บท 3: Chapter 3: Plans and Plots

{Operative's POV}

If my old man was here, he would probably say something along the line he had heard, seen, and done worse. Considering that he had already replaced a third of his body mass to compensate for the damage in warfare, it was more of a statement than a boast. However, I was not my dad, I had neither the Spec-Op training nor the augmentations. I only had some basic regular force training and my own gut.

Sure, I was working for the Security Bureau, but not all positions of the SB were combat orientated. Heck, I had not even picked a speciality yet. I knew a bit of combat, a bit of engineering, a bit of CBRN, a bit of counter-magic, but nothing concrete. I blamed Yukino for that, three years ago, she dragged a clueless part-time intern into her mess…

Though I had to admit, the part after that was solely blamed on me. It was one thing to be dragged in, but it was another thing to sneak in a hostile compound with no support and training. At least I was able to cut down on my zeal of saving money and collecting the debts.

Anyhow, I must admit, I had no viable solution to deal with the situation on the ground. Hell, I did not even know how to properly with being kidnapped, let alone transporting to another world, and by magic no less! As far as the Federation knew, magic was synonym with "bad news", the only remaining question was "how bad". On this world here, I would put it like the early days on Eastern Front of World War Two for the Soviet. Doom was coming, and everyone was helpless to stop it.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. The only good news was that none of us was being brainwashed at the moment, or at least, any detectable mind magic was being used. Many of my classmates only knew about fixed emplacement of anti-mind-magic technology (read: sufficiently analysed mind magic rune-based devices), but Yukino and I had better devices: portable and disguise items. Sure, they were not as powerful as the ones used by the "stereotyped" operatives, but they made due, not to mention that they were not trustworthy.

So, with both devices reporting none of the known mind-control magic being used, there was not much worry for me to be turned into a mindless drone. However, knowing the human's history, such a thing was not guaranteed. After all, the Crusade of Middle Age was a prime example of this – a mix of religious zealotry, charisma, death threats and gold was more than enough to create "textbook paragon heroes".

In translation: idiots who would charge ahead and die because of their own recklessness and stupidity, their strength and valour be damned.

At least they had good food, like very good food. Not as tasty as a five-star restaurant, but it was quite good and tasty, and each serving was definitely large enough to be two counts in such a restaurant. Worry aside, each and every one of us took the meal with gusto. It was not every day when there were real, honest-to-God maids serving us food with some bards telling tales as entertainment. To be fair, I preferred watching some exotic, mysterious, and Arab-like dancers showing their art. However, I did not think Yukino would appreciate it.

At least the maids were cute enough. While they were not anime-like (translation: black and white frilly dresses and skirts), they were certainly beautiful and charming. Their tone was definitely respectful, and I was pretty sure that it was borderline on worshipping. Needless to say, they did one hell of a job on the imagination of a young and hormonal boy like me. At least Yukino was not aware of some of my fetishes. I would not be alive if she did though.

I had to suppress a chuckle at that. I was not blind to the shenanigans taking place around me, especially when it concerned the girls. I knew clearly that I was in love with her, and I knew that she was also in love with me. And as much as I wanted to propose, I knew that doing so was stupid and reckless. I was an operative of the Security Bureau, proposing to my own charge was simply unacceptable. The higher-up would definitely send someone to replace me, and they would give me a seven-point-sixty-two headache soon enough.

However, that was on Earth, or rather, within the Terran Federation, and I was pretty sure that we were not around there anymore. We were on a new planet, one riddled with magic and fantasy. This was a brand new world, fresh and ripe for my taking. There would be no rule to bind me, provided that I was strong, fast, and cunning enough to defeat, outrun, or give the ones hating me a merry chase. If I was just alone, I would have ditched the party already. However, I was brought here alongside my class… alongside the girl I loved. Making sure she was safe was the least I could do.

Besides, sword and magic seemed to be the king and queen here, and I knew none of them. It was probably better to wait and learn something before going my own way. Knowledge was power, that was the motto of the Ministry of Education, and surprisingly enough, of the Security Bureau. Of course, the SB had a few more mottos, none of them was official, but the point stood. Knowledge meant power.

The intelligence comprised by the Church was a real boon. Yukino and many of my classmates would miss much of the important stuff, but not me. The information load here was nothing compared to the Chemistry lessons I must revise for the last final exam.

First off, the continent here was named "Ashka", "Great Land" in their ancient tongue, or as they put it the "Language of God". As expected of a late-Middle Age and early-Renaissance era, their maps were more "artistic reference" than actual geography record. Still, if their claim of "needing three continuous years to travel from the north to south on foot" was correct, I would say that this continent was quite large indeed. Its distance of north to south would be at least equal to Europe in length from west to east, and the gap east-west here would be something like 50% longer than that. Quite a large land, but it was nothing compared to the whole America, or even Asia for that matter.

