Chapter 347: Twelve Hundred Targets?

"You want me to do something very important for your plan?" Ophelia asked, pointing at herself in obvious disbelief.

The demon queen blinked a couple of times, losing her usual arrogant smile for a brief moment. Although she had volunteered to help Ryan since her sudden appearance in the throne room, she genuinely hadn’t expected to be taken seriously enough to be given a task of vital importance.

In her mind, Ophelia was likely just thinking about joining the group to massacre elves and humans. She envisioned her participation simply as an opportunity to show off her overwhelming combat power, unleash her darkness magic, and, as a bonus, spend more time close to the king of Kowarre. Being a centerpiece of their logistics wasn’t in her plans.

But before Ryan could detail exactly what that job entailed, a sudden shout broke the serious atmosphere.

"Wow, this place is so huge!" Helen shouted, completely and shamelessly interrupting the strategic meeting.

The swordswoman took a quick step to the side and placed her hands directly on the elf Irina’s shoulders.

"Come on, let’s go explore the surroundings together. Let’s go, let’s go," Helen said with an almost childish insistence. She gently pushed Irina into the distance, and although the swordswoman was clearly holding back, her physical strength was more than enough to force the elf to stumble forward against her will.

"Huh? What are you doing? Our king is about to say something very important about the attack. Wait, Helen, let go of me, don’t be so pushy," Irina grumbled, trying to adjust her posture and dig her boots into the grass to resist the push.

But Helen completely ignored the elf’s complaints and pushed even harder, forcing her to break the military formation they had maintained in front of Ryan.

"Come on, come on, stop complaining so much and walk," Helen insisted, dragging her toward the artificial mountains in the distance.

"I think that’s a good idea. The area is very large, so I’ll go check the perimeter too," Karol suddenly said. The young mage turned to follow them, but before walking away, she shot a sharp sideways glance at Ophelia, making her antipathy toward the white-haired guest perfectly clear.

Seeing this, Mirian also stepped forward and jogged in silence to join the deserting group, abandoning the meeting without asking for permission.

Ophelia remained completely silent at the warriors’ sudden and immature behavior, crossing her arms as she watched them walk away across the meadow.

Ryan, for his part, frowned deeply, feeling a vein throb in his temple at the lack of discipline.

He immediately noticed Helen’s obvious evasive tactic. Clearly, what the swordswoman intended with that poor performance was to escape and skip whatever detailed, boring tactical plan Ryan had in mind.

She definitely wasn’t the type of person who liked memorizing strategies, positions, or execution timings; Helen just wanted to be pointed at whoever she needed to cut to pieces.

However, although shirking responsibilities was typical of her, what Ryan absolutely didn’t expect was for the calculating Karol and the mischievous Mirian to join them in that silent mutiny so quickly.

But the real reason behind this sudden group desertion became painfully logical to Ryan’s mind in a matter of seconds.

’They’re just jealous, dear master,’ Lise’s velvety, amused voice echoed directly in his head through the strong mental link they shared.

The dragon maid, who had stayed on the sidelines near the portal, confirmed the suspicions Ryan was already formulating. The girls simply didn’t like the idea of standing around listening to Ryan plan secret operations alongside the woman who had snuck into his bed the night before.

’Yes, I thought as much,’ Ryan immediately replied through their telepathic connection, keeping his face inscrutable in front of the others. ’Lise, go with them immediately. If anything strange comes up in the surroundings or if they try to destroy this place, let me know instantly.’

’As you command, my dear master,’ Lise nodded in his mind.

The beautiful dragoness gave a slight bow in Ryan’s direction and withdrew immediately. In the blink of an eye, Lise’s body dissolved into the air, disappearing into a swift, silent whirlwind that shot off toward where the other girls were walking.

"What was all that?" Chloe asked, genuinely confused to see half the assault group simply wander off for a stroll in the middle of a briefing before an invasion.

"Those women simply don’t like to take anything seriously. The level of immaturity they display is unbelievable," Beatrice stated, crossing her arms and tapping her foot against the ground.

The beautiful infernal watched with deep military disapproval as her companions’ figures grew smaller and smaller in the distance across the meadow.

"Don’t worry about this setback, Your Majesty. I will personally make sure they all understand and memorize the plan later," Alicia intervened, taking a step forward.

The beastwoman straightened her back and twitched her ears firmly, displaying her usual strict sense of responsibility as Ryan’s personal assistant and tactical leader. "So don’t worry about their absence right now. You can be completely sure that I’ll make them understand by force if necessary."

Ryan nodded, internally thankful for the wolf’s existence in his chaotic army.

’If only the rest of the girls would learn a bit more from Alicia’s attitude. Will she and Beatrice always be the only ones responsible for keeping the whole group in order?’ Ryan wondered with a slight touch of mental fatigue.

With that thought, the human fixed his cold green eyes on Chloe for a long second, looking at her with some uncertainty and evaluating her level of loyalty and maturity.

The former church knight, feeling suddenly scrutinized by her king’s piercing gaze, blushed immediately and looked away toward the ground, nervously playing with the hem of her clothes.

’I hope you won’t follow that bad example in the future, Chloe,’ Ryan thought to himself, deciding to trust the military training she already possessed.

And with that in mind, he turned back to face Ophelia to pick up the thread of their conversation before the absurd interruption.

"It seems they really hate me. I wonder why that could be," Ophelia wondered aloud very thoughtfully, feigning total innocence as she looked in the direction the five girls had gone. A mocking, venom-laced smile danced on the demon queen’s lips.

’I’d better not respond to that at all,’ Ryan thought, knowing Ophelia was just looking to provoke a reaction.

Then, he made a loud sound from his throat to clear it. The dry cough resonated in the silent air of the artificial valley and served perfectly to draw back the attention of the warriors who still remained in front of him.

Chloe, Beatrice, Alicia, and Ophelia herself looked at him closely, waiting for his words.

"Let’s continue with what’s important," Ryan said, resuming his posture as absolute leader. "What I need you to do specifically for this plan, Ophelia, is to prepare a teleportation relic. I don’t care about the physical size of the object itself, but it must be a magical artifact capable of forcing a spatial jump over a very large area, encompassing up to twelve hundred people at once in a single attempt."

Hearing the exact number and the scale of the spatial jump, Ophelia’s mocking smile completely vanished from her face.

"Twelve hundred simultaneous targets?" Ophelia repeated, her eyes widening as she lost all trace of her usual composure. "But that’s complete madness, Ryan. Do you even understand the difficulty involved in moving that many people? That will be a colossal drain on mana, and you’re asking for it in a single artifact?" she questioned, truly surprised by the project’s unreal ambition. "Don’t you think that’s wildly disproportionate?"

Ophelia paused briefly.

"We only plan to bring Priscilla and her guardians here, right? So why are you suddenly planning this assuming twelve hundred people?"