| Author: Starving Wind | Original Source: Joara | Word Count: 3049 characters |
| Translator: Anonymouss | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1733 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
The Birmingham city hall was as large as the hall of the Liverpool city that I visited last time. It seemed obvious since both were equally famous for their large capacities.
The problem was that even a huge hall like this became full once enough people were invited.
“Are there really this many landowners in existence?”
Looking at the number of users that completely occupied the hall, I was amazed.
“Strictly speaking, it’s not just the landowners but more accurately the landowners and their aides.”
“But that means at least one-third of everyone here is a landowner.”
“That’s right.”
Even so, I was still just as amazed.
“But it seems like all their outfits are similar.”
Speaking of which, Katalina was also wearing a formal white one-piece with gold linings as opposed to the usual clothes she wore. The simple red cloak she wore on top of that exuded an aura of high class.
“Aha, I guess you’re talking about the clothing I’m wearing.”
“Yeah.”
“I guess it’s the first time you’re seeing it yourself, Ellie. Then I’ll go into details for you. This is a formal dress uniform for landowners, called [Dress suit of Honor]. It comes together with this tiara that I’m wearing on my head. Though there is a difference between male and female versions of the clothing, they’re probably very similar.”
Even without Katalina’s explanation, I could see that the only difference between each guild was the color of their clothes and the guild symbol, while the rest was the same for everyone.
“Does it have good stats?”
“No, it doesn’t have any good stats since it’s regarded as casual clothes, so it, unfortunately, doesn’t give you any bonus.”
Even though I did have a memory of owning a particular piece of land in the past, there was no system of needing to wear this uniform back then so it was all fascinating to me. It was a little unfortunate that it didn’t give any good stats, but it did sound absurd to have a uniform give you extra stats in the beginning.
“So it’s a borrowed item?”
“No, it’s just a time-limited item. You only keep it as long as you are holding the position of a landowner.”
“I see, thanks.”
“Gosh, no need to thank me, you know our relationship after all.”
Hearing my thanks, Katalina spoke with a subtle nuance as she patted my head. And the situation was a little bit weird for me to just swat her hand away.
“Whoa whoa… Guild master, please calm yourself.”
“We’re currently single, you know…”
Sounds of complaints rang out from the officers of Volcano guild.
“If any of you want to get your income reduced, I dare you to keep speaking.”
“… Devil.”
“Witch.”
As Katalina’s cold eyes scanned her officers, they immediately looked away as they muttered under their breath. This was why a dictator system was so scary.
“Now now, everyone please pay attention here!”
There was a temporary platform set in the middle of the hall. As the user standing on it spoke, all the users inside of the hall stopped speaking and turned to face the speaker.
“We will now end the break time here and continue the actual meeting.”
Was he in his late thirties? It was hard to tell since he had a western face, but his voice definitely did not sound like a young boy and was pretty deep with a serious tone.
His calm and straight voice left a deep impression when matched with his neatly trimmed beard and stubborn looking eyes.
“Who is that?”
As I began to habor the tiniest bit of interest in the identity of that user, I whispered in Katalina’s ear.
“Ah… Yeah, he’s Terror, and as you know, the 4th highest ranked users.”
Katalina’s face was red as she started fanning herself with one hand while replying to me. But her voice was a bit too loud.
“I’m sorry, could you people over there please turn off local broadcast? Thank you.”
Though he didn’t point at us specifically, we were the only ones who were speaking after all. My face also became as red as Katalina’s as I tried to avoid locking my eyes with all the people staring at us.
“Why did you do that?”
I whispered once again as we both had our heads lowered to avoid gazes.
“Mmmh…”
Katalina’s blushing red face became even redder this time. It made me wonder just why she was acting like this. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was in a game, her face was red enough to make me actually worry about her health, but she calmly breathed in and out for a moment before grabbing my ear and whispering.
“I’m… a bit weak at the ears.”
I did hear that the translation of virtual sensation to real one was so good that it was nearly perfect, but…
Both of our faces were blushing crazily as we looked away from each other fanning ourselves with our hands.
“… Is all. Now then, we’ll be hearing opinions from each of the guild leaders.”
Honestly, I didn’t really know what they were talking about since most of what they were saying went over my head, so I was only guessing, but it sounded like they were being briefed over the current possibility of being attacked by the enemies. I think I also heard them discussing the damages they received.
