NOVEL WEB Interlude: The War Room
Saiki Suzume was bored.
This was normal; Suzume was always bored. She'd been bored at home, she'd been bored at school, and now she was bored in a magical realm where she was trapped with no hope of return, being prepared to fight in a great war against supernatural forces. She blew a bubble with her gum, popped it, and looked around the room through her half-lidded gaze; she didn't need to be in this meeting. She didn't need to be in any of the meetings. She'd written the entire strategy plan, parceled it out to the various people whose interests it intersected unobtrusively in such a way that each thought their assigned objectives were their own ideas, and gotten on with her breakfast weeks ago. The only reason she was here was that she didn't have anything better to do; everything else was even more boring.
"Arima-chan," said Sora, poring over a large table of files, "are you certain that you've finalized your selection of party members? Once we are in the field, it will be too late for substitutions, and I am concerned that Takashi-kun's Hell Gambler Class may not be the best fit for his place in the team."
Ayame flipped her hair; Suzume loved Ayame's hair. "Ridiculous; his Devour Mana Unique Skill can be used both offensively and defensively, and the Hell Gambler Class also has many Skills that can be used in combo attacks with Mitsuru-chan's Chaos Assassin Skills. I have spent nearly a week refining and checking my selections; all the A-Rankers and B-Rankers are accounted for, and I am certain their Classes and Skills will complement my own both tactically and strategically." Ayame was, of course, smitten with Sora, who barely acknowledged her; Sora was in love with Suzume herself, who couldn't have cared less. Suzume was asexual, but she always flirted with Ayame, just to properly complete the love triangle; it was aesthetically unsatisfying otherwise. Suzume didn't mind. She loved Ayame's hair. There was always something to love about everyone.
"Very well." Sora made some marks on one of the pages of one of the innumerable files on the table, closed it, and opened another. "Suzume-chan, your team is already assembled, as we know; that leaves only the finalization of my team, which I hope will meet with everyone's approval by the end of this meeting." Suzume wasn't listening; she had selected everyone's team members within three days of arriving here. Ayame's team was almost entirely close-range and defensive specialists, shoring up the ridiculous long-range capabilities of Ayame's Supreme Gravity Skill; furthermore, each member had a Skill or Class that covered for another member's weaknesses. Ayame was their most important asset, and had to be protected accordingly. In contrast, Sora's team was primarily focused on accentuating and diversifying strategic and tactical options to make up for Sora's limited breadth of options; though the combination of his Heaven Knight Class and his God Sword Skill made him unquestionably the most powerful close-combat fighter at their disposal, the vast majority of a war was won in logistics, not combat. Filling Sora's party with members like Kato Harumi, whose Grand Summoner Class and Magic Immunity Skill made her a powerful complement on many levels, multiplied Sora's party's power on the battlefield at least a hundredfold. She'd made similar selections for his other party members: Nishida Akane was a White Diviner with the Create Duplicate Unique Skill, and Sekiguchi Emiko was a Dreaming Cloud Scout with the Precognition Unique Skill. Combining all their talents together perfectly synergized into an efficient engine for collecting battlefield information, creating the precise countermeasure of forces, and deploying it at speed; she'd also made sure all of his party members were girls, so they would compete for his affections and boost each other to new heights of achievement. It was one of her more impressive feats; calculating everything had taken her nearly five minutes.
Selecting the members of her own team, by contrast, had been child's play; she'd formed her team before they'd even left the grand hall where they were summoned. She rarely even met with them; most of their capabilities were combat-oriented and would come into play further on in the war effort. The only one she saw on a regular basis was Nakano Megumi, whose class of Unspoken Wright and Unique Skill of Fabrication Suzume made use of multiple times per day; having someone who could not only replicate the comforts of home at will but also build autonomous strategic options that could be stealthily deployed now, while everyone else was finding their asses with both hands, was a tremendous advantage. With any luck, Suzume would defeat the Demon Lord's armies before the rest of the army even entered the field.
Eventually, the meeting progressed to its inevitable wind-down and conclusion; she mooned over Ayame dutifully, deflected Sora's attentions gracefully, and made note of who was being wasted in this meeting (the locals, mostly). She'd try to engineer some other useful thing for them to be doing next time; Quint Aumraham, the kingdom's Master Mage, definitely had better uses than filling a chair in a meeting whose outcome he wasn't going to affect. She'd have to sneak a look at his notes.
She strolled around the castle, listening with half an ear to today's gossip; they were serving plum rolls for breakfast in the cafeteria, the F-Rank mage girl had finally flunked out of her classes, and there had been a few fires in the castle town yesterday. More unrest fomented by the Demon Lord's forces, no doubt; only the most extreme of advance scouts existed this far from the battle lines, but she'd already been dropping careful hints with the kingdom's Spymaster, Torin Houphelium, that should lead to most of them being captured or eliminated by the time they actually deployed forces within the next week. The castle itself was secure; there had only been one spy here, disguised as furniture, and Suzume had personally eliminated it the day after her arrival without anyone noticing. The most dangerous unit remaining in the city was the King Sphinx Jyact, but Suzume expected to have that sorted very soon; her Arch Heretic Class let her sow curses and spirits invisibly even at great distances, and it was only a matter of time before they reached their target. Even now, her Air Command skill was keeping a wraith scout suspended intangibly a half-mile above the city; no one could miss such a large creature's movements. The instant it came into the open again, she would know.
Everything was under control; all variables were accounted for. The biggest problem now was what to do with herself.
She blew another bubble, popped it; contemplated a moment. Then, a slow smile spread across her face; she changed her route and began heading for the communal bathing area. "Accidentally" falling onto Ayame in the hot baths seemed like a pleasant distraction.