Chereads / Black Clover : Merit / Chapter 14 - Plans Going Forward

Chapter 14 - Plans Going Forward

"Gordon!

Hi buddy! Come sit down!"

Nalé patted the spot by her excitedly as she greeted the man that had waved to her whilst he browsed the library.

Yesterday night's date had been eventful, her social battery had been drained out by the end though.

So as soon as she'd taken of her heels, she had thrown herself to her bed, passing out like a light and snoring contentedly in her soft sheets .

This morning, she had woken refreshed and excited to finally plan out what she would do in the clover kingdom.

There was a reason she had become a project manager, she loved to plan and see those plans come to life!

After a quick dip in the baths, and returning to her room to gather some materials, she was off to the library!

---

Gordon sat next to her, silent as always.

"As you can see," Nalé pointed to the hulking form of the human leaking smoke, and the tiny woman facing them on the opposite bench ," Grey and Charmy had already decided to join me."

Charmy , cute as always greeted the man. "Hi Gordon!

Nalé told me this plan would allow me to feed a lot of people and

that's my favorite thing to do, after eating, so I decided to listen up La!"

She had paused her eating to speak but resumed on devouring her cupcake after saying what she had to say.

Nalé nodded, a calm look caked on her face.… as she mentally squealed over Charmy's cuteness, almost disappointed that she could not reach across the table to squeeze those adorable cheeks of hers.

"So yes!" Nalé exclaimed, gesturing wildly.

The name of this self made mission is: Forsaken realm no more!" She yelled, striking a back bending pose .

The others clapped politely.

"…"

'That was out of character. What the fuck is wrong with me today?'

(she was just excited.)

She coughed as she sat back down awkwardly.

"If anyone has a better name in mind please do tell , cause mine kind of feels lackluster."

The others nodded in understanding.

"This sounds interesting.

I wouldn't dare miss out on anything that my best friends are participating in," Gordon muttered excitedly, tapping his nails on the wooden table, eager to get started.

"Thank you Gord, your help is always appreciated."

She gave him a wink before turning back to the table.

There were piles and piles of books in front them. They were categorized by theme.

From law and construction to food and healing.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, let's start with the boring stuff first", she said, bringing the law books to the front.

"Then, someone else can decide on another section."

---

"So you're telling me that the kingdom won't even fund a security system for these towns?"

Vanessa slurred as she drunk another bottle, leaning against the table.

"That's right, looking at this book of complaints," Nalé said as she turned another page, "the cities in the forsaken realm have been asking for better conditions ever since humans started to move in, but they've been ignored time and time again."

The pink haired woman indulged in another sip of her wine and responded.

"Leave that part to me, I can enchant my strings to not let certain types of people pass through and can sharpen them with certain conditions. "

"Thank you Vanessa, you're a gem!" Nalé said as she gave a quick hug to the knight on her left.

"I know darling." The witch replied softly, leaning closer to Nalé and hooking her arm around her.

'So soft' she thought as she leaned against Nalé, smelling the rosy perfume the other had decided to wear today, 'and warm.'

She then promptly passed out.

Nalé looked at the older woman and shook her awake gently.

"Sleep on my lap instead, you'll be more comfortable and I'll be able to move my arms for the books." She softly said, untangling the sleepy witches arms and making space for her on her lap.

"Ok." the pink haired knight mumbled, seemingly unaware of her surroundings, and laying her head on Nalé's fleshy thighs.

After taking care of Vanessa and making sure she was comfortable, she looked back up at the rest of the knights.

They were eagerly chatting with each other , coming up with ideas of what they would do and how they could push their magic to become stronger through this.

By this time, most if not all of the Magic knights from the squad had made themselves present at the table.

Gauche could be found in the corner making a statue of his Marie, pretending he wasn't participating .

Even Yami was here, sitting at the head of the table, listening intently to his squad's ideas and occasionally giving advice.

