Ishura - Volume 7 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Disregard

All eight matches of the first round were over, and Alus the Star Runner, who had come to attack Aureatia at the same time, had been brought down after an all-out war was fought against him.

The meeting among Rosclay’s camp to determine their strategic policy going forward was, like the previous one, conducted in absolute secrecy within one of the ordinary meeting rooms inside the civilian town hall.

“Sorry for worrying you all. Why don’t we begin?”

Rosclay the Absolute made a perfectly symmetrical smile.

The intensive Life Arts treatments proved worthwhile, as he had recovered enough to walk on his own legs and attend the meeting himself, but not enough to fight at his full strength.

On the surface, the large amount of time placed between the end of all the first-round matches and the beginning of the ninth was ostensibly to clean up the damage from the self-proclaimed demon king Alus’s attack and to quarantine and respond to the vampire threat. However, it also bore the implication of buying Rosclay the Absolute time to recover to his full strength before he fought again in the tenth match.

“…Nophtok doesn’t seem to be coming,” a bald elderly man murmured with displeasure.

Chief medical adviser to the royal family and the one in charge of Life Arts, Ekirehjy the Blood Fountain.

“I mean, Nophtok’s basically dead, right? Also, really, the meeting’s gonna go pretty much the same whether he’s here or not.”

The snaggle-toothed man with slender arms and legs was Ninth Minister Yaniegiz. Though not tasked with actual Word Arts backup, he acted as Rosclay’s adjutant.

Normally, an elderly man, Nophtok the Crepuscule Bell, would be here as well. Aureatia’s Eleventh Minister, given control Order, was in charge of keeping an eye on and controlling his sponsored hero candidate, Kuze the Passing Disaster. Now, having lost his mind, Nophtok was essentially taken captive by the Free City of Okafu and transported somewhere, with his safety uncertain.

“Can’t we beat down Okafu…under the charges of abducting and imprisoning Nophtok? All their economic activity’s been frozen, successfully fragmenting their forces, right? There’s no reason to keep protecting our agreement with such foolish honesty… We should just crush them while we can.”

“Right now, we can’t mobilize the military,” Third Minister, Jelky the Swift Ink, replied.

Wearing thin spectacles, he was a sharp and cold-blooded bureaucrat.

“Yukiharu the Twilight Diver has secured evidence that Nophtok was the one who ordered the attack on the church in the Western Outer Ward.”

Nophtok the Crepuscule Bell had moved immediately to wipe Kuze the Passing Disaster off the Sixways Exhibition playing field. The plan was to incite the Sun’s Conifer to raid an Order almshouse and secure hostages that would hold sway over Kuze, but this scheme failed, and the visitor reporter, Yukiharu the Twilight Diver, had taken photographic evidence of the incident.

“I believe the fact they openly came to take custody of Nophtok is a declaration that if we should move to recover him or suspend Kuze’s qualifications to participate, they can easily reveal the circumstances of the incident to the public.”

“They’ll judge that all the unlawful behavior was done under Nophtok’s own discretion. It’s not a major problem, Jelky…”

“The capture of Okafu does not hold as much priority as it did previously. As Advisor Ekirehjy says, Okafu’s source of income, mercenary work, is currently suspended, and their city’s income is entirely dependent on the Gray-Haired Child’s personal coffers. In regard to the Free City of Okafu… I see that as long as we maintain this current situation, their nation’s treasury will eventually be exhausted.”

The moment that Okafu was forced to accept the suspension of their mercenary operations as a condition of Zigita Zogi the Thousandth’s participation in the games, the conquering of the Free City of Okafu was, for all intents and purposes, complete—at the very least, they would be economically neutralized before the Sixways Exhibition.

The Gray-Haired Child’s foothold for his invasion of Aureatia, Zigita Zogi, had been defeated as well.

“Furthermore, large-scale action under the present circumstances is inadvisable. Haade the Flashpoint. Iriolde the Atypical Tome. The invisible army. Kiyazuna the Axle. The Old Kingdoms’ loyalists… I estimate an extremely high probability that any of these forces may aim for this opportunity, with our political function to take action dealt a massive blow by Alus the Star Runner’s attack. We need to continue exhausting all our efforts on defending Aureatia, or our defeat will be inevitable.”

Listening to Jelky’s prognosis, Yaniegiz shrugged his shoulders and laughed.

“Heh-heh! Sheesh, after going to all the trouble of crushing Lithia and Toghie City to stop this sort of thing from happening once the Sixways Exhibition began, too… No matter how hard we try, nothing goes perfectly, does it? Awful, isn’t it?”

Jelky glanced sidelong at Yaniegiz for his comment before returning his sights to Ekirehjy.

“This is why there won’t be any attack on Okafu. In fact, it would be better if we used Nophtok as a bargaining chip to preserve the chance of drawing Kuze or Ozonezma to our side.”

“…Hmph. Awfully callous to treat a comrade-in-arms like that.”

“Lord Rosclay. There’s also something I’d like to confirm about our plan going forward, if possible.”

A monocled old man raised his hand. A first-rate Craft Arts instructor at Iznock Royal High School, Ownopellal the Bone Watcher—the one in charge of providing Craft Arts support in Rosclay’s battles.

