan. As I nodded to agree with the strategy, Kobayashi-san suddenly looked as if she realized something.
“But, for this, who are we going to have do it…?”
The two people who can currently hear our voices were Siegward and Finne. The person we would have to ask to do it would be one or the other.
“We should have Finne ask General Riefenstahl for help, right? That old man, when it comes to his new daughter… Since she"s the 【Lovely Daughter of My Beloved Older Brother】to him, he loves talking to her every chance he can get. Besides, he"d be more motivated to do something for a cute girl than for Siegward, anyways.”
As I suggested that, Kobayashi-san nodded along.
“I think you"re right? Then, when it comes to Fabian-kun, we should ask Siegward, I guess?”
I think that"s fine.
We can take advantage of the Crown Prince"s influence to make an invitation he can"t refuse.
So, I nodded again.
“Alright then, let"s get this strategy going straight away!”
Whilst uttering a quick apology to Leon-sensei in my head, I stood up as Kobayashi-san jumped up from the table excitedly.
Sorry, Leon-sensei. With just one meeting, we smashed your opportunity to show off and fall in love with a pretty girl.
Well, then again, maybe Leon-sensei shouldn"t really be falling in love with a fifteen year old Finne in the first place, that lolicon…