“Alright then, let’s begin today’s lesson!”
“Okaaay!”
Big Sis Eve and <Ringo>, along with the five sisters, had all gathered in the recreation room.
On the sofa, Akane, Eve, and <Ringo> sat in that order, while Ichigo was tucked between Eve’s knees, held from behind like a hug. Olive was in the same state—except <Ringo> had already captured Olive.
Utsugi and Erika, the two of them together, were sunk deep into the soft-structure flexible sofa.
“Today, we’re going to confirm the current situation in the Kingdom of Redia and discuss what we should do next. <Ringo> picked up some interesting information, so let’s think it through together.”
As Eve spoke, multiple satellite photographs appeared on the aerial projection display.
“Now then—these are the latest satellite images of the Kingdom of Redia. Algasta, the royal capital that kept resisting for so long. As you can see, it’s suffered tremendous damage.”
“It started to feel a little off three days ago. Then it turned horrible all at once.”
In the satellite photos, a fortress city shaped like a distorted circle had been annihilated. The walls had collapsed everywhere, and many charred blocks were visible, as if fires had broken out.
The central castle had also collapsed, and black smoke covered most of it—either still burning, or smoldering.
“Algasta was under siege by the Prava Divine Kingdom, right? Does that mean it finally lost?”
“It would’ve been simple if that were all.”
Eve gave a wry smile as Eve stroked Ichigo’s head while Ichigo looked up with upturned eyes.
“The Prava Divine Kingdom army that was besieging Algasta has also been annihilated. The location where the main camp stood has been completely destroyed—we can even confirm a crater.”
When <Ringo> enlarged the satellite photo, the former location of the Prava Divine Kingdom’s main camp came into view. Tents and supplies had been flattened, and vast numbers of human-shaped something-or-others were scattered across the ground.
The resolution made it hard to tell, but there appeared to be an enormous number of corpses.
“Around yesterday evening, both Algasta and the Prava Divine Kingdom army were almost simultaneously wiped out. And the one that did it was...”
“It showed up again—another large monster. Um, a threat organism. The species designation is <Fenrir>. And there are two large individuals confirmed. One is <Froze>, and the other is <Yarn>.”
As Eve explained, estimated 3D models of two <Fenrir> were added.
The body length was estimated at roughly fifteen meters, and the shoulder height at roughly thirteen meters. The individual believed to be female was slightly larger.
And there was what looked like a child, staying close to the female.
“For now, there seems to be a child individual as well. We only confirmed one, so I named it <Hati>. Looks like these three came down from <Demon Forest> all the way to Algasta.”
With only satellite imagery, there were still plenty of uncertain points, but none of that would affect this discussion.
“For some reason, threat organisms moved south from <Demon Forest>, crushing settlements and villages along the way, and reached the royal capital.”
“When a phenomenon that never occurred before is suddenly observed, there is a clear reason at high probability. Even so, it likely cannot be inferred from the current information alone. We should focus on what to do next?”
“Exactly. Like Akane said. We don’t have much beyond satellite photos, so let’s think about what comes next. I’d have loved to slip bots in, but it’s just too far from the coast.”
Utsugi and Erika brought up a map in the air and started checking.
“Over seven hundred kilometers from the coast in a straight line...”
“Aircraft could reach it, but is there any point?”
The Kingdom of Redia was one of the two nations bordering the Prava Divine Kingdom on its eastern side. To the north, it touched <Demon Forest>, and to the south, beyond the other nation—the Principality of Tarara Lind—lay the Raflet Sea.
If bots were sent in by aircraft, the route would have to pass over the Principality of Tarara Lind, or else go via the Prava Divine Kingdom.
“I think... a secret base would be necessary, to secure a communications route...”
Olive was the one who pointed it out. Even if bots were sent in, communications would have to be established.
“With seven hundred kilometers, you can’t communicate over the horizon. Even if we float a communications drone up high, it won’t reach unless it gets inland... right?”
