Ch.225″She seemed somehow different when I met her after a long time.”

Without time to mourn Overseer’s death, we quickly completed repairs and recovery of our ships.

Then, along with our superhumans, we immediately plunged into the ninth battle.

Regarding Ignis, Partia, and Smeragi, who specialized in close combat, before we departed for battle…

“So we just need to protect the ships now?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Well, that’s obvious. By now, neither side should have ships capable of boarding actions.”

“Then we should each board one of the main vessels.”

As Smeragi calmly stated, unless the enemy lost their minds and brought an “Assault Battleship (Large)” – what’s called a comedy pick in gacha games – there wouldn’t be much for close combat superhumans to do in the current situation. So they each chose to defend either Hresvelgr, the light aircraft carrier, or one cruiser.

But since all three were the type who didn’t care which ship they got, the selection process actually took longer than expected…

With only minutes left before deployment, I got tired of watching their indecision and decided to assign them myself.

And as a result:

Smeragi was assigned to Cruiser No. 2.

Partia to the relatively vulnerable light aircraft carrier.

And Ignis took a position on Hresvelgr as a sort of royal guard.

As for the other superhumans:

Berial remained on Hresvelgr to provide command buffs.

Marian, who could perform well on any ship, chose Cruiser No. 1, which most resembled her original flagship.

And Griyanar, whom I mentioned earlier, was enjoying a fun and exciting tentacle-time(?) with Oxianor in the biological laboratory created somewhere inside the Kraken’s body.

Anyway, with the superhuman placements completed.

As soon as I entered the battle map, I immediately opened the chat room as always…

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-[Do you know how much I’m losing because of you?](Betelgeuse)

-[I don’t know what you’re talking about](Arcadia)

-[LOLOLOLOL]

-[This is hilarious]

-[I thought we’d win easily with two rankers on the team, but they’re at each other’s throats FFS]

-[Just enjoying the game]

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For some reason, the team chat atmosphere was a complete mess from the start.

‘Please, don’t cause a disaster by team-killing each other after coming this far.’

If I hadn’t been on a winning streak, it might have been different.

But having built up consecutive victories, I had no intention of giving up on my 9-win streak.

I was about to ask in the chat what they were fighting about.

But at that moment, I noticed the usernames of the two people arguing in the chat.

‘Wait, this is my fourth time meeting Arcadia, but the Loki clan leader is here too?’

And it seemed the two people growling at each other in the chat noticed me as well.

While I was deleting the question I was about to type, they quickly started acknowledging me.

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-[Oh Icarus, we’ve been seeing each other often lately](Arcadia)

-[Hey hey, I owe you a lot from last time, right?](Betelgeuse)

-[Excuse me, Betelgeuse? Who are you to speak so casually to others?](Arcadia)

-[If we’re going there, weren’t you spitting out casual speech at the beginning too?](Betelgeuse)

-[Umm… that’s](Arcadia)

-[Your level](Betelgeuse)

—————————————-

Right after acknowledging me, they immediately resumed their bickering.

I decided to tell them to stop fighting in the chat and use ship communications instead, then ask what was going on.

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-[I just got here and don’t know what’s happening, why are they like this?](Me)

-[It’s nothing]

-[Everyone knows Justice and Loki clans hate each other]

-[They probably just saw this as a chance to fight since they ran into each other]

—————————————-

“Hmm.”

“It seems to be some kind of power struggle.”

According to the other users in the chat, if I left those two alone, a fight might break out immediately.

—————————————-

-[But now that you’re here, you can mediate between them]

-[You’re higher ranked than both of them, do something]

-[What](Me)

—————————————-

And now they were whining for me, who had just arrived and didn’t understand the situation, to resolve their fight.

‘Hmm, I can’t deny they have a point.’

Being human, I naturally leaned more toward Arcadia, who had fought alongside me until now, rather than Betelgeuse, who had invaded my territory in the past before being driven away.

But the problem was that I only had 6 ships left, all of them large vessels. And Arcadia, who had conducted close combat in my place as we came this far, only had 3 cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 3 destroyers.

Meanwhile, Betelgeuse somehow possessed dozens of ships, including 5 battleships.

“That’s interesting, she doesn’t have a single cruiser.”

“How did she preserve all those ships until now?”

Excluding Betelgeuse, the rest of our allies either had only 1-2 escort ships below cruiser class, or none at all like me. Currently, Betelgeuse was the only one who could provide us with proper escort vessels.

It was truly a frustrating situation, and I was wondering how to resolve it.

But just then, Marian, who had heard about the situation from Jessica, called me directly to express her sympathy.

-“Oppa, I hear the other commanders are causing discord?”

“You found out quickly. Yes, that’s the situation.”

Since Marian was from this world, I tried to explain briefly while continuing to think about the problem…

But when I gave her the abbreviated explanation above, Marian shrugged as if it were nothing and replied:

-“That’s simple. We have a few hours before the ‘battle’ starts, right?”

“Well, yes.”

-“Why don’t you just call them directly like before and scold them?”

“Hmm.”

-“That female commander Arcadia seems completely smitten with you… and Betelgeuse? That pink-haired one won’t cause problems as long as I’m here.”

“…Huh?”

‘The Arcadia part makes sense, but something seems off about the Betelgeuse comment.’

But Marian seemed very confident.

“Commander, if Marian is that certain, maybe we should trust her judgment?”

“I agree with that opinion, Commander.”

“Is that what everyone thinks?”

When Jessica and Ignis, who had been observing the situation, also agreed with Marian’s opinion.

I nodded and decided to reopen the chat I had closed and make a bold declaration.

—————————————-

-[Wait, I’ll go make those two reconcile now](Me)

-[5252 I knew we could count on you, Captain]

-[LOLOL]

-[Hurry and shoot your reconciliation beam]

-[This guy’s gonna get torn apart by two huge clans after the event ends]

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