Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter5 (section)

===Part 2===

The change in the mood was obvious.

The travelers and merchants moving between the eggshell shards of floating islands were nowhere to be found. They wouldn’t be protected by the village, so they were sensitive to danger. And they had started to see more of the adventurers who could sniff out that kind of danger and the bandits who saw it as an opportunity.

Mikoto sighed.

They were holding a strategy meeting in the inn’s kitchen.

But she hadn’t wanted to just sit around, so until anything actually happened, she was making a variety of desserts (in the strange outfit of an apron worn over bikini armor). This world didn’t allow any ''enjoyment'' in its food – it was all about nutrition. She wished she could leave some recipes for them, but while they could understand each other’s speech, could the people here read Japanese text?

“Liberating the one village was a good thing,” said Mikoto. “It’s obviously good for the enslaved elves, but there also had to be some humans who only went along with it for fear of being ostracized from the community they need to survive.”

“But the lord isn’t just going to let this stand,” said Shokuhou. “An entire village in their territory has fallen. They are going to move to suppress this rebellion or uprising.”

The unfamiliar system of technology known as magic was frightening, but Mikoto and Shokuhou had proven their ability to easily take on an entire small village.

But they had no answer to a more fundamental question.

How many people were in this kingdom? A war against a kingdom of ten thousand was nothing at all compared to a war against a kingdom of a billion. They were facing the troublesome fact that Celesaqphere ''had an entirely different social structure to Earth''. It was entirely possible that kingdoms here were superpowers with a population of ten billion.

“This is so good,” said a smiling Patissiet while trying a small cubical dessert a little more solid than gelatin. It was commonly known as nata de coco.

Mikoto had made them, but even she was a little surprised.

Why?

“P-Patissiet? N-nata de coco is, well, a really old-fashioned kind of thing, so you really don’t have to eat it.”

“Eh? But it’s the best thing you made.”

“S-surely you’d prefer these colorful donuts or this sumptuous cheesecake.”

“Look, the elder and the others are all eating it too. That proves it’s the best one.”

Mikoto had made the nata de coco more as a joke and something simple she could eat herself without depriving the elves of anything good, but you could never predict what would explode in popularity among people with no preconceptions. Like how the axe murderer under the bed or the woman from hell became trendy in Japan long after they had become tired clichés overseas.

But anyway…

“Starting a strategy game before you know the map or the balance of power is a mistake,” said Shokuhou.

“But if you win anyway, you can get really hooked,” said Mikoto.

“Still, we can’t just let that slaver freak of a lord attack us.”

“Dammit, then let’s prepare for battle! The first wave of this endless battle is about to begin!!”

Their prediction was correct.

Unfortunately, this was the kind of prediction they really wanted to be wrong.