Ch.260Raid Preparations Done Right (1)

# Chapter 260: Thorough Raid Preparations (1)

It was about time we started preparing to raid our boss monster, the Sun Emperor.

However, in this process, we were facing a rather significant problem.

That problem was, naturally, when and how to bring in the World☆Star Sun Emperor who was driving us all crazy.

Regarding this issue, I decided to ask Maria, the last person to have contact with the Sun Emperor.

In other words, the person currently helping herself to food (?) in the imperial palace.

But…

“Hmm? You’re asking about a way to lure in that Sun Emperor fellow?”

“Yes, Holy Maiden.”

In response to my question, Maria put down the meat she was chewing onto the plate beside her.

She tilted her head at me with an expression that seemed to ask what kind of strange question I was asking.

And she did this while floating herself and all the dishes of food in mid-air.

‘…Is it really necessary to float while we’re talking?’

“Is there any need to make an effort to lure him in? If we just sit still and focus on defense, he’ll have no choice but to push his way in.”

“Well…”

She wasn’t wrong.

But since that wasn’t what I meant to ask, I tried to add more to my question.

“Child, are you perhaps wondering… why that Sun Emperor fellow hasn’t pushed his way in yet, despite this situation?”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

As expected of someone with superhuman intelligence.

Before I could even speak, Maria figured it out on her own and continued the conversation with a nod.

“I see, so that’s what you meant… In that case, child, what do you think is the reason he hasn’t appeared yet?”

Answering a question with another question.

I think that’s a rather bad habit, but…

Just like Ferndus, considering Maria’s age.

Thinking of it as an elder’s peculiar habit, I decided to give the answer I had been considering.

“…I thought perhaps the Sun Emperor was recovering from injuries sustained in battle with you, Holy Maiden.”

“But child, it seems you already know the answer to that question yourself?”

Of course, as Maria said, what I just mentioned wasn’t something I particularly believed myself.

Although Maria had supposedly fought the Sun Emperor to the point of sustaining serious injuries.

As Maria herself had said in the past, the damage inflicted on the Sun Emperor wouldn’t have been that severe.

Moreover, as if to drive this point home, Maria pointed to her own body and said:

“Besides, despite suffering such serious injuries, haven’t I become perfectly fine after sufficient rest and treatment?”

“That’s true.”

“The damage I inflicted on that Sun Emperor fellow was merely a scratch compared to what I suffered.”

“…Hmm.”

“He’s probably engaged in some kind of covert activities by now, don’t you think?”

In other words, the Sun Emperor should have been active long ago.

I nodded vigorously in agreement with Maria’s words.

“That’s right. Given that shady fellow’s pattern, he would certainly have been preparing something for quite some time now.”

But in response to my confident statement, Maria seemed puzzled.

She picked up a piece of meat beside her, chewed it, and spoke again.

“However, I don’t understand. As we just discussed, if that fellow were engaged in covert activities, signs of such activities would have already appeared.”

“Signs? What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, did I not tell you about this?”

She then carefully picked the last bits of meat from the bone and made a gesture as if grasping something in the air with her raised hand.

And at that moment.

From her hand that grasped the empty air, brilliant and ethereal threads extended in all directions and converged in one place.

Seeing this strange sight, I cautiously spoke up.

“What exactly… is that?”

“It’s for controlling the psionic veil that I’ve spread throughout the empire with permission from your wife, the Emperor Artraia.”

“…!”

So this is the famous psionic veil.

It looked completely different from what I had imagined, and I stared at it with a curious gaze.

“Ah, of course, this is somewhat different from the original psionic veil you might be thinking of.”

“Different… how?”

In response to my question, Maria raised her other hand and placed an opaque barrier over the food plate resting on it.

“The original psionic veil was created to serve as a ‘barrier,’ so it was woven very densely and thickly to prevent anything from penetrating it.”

Eventually, the opaque barrier became very faint, and I could see unidentified energies escaping from it, spreading like a net between the plate and the food on it.

“The veil currently deployed is closer to a net structure designed to detect and block enemy energy.”

“Oh…”

“A being with psionic abilities could never escape this veil.”

What the heck is that? I’ve never seen it in the setting guide.

I was quite amazed by this peculiar sight, but then.

‘Wait… could it be?’

[Pause]

As something crossed my mind, I immediately hit pause to organize my thoughts.

——————————————

About two hours later, subjectively speaking.

[Unpause]

As soon as I unpaused, I spoke to Maria.

“Are you saying that if the Sun Emperor had infiltrated or attempted to do so for covert activities, it would have been detected long ago?”

“That’s exactly right.”

After saying this, Maria dispelled the mini-veil she had created on the dish.

With a benevolent expression, she left me with these final words.

“So don’t worry about the Sun Emperor’s covert activities. If his presence appears, I will immediately warn you all.”

—————————————–

After my conversation with Maria ended, I returned to the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry, but…

My concerns had only deepened, albeit in a different direction.

It was true that through the psionic veil deployed by Maria and the Eternia fleet, we could immediately detect whenever the Sun Emperor appeared.

The problem was that we still had no idea ‘when’ the Sun Emperor would actually appear.

“Minister, why is that a concern?”

As Riel asked about this, I decided to explain my frustrations to her.

“Think about it, Riel. You know it would be disastrous if the Sun Emperor arrived before we completed our preparations, right?”

“Of course, I’d have to be dead not to know that.”

“But what about the opposite scenario?”

“…Opposite?”

I showed Riel the calculations I had made earlier on my terminal and said:

“Let’s say we’ve completed all preparations to raid the Sun Emperor and gathered all the fleets from each region—Prosnack, the Treaty Forces, and even the fleets from ISTO member countries.”

“Yes.”

“But what if, after gathering everyone, the Sun Emperor doesn’t show up? How would we handle these insane maintenance costs?”

The meaning of my words was essentially this:

After completing preparations and summoning all the fleets, we spend resources maintaining them on standby.

But the Sun Emperor doesn’t show up.

And then, when the fleets return from standby or our alert level decreases due to maintenance cost and supply issues.

If the Sun Emperor strikes at that moment, what a catastrophic disaster we would face.

It’s obvious even to passing children that the Holy Sebelli Empire would suffer severe damage.

Even if other fleets hurriedly returned to defeat the Sun Emperor.

By then, the imperial capital would already be in ruins.

The resulting deterioration of the empire’s capabilities, fleet strength, and economic power would lead to a drop in national ranking.

And because of that, the leading nation in ISTO would change, causing us to fail at achieving victory through a first-place national ranking…?

Having just cleaned up the mess the Sun Emperor left behind and barely normalized the empire, it was obvious that seeing such a scenario would give me a fatal fit of rage.

In response to my explanation, Riel nodded but showed a helpless expression.

“But Minister, it’s not like we have any particular solution.”

“…”

I wanted to call her a defeatist, but since Riel was responding seriously in her own way.

I tried to calm my burning frustration by taking a sip of iced Americano… no, just barley tea steeped in a tea bag placed on the office table.

But at that moment, a new event message appeared before my eyes.

Seeing it, I realized what that bastard Sun Emperor had been up to all this time.

‘This, this goddamn son of a bitch!’