An Intense Briefing
Patricia Zylberstein"s mansion was crowded with big names from different countries. Those gathered in the conference room, in particular, were VIPs.
King of Einbeast, Gerhardt Vatex Anchor.
Captain of the Knights of Ponsonia, Lawrence D. Falcon.
The Knights of Quinbland"s Deputy Head.
Bios"s Temple Knights" Commander.
Forestia"s Army Minister.
King of Dream Maker, Doriachi.
「First, I would like to thank you all for answering my country"s call.」Patricia started.「Today we will be sharing information in preparation for the expedition next spring.」
Sitting beside her on the round table was Ville Zentra"s mayor. Her secretary and other officials were on the long table behind her. It was the same for the other countries; one or two representatives were seated on the round table, while their a.s.sistants were behind them.
「Wait a sec.」Gerhardt raised his hand.「What"s Silver Face doing here?」
Sitting quietly by the wall was Hikaru in his Silver Face getup.
「He"s our biggest patron in our effort to rebuild Dream Maker.」Doriachi said.
「Patron? Are you sure he"s not here to steal information or disrupt this meeting?」
「I"m sure you know that a man of his ability does not even need to show himself.」
「Hmm…」
Hikaru didn"t bother hiding to show that he had no ulterior motives. There was no need for him to actually join the meeting, but there might be matters where his statement would be necessary.
Gerhardt didn"t say any more. However Bios"s Temple Knights" Commander—a man in his early forties with not much features—didn"t stop glaring at Hikaru. A vein had popped up on his forehead.
Right. I did cause a commotion in the Pope"s room, Hikaru thought.
Destroying the Pope"s chambers just to show the Blade of Severance, of course, was more than just a “commotion”. Hikaru slipped through the temple knights" security and even escaped their grasp. They probably wanted to kill him so badly.
「Next, Dream Maker will explain to us about Grand Dream.」Patricia said.
Doriachi nodded. It seemed like a civil official, not Doriachi, would be reporting. A young man stood up and began to speak. Information about the new continent was new to many people here, so everyone listened, while secretaries ran their pen at great speed.
It was overall quite a hopeless situation, now that Hikaru heard it once more. Grand Dream was a bit smaller than this continent, if not the same size. To the south was a vast wasteland, while the rest was covered in dense forests. There were rolling hills and mountain ranges as well. Steep, craggy mountains towered up north, in particular.
Monsters inhabited all but the wasteland. According to citizens of Dream Maker who actually engaged in battle in this continent, the monsters here were considerably weaker and made their jobs easy.
Roots, spots that raised the level of monster activity, were scattered throughout the jungles. There was a high possibility that there were more Roots the farther you went north. To top it all off, there was a legend that a gigantic monster lurked in the northernmost part of the continent.
It"s good that they"re keeping things simple, Hikaru thought. Mentioning evil creatures and Koukimaru would only make matters complicated.
The official continued. Since the people of Dream Maker didn"t have the apt.i.tude for Spirit magic, they couldn"t be exactly sure, but casting magic seemed to be possible.
There was an issue with food supply as well. Eating monster meat was highly discouraged as some of them were contaminated.
「There are high-purity magicule crystals called dragon stones that some of you might want—」
「Dragon stones? How big?」Forestia"s Army Minister asked. He was a balding man with a mustache.
The official produced five samples and handed them over to Bios, Forestia, Quinbland, Ponsonia, and Einbeast"s representatives. They took it out of small bags and found the fragments to be not bigger than a thumb.
「We already gave one to Vireocean. You may have those.」
「What the—?!」Bios"s commander was left almost speechless.「Unbelievable. There"s so much mana stored inside. Sounds like the high-purity magicule crystals is true. Are these Roots really scattered throughout the continent?」he said, his face flushed.
「Yes. I heard they"re so big that you won"t be able to carry it even with both arms.」
「Wow…」
「We have mines here where we obtain Spirit magic rocks, but none as big as you described.」
「Each country will receive their share of the dragon stones based on their contribution.」Doriachi continued.
The room stirred. Patricia alone stayed composed, as she had already discussed this with the king.
