◈ Episode 268. That Is Most Excessive
The world of adventurers changes rapidly.
That is because news spreads at a speed unimaginable on the Arcana Continent. The Magic Tower came to learn that fact after it began accepting players as apprentice mages.
The Floating Garden.
“Seriously, aren’t these bastards going too far?”
Humans are creatures of adaptation.
And among them, the breed known as players is exceptional.
Rifts where all sorts of dangers lurk.
In order to survive there, one must adapt quickly even to unfamiliar environments.
Thanks to that adaptability, their awkwardness in the Magic Tower did not last long.
Even more discreetly than the apprentice mages treated like fledglings.
The players whispered among themselves.
“No, just look at Liuo Junchun’s interview. We are United Under Heaven. We have no intention of clinging pitifully to the one and only access device. We simply need to monopolize the remaining nine. Isn’t this guy seriously insane?”
The hot potato was, as expected, United Under Heaven.
From the moment the Zero Mountains manifested in reality.
They had begun acting independently in earnest.
Their conduct, which stopped at nothing, was once again an eyesore.
“You saw the video, right? They actually made something we’d only imagined into reality.”
“What video? Am I the only one who didn’t see it?”
“What were you doing, not goofing off during the regular conference?”
“Huh? What do you mean, what was I doing? I was trying to understand it. Magic.”
“Sigh. You think you’ll understand just by listening? Anyway, look at this.”
Goofing off during the conference.
If a certain “someone” who lived and died by discipline had heard that.
It would have been a remark that invited an icy stare, but only for a moment.
The pupils of the player who checked the video widened.
“……
A gun?”
It was not just a gun.
“……
No, wait. That’s the thing, isn’t it? An anti-giant-monster weapon!”
Monsters flowing backward from collapsed rifts.
In order to eliminate them efficiently, humanity’s science had continued to advance.
Yes, what was strange was not the anti-giant-monster weapon, but the people.
“They’re players, aren’t they? But why are they using that……?”
The products of human civilization, including anti-giant-monster weapons, were not treated as [Equipment]
by the Arcana System.
“Even if they hunt with that kind of thing, there’s no point, is there?”
“Right. If you think about the location of the Zero Mountains, even more so. Since it rose up like a new continent in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there’s no need to worry about monsters directly harming humanity.”
“Then what’s their goal?”
Since it was not equipment, [Proficiency]
would not increase, of course.
And because they had not defeated the monsters with their own abilities, they would not gain [Experience] either.
For that reason, unless they were in an extreme situation where they had to save their own lives, players did not lay hands on anti-giant-monster equipment.
Shh—placing a finger to his lips, he whispered even more secretly.
“But it does mean something to one person, doesn’t it?”
“……
One person?”
“The Monarch, Liuo Junchun.”
“!”
The moment that name was mentioned.
The players watched their surroundings. United Under Heaven had no interaction with the outside whatsoever, but for all that, United Under Heaven was well informed. What that meant was simple.
Birds hear words spoken by day, and rats hear words spoken by night.
In other words, a spy from United Under Heaven might be hiding anywhere.
At a table some distance away.
Only then did the cat stretch.
The Magic Tower, like any other place.
In the Floating Garden, the manifestation of magic was forbidden.
Needless to say.
The cat was not a spy of some faction called United Under Heaven or whatever.
Nor did he have the slightest intention of eavesdropping on conversations with magic.
It was simply.
“What would you have me do when I can hear it?”
Because the cat’s hearing was far too sensitive.
In any case, thanks to eavesdropping on the conversation.
The cat.
The Tower Master now had something to say.
It meant he could torment Marcelo with proper justification.
“See here, little Chief.”
Silence.
This brat had grown stubborn in the time he had not seen him.
The Tower Master purred and spoke again.
“See here, Chief Marcelo.”
“What is it, Tower Master?”
“You grow more vexing by the day.”
“Do I?”
“I mean that your personality is growing to resemble Chief Lee Hoyeol’s.”
“Thank you for the undeserved praise.”
“……?”
He had said it to get under his skin.
Yet somehow, the other was pleased, so he had failed to even break even.
Having given up early, the Tower Master flopped onto his back, belly exposed, and said.
“It seems there is an adventurer who is particularly noisy.”
“I have heard of it.”
“You know, and yet you can be this carefree?”
Sssrk.
Only then did Marcelo stop his quill. It was not because the Tower Master had grated on his nerves. It was simply because his research into anomalies had reached, however slightly, a stopping point.
“Is it not because I know that I am clinging to my research without yielding to your interference, Tower Master? More importantly, please stay still. Your fur is flying everywhere.”
“Even the way you speak is beginning to resemble Chief Lee.”
“I shall accept that as undeserved praise as well.”
“…….”
With that conversation as the end, the two fell silent for a while.
If asked whether it was because their feelings had been hurt, of course not.
Ever since Marcelo had truly been a child, conversations like this had been ordinary between the two of them. The current silence had a different reason. The whiskers on the Tower Master’s cat nose twitched.
“Is it not laughable?”
“What is?”
