Chapter 1: A Strategy Meeting I SAT IN THE MEETING ROOM at the offices of the Orsted Corporation, directly opposite Orsted himself. Sitting on either side of me were Eris, Roxy, Sylphie, and Zanoba. Roxy was in charge of taking minutes. “And that about sums it up,” I said. In my report, I’d summarized our chain of discoveries. First, there’d been Geese and North God Kalman the Third. It put Orsted in a good mood when I told him that we’d found them in the Biheiril Kingdom. He didn’t actually say anything, but I sensed he wanted to tell me, “Way to go!” Those high spirits buoyed the rest of my report. But the moment I said, “We found Ruijerd,” his face became a thunderstorm. “Um, if it was something I said…” I added. I couldn’t work out whether he was angry or not. He was glaring at me. The vibes were so bad that I shivered. I got ahold of myself quickly, but I couldn’t totally shake the anxiety since I had no idea what Orsted was gloomy about. After a long pause, he said, “The Ogre God is also in the Biheiril Kingdom.” The Ogre God lived on Ogre Island in the east of the kingdom. “You said the Ogre God could easily be turned against us, right?” I hadn’t forgotten. I was just checking. “In one of the past loops, this generation’s Ogre God became a disciple.” Hmm. Maybe that meant Geese’s location was a trap… It was also possible that Geese was trying to recruit the Ogre God. I wouldn’t get answers to those sorts of questions in a meeting room. I’d have to go there and find out. Since we were already in a meeting, I decided I ought to use the time to get everyone on the same page. “With all that in mind,” I said, “I’d like to discuss our strategy going forward.” “All right.” “We have all the pieces we need for now. I don’t think we can avoid or Page 1 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com