Acting confident while knowing your life may depend on the mood of someone else is quite hard, even more so when you know that anything wrong you say could end up being your death sentence without even a chance to fight back.
It was the second time today that I faced this feeling.
Obviously, the first time was when dealing with the event, more especifically, Melissa and the extremely overpowered army she fields. Since most of the people in her army have a higher level than what's been documented and confirmed on Earth, I was absolutely sure my life would end in a second if I made any mistake.
Still, I think I did well given the cards I could play. If I tried to brawl with her, I'd be less than dust by now, so just by leaving her presence alive, and even managing to place myself as someone she should keep alive, even if momentary, is already quite the good play if I say so myself.
Though, now that I left all of that behind for today, I can finally be in peace inside my own Kingdom, where there is no harm in sight and I can organize my thoughts while also coming up with the next steps going forward. I mean, I'd be extremely glad if that were the case, but the situation right now is quite far from this dream-like scenario.
Right now, I have two of my closest allies right in front of me. One of them is a calm and collected girl, Licia, who is usually quite caring and mindful of me. You could say I left this girl hanging for a few hours without any explanation.
But not to fret, there's also Claire, someone who I've been doing my best to nurture a good relationship, much like with Licia. We've begun to trust each other through our sincerity, and I can already tell that she's someone who is proud and is not afraid to say what's in her mind. Of course, I also left her hanging for a few hours.
From their perspective, I just simply sent them away, told them everything would be fine, then disappeared, without ever allowing them to know what was happening. All of that while exploring a potentially life-threatening land of which neither they nor I knew anything about, except for the small fact that a war was going on right then and there.
So yeah, I can understand the mix of emotions they are showing right now. But...
Licia: "Is everything alright? What happened? Why didn't you let us join?"
Claire: "You better have a good explanation for this, Miwen. Because I feel like we were in agreement that if anything happened you'd call us to your side, so what, it took you this long to traverse the snow?"
There was nothing that could be done about that. If I allowed them to join my side, I'd be putting their lives at risk, alongside mine.
The threat I represented couldn't be lower in Melissa's eye, but if I suddenly brought allies from out of nowhere, then I have no doubts Melissa would reassess her evaluation. And even though I'd have no more people to bring, the moment she thinks I'm capable of posing an actual threat would be the moment I die. Same as Licia when she was first summoned, I only survived thanks to my weakness, shamefully as it may be.
Even though I want them to be free and make their own decisions, I'm proud of what I chose this time, I won't be apologizing for protecting them, as to me, this takes priority above all. So, after I muster up all the confidence in myself, I face these two with the facts that happened shortly after they left, hoping for their understanding.
Licia: "... If that's the case I guess there was no helping it... But you know, I've become so used to you and your Gift blowing my common sense away that I thought for sure no matter what happened you'd be able to communicate it to us."
Claire: "Hmph... I'm even madder now that I know I wouldn't even be able to help you if a fight broke out. But given the circumstances, I believe you took the best course of action, so congrats on that."
Given their initial reactions upon my showing up in the Kingdom, I thought for sure that it would be way harder for them to understand where I was coming from. As such, I was quite surprised that they were so understanding.
But I guess it makes sense given that they are veterans who've faced death multiple times throughout their lives. Upon hearing what I had to say, instantly they began to analyze the situation and what they themselves would do if they were in my place. Eventually, they reached the same conclusion I did, a fight would be futile and just spell a quick death.
The best course of action would be securing an escape route through the Kingdom menu and being attentive to any attempt at my life. The inclusion of Claire and Licia in that situation wouldn't do me any good at all, disappointing as it may be for them, it's just the truth of the matter.
Miwen: "That's not all though, upon reaching the fortress where Melissa lives, she took me directly to my prison cell and made her guards leave, where she laid bare her intentions..."
Licia: "... huh?"
Miwen: " Of course, I wasn't going to let her do as she pleased with me, so I made a different proposal to her, it took a bit of convincing, but after I showed her what kind of weapon I had in store, she became much more agreeable..."
Claire: " Of course so- w-wait a minute, y-you did what?"
Miwen: "And so, after throwing everything I had at her I decided it was a good time to leave. I think she probably sees me in a new light now, so tomorrow could go even better."
Claire: "Even I see you in a new light."
Licia: "P-please stay here tomorrow... I have a bad feeling."
Seeing their initial reaction when I explained that Melissa was the chieftess of the tribe, I knew for sure that I would forever regret not teasing them right now.
Ah, this is really bad. I've become addicted to seeing this kind of surprised reaction from them. It's not something I usually do, but these two just show the cutest faces in moments like this. It makes all the bumps Licia is throwing at my chest worth it.
Of course, I later had to rectify my statements, and even apologize for it, but overall, it's another victory for me and I feel like I'm on a roll.
To end this day, I claimed the Kingdom Points I could and decided to do some rolls in the [Mana Banners] as it is not restricted by the event. I've yet to confirm if I can truly increase my mana poll this way, like what one would experience by using magic or skills until their mana comes close to running out. But since I didn't have any reason not to do it while keeping a mana point to not suffer from mana depletion, I just went right ahead.
The result was what I expected, just a ring with not much to show for it. But this actually gave me an idea, since I have no use for them or the arrows at home, why not just give them to Melissa? Maybe she can use them for something. At the very least she would need arrows as I saw her carrying a bow, and thanks to the quiver at home, I can infinitely produce those so I can at least provide her with ammunition.
While thinking about this possibility, I decided to leave the Kingdom to quickly make some duplicate arrows, but...
[The current event type 'War' only allows the user to transfer between it and the user's Kingdom. The user access to any other place is therefore blocked until event completion.]
Wait, wait, wait. No one told me about that! How was I supposed to know this? This is important information, you can't just omit it from me!
I can't believe I managed to easily score two seemingly impossible wins, only to score my first loss against my own ability.
If this restriction applies to Claire and Licia as well it's gonna be such a headache to deal with and would make me have to rethink all my plans going forward. For now, I should try running some tests...