Something Bigger Than a Whale
“The current state of the kingdoms, you say?”
“Yes. Something's been on my mind lately.”
I had arrived at the Academy and found Yena wandering the grounds. She tilted her head, puzzled.
“Don't tell me you're planning another conquest?”
“Heavens, no.”
As Rafina, I had genuinely grown curious about the state of affairs among the various kingdoms. After all, running my bandit raids had made it necessary to scope out the Avis Kingdom, where Crazy Bitch was based, along with the neighboring realms.
And quite apart from that, there was another reason I needed to know what the kingdoms were up to.
“The Great Cataclysm is coming, isn't it?”
Honestly, rather than worrying about empires and kingdoms and all the rest of it, the thing to fret over was the Kraken that would be arriving any day now. A storm unlike anything Sgaredo ever whipped up was about to descend on us all.
“Hmm… sure, why not! As it happens, I've had something kingdom-related I've been meaning to talk about.”
“Then shall we move somewhere and—”
“I'd rather not just talk about it for free.”
“? What would you like?”
I was more than willing to pay for the information, but I hadn't expected Yena to actually ask. Normally I was the one looking out for her, and since she'd been learning plenty at the Academy anyway, she never demanded anything in return.
Yena waved her head vigorously with an aww, come on! shake.
“Not that. What do you take me for, some kind of money demon?”
“Isn't that exactly what you are?”
“No, no. Let's do a collab — it's been ages. A Kingdom Symposium.”
“A... symposium?”
■
It had been quite a while since my last collab with Yena. We used to pair up all the time in the early days, but lately I'd been collaborating either with other people or with whole groups at once.
The next day, I received an invitation to Yena's castle. I'd visited once before, and it was nowhere near as modest as her reputation suggested.
At this size, wasn't it practically a viscount's domain at minimum — castle and all?
“It's gotten even bigger since last time?”
“Bigger, sure, but there's not much substance behind it.”
“Aren't you basically royalty at this point? Last I knew, you weren't under any kingdom.”
“Ah, it's a little different. The -Ye- Guild doesn't have many residents.”
Yena's guild was the one that had toppled a royal house in the past and seized a castle and its territory for themselves. They later landed on the kingdoms' blacklist and saw their influence dwindle to almost nothing, but they had been formally recognized by the kingdom of that era as an independent entity.
They just never got to be a proper kingdom.
“Why not?”
“Because it wasn't the official route. We were strong-armed into an agreement, technically, so on paper we're still technically under a kingdom.”
Yena gave an awkward smile and led me inside.
“Honestly, we've grown a bit since the siege warfare, but we're actually pulling in less than before… It's all because the kingdoms are in chaos. I'll get into that later.”
“Of course.”
Following her along, we arrived at something resembling a Setting Room. It wasn't built through a network system the way mine was, but it was a decently convincing setup all the same.
In the center of the room stood a map of the continent, and along the back wall sat an array of tools for coloring in the various territories, along with a collection of marker pieces.
“Did you put this together in a day?”
“Not in a day. I built it when I was planning content, so I just made a few tweaks and set it up.”
Yena took the seat that framed best on camera, then plucked a figure from the back of the board and placed it on the southern continent. A two-heads-tall figure striking a pose with a green dagger in hand — identical in shape to the Yena character emote.
“Come to think of it, I should start rounding out the Masterpieces soon.”
“...Pardon?”
“The Cataclysm's nearly here. It'd be nice to have at least one weapon beyond the Mythic tier.”
The White Savior was perfectly serviceable, but its strengths lay in its spear-to-hammer transformation and its capacity to hold divinity in full — it had no special abilities to speak of otherwise.
I had already collected all seven Masterpieces save the black one, so acquiring a single more would complete the Masterpiece quest. And the last remaining one was held by someone I knew quite well.
Yena, who had borrowed the Green Hermit, swallowed hard.
“Lily?”
“It'd be nice to get it from Vlack, but that's his main weapon… I doubt I can get it easily.”
“...W-well, yeah! That sword was made to fit him.”
Vlack's Black Destroyer was commissioned directly from Drak, the blacksmith of Talikal. Recognized in its day as the weapon of the chosen wielder, it was a blade forged for Vlack and Vlack alone. Unless you had something extraordinary to offer, he would never hand it over.
“Which kingdom is Vlack's, by the way? I know he's Black Moon Guild, but not where.”
“Ostarun… You're not thinking of declaring a guild war, are you?”
“Please. What do you take me for?”
I don't do things like that.
Granted, as Rafina I could probably shake something loose out of him within the bounds of acting in self-defense — but I had no intention of manufacturing a pretext just to walk off with a sword. Vlack was the man who'd invited me to the Mock Siege Battle and given me both entertainment and information about Talikal. If I truly wanted his blade, I'd offer something far more valuable in return.