“That’s true. But scattering drones over the continent’s airspace isn’t exactly appealing...”
As Olive thought hard, <Ringo> kept petting Olive.
“Satellite communications would work, but... with the bots we’re operating right now, there isn’t enough output...”
“So either we improve the mothership... or we build a secret base in the first place.”
Eve nodded along. The intelligence network under construction in the Prava Divine Kingdom was more than a thousand kilometers away from the site, so it was useless this time.
“Or we could just dispatch Gigantia?”
“This is a pain—wipe it all out in one go!”
Utsugi and Erika voiced extreme proposals.
“If Gigantia is dispatched, the route is the problem,” Akane said.
With Gigantia, the site could be reached in a matter of hours. But Gigantia was currently being kept in orbit over the United Kingdom of Aphrasia.
Between them lay four countries.
A sea route was also conceivable, but with fewer obstacles, the risk of being spotted would become extremely high.
“If the objective is dealing with threat organisms, Gigantia raises concerns on the defensive side. Air support is also constrained by distance. It is more than two thousand kilometers from the nearest runway.”
When thinking of Gigantia against threat organisms, the incident came to mind—when a single wyvern breath attack forced <Titan> to withdraw from the front.
It meant the threat organisms’ offensive power was simply too high.
“If forces are deployed from <The Tree> to deal with it, dispatching a carrier strike group is the most effective. If it is within one thousand kilometers of the sea, it is within the operational area. Repeated strikes and missile support are also possible.”
“As for the land battleship—has it not yet been fielded as a fighting force?”
Akane proposed the realistic line: dispatch a carrier fleet. Ichigo brought up the land battleship by name.
“The land battleship is at the level where we could operate it if we wanted. But if we deploy that, concealment becomes truly difficult.”
Since there was still only a single carrier, <Ringo> would likely prefer not to dispatch one from <The Tree>.
The land battleship was a powerful weapon, but to push it into an inland country, it would inevitably have to pass through another nation’s territory. It would be too exposed—and right now, that was not the best move.
“If we were serious about pacification, one plan would be to dispatch the carrier and the land battleship and also commit Gigantia. But for now, there isn’t much benefit, so I don’t plan to do it...”
It was unknown whether those wolf-type threat organisms could be defeated with conventional weapons.
But based on the capabilities of threat organisms fought so far, there was a high chance that sheer volume could push through.
More than anything, they had a child with them. If they noticed something highly threatening nearby, they might return to their original territory—but....
“We still do not know why this <Fenrir> family moved. If it lost a survival competition in <Demon Forest>, there is also the possibility it will settle in place.”
At Akane’s point, Eve nodded, agreeing.
“We need to tighten observation of <Demon Forest>, too. Come to think of it, I remember hearing that threat organisms aren’t biologically outside the framework of existing organisms, right...?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. However, research into earthworms has stalled, so it cannot be stated categorically. When the form resembles an existing organism, it is inferred to be analogous to that organism.”
“Hm. Well—let’s assume that’s true. Then... how do those things handle food, I wonder?”
A <Fenrir> had a body length of fifteen meters. If weight scaled with the cube of length, that would be roughly three hundred thirty-seven tons.
If a wolf required one to three kilograms of food /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ per day, and that scaled similarly by weight, then three to ten tons of food would be necessary.
“...Do they really need to eat that much?”
“Unknown, Commander Ma’am. However, obtaining that amount of food on land daily would be difficult. It should be assumed that, through some unknown effect, the required food is reduced.”
The <Fenrir> were estimated to have already been out of <Demon Forest> for three days. That meant they had effectively continued fasting for three full days.
A human weighed, at most, around eighty kilograms, and the edible portion was far less. No matter how many people were preyed upon, it could never be enough to satisfy that quantity.
And no scenes had been confirmed of active, aggressive predation on humans in particular.
Given the influence of magical fantasy, it was reasonable to assume the food problem was being solved by some effect.
