This creature was a Botchling—one of the Mabeast units summoned to serve as Takuto’s bodyguard. Two of these units currently existed in Mynoghra, and they were the most powerful common units they had at their disposal.
Naturally, since he had summoned them to protect himself, Takuto would rather not send the Botchlings away from his person. But their skills were extremely powerful and useful. Possessing combat abilities and special skills on par with a Hero unit, Takuto was certain they would live up to his expectations.
“Oh, I get it. You’re going to have them serve as your body double, King Takuto!” Atou, Takuto’s confidant, who’d never left his side since his resurrection and dogged him like a mother wolf protecting her pup, nodded in agreement with his choice.
We’ve gotten closer in a lot of ways, Takuto thought, feeling a little nervous around the girl nodding in front of him.
“It’d be more than a little painful to lose one with how expensive they are to produce… That being said, the fact that they can be produced again makes them a disposable card we can toss aside and replace,” Takuto said, laying out his thoughts. “I think it’s a bad idea to fall behind because we’re being too cautious, so a certain degree of proactiveness is a must.”
Depending on the location where they were produced, the Botchlings could possess a variety of unique skills. The Botchling Takuto had made eye contact with excelled at camouflage and concealment. Using its Mimic skill, it could transform into Takuto, and using telepathy and shared vision, it could even be controlled like a walkie-talkie. This was the method Takuto had employed as a countermeasure when Vittorio was scheming to elevate Takuto into his ideal being. At the time, Takuto used the Botchling to nullify the ritual by intentionally shifting the object of worship away from himself, but…
Looking at it from another perspective, Takuto realized he could also use the Botchling as an external terminal to interact with the wider world from the comfort of home.
“That’s a brilliant idea,” Atou said. “Elder Moltar and the rest of the Dark Elves can rest easy knowing you are safe at home… And of course, I will also feel relieved!”
“Now that I think about it, we’ve both been in an awful lot of near-death situations since coming to this world,” Takuto agreed. “I’m not about to put myself in danger again by participating.”
“I was planning on stopping you if you did!” Atou declared.
“Hahaha!” Takuto couldn’t help letting out a strained laugh, being on the receiving end of Atou’s deadly serious gaze. “I wouldn’t blame you if you tried…”
Takuto understood how she felt. If she had offered to participate as his proxy, he would’ve done everything in his power to stop her too. When everything was said and done, it was firmly settled that Takuto would not directly participate in this conference. Now, all they had to do was figure out how to gain the maximum benefits within the limitations they had set.
“To be honest, I’d rather not take any action and just stay holed up to focus on Domestic Affairs,” Takuto admitted. “But this is a golden opportunity to gather intelligence. If all the factions are really going to get together, then at least we’ll know what kind of forces we’ll have to face in the future.”
That’s what it all boiled down to. Whether it was the RPG forces or the TRPG forces, one of the reasons Mynoghra had fallen behind their enemies until now was a lack of information. Attending this All-Faction Conference was risky in itself, but if they could get a rough idea about the forces that had come to this world, it’d make world domination much easier in the future. And so, Takuto was gradually leaning toward participating. The biggest concern he had was the potential issues that might arise from Mynoghra’s participation.
“Anything to do with the other Players brings a whole host of problems,” he sighed. “Because it’ll inevitably involve talking about games and other worlds, we can’t easily discuss it with the Dark Elves, and trying to dance around the topic seriously stresses me out.”
“That’s what I’m here for! Just ask, and I will show up anytime, anywhere to hear you out, King Takuto! Your Atou is the one and only person you can talk to about that stuff, after all!” Atou proudly clapped her hand over her heart.
Takuto chuckled softly at her adorable gesture, but his expression stiffened as he realized she’d smoothly erased a certain person from the equation. “I’m delighted to hear you say that, and I’ll be counting on you when the time comes, but aren’t you forgetting a certain someone?”
“Oh dear, does such a person exist? I unfortunately can’t seem to recall…”
“R-Right then…”
They were discussing the Hero who was absent from the room—Gleeful Spin Doctor Vittorio. He was someone Takuto could consult about matters relating to their prior world. But it was fair to say that the relationship between Atou and Vittorio was as bad as they came. The cause of their falling out lay with Vittorio’s despicable personality and penchant to get under other people’s skin. It was far from ideal to have the people serving as the central pillars of government at odds with each other, but Takuto was resigned to the fact that he could do nothing to bridge the gap between them.
It’d be cruel to order Atou to change her opinion, and utterly pointless to order Vittorio to fix his attitude problem. Thus, the best solution was for Takuto to mediate so that the two of them didn’t argue.