The Princess is Light
"Faye, so back then that guy said that? I can't believe it!"
"..Ah, right."
Master, why has this young lady been acting like this lately? The same madwoman who used to throw tantrums and cause nothing but trouble has suddenly been behaving as if she's fallen in love these past few days. Then she'll turn around and act all gloomy, like she's just been dumped by the guy she liked. It's such a pathetic sight that even I feel like sighing.
..Master, should I just kill her? Watching the madwoman who ruined me before my regression now basking in happiness makes my mood so foul I can hardly stand it. I want to tear apart that blissful expression right this instant. The reason Master sent me back in time must have been to capture her and make her die in agony, right? Yes, of course it was. I knew it would be.
'Ah, well. She still needs a bit more of a push.'
She needs to be steeped in pain and thrash about like I once did. Right now she's just living the kind of happy days an ordinary teenage girl would enjoy, isn't she? ..Why are you trying to live such ordinary, beautiful days? After destroying and tearing apart my—no, our—entire world? This won't do. No, this absolutely won't do.
'For now, the young lady who went home isn't showing any interest, and she's no ordinary opponent, so let's take her off the target list..'
As expected, the easiest one to go after right now is that guy..
"Hey, answer me. Do you really think it's normal for a butler to act like that?"
"Uh.. Huh? Of course it's not normal?"
While lost in thought, I heard the young lady's voice and answered in surprise.
"What kind of butler goes on a date alone with the princess!!"
The young lady continued her grumbling as if that reaction was only natural. No matter how I look at it, that reaction is definitely love—the same feeling I have for Master, isn't it?
"But Violet, you know.."
"Yeah?"
The moment I called her name, she answered right away. The sight of her turning around so innocently was so disgusting that I had to suppress the urge to scowl. Instead, I put on the most mischievous expression I could manage and spoke.
"You like Sebastian, don't you? The way you talk about him makes it sound like you've been dating for years.."
"No? Of course not! Absolutely not!"
Violet waved both hands in denial, as if she was too embarrassed to admit it in front of me. It wasn't funny at all—her eyes were already overflowing with affection the moment she thought of him. For the past few days she'd been grumbling nonstop, worrying, getting jealous, and even nagging him. Watching her spit out lies was truly laughable. A child who can't even call the person she loves by that name. If I personally put an end to that clumsy, inadequate first love, that would be the best revenge I could take, wouldn't it?
Master, you think so too, don't you?
The moment I asked Master the question, the young lady spoke as if she were scolding herself for lying.
"Actually, a little.. No, not a little. I like him a lot."
Then, with an expression full of excitement, she picked up a terminal-like device with a red dot on it and added one more line.
"That's why I sometimes think.. I want to make sure he never leaves my side.. That kind of thought.."
..My mood just got even worse.
As expected, for my sake, that butler needs to die as soon as possible.
***
"Seb, what's wrong? Did something big happen?"
Chloe tilted her head and asked after I scratched my ear.
"..It's nothing."
It wasn't anything big—except for the fact that my ears were ridiculously itchy, like someone was badmouthing me behind my back. In truth, the real big deal was right in front of me.
"Huhu, how boring."
Chloe smiled, then proudly pointed at a group of soldiers standing nearby.
"Fifty elite imperial soldiers. This should be more than enough to block the path and buy us time, right?"
More than enough—it's excessive. The elite imperial soldiers are usually the ones getting diced up by world-class powerhouses, but that's only because of who they're facing. Each of these people was one out of three hundred carefully selected from the entire empire. They have the skill to chew up average mercenaries like nothing. And that's exactly how it is in reality.
The fact that she managed to gather fifty of these elite imperial soldiers—who are normally deployed in small numbers to various key locations across the empire—in such a short time..
It means the princess went through an enormous amount of trouble.
The imperial personnel assignments are structured so that every placement is closely interconnected. If you pull even one elite soldier from one place, you have to fill that spot with new personnel equivalent to another elite soldier. Moving them one by one is already difficult, yet she gathered fifty. I don't need to explain further, do I?
Honestly, I thought it would be lucky if she brought a few dozen regular soldiers..
Apparently, this princess's love for her younger sister runs deeper than I thought.
"That's more than I expected. I never thought you'd bring fifty of them.."
Chloe laughed heartily, her voice full of vigor.
"If it's for my little sister, what can't I do! I could bring a hundred—no, even two hundred!"
I wish my own sister had been like this. It's like something straight out of a fantasy novel becoming reality.. Wait, this is inside a game, so maybe it is reality? Anyway.
