Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter5 (section)

===Part 18===

“I’m back!!”

“Took you long enough.”

Mikoto was out of breath and covered in scrapes and bruises. Shokuhou was exasperated.

Mikoto didn’t have anyone with her.

But if she hadn’t rescued anyone, she wouldn’t look like that. Despite how beaten up she was, there was a bright light shining in her eyes.

The #3 girl put on a belligerent smile as she gave her report.

“First of all, the story about suppressing Elysium was fake! But there were a few other regional cities that had started discussing freeing their slaves and the kingdom was preparing some very real attacks on them, so I went around destroying the armies sent out for that! Elysium was terrified of when it would be their turn, so ''I told them I’d saved the four regional lords’ territories and the three central cities including Elysium and asked them to gather up all the difficult paperwork and come join us''! That way, the next time the kingdom attacks, we can all work together to fight back and secure our independence and safety!!”

Patissiet couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

But that aside, Mikoto’s return had one very important implication.

“We now have a justification to fight that foolish king and protect the people’s lives from his tyranny ability☆ This is a huge step forward from sneaking around winning through guerilla tactics.”

“Hm? Isn’t the main difference there what kinds of rumors people spread about us?”

“You’ll see what I mean later☆”

But there was one thing Shokuhou had to confirm as a wicked strategist. It sounded like Mikoto hadn’t just rescued the people and left it at that.

“Let’s get back on topic.” Dancer Shokuhou brushed up her bangs. “So instead of just rescuing those cities and leaving, you also told them to come join us?”

“Right.”

“And they will be gathering a fleet of airships to slowly travel between the floating lands?”

“Right!!”

The queen sighed.

This called for a review of the basic facts.

“We are using Valhalla as our base. The city is surrounded by a moat and a wall, meaning its land is quite limited. There is not room for the population to suddenly multiply by 7 or 10.”

That sounded heartless, but it was the truth.

Increasing the population ten times past the upper limits of the infrastructure was the same as leaving each person with a tenth of the living space and a tenth of the food they needed. Needless to say, that option would lead to mass death.

Of course, even now this world ran on slave labor and actually paying the enslaved people a fair wage would leave them with quite a lot of wealth. If they were given truly equal opportunities, there could be a day when an elf millionaire hired humans to work for them.

But change like that did not happen overnight.

The options available right this instant were limited.

So there was only one solution. Bikini armor Mikoto winked and explained.

“Then let’s increase that capacity. By defeating the villain at the much bigger capital.”

“Call it usurping the capital. Don’t sugarcoat this☆”