“I’m Majesty, the guild master of the Majesty guild1. Thank you for the information, Terror. However, I believe you say that Shining and Chaos’ number one potential target is Volcano.”
“Yes, that is correct. I proclaimed that as Volcano almost has as much land and strongholds as Shining, which is why I believe the possibility of the Shining guild attacking Volcano is high.”
Katalina frowned and focused on the conversation between the two guild masters as her guild’s name was included in the talk. The officers were also focusing on the conversation with a stiff expression.
Now that I thought about it, I recalled a famous story where the Majesty guild ended up forming anti-Volcano forces due to the rising tension between their guilds2.
“Then it’s simple, isn’t it? In the end, Volcano is the strongest guild present here and also have the most powerful soldiers, so they’ll probably be able to defend against a joint attack from both Shining and Chaos. Well, if they really can’t stand up against them, we’ll just need to help them out.”
In other words, Majesty was just telling them to be the shields. If Volcano were to suffer huge casualties in the desperate defense battle, Majesty would either absorb them into their guild or stab them in the back.
Slam!
“Can I take the words you just said as a form of declaration of war?”
Just as I thought, Katalina couldn’t handle it anymore as she slammed the table in front of her and spoke with a cold tone.
“Goodness. Is the great guild master of Volcano really turning tail and running just because Shining and Chaos are teaming up together?”
The sarcastic voice wasn’t coming from the Majesty guild’s side. It was actually a man from the Tempest guild who stood up. Tempest was part of the Anti-Volcano coalition alongside the Majesty guild3, and the person who said those words just then was the guild master of Tempest, Newton.
“Now now, it will be troubling if you fight all over the place like this. We have gathered everyone here to prepare each other for such things. Everyone, please sit down for now.”
Seeing that Katalina was about to argue back at him, Terror cut in and controlled the situation. Katalina sat back down while biting down on her lip.
She looked to be in an extremely bad mood.
“They’re the Anti-Volcano coalition anyways, so it doesn’t matter what they do.”
The Volcano guild already considers them as hostile guilds4, so of course nothing good could come out of it. Which was why I tried to remind her of that to calm her down.
[They attacked the Volcano guild already.]Suddenly experiencing the switch to whispers, I became surprised and asked back. Not because it suddenly turned to whispers, but surprised at what she had said.
[What?]Of course I couldn’t do anything but ask back. There was no log ever that the two guilds had ever worked together to attack Volcano guild. Perhaps it had happened while I was offline?
[An invisible war. They already started limiting Volcano members from entering the hunting grounds that are located in their territories, started limitations on trades to Volcano guild, and ordered all their guild members to not party up even if they had a personal relationship with the member.]This was practically a declaration of war already.
[No way…][This was the product of Senas’ work.]
Ahh. I see. That’s why Katalina had called me here. That was why I had to be here.
“Interesting.” I laughed5.
Katalina looked at me with a slightly worried expression. The discussions of the meeting continue after that. But eventually, the negotiations broke down.
Majesty and Tempest kept showing hostility towards Volcano. Meanwhile, Shining and Chaos had the Volcano guild as their first possible attack target. Storm and Zenon kept trying to push the talks amongst themselves, but it seemed like forming an alliance with them was impossible. The Empire guild showed a little goodwill towards an alliance with Volcano, but it was nothing more than flaunting their powers around. Medium to smaller guilds mostly aligned among themselves and seemed unlikely to align with the giant guilds. Then again, from their point of view, all they wished was for the current influential groups to crumble and fall.
In the end, the situation ended up where the Volcano guild, with 30% of its main attack force exhausted, had to fight against an alliance between Shining and Chaos guild. Fortunately, eight of the medium to small guilds that received help from Volcano showed their backing to this battle, and Eva, the guild leader Sapphire, a relatively big guild compared to most of the smaller guilds, had promised to help out.
I realized that the entirety of the server had practically split into two sides. There were three days left before the coronation and four days were left until the ‘Siege day’.
Footnotes:
- Silva: Ew, a narcissist?
- Silva: Doesn’t make sense, Volcano’s hostility towards Majesty ended up creating forces against their own (Volcano) guild? Isn’t that counterproductive?
And isn’t Majesty supposed to be in half-alliance with Volcano?
- Silva: So the talk about half-alliance in early chapter was BS
- Silva: WHAT ABOUT THE HALF-ALLIANCE! Well, I guess that’s why it’s only “half” and they’re only alliance in name
- Robinxen: Protag is getting fired up!
