Later, Aidis participation was both quickly and easily decided on.By that, I mean that Rokuko returned and told me shed be participating.

Which is why were going to have a strong helper.

Uh huh.

Well. I definitely didnt expect a Demon King Faction core like Aidi to come to our aid.

Theres many things I cant show her actually, no, I was already intending to hide all of my trump cards from Haku-san anyway, so nothings really changed.

Rather, the hecks going on with her helping out? I thought this was turning into some freak proxy war between Haku-sans faction and the Demon King Faction.

You know, thats not even the most surprising part. I mean, Core No. 8-samaoh, thats the leader of the Beast King Faction, the DP Rankings 10th position, the Beast King, okay?

That

Beast King bowed his head and told Haku Ane-sama [Please take care of No. 629], it caused such an uproar.

Heeh. Beast King Faction, so the leader of the faction that Orange belonged to?

Exactly, nkyuu~. For Core No. 8-sama to lower himself for my sake, nkyuuu!

Oranges orange bunny tail was flapping up and down in glee. So fluffy.

I see, so the factions leader publicly lowered his head for the sake of an estranged underling. If doing that would be enough to earn himself that much loyalty, it doesnt seem like itd be that bad of a hand to play at all. Even without listening to the praising part of the story, I could tell it was about him demonstrating how open-minded he was.

Moreover, he even managed to raise a flag for Orangewho by all rights should have been alienatedto return which meant that, by returning with intelligence about Haku-san, hed effectively be a spy for them.

I couldnt be sure if I was just overthinking it or if the Beast King was acting out some master plan, but in either case, I felt as though he was an opponent I couldnt afford to let my guard down against.

Lets try and not antagonize him. Well, I doubt Id actually be able to antagonize someone in the top 10 in the first place.

But I get the feeling theres something else going on with Aidi being our ally Kehma, what do you think?

Huh? Oh, well, I definitely wasnt expecting her help, but I have no problem with it. It actually settles our offensive strategy.

Eh, really?

I was originally wanting to learn more about Core No. 564our opponentbefore deciding on our strategy, but now we can just leave that to Aidi.

Itd be better if we provided a bit extra for it as well, but keeping it to a modest level would be best.

Yep, there wont be an issue unless Aidi betrays us and attacks us.

I see So youre saying that its better to let Aidi go fully on the offense so that she has no part in our defense. I dont think she would since she pledged to Father-sama, but she could keep the momentum going and turn on us after everythings decided Taking that into account, theres no choice but to have her attack.

Rokuko smoothly figured out my reasoning on how to make use of Aidi.

Yeah. Shes gotten pretty smart, seriously.

I was originally thinking about somehow instigating Wataru into it, but now that its come to this, itd probably be better to just have him focus on defense.

Thinking about that, Aidis participation is actually a good thing, isnt it.

All thats left is using Meat and Ichika, though it might be better to just leave all that to Aidi?

Kehma, Kehma. What should I do?

Orange, butter up all the adventurers coming to the dungeon.

I left the customer service portion to Orange, who had been listening in silently the whole time.

As for the dungeon, after Rokuko and he had gone to the assembly, Id gone back to disseminate the acknowledgement that this dungeon was for the sake of loving on rabbits. There were a few uncertain issues, but the dungeon didnt seem to be in danger for the time being.

Strawberry, the rabbits, as well as Meat and Ichika were all controlling the white rabbits at the moment, doing their best to charm the second search team. (It seemed like Misha had put some word out about it)

Got it, nkyuu. Ill show kyuu I could even charm a succubus!

And now Ill be moving on to doing what I couldnt do while you were absent.

Y-Yeah. I shouldve told kyuu about it sooner, but I thought Rokuko told kyuu already.

Well, normally thats the sort of thing a Master and Core would discuss with each other, after all. Theres no helping that Orange thought it was something he didnt need to tell me.

Please tell me around a week before the time comes next year, alright?

Oh, sure, Ill try to say something if I dont forget.

Looks like she wont tell me next year, either.

I sighed.

By the way, did anything else happen at the assembly?

Oh yeah, I got a lot of attention from having that Dungeon Battle with Haku Ane-sama last year. Oh, my rank went up too! Im 182nd! Aidi was 175th, so I think I might catch up to her next year. I could even outpace her! Weve really done great, Kehma. Hohoh~

Rokuko rubbed her finger across the bottom of her nose in boastful pride.

I couldnt really tell how good of a thing it was to raise in rank, but its probably better than I thought it was.

That so? Thats good, then How about you, Orange?

I was 290th, nkyuu. Went up ten ranks since last year~

So Orange was overtaken by Rokuko and I in that one year Well, our earnings still have a huge way to go to get to where Ontentoo and Haku-san are.

By the way, whats Core No. 564s rank?

167th. They had a few million DP.

Thats a pretty strong opponent

About what wed expect of a 500 series Demon King Faction core. But hes basically sentenced to death by Core No. 6. And you know what happened then? Aidi riled him up and he undid his humanization and returned into this baphomet? Thing.

Hoh, baphomet?

Thats some important information. If we can figure out our opponents true form, we should be able to form a meta (that is, take special measures). Still though, the heck was a baphomet, again? Some kind of goat-headed demon, I think what kind of weak points would it have?

Maybe I should ask Haku-san or Aidiif I have to

Are there any special victory conditions for the Dungeon Battle?

None. Its the usual win by touching the Dungeon Core. Aidi said that she might just go and destroy it though.

I dont doubt that.

But isnt this basically a three on one? Im starting to feel sorry for No. 564. Even if its three of us 600 series cores against a single 500 series, I cant see this as balanced.

Hmm. It I recall, theres around a hundred year gap between every hundred cores.

Taking that into account, its hard to tell if even this three-against-one is even and even then that doesnt factor in whether they have a master or not.

Case in point, that trivial trioall also 600 series coreshad no masters and were treated as a single team.

I wonder if Aidi knows whether Core No. 564 has a master or not

She might? Shes Core No.6s favorite, after all.

Yeah, lets have Aidi get us some information.

I guess all thats left is to prepare our defenses until the time comes?