BXBX NOVEL Vol. 7 - Chapter 382 - Inauguration ceremony
Around two months passed since construction began on the island, and since Allen's Army began going to dungeons.
There had been one time when more than a hundred of the army's top officials gathered for a meeting. But this was the first time the entire army gathered in one place for a meeting.
The Five Continents' Alliance meeting had gone well, and Allen's Army was recognized throughout the entire world now. They had cleared the first milestone, so they wanted to celebrate something similar to an inauguration ceremony.
The temple was big enough that Allen had been able to fight Gushara with his summons.
A small number of members were left behind in the city and the bases in the Academy City and near the S Rank Dungeon, while more than 5000 of them gathered in a single place.
Freya had given them permission to use her temple in that way. But Allen still felt like it would be too much of a bother to her to gather them in the same place as the brazier, so they gathered one floor below. He always wanted to be careful around her to not sully her mood.
Peromus, Master Craftsman Habarak, and the chiefs of all four cities were there too. Allen wanted them to see what the army was up to, and what kind of organization they were.
"Hello, I'm Allen, the Commandant of Allen's Army. Let's get this inauguration ceremony started then."
(Do I sound enough like a commandant?)
There were many people there who were older than Allen, sometimes by many multiples of his age, or tens of times in the case of elves with their long lifespans. At first he considered a more mellow approach to his speech out of consideration for them, but then he found many reasons to not do that.
He felt he needed to refrain from being too polite and kind, as the leader of a military organization. Looking at Sophie, she seemed to support his current choice of words.
Allen's friends were standing next to him, and in front the 5000 men formed well-organized rows. The rows were ordered according to rank, with the highest officials at the front. Generals first, followed by captains, and so on.
Allen was standing on the podium in front of the army, but all the members were sitting. He felt having them standing during his speech could become a burden on them. It reminded him of the school ceremonies whenever a school year started. So Allen decided to take the role of principal. Though only the largest schools had 5000 students.
"First, let me fill you in on our current position as seen by the Five Continents' Alliance."
Allen decided to start by how their organization stood in the world's eyes.
"That would be helpful. We do expect to work together with the Alliance's army eventually."
Lud understood what Allen was talking about. Allen had been named Commandant, and the existence of Allen's Army was now known by the entire world, so that should help their future work in various countries.
Lud was currently being treated as a general by most places. It was very likely they would work together with the Five Continents' Alliance in the future, so he wanted to know how to properly respond to them.
"Are there countries that do not recognize us though?"
Lucidral wanted to know what to do when a country did not want to cooperate with Allen's Army.
"We have no obligation to be friendly with everyone. Just tell them we'll fight back if they attack."
Allen answered while speaking into a megaphone-like magic device, his voice heard in the entire room.
"... I see."
Allen's decision was clear to Lucidral. Allen had made their position clear in the Five Continents' Alliance meeting, and they would mirror the way any country treated them, be it friendly or hostile.
"There's no need for needless or excessive violence though, so I hope all generals and captains can keep their men in line."
All the generals and captains in the front rows nodded at once hearing that.
Then he mentioned how all countries in the Alliance pledged their support, and that Baukis has sent two units of dwarves, one of magic engineers and the other of golem drivers.
"I guess this means I should introduce myself to everyone now." "Time for introductions."
Two dwarves stood up after that.
"Yes, just give a simple introduction so everyone knows who you are."
Allen stood aside to let Larappa and Zaurele greet everyone. Many soldiers had not heard about them yet.
Larappa used elegant and casual movements to climb onto Allen's spot on the podium.
"Listen up! I'm Larappa, the chief of the magic engineers! I look into anything magic devices!!"
"""Yeah! That's our Boss!!"""
Larappa introduced herself while striking a pose. The dwarves working for her all began to cheer and clap wildly hearing her. They had come prepared for that, some even blowing horns in celebration. They wanted to heighten Larappa's appeal as much as possible.
"Ohh, magnificent!"
Merle was impressed with Larappa's pose as well.
Sophie was about to complain that they were taking the podium prepared for Allen. But Allen stopped her, since he wanted everyone to see their personalities for themselves.
Larappa then turned around, showing her back to everyone as she stood on one foot and jumped off the podium. Zaurele climbed on the podium after that.
They were both dwarves, even shorter than the beastmen when they sat down. That was another reason why Allen did not stop them, he wanted everyone to take a good look at them.
"I'm Zaurele, you can always rely on my golems to be your walls."
General Zaurele introduced himself, striking a pose of his own while trimming his mustache. With his introduction complete, he fearfully jumped off the podium.
Everyone looked at Allen as if asking what they had just witnessed.
"As you can see, they're quite unique individuals. Please welcome them to our ranks. Next let me explain about the generals for each section of the army. I'm sure you've already heard, but the top members of each race will be generals."
Lucidral used to be a Chief General of the elves, but he was being demoted to being a general, while Lud was promoted from captain to general.
Allen also divided Allen's Army into various armies, troops, platoons, and units. Each of them was led by a general, captain, commander, or sergeant. The magic engineers would work under the golem army as well.
Next Allen announced the state of Talent Changes.
