Chapter 455
Chapter 455
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 455
Chapter Title: Another Solo Play (14)
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“Bellabel! I’m Bellabel!”
The new companion mute (still couldn’t quite believe it was really a mute) was peculiar in all sorts of ways.
For instance, it had just gotten its arm broken in my attack but was still this affectionate.
Or it was a frail specimen yet had its own personal name.
“Bellabel Quadrubu! Bellabel of the Quadrubu house!”
“?”
It was a mute that even had a family name and house.
“House?”
“House! Lord ‘Unstoppable Quadrubu’ created Bellabel, so Bellabel is of the Quadrubu house!”
“Oh. So ranks are established like that.”
Queen.
King.
The lords capable of production were the nobility.
And each lord’s brood beneath them.
Unlike the past with only one queen, the mutes of the western imperial territory had developed not just their own language but a class system similar to humans.
‘Is it really okay to keep going forward?’
So far, it was looking hopeful. Their civilization meant a higher chance of negotiating through dialogue.
But it also showed just how far they’d evolved as a species. Who could say they weren’t staging this massive deception to lure in and devour the endless stream of human knights pouring into this canyon?
Whooooo—
The wind, which had been blowing in one direction, scattered wildly in all directions, producing a whistling sound.
‘Something’s up ahead.’
Something was blocking the wind. Not a wall—the whistling came from multiple gaps, spaced at regular intervals.
“Buildings.”
“Yeah, that’s right! This is the ‘inside’! Your Highness, the lords, all my brothers not up top—they’re all here! Even the brothers who look like you!”
....Gulp!
I swallowed without realizing it. So up ahead was a mute dungeon of unknown scale, with several Fragment 3-level lords capable of razing a fortress city solo, plus an overwhelming ‘king’ mute who commanded them all, and a ‘Queen Nigmi’ who’d probably hate my guts.
No matter how you sliced it, that was a demon lord’s lair.
‘Bolt if things go south.’
Fighting was out of the question. Even just going deep inside would be suicide. Just the entrance. Stall- Drag things out at the entrance, gauge the mood, and charge if it felt off.
As I mentally inventoried subspatial tools like presence-erasing artifacts, scent-masking smoke, and escape gadgets, I heard Bellabel humming excitedly the whole way before it suddenly dashed far ahead.
‘Ditching me to run to its allies?’
‘Was it bait after all? Lured the enemy in deep enough, now calling the real fighters?’
As I stealthily turned to retreat from its sudden move—
“Yoouuuur Hiiiighneeeess—! I’m baaack, Your Hiiiighneeeess—!”
“Pfft!”
My imaginings of the ‘Great Mute Dynasty’ shattered alongside the strength in my legs at Bellabel’s voice, calling out ‘Your Hiiiighneeeess—!’ like it was missing a dozen screws as it scampered off.
‘Wh-what the hell is that?’
It was clearly an 8th- or 9th-grade common mute useless in combat. It had said itself this was where the king and queen resided, yet it was yelling ‘I’m baaack, Your Hiiiighneeeess~’? Where was the brilliant mute empire with its unique language, flowing from king and queen down through lords and their broods?
Maybe it was royalty in the mute kingdom? Nope. It had said it was born from ‘Unstoppable Quadrubu.’
As I reeled in shock, Bellabel’s childish scampering footsteps cut off.
And then,
[Grrr rumble—]
From the darkness ahead, like a beast growling from deep in a cave,
“I see you’ve brought a guest, Bella.”
A rough, heavy baritone voice flowed out from within.
“Heehee. Your Highness, Bellabel followed orders! Held off the imperial army, guided the lost human knight!”
“Good. Like your sisters fighting up top, you’ve fulfilled your role faithfully.”
I couldn’t keep up with the mood at all in this exchange that sounded like a father and daughter, not king and commoner.
What was this?
Turns out ‘king’ was just some mid-level bureaucrat title with a million holders?
Where was the colossal mute dynasty?
A scam?
Ever since that coward Nigmi had been called queen—
“You let your attention wander with your hand on the rope ahead.”
“Uh.... Yes? Y-yes?”
“I understand the unease. Humans rely heavily on sight, so this environment must feel stifling.”
“Ah, uh.... Yes.”
