Leave a comment

Just because the instant teleportation gates were sealed didn’t mean that we were going to make the army march to their destination. Not only did we have a tight schedule of 3 days, but we also didn’t need to accumulate fatigue of all the users by walking all the way.

Therefore I gave each of the 35,000 users two instant teleportation scrolls, which were worth a thousand gold each. I also gave each of them a potion, and their reaction was very positive.

“My god, to think that even the lowest ranking members would be given potions like this, it’s the first time I’ve seen it happen.”

It was certainly surprising. Though potions may seem cheap to me, considering the number of guild members, it meant that the expense this time was definitely not small.

It had cost nearly 200 million gold just to supply them with consumable items.

However having a potion in this all-out war meant that you practically had a spare life on hand, so there was a clear difference in how much you would contribute to the battle if you had or didn’t have a potion on hand. The huge expense was worth it.

“Everyone, please pay attention.”

Before setting off to our destination, I stared at the guild members who had filled the entirety of the Liverpool castle grounds and asked for their attention.

Their murmuring died down and I felt them become silent. One thing for sure was that they were willing to follow our orders clearly. Compared to the past when I was the leader of my own guild, even though the number of army personnel was small, it felt like I was trying to control a group of weekend warriors, so there was a clear difference in how much they were willing to listen to my orders.

“I’m sure you all must have received the news but the assembly area is located in Glasgow. I hope you all move there without any confusion or chaos, and the order of the movement shall begin with the 1st platoon, going up in numbers one by one. Each party leader should check if there are any missing party members and report it to the team leader, and each team leader should report to the commander.”

We went through a simple check of absence. Going through this may be a bother to them. Though they may think that it wouldn’t be such a big deal for one or two to be missing when there are tens of thousands of people, it’s a different matter when it’s about individual parties. Each of them consists of a certain amount of damage dealers, healers and supporters, and now imagine if a healer or a main damage dealer was missing from these parties. It meant that the certain party with missing vital members would have the potential damage it can dish out severely reduced.

If that happens, no matter how many numbers we have, our actual combat power may actually be drastically weakened.

Therefore it was important to make sure we check if there are any absent people in the parties.

“First platoon, no absence reported!”

With the first platoon as the base, I order each of the platoons to report any absence directly to me. Though there were users that had to leave this battle due to family issues or health issues, that was out of my control so I couldn’t do anything about it. However, for parties that do have absent users, I put them together with another party ahead of time to make sure they are at full combat prowess.

“Very good. Now let us all move.”

Seeing as how all preparations are complete, I ordered them to move ahead and with beams of bright flashing lights coming down to each individual user of the 1st platoon, they started disappearing. It was a truly epic sight.

In the history of Blue Sky, there has never been a moment where an army with over ten thousand users had all moved together for a battle. Therefore the numerous amount of onlookers and game news reporters gathered around Liverpool showed just how much interest everyone had in our history-defining moment.

“I guess we should go as well?”

As I watched the first platoon disappear into light, Katalina came over and asked.

“Right.”

Though there was no need to hurry, I needed to be there first to command each platoon that would arrive at the place, so I nodded my head. Then I immediately ripped the instant teleportation scroll apart.

Once my vision became clear again, I was standing at the castle grounds of Glasgow which had a different sense of grandeur compared to the Liverpool castle grounds.

It was the base of operations for the Shining guild in the past, and even now it was still the base of the Shining guild which was now under the umbrella of the Camelot alliance. Though the owner hadn’t changed, it was no different from me achieving complete conquest over the Shining guild without spilling a drop of blood, which was quite refreshing to me.

Though there were many users in Scotland that had resisted and criticized Lucas for his decision, there were still many within the guild that had acknowledged my right to rule over the guild and saw my decisions as something that was well thought out as well. Honestly, the only reason they went against it was because they hated having all of the leading influence of the guild based in Scotland to be filled with people from England instead of Scotland.

In any case, because of that reason, the people of Scotland currently didn’t see Camelot as all that bad, and it was clear from the fact that the majority of the Shining guild members were not resigning through this decision that they had changed their minds about it.

I thought that it would be great if the Chaos guild completely surrendered to us easily like how the Shining guild did. It may have been different if I wasn’t the lord of the alliance, but either way, as someone that’s in charge of the guild, I needed to plan out how to best protect the safety and peace of all our guild members.

Ultimately, the most important thing was to win this war but I had to make sure I lost the least amount of guild members. In truth, the guild members that had joined the Camelot alliance were not simply people who enjoyed playing Blue Sky but actually lived in this game as if it was a matter of life and death. Because of course, one would suffer an immense amount of loss if they were to die in the game. Their actual livelihood and revenue may falter and be in trouble if worst comes to worst.

On this large-scale battlefield, I didn’t know just how much power I could display here.

Though I may be significant if I was fighting in a battle with thousands of users, it’s completely different when it’s in the tens of thousands, so even though battles were something I should be used to now, I still couldn’t help but feel pressure and nervousness.

“Lina, how are you going to compensate the users that may die in this battle?”
“Hmm… I was going to consider it after the war is over.”

I asked Katalina hoping she knew, but just as I thought, she didn’t have any plans. The reason why giant guilds are always hated is because of this reason. But of course, it’s understandable since this current situation means that we are already heading straight into battle. So Katalina was right in not having any idea yet.

But how would it turn out once the war ended? Those that were still alive would be given somewhat special treatment and be shared the spoils of war. However, what about the users that lost their experience points and items from dying in the war?

