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The nearly simultaneous declaration of war from the two guilds against Camelot captivated not only Blue Sky’s England server but the Blue Sky server of every nation.

Not only was the BBC channel of England covering this, but the PBR, NPR and CPB, America’s top three channels, competed with each other as they each tried to get the most coverage with eye-catching headlines, including NHK of Japan and CNTV of China, along with the biggest broadcasting channels around the world.

This meant that I ended up with dozens of requests for an official interview with all of them. I handed over the role of taking care of public relations to someone appropriate within the guild, and the enemy guilds did the same as well.

Just like life in the real world, the world in Blue Sky quickly went through drastic changes. Members of both guilds had practically stopped trying to level up, and there were frequent small-scale skirmishes between them. For fights that occurred in the fields, they were done by guild members who weren’t strong enough to be of any help in siege battles. This meant that while most people didn’t care much about them, they were fierce all the same. Such skirmishes enabled guilds that weren’t part of either side to experience firsthand that the war had truly begun.

And the true battles were about to begin.

As expected, when the time for siege battles came, a request for joining the siege forces inside of cities such as Manchester in over 10 different locations popped up.

“This is going too well.” As her assumptions were too accurate, Katalina frowned as if it was actually a problem.

“They may have chosen the other cities at random but they definitely need Manchester city after all. They have no other choice.”
“Well, you’re right but…”

I didn’t think too much of it since I didn’t consider it something to be worried about. It was the 2nd biggest city that the Volcano guild owned, meaning that it was the 2nd biggest city of the Camelot alliance.

Strategically, the hunting areas near Manchester city can be excavated for high-quality Mythril which not only brings great profit to the owner of the site but was also required in repairing items of unique tier and up, meaning that Manchester city only needed to pay the smallest amount of upkeep relative to cities of similar size.

Thanks to a stable flow of investments from merchants, it had a thriving economy with numerous virtual NPCs, which created the perfect commercial city for trades and jobs many users could make a profit out of.

As it was the city with the most amount of profit from taxes of its citizens, the enemy forces definitely needed to take over it to make sure they could cut off our source of income while boosting theirs.

On the other hand, we considered it as a key position for our strategies.

But why was it Manchester City out of all of them? Wouldn’t it be better to directly attack the most important city and our headquarters, Liverpool City instead? I’m sure some people may think like that but they can find the reason why by looking at the most basic rule in Blue Sky when relating to guild rules.

It was a rule that each guild’s base could form an attacking force and a defensive force in proportion. It was a system to make sure that even guilds that were weak could stand a chance against bigger ones. Though guilds that were on the stronger side would often complain about this rule, in truth, guilds of all sizes had once benefitted from this rule as they grew so even though they would argue about how bad it was, they would never actually vote to get rid of it altogether.

Even if the Blue Sky corporation were to take that complaint, they wouldn’t act on it at all. They would only end up losing face, so at this point, they gave up on going against the system.

This was why the Shining and Chaos guilds targeted Manchester City instead of Liverpool City.

“So I should go to Manchester City?”

Though I didn’t have any obligation to enter the battle as the alliance guild leader, it was still the first battle since the inauguration of the Camelot alliance. It was something I wouldn’t dare miss out on.

And as Manchester City’s battle would no doubt be the fiercest out of them all, I wasn’t exactly asking but rather confirming it with her.

“Yeah. That way we can rest assured.” Katalina nodded her head as if it was obvious and settled. However, her expression wasn’t too good, so it seemed it would be difficult for her to go with me.

“Which city are you going to go to, Lina?”
“Carlisle City.”

It was definitely not a large city, but it still had a deep impression on my mind.

“A gateway city, right?”
“That’s right. Though it doesn’t mean anything to players of Blue Sky, to people of Scotland and England, it is a city with a deep underlying meaning.”

I nodded my head. The land war between England and Scotland was highlighted in the movie ‘Braveheart’, which was popular even in Korea¹.

These two countries that had a long history of feud due to their past, were still to this day on bad terms with each other². It was so bad that there were two different national soccer teams even though they were one country under the United Kingdom³.

Looking over at America which was also a nation formed of the United States, although there were some differences, some similarities still existed.

And so for England and Scotland, the city ‘Carlisle’ had the symbolism of acting as the ‘door’ between the two countries.

The real Carlisle City was a gateway city that William II in 1092 had fortified to protect England from attacks by Scotland. It was a city deemed important enough to be once again fortified with rocks in 1122 by King Henry I.

The humorous thing was that this Carlisle City was never taken over by Scotland, not even once. Every war ended with Scotland being inferior but England still had to endure all those invasions.

And because of that historical background, the Shining and Chaos guilds that were led by people from Scotland aimed for this place specifically because of how significant the city was to them personally⁴.

It was probably the reason why Katalina was going to that specific city as well.

“I see.” I was convinced.

“Ah, if I could I would have just gone with you, Ellie.”
“I thought you wanted to keep your private life separate from the game?”
“As if!”

I was only repeating her words back to her, yet she got angry.

“In any case, be careful! And the first one to finish their battle comes to help the other, okay?”

As it was a siege war, there was nearly no possibility for either one of us to finish early. As we were beginning in an inferior position due to the fact that we’re on the defensive side of the siege battle, we only needed to protect the castle within the allocated time as attempting to actually destroy all enemy forces was practically impossible.