Second, everything here gave me the vibe of Earth's Europe, especially in politics and geography form. Sure, the names were off, and the shape was not precisely the same, but it was the feeling that mattered. The Mediterranean was reincarnated as "Tiska", or "Tears of God" with "Ashka" at the northern shore and "Soska" (Sand of God) on the southern shore. Who controlled the sea routes here would dominate the political landscape of the southern side of the continent.

And the one being able to do that was the Church, or as they called themselves, the Esschiliary. No Kingdom, no Empire, just plain Ecclesiarchy, just like how the Vatican addressed themselves back in the old days. Needless to say, the Pope was effectively the Head of State and Government. He seemed to be a nice enough guy, even though it looks like he just considered other people as "children". Worst case scenario, he would be the ones pulling strings behind every other political entity here. Considering human's history in this equivalent period, it was nothing surprising.

Besides, having a large cache of "magical weapon" under their basement never hurt, neither. From the Pope's own words, they were the ones supplying magical weapons for the whole continent, the quality was just a few steps away from magical allies' races, like Elf and Dwarf (and yes, Elves and Dwarfs were real). From a gameplay perspective, the Church would be an elite faction, focusing on high-tier units with high value, while having a crap economy. They relied on tributes from other countries (or "hush hush" and "protection money"), after all. I wondered if my contribution of artillery and guns would change that. It was worth a try, and if my Church ramped up their magical weapons, well, I knew how to enhance my weapons with basic magic from Earth.

If the Church was the big shark in the field of religion and diplomacy, then the Empire of Gorgonia was the big shot of military and bureaucracy. They were the only one here maintaining a full-time professional army, one that dedicated to attacking and defence. It looked like they had been able to crack the code on mass-producing iron and steel because both the absolute and relative amount of steel amours and weapons here completely dwarfed other countries. Sure, they might be the elite formation, and their stuff was not that solid in the first place, but it was the ability that made them stand out.

Furthermore, unlike a few other countries, their delegation of the aristocrat was actually competent and friendly. They totally acknowledged our shocked state and they did not even try to dump us information, but simply gisting them into bite-size chunks. I did not know about others, but they had already got my respect and preference for doing so. Their magic training was behind others, but instead of flashy and powerful moves, they utilized the basic and pragmatic spells like fireballs or stitching the scars. They were lower-tier magic, but they worked beautifully.

Good, they had learned the lesson of their future counter-part on Earth: quantity had a quality of its own. I wondered if I should really work for them…

However, the Empire of Gorgoina was besotted on two sides by two not-so-friendly Kingdoms, the Kingdom of Volba on the East, and the Kingdom of Versaillie on the West. Sure, there were a few smaller dukedoms dotting the landscape between them, and the said lands also sent their representative here, but I tuned out their appearance. Strategically speaking, they had no important resources, and they were stuck between giant players. Poland knew the game well enough, they were once a power to be reckoned with, and then Germany and Russia/USSR/Russia took it as an offence. Meanwhile, Vietnam, the home country of dad, was able to dance on the line, they knew how to balance between martial and diplomacy, and then they were still a force to be considered.

Speaking of the other two kingdoms, they spent more money on cavalry as well as mages, probably to counter the advantage of infantry, support, and defence emplacement of the Empire. The Volba invested in heavy cavalry, supported by Ice Mages, while the Versaillie raised rapid raider-like units, supported by Potions for stamina and speed boost. Furthermore, the Versaillie was blessed with many luxury items, such as milk, cheese or cloth (which was used as a part of the payment for the officers). The Volba was much more conservative, though the amount of bling quite a bit much.

A worse part was that the leaders of the two delegations were not precisely… friendly. Sure, they smiled and showed their respect to my class, but the respect was quite fake, and I believed they were just scheming behind our backs. It was lucky that none of us had said anything about our common-folk origin, my class had seen what they had done to the maids and the guards. The last thing we wanted on the first night was setting them on our own arses.

At the fourth position, and it was only "forth" because the combined power of the Volba and the Versaillie was too great, was the Kingdom of Albion. Unlike all other countries focused on the ground force, they invested heavily into Navy as well as auxiliary raiding forces. It was expected, seeing them to be an island in the first place. Who controlled the ocean ruled the land. It was a pity that the number of sea monsters was abnormally high, stopping them from projecting their power any further. At the moment, they collected naval protection fee from all countries who wanted to launch sea trade, and their grasp had already reached Tiska.

They were a perfect balance between arrogance and self-confidence. There was little respect held for other countries, especially the Versaillie, but there was a reason for that. The two countries had waged wars against each other a few times, and the Frenchie only won once or twice. To think those victories were pyrrhic at best, even when the Red Coats were outnumbered by five to one and their enemy had total naval support.