“That the Tower Master and the Chief Mage are troubling themselves over a single adventurer.”
“No. It is not laughable in the slightest.”
“Is that so? Though you are still a child, you are no fool.”
As for Chief Lee.
He had long ago surpassed the vessel of an adventurer, so even excluding him.
There was a reason they were paying attention to a mere adventurer.
Because there was value enough in doing so.
“I thought it was about time that name, Monarch, appeared.”
To players, [Monarch]
was nothing more than a class.
Merely a class with a slightly unusual method of growth. For that reason, they did not know how the class called Monarch had been realized on the Arcana Continent. However, the two of them, the two Arcanians, were different.
That was why they could not overlook it.
Marcelo opened his mouth.
“In every age of chaos, the 『Monarchs』 revealed themselves.”
Those who called themselves monarchs had abilities.
It was not outstanding mana like the mages of the Magic Tower, nor was it martial might great enough to become one with the sword. Yes, they had the ability to wield humans like weapons.
The Tower Master’s tail swayed.
“A breed that lives solely to reign.”
What had the conduct of those who claimed to be monarchs been like?
There was no need to look back far.
The fact that the ruler of the Arcana Continent was the Emperor alone was enough to know the end of the other monarchs.
However, in the past, they would not have been beings worth caring about. The power of the continent had been none of their concern.
And yet.
‘Is this also thanks to you, Chief Lee?’
He had come to realize it anew.
That monarchs were beings like mosquitoes.
Monarchs parasitized others and sucked their lifeblood to expand their forces.
In this age of chaos, such utterly harmful beings were those called monarchs.
The Tower Master spoke indifferently.
“As expected, erasing him from this world would leave no future trouble.”
It was the simplest and most Magic Tower-like solution.
For the Magic Tower of the past had advanced by crushing everything that got in its way.
At those chilling words, Marcelo let out a laugh.
“Tower Master.”
“I am listening.”
“You have become worse at lying than before.”
“Hmph, what are you talking about?”
“There must be a reason you are saying something you do not mean, yes?”
However, that was something the Magic Tower of the past had done.
Moreover, now that Hoyeol was watching keenly from the Chief’s seat.
It would be impossible for the changed Magic Tower to repeat its past mistakes.
The Tower Master said indifferently.
“Can you not see it as well?”
“?”
“They are certain to become sores in the new era. Those things called monarchs.”
“Mm.”
Marcelo chose his words sparingly.
A product of science given to him by Hoyeol.
Through this world’s magic tool, which adventurers called a smartphone.
Marcelo would receive news of reality.
Just as “someone” had said.
As if grand research into anomalies were not enough.
There was information he had obtained through the Holy War Alliance he met at the Yusra Conference.
News of ranker players including Nam Taemin, and of the AAU.
And so Marcelo nodded.
“It is indeed highly likely to become so.”
The Tower Master’s tail stood straight up.
“I am speaking seriously, Chief Marcelo.”
The title of little child, cleanly omitted.
Ears raised to sharp points.
Fur standing on end showed that the Tower Master was utterly sincere.
“What do you say we handle this at our level, you and I?”
It was only a single adventurer.
Even if he was a vessel of a monarch possessing variables.
At present, he was nothing more than a frail being who would scatter like dust before magic.
The Tower Master continued.
“Even now, is he not bothersome enough? Ignoring the rules that our Chief Lee proposed with a generous heart. To anyone’s eyes, he has declared that he will walk a path of conflict that is clearly a trap.”
Marcelo answered sincerely as well.
“I understand how you feel, but I must refuse, Tower Master.”
I knew as much.
Since he had not expected anything, the Tower Master was not greatly disappointed.
However, he did want to ask the reason.
“Is it because of that damned pride again?”
Marcelo laughed once more.
“Haha. Not only that.”
“So you cannot say it is not that at all.”
“I simply wish to hear Sir’s intentions.”
In truth, Marcelo’s thoughts.
Were not so different from the Tower Master’s.
On the Arcana Continent, the conduct of the breed called monarchs was laid bare in the history books.
Before the Empire unified the Arcana Continent.
During the era when monarchs ran rampant, the continent truly never ceased to reek of blood. To put it with slight exaggeration……. To some, monarchs and Demon Kings would have been no different.
That was why Hoyeol’s thoughts were all the more important.
‘The Empire has grown weak.’
Now that the Empire had lost its strength.
The vessels of monarchs that had been holding their breath would move.
Among adventurers, there seemed to be only one man who was a Monarch, Liuo Junchun.
But circumstances on the Arcana Continent would be different.
Marcelo pictured the future.
When they won the Holy War and the Arcana Continent regained peace, would the continent still belong to the Empire? Now that he had devoted everything to the Magic Tower, hegemony over the continent was not important to Marcelo, but…….
There was one thing he needed to know for certain.
‘What picture are you drawing, Sir?’
That was right.
The Magic Tower’s response regarding Liuo Junchun could only change depending on the picture Hoyeol was drawing. Marcelo intended to have a conversation with Hoyeol regarding that.
‘He said it would not take more than a day.’