I’d brainstormed hundreds of attitudes, topics, capital intel, and trade proposals for meeting Queen Nigmi and the mute ‘king,’ but my mind went blank.
“Come in. We have matters to discuss.”
“Uh, um....”
“There should be a rope ahead. The humans inside tied it to grope their way since they can’t see. Knights consider being supported by another an insult.”
“Yessir. Thank you.”
Only after shaking my head wildly to clear the chaos could I finally respond.
Forget mute dynasties, queens, all assumptions. Deal only with the facts at hand.
Mute king. The king-mute before me.
Does it communicate?
Fluently, like me.
Personable?
A hundred times better than our kingdom’s spoiled royals.
Aggressive?
Family-oriented enough to warmly accept a frail commoner calling ‘Yoouuuur Hiiiighneeeess~.’
.
.
.
.
‘....Is it really a mute?’
I snuck a glance, but no acting could fake it. The stairs to the blocking building were built for human stride lengths. Made by the humans living here.
Ropes for the blind to navigate easily—too meticulous for a ploy to lure enemies. Why bother for a lone knight fumbling solo when I wasn’t even with a knight order?
‘....Not a fake king, right?’
Their racial traits made impersonating a king for necessity impossible, but so many norm-defying things had happened that even that seemed plausible now.
“I must report to the queen, so follow slowly with Bellabel.”
The king said that, then quietly entered alone.
Tadak!
“Hyde! What do you think, isn’t our Your Highness cool? Impressive, right?”
“H-ha....”
I could only reply with an awkward smile to Bellabel’s beaming words.
Only after the king vanished did I realize my whole body was drenched in sweat, rooted in place.
Just moving my hand to my sword hilt felt like something to boast about for generations.
“That’s gotta be the real king.”
I sighed out the caught breath, thinking it bitterly.
If that wasn’t the king and something stronger lurked here, I could just settle down permanently.
If Professor Pak came this far for world conquest, he’d clash with these monster mutes anyway.
I had to exhale swallowed breaths repeatedly amid tension the whole way up the stairs.
Unlike human kings, theirs was a king even without anyone calling it so.
****
“When meeting Her Majesty the Queen~ Clear your throat loudly! Really loud so it echoes as you enter.”
“Drag your feet a bit. They need to hear your footsteps to know where you are.”
“Speak softly.”
“And leave your weapons! Strip off everything down to what’s decent on your body! Knights who came before caused a fuss over this. Some even made Your Highness step in. Of course, right? Bringing weapons to meet Her Majesty the Queen.”
“Worried about Your Highness? Bellabel doesn’t get the question. Does it matter if you bring weapons to see Your Highness? Changes anything?”
Bellabel guided me through what they called the ‘inside,’ endlessly repeating precautions for meeting the queen.
Nothing special. Boiled down, it was all ‘Make presence so the queen always knows where you are and what you’re doing.’ Compared to protocols for common national leaders—titles, attire, gait, speech, even blink intervals—it was laughably simple.
My focus wasn’t on queen etiquette but the building itself.
Sssslip—
As I groped along the rope, the wall’s bumps touched my knees and fingertips.
‘Old Empire masonry. Crumbling and worn, hard to tell, but predates Emperor Gaynax?’
Unlike the old mute queen’s ‘nest’ melted from natural rock with acidic fluids, this was an imperial-style building, once grandly ornate despite some collapse and tilt. Probably fell from above when the capital’s rift formed.
What they called ‘inside’ felt like they’d hauled the fallen building wholesale between rifts, patching passages crudely. Primitive in spots.
The path to the queen’s audience chamber wasn’t long, matching the shoddy structure.
“Hyde, we’re here.”
Marble and dust, velvet and elfwood scents, mixed with something indefinable. Guessing a high noble’s drawing room.... The castle-city above this rift teemed with such mansions.
“Remember everything I said?”
“Throat clear. Foot drag. Soft voice.”
“And no matter what, never attack Her Majesty the Queen.”
Bellabel’s voice held rare seriousness this time. Different from facing their king.
If anything, reverence and affection shone toward the king like she wanted to boast to everyone, but with Nigmi....
‘Worship. Like Bright Church followers gazing at Professor Pak.’
Elevating the object so high they demeaned themselves, seeing mere presence before it as blasphemy. Yet desperate to face her anyway—that level of emotion.