Nalé smiled at this, whilst caressing the head of the mage that lay on her lap , gently combing her fingers through the pink locks and lulling her to sleep.

'I was planning on asking them to join me after I had planned this, but they came to me themselves.'

'The Black bulls really are a family. If I had any doubt before, they've been absolved now.'

'I'm glad they've accepted me as a part of that.

I'm honored.'

---

"Luck what about you, any ideas?"

Nalé said to the silent yet grinning teen.

"I don't hear any mention of fighting involved, so I don't see how I'm going to be involved."

Your lightning can power things up and help with the defense system that Vanessa wanted to build.

It's kind of like fighting but you're not there…."

Luck's grinning expression showed no sign of changing.

"Yea…no, that's not really fun for me, try something else."

She sighed.

"Ok, you get to fight me , once I learn how to use my magic."

He was quick to respond

"Deal."

"What is your magic, Nalé?" Magna asked, gruffly, pushing away the annoying blonde haired mage poking his side.

She gasped.

"Oh yea, I never got to tell you guys!

It's ice!"

He nodded, finally coming to a realization.

"Ah, no wonder everything was frozen that night, that was one hell of an introduction."

"I know, right?! I hope no one broke anything because of me."

"Nah, we're all good" he said, patting the table for emphasis."

Yami chimed in.

"Just because you're going to be doing this, doesn't mean you can skimp out on your training, by the way."

Nalé responded, as she looked through her notes.

"Oh I haven't forgotten, I've been training my physical body all this time."

Yami sighed.

"I'm talking about your magic dumbass."

She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling.

"Ohhh, are you gonna help me captain?"

He nodded, leaning back into his chair.

"Yes, but I'm gonna switch myself with someone else from the squad every time I don't feel like it, which will be like 99% of the time, so be ready for that."

She stared at him blankly.

"Uh, yes. It's the thought that counts I guess…"

Moving on from his reminder, Nalé began a recap of all of the information that's been said over the past hour or so of this impromptu meeting.

Each member of the squad had assumed their responsibilities in this large scale project of hers.

Their roles and responsibilities included:

Nalé:

Owner: responsible for the path the project takes

Project Manager: responsible for managing the other's roles and responsibilities

In charge of solving problems

In charge of managing: finance, feedback, roles and responsibilities, schedule and more.

Builder: In charge of creating magical tools to help the towns.

Yami:

Consultant: he's the person everyone would go to for the go ahead and advice on their activities, since he managed their schedules and when they would get their missions

Support: Since he has the most influential power as the magic knight Captain, he accompanies the others when and if they ever need to go to the capital for funding or permissions. (He's also emotional support).

Strategist: He comes up with all the Different ways the villages can be protected, whether it is by using the land , magic or magical tools

Finral:

Transporter: He is the one in charge of Transporting the resources From place to place.

Strategist: He is in charge of picking which locations they will work on based on difficulty and usefulness to the Clover Kingdom. He scouts the land and points out whatever oddity will impact their work. Will work with Nalé to infuse some of his magic with her tools

Gordon:

Tailor: He's in charge of making sure everyone in the towns they visit have proper clothes fitting the present and upcoming seasons. He will create them along with Vanessa.

Offense Strategist: He can put his poisons in whatever traps and weapons the people of the town use to defend themselves.

Charmy:

Nutritionist/Cook/Teacher: Consults the townspeople about the best ingredients in their area, and how they can best use them in recipes. She will create mini cookbooks based on their area. She will teach them a few of her recipes.

Farmer: She's in charge of setting up farming/irrigation areas. She will give tips about how to grow the best foods. Will use her sheep to do the labor.

Worker: Will use her sheep to help the other members with their assigned work.

Vanessa:

Strategist: She will use her thread to create security measures.

Tailor: She will sew and create clothing.

Worker: Will help with Construction and Gardening

Magna:

In charge of creativity across all categories of the project. He will come up with ideas in whatever area he chooses. (will most likely choose to work with Luck to combine creativity with sheer power.)

