News of a potential great flood in the South Continent was to be shared first with high-rank adventurers within the Crown.
This was because they would have to survey the entire mountain range and, should a flood occur, would be the ones to take the lead in responding.
In this case, high-rank refers to A Rank and B Rank adventurers.
High-rank adventurers active within the Central Continent understood the danger of a flood better than anyone, and therefore would not carelessly leak information.
Furthermore, only those types of members could reach high ranks.
It was not uncommon for high-rank adventurers to accept highly confidential requests, so their disappearance after accepting a request without telling anyone else was taken quite naturally.
However, even among the adventurers not invited to this investigation, there were those with sharp intuition and excellent analytical skills.
Some of these individuals had even figured out that high-rank adventurers had simultaneously accepted requests and were deploying to continents other than the Central Continent.
Even so, not a single person made a commotion about it.
It was only natural, as with high-rank adventurers moving on such a scale, it was easy to deduce what was happening.
Moreover, they could understand Crown’s reason for withholding information at this stage.
That is why they kept their mouths shut, continued their daily lives, and made sure to be prepared for when the time came.
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While some adventurers in Amamiya Tower were honing their skills.
Adventurers actually dispatched to the South Continent were continuously submitting reports.
The first information submitted came from the adventurers who had surveyed the surface of what appeared to be a group of monsters causing the flood at the foot of the mountain range.
What they learned from this was that, fortunately, the flood was not extending across the entire mountain range, but was occurring only in the north.
Additionally, they learned that it was approximately two-thirds the scale of the northern part of the mountain range.
Even so, considering the mountain range itself was large, they concluded that the scale of the flood could indeed be called a great flood, and predicted that at least several thousand monsters would appear.
Though, an accurate number could not be determined until more detailed reports arrived.
That information was relayed by Gazeran to King Kristof for the representatives of each country gathered.
“—And so, the area requiring strict caution will be up to around here.”
At this point, eight countries were expected to be directly involved in the flood.
However, that did not mean that surrounding countries were entirely uninvolved.
After all, if the monster floods could not be contained in each country, there was a high possibility of them flooding into other nations.
Seeing the representatives who showed relief at his report, Gazeran sternly warned them, causing them to visibly change their expressions.
“Why?! It has nothing to do with us! Isn’t it enough to just contain it in each country!”
Among them were representatives who made such absurd claims.
Naturally, the representative who uttered those words found themselves in an awkward position, receiving a few cold stares from those around them.
Of course, the cold stares were from the representatives of countries that were understood to be directly involved this time.
Putting that aside, looking at the faces of the others, it was clear that even if they didn’t voice it, some were thinking along similar lines.
This was because when it came to concrete talk of reinforcements, they appeared passive or hesitant.
Gazeran watched the meeting with a detached expression.
Even if the number of floods was small and the threat could not be felt firsthand, he thought it was still too much.
(Sheesh. I’d rather be out on the field commanding than attending this troublesome meeting.)
That was Gazeran’s true feeling.
However, it had been over twenty years since he became the Division Head of Crown’s Adventurer Division.
Despite his frustrating feelings, he could naturally suppress them from showing on his face.
Besides, Gazeran still had things to do at this meeting.
That was why he was enduring this ridiculous charade.
And finally, his opportunity to fulfill his objective arrived. —It happened when the representatives of each country began discussing how many personnel they could allocate from their respective Adventurer Guilds.
Seeing that the representatives of other guilds had fallen silent, Gazeran took the initiative and spoke.
“Let me state this first: we can only deploy adventurers to countries where we have a branch, so please keep that in mind.”
“W-Why!?”
The representatives of the four countries without branches reacted to Gazeran’s words.
Although only one person spoke in genuine surprise, the others also showed their astonishment without hiding it.
Gazeran shrugged at them.
“No, why wouldn’t I? We can’t wage war with someone we don’t have an alliance with, can we? Even if we did, it wouldn’t really be considered coordinated, would it?”
The military officials, who seemed to be the ones Gazeran was addressing, fell silent at his seemingly obvious question, as if they couldn’t understand why he didn’t grasp it.
Those who didn’t stop there were the bureaucrats who usually only saw things from a desk.
“What’s all this about coordination for mere monsters! Are you trying to hinder us by holding back your forces?!”
To the person who said that, Gazeran finally let out a grand sigh.
He had no idea why they would think that way.
Even if he didn’t understand what the other party was thinking, he had to deal with them as long as he was in the meeting.
“Besides, without a Teleport Gate, how do you intend to send in the forces you’re imagining?”
His tone had deteriorated, but of course, he was doing it intentionally.
It was to elicit a certain response from the other party, and indeed, he managed to hook a few of them.
“Are you mocking us! How dare a mere adventurer like yourself!”
As one person said that, others, in agreement, began to voice similar sentiments.
Upon hearing this, some of the attendees—members of the South Continent’s Adventurer Guild—clearly changed their expressions, while King Kristof and several other country representatives either held their foreheads or cursed inwardly without showing it on their faces.
And Gazeran, who was directly addressed by those words—
“I see. Indeed, for a crisis that could affect the entire continent, perhaps it’s best for mere adventurers not to get involved. Therefore, please manage on your own.”
Disgusted by those who had fallen for his childish ploy, Gazeran said this and looked around at everyone as if he had nothing more to say.
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As if waiting for Gazeran’s appearance, one of his assistants approached him.
“How was it?”
“Oh yeah. No problem. I got them to bite perfectly.”
As he said this, Gazeran took out a certain Magic Tool from his tunic and tossed it over casually.
The Magic Tool clearly recorded the meeting that had just taken place.
Gazeran’s attendance at such a trivial meeting was precisely to obtain confirmation that they would not provide aid to countries without branches.
And that plan could be said to have succeeded brilliantly.
When the flood occurs, it will be an act of abandoning those countries, but even the Crown has its limits in terms of people and resources.
In reality, it was determined that the Crown could only provide assistance within the areas where it had branches.
As a result, Gazeran successfully fulfilled his role in ensuring that the scope was contained within those boundaries during the meeting.
As I will write later, I had separate discussions with the representatives of countries with branches after the meeting.
I have not yet informed anyone else about the recording of the meeting’s content, but I hope it will not be used.
Still, some of the representatives are too foolish… I thought, but I’ll leave it as is.
In our world, it would be like informing countries without earthquakes about the threat of tsunamis, wouldn’t it?