Then he would return soon.
There was not much time left until Hoyeol returned to reality.
There was no reason to judge and act hastily.
Streeeetch—
“You are as dull a man as ever.”
As if he had lost interest.
Scratch, scratch—the Tower Master scratched his head with his hind leg and got up from the table.
Then, in the end, he had to hear a remark.
“You should be grateful, Tower Master.”
“Suddenly grateful? For what?”
“For the fact that this teacup is mine.”
Clack.
Marcelo held up the teacup with the green tea bag steeping in it right in front of the Tower Master’s nose.
Bob.
The Tower Master’s fur floated, scattered atop the jade-colored tea.
……
What if this had been Chief Lee’s teacup?
A chill!
Thinking of that cold gaze, it felt as if the fur all over his body was standing on end.
Only for a moment, the Tower Master had a thought that made him flinch.
‘Could it be, Chief Lee, the reason you dislike cats is……?’
Following instinct, the Tower Master licked his fluffy forepaw with his tongue.
‘……
Because of fur?’
Then he shook his head.
No matter how prickly, sharp, and cold Chief Lee was.
There was no way he would dislike me.
Over a single strand of fur, surely?
*
I immediately bolted out of the imperial palace, out of Antonium.
Not that I literally bolted out; I left through a portal.
In any case, perhaps because it had been an uncomfortable situation.
‘It really felt as if even the inside of my ears was itching…….’
Step, step.
I saw people approaching me.
They were imperial soldiers guarding the recaptured city.
They had probably come after seeing the cluster of portal light.
“We are carrying out His Imperial Majesty’s orders.”
Their faces were full of tension.
So it meant, whoever I was, I should avoid interfering if possible.
But I have business similar to yours, you know?
‘Of course, I wasn’t given an order. I was asked a favor.’
I checked the quest window.
[Main Quest: Warring States Period (戰國時代)]
An age of upheaval.
Is what they seek mere power?
Is it the emperor’s incompetence?
Or else, is it an inescapable fate?
The strong of the continent covet the imperial throne.
Your choice shall create a new current.─Defend Antonium. (Success)─Restore the glory of the once-brilliant Empire. (In Progress)●Restore the collapsed city, Makima. (In Progress)●Restore the collapsed village, Holdemwood. (In Progress)●Restore the collapsed city, Polstar. (In Progress)…….
The main quest, the Warring States Period.
It was the main quest that had appeared when Antonium was surrounded by Shegwin and the rebel army. With the hegemony of the continent at stake, it certainly deserved the title of “main.” ‘The course of events changed depending on my choice.’ As if the burden I was already carrying wasn’t overwhelming enough.
For someone like me, who even refrained from getting involved with the Empire.
I had not the slightest intention of bringing down the Empire and founding a new nation. But if, just if, I had wanted to destroy the Empire……. The main quest really would have flowed in that direction. ‘There actually was an option like that.’ But aside from it being troublesome.
I, Lee Hoyeol, also had loyalty.
I’d been sticking a straw into the Lionheart Knights…….
No, I mean, after everything Harkon has done for me.
How could I stab the Empire in the back? ‘And there’s no ally quite like the Empire.’ I don’t know when it’ll be.
But starting with me, the Arcanaians of reality and the players will eventually come to the Arcana Continent. If the Empire is still standing strong by then, we’ll be able to create a synergistic effect with each other.
Of course. ‘I need to be faithful to the quest given to me right now.’ There was no way the noble Lord Granfell would be interested in quest rewards. But I, Lee Hoyeol, was always in a position where I could use more, wasn’t I? Moreover, this quest had a reward worth looking forward to.
Why, think of the [Milky Way Whetstone].
It was a magic tool stored in the Empire’s warehouse.
The final touch that had elevated Gwicheol into a legend. ‘Something on a similar level to the Milky Way Whetstone…….’ After all, the place where that whetstone had been kept was none other than the Empire’s underground treasury.
So maybe I could obtain items on par with the whetstone as a reward.
Such worldly thoughts crossed my mind. ‘This is no time to stand around, Hoyeol.’ My idle thoughts lasted only a moment.
I immediately drew up my mana.
Then I interfered with the earth and instantly raised a city wall.
Kudududuk!
As expected, actions speak louder than a hundred words.
“……Are you perhaps a mage belonging to the Empire?”
Before I knew it, the soldiers had lowered their guard and were asking politely.
But this time as well.
Actions spoke louder than words.
During the interference process, I added [Aesthetic], which had reached [Upper].
Then astonishment spread across the soldiers’ faces.
“T-This is not the level of any Imperial mage I know!!”
“……How can a city wall rise in an instant?!”
“Forgive me, but from where have you come, honored sir?”
If it had been the usual me.
I would have puffed out my already-proud chest even further.
But I couldn’t.
Because soon, the message that appeared left even me busy being shocked.
Is this really right……? ‘Ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand……?’ No, I’m glad they’re being generous from the start.
But at this rate…….
Won’t the Empire’s entire foundation be drained dry as quest rewards?!───────Current Contribution: 24,900,000p──────