Luck:

Strategist: In charge of coming up with strategies to help defend the town as well as battle strategies if it unfortunately comes to that.

Defense technician: Will work with Nalé to combine his magic with her defense tools. He will also come up with his own possible security ideas.

Grey:

Magical Teacher: Will help the members of the town use their magic more efficiently in battle and their daily lives.

Worker: Will help the others with their work.

Henry:

Architect: Will receive blueprints of the towns layout and create plans of new buildings, and other ideas.

Architectural Consultant: He will look at the citizen's requests and outline ways in which the team can make it happen and if some things aren't possible and how to work around that.

---

The members looked at the note containing their roles and responsibilities and took turns writing down their responsibilities while getting an idea of what the others would do.

Yami took a look at the note raising his eyebrow at seeing Henry's name on it.

He glanced at the woman who wrote the note in the first place.

She was staring back at him with a sheepish smile, slightly shrugging her shoulders.

He passed the note onto the next person and copied her, shrugging his shoulders.

He figured it was time they knew the guy existed.

"Eh? Who the hell's Henry?" Magna said scratching his head.

"Did you meet up with him before us?! We're your seniors Nalé!"

Nalé chuckled as she arranged her notes for the next part of the discussion.

"Don't get too jealous Magna, You're still dear to my heart, I'm not replacing you yet."

"Yet?!" He yelled, in mock outrage at the blatant disloyalty.

She moved on from the grumpy man.

"What do you say we all go meet him tomorrow?"

The members hesitantly agreed to this, not knowing exactly what to expect, but curious nonetheless.

"That's settled then.

It's about time to head for dinner. Anyone wanna come with?"

"Hell yea, I'm starving!" yelled Magna, enthused as always.

Charmy who had been snacking this whole time made way ahead of him as soon as she'd heard dinner. The other members tumbled after the two he go to see what delicious meal she would be cooking this time.

"Vanessa, It's time to wake up. We're heading downstairs to eat."

"Mmm, I don't wanna." The pink haired witch mumbled snuggling in to the thighs of the larger woman.

"I do, so I'm going to leave here for a while I go eat okay?"

"Ok."

She gently lifted her head, scooting over to the right to make space for it and placed it down gently.

"Come back soon, you're really comfortable." mumbled Vanessa in her dazed and sleepy drunken stupor.

Nalé pouted as she stared down at her dozing friend, conflicted.

She debated just scrapping the whole eating thing and instead staying with Vanessa until nightfall, alas her stomach growled and food had won the debate.

---

The Black Bulls cafeteria was jolly as always.

The sounds of utensils clinking against plates filled the atmosphere, as well as the various conversations that were taking place.

Many were excited about the new mission and how it would allow them to grow as knights, while others had other things going on in their lives that they were excited about.

At the entrance of the cafeteria was a young woman, scoping out the place, looking for a good seat.

She claimed a seat next to the captain, and said a jovial thank you as a plate was put in front of her by a certain tiny knight.

"Why do you have to eat right by me, Nalé? There are literally 27 other seats available at this table."

Yami stared her down, annoyed, putting down the newspaper in his hands.

She dove in to the food, chowing down joyously and unphased by his glower.

She'd received it enough to no longer shit herself every time.

Plus its been a while since she's properly annoyed him.

"I wanted to hang out with you.

What're you reading?"

She gestured to the paper, as she wolfed down Charmy's pasta.

"The daily juice. They publicize the wildest stories in the kingdom." He grumbled, sipping his wine, trying to find something to curb his oral fixation.

…He had run out of cigarettes and wine was the next best thing, naturally.

"What juicy story do they have for us today?"

He calmly turned to the next page.

"Someone tried to shove a raccoon up their ass, yesterday."

"…What? I- what kind of fucked-up person would do that shit?

Well, is the raccoon ok? " She asked leaning closer to his newspaper to see if he was telling the truth.

