Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 240: Arc 4, Act II, - 85: Final Preparations
The remaining masses of strategists and officials had gathered at Tamara Palace. For today would be the final day to prepare before they would depart to the battle’s destination.
Recognizable faces entered the Council of Cravolta’s conference room one after the other, though a majority were not even council members.
Our fateful four walked to the doors all the same. Hotaru carried the utensils befitting of a ’temporary’ royal advisor. "Woah, woah, you’re not allowed in here anymore," Fumeko halted.
Asobi’s eyes bubbled, "Huh? Why!?"
"Not after your great military failure Asobi," Jotou placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head. "I’m sorry, you must atone for that."
Asobi grasped her own face, whimpering, "I’m, so, sorry..."
Fumeko crossed her arms, "We’re still doing this?"
"You’re right, this’s just cruel now," Hotaru sighed. "Asobi?" Asobi turned to the redhead. "There are no sandy ducks."
The magician’s face went pale in shock, her eyes widened, "There aren’t...?"
The previous meeting_
A smaller group of planners sat around a table, discussing their strategy. "We need a solid way to get across the chasms and canyons; then we have an advantage cause they won’t be expecting us to flank from around those areas."
Daiyu stared at the map of reds and browns, the plateaus of north-western Galuvit, "That’s smart and all, but we have no known way of doing that.
Bridges’ll take too long, grappling down and scaling up even longer, catapulting across is pretty much unlikely. The canyons go too deep, they’re too random and in too many locations. If we try anything slow, they’ll get the jump on us."
"I have an idea!" Asobi raised her hand.
The chief of the army looked over. Next to the raven-haired woman raising her hand was Fumeko aggressively shaking her head left and right. He looked back to the elf, "Oh? Please tell us."
"You dumbasses," Fumeko cursed under her breath and facepalmed.
"So!" Asobi pointed her wand to the map and illusory markers all popped up. "We first need a chicken," an illusory white hen clucked onto the map.
"We know of the Black-Sand River. If we throw the chicken into the river of sand, it’ll become a duck, just like when you throw a chicken in water. It will be a sandy duck, but the species of the duck doesn’t matter."
The hen was plummeted into the void and what popped up was a—"Quack!"—sand-hued duck. "Then once we have the sandy duck, we feed it a sand-whale."
A giant whale, similar to the velatos they fought, emerged from the map in hues of browns and reds before the duck opened its bill wide and the whale was engulfed. The duck began to expand.
"Then the duck will grow hugggeee and we can send in our troops on the sandy-whale-duck. They’ll never see it coming!" the illusory plan popped into butterflies.
Everyone blankly stared at Asobi taking a bow for her presentation and sitting back down.
The blonde slowly twisted her head to Hotaru, "Will that work-"
"No; no it will not work," the redhead’s lips tightened.
"Hey I’ve seen corpses come to life and a time travel egg, don’t talk to me like I’m the idiot."
"Why did she choose now to open her mouth," Fumeko sank from her seat till her head was hidden by the table.
"I’ll handle this..." Jotou whispered to the others around her. She looked to Asobi sat on her right, "So, why can’t we just ride the whale? If we can coordinate it to get eaten then we can just ride it, right?"
Asobi poked the wand into her chin, "Hmm... that’s true, that’s true, but whales need to go underwater so this one would go under sand and rock; it must be able to fly though silly Jotou... Or maybe we can pile on top of the whale?"
"Exactly; plus, we don’t know if we can coordinate a sandy duck. It might not be itself after it changes from a chicken and would betray our trust."
"Oh no!" she clasped the sides of her head, "You’re right! Ducks are very rebellious. Some of them don’t fly because they hate people assuming that wings mean they can fly. They can, but they’re so petty they refuse to fly!"
"Yeah... this plan doesn’t work too well for our goal. Besides, where would we get a sand-whale?"
Asobi wilted onto the table, "You’re right... you really are clever Jotou! Hm... Daiyu!" she popped back up.
"We need to train some trustworthy chickens that won’t betray us when they turn into sandy ducks. You can have an army of them the next time anyone attacks."
Daiyu had her right eye half-closed, a smile in amusement "...Sure, I’ll take that under consideration... ..."
Jotou sighed, "I expected so much from you Asobi."
"I know... I’m sorry!"
Hotaru reached an arm across Jotou to soothe Asobi’s shoulder, "It’s okay, we can make a better plan now."
"I hate all of you," a voice came from underneath the table, from an empty seat.
Back to the present_
"Aww, that makes a lot more sense," Asobi covered her eyes.
"Come on, it’s the last meeting. Asobi needs to be there," Jotou glanced to the brunette.
"Yeah, yeah," Fumeko moved aside.
_
"Okay, these are the final plans. Allow me to recount," Feyan stacked the documents, "Currently, the total of all our forces sums up to sixteen thousand nine hundred ninety-two soldiers.
