119 Future Plans

When Navi returned to the underground cave with Reya, the table was set up for three people, with two cups of tea prepared for them to partake in while Kirou continued to stare at the lake. The two silent approached the table and took a seat before their respective cups.

Without even turning around, Kirou opened up his menu and forwarded the video he received from his informant to both girls, slowly enjoying his tea in the process. A few seconds later, both girls received the video, and tacitly agreed to watch it in silence. Like that, the girls sat there in silence as they watched the recording.

At some point, Kirou had ceased his viewing of the underground lake and was now staring at both women, gauging their reactions, both conscious and subconscious on their part, as they watched the video. By the time both girls had finished watching the video, a gloomy expression was all that Kirou could see on their faces. He nodded slightly at this before taking another sip of his tea.

The area was silent. The silence was the only thing that could be heard within that underground cave. At one point, Mistaken Fox had quietly snuck over to see what was going on but when he was greeted to this silence and saw Kirou shaking his head in his direction, Mistaken Fox tacitly nodded and returned to the Phantom Palace's underground cavern/basement.

This went on for a few moments before Kirou decided it was time to break this silence, for the girls' sakes. He tapped the small table a few times, gaining their attention before speaking, "As I'm sure you two are fully aware now, should you stubbornly try to stick to this idea of yours, you'll be facing quite the uphill battle, you see this, right?"

To those words, both girls nodded with solemn expressions. Kirou nodded at this, seeing that they truly understood the issues that they face. He cracked a small smile before speaking up once more, "That being said, although it's an uphill battle, that doesn't mean you don't have a chance to land a solid counter-attack, completely blindsiding those attacking you, it's also possible to use this as a solid deterrent against the other branch leaders eyeing your resources. Of course, this is just an option that I can provide you girls. You don't have to make use of it if you two can come up with another plan as this one is sure to step on a lot of toes in the process."

After saying those words, Kirou stopped talking and took another sip of his tea. This is a decision that they have to make and he doesn't need to help them beyond what he's already done. In fact, he's already done way more than he already needs to for them in the first place. Naturally, Kirou was also aware that the ladies have minds of their own so he wasn't planning to shove his idea on them. At most, this would give them a spare option in case their ideas don't pan out. Both girls naturally understood this, which is why they weren't in a rush to answer him.

While Kirou was busy enjoying his tea, both girls were communicating through telepathic call, going over possible ideas that they could use. Admittedly, there wasn't much that they could think of to counter the move that Blade Warlord and his followers are executing in such a short amount of time. Eventually, the girls came to an agreement and ended their telepathic call before turning back to Kirou.

Navi was the one who spoke up, "We're thankful for the information and your suggesting, Brother Kirou. You've helped us out way more than we truly deserve. That being said, we won't be using your plan, at least not now. We'll save it as a last resort."

Hearing those words made Kirou raise an eyebrow before shrugging it off. This was their problem, to begin with, so it's fine if they don't wanna use his suggestion just yet. At the very least, they've decided to keep this option available and that's good enough for him.

Emptying the contents of his cup, Kirou was now focusing his sights on both girls as he spoke, "Since that is your decision, I'll be sure to respect it. That said, let me know immediately if my aid is needed and I'll put everything in place. When I'm done with them, both the Assassin Branch and the others eyeing your resources will have to think twice before they engage your branch once more."

Having said those words, Kirou now stood up from his seat, looking as if he's done with this talk. Seeing his reaction and thinking back on the previous conversation, Reya spoke up with a bit of hesitation, "Brother Kirou, umm... aren't you curious as to what our plan to deal with those people?"

At that point, Navi looked at Kirou with a raised eyebrow before speaking up as well, "Aren't you the least bit curious, Mr. Wolf?"

Kirou looked at both women and spoke with a deadpan expression on his face, "Not in the slightest."

*Stare*

*Stare*

Both women were now staring at Kirou with an intense gaze, prompting him to chuckle a bit before smiling. While maintaining the smile, Kirou spoke up, "It is an issue between you two and other members of your sect. I've meddled quite a bit already with getting such controversial information and sharing it with you. There isn't any more reason for me to get involved with this. Besides, even if you don't tell me, I'll most likely either see the result for myself or someone else will inform me and it would be more entertaining to find out then, so I'll contain any curiosity I have on the subject for now."

Both women still maintained their intense gaze on Kirou but that ended a few seconds later. He was right and they knew it. That still doesn't change the fact that they wanted to hear his thoughts on their plan though. It was for this reason why both were now pouting.

Seeing that both women were now pouting, Kirou could scratch his chin in response. How could he not realize that the two wanted his advice on their plans when he's being stared at like that? Although he knew it, he truly wasn't going to ask about it, so he had to come up with something to distract them. Good thing for him, he's always messing around with a forge whenever he has time, so he had just the distractions he needed.

Instead of speaking to either girl, Kirou just sent them a message, each message just showing information. Both girls received their messages simultaneously, prompting them to check. Almost instantly, their expressions changed from pouting to that of extreme greed. Following that, their eyes immediately focused on Kirou, who at this point felt as if he was being stared at by two predators.