Small magic rocks were sold at several hundred gilans. Huge ones packed with mana rarely appeared in the market, and tended to be sold at high prices.
「Wait a minute.」the commander of the temple knights said.「That doesn"t seem fair. We only brought two hundred men.」
「Unfair?」Gerhardt scoffed.「You only think about protecting yourselves. That"s why you didn"t bring enough men.」
「With all due respect, Your Majesty, we"re on guard against your country. We did not know how many troops you"d send to this expedition—」
「Want to attack while I"m gone, then? I dare you.」
「What?!」
「That is, if you can. I"m not around. Come on, it"s a huge opportunity.」
Bios and Einbeast were on awful terms. Gerhardt was obviously baiting the man, yet he couldn"t help but grind his teeth in frustration. The king wore a look that said he was just poking fun at him. That didn"t stop Gotthold from elbowing him from the side, however.
Patricia opened her mouth with a sigh.「If you wish to send more troops, they can join the second batch, or if they can arrive in a month, we can arrange for them to join the first batch. Though I can"t really recommend marching during winter.」
「Thank you, Supreme Leader.」The commander finally regained his composure and nodded.
He handed the bag with the dragon stone to a knight and sent him out the room, presumably to travel back to Bios quick and get the Pope"s opinion.
「You should take it easy as well, Sir Gerhardt.」Patricia shot a glance at the Beastman, who wore the same look of feigned ignorance.
Gotthold bowed deeply. Every country was aware that he was the Beastman king"s chaperone.
「By the way, I believe we"ll travel by sea,」Lawrence cut in,「but I heard Silver Face right there possesses a means to shorten the travel time by only hours.」
Okay, didn"t expect that to come from him.
Hikaru already expected this matter to come up. In fact, it was evident that it would be raised in this meeting—how he moved thousands of refugees on foot. It was for that reason that Hikaru joined the meeting. Although, the plan was for Doriachi to explain it first. Hikaru didn"t expect Lawrence to bring it up.
Hikaru raised his hand a little.「I didn"t know you were aware of that, Master Swordsman. I am honored.」
「Don"t patronize me. I lost against you.」Lawrence said.
The knight simply told the truth, without any hint of jest in his voice. The room went silent. Knights behind him looked troubled, as though saying “You promised not to say that!” Indeed, stories about the Master Swordsman losing to someone would do no good.
「Oh… You beat the Master Swordsman too, eh?」Gerhardt said.
「Too? Did you fight Silver Face as well?」
「I wouldn"t call that a fight. He just made a complete fool out of me.」
It made sense that he thought that way. After all, Hikaru left a knife at the king"s bedside, and sat on the throne without permission.
Lawrence"s gaze darted at Hikaru, his eyes asking if what Gerhardt said was true.
「Uh… I did it out of necessity?」Hikaru said.
「You shouldn"t make fun of people.」Lawrence admonished.
「Anyway, moving on.」Hikaru continued.「I can"t use the same method anymore. It"s possible that I might be able to use it in the future, but right now, it"s impossible. So including it in the options is not realistic.」
「Is it some kind of a single-use magic item?」
「Something like that… There"s not enough energy available to use it. I was able to activate it with a huge dragon stone, and right now we don"t have any.」
Lawrence didn"t speak anymore, content with Hikaru"s explanation. Experts in sorcery should have understood without any problem. Dragon stones in that continent contained that much mana. For Hikaru, however, these stones were nothing but huge bombs that Drake also happened to eat.
「These are data on the Roots.」
An official from Dream Maker distributed doc.u.ments, which everyone looked over.
「I have a question.」Quinbland"s knights" deputy head, who was silent up until now, finally spoke. He was a good-looking man with silver hair tied to the back.
He would look good in women"s clothing, Hikaru thought.
「I still find it hard to believe that the monsters over there are that strong.」he said.
「Same here.」Forestia"s Army Minister agreed.「We need a precise estimate on their strength, or our training might go to waste.」
「We thought you"d say that, so we prepared a little demonstration for you today.」
Patricia glanced at Doriachi, and the king nodded in response.