This is in addition to Luxinor providing us generously with four thousand soldiers. Cravolta’s count remains ten thousand eight hundred sixty-two soldiers.
They are all divided into 6 divisions across the battlefield, each containing two thousand five hundred soldiers.
While one thousand nine hundred ninety-two soldiers, three hundred thirty-two highly adaptable soldiers from each division, are kept in reserve spots, if and when any of the divisions lose any number of soldiers.
Each division consists of twenty companies consisting of one hundred twenty-five soldiers. The companies split into five platoons each with twenty-five soldiers and each have squads consisting of eight to thirteen soldiers.
Within the total are nineteen affinity users. All expert level or below and one, haros level."
"Do we still not know who?" Daiyu queried.
"Unsure, but they are from the Luxinorian forces."
"Could it be the king?" Fumeko held a hand to her chin.
"He is the Fragmenting Lightning, I’d assume that title didn’t just come out of thin air," Jotou supposed.
"If Daiyu’s gonna fight, then maybe the king wants to fight too," Asobi suggested.
Feyan shrugged, "Again, we are unsure. It could simply be someone extremely powerful. Or maybe the king desires not to be on documentation in fear of leaks getting out.
Whatever the case may be, all these numbers are not accounting the Thundering Blade’s party, her majesty and myself.
Which in turn adds to our count, five master level casters, two of whom are nearing grandmaster level and one grandmaster level caster, myself."
"Has Ms Namora perfected her spell?" Archduke Guuraj had his chin above intertwined fingers.
Fumeko put her hand out and closed her eyes. The smug grin on the brunette made Hotaru roll her eyes as she handed a sealed envelope to her.
"Ahem," Fumeko opened her eyes and held the letter in one hand. "Delivery Pocket," she casted and shadows escaped from the palm of her hand.
She thought of a name in her head, her eyes kept open as the shadows wrapped tightly around the envelope. "Fwoosh!" And in her hand remained nothing.
Daiyu looked to one of her pockets and turned to see wisps of purplish-black shadows disappearing. She retrieved it and opened the letter that said ’Hi’. "Nice job Fumes."
"Master level spell, master level caster~" Fumeko hummed and beamed.
"More importantly, it can reach long distances, but the greater the distance the more the mana used. So, this is better used for emergencies," Hotaru relayed.
"All in all, this entire strategy is already bold," Chief Egebe of the army proclaimed. "We come in from the east and have set up a lot of our divisions near the paths across, creating chokepoints.
We can advance forward if they begin to defend and retreat and defend ourselves well if they attack. The flatland will cause a hail of bullets across the field, making it fair at the very least.
And you will be stationed next to the chasm point most southward of our divisions your majesty; Division Six."
"According to Jotou’s plan."
"If they have to retreat or resupply it’s most likely west or south; we can’t do much about west, but we can stop them from going south towards the invasion border.
And if there happen to be any elites or masses of soldiers, we’re more likely to encounter them there. The foot traffic would be chaotic and that’s where we’ll most likely be useful. The rest of the plateaus and divisions are yours," Jotou relayed.
Continuing their plans, the meeting came to an end. With puffs of breaths and sighs, they all nodded and wished good luck to one another. Daiyu departed with Feyan to go looking for a certain someone...
_
"Ara!" Daiyu found her in a small chamber, one that not many seemed to pass by. While clean, the light cobwebs and corners of dust were definitely noticeable.
Dim lights came off in murky yellows and light purples from the sconces high up the eight or so pillars, all powered by magic; they looked to be crafted from gems and jagged earth.
The dull brownish-grey bricks, the eight deep burgundy pews, the altar presented with gems of various hues. Under the lighting was a beautifully carved, faceless statue that was no bigger than a child, composed of dark grey limestone.
Arabella was sat with a knee up beside the statue, staring in contemplation before she twisted her head. "We were told you were seen here," Feyan’s voice reverberated lightly.
"What’s this room again? I didn’t know we had a church," Daiyu eyed the ceilings.
"This is the chapel of the palace, pertaining to the God of Earth, Alborz. I had no idea you were religious admiral."
The dark-haired woman shook her head. She looked back and moved her hand.
"Not religious, but confused about something huh? I had a feeling," Daiyu walked forward. "Though, I don’t know if going to a god was gonna help. It’s to make a decision, right?"
Arabella took a long, deep breath and nodded.
"I assume it is not choosing a God then," Feyan glanced to the statue.
"Choose?"
"Yes my lady, there are plenty. However, most people know they are simply legends long lost. The God of Sands, The God of Oases, the God of Mountains.
It is said the finding of Cravolta and even many foundations of this very palace was constructed by the hands of this particular one. Either that, or somewhere along the Tamara bloodline he was worshiped."
"Do you believe in them?"
Feyan chuckled, "I believe they existed, but I am not a patron to any. Though the tales they weave can be quite an interesting read; lots of them rumours however."
