Chapter 65: Deciding the Match Stage

My mind was panicking over the fact that the older sister doing the live commentary for the ‘Inter-School Match Bifrost’ was Yoshino-sama, the younger sister of ‘our Academy’s’ Principal and the daughter of the Duchy’s First Sovereign King.

Eh, why is everyone acting normal? Yoshino-sama’s face is somewhat known, right? I’m pretty sure I heard she does concert tours and stuff.

Feeling bewildered, I stared intently at Yoshino-sama and noticed a strange flow of magic power.

It’s from the jeweled badge on her collar. The magic power flowing there is transmuting and thinly covering Yoshino-sama’s entire body. Don’t tell me that’s a magic tool that changes one’s appearance?

Perhaps it doesn’t work on people whose magic resistance value is high to a certain degree.

Because I was thoroughly trained by Master not to fall for illusions, hypnosis, and the like. I was thrown into the nests of magic beasts and such that use fascination-type magic. That was enough to make my head go crazy…

She’s a famous person, so I can somewhat understand her using a magic tool that changes her appearance. What I don’t understand is, why is she a live commentator?

『Now, let us first receive opening words from the ‘School’ Principal and the ‘Academy’ Principal!』

『Umm, in holding the ‘Inter-School Match Bifrost’ like this again this year, to deepen the friendship between both schools…』

While the ‘School’ Principal stood in front of the microphone and talked at length about something I didn’t understand, Principal Quun, with a nonchalant face, was whispering something sneakily with Yoshino-sama. Ah, she looked this way. Is she laughing?

Following the ‘School’ Principal’s speech, the ‘Academy’ Principal also stood before the microphone and finished the opening greetings smoothly. I wasn’t listening at all.

And next is the athlete’s oath. The rank number one students from both schools, that is, Zelda Onee-sama and Kou Shirogane, step forward.

『Oath! We, the representatives of both schools, swear to fully display the results of our daily training, aim for victory together with our comrades, and fight fair and square to the end!』

Loud applause is sent from the spectator seats to their oath. Zelda Onee-sama and Kou Shirogane shake hands.

Hmm, so if you become rank number one, you have to do that… I want to be number one, but I kind of don’t want to do that…

『With this, the opening ceremony concludes. Moving on, we will announce the details for the upcoming first-year and second-year matches!』

Mu! Here it comes…!

Before the upcoming matches, the match stage and time of day are announced. Please, let it be a stage and time advantageous to us. Just spare me from ‘Night’ especially…! Also spare me from hard-to-move places like wetlands or sandy beaches.

『Now, for the announcement! Please look at the monitor!』

At Yoshino-sama’s words, we turned around and focused on the large monitor on the stage.

■ First Years: Mountain Stage : Twilight (Evening)

■ Second Years: Desert Stage : Morning

Twilight?! Mountain stage is fine, but twilight… Magic Hour!

Twilight (Evening) means it’s the time period from sunset to night…

It’s good that it wasn’t completely night, but it’s going to be night in the latter half…

No, let’s think positively. In the first half where searching is necessary, it’s bright so it’s fine, and in the latter half where searching isn’t as important, it’s not a problem if I glow, if I think about it that way… If the match doesn’t drag on, the risk isn’t that high? At worst, I’ll have to give up on covert actions, though.

I originally don’t like running and hiding anyway. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

“Mountain stage… might be a bit troublesome.”

“Troublesome, how?”

Because I was turned around, Pearl, who was behind me, muttered that. Not knowing what was troublesome about a Mountain stage, I involuntarily asked.

“A Mountain stage, as the name suggests, is a stage with a high mountain range towering in the center. Therefore, the invasion routes are narrowed down to a few.”

Hmm…? …Ah, it means the courses for attacking are limited. Though you could also say they’re easy to defend.

It seems like a stage where how to attack will be the key point…

“But Lucifer can fly, right?”

A mountain is just a single jump. Well, it’s more like gliding than flying, though. Though it’s flying while jumping up before falling to maintain altitude.

“Can Lucifer jump into enemy territory alone and remain unharmed?”

“Mu…”

Being told that, it might be tough. If they also had flying machines, they would definitely go to crush me. I’d certainly be targeted.

“If they have a Custom Frame that can transform into a flying machine capable of constant flight, it’s a different story, but…”

A flying machine, huh. Just being able to fly is a considerable advantage, isn’t it.

As far as we investigated beforehand, there shouldn’t be any such machines on their side either, but…

Our information on the enemies is strictly information from the time of the [Star Duels].

There is a possibility that the machines they tuned for the ‘Inter-School Match Bifrost’ have completely changed.

