Chapter 225

Chapter 225. The girl I met after a long time seemed somehow different.

Anyway, without even having time to mourn the Overseer’s death, we quickly finished repairing and recovering our ships.

With our superhumans, we immediately plunged into the ninth battle.

By the way, before moving to engage in battle, close combat specialists Ignis, Partia, and Smeragi…

“So, we just have to protect the ship now?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Well, duh, by now, neither side should have any ships capable of boarding through close assault.”

“Then we just need to assign one person to each major ship.”

As Smeragi calmly said, unless the enemies, who had lost their minds, brought out the so-called ‘Assault Landing Ship (Large)’—a pick even considered a variety show in gacha—there was practically no chance for close combat superhumans to go wild in the current situation. So, each of them chose to defend Hreðsvelgr, the light aircraft carrier, and one cruiser battleship.

However, since all three were the type who didn’t care what they got, it took even longer for them to choose, creating quite a spectacle…

With only a few minutes left before the battle, I couldn’t stand the chaos and decided to just assign them randomly.

And the result.

Smeragi got Cruiser Battleship No. 2.

Partia got the relatively less defended light aircraft carrier.

Ignis took a position on Hreðsvelgr, acting as a sort of imperial guard.

As for the other superhumans,

Belial was on Hreðsvelgr for command buffs.

Marian, who could handle anything, chose Cruiser Battleship No. 1, which was most similar to her original flagship.

As for Gryanarr, I had mentioned him before, and just earlier as well.

He was enjoying a fun and exciting tentacle-time (?) with Oxianor in the bio-research lab somewhere inside Kraken.

Anyway, with the superhumans all assigned,

I opened the chat room as soon as I entered the battle map, as always…

—————————————-

-[Do you know how much I’m losing because of you?](Betelgeuse)

-[Hmm? I don’t know what you’re talking about](Arcadia)

-[LOLOLOLOLOL]

-[This is hilarious]

-[I thought we’d win easily with two top rankers on the team, but they’re just fighting each other, damn it]

-[Enjoy the game]

—————————————-

For some reason, the team chat was a complete mess from the start.

‘Please, don’t start team-killing each other now, of all times.’

If I hadn’t been on a winning streak, maybe it would’ve been different.

But since I had been continuously winning, I wasn’t about to give up on my glorious 9-win streak.

I was about to ask in the chat what they were fighting about.

But just then, the nicknames of the two people fighting in the chat caught my eye.

‘…Wait, this is the fourth time I’ve met Arcadia, but is that the Loki Clan leader here?’

And it seemed the two growling at each other in the chat noticed too.

As I was deleting the question I was about to type, they quickly started acting familiar with me.

—————————————-

-[Hey Icarus, been seeing you a lot lately](Arcadia)

-[Hey hey, I owe you big time from last time, right?](Betelgeuse)

-[Excuse me, Betelgeuse? Who do you think you are to speak so casually to others?](Arcadia)

-[If you’re going to nitpick, didn’t you start off speaking casually too?](Betelgeuse)

-[Umm… well, that’s](Arcadia)

-[Classy](Betelgeuse)

—————————————-

Right after they acted all chummy, they immediately started bickering again.

I told them to stop fighting in the chat and take it to ship comms, and after kicking them out, I decided to ask in the chat.

—————————————-

-[I just got here and don’t know what’s going on, why are they like that?](Me)

-[It’s nothing]

-[Everyone knows Justice and Loki have a terrible relationship]

-[They just happened to meet and decided to duke it out, I guess?]

—————————————-

“Hmm.”

“Looks like some kind of faction dispute issue.”

According to what other users in the chat are saying, if I leave those two alone, they might start fighting right away.

—

[But since you’re here, you can mediate between them now.]

[Your rank is higher than both of them, so figure something out.]

[What?] (Me)

—

And then they started whining at me, who just arrived and hasn’t even grasped the situation yet, to solve the fight.

‘Ugh, can’t even deny it because they’re not wrong.’

Of course, I’m human too, so compared to Betelgeuse, who I once barely managed to repel after they invaded, my heart naturally leans more toward Arcadia, who I’ve fought alongside until now.

But the problem is, I only have six ships left, and all of them are large ships. Meanwhile, Arcadia has three cruiser battleships, two light cruisers, and three destroyers, probably because they handled close combat for me on the way here.

On the other hand, somehow, Betelgeuse has five battleships and dozens of other ships.

“It’s fascinating, they don’t have a single cruiser battleship.”

“How on earth did they preserve all that?”

—

Except for Betelgeuse, the rest of our allies have only one or two ships below cruiser class, or in my case, none at all. So, right now, Betelgeuse is the only one who can provide us with proper escort ships.

It’s such a headache, and I was wondering how to solve this, but…

That thought didn’t last long.

Marian, who heard about the situation from Jessica, immediately called me directly to express her sympathy.

—

-“Oppa, I heard some commanders are causing trouble, right?”

“You found out fast, yeah, that’s the situation.”

—

Of course, since Marian is from this world, I tried to give her a rough explanation while continuing to ponder, but…

When I briefly explained the situation, Marian just shrugged it off like it was no big deal.

—

-“It’s simple, there’s still a few hours before any ‘battle’ starts here, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

-“Just scold them like you did before, and it’ll be over, no?”

“Hmm.”

-“That Arcadia commander is totally smitten with you, and Betelgeuse, that pink-haired one, won’t cause any trouble as long as I’m around.”

“…Huh?”

—

‘The Arcadia thing makes sense, but something feels off about Betelgeuse.’

But Marian’s confidence was overwhelming.

—

“Commander, if Marian is this confident, why not give it a try?”

“I agree with that opinion, Commander.”

“Is that what everyone thinks?”

—

Even Jessica and Ignis, who were watching the situation, agreed with Marian’s opinion.

I nodded at their words and decided to boldly open the chat window I had closed earlier and make a declaration.

—

-[Alright, I’m going to mediate between those two now.] (Me)

-[5252 I knew I could count on you]

-[LOL]

-[Hurry up and shoot the reconciliation beam]

-[After this event, you’re gonna get torn apart by two giant clans]

—