As it turns out, meeting a legend in real life was actually a rather underwhelming feeling. Back on Earth, there was a saying that every tabletop gamer knew: “If you give it stats, the players will find a way to kill it.”

Of course, there were a few more variations of that statement, but they all carried the same general meaning. Tabletop systems usually had settings tied to them, and oftentimes these settings would incorporate various characters in their lore.

In the past, most systems would actually take the time to create statistics for nearly all important characters in their setting, but it wasn’t long until designers came to the realization that their beloved heroes simply paled in comparison to the collective power of optimizers across the board.

That’s when they stopped giving things stats.

Honestly, I used to think that it was a pretty lame move up until now. Thanks to [Complete Analysis], the entirety of Valencia’s statistics were laid bare to me. Sure, she was definitely stronger than most of the people I’d met, but they were far from impressive when compared to my own.

I mean, her mana pool and her magical skills were far more expansive than mine, but I completely dwarfed her in every other aspect. To see that a person important enough to have been mentioned in the [Rulebook] be so much weaker than me overall was jarring to say the least.

Even so, she was the Tower Master and the de facto leader of all mages in the Ardene Kingdom. If there was anyone who we could depend on to gain the citizens’ trust, it would be her. 

Of course, it’d be great if we could have a member of royalty on our side as well, but after I snubbed Cyrus, I doubted that would be an option now.

“So you’re Ryuuko.” Valencia crossed her arms in front of her, allowing her bountiful chest to rest upon her forearms. She spoke with an emotionless voice that was almost robotic.

“So you’re Valencia.” I replied in the same monotonous tone.

The two of us stared at each other for a long moment. Only the weight of our silence hung in the air. It was clear that she was analyzing me, but it wasn’t like I really cared. She could analyze me for as long as she wanted.

Liandra stood between us and to the side, her eyes darting from my face to Valencia’s. With each passing second of silence, Liandra seemed to grow more and more nervous until a sudden burst of laughter erupted from Valencia.

“I see. It’s no wonder this child is so loyal to you.”

I raised an eyebrow. Liandra was on the smaller side, sure, but she was hardly a child. Though, seeing as Valencia had [Immortality] in her list of skills, she was probably way older than either of us.

“Normally, any mage on the continent would have accepted my offer without pause, but not Liandra. I must say, rejection is truly a novel feeling.”

I smiled. Liandra had given me the basic rundown of what happened between herself and Valencia once we were reunited, but it was still heartwarming to hear about Liandra’s steadfast loyalty from Valencia herself.

In all honesty, the ridiculous task that I had given Liandra was to prevent as many mages from joining the war as possible, but the fact that she had instead brought the Tower Master herself to our side was nothing less than an overwhelming victory.

Naturally, her performance was something that was deserving of a reward. Walking over to Liandra, I gently placed a hand on her head, giving her a soft pat.

“Well done, Liandra.”

Liandra beamed at me, the nervousness that was previously written on her face immediately disappearing like shadows in the sunlight. “T-Thank you, Ryuuko!”

Her smile was exceptionally brilliant. Certainly not what you’d expect from a girl who’d been cooped up in a library since she was a kid and enraptured by poison magic. Inadvertently, I caught myself thinking that I should get her a proper gift for this after the battle.

That is, if we actually managed to defeat “God.”

I returned my attention to Valencia who waited patiently across from us. “Well then, if you aren’t feeling too upset about Liandra choosin’ me, then how about we get down to business?”

Valencia nodded. “Liandra has already spoken with me at length regarding the details of your plan. I hope you can forgive her for divulging the specifics without your permission, but I insisted.”

I shrugged. I wanted to keep most of it under wraps, but keeping secrets probably wasn’t the best way to start a relationship off the bat. As far as I was concerned, Liandra made the right call there.

“Don’t see a problem with it. We were gonna have to tell you eventually since we’re bringing you on board.”

“How admirably flexible,” Valencia smiled. “I must say, I am rather fascinated by all of this. Ever since we were children, the people of this world have been taught that it is the creation of the six primary deities of the pantheon. To learn that even they are but mere products of a greater entity just as interesting as it was shocking, even to a learned individual such as I.”

Again, I shrugged. It wasn’t my place to comment on how divine hierarchies functioned, and I was far from qualified to even guess at something like that. Besides, I didn’t really care about the whole mechanics of how divinity worked. 

The only thing that was important to me was protecting this world and the friends I’d made within. If killing that asshole of a “God” ended up screwing with some other cosmic bullshit, then that wasn’t my problem.

“Your plan is to kill that ‘God’, is it not? Have you thought about what the repercussions of such an act would be? After all, even if that ‘God’ has been fueled by our millennia of conflict and is even planning to destroy this world, they are still the one in charge of maintaining this world. Would it not unravel upon their death?”

Correction. If killing that asshole of a “God” ended up screwing with some cosmic bullshit, then it wasn’t my problem unless it ended up fucking over this world too.

Honestly, I hadn’t really given whatever Valencia said any thought. It wasn’t as if I’d never considered something like that happening. Rather, it was just something that I’d pushed out of my mind because I had been solely focused on killing “God.”

The consequences of my actions would just be something that I’d have to deal with when the time came.

Of course, I couldn’t exactly say that as an answer to Valencia’s conundrum. Instead, I gave her an answer that was more-or-less just as wishy-washy.

“It’ll end up working out.”

Valencia smirked. “Is that so?”

I’d blurted the line out without much thought, but Valencia had met my answer with nonchalance as if she already had the answer to my question. Part of me wanted to press her for answers, but there were more pressing issues at hand.

Namely, the advance on the Ardene Kingdom.

Seeing as we’d fallen silent again, now was probably the best time to bring it up.

“As you know, we’re currently advancing on your home country. While we’re not really that keen on killin’ more people, I really don’t think that your king’s gonna back down any time soon. That said, you’ve brought quite a bit of mages with you, and they don’t look like they’re for decoration.”

Valencia nodded. “That they are not.”

“Right. So you got a plan or somethin’?”

“Of course. We’ll just walk right past the walls. It’s not like there’ll be barriers to stop us.”

I blinked in disbelief. Seriously, what the hell was up with people in positions of power and just “walking right in”? First, it’d been Radeca pitching this reckless shit, and now even the Tower Master was on the same type of horseshit.

“Yeah? And how do you expect that to go? They’ll have archers raining arrows on us and siege engines throwing shit at us constantly.”

A playful smile danced on Valencia’s lips, and I knew that I was going to dislike whatever she was about to say even before she said it.

“Don’t worry. ‘It’ll end up working out.’”

Oh, you bitch.