Our machines have also undergone significant changes.

Even so, doing a full custom to turn it into a flying machine in this short period is, as expected, impossible, I think. Even if they could, wouldn’t it just be a defective machine without proper adjustments?

『Now, after a thirty-minute meeting, the ‘Inter-School Match Bifrost’ will begin! Everyone, please look forward to the exploits of the young heroes!』

A rain of applause poured down from the spectator seats again. The third, fourth, and fifth years left the stage, and we first-years and second-years who are having matches returned to our respective waiting rooms.

Now then, shall we have a strategy meeting?

◇ ◇ ◇

“A mountain stage, we hit something subtle again…”

Carrol muttered as if lamenting her lack of luck while looking at the map of the mountain stage projected on the waiting room monitor. Or rather, our luck.

On the horizontally long map, a square grid runs 6×3, and a mountain range runs diagonally through the middle of it like a袈裟斬り (diagonal slash from shoulder to hip).

There are also highways, forests, plateaus, etc. on the map, but the routes through the mountain range are three: top, middle, and bottom.

Unless you fly, you absolutely need to use these three routes to head to the enemy territory.

“Rather, the first thing is where to place the ‘Crown’.”

Carrol squeaked kyu-kyu a square on the whiteboard, and further divided it into nine 3×3 sections.

“First of all, I suppose it’s a no for those three at the front line where the mountain range runs and the invasion route highways are?”

“Yeah. Placing it to outsmart them is an option, but if one of us is defeated and the stolen map data is the ‘jackpot’, I think we’ll be subjected to an all-out attack and lose without time to recover.”

Following Koto’s words, Carrol drew X marks on the three front-line squares.

“Since there are three invasion routes and we don’t know where the opponent will come from, does this mean we have to place someone on all three as well?”

“Not necessarily. For example, we could place the ‘Crown’ in this furthest bottom left corner, and place everyone around it to protect it.”

At Rizlet’s question, Carrol drew a crown mark and several circles that were likely Frame Gears around it on the whiteboard.

Seeing that, Hatoba opened her mouth.

“But hey, that’s completely a defensive formation, right?”

“That’s right. The location of the ‘Crown’ would be exposed immediately, and we’d have to solidify our defenses quite heavily.”

How is that? It’s a very passive strategy, and to win with that, we’d have to repeatedly ‘defeat the opponents who attack’. It might be fine to go on the offensive once we know the location of the opponent’s ‘Crown’ and gain the advantage, but…

“Who was their Commander again?”

“It’s Kojuro. It seems ‘the School over there’ has their rank number one take command.”

Koto answered my doubt. Hearing that, Rizlet sulked a little. Is she still obsessed with the leader’s position?

“Koto, you’re acquaintances with that Kojuro, right?”

“Yes, well. Rather than an acquaintance, he’s my fiancé.”

“””Eh?!”””

At the sudden bombshell statement, everyone in the room froze. The teachers, who were standing by in the corner of the room without interfering in our strategy, also had surprised faces.

Fiancé?! A fiancé means an engaged partner, right?!

“Well, that doesn’t matter right now, but considering his personality, I don’t think he’ll come up with an eccentric or irregular strategy. Will they not likely attack us from all three routes?”

Ignoring our surprise, Koto drew three arrows on the border lines of the middle three sections of the whiteboard.

Muu. I have various things I want to ask her, but let’s continue the strategy meeting for now.

“In that case, we have no choice but to deploy on the three routes too, I suppose. The problem is how to distribute them…”

From there, we discussed every strategy we could think of.

As a result, we decided to place the ‘Home Base’ in the center, and the ‘Crown’ deep behind it, deploying Liseclair, the ‘Guardian’. And Lumiel, the same Titan Frame, was assigned to defend the ‘Home Base’.

We argued a little over how to deploy the remaining seven machines, but settled on a safe distribution of 2-3-2.

Koto and I will handle the North route, Carrol, Lirisha, and Pearl will handle the Middle route, and Rizlet and Hatoba will handle the South route.

“I want Nero to go ahead and grasp the opponent’s movements. Depending on that, we might send Lumiel in the rear to one of these three.”

“Understood.”

Because that’s the role of a ‘Scout’. Or rather, since the time of day is ‘Twilight (Magic Hour)’, I probably won’t be useful as a ‘Scout’ in the latter half…

Was loading ‘Phantom’ a mistake…? No, it was necessary equipment to reconnoiter the opponent’s side. I have to prove that.

Just a little more until the match starts. Enveloped in a strange sense of exhilaration, I repeatedly clenched and unclenched my hands for no reason.