“Anyway — this is my character, right?”
“Yep.”
I took my own two-heads-tall figure from the back of the board and set it down on the northern continent. Blue hair, pristine white holy-maiden robes, spear in hand.
As I fiddled with the oddly satisfying little figurine, Yena asked:
“What's the stream title going to be?”
“I just put down 'Collab.' What about you?”
“Mine is: A Symposium with Lily (Serious and Formal).”
“Oho.”
Serious and formal, is it? Then I suppose I should match the tone.
“Hello, everyo—”
“Hiiii, boys~ It's been forever, but today I'm doing a collab with Lily. A full Kingdom Symposium!”
“...Weren't we doing this seriously?”
“Oh come on, the opening's supposed to be fun at least.”
Yena snickered and smoothly slid her figure across the map. Yena's little figurine marched toward Yena's own kingdom.
“Yes. It felt like something I needed to do, all of a sudden. The Cataclysm's closing in, after all.”
“Exactly! Which is precisely why I prepared this symposium for today!”
Yena nodded, then produced a long pointer stick. I turned my eyes to the map, following the stick as it moved.
The powers dividing the continent could be sorted into roughly four categories.
The first was the Empire, which had swallowed up the Central Continent and the surrounding lands. The Empire was the continent's champion, wielding the greatest strength and the largest territory — though after its recent failure, it had settled into a somewhat quieter posture.
“The Empire is… well, you all know it, right?”
Yena nodded along like a professor, her gaze flicking between the chat and me.
“That's right. The Empire is the strongest nation on the continent. They did lose to King Lily sitting right next to me here, but they remain a powerful collective. Never underestimate them.”
“True. I'll have to pay them a visit before long, anyway.”
“Sorry?”
“Mm.”
“...Sorry?”
“I just have some things to discuss with them. Don't mind me.”
“...I feel like I very much should mind.”
The second power was the Eden Federation, the kingdom alliance stretching in a long line across the north. A union of northern kingdoms, and the home of Deoen's Rank 1 guild, the Angel Guild — the very same allies who had fought beside me to repel the Empire's war during the siege.
“The Angel Guild… hmm. I have no particular connection to them myself, but among the kingdom alliances, they're the collective that comes closest to being an actual 'federation.' You know them well, right, Lily?”
“Of course. We fought together during the siege.”
The name left something to be desired, but they were a genuinely decent bunch.
Yena picked up the angel figure stationed on the northern continent.
“As you all know, they're Deoen's strongest guild — the only alliance besides Lily rated as capable of standing up to the Empire. Of course, if they truly clashed head-on, they'd lose.”
“Their skills are nothing to scoff at, though.”
They'd needed numbers to do it, but they had even held off Tu-hyeol-gong, one of the Eight Swords. I'd noticed they hadn't applied to the Academy — if the chance ever came, it wouldn't be a bad idea to teach them a thing or two myself.
The third power occupied the west: a kingdom alliance where Vlack and numerous other large guilds had banded together. Compared to the Eden Federation, they could hardly be called a unified bloc — but they knew each other's faces and maintained their own sort of exchange.
“'Used to' being the key phrase. Things have gotten rather frosty over there lately.”
“Gasp.”
“Lily, why are YOU gasping?”
“Felt like the appropriate moment.”
Wasn't that the perfect time for a gasp?
“No, no, hold on a second. I didn't say anything untrue! Everyone's like that these days! ALL of them! Honestly, the whole reason for this symposium is—”
Yena shot up from her seat as if having a fit. Then she shoved all the various figures stationed across the western territories into a single spot. The figurines squirmed and jostled for standing room, and one by one, they toppled over.
“You boys know this — and Lily's fans too, I'm sure. These days everything comes with a tax slapped on it, plus travel fees. You feel it too, right, Lily?”
“Hmm… well, I have noticed it, actually.”
Even from my position — where I truly did only the barest sliver of the work — the state of the economy these days was undeniably dire. Elbritte was in a special situation of its own, so we hadn't been hit too hard, but still.
“'If the kingdoms keep going down this road, will they really be okay?' — honestly, THAT is the true topic of today's symposium. All right. Lily, your statement, please.”
“Hmm…”
The economy was skyrocketing out of control. The whales calling themselves great powers eyed each other warily across the water, while ordinary residents and players — the shrimp of this ocean — were getting their backs blown open.
If there was a solution, then…
“Something bigger than a whale.”
“Sorry?”
“We just need to open a water park.”
After all, if a tsunami swept over everything once, surely all that talk of checks and balances would wash away with it.