‘What turned her into this?’
Like the 3rd World queen gaining a evil god’s authority, did Nigmi gain such power? Transforming ‘coward Nigmi’ into ‘Queen Nigmi,’ reshaping her species?
Kreeeak—
Bellabel didn’t wait for my thoughts to end.
Unlike prior silent doors, this audience chamber’s creaked open loudly, unoiled on purpose.
“Ahem. AHEM.”
“Grk.”
“Hmph. Hmph.”
Mutes emitting presence rhythmically, as Bellabel described.
The chamber was hall-sized for parties, red velvet and ornate elfwood furniture filling it—yet only five mutes occupied it.
‘Light.’
Only then did I recall the faint light letting me take in the interior. Mere hours away from it, yet it illuminated the world so vividly again.
“Hmph. Hmph.”
Bellabel’s snorts drew my gaze. As touched earlier, long thin arms. Face like rodent roundness grafted on human. Legs trembling tensely, wrist still limp and swollen red.
Following her gaze, a similar long-armed monster. Red-skinned, flat nose, arms thick with endless lean muscle. Seven queen fragments glowing on its throat—likely ‘Unstoppable Quadrubu,’ Bellabel’s creator lord.
Beside it, a mute taking most remaining space. Slime form, but unlike translucent kin, opaque yellowish white fatty hue. Unknown fragment count, but purple core shone vividly through thick blubber—major holder.
Before the wall-like slime stood a comparatively normal figure. Height just shy of ceiling, at glance like an ultra-trained lion beastkin.
But closer look revealed oddities.
Mane, nose, fangs, snout, whiskers.
Like a lion face pieced from bits of other creatures’ similars.
If one part fit perfectly in the awkward lion shape, it was the eyes. The overwhelming aura from moments ago rippled there.
‘That’s the king.’
The king, Quadrubu, and mystery slime stared one way, ignorant or aware of our entry.
“Eeng, iiiik.”
A whining sound came.
“Th-this, I won’t eaaat...!”
“Your Highness. Rare food left in the world.”
“Snakes don’t eat leaves! We got plenty of meat, meat!”
“Count Malbrad consumed nearly half his body to fetch one world tree leaf. That’s why he’s so small now?”
『Woodbu— Grshya, ka ho, neh sor ma quenne burhu. Kkhufufufu....』
“See? He’s thrilled he could come this far shrunk down.”
“Then, for my sake, please eat it.”
The lion-mimic king knelt toward something on the long-armed mute’s back. A powerhouse who could dispel living darkness with aura alone knelt so easily.
“Mm, eeeeng....”
The hesitant voice edged forward at last.
Snow-white scaled fingers took the leaf from the blubber blob’s reverent hold.
Crunch, crunch!
Fresh chewing sounds, and a snake tail with patchy shed scales quivering.
One step closer, her face appeared amid the mutes.
Familiar, yet somehow more human.
Blue-green scales paled to white.
Naga-like features shifted toward human contours.
Vicious eyes now drooped, teary.
But definitely him. The named one.
Queen’s direct line.
Venom and underwater combat master.
“....Nigmi?”
Crunch!
My voice halted the chewing. The white snake-human’s head turned my way.
From a chair like natural white stalactite, half-eaten leaf in hand, Nigmi faced me.
Drooped eyes narrowed,
widened,
bulged round.
“S-saint?”
Hic, hic,
Gulp!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
“S-s-spare me....”
Shwashshshsh!
Crack, crrrunch!
The reaction was stark.
Queen’s face paling instantly, lords reacting as one body.
As yellowish blades and thick forearms closed in, I flattened myself and blurted,
“F-first time seeing you like this!!! Nice to meet you! I’m Hyde! Not saint, not professor, Hyde!”
Feeling sword-chill on my neck, I thought.
‘All the audience precautions were just to [not startle] someone!’
Mutes weren’t as imagined. King wasn’t as imagined. Queen wasn’t as imagined.
....Hic!
“H-Hy....de?”
Barring appearance, she hadn’t changed.
She was still coward Nigmi.
Temperament, actions—unchanged from 200 years ago.
No purple queen fragments embedded anywhere on her shedding scales.
Despite lords bearing dozens worshiping her.
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