Ch.499The world is filled with gloom. (1)

At the very moment Humanity was trying to handle the mess caused by the rebels’ surprise strategy…

The perpetrators who had spread that information to “News Boy” through their internal spies…

Namely, Betelgeuse and the executives of the Loki Clan were snickering as they watched Humanity scrambling in confusion.

—————————————-

<Loki Clan Executive Chat Room>

<Notice: Anyone who gets caught trying to sucker punch will die.>

-[Clan Leader, check out those Humanity bastards floundering]

-[Kekekeke]

-[Kekekekekeke]

-[Humanity is best when they’re shaking]

-[Agreed af]

-[Very well done, trolling should always be done on a grand scale](Betelgeuse)

-[For real lol]

—————————————-

Of course, there were concerns that if the Loki Clan’s attitude were to leak outside, it might trigger a full-scale invasion from Humanity…

—————————————-

<Loki Clan Executive Chat Room>

<Notice: Anyone who gets caught trying to sucker punch will die.>

-[But if our spies get caught, won’t we get invaded by Humanity?]

-[For real]

-[Humanity has grown too large, while we just have vast territory]

-[Couldn’t we manage somehow with help from subordinate clans?]

-[With so many users fleeing to the central zone recently, if Humanity invades with just 50% of their forces, we’d have to use all our strength just to defend]

-[Not easy]

—————————————-

In response to such concerns, Betelgeuse and her closest executives said:

“That’s exactly why we’re messing with Humanity and using the rebels to weaken their forces, isn’t it?”

With that explanation, the anxious voices within the Loki Clan quickly began to disappear.

==========

Meanwhile, despite their somewhat unstable appearance, the Loki Clan had their reasons for messing with Humanity.

From the Loki Clan’s perspective, it was certainly burdensome if their neighbor (Humanity) became too powerful.

And it was true that they had planned to use the rebels to feed Humanity small doses of trouble, whether they liked it or not…

—————————————-

<Betelgeuse’s Secret Room>

<Notice: Yeah yeah>

-[Did everyone receive their rewards from the Pirate Union?](Betelgeuse)

-[Yep]

-[Getting rewards for messing with them? This is totally lucky-vicky]

-[Lololol]

-[Talk about good timing]

—————————————-

It was because the “Pirate Union” had approached them at just the right time, offering “rewards” for weakening Humanity through quests.

And when proper compensation was added to simple troublemaking…

Betelgeuse and the Loki Clan took the carrot offered by the Pirate Union and decided to cause much more thorough disruption within Humanity than originally planned.

They mobilized internal spies to disrupt Humanity Clan’s internal information.

They deployed large numbers of superhumans who changed “skins” like the Pirate Union, making the rebel forces appear much larger and more widespread than expected.

They were thoroughly maintaining their identity as a trolling group by using every means at their disposal.

And in the midst of all this troublemaking, they even received a support request quest from the Federation rebels.

The Loki Clan, which had suddenly become even more deeply involved in Humanity’s rebellion situation, responded with what could only be described as “awesome fun!!”

On top of that, they received additional quests (+ rewards) from the Pirate Union to guide Humanity and the rebels into a head-on collision.

Additionally, they organized all the superhumans who should have been assigned to the fleet to fight Humanity’s superhumans into a “special forces” unit.

Through this, they successfully destroyed the shipyard in Humanity’s territory that was the “only” place capable of building Jormungand-class and Yggdrasil-class ships.

Having successfully completed the Pirate Union’s quests, it was a win-win situation.

They were filled with joy at having their cake and eating it too.

==========

Meanwhile, before the Loki Clan began actively manipulating the rebels from behind the scenes.

More precisely, “right before Icarus was invaded by the Xenovia Empire.”

The situation was a bit complicated for our Mari-Mari Marian, who was the one who moved Betelgeuse and the Loki Clan to mess with Humanity.

No matter how much Marian usually trained and pushed Betelgeuse and other Loki Clan executives, when it came to moving “the entire Loki Clan” like this time.

The human and material resources and time consumed were by no means small.

At first, some admirals of the Pirate Union reacted to Marian’s actions by saying, “Is there any benefit to going this far?”

However, despite this, Marian pushed forward by exercising both the dignity and authority of the Pirate Empress, and the operation proceeded as planned.

As expected, or rather beyond expectations, the result was a great success.

The newly emerged massive force called Humanity was unable to move freely for a while, and the annoying remnants of the Earth Federation were almost completely wiped out in this incident.

It was essentially equivalent to keeping two forces in check simultaneously, and once again, praise for the Pirate Empress echoed among the Union executives.

But from Marian’s perspective, the reason for this Humanity-Loki check was not simply about keeping powers in check…

“Damn Leviathan Squadron, you dare try to manipulate my darling?”

That’s right.

While checking Humanity was part of it, Marian’s real target was actually Humanity’s rebels.

No, her true purpose was to check the “Leviathan Squadron” that was acting as the rebels’ “backing.”

To be precise, from Marian’s perspective, the current situation surrounding her “darling” Icarus was problematic in many ways.

“Empress, but was there really a need to so thoroughly exhaust the Earth Federation’s rebels?”

“Of course, just imagine if the rebels succeeded.”

“Yes.”

“Then naturally, the Leviathan Squadron backing the rebels and that damn slippery chairman would gain more influence, right?”

“Hmm… that’s true.”

Faced with the doubts expressed by Leonard and her royal guards about her plan, Marian continued with a shrug and a confident attitude.

“What would happen to our darling in that case?”

“You mean he would be manipulated by the Leviathan Squadron… or rather, the Security Council Chairman behind them?”

“Exactly! I absolutely cannot allow my darling to become a plaything of those Earth people!”

And to summarize Marian’s mental formula, it went like this:

—————————————-

If the rebels succeed

= The Leviathan Squadron beside my darling gains influence

= My darling will have no choice but to be manipulated by the Leviathan Squadron, and then my darling becomes a plaything of those Earth people!

= That’s bullshit? No way!

—————————————-

Because of this miraculous formula, Marian needed to break the influence of the Leviathan Squadron and the slippery Security Council Chairman, whether she liked it or not.

This was necessary to protect her darling, who was also her husband, the Pirate Union’s unofficial living damage dealer, and unofficial master.

==========

Of course, it was unavoidable that large amounts of resources, manpower, and ships would have to be consumed for the Loki Clan’s operations.

And when consuming such large amounts, there was a risk of direct invasion from other forces if things went wrong.

Marian and her closest confidants were constantly racking their brains over this issue…

But just then.

“Empress, we’ve received a message from the Monster Princess.”

“Princess? Oh, you mean Luca. What’s it about?”

“She says she learned this through the neural network at Commander Icarus’s base, but…”

“Stop dragging it out and tell me quickly.”

As her subordinate unnecessarily tried to be reserved, Marian’s fist was about to fly straight into his stomach when—

“Actually, the Xenovia Empire has sent a ‘Punishment Fleet’ toward Commander Icarus and the territories of the commanders around him.”

“…Huh?”

At this truly surprising news, our Marian’s spicy belly punch lost its way and swung through empty air.