"Hm," Daiyu sighed back to Arabella. "Well, what’s happening’s fact. Ara, I know the Royal Guard’re supposed to be here. But I never asked; honestly, I kinda felt you’d’ve come to me already.
Look, I know I’ve got this habit to be sorta abrasive and kinda make people feel like they don’t have like a choice or whatevs, but... Is it, too much to ask if you come along? You’d fit right in with the rest of us."
The Ashen Whisper placed her foot down, looking up to the face of her princess. So sincere. It was not some royal request or some honeyed words.
They were the words of a friend asking to be by their side. Arabella’s pupils darted to the floor... Her head fumbled through memories.
Could she protect someone this time? All this time, her mind faltered left and right... Perhaps she had to hear those words leave Daiyu’s lips. If she trusted her to be there, then how could she not trust herself?
Arabella peered back up to Daiyu’s braced smile. It was one thing to believe the princess, but it was another to believe in herself. And there was only one way to test said belief. Arabella cocked her head and smirked, "Of course," she coarsely whispered.
The purple-haired woman’s lips grew wider into a beam and then let out a shocked chuckle, "Yeah, totally knew you would."
Arabella waved her hands. "You’re much too reckless to be left to your own devices," Feyan stifled a laugh as he translated.
"You know it~" her chin raised. "All the more reason for you to come."
Arabella nodded and signalled. "You’re gonna go pack your things and prepare yourself to leave tomorrow. I gotcha."
With a nod and a slight bow, her boots echoed out of the chapel. "I honestly thought she’d prefer to stay here. I’m glad she’s coming with."
"Speaking of which," Feyan looked back, "There is no convincing you to stay is there?"
Daiyu’s smile quickly altered into a scowl. She grunted and turned around to the statue, picking up the random, probably priceless, gems to have something to fidget with.
"What’s with everyone asking me to stay? It’s like I need a statement on my forehead that that’s not gonna happen." Her hand fell, "I wanna fight, I’m not gonna live with myself playing king in a chess match, cooped up in a palace."
Feyan shook his head, "I was merely asking my lady not insinuating anything."
The princess huffed, holding onto the sides of the altar to lean on, "Sorry."
"Daiyu."
Her heart jumped before her eyes widened and her brows furrowed; a shiver over her the hairs of her skin.
Feyan continued, "Whatever decision you make, I shall be at your side. I will follow you to the ends of the world if I have to. I worry sometimes of your wellbeing. Perhaps more than I should. But Daiyu,"
Her face fortunately was shrouded in dim lighting and shadows to cover the slight crimson hue beginning to sweep over.
"I only ask that you be careful," Feyan stood tall. "In the coming battle, I wish us the best of luck. If it is by your lead, I have no doubt we will succeed.
You may even be the most successful ruler of Cravolta. I only hope that I too shall one day read of your legend," he had his hand to his chest in a polite smile.
Her hands firmly grasped the altar, "GAHH!!!" her voice bounced off the walls. Feyan recoiled and tilted his head.
"I tease you and you fluster so easily, you always pick these off times for your confidence and you’re, you’re nothing like him, but I feel something way stronger than I did with him!"
"Daiyu, what are you talking about?"
She screeched in response and turned around, her eye half-closed and a forced frown. Her fists clenched and she stomped forward, causing only Feyan to step back a few-
Daiyu grabbed him by the back of the head and nearly knocked his head into hers as she stole a kiss. Feyan went redder than her, his arms not sure where to go, simply flailed in the air.
Daiyu parted by yanking his head back and huffing. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, which felt much longer than the kiss. Her purple strands with bits of green had flung forth, going across her face.
She let go, averting his gaze whilst pushing her bangs back, "I don’t know how to feel about you okay?
All I know is that, I care for you too. And that you make me feel, really nice." Daiyu glared back and poked his chest, "So as much as you want me to be safe, you better live to see those damn stories too," she panted.
The flustered half-elf stuttered his words and buffered for a moment. "I-I, uh, uhm..." His voice went higher, "I had my doubts my lady, but I did not want to overstep..."
"Overstep all you want, you know who I am. I’m not that kinda princess," Daiyu calmed her breath.
"That I do..." Feyan exhaled. "You can be quite a lot of trouble I must admit. Very well then... I suppose we shall see what to make of this after our battle then," he beamed, wider than usual.
"We’ll definitely talk about it. It’s a promise... Now, this never happened, I went away after Ara left and uhm... The hell is wrong with me, I don’t usually get nervous about this stuff... I swear Jotou’s infected me," she sighed.
"Fret not princess," Feyan replied. "My lips are sealed."
"I made sure of that," Daiyu smirked and took him by the back of the head again and planted a much softer kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for saying all that. And thanks for being the first face I saw in this world."
He smiled and blushed, "I am glad I was there Daiyu."
Daiyu smirked, "I’m never ever gonna get used to that."
Feyan exhaled. "Neither will I my lady."
