第２６０堀：布陣発表 (Part1)
**Chapter 260: Announcing the Battle Formation**
**Side: Tori**
The time is just past 2:00 AM. Usually, unless Riel or I are on the night shift, this is the time we’d be fast asleep. But right now, for a certain reason, everyone is wide awake.
Well, Labyris, Aslin, Firia, and Shera pushed themselves too hard and are currently asleep, being held by—or perhaps clinging to—Yuki-san.
"Honestly, trouble really does just pile up, doesn't it?"
Seraria, who had been looking after the children in Weed, sighs as she speaks. When we reached out, it turned out the children had coincidentally started crying in the middle of the night, so she was able to answer right away. If they had been sound asleep, it would have been quite a chore to wake them.
The reason we’ve gathered everyone in the middle of the night like this is that, finally, the Principal and the Holy Sword Users have made contact.
The content of their meeting started as a peaceful exchange between friends, but it ended as a declaration of war. If left unchecked, it could pose a massive obstacle regarding our mana depletion issues. Because of that, after the Holy Sword User Nina-san left in a hurry, we managed to bring the Principal and the others into our fold, securing their cooperation and a protective arrangement. Currently, we have them busy preparing for our departure to Roday and handling various behind-the-scenes arrangements.
We are gathered here to address the mana accumulation issue at the center of the magic circle and to select the members to be dispatched to Roday.
But, honestly, I think Yuki-san is completely oblivious to the mood, considering he’s planning to confess to Samantha tomorrow.
I mean, Yuki-san is going to confess!!
Even though we’ve told him "I love you" so many times, he only said "I love you" or confessed his feelings when we were getting married. And now, he’s doing it voluntarily, right from the start!! Even with Ria, his love overflowed before Yuki-san could even say anything.
This is a rare scene that any of Yuki-san’s wives would recognize immediately!! It’s a permanent collector’s item!! Later, we’ll make Yuki-san show us, and we’ll have him reenact that sweet confession scene for us!!
...Well, Yuki-san is shy, so he’ll probably squirm, but that’s fine too. It’s drool-worthy. It makes the night so much more productive!!
Ah, wait, that’s... well, it’s not *that*, but right now we have to deal with the Holy Sword User situation.
"First of all, the first thing we need to decide is who will monitor Yuki's confession."
" " "Agreed." " "
As expected of Seraria. She understands perfectly. Without deciding that, we can't determine any other actions.
"Why me!? I'll do it!! I'll do it properly, I swear!"
"Are you going to pin Samantha down and start making children?"
"I'm not doing that!!"
" " "Sigh." " "
"Wait? I didn't say anything wrong, so why are you wives reacting like that!?"
"Do you really think a confession will succeed with that kind of mindset?"
"No, it doesn't have to succeed, right?"
"Sigh. It’s fine if it fails, but you understand that if you don't give a proper confession, it won't serve as a bridge to Roday, right? And making her angry is absolutely out of the question."
"...I suppose that makes sense."
Oh, Yuki-san is looking away. He really was planning to give a ridiculous confession.
"...You weren't thinking of making some backroom deal just to create the *fact* that you confessed, were you?"
"...N-No way."
Yuki-san was totally going to do it.
"Listen, Yuki. You know that the Principal and the others are currently preparing a pretext for us to head to Roday. That is, ultimately, so that we—no, so that *you*—can confess to Samantha, get her approval, and go to greet the Duke. The plan is to run into the Holy Sword Users on the way or afterward and wipe them out. Therefore, the Holy Sword Users are just a side objective; greeting the Duke's family is mandatory. If you go in with half-hearted feelings and acting, the head of the Duke's house will see right through you when you ask for his daughter's hand. If that leads to a war between Roday, Zilba, and Enaria, it will all be for nothing. In other words, Yuki, you have to make a confession so sincere that Samantha will agree to marry you on the spot and be willing to be swept off her feet."
"That's a high difficulty level!?"
"Well, I'm telling you to go in with that much resolve. We all know very well that while you're good at political negotiations, you're terrible at dealing with women. That's why I'm telling you that you have to be serious. You have to get along with Samantha first, or nothing else will work. I'm really counting on you."
"...Yes."
Yuki-san is looking so dejected!!
So cute!! He's so cute!!
"With that said, to ensure we don't fail at the first hurdle, we need someone to monitor Yuki's confession and give him advice. Can anyone give advice on how to win over a Duke's daughter?"
Seraria asks, but everyone falls silent. As expected, Riel and I were born as commoners...
"In that case, wouldn't Seraria be the most suitable? You were a Duke, right?"
Ratz says it quite casually. Ah, come to think of it, Seraria was a princess, but because she renounced her right to the throne to marry Yuki-san, she became a Duke of a branch of the royal family, didn't she?
"A Duke... I became a Duke to marry my husband, and less than half a year later I was Queen, so it feels a bit different. Also, I held the rank of Duke, but I wasn't a 'Duke's daughter.' To be precise, I was the Third in line to the throne, the Second Princess."
" " "Ah, I see." " "
"Well, I've hammered the point home, so he shouldn't give a sloppy confession. I ask that you select the monitor for Yuki from the members who have enrolled in the academy. It would be problematic for me or Deryu, who haven't enrolled, to be watching."
Right, the academy is off-limits to anyone not involved. Well, Seraria is involved, but she would definitely stand out too much.
"Understood. We'll decide on Yuki-san's monitor on our end. The next problem is the method of travel after we've reached an agreement with Samantha-san, and we need to decide the Roday team. Also, we need to prepare the academy defense team for the worst-case scenario."
Ah, I was so focused on monitoring Yuki-san. As Eris said, the main goal is to avoid having Roday destroyed. And then, we need countermeasures for when the destruction activities in Roday succeed, mana gathers around the academy, and monsters start overflowing.
Wow, this is all so troublesome.
"My husband will talk about that. You, stop thinking about the confession for a moment and tell us the formation."
"...Yeah, yeah."
Yuki-san puts down the notebook he was writing in and looks around at everyone.
Now then, what’s going to happen next?