A story from somewhere, not of this world.

Four men are sitting around a round table that was set up as the sole object inside a space with nothing else within.

Looks like the human supervisor was done in.

The one who started the conversation was a blonde-haired man with his hair swept back.

That fellow was the weakest among us five supervisors

A man with bright red, unkempt, ruffled hair responded.

A man, who had his long violet hair grow out long, wore a very displeased expression, but the other three don't show any signs of paying attention to that.

Kukukuthat fellow was a disgrace for us five supervisors.

The one who took over last was a man with long, blue hair that has been gathered into one at his nape.

Due to that line spoken with a giggle, the violet-haired man's expression got even worse and he interjected,

I'd like you lot to give it a rest, okay? Just what flags are you trying to rise? Are you idiots? Did you lose your drive? Or do you want to die?

Let's leave the jokes aside.

After clearing his throat once, the blonde-haired man looked around at everyone.

It's a fact that the human supervisor went beyond any hope of recovery after receiving an intervention from master.

Who's the human supervisor at the moment?

The blue-haired man asks.

His oblong eyes that stand out from within his well-featured appearance focus on the violet-haired man.

Feeling his gaze, the violet-haired man shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

Well, at any rate, I immediately closed down all paths between here and there right after feeling master's intervention.

That's a wise decision. Even if it's us, we will likely lose if we took them on in battle individually.

Although they started that exchange just on the spur of the moment, it's a fact that there's almost no variation in the comprehensive abilities between the five including the human supervisor even if there's a little bit of difference in power between them.

That's because it was that little girl's policy to not allow one of them establishing a lead in abilities as beings who manage the same world. With that having become the setting, there was no mistake in judging that the remaining four individually wouldn't have any means to oppose something that managed to defeat the human supervisor.

If it turns into a battle, I'd like us to face it together as much as possible.

You think we can win as long as all of us fight together?

Due to the words of the violet-haired man, who pretends to be unconcerned, the looks of the other three concentrate on him.

Even while being exposed to their gazes which are so powerful that it's almost as if they are accompanied by coercion, there's no change in his state.

What do you mean?

Upon the blonde-haired man's question, the violet-haired man suddenly spreads his arms.

I mean, think about it, everyone. Master might have dispatched someone to subjugate us, right? You can say that it's only natural for them to be able to suppress one of us by themselves. So, don't you think that it's quite likely for the assumption that we might attack all at once to enter their range of estimation?

I guess you can say so. If I was in master's shoes, that's something I would definitely include in my estimations.

The blue-haired man places a hand on his chin and ponders.

Really?

The one who voiced a doubt is the red-haired man.

While sensing the looks of the other three men turning his way, the red-haired man continues,

Even we are supervisors that had been given a reasonable amount of power. Would master create a supervisor that possesses powers beyond that? Even if master did so for argument's sake, wouldn't it just result in that supervisor becoming uncontrollable, seeing as they possess more than five times the power of each of us?

That isbut if master feels like it, she can likely destroy us in an instant. The only reason why we can amuse ourselves with such a game is because we are using the fact that master is hesitating over destroying this world as an one-fold shield.

In other words, for master getting rid of a supervisor possessing five times more power than each of us won't be that much of a change in labor in comparison to eliminating us, huh? I suppose that's probable as well.

The red-haired man agrees with the blue-haired man's words by nodding.

For their master, who possesses a power close to infinity, the difference between one and five, as they say, is certainly nothing more than something so trivial that it can't be even called measurement error.

I think there's no point in discussing probabilities. Isn't the first thing we should do right now to come up with measures towards the things we know of?

The blue-haired man and the red-haired man hold their tongues due to the violet-haired man's remark.

There won't be an end once they start pondering about possibilities, and moreover there are going to be almost no limits in the prerequisites.

She is a master that can fulfill any condition as long as she feels like doing so.

We need information about the being that was dispatched to the human-controlled domain by master.

The violet-haired man replies to the blonde-haired man,

That's very difficult. I said so just now, but the paths between here and there are currently shut down, but they have been trying the whole time to invade this place after the human supervisor was dealt with. If we opened a path to gather information even for an instant, we will be invaded in the blink of an eye. That will be the end for us.

What's the probability of the paths' shut-down being rescinded?

Being asked by the blue-haired man, the violet-haired man pondered for a bit while letting his eyes wander and then,

At present it's close to zero. But it will rise little-by-little as time passes.

Since we will likely get invaded the instant a path is established, we should change location to give us a bit of a safety net and erase all the old paths.

Even that will probably not result in more than a temporary measure to stall for time.

The red-haired man drew some figure on the table with his index finger at quite the speed.

However, even though he simply traced the surface of the table with his finger, it turns into an outlined graph with its lines glowing faintly.

Looking at it, the violet-haired man sighed slightly.

I guess it'll turn into a game of tag where we move location before it's penetrated by our opponent and close the paths. However, sooner or later we will be caught, won't we?

If we grasp information about our opponent, we might find a method to beat them, but currently we are lacking too much information. I think we have no other option but to plant insects each time we move our base and extract the information little-by-little.