"Now then, everyone. The reason you've been gathered here is simple."
Watching Chloe stand in front of the elite soldiers and take command made my chest ache for some reason.
"We're going to crush Unknown, the largest drug cartel in the empire!"
Princess of Light, you really are an angel.
"This is for the safety of the empire and the stability of its people, so I ask that you all do your absolute best to carry out your assigned missions!"
Then Chloe glanced at me and gestured with her hand. So this was why she'd told me to prepare a thorough operation briefing. I never expected she'd actually make me explain the plan in front of these people..
Of course, I did say I'd explain it to the soldiers myself, but..
Who would've known they'd be elite soldiers! And fifty of them, at that—twenty would've been plenty!
I slowly stepped onto the platform and accepted the item Chloe handed me.. What is this? A microphone? They really have everything here..
"It's a tool that amplifies sound. Just bring it to your mouth and speak."
I drew a circle with my hand to signal that I understood, then brought the microphone to my mouth.
"Introductions aren't particularly important, so I'll skip them and move straight to the operation briefing."
The task for these fifty-plus elite soldiers was simpler than expected.
"We'll divide into three teams. One team will draw the enemy's attention, one team will aggressively push forward, and one team will infiltrate the center with me."
In other words: pull aggro, push through, and infiltrate. It wasn't some complicated mission—just a variation of what they'd already been doing.
"First, the distraction team has a very simple role. Launch attacks with maximum impact to draw as much of the enemy's attention as possible."
Their only job was to focus the enemy's gaze. Create enough of a disturbance that even the executives would have to pay attention and deploy forces there.
"However, small skirmishes are fine, but avoid any engagements with heavy casualties. Keep testing the waters and repeat hit-and-run tactics until we give the signal."
If we launch large-scale attacks from two places at once, they'll become wary and start preparing for attacks elsewhere as well. But—
"The aggressive team will slaughter every visible enemy as brutally as possible and steadily push into their territory, circling around to the opposite side from the infiltration team."
If a large-scale battle breaks out on only one side while the other side sees only small skirmishes, the enemy's forces will naturally concentrate on the large battle. And once that happens, their ability to respond to a third engagement will be dulled. Why? Because they'll be too busy analyzing the difference between the two fronts and adjusting their troops accordingly.
"Also, the aggressive team and the distraction team will periodically switch roles."
This was the core of the operation. By disrupting the balance of forces, we'd make the enemy focus on that imbalance. And in that gap—
"The infiltration team's role is to bring me to the center without being detected."
The infiltration team and I would go as deep as possible and neutralize Unknown—and Ankillé's 'core.'
The elite soldiers tilted their heads but seemed to accept the plan well enough. Yeah, this level of operation would be child's play for them. I could always add more details about the rotation cycle later, so there was no need to explain further.
"The teams.. will be assigned based on individual abilities. Please coordinate with the princess to take on roles that match your specialties. Thank you."
After giving a slight bow, I put down the microphone and stepped off the platform.
"As expected, your detection ability is truly top-notch."
Chloe looked at me with trust in her eyes. All the game knowledge I possessed was being attributed to some kind of detection ability that had let me find her secret bases, so whenever I brought up information, she'd light up and praise me with things like "Amazing!" This time she didn't even bother verifying and just believed me outright..
Isn't she trusting me a little too much?
She was supposed to be the cold, icy princess according to the setting, so why did I only see a doting angel of a sister now?
If even Chloe had been abnormal..
Urgh, just thinking about it was horrifying. I should be grateful that the princess was this approachable.
While I was thinking that, the princess leaned in and whispered a question.
"By the way, what exactly are you planning to do once you reach the center of the drug dealers' base? You haven't told me that part yet, have you?"
Hmm.. I thought I had. I must have forgotten.
"To put it simply, I'm going to the center to make contact with someone inside. That's why I need you—to block any stray attacks that might come flying during the process."
If Laplace's boss fight concept was 'smoke screen'—where visibility was obstructed and you had to endure attacks from a hidden enemy—then Ankillé's boss fight concept was 'loop.' After all that talk about the Demon King of Pleasure or whatever, suddenly it's loops? Even I found it ridiculous when I first saw it. I'd think I'd finally woken up, only for the same thing to happen again and again.
"I need to enter that guy's mindscape and pull him out."
The reason this bizarre boss fight existed was simple. It was because of Its Paradox—the Sleeping Prince of Starlight and the final playable character, who had been completely robbed of control over his own body by the Demon King and had sunk into an endless cycle with no end in sight.