Kirou wasted no time in sending over the weapons that matched the information they had just seen before slowly backing away. Although it wasn't the first time that he's been subjected to such predatory looks, it wasn't often that it was for an item or two in his possession since he normally kept his gear and important items hidden.

Upon receiving the weapons, both elves adopted sweet and happy expressions while switching out their current weapons for the new ones. As for Kirou, he took this time to sneak away while the girls were distracted. Since he technically wasn't finished working on their armor yet, he doesn't want to be around when that thought enters their mind. Also, he has a few things he needs to take care of right now.

After sneaking back into the Phantom Palace's basement, Kirou made a telepathic call to Moon Lily, the archer he had tasked with leading the group of NPCs. It's been a few days since he's last met them, in-game-wise, and he was curious to see just how far they were at the moment.

[Player Moon Lily: Where the heck are you? I've already escorted Senior Jackson and the others to the area a few hours back and I hadn't been able to contact you since.]

"And a pleasant good evening to you as well, Moon Lily. I'll be there in half an hour with all the tools that they'll need. How are Senior Jackson and the rest doing since they have arrived?"

[Player Moon Lily: So far, so good. Besides hunting a few monsters that tried ambushing us along the way and setting up a temporary camp to rest, they are just waiting for your arrival.]

"I'll be there in a bit. Tell them to save any meat from the creatures they managed to hunt if they can. It's best to have a proper chef prepare any food from the monsters that roam this region."

[Player Moon Lily: I'll be sure to pass on your words. Get here soon.]

"Understood, young miss," casually spoke Kirou as he terminated the telepathic call. Following this action, Kirou called over both Navi and Reya who just returned to the cavern, and Mistaken Fox who was watching both Tank and his Stone Axe Minotaur currently sparring.

With everyone gathered before him, Kirou spoke up, "I'm going to make a resource delivery trip in a bit. Any of you wanna come with me?"

The three people before him were admittedly confused by Kirou's words as they had no idea what brought this on. Mistaken Fox was the one who made this known as he spoke to Kirou, "Umm... Brother Kirou, would you mind giving us a bit more of an explanation?"

Tilting his head to the side, Kirou could see the confused expressions on their faces, only now remembering that he never told them about this, not that he actually needed to but still. With a shrug, Kirou spoke up, "Long story short, I ran into a group of NPCs that no longer have a place to call home, so I had an acquaintance lead them to the area just above this place on the surface. Now that they have arrived, I plan to deliver some tools that they'll need to build a settlement on the surface. Now that we're all caught up, do you guys wanna come with me to deliver the supplies and any materials on you that you no longer need? I'll be sure to compensate you for those."

Now that Kirou had given them some information and they knew what he wanted, the trio released a sigh before agreeing to his request. They were admittedly curious as to what kind of NPCs that Kirou had run into and what kind of materials they would need along with the equipment that Kirou planned to deliver.

With all three agreeing to join him, Kirou nodded before returning all of his pets back to the pet space and medallion. For now, he and the other three had a small trip to take. Although the location they needed to go wasn't that far away, they had to take the long way to get there since a short cut hadn't been developed yet. That being said, it was only a matter of time until Kirou created one himself.

As Kirou and the three left the cave, Kirou had two of his clones stay back. He was going to test something out when he got to the surface.

*******

Roughly half an hour later, Kirou's party finally made it to the hill overlooking the sea. The party had just exited the treeline when they came across the small camp that was created by the former band of bandits. As soon as the four had emerged, the former bandits had drawn their weapons, at least until they saw Kirou's face, following which they laid down their arms.

Out from the bandit screw walked Bandit Warrior Jackson, along with the bandit archer player, Moon Lily. Kirou had a casual smile on his face as he walked over to the camp with his party, stopping before Bandit Warrior Jackson.

"I take it that the trip here wasn't bad since you only used a bit under two days to arrive, right Senior Jackson?"

"Quite the contrary, lad. This area's surrounded by a lot of monster habitats. With a few of them being home to monsters so strong that my squad had no chance of fighting and winning, so we had to rush here as it was the only safe haven nearby." When Bandit Warrior Jackson said this, he had a rueful expression on his face.

His words caused Kirou to raise an eyebrow and chuckle under his breath while the other members of his party were shocked. The party members turned their eyes towards Moon Lily, only to see her nodding in agreement with Jackson's words. This caused the party to look back on the path they took to get here as they never met any of the monsters that Bandit Warrior Jackson described. If they had to guess, it seems that Kirou had already cleared the path for them.

Upon seeing understanding now settling in the group, Bandit Warrior Jackson spoke up once more, "Anyways, that's all in the past now. We are here and this area is secure enough for us to settle down in. That being said, we are on the edge of a cliff so it's probably best to do a bit of expanding and building up before anything else. We can begin at any time, Leader Kirou."

Following his words, the rest of Jackson's squad stood up, looking fit and eager to work. Seeing this, Kirou had a smile on his face as he took out various digging and mining tools from his inventory and handed them over to Jackson's squad. The squad was admittedly confused at seeing that Kirou only provided them with tools for digging.

Seeing the confusion on their faces, Kirou cracked a smile as he spoke, "Before we get to work on the surface, why don't I allow you guys to secure an area for your own underground first?"