| Author: Starving Wind | Original Source: Joara | Word Count: 3714 characters |
| Translator: Anonymouss | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 2240 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
“We will not act on it.”
Katalina, who had connected to the game not long afterwards, shook her head and strongly declined to act.
“The possibility of danger is way too high, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry to Lucas but I can’t agree to act believing his words alone. Though I do have power over everyone, I still need to persuade the officers as well. Do you think they would simply believe his words? Even if they did, what if it turned out to be fake and a major force in our alliance becomes completely obliterated?”
“It would be the worst possible scenario.”
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say so.
Everyone’s trust in us would be absolutely ruined. Naturally, our vague relationship with the Shining guild would turn from careful judgment to outright exclusion, and all the officers whose credibility was less than Lucas’ would be disappointed and agitated. And if the enemy was to use that as an opportunity to attack…
I didn’t even want to imagine it.
“But if that information really was true, then to be left with leftovers in that dungeon would be a shame…”
Feeling that it would be a shame, I revealed my inner thoughts to her.
“You’re definitely right Ellie. It’s a shame to just throw it away. Then how about this?”
Katalina looked at me, great anticipation swirling in her eyes as if she had an amazing idea.
“We give this information over to a neutral guild.”
“A neutral guild?”
“That’s right. If it’s just like Lucas had said, that the information had come from a high ranking officer in the Chaos guild, and if it’s information that even we didn’t know about, then the neutral guilds wouldn’t have known either right?”
She did have a point. But what kind of profit would we gain from giving them the information? They’d definitely fight with each other trying to claim…
“Ah!”
Understanding Katalina’s intention, I finally cried out in realization. If this whole war had begun with the intention of unifying the whole server, then guilds that had a neutral position like Storm, Zenon and Empire were also considered dormant enemies.
What Katalina implied was that we make the enemies fight each other to our benefit. Though there may not be actual wars occurring between two factions, it would still be enough to create some disharmony.
The problem was how well we would be able to manage the grievance from other high-ranked users like us. Even if I was able to somehow persuade Katalina, Eva and Lucas, who suggested this in the first place, to agree with me, I was sure that the high ranked users who weren’t in the top 10 would definitely think differently.
It’s because acquiring just one title was big enough to change the placing of their rank drastically. To give up such an opportunity didn’t make sense at all.
“But how do we persuade our allies?”
What I asked was an obvious question. I assumed that since Katalina had come up with this suggestion, she would also have an answer to the question easily.
“We’ll just need to distract them.”
That was obvious.
I was about to say something but Katalina continued.
“We open up an event that the guild supervises over. Together with a grand prize to win. Of course, the participants should be limited to members of the guild.”
That sounded interesting. Didn’t the ancient people of Rome use similar tactics of opening up events in the colosseum? If they had something to cheer for, then it was obvious that their complaints would die down.
“So the problem is thinking of an event that’s interesting enough for them to completely forget about the news.”
“Correct!”
Hearing my presumption, Katalina laughed and gave me a thumbs up.
An event, huh. What kind of event would be good? A tournament? No, I was pretty sick of those. On top of that, we were currently at a war so to make all of the strongest soldiers of the guild go out in full force to battle for a prize would not be the right thing to do. On top of that, they would fight with each other and obsess over their hierarchy in terms of strength. So instead of harmony, it could cause even more strife among guild members. Hence, it wasn’t good for this situation.
It needed to have a theme where the audience could cheer while also not affecting the users’ fatigue. But to hold it as an offline thing was not possible. As it was of utmost importance to keep my title clean, to join an offline meeting and risk having my name made a mockery of was something I couldn’t afford.
“Ugh, I can’t think of any at all…”
I was really racked with all kinds of things to worry about. It was true that I wanted this war to be over already and to return to a peaceful life. Though wars give a lot of experience points, there was a mountain of things to consider so I felt like my head was going to explode.
On top of that, most people were expecting me and Katalina to put an end to the whole war so I felt an immense amount of pressure and mental fatigue.
“We’ll have to get ready for the update as well, and the underwear… hm?”
The contents of the update suddenly came to mind. And in particular, the underwear part is interesting. It was a newly developed system. Whatever their intention was, such as trying to create as many systems and variables in Blue Sky as they could, I still couldn’t shake off the feeling that it was still a very sexual and suggestive thing to put in the game.
But when you think about underwear in another way, it’s connected to swimsuits.
Whether it’s women’s bikinis or men’s swimming trunks, they were still the same thing, weren’t they?
“A swimming suit contest!”
“Eh?”
Katalina had a bewildered look on her face, as if she couldn’t believe what I said.
“Wait just a moment…”
Asking her to excuse me for a moment, I sent a whisper to Jasmine right away.
[Are you there?][Ah! Miss Artoria. It’s been a long time since you sent me a whisper. Have you been well?]
Jasmine was thankfully logged in the game and greeted me in whispers happily.