There was also an on-going joke on what would be more powerful – the defence of Gorgoina or the fleet of Albion. Luckily, they were friends, and more with their Emperor and King married sisters of the same family.

Meh, I had seen and read worse then.

Down south, across the Not!Mediterranean was a collective of tribes as well as many other non-human entities. Little information was known about them, mostly because their delegation teams had not arrived. The road was too long and the ritual must go on or they would miss the chance. However, from the grimace of every other representative, I must assume the tribes were bad news.

Something like Israel to the surrounding Arab countries, both sides hated each other (or even disliked at best), but the Jews were simply too tenacious or too dangerous to defeat. Maybe the tribes had powerful fighters or their own shaman magic? Possible. At least, the Class Rep was able to convince them in a series of beautifully constructed words, striking awe into the eyes of Albionians and surprise into her classmates.

She had royal blood in her vein after all, and the classical was always classical.

So, in short, for friendly forces, we had the Elves, Dwarfs and Beastpeople. That was when things got interesting. The Ecclesiarchy hated them, showing clear racism and xenophobia the moment they were mentioned. The Pope even mentioned something about cleansing Ashka from corrupting elements. God created men in his image, and the others were not, so it was "duty of mankind" to preserve the purity of earth. Or it was something like that, I tuned out his rant somewhere in the middle.

At least his disciples were more… restrained, as in they did not rant out anything. However, that did not mean they did not share his sentiment. A girl referred to as "Saint Lumina", answered our question with a seemingly neutral tone. However, it was very easy to realize the passive-aggressive as well as the snarks in her lines. It was quite awe-inspiring, attracting my own attention on her pale skin, blue eyes and blond hair. The white pristine dress and veil, in combination with her angel-like appearance, added extra seriousness as well as comical features into her words.

I paid extreme focus on her until my thigh was pinched by Yukino. The sudden pain dragged me back to reality… Yeah, she was pouting with the flushed pair of cheeks. Her gaze toward me was part-anger, part-shy, part-nervous, and totally jealous. I had to use every single bit of my will to suppress my smirk, and then I just utterly failed at that.

"What? Are you jealous?"

"Hpmh!"

She just scoffed, and then turned away angrily… Ah, tsundere at the finest. It was also… lucky (?) that Yukino also had a few more personality traits, the kuu-, where she suppressed and controlled her emotions, the dan-, where she was quite shy, and even a yan- part where… yeah, let's not talk about yan-dere then. Still, I just loved teasing her sometimes.

"So, should I just keep watching you from now on? Or should I propose to you right here and right now?"

Many people would think it as a joke… but they had no idea how serious I was when talking that line. After all, this was the new world, the laws and rules of the Terran Federation did not apply here, and the reach of Security Bureau had not arrived. I could safely marry the girl I love without any major trouble.

"Stupid! You should pay attention to the setting! THE SETTING!"

She seethed through her mouth, which allowed her to keep the whole thing from blowing up sky high. Talking while others were doing so was quite impolite after all. The "Saint Lumina" eyed upon me, but I had already turned my sight forward again, being unflinching under her gazes. Unseen by her was my hand intertwining with Yukino's.

Her information was also interesting, to say the least. The Elves were powerful, even the weakest among them could fight off at least ten grown and trained men single-handly. They were also highly specialized, with swordsmen, bowmen, shield bearers, and mages, especially their mages. They were elites among elites, but their number was also very small, courtesy of both their biology as well as their doctrine. Elves took a long time to reproduce, and even longer time to fill in their ranks of warriors. Fifty years minimum to train a swordsman or archer, and even a hundred to have a mage.

To put it in respective, among Terran Federation, even the harshest training regimen needed only four years to have a combat-ready operative. For the regular forces, the time period was less than one year and a lot less intense.

It was no wonder why on Ashka and Saska, Elves were only a second-rate power…

Dwarf, like human's imagination, was master of the forge. It was unknown if they had cracked the code of mass production, but it was explicitly said that they had cracked the code of iron and steel. It was unknown if they were able to do it on an industrial scale (ie a blast furnace) or they had access to a nearby volcano. Either way, it was not important for the men here, what they needed was high-quality weapons and armours from the forges of the Dwarf. Those were sold by the short people at a cutthroat price, and even then, there was not enough supply to satisfy the demand. I wondered if I should give them a middle finger by showing the blast furnace operation here…

The last group was no one else than cat girls, dog girls,… And I really should not read beast girl hentai the night before. I had almost imagined Yukino wearing Japanese-anime maid with some animal ears on her head and calling me "master" this morning. At least she was not able to detect my lustful gaze… Anyhow, back to the topic, Beastpeople. As the name implied, they were a cross-over between normal being and beasts. They had more strength, stamina and other sensory power compared to normal human beings. They were also quite an analogue to the Elves, strength and endurance verse speed and agility. However, unlike other people, the Beast people had not been able to form their own collective force, and instead, there were only tribes, not cities or states. Worse, they were living a nomad lives and lack any residence place.

