Seems like this country is far more troubled than I thought it would be.
While laying back on the sofa at the inn, I had a painful realization. For a start, there was the plain-faced man whom I met in the temple. Ah, whoops. I never actually got his name. Anyway, let's just name him 'plainred (temp)' for now.
The resentment he had towards Hinata most likely wasn't limited to only himself. They built a temple like that and boldly enshrined a statue of me—who was hated as a villain the world over—after all. Just doing that clearly showed their will to rebel against the queen.
I mean, I kinda get how bad the white-winged faction's discrimination is. But doing something like that is just adding fuel to the fire.
I know I don't have any right to think this, but isn't one of the reasons for the white-wing faction's discrimination because of the mixed-wing faction? But I'm sure that's not all the problem is.
At the moment, we were gathered back at the inn, exchanging information on whatever we had learned throughout the day.
Haruka volunteered to go first, and she dropped a bomb on us.
"—is. So currently, the white town is preparing for a civil war."
She informed us that, in their paranoia regarding their perceived enemies, the white town had already started preparing for a civil war and were currently forming a volunteer army.
Hey, Hinata, what're you doing? The countdown to civil war's already started! If things keep on like this, your country will crumble without anyone even attacking it.
"From their conversation, there's no doubt that some person named Merc was fanning the flames. Well, it's probably just a fake name, though."
"…Hm, well done, Haruka."
I praised Haruka while pinching the bridge of my nose.
I guess the one silver lining is that there's a mastermind. It might be possible to do something about all this if we get him.… Although, I'm not even sure if it's stoppable when things have already progressed this far.
Next, it was Penny's turn to drop a bomb.
"I present my report. Today at 13:23 and 42 seconds I encountered and subsequently engaged in combat with Mercury the Grimm of Wood, one of the grimmfolk's Seven Grimms of Destruction, in the white town."
Apparently, she went to the white town today and fought a grimmfolk leader.
One of the grimmfolk appeared, even though this country is already on the brink of ruin? This is really bad.
If we just left without doing anything, this country really would fall apart, wouldn't it? If that happened the power balance that was being propped up by the three Maidens that were left would break, inviting a huge assault from the grimmfolk.
"Judging from his combat ability and our attributes, I have a probability of no less than 99% to emerge victorious. But if he were to attempt to escape again, capturing him would be difficult. In order to make sure to finish him next time, I request homing bullets and maintenance on my gun."
Homing bullets… They were high accuracy bullets used by the Gunner class. I didn't have the Gunner class, but I could make the bullets and the guns for them.
Penny technically didn't have the Gunner class, either, but golems and monsters weren't the same as players in the first place. The problem was that Penny didn't have any bullets.
"…We do not remember this being terribly important. Do you not have any?"
"Everything I had was used in defense of your relics."
"…"
Oh right, she stayed in one place for nine hundred years. Then she might not just be out of homing bullets. She probably needed refills on others as well.
Oh well. Might as well refill those, too, while I'm at it.
Bullets were easily purchasable in the game, but that was probably pretty hard in this world. Making them myself would be best. It was amazing her machine guns hadn't broken in one thousand years, though… I suppose it should've been expected, given how Jenny made them.
"Write down all the bullets and weapons you are short of on a piece of paper. We will create them later."
"I am grateful."
Penny's Brachium opening was so strong she didn't use bullets all that much. But having them and not using them was much better than needing them and not having them. I decided on making sure Penny was at full combat readiness.
Fiona's turn was next.
"Did anything happen on your end?"
"…"
"…Fiona?"
"Ah, no! Nothing that I would bother you with happened to me, Lady Naru…"
Hm, looks like nothing's up on Fiona's end. That pause was a little weird, but well, everybody sinks into thought every once in a while.
I'll just be happy that there aren't even more things to worry about at the moment.
"Then We are last. This side of the capital has enshrined a statue of us, of all people, in a temple. That just gives those people on the white side unneeded incentive… I believe we are just counting down the days until war."
"My, what a nice town this is."
"Master, I suggest we fully support the black town if war were to break out."
"I think that's a good idea."
"…You all are…"
I told them of one of the problems of this side of the capital, and this idiot trio's affection for the place shot up for some reason. Like, stopping the war in the first place would be best, right? I don't think we should be taking sides in this at all.
I mean, we'd probably win…
I did some light research on the average levels in this place, and they're around level 50 at best. No matter how many tens or hundreds of thousands of them were around, any one of us could take them on. Well, I'm not sure about Haruka, though.
But if we did that, I'd just be sliding back into being the Black Emperor whom everyone feared. I'd be wanted all over the world by the next day.
While I was busy thinking on how to prevent war, Haruka coolly made a suggestion. "Jokes aside, wouldn't it be okay to just leave them alone? Hinata should be the one solving this country's problems. I don't believe you should concern yourself with this, Big Sis. Let them clean up their own mess."
Well, given my position, there really was no need to go so far out of my way to stick my nose into this country's business. After all, I'm a villain in this world's eyes anyway.
Even I can understand that if I'm too careless things'll get messy.
"Haruka, doing that will break the balance that has been upheld by the three remaining Maidens of Midgar and invite an attack from the grimmfolk. Allowing the Grimm King's forces to gain even more momentum will not be good for us… At the very least, the remaining Maidens must be available to hold back the grimmfolk for us until we gather the rest of us Twelve Zodiac's Guardians and regain our former power."