The majority of them would be kicked out of the guild for not being able to satisfy the requirement for being a part of the guild. Of course some of the luckier ones would receive a certain amount of compensation gold but that was it. That was why I’m trying my best to make sure no one dies. Since if they were to die, there would be more financial problems for us in the future.

Therefore in my past life, I didn’t want to join a giant guild. It’s always the regular guild members that would take in losses rather than the leaders after all. It may be different for users that joined at the initial stages of the guild, but the high ranked users who joined the guild late would end up only receiving advanced tier consumable items, though they may be respected as temporary guild members.

Considering that, you could see that the reason why the regular guild members of the Shining guild in the past went against warring with another guild, since they specifically didn’t want to have such losses. It’s also the reason why I’m in the spotlight for fighting in the frontlines of the war even though I may end up just dying in the end.

Just because I’m a high ranked user doesn’t mean that I’m invincible. High ranked users could also die from a single mistake in their judgment, and if they were unlucky enough to be completely surrounded, they’d still be in big trouble. Therefore until now, there was nearly no occurrence of when the guild leader or the top head of the alliance stood in the front lines of the battle. But I had indeed broken that tradition, and had helped in making sure that the Camelot alliance was cohesive.

However…

Though it may be a chance to raise the morale of the troops, it cannot be a way to solve the fundamental problem. I’m willing to bet that even now, many of the guild members are fighting against nightmares inside their heads of what would happen if they were to die in this battle.

“Ellie. It seems like most of the platoons have successfully teleported. You should hurry up and get ready to head into battle.”

I was lost in deep thought for a moment, when Katalina who had been quietly staring at me asked me to hurry up since I was thinking much longer than I expected.

“Mmh, yeah.”

Even as I answered her, I fell into deep thought about how to reduce the anxiety they should all be feeling. There’s a limit to simply compensating it with gold, and it would have made the financial situation much worse anyway. Even so, I can’t promise to increase their experience points for them…

“I’m not sure what you are thinking about so deeply, but I don’t think people will be happy to see you in such a gloomy mood as the lord of the alliance. Since Camelot is a powerful guild altogether, you shouldn’t worry so much and be confident in the power we have.”

Just as I thought, Katalina, who had more experience than me in leading a large guild, gave me advice on what to do. Yes, she was right about that. Camelot is definitely not a weak guil– Ah!

Only then did I realize what I needed.

“Thanks, Lina!”

Feeling overjoyed now that the problem I was worried about was over, I gave Katalina’s cheeks a light kiss and headed towards the Camelot guild members who should be assembled in the Glasgow military training ground.

Just as I expected, the troops that had finished their inspection all stood in a line and waited for the signal to advance. The Chaos guild would definitely have figured out that the troops would be heading towards them, so they should be gathering their troops around Edinburgh. The number of enemy troops that should be stationed there should be around 20,000 to 25,000 in number. Though we had an advantage by being 10,000 more in number, we had to endure the sieging of the castle as well so it was hard to say that we had a clear advantage.

The best-case scenario was to make the enemy troops come out into the open plains. I wasn’t sure whether this would work but there was one card up my sleeve that I didn’t expect to have. If it doesn’t work, there was no other choice but to just charge into the siege battle, creating a messy head-on-collision with the enemy troops.

“Now then, we have completed all preparations, and the Edinburgh that you can see over there is the first objective for the Camelot alliance.”

There was no city that existed between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Therefore I spoke while pointing at Edinburgh which was quite far but still visible in the distance.

As I had already done quite a long speech, they may actually react as if they were sick of hearing me if I talked too much.

“I have something to declare to you all before we march into battle.”

Some amount of whispering amongst people began between not the guild members but the officers. It was because this was something that was not agreed to happen in the meeting.

“I understand you all are afraid and worried about this upcoming battle, but this I promise, whether we win this battle or not, nothing will change.”

I paused slightly for dramatic effect. Seeing the expressions of confusion on the guild members as they haven’t figured out what was happening yet, I opened my mouth again.

“Camelot has not thrown you all aside.”

It was a quiet statement. A long silence passed through the air, and I believed that it was the right amount of time. That’s right, that was quite enough. It was up to the guild members whether they believed it or not, and I will do everything that I can to make sure to keep that promise.

“May I ask one question?”

I wasn’t sure who it was that asked. Just that it was one guild member amongst the numerous members that had lined up. That was for sure.

“Please go ahead.”

I gave them permission. I wondered what their question could be.

“Is that statement coming from you, my lord? Or was it from the guild?”

I wondered what they wanted to ask exactly? I wanted to tell them that it was the will of the guild, but of course that was a complete lie.

“It is from me.”

I spoke the truth and nothing else.

“Then I shall believe you. As long as my lord has not abandoned us, we shall not abandon you as well.”

I wasn’t sure why but the guild member spoke as if he was choked up with passion, and a chorus of voices rang out that had been silent this whole time.

“I believe!”
“I believe you as well, my lord!”

Were they really that worried? I felt that I was definitely not wrong in my judgment.

Nearly all of the guild members yelled out in clamor saying that they believed me as if I was the head of some crazy religious cult.

I heard Katalina’s whisper in my ear as she spoke in a half-joking tone, but right at this moment, I was definitely not embarrassed of anything.

Hearing endless shouts of cheer, I raised my hand to calm them down, which worked and they became silent. I then swung my hand down as I shouted.

“All troops, march!”

As the order came down, 35,000 guild members all began their march towards Edinburgh.