He grabbed her face, pushing her backwards.

"Get a newspaper of your own, this one's mine. And yea, the raccoon's ok. They had to get a mage to erase it's memories though."

She had already eaten half her plate by the time he had given her more of the shocking details of this case.

The person responsible for this had read a medical report about how wide buttholes could stretch and had decided to test that theory on their own.

He had been taken in immediately and they're considering giving him life in prison, as he was now deemed a danger to the local wildlife.

'I'd heard of the Florida man back in my world, could there be an area in the clover kingdom filled with crazy people as well?'

She had finished her meal, and had stayed at the table rubbing her stomach, taking in the vibes.

Curious still, she asked the older man, "Out of all the stories you've read, which area would you say consistently produced the craziest stories?"

"Hmm."

He scratched at his chin, as he scoured his brain.

"It'd have to be the City of Emelle. Those nobles sure have nothing better to do."

"Nobles huh? That's surprisingly unsurprising ."

"Oh, how so?" He asked, curious to know the reason for her calmness.

"This just seems like the kind of thing someone with too much time on their hands would do."

He smirked, chuckling lowly.

"Hmm, don't let them hear you say that though, they'll have you executed for pointing out their embarrassing habits."

"Hm? Ha! yea, I'll be careful…" She guffawed, wiping tears from her eyes.

This conversation had reminded her of her last conversation with the Creator.

Her mind had drifted off the crazy raccoon man and onto her own matters.

' I'm no longer human now, am I?' she thought.

'I wonder what my immortality consists of.

What the conditions are.

It's better that I find these things out sooner than later.'

---

It was 6 in the evening when the Black Bulls decided to regroup in the library to finally organize their thoughts into actionable plans.

"So, how do we go about this? The legal way or our way?" Nalé asked.

"Let's do it the legal way first, and if the kingdom won't help, we'll do it our way." Yami had answered the question, smoke billowing out of his nostrils. He'd asked Finral to get him some cigarettes, a little earlier.

"Fair enough.

According to my research, We'll need permission from the Planning department in charge of the forsaken realm to start a of project of that scale . Thankfully as Magic Knights, we don't need a license to attain that sort of permission, so it should be relatively easy to get ."

Nalé turned to the next page in her notes.

"The hardest part to attain will be the funding.

I have a feeling that despite having a considerable amount of money, once they learn that we'll be using it in the for the sake of the forsaken realm their stinginess will rear their head.

That's why I've come up with an alternative.

Dungeons."

She continued.

"As long as they're undiscovered, dungeons are free reign.

We can use as much of that money as we want for our plans.

Money for clothes, food, building materials and more."

She paused, looking at the rest, question in her gaze.

"What do you all think?"

Most of them nodded, agreeing with her idea.

"I'm not opposed to it" said Luck, eager to move on to the part where they'd talk more about fighting.

"Alright then." She said, checking off that part of her notes.

"Our next topic is Communication. Did anyone come up with any ideas for how we'll get the towns to communicate more with each other?"

Grey raised their hand.

For this meeting , they'd transformed into Charmy as they found it easier to communicate that way.

"What do you have in mind Grey?"

"La, I found these communications devices when I was shopping with Charmy."

She pulled out a palm sized device , and pressed a button and passed another to another member, and proceeded to use charmy to blurt out a bunch of obscenities which relayed to the other device.

"Laaa, It works see?"

The members were impressed.

Though no one could tell whether it was because of all the cursing and the extensive vocabulary Grey had used or if it was because of the device.

"That's wonderful!" Nalé exclaimed, casually ignoring the cursing spout.

"We're definitely going to need a lot of those."

---

It took them about 2 hours to brainstorm and organize their ideas. By this point in time, most of the members had become sluggish, their earlier excitement gone.

"Alright let's get this over with." Nalé said, preparing to summarize their plans at once and eager to end the meeting as well.