[Yes, well we’re still in the middle of the war but I’m fine anyway. You’re doing fine as well right Miss Jasmine?][Fufu, yes. However, to hear that Miss Artoria who’s been causing huge incidents one after another for a while now to be just doing fine sounds a bit funny to me. You are being way too respectful to me, honestly. Even as someone like me who doesn’t have any interest in the war, I know that the whole news media and Blue Sky denizens are busy talking about you, Miss Artoria.]
[I was simply lucky, that’s all.]
Even I felt that I was being way too modest here.
[Yet again with your modesty… anyway, what business does the ever so busy Miss Artoria have to whisper to me like this?]Was she angry because I hadn’t contacted her in a long time? She was talking in a calm tone but was still quite sassy. But why would she be angry anyways? It’s not like she contacted me often as well… I couldn’t understand at all but I didn’t regret not knowing in the end.
If you wanted something, you had to do it yourself, that was the rule even in contact between friends.
[Then let me just be frank with you and ask you directly. Are you able to perhaps manufacture underwear?][Underwear? Aha, you mean the new thing from the update. Yes, it’s possible. I can make the base material from can be from a variety of silk to leather, scale and even precious metal. Funnily enough, even silk underwear is considered protective equipment. Well, that is only to be expected since the equipment is crafted by a Grand Smith like me.]
[Then is it possible for you to craft underwear like swimsuits?]
[Making the appearance like swimsuits? I don’t think I can do that actually. Ah! I’m sure the dressmakers can do it though. They were experts in dyeing and changing the appearance of silk cloths. But that really was a groundbreaking idea. I had been researching how to make great underwear for a while now, but never how to change them to swimsuits.]
Seeing Jasmine amazed by my idea, I felt a little pride for having thought of it but now was not the time to show off.
[Then do you know of any skilled dressmakers?]That’s right, I only had three people on my friend lists. There was no way that I would have anyone there that specialized in dressmaking.
[Hm, I do know a few of them. But why, do you need swimsuits to be made?][Ah, yes. We’re thinking of opening a swimsuit contest as a guild event thing.]
As there was no need for me to hide it, I told Jasmine truthfully. I needed her full support for this, so I felt it was the right decision to make.
[Hmm… interesting.]Her reaction was very optimistic. There certainly had never been an event like this in Blue Sky.
[You’ll help me out, right?][Of course!]
I was finally given a confirmation. Jasmine promised me that she’d gain the help of everyone she knew to help out in crafting them. Since the dressmakers would be establishing a new source of income as well as have a new commission to work on, it was certain that they would help us out.
“All right. She said it’d be possible to get the swimsuits.”
“Sigh. It definitely is an event that would bring about passion and cheers from the guild members regardless of age and gender, but…”
“Do you have a better idea?”
In the end, Katalina also nodded her head in acceptance.
“But you have to take care of all the prizes for the contest.1”
“Wha…”
What the- I provided the idea, now I had to provide the prizes as well? Am I some kind of sponsor? Was what I wanted to say, but I had plenty of items that I wasn’t using inside of the sky castle.
The problem would be easily solved if I brought a bagful anyways. They may complain about me being a cheapskate but they probably won’t go against me.
“All right. But in return, you have to participate as well.”
“Why should I?!”
Hearing my teasing tone, Katalina jumped and declined right away.
“You know how underlings follow their leaders, don’t you? If you take the lead, they’d follow, right? Or do you have some problem that won’t allow you to participate?”
“Ugh…”
Honestly, I was wondering what kind of swimsuit Katalina would be wearing.
Though it was just a tiny bit, considering that numerous beautiful players with great bodies would be coming out of the woodwork for this contest, I needed Katalina to be a sacrifice. I didn’t want to be disgraced by making people think that they were simply merchandising themselves for the prize items and think negatively about it.
“So you’re not going to do it?”
“A… all right, but you join as well, Ellie.”
“Me?”
Huh? Wait, this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. I had only thought about getting to see everyone, not that I would need to go out there as well. I was in deep trouble.
“That’s right, you! When you consider it, you’re in a higher position than me. If it’s just as you said, then you should be the lead example for everyone else, right?”
She was definitely right. It was very obvious but the important thing was I didn’t want to go. It wasn’t like I was going out there to show off my powerful and toned muscles to bewitched ladies, but me going out there to please the eyes of hungry men acting like starved wolves was something I never wanted to do.
“Give up on thinking that you’d be able to worm your way out of this one. I’m going to put it up as a notice at the guild meeting at dinner time.”
“R… really?”
“Yep. Let’s die together then shall we?2”
It seemed like she was angry that I had pushed her into the corner for this, as Katalina who had activated her berserker mode had decided to sacrifice both of us for this. Since she was acting like this, it was certain that I would end up participating.
Though I didn’t know of this until later, the ratio of male genders within all the officers boasts about 85%. Well, it doesn’t matter in the end, though it was crazy that the lord of the alliance should be one of the participants in the event.
“Nngh… Huh? Sis? What are you all doing here? I was just visiting for a moment because I was heading to sleep when I heard the sound of people fighting.”
Even though I thought Esther had already gone to bed, she came towards me and Katalina while rubbing her eyes.
“All right Esther, you’re participating as well!”
“Huh?”
The poor young sheep asked confusedly after hearing Katalina’s statement3.
