As Arcueid Brunestud took the main seat.
The entire meeting room, except for Rin, stood up to bow to Arcueid. Even Tohno Akiha and Gudako, attending such a meeting for the first time, followed suit and stood to bow respectfully to Arcueid.
Arcueid pressed her palms down with a smile, and only then did the signaled crowd sit back in their chairs.
However, Rin's behavior had been noticed by most, and intense discussions broke out in the meeting room once again.
Arcueid tilted her head, looking at Rin who hadn't bowed. A faint light flickered in her eyes, and then, understanding something, Arcueid gave a ladylike bow to Rin in her Ishtar Form.
"A spirit of gaia greets the 'Avatar' of the Goddess Ishtar!"
Arcueid emphasized the word 'Avatar' especially heavily.
Rin, who had been maintaining her Ishtar Form to avoid trouble, blushed slightly when Arcueid exposed her. Feeling embarrassed, she exerted her divine authority, using her control over Venus to grant Arcueid a blessing.
However, exercising divine authority from a Servant saint graph was not easy for Rin. A sudden suction from the distant Sea of Stars seemed intent on pulling Rin inside. Only after instantly paying more than half of her mana as a price did she manage to stabilize herself on the surface of the world.
But spending most of her mana in an instant was hard even for Rin's mage circuits, which had been strengthened by the dragon factor and Tiamat's dragon crystal. At this moment, Rin felt her mage circuits were faintly burning hot.
From the main seat, Arcueid saw Rin suffering a small setback and slumped onto the table, her shoulders shaking as she stifled a laugh.
At this point, most of the people present realized what had happened, and led by someone unknown, the entire hall erupted into laughter.
Sitting there with an Ishtar saint graph, Rin was essentially the Avatar of the Goddess Ishtar. As Dead Apostles and Ancestors of the White Princess faction who considered themselves spirits of gaia, they naturally could not let the Goddess's Avatar bow to them; it was a matter of divine rank.
Arcueid was innocent but no fool. Like Rin, she was somewhat willful and certainly didn't want Rin to take advantage of her in her own 'home'.
If Arcueid hadn't bowed to Rin, things would have been fine, but since she bowed as a spirit of gaia to the Goddess Ishtar, shouldn't Rin, as the Goddess's Avatar, give something in return?
Even if Ishtar herself were here, she wouldn't refuse to grant a blessing to the Princess of these spirits of gaia.
However, the laughter came quickly and left just as fast. Most treated it as a minor interlude and didn't dwell on it—partly out of fear of angering Rin, whose face was visibly turning red and'steaming'.
Soon, except for a few confused individuals still asking those around them what had happened, most people began to seriously wait for the meeting to commence.
Zelretch glanced at his disciple, stroked his goatee with some amusement, then stood up from his seat with a serious expression, cleared his throat, and spoke.
"Here is the latest intelligence: I confirmed last night that The Dark Six Authorities has revived!"
"Boom!"
The news of The Dark Six Authorities' revival caused the meeting room to explode instantly, with various expressions appearing on the faces of everyone present.
"Silence!"
Soon, with a shout from Zelretch reinforced by mana, the meeting room returned to silence.
"Everyone! It is just The Dark Six Authorities. Is it more terrifying than the True Moon we faced before?"
Zelretch then pointed to Rin first, then to Gudako and the others.
"Furthermore, we now have new assistance. I would like to introduce to you the members from the human order preservation organization, Chaldea. I believe their power needs no further introduction from me."
"Of course not, she's a Goddess's Avatar after all!"
"Hahahaha!"
The mention of it caused the crowd to burst into laughter again as they recalled Rin's earlier blunder.
"Alright! Quiet! If you keep laughing, Rin might start hitting people! Last night, the Black-Winged Duke was beaten half to death by a single punch from Rin!"
With that, Zelretch gave a sly smile and casually used magecraft to project the scene of the Black-Winged Duke being KO'd by Rin's punch last night.
However, the laughter Zelretch expected did not return. Instead, everyone who saw the scene gasped, and their eyes turned away whenever they looked toward Rin.
Rita Rozian, who had been there last night, shivered and hugged her arms. Even though she had seen it in person, watching it again made her skin crawl. 'If I took a punch like that... no, I can't even think about it!'
With the broadcast of the footage, Rin's image in the hall instantly changed from a 'funny, clumsy goddess' to a terrifying demon!
Seeing that his projection didn't achieve the intended result, Zelretch withdrew the magecraft, coughed twice, and continued with a serious face.
"Ahem! Moving on to the main topic. I believe you have all seen the situation of the humans below. Yes, humanity is now at its wits' end. Next, we will likely face the direct assault of the True Moon's followers, so I hope you are all mentally prepared!"
Sion tapped the table, drawing everyone's attention, and spoke up.
"There are two main issues. First, although our top-level combat power is not inferior to the enemy's, there is a massive gap in total numbers; the enemy has an army of at least tens of millions of Ghouls. How do we solve this? Second, how do we handle the survival supplies for the humans below? I suspect their supplies are running low!"
Rin, whose face was still slightly flushed, stood up from her seat.
"I have a way for that!"
Sion turned to look at Rin with a hint of doubt in her eyes. Unlike the others, Sion had met the Rin of this Singularity. As an alchemist, Sion's analysis concluded that this Rin was at most slightly stronger than the one from the Singularity.
And in this world, the Rin who was the Caster of the Crown had already died during the fall of the Clock Tower. Thus, Sion didn't have high hopes for this Rin from Chaldea.
Unaware of Sion's thoughts, Rin asked her.
"Sion, how much Ether Lite would you need to control a killer filled with murderous intent?"
"About 5 centimeters? Why?"
"Then how much Ether Lite can you produce, and what are the time and material costs?"
"At full capacity, I can produce about a hundred meters a day. No materials are needed; Ether Lite is composed of imaginary elements."
"And how many people can you operate?"
"Six. What exactly are you trying to say?"
Rin gave the impatient Sion a look that said 'be patient' and turned to the assembly to explain her plan.
"I have a type of magecraft with the side effect of creating ordinary Dead Apostles—very twisted killers, to be precise. And the upper limit is infinite! Sion's Ether Lite can control these Dead Apostles. So, I hope you can help me restore communication with Chaldea. That way, I can use Ghouls to create a large number of Dead Apostles to counter the enemy's Ghoul army."
"Hey! Didn't you hear me? I can only produce a hundred meters of Ether Lite a day, and I can only operate six people at once!"
"I know that, but we at Chaldea have someone who can replicate your Ether Lite! Also, our spiritron computer can take your place in controlling the targets! So everything will be OK! As for the second point..."
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