Ohh, Penny's making some good points for once. She's kind of making it sound like we're profiting while others fight, but it's still better than Haruka's idea of just leaving them to their business.
My good impression was shattered almost immediately.
"So I suggest we side with the black town, sweep away the white faction, and unite the country. This current state where the country is split down the middle is not favorable, and they are just getting in each other's way. It would be best to solve this quickly. Also, with the black faction in control, Gjallarhorn can become a pawn for Master Naru later down the road."
Hey, Penny, are your insides just pitch-black or something? So basically, you're suggesting that the white town is in the way so we should just make them disappear and that later we can have Hinata and the Grimm King crush each other, right?
You're right that rather than having both sides hold each other back, having one side take control and unify the country will make it much harder for the grimmfolk to attack. But isn't what you're suggesting just too severe?
And as for Fiona… Doesn't look like she's got any suggestions, huh? She's never been one for asserting herself anyway. I guess she's just letting us take care of it.
But what should I do? Haruka and Penny's suggestions were too cold and unfeeling, but they did have a point.
But I couldn't bring myself to destroy an entire town as I was now. I couldn't become that heartless, and at the very least, I didn't have any personal grudge against Hinata or this country.
I just wanted to pluck out that Merc person and that grimmfolk guy, Mercury, from the equation and leave the rest to Hinata.
"…Right now, it is as Penny said. Having this country and Hinata fall to ruin would be bad for us. But still, We do not desire to choose one side and eliminate the other. At any rate, we must first find Mercury and Merc and capture them. If all goes well, we may be able to stop this civil war.
"…Actually, aren't those two just the same person?"
"Yes, it would make sense."
Given the circumstances, Mercury and Merc are most likely the same person. At least, I think so.
It seemed like Haruka agreed, and both Penny and Fiona nodded.
First, concerning Mercury: if he hadn't been stopped by Penny, then given the direction he was moving in, there was a high chance he would have encountered Haruka from what I was hearing. And Haruka tailed a suspicious figure that passed by the front of the clock tower (apparently his name was Shimura or something), gaining information about a plot to start a civil war and a man named Merc.
So I put two and two together. Mercury wasn't heading for the clock tower but past it, towards the secret meeting place that Haruka had stumbled upon. Also, the suspicious guy claimed that Merc wasn't there at the appointed time. So it was easy to conclude that he was forced to be absent due to encountering Penny and being forced to retreat.
And to wrap it all up, there was Mercury's disguise. When Penny first spotted him, he had apparently changed the color of his skin to pretend to be human. It was actually almost too obvious.
I guess we can just straight-up decide that Mercury = Merc.
There was no merit for any human in driving this place to civil war in the first place. What would someone have to be thinking to take down one of their own guardians when their world was on the brink of collapse?
But if it was Mercury, one of the grimmfolk who was just disguised as a human, everything would make sense.
"All right, let us first concentrate on capturing Mercury. This situation should change for the better if we manage to take him."
"Am I not allowed to kill him?"
"Bring him back alive if at all possible. We want to drag him out in public as evidence."
It didn't sound good, but I figured that a scapegoat would be needed to stop this atmosphere of two sides rushing headlong into civil war. If I were to try to stop them now, it probably wouldn't work. It was hard to admit to making a mistake, especially on a national level. This was one of those situations where you just couldn't afford to back down. But if it was all the fault of a third party, then it was possible to foist all the responsibility onto them.
'We were all just being manipulated. Now, let's all shake hands and get along…' Like that.
It was a method that had been used to death in manga and novels and stuff. Basically, just make one person into an easy bad guy and frame it so that everything was their fault.
It's not really a good thing to do, but well…
"Understood… Order to capture alive confirmed."
"However."
"…?"
"Your own safety is top priority. If attempting to capture him alive should ever become dangerous, We rescind our order. If you judge it to be too dangerous, We do not mind if you kill him. Of course, We also give you permission to run."
I gave Penny and the others permission to kill easily, surprising even me. The thing I valued most in this world was their lives. I had nowhere to go, and Haruka, Penny, and Fiona were as close as I had to family in this place. So I didn't hesitate to give them permission. I'd rather have them kill others than let them die.
My morals have gotten warped, haven't they? Just where did my old faint-heart self go? The one that used to not even be able to look at the carcass of a small animal?
"Be at ease, my master. I did not lie about my probability of winning. As long as I am properly prepared, someone like Mercury can be easily captured."
"How reliable. Then We shall endeavor to raise your probability of winning as much as possible and craft some ammunition."
Let's trust Penny on this one for now. She'd said she could do it, so I needed to believe her. At the moment, she was the only one who knew what the enemy looked like, so I had to leave it to her anyway.
"…"
Penny was silently staring at me.
What? Did she still have something to say? Or was she waiting for something from me? Honestly, if you just stay silent like that I won't be able to figure out anything. Shouldn't you say something? Anything?
…For now let's just say something random.
"…We hereby order our loyal servant, Penny of the Libra Constellation, one of our Twelve Zodiac's Guardians. Do not die, and fulfill your duty to bring that member of the grimmfolk before us. We expect much from you."
Penny answered like she'd been waiting for it this entire time. "YES, MY MASTER!"
Apparently she really was just waiting for my order.
Would she have continued to stand there forever if I didn't order her? I really don't understand her personality at all…