The squad had unanimously decided to split their plans into Phases (The initial phase being something that they'd only do once, while the others would repeat with each town/city they'd visit and reform.)

Phase 1 included:

Obtaining money for the mission by:

- applying for it in the Clover Kingdom's department of treasury

- Looting a dungeon

- Obtaining the plans for the villages in the forsaken realm

- Buying educational materials on : Architecture/Construction , Gardening/Farming , Finance and whatever else.

- Buying basic tools | This includes all the tools for the different roles . ex: sewing machine, hammer etc.

Phase 2 included:

Choosing a town:

Speaking to the residents in order to gain their:

- consent

- opinions on what their villages need most

- Approval for the project

- Deciding on whether to rebuild or expand

- Deciding on the structures that should be added to the town

- Planning how the project will be managed in this town

- Rallying up the workers

- Brainstorming on ideas for how the town can earn money in order to prosper even after the mission ends

Phase 3 included:

- Executing every planned action

- Activating all roles and responsibilities

Phase 4 included:

- Documenting what worked and what didn't

- Testing the security measures

- Presenting the project to the residents

Phase 5 included:

- Establishing proper communication with the surrounding towns as well as the other realms.

---

The meeting ended, finally.

Nalé surveyed the members' faces as they got up from their seats, and decided she'd never do this again.

Not like this, at least.

This meeting had been too long.

No matter how much you like something, too much of it and you can get worn out, which is exactly what had happened to them.

She looked down at the papers, reviewing them for a bit before eventually getting bored of them.

Whatever she didn't do today she'd leave for tomorrow's version of her.

During the second part of the meeting, the pink haired witch had once again sought the comfort of her soft, plump thighs.

She'd deemed them her own personal pillows at this point.

Everyone had already left the library except Nalé, who had decided it was time to wake her friend up so she could go do something else.

She poked at Vanessa's arm, and the witch had opened her eyes suddenly, as if she had never been asleep in the first place.

"Hello darling." she lilted looking up at the taller woman, and wrapping however much of her arms she could around her waist.

Nalé gazed down at the woman who pushed her face further into her thighs, amused.

"Hi Vanessa, you seem very comfortable down there."

The witched hummed in response, nuzzling into her waist.

"That would be a very correct assumption, want a kiss as a reward?"

Nalé's eyebrows rose and she wondered if the witch was serious.

"That offer is tempting , but I'm afraid it would ruin our working relationship madam."

Vanessa sat up, chuckling at the absurdness of her friend's sentence.

"Working relationship? We've never had that, from the get go Nalé."

Nalé smiled, shrugging her shoulders in response.

"I know, I just couldn't come up with a good enough excuse to say no.

As a friend, you're already wonderful, and as a human, you're enticing as fuck.

Why would anybody want to miss out out on that?"

A blush had adorned the pink haired woman's face, only this time she was sober, not drunk like she usually was.

She squealed , jumping into the other woman's arms.

"Are you alright?" The woman holding her asked, chuckling and going along with her friend's antics.

"Very much so. You just looked very huggable for a moment."

They pulled apart, and Vanessa grabbed the other woman's wrist as she ran out of the library, the other having no choice but to follow behind her.

"Where are we going?!" Nalé shouted, joyously embracing the current going through her short curly hair as she ran down the hallway with her scantily clad friend.

"To my room, for a drinking party!" Vanessa shouted in response, now skipping to her destination.

"Do you have any rosé?" Nalé asked, as she caught up to her friend, skipping beside her , and giggling at the prospect of getting to enjoy her favorite wine.

"Girl, I have all the rosé." Vanessa said, smirking as they slowed down coming up to her bedroom.

"Then count me the fuck in." Nalé said , wiggling her eyebrows at the older woman as they walked in.

The door slammed close.

For the rest of the night, various muffled screeches and giggles could be heard from behind that door as the women recounted the hilarious and scandalous encounters they've had since they've last had the time to enjoy each other's presence.