Of course, Katalina probably already knew it but still asked all the same. If I were to tell her the facts then she might just get angry at me again.

“Of course.”
“Yup yup!”

Only then did she give a satisfied smile and wave goodbye to me. It probably was because she needed to get into Carlisle City for the siege before the allotted time to enter was up.

I also needed to enter Manchester City as soon as possible.

“Then I’ll see you later!”
“Be careful.”

And so we bid farewell to each other and went to our different destinations.

Manchester City was the home of the world famous soccer team Manchester United FC as well as Manchester City FC.

In terms of geography, it was located around 50km northeast of Liverpool.

But these historical facts didn’t actually have any influence on the world inside of Blue Sky.

The only thing that could be said to reflect matters in the real world was that it was a major city.

I’m not sure what people who have Manchester City as their hometown thought of what I said, but at least to me that was the image that I had taken in when I was in Manchester City.

“Ahh, well the fans of Manchester United would probably feel different about that city.”

Thanks to the growth of Blue Sky, a huge number of real-life soccer fans had died down but it was still the most popular sport in the whole world.

Whether to watch the EPL league match or to join the planned raid guild in Blue Sky, which to choose over the other was a difficult question. They had yet to come to a unanimous agreement, becoming one of the 3 biggest problems of the current era.

It was an exhausting argument as both sides had nearly nothing in common, yet there were fierce hardcore fans on both sides. I don’t really care whichever side they chose but in my personal opinion, I think being able to enjoy both of them in an adequate amount was the thing for everyone.

“You’re here, my lord!”

Guild members from the Camelot guild lined up at the top of castle walls saw that I came and greeted me.

“Greetings everyone. Let us give it our best to achieve victory.” It was a simple greeting to them.

“Yes, my lord.” However, hearing my greeting they immediately knelt down to show respect, which influenced not only users around them but everyone within the walls of the castle, even the people who were still just transferring in and didn’t know what was happening simply knelt down along with the rest.

“You are all being way too courteous. Let us take it easy.”
“We’re fine, my lord.”
“I feel more comfortable with you all taking it easy.”

Why do I feel like I’m the leader of some crazy fanatic religion?

“I will feel uncomfortable if you all behave this way, so please treat me just like one of the guild leaders.”
“That is why we are respecting you as deserving of a lord.”
“That is correct.”

I couldn’t respond to them. I understood that absolute obedience could bring about the most power in terms of war against enemy factions, but this was a little too much.

On top of that, to see each individual user’s young sparkling eyes filled with hope… It was easier to receive such looks from female users, but to receive such looks from male users made me feel uncomfortable while I kept an indifferent expression on my face.

‘Damn it, damn it.’

“Everyone, please assemble in the military training ground in the front of the inner castle.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Ugh…”

Even though the Camelot guild members were all working together with no fault at all, why couldn’t I shake off the feeling that I was the leader of a fanatical religion?

Watching the guild members line up, I admitted that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the most elite troops in all of Camelot’s military forces had lined up specifically for the defence of Manchester City.

One reason was of course the fact that I could only see high ranking users lining up, but the other was also because in such a short amount of time, they had lined up in the exact group and section that they belonged to.

Although each individual’s skill was also important, the most elite troops were called only that if they had trained together systematically for a long time. In time of peace they would execute raids perfectly in sync, while in real guild battles they would be in sync in attacks, a real cream of the crop of high leveled users.

The times in which they showed their true power in executing their roles were in dogfights and intense battles.

Standing at the watchtower of the inner castle, I looked at the outer castle walls and the mercenaries that had been assembled there.

There were quite a number of them that had gathered, and the enemy forces on the other hand had much less numbers of mercenaries than ours lined up on their side. They gathered as many users as they could by baiting them with high payment, but as the guild had already backstabbed the mercenaries once already, the mercenaries that were on the neutral side weren’t likely to take them up on their offer.

Though there were still a small number of mercenaries that sold off their dignity and stood by their side… But they won’t have much effect on the actual battle itself so I didn’t pay them any mind.

As opposed to the previous battlefield, Manchester City’s castle defences had been well maintained, meaning that the outer and inner walls were both at the highest possible level of 10, showing off the best possible defence capability it could have. The perfectly constructed walls had been reinforced with iron in several places, and the towers were tall and magnificent.

There were plenty of ballistas as well as hot oil pots. All the elements of castles that were difficult to siege on as moats were all present.

“Huh?”

Looking around the battlefield, I wasn’t able to hide my surprise seeing one particular user that was standing in the advanced line of the enemy forces.

“It’s Lucas!”
“The guild leader of Shining?!”⁵

1. Robinxen: Please for the love of god do not take that movie seriously. It’s basically bastardised anti-england propaganda. Okay slight exaggeration, but you can see the creators political leaning hard in that movie.
2. Robinxen: Eh. I wouldn’t say bad terms. There are some conflicts of interest and national rivalries but it was quite a bit friendlier until recently.
3. Robinxen: Well…they are different countries so what did you expect? It’s like asking why there isn’t an EU soccer team.
4. Robinxen: This authour is something else. Unless they have a history nut on the team and are playing this as a Scotland vs England thing for media purposes literally nobody would care.
5. Robinxen: The final boss showed up as a midboss!