Still, the vibe of a cat girl (and a dog girl, and a tiger girl, and… you knew the drill, right?) was quite toxic for a boy like me. Hell, it was the same for many other boys in the class, if their dreamy face was a reliable proof. Needless to say, the girls were… not very enthusiastic about that. A few girls had already slapped their boyfriends on the back of their heads, and Yukino pinched me again on my thigh. It was totally worth it though.

The intelligence briefing quickly ended after that, with the class mitigating over the whole compound. My class needed time to digest the information, there was simply too much for them to chew down at the moment, and the teacher, as well as the Class Rep, needed to negotiate for more benefits. Like it or not, only Yukino and I were trained and baptized in fire. The others were not hardened enough to deal with the burden, and throwing untrained conscripts blindly into the gutter when there was no pressing need to do so was stupid.

At least my class got quite a few hardened figures. Apart from the sorceress and me, we also had the Class Rep, a descendant of British royalty with training in diplomacy, "Commissar", who hailed from certain intrigue and political background, or "Dealer", who was well-versed in underhand tactics as well as reading the body language and tone. Together, they were a nice supplemental to our teacher, who was nothing more than a normal one.

Hopefully, they could delay our deadline for response by a few weeks, or a few days at least. We needed local training and more knowledge, and even basic training took time. I wondered if we could make a dent on the front line of the upcoming war. Well, the war would not begin within the next years, so a year and a half were more than enough to train us to regular force level. Even after that, we would have half a year more before the regular forces of the darkness arrived. So far, it was manageable.

I sat down on a piece of rock on the edge of the camp, watching the whole scenery with a sigh. The "summoning site" here was too far from any nearby town or cities, with the nearest one two days away on a fast march on horseback. It would be five days for us who travelled on foot or sat within the wagons. So, with a distance too large, we had no choice but to sleep outdoors, within some tents.

And those tents were a disgrace, mostly because they were not equipped with any magic to regulate temperature or humidity. Section Six of Security Bureau was originally an anti-magic task force, but they were also pragmatic enough to use magic when it suited them. After all, in small-scale usage, magic was still more efficient and user-friendly than technology. Those self-contained tents were extremely nice to sleep in, considering the environment inside was set at the user's preferences.

Still, I did not comment that out loud, it would be too impolite and too high-key after all. At least, none of the locals found my desire to be alone for a while strange. They just thought that I had yet to get over the shock and surprise… How wrong they were, I had already done that. I was just plotting and planning. I was just one person, my hyperspace arsenal had many "wonder weapons" (for the locals, at least), but those were for emergencies, so the quantity would be low. Five battles and I would be dry up. I needed to secure my own supply lines, after all, masters talked about logistic.

From my own view, the Empire of Gorgonia was probably my best bet. My knowledge vested heavily in engineering and warfare, which would benefit them greatly. However, there was no guarantee that they would use my ideas for good. Humanity on Earth was the prime example of that, too many bright ideas had been perverted into killing machines. If I instructed the locals on how to do something, then it was also my duty to teach them the moral in using them. The risks were too high…

There was someone approaching me, causing to turn my glance. Unsurprisingly, it was Yukino, with a pair of escorts from Ecclesiarchy behind. At least they recognized who she wanted to meet, and they quickly departed, leaving some privacy for us. Even though it was dark, every corner of the camp was still lit up with fire, allowing me to watch her beauty clearly.

Still wearing the uniform of the high school, she sported a white shirt tucked inside a green skirt, one just ended just above her knee. Her slender, yet baring a hint of muscles, legs followed up, which swayed with each and every step she took. The long black hair was breezing behind her back, courtesy of the chill wind in the night. While her figure was not drop dead gorgeous like any idols, she was certainly well-balanced in every department. She curved out where it needed to be curved out, and she curved in where it needed to be curved in. In short, she was quite cute. Just her appearance alone was enough to make me having a crush on her, let alone being extremely competent.

She stood in front of me with her eyebrows quirked up, as if asking a silent question. Me? I just wordlessly inched a bit to the side, leaving enough space for her to sit down. The spot was quickly taken by Yukino, and she wasted no time before leaning on my body. My brain quickly reported the soft sensation tingling all over my side, not to mention something very "fulfilling" around my elbow.

Yeah, it was just wonderful to have a girl loving me then.

"So, honey, what would you do then?"

"I'm planning to…"

Then, my brain suddenly froze.

What did she just call me? Was it "honey"? That word was reserved for couples only! Hang on, if she called me so, did it mean that she was proposing to me? Seriously, it should be MY JOB!

"Yes, honey, you have it right. So, let's me ask again, would you want to be my boyfriend?"