Preparation, Plan, Control? Overwhelmingly Anxious
"Finally!"
In the bunker where my sense of time had grown hazy as always, I had finally wrapped up everything related to the new features added to the gallery.
Empire representative Valerian, elf representative WorldTreeGuardian, and the five dwarf guild masters. Finally, all the racial leaders could now use the chatrooms and notice features.
Guild masters? I'd heard the term before, but I had no idea what kind of nation they ran. Time to ask the expert, as always.
"SoraSora? Why do the dwarves have guild masters leading the nation?"
Based on the gallery posts, when the great catastrophe began, the dwarf king realized his own lack of governing ability. He selected representatives from the five most prominent professions and transferred power to them for national policy decisions. The five are miners, blacksmiths, brewers and sellers, warriors, and farmers. Currently, they serve as guild masters for their respective professions and have endured the catastrophe quite admirably.
"Lacking ability, so he handed power to other... dwarves?"
Impressive. Even someone without greed for power would feel regret letting go of authority held since birth. But the current dwarf king tossed it away without a hint of reluctance.
Was he just born to be a king?
Yes. He's now fully devoted to blacksmithing, where he can best showcase his talents. The hero's sword was personally forged by the dwarf king himself.
"Thanks for letting me know, SoraSora."
You're welcome. Call me anytime you need.
So he was a natural blacksmith. Maybe he needed an excuse to step down as king. Even so, the fact that he let it go remains unchanged. I figured he must be a king of fine character.
Putting together the info I'd gathered so far...
"So elves have something like an aristocratic council led by elders, the empire is a monarchy... and dwarves are a guild nation?"
I knew they were all different somewhere, but "guild nation" fit too well with guild masters leading—I couldn't let go of the term. It just sounded cool. Guild nation.
I wiped a bit of drool, scarfed down some pizza, and turned my excited gaze back to the now-calmed gallery.
Posts that caught my eye everywhere. First, who did I make cry and how? I clicked the top one.
Moderator Made My Daughter Cry 3 Times
Maybe it's because she's grown up under incompetent parents who couldn't give her what she wanted even once.
Our daughter, already too mature for her young age, always showed only grown-up sides (girl helping with farm meme)
But when she ate the food Moderator sells, she became a kid her age.
First was jam on bread. She cried so heartbreakingly (girl bawling with bread in mouth meme)
I ate bread too and ended up hugging her and sobbing together.
Second was chicken. Felt so bad about her crying over jam bread, so I worked like mad and saved money in advance. Figured something new would come eventually.
Thanks to that, I could buy it right away when it dropped. She bit into the drumstick, looked at me, and burst into tears (girl bawling with drumstick in mouth meme)
Third was pizza. Worked my ass off this month, managed okay finances, bought it right away (girl sobbing while eating pizza meme)
I didn't know our daughter had so many tears. Realized I'm a truly incompetent parent.
From now on, rest once a month, twice every two months, work hard.
So I can make her cry again (man walking to mountains with basket meme)
Moderator, thank you. Thanks to you, I can finally see our daughter happy.
Recommends: +9999 | Disrecommends: 0
Please, god, no gallery masterpiece writing contest.
After making some kid somewhere who'd been living well cry four more times with her tear glands, I checked other posts.
The experiment one that jumped out right when I opened the gallery. I needed to know progress too.
What Experiment on a Whole Forest?
Mage prepping for this experiment.
Gathered a ton of mages, thought what gives? Then they isolate a forest full of plant-type magic beasts, gather all us illegals to burn 'em if they go out of control (huge creepy wriggling forest meme)
Then launch those fertilizer bags with magic, hover 'em in air and scatter—that's experiment start (pile of fertilizer bags meme)
After, saintess herself coming with clerics to purify corruption.
Even planned hero's path for any contingency before starting.
What the hell is that stuff to mobilize empire's full might? No clue, but it must do something huge.
Any galler knowing exactly what it is?
Recommends: 2933 | Disrecommends: 339
A post overflowing with incredibly uneasy vibes. Preparation, plan, control? Three words that absolutely wouldn't go as intended coexisting.
Not even room for jokes like negative times negative is positive—the anxiety existed cleanly as an odd number.
"Sora. What do you think of this post?"
Time to get her take.
They seem to have done everything possible. Excluding the unpredictable efficacy of the fertilizer, all elements appear under control.
"Hm..."
Even after asking Sora, the unease wouldn't fade.
The biggest issue was, as expected, how greedily the plant-type magic beasts would absorb the fertilizer.
I decided to prep items for the worst-case scenario in advance.