kscans

Chapter 80 - The Four Pillar War

And so, as I grumbled and reflected on my overly combat-happy tendencies, Kagura-san, now looking at me with an expression that said I was a lost cause, once again graced me with one of her valuable lectures.

The ‘Four Pillar War’ she mentioned was the one and only massive-scale official event in Arcadia, which I had occasionally referred to as a ‘distant future goal.’

Apparently, it's pronounced Yohashira Sensou. Not Shichuu.

Its premise is a literal all-out war, where selected players from the four factions—North, South, East, and West—gather on a vast, dedicated field.

Each faction can select and deploy up to 300 players, organized into 50 linked parties of 6.

In this game, a 6x6 formation of 36 people is called a Full Raid, and anything larger is an Over-Raid. So, in other words, it’s a massive PvP festival where four Over-Raids of three hundred people each beat the crap out of each other.

Anyone not familiar with gaming might think, “Isn’t a little over a thousand people in total kind of lame for an ‘all-out war’?”—but no. A game where a four-digit number of players can gather in one place for a festival brawl is practically unheard of.

If you tried to make a game with graphics as realistic as Arcadia’s, where character customization and movements are completely free, and where a vast number of sword techniques and magic spells, including unique skills only individuals possess, are flying around… a supercomputer would probably explode.

Yeah, this whole [Arcadia] thing just doesn’t make any sense, does it?

Anyway, this Four Pillar War, held on a grand stage that overturns all gaming conventions, offers a prize that drives players of all factions into a frenzy, going far beyond a simple festival.

That prize is, simply put, a goddess’s blessing.

I tend to forget unless I’m consciously thinking about it, but each faction is granted a different blessing.

East is Istia of Conflict—it provides an upward correction to all combat-related skills and increases the experience gained from fighting, aiding in a player's early development.

West is Vestol of Peace—it buffs all non-combat skills, such as production and life skills.

South is Sotalm of Wealth—it provides a bonus to the acquisition and consumption of money, or Luna.

North is Nortalia of Luck—it buffs all phenomena related to the luck stat.

So that’s how it is, but what does it mean for these blessings to be the prize… well, you can guess, right? In short, the core of the Four Pillar War is to fight over and steal these blessings from each other.

Can I be honest? Isn’t that a recipe for some serious drama?

“As for that problem… well, each faction is managing it in their own way.”

“Reeeeally?”

“Well, um… yeah. Except for a certain group of battle-crazed fanatics…”

Istia, my dude…

“I knew we were the unpopular faction… and honestly, I was kind of afraid to look into the internal affairs, but are we getting beaten up pretty badly?”

When I asked hesitantly, Kagura-san crossed her arms and made a difficult face.

“Well… they’re actually putting up a good fight, considering they’re getting ganged up on by the North and South. They’ve lost more than they’ve won, but it’s not like they’re constantly losing.”

“Oh, that’s a relief—wait, ganged up on? What? Ganged up on? WHY ARE WE GETTING GANGED UP ON???”

“Because the North and South have formed an alliance, and the West (us) has a non-aggression pact with the other three.”

She said it like it couldn’t be helped, but hold on a minute.

The West’s non-aggression pact is one thing, but what I can’t ignore is the North and South—the factions ranked first and second in population and popularity—have teamed up to beat us down.

“D-Do they have no pride, ganging up to crush the weak!?”

“It’s not so much that they’re weak… in terms of combat specs, the Istia folks are actually quite strong.”

“There’s a little thing called ‘strength in numbers’! There’s no way three hundred people can win against six hundred!”

“And to top it off, the South has the ‘Princess’.”

The Princess she’s referring to is that legendary strongest player, the [Sword Queen], Alicia… wait, Ali… Airi? Ali… something-or-other White.

Huh, so the Princess was in the Sotalm faction…

“Doesn’t that just make us the weak ones after all!? How did things get this way!?”

“It’s because in the very early days of Arcadia, Istia rejected a pact that the four factions were trying to form.”

“ISTIAAAAA!!!”

I don’t know the fine details or even the broad strokes, but from the direction of the conversation and Kagura-san’s tone, I can sort of tell. This is definitely the fault of those battle junkies in Istia.

“Well… I can’t say it was a wise choice, but Istia’s reason for rejecting the pact wasn’t entirely wrong, either.”

And with that, the self-proclaimed “lover of interesting things,” Kagura-san, offered a reserved defense of Istia.

Apparently, the pioneers back then, just like me, instantly realized that fighting over blessings could become a massive source of drama.

So, they tried to avoid a future where players from a specific faction would constantly be at a disadvantage due to an imbalance of blessings, by intentionally controlling the outcomes of the regularly held Four Pillar War.

In other words, a match-fixing scheme involving all players—and Istia, bearing the blessing of conflict, rejected it.

They apparently declared, “It would be a waste for the admins to have prepared a stage for us to go all out like this.”

“Man, our faction’s battle junkies are really something… I don’t hate it!”

“Well, you’re pretty much one of them.”

Hey, at least I don’t enjoy getting ganged up on.

“Okay, let’s set aside that headwind for a moment… what’s the event cycle like? I know it’s held regularly.”

“This is more of a hurricane than a headwind, but anyway—the Four Pillar War is held three times a year. It’s on a four-month cycle, taking place at the end of April, August, and December.”

So, since it’s the end of March now…

“That means I have a little over a month to train…”

“Before that, there’s the selection tournament in the middle of the month, so you have two weeks from now.”

Two weeks… two weeks…

“Yeah… isn’t that impossible? Like I said, starting next week things are gonna get—uh, pretty busy, so I only have about a week from now to go all-in.”

Whoops, I almost let ‘university’ slip out while I was thinking. Spilling personal info like that in an online game is a no-go for me.

“That’s why you need to spend that time running around this Garden of Divine Creation and training up your avatar. Then, after a week, give me all the materials and everything else you’ve gathered. I’ll take care of your equipment, at least to a minimum standard, in the remaining week.”

Thrusting her thumb at her own chest, the red-haired magitech artisan flashed her familiar, fearless smile. As always, her gestures were so theatrically cool that I almost fell for her.

…What’s the Garden of Divine Creation?

“After being pushed this hard, I can’t help but get into the spirit of it.”

Still, a week is an unnervingly short amount of time. Even if I were to give it my all, charging in blindly seems reckless.

“...At this point, could I swallow my pride and rely on you completely?”

It goes without saying that I’ve been relying on her all along. As I looked up at her, having made the decision to pile on more shame, Kagura-san’s fearless grin softened into the gentle smile she sometimes shows.

“Of course—we’re in this together now, aren’t we?”

She said it with a look of amusement and gave a big nod.