All the beastmen and elves had undergone a Talent Change. The elves were currently finishing up the A Rank Dungeons and getting ready to enter the S Rank Dungeon. The beastmen were in a similar situation, working their way through the A Rank Dungeons.
Those who could be going to the S Rank Dungeon, were helping the dark elves progress first. Having skilled melee fighters like beastmen also kept the dark elves safer, and it was a good way for the various races to bond and cooperate better.
"Once everyone is on the same playing field, I plan on having you hunt Iron Golems together. Think of it as preliminary practice before fighting Demon Generals."
At their current pace, it would take the dark elves two or three months to undergo their own Talent Changes. Meanwhile the beastmen and elves could start fighting the Iron Golems earlier.
They would fight under the presumption they were facing against Demon General-like opponents. The Iron Golems' stats were all around 25'000, so they were still weaker than Demon Generals. Allen believed that both the beastmen and elves could defeat them if they got used to using their Extra Skills in unison.
They would get practice against strong foes, their skills would improve, and Allen would start recouping the costs of maintaining the army for so long.
Since they would be relying on their Extra Skills to take down the Iron Golems, the long cooldowns would stop them from hunting too many at once. But just a handful of Iron Golems a day would fetch enough rewards to bring up Allen's finances and stop him from losing more money.
"I guess our positions are the only thing left."
"Yes, Shea."
"Hm? Positions? What are you going to do, Lady Shea?"
Lud was a bit confused about what they were talking about. Allen's party was about to announce what they had discussed the night before. They had discussed it internally, so no one else knew about it.
"We, the Abandoned Gamers party, will be the main driving force behind Allen's Army. As such, we discussed roles for each one of us."
Two months had passed since Allen's Army was established. Everyone was still developing their skills, so it would take some time before they could really operate as intended. Allen had the title of Commandant, but the rest of his party had not been properly established amongst the army's ranks. That would be changed now.
They still did not know how they would operate the army either. Other than Allen's party members, everyone had a clear rank and position. It was an easy conclusion that Allen's party members would have considerable authority over the army.
Now they would make it clear exactly how much authority that was though.
Everyone took turns to introduce themselves.
"I'm Kurena, the Commander of Special Attack Units! Nice to meet you!!"
Kurena had been waiting for this moment the most, so she quickly jumped on the podium before pointing at the crowd and cheerfully announcing her title. Larappa's entrance had pushed everyone else to also want to stand on the podium as they introduced themselves.
Then the rest of the party took turns to introduce themselves.
Allen's party's positions in Allen's Army: -Commandant: Allen -Sophie: Tactician -Formar: Assistant Tactician -Shea: Chief General of Assault Troops -Luck: Chief General of the Rear Guard -Merle: Chief General of the Golem Army -Kurena: Commander of Special Attack Units
Positions in Heavy User Island's cities: -Peromus: Mayor -Cecile: Mayor's Aide
In regards to the Goddess of Fire Freya: -Dogora: Apostle -Kiel: Priest
Once everyone was done announcing their positions, it was time to explain how their respective skills fit their positions. There would be times when some of them might need to take control of a portion of the army after all. It was better if rather than leading the army, Kurena could split off into the enemy camp and act independently.
Sophie was the tactician thinking of the best strategies for the army overall.
Peromus would have his hands full managing four cities cohesively, so Cecile would help him. Kiel would become a priest for Freya, managing the temple. Apparently any reverence for Dogora would also be turned into divine power for Freya, so he would basically be a second figure to idolize. At first he complained, saying only his title felt like a random thing.
But he was convinced once he was told his role was to make sure everyone followed the rules.
Hearing those descriptions of the roles, Allen's Army understood why they were assigned those positions. General Bunzenbark was also glad that Luck, King Arbus' son, was granted the position of Chief General.
"Is that everything then?"
Larappa looked like she wanted to return to her research soon. A center for magic device research was also under active construction. They could have used the temple, as there was ample space inside, but Allen wanted the temple to be mainly off-limits, only making it easy to congregate religious people.
Instead the research center was being built on the foot of the mountain, near where Habarak's workshop was located. The blacksmiths also had some magic devices they needed for their work after all. Making traversal from one building to another easy would streamline life in the island as well. Most of the research would happen in that building, while some would also be conducted under the temple, on the large device keeping the island afloat. The magic engineers would be pretty busy often, but Allen still wanted them to undergo Talent Changes as well, increasing the range of magic devices in their reach. Some magic engineers were also going to the dungeons, in preparation for their Talent Changes.
Raven had been waiting for a while, and he finally reacted hearing Larappa's words.
"Should I bring it in now then?"
"Yes please."
"Hm? You don't have to be so polite with me anymore."
The leader of the guards, Raven, had been listening from a distance all this time. Now it was time for him and his men to bring up something they had kept on the stairs leading to the room.
At the same time, Raven told Allen to relax a little when talking to him too. Though that was a bit hard for Allen, since he had known Raven since he stumbled into the Adventurers' Guild at eight years old, and Raven kindly taught him all sorts of things.
Everyone from Allen's Army turned that way, watching the mercenaries bring in various chests.
For some reason author decided to change the name Zemimir to Zaurele, I have no idea why. As far as I could see, Zemimir is never used in any future chapter again.