The insects mentioned by the blue-haired man are actually beings different from the insects existing in the real world. They are creatures made by the supervisors to travel and amass information through observation.

Since their bodies are extremely small, it's difficult to find them. Moreover, each time they travel through space, the size of the opened path will be kept at the lowest minimum, resulting in their operation cost being kept low. Because of the tininess of their bodies they are suitable for espionage activities.

The blue-haired man is saying that they will dispatch those insects each time they abandon a base, allowing them to gather information about the people who came to occupy that abandoned base.

If we make a single error, it will be the human supervisor all over again, huh? That's not very appealing, is it?

We have no choice but to consider this as part of the game. Games with many restrictions are tough and fun, right?

The violet-haired man said while grinning broadly at the blue-haired man whose body suddenly trembled.

On the other hand, Giliel who had become that human supervisor

Damn iiit! It would have been better if I had refused after all (Giliel)

She was at the point of feeling completely exhausted inside her own domain while making such complaints with a grumbling.

In a corner of her consciousness she was continuing the work to wrench open the closed-down paths towards the domains of the other supervisors in order to invade them, but there's almost no progress.

One of the reasons for that was the fact that the other supervisors had thoroughly shut down the paths, but the main reason was that the majority of Giliel's throughput was utilized towards controlling the human continent.

Giliel had been bestowed a fair amount of abilities by her master, but she was definitely lacking experience in managing a world.

At present she was pointlessly wasting throughput on work she had no knowledge of and continued in a state of having to use all her might to just maintain the human continent in its normal condition.

She scrutinized the option of creating something like angels to have them help with the workload, but while it might be possible for a being that owns an inexhaustible power supply such as her master, Giliel, who only possesses limited abilities right now, won't have any other choice but to share a part of her own power with those creations, which would naturally result in her weakening.

The management of the human continent was certainly an important duty for her, but Giliel's prime objective was to subjugate the supervisors of the other continents.

Splitting up her own powers for that sake is very apt to cause grave problems in accomplishing that mission.

I think, I'm probably not suited for something like this (Giliel)

While adjusting the countless, small parameters and scowling at the passage of time and information that's changing by the moment, she sets the next adjustments and checks their effects one after the other.

She continues that task eternally without ever coming to a stopping point.

The human supervisor, who reigned before Giliel came, was able to approximately predict what result a certain amount of adjusting would bring about since she had the experience of having done that work for a long time. Because she was able to immediately derive the necessary adjustments, she could continue controlling the human continent without any hardships, but that doesn't work for Giliel.

She had no other option but to earnestly keep accumulating experience. As expected, there was no way for Giliel to accomplish the work within a brief space of time because of having become capable of adjusting the parameters based on some vague predictions.

Furthermore, because Giliel had her abilities tuned towards the objective of subjugating the other supervisors to begin with, her abilities put heavy emphasis on battle rather than information processing.

This fact slowed down Giliel's invasion into the territories of the other supervisors, making it a fortunate outcome for them.

Even so, if Giliel ignored the management of the continent and focused herself on the invasion, even the other supervisors wouldn't be able to hold a carefree meeting.

UuhI'd like someone to switch with me (Giliel)

Giliel mutters while putting her earnest feelings into it, but even for the little girl goddess, who has very likely guessed that, it's a greatly perplexing problem.

Since she barely managed to send in Giliel alone, she didn't have the leeway to send in a being who's capable of managing the world instead of Giliel.

Having said that, there's also no meaning in pulling back Giliel and sending a different supervisor specialized in administrative ability.

On top of that supervisor needing time to likewise gain experience, they would be in danger of easily surrendering their domain in case they were attacked by the other supervisors since they would be far more inferior in combat compared to Giliel.

There's no move to get out of thisif I did, it will trouble Renysan and his friends (Giliel)

It was difficult to imagine that the situation would deteriorate all of a sudden.

That's because it should have been possible to maintain a certain state due to the adjustments done by previous supervisor until Giliel recovers her strength and takes over as supervisor.

If you were to compare it, it would be like an airplane that's gliding through the air with its engines stopped.

It's not like it will crash immediately, but if it's left in that state, it's set it in stone that it will crash sooner or later.

That's the kind of situation it is.

However, once the situation begins to fall apart, it can be expected to do so at an accelerated rate. In order for that to not take place, it's indispensable to fix the engines and gain propulsive power.

I will put maximum priority on maintaining the status quoI can understand that it's something inevitable, but it still irks me to no end. (Giliel)

Giliel muttered while grinding her teeth out of anger, it's certain that she will accumulate achievements and experience as time passes.

That will lead towards the next adjustment becoming more easy. I think it will become possible before long to do most of the adjustments in my spare time like the previous supervisor did.

As a matter of fact, even now she's continuing to swap the emphasis of some of her throughput from the management and adjustment towards the invasion, albeit just very slowly.

For me having to go through such hardships is all because of the supervisors not doing as they are told by master. (Giliel)

While being scorched by a gradual feeling of irritation, Giliel tightly grasped her fists loaded with her piled-up anger and immersed herself in the dark imaginations what she would do to the supervisor on the other end once she established a path.