Side: Yuki
Now that I've explained the general outline of the operation, the only thing left is to decide who gets placed where. A blunder in the distribution could lead to painful casualties.
Well, in terms of levels, everyone belongs to the absolute strongest class, so I'm not overly worried. Still, I want to minimize deaths as much as possible. I absolutely must avoid any of my wives dying.
"Alright then, I’ll explain the plan going forward. Are we good?"
Everyone nods.
"Since there are no objections so far, we’ll proceed with my plan as the core. Let’s go over the details."
"First is our deployment for departure. The elites from the three nations and the elites of Weed will set out from Weed. Heading out as the commanders and escorts for this group will be Liliana-san, Zargis, Leia, Seraria, myself, and Eris. And the Supreme Commander will be Elju."
There is absolutely no better candidate for Supreme Commander this time than Elju. It will boost our army's morale, and having her there vastly increases the legitimacy of our cause. We can show the soldiers just how serious we are.
I write it down on the whiteboard.
"Among us, Seraria, myself, and Eris will accompany Liliana-san to handle the covert operations and the initial siege of the Demon King's Castle ahead of time. Therefore, Qual will serve as the acting deputy for Weed. Zargis and Leia will cover for Liliana-san."
The five people mentioned nodded.
"As you know, the elites from each country are led by capable commanders. From Roshure, we have Ares Lester. From Gartz, Lowelle and Higil. From Rithea, Crack and Dest. Every single one of them is a proper commander. They are aware of our internal circumstances, so they will coordinate with us."
With this, there won't be any issues regarding the march of the Allied Forces.
"By the way, to minimize casualties on our side as much as possible, we are supplying equipment personally crafted by Narjia-san from Weed. Whether we have them return these, hand them over permanently, or sell them to them will be decided based on how things turn out. This will also serve as great publicity for Weed-made arms."
"...You really don't miss a beat, Onii-san."
"Well, we’re spending a lot of money on this military operation. We need to recoup it somewhere."
"He's right. We were the ones who requested this elite deployment, and we've already spent a massive chunk of change on their preparation allowances. We have to make up for that somehow."
"And Ratz, you've been heavily stocking up on equipment and portable rations to match the period when these soldiers gather, right?"
"Of course I have. I never let a business opportunity slip by."
Exactly. The rapid dispatch of elite troops wasn’t out of charity or self-funding by the countries — we’re covering the costs, which is why it could be executed so quickly.
The summoning side is temporarily paying the expenses.
In the future, aid in the form of support may become possible, but right now, if we don’t foot the bill, even if the kings agree, their ministers probably won’t.
In a sense, this also proves the practicality of the gates — that we can form an alliance so quickly.
"The army will begin marching in two days. Before that, we’ll claim the march route with the dungeon and have Slakichi-san lead the slime and goblin units to clear out wild monsters along the path."
I circled a point along the march route.
Slakichi-san will be stationed here.
"The Demon King’s castle assault will involve everyone except those told to stay on standby. That said, we’ll be using Marauders for transportation, so drivers can stay behind and continue normal dungeon operations. However, everyone must respond to summons at maximum speed. By the way, this also serves as insurance in case rumors spread that we defeated the Demon King."
"Ah, that’s right. I was wondering why you said to stay on standby instead of working."
"That way, even if rumors spread that we defeated the Demon King, we can say we were actually in Weed the whole time, so there’s no issue."
"Exactly. I’ve left doppelgangers as dummies, but information exchange with doppelgangers isn’t perfect. More importantly, the people of Weed can tell the real us from fakes."
That’s right. I had been using doppelgangers as body doubles until now, but information exchange wasn’t flawless.
While handing over duties and work is fine, discrepancies have popped up regarding who said what to whom. Ever since, I've taught the upper management of Weed a specific distinction so they can easily spot the Doppelgangers.
"Considering the distance, it will take four days by Marauder. Driving will be impossible for me due to the march, so I'll be relying primarily on Ratz and Kaya."
""Understood.""
These two handled the driving perfectly when we went to Gartz, so it should be fine.
"Stop at a point one kilometer ahead of the Demon King's Castle and set up a teleportation link using the dungeon functions. We'll capture the Demon King's Castle in one fell swoop from there."
I point to the Demon King's Castle on the board. We're finally only halfway through.
"Liliana-san, Zargis, and Leia have drawn up a map of the castle's interior. On the off chance that we have to deploy, keep this layout in your heads."
Everyone stares intently at the interior maps of the Demon King's Castle that I handed out.
"I'll pass around copies later. After capturing the castle, our move will be to protect Liliana-san while negotiating with the forces at the barrier to prompt an internal surrender. That's our play."
"We can finally catch our breath once we get that far."
"Yeah. After that, the Allied Forces will arrive at the barrier. The members initially marching with the army will join them to capture the barrier, and the same goes for the Demon King's Castle. As for the remaining members, the situation regarding the Hero of Rankus should be wrapped up by then, so we'll hear from Kiyu and handle it accordingly. I won't be there, but we can use Calls, so there's no need to worry much on that front."
I look around at everyone as I speak. Did I get the point across?
"Ah, come to think of it, that was a thing," Ratz says.
"Oh right, there was that," Milly chimes in.
The others all nod with surprised expressions.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
Everyone looks at each other for a moment, then turns back to me and speaks in unison:
"""We completely forgot about the Rankus issue."""
I nearly fell over at their reply.
"Hey, hey..."
"Well, it’s just that they didn’t leave much of an impression."
"I know, right?"
"...Their presence is pretty faint.”
"They're basically just having a petty civil war."
They started laughing while making light remarks.
...Yeah, poor Rankus.
My wives have all collectively decided that Rankus doesn’t matter anymore.
As we're laughing, one person raises her voice in doubt.
"U-Um... excuse me. Is it... really alright for me... to come along?"
It was Ria, who was serving as my attendant.
I haven't told her yet that she's actually a Hero, but she has already undergone intense power-leveling in the dungeon. Her level has already reached 120, so she can hold her own in a fight.
Still, from her perspective, she must be wondering why she’s allowed to join a massive undertaking like the siege of the Demon King's Castle.
"Of course. We can't do this without you, Ria."
"M-Me?"
"Yes. If anything goes wrong, you will likely be our trump card."
Seraria and I say this together, and the others nod along.
"What... do you mean by that?"
Ria tilts her head in confusion.
But everyone else knows the score. If the Demon King turns out to be more than we can handle, we’ll have no choice but to rely on Ria’s power as a Hero. It feels a bit unconstructive to rely on divine intervention, but we absolutely must ensure the Demon King is dead. That is why, despite the risks, we've decided to bring Ria to the battlefield.
That's right, I have one more job to complete before the siege of the Demon King's Castle.
[Awaken the Hero Ria].
Talk about a garbage tier quest; honestly, I'd rather leave it alone... I wanted to take my time with it later, but my wives insisted it’s only natural to prepare for the worst-case scenario in case we can't win.
They've already granted their permission, giving me strict orders to go get intimate with Ria as soon as possible.
What kind of world has wives ordering their husband to embrace another woman?
What's more, the order specifies that I must genuinely love her.
The time limit is roughly six days... A death match was about to begin, where the outcome would either be me getting blown away or getting close to Ria.
I'm way more terrified of this than the Demon King!!