“In the ninth match, Lucnoca the Winter will be fighting against Psianop the Inexhaustible Stagnation. Needless to say, if the match takes its natural course, it will mean that the semifinal will be Lord Rosclay versus Lucnoca. I assume you’re aware that with that annihilating breath of hers…it will be somewhat unrealistic to designate her a self-proclaimed demon king and crush her with Aureatia’s combined forces, as we did with Alus.”

“You’re absolutely right.”

“Hm. In which case, that would mean the upcoming ninth match will be the only opportunity to invest an extensive amount of fighting power toward talking Lucnoca down while ensuring you don’t end up fighting yourself…”

Lucnoca the Winter was said to be a nightmarish threat to all existence, but the fact that she would only appear on the day of her match was another big problem when it came to dealing with her.

She would make her next visit to the Mali Wastes only during the ninth match, and the rest of the time she lurked in the far-off Igania Ice Lake. No one in the world could possibly defeat Lucnoca the Winter while she was isolated by such an incredible distance.

Thus, if there was the smallest chance that Rosclay would be able to advance in the tournament without fighting Lucnoca, their only option was to utilize the opportunity provided by the ninth match to set up an all-out attack with all of the fighting strength they had at their disposal.

“While you may already be taking action, Lord Rosclay, it would be a bit strange if you weren’t reaching out to any of us about it. I assume it will be an extremely large-scale undertaking, and if you’ve already decided on a course of action, the earlier you could fill us in on the details, the easier it will be for us to act.”

“I can answer that for you.”

Glistening blond hair and red eyes.

Rosclay’s smile was always perfect and natural, like the lead actor of an opera.

“We will not make any attack against Lucnoca the Winter.”

“What?!”

Ownopellal’s eyes widened, hidden behind his thick eyebrows. He must have questioned if he hadn’t misheard Rosclay.

“As Jelky just explained, the current situation makes it difficult to dispatch military forces against a threat outside of Aureatia. Our plan is to let the opportunity to attack Lucnoca the Winter during the ninth match go by—and during the thirteenth match, when I battle against Lucnoca in the semifinals, reevaluate our strategy then.”

“But. But…we’re not going to have enough time. If we act during the ninth match, we might be able to pin the suspicions of foul play on Psianop, but…if we take a large-scale military action on the day of your match, won’t it be difficult to smooth things over in the eyes of the population? Are you sure?”

“I have my own idea on how to handle things; however, I cannot give you the full answer here.”

Rosclay quietly looked over the faces of the people gathered in the meeting.

Jelky the Swift Ink. Yaniegiz the Chisel. Ekirehjy the Blood Fountain. Ownopellal the Bone Watcher.

Antel the Alignment and Viga the Clamor were absent.

“…as we cannot clear away suspicions that there is an informant within our ranks.”

“……!”

“According to information we received just the other day…we now know that the former Fifth Minister Iriolde is commanding several powers involved with the Sixways Exhibition from the shadows. Naturally, we were wary beforehand and already took steps to thwart him—however, I cannot deny that one possible factor for why we haven’t been able to get a complete grasp on his forces’ movements until now could be because our investigative information was being leaked to them.”

“…It’s Viga, then, isn’t it?” Ekirehjy the Blood Fountain said with his arms crossed. “That woman’s the only one who hasn’t been here for all three meetings. That, and…while it hasn’t been disclosed publicly, she’s a former self-proclaimed demon king. She has plenty of motive for aligning herself with Iriolde’s opposition force.”

“That is also part of the ongoing investigation. As such, please consider the concealment of any details on the plans to slay Lucnoca as nothing more than a way to deal with a hypothetical worst-case scenario.”

“…An unwitting informant is another big possibility to consider.”

Ownopellal the Bone Watcher also had a concerned look on his face, a shadow lurking in his normally easygoing demeanor.

“A close acquaintance could very well be an agent for Lord Iriolde. We certainly want to take extra care not to divulge any information to others, regardless of how important it may be.”

“We’ll take a wait-and-see approach with the ninth match. If there are any changes, everyone will be notified immediately.”

Under normal circumstances, Rosclay’s tactics would be judged as a postponement strategy that gave him no hopes of victory.

Nevertheless, as long as Rosclay outlined it with his own words, filled with confidence, he was able to make those with ability and authority, like those gathered at the meeting, believe that he had something up his sleeve. Even if all that lay ahead was a precipice into the abyss, he made them interpret it to mean he had some idea after all.

“Mr. Ekirehjy, the next topic, please.”

“Well, I’d like to get your opinion on something regarding the royal family’s team of doctors’ measures to prevent vampire infection. Given the present difficulties in refining a new antiserum, as a preventive measure for the time being, we’ve…”

The meeting resumed.

Seeing as there existed no measures to exterminate Lucnoca the Winter, Rosclay would likely end up having to fight her at some point.

When the Sixways Exhibition began and the matchups had been determined, First Minister Grasse evaluated it as so…

…Rosclay the Absolute had failed. He had lost the political battle and was forced into an unwinnable fight.