Chapter 141
Translator: uly
Chapter: 141
Chapter Title: Guild Master Isn't Enough with Just the Game
People's eyes widened.
"Who's that?"
"Lea's eldest son."
"Ah, the one where Lea illegally gave natural birth outside the forest..."
"What about his lineage?"
"Since Lenox was helping Lea, even if it was a natural birth, I doubt they haphazardly combined genes."
Gazes probing Ophen.
The atmosphere wasn't too bad, as I'd asked Lenox in advance and heard his response.
Lea was the "traitor" who had illegally performed a natural birth and fled to the forest, but he said that if they put forward a member of the same bloodline as administrator, there wouldn't be much backlash.
Moreover, since Lenox's mental stability was exceptional, there was no pre-made successor...
The Linoxa clan members couldn't hide their curiosity and surprise about Ophen, who Lea had raised in the forest, and they whispered among themselves for a while before suddenly asking him.
"Where did Lea go?"
"Mother passed away not long ago."
Ophen answered immediately.
The Linoxa people fell silent in shock at the unexpected news.
"...We should hold a state funeral."
Someone voiced exactly what I'd already been planning, and from there, things flowed smoothly, confirming Ophen's succession to the position without issue.
* * *
"You're finally going home!"
At Gilgamesh's voice, my tension melted away, and mental fatigue crashed over me.
Gilgamesh and the other guild members, including myself, hadn't slept a wink since entering the Babel Tower, and with the territorial war and adapting to this new world on top, the exhaustion surpassed even the Midgard siege.
As we left the conference room and stretched, Gilgamesh sidled up to me and said.
"I love you, Kaisha. When you said you'd seized the central system, I was totally smitten. Wanna marry me? Huh?"
Dart glared at him in disgust, and Gilgamesh flipped him the bird.
"What're you staring at."
Before the two could start fighting again, I ruffled Gilgamesh's hair to distract him and said.
"I'm already married. You're my seventeenth—no, eighteenth husband."
When sending the 2nd and 3rd wave guild members to Midgard earlier, I'd expanded the family to grant buffs.
It was the first time I'd voluntarily used that damn dog clan registry, but since he played along with the joke, it felt surprisingly fitting, and I was secretly pleased.
Gilgamesh burst into a hearty laugh at my words.
"Hahaha! Oh right, yeah! But why's that prick still glaring? He cut in line and made me the eighteenth, and now he's pissed? Jealous?"
Maybe he found our family roleplay pathetic, but Dart was shooting us irritated looks.
I let out a sigh and said.
"I'm tired, so let's not fight."
If Gilgamesh would just shut up, that would cut their fight triggers by ninety percent.
From what I'd seen this time, Dart had some debt to Gilgamesh from the city war, and considering they'd ended up on the same side, he was holding back a lot.
Gilgamesh was business as usual, but Dart was restraining himself, so I worried he might explode out of nowhere.
Ophen, who had followed us out when the meeting ended, suddenly cut in.
"You're not planning to leave just like that, are you? We still have things to discuss. Like Lenox's disposition."
"Let's talk inside."
The four of us, including me, returned to the room we'd shared before the meeting.
Dart and Gilgamesh each claimed a large sofa, sitting far apart, while I leaned against the desk instead of sitting.
"As I said before, I'm taking Lenox with me. I've locked him in his office, so if there's anything you want to ask him, do it today."
"I don't have anything special to say. The ones I wanted dead were the military bastards."
"Come to think of it, those guys..."
Right after fighting the error code, I'd heard that the forest residents had captured the military people who fled from the lab.
Ophen said.
"Everyone except one female executive named Utia—they killed them all."
"Why her?"
"There were a lot who opposed executing her. Apparently, quite a few test subjects had imprinted her as 'mother.'"
That was intriguing.
What kind of perception was that, and how and when did it form, that they could feel attachment to someone no different from an enemy?
"Well, whatever. Handle their disposal as you see fit. More importantly, what exactly was the relationship between Lea and Lenox?"
"Even as her child, I don't fully understand it. They thought differently and had different goals, but they were emotionally connected, so they could only wish for each other's happiness."
An intriguing statement.
Ophen paused as if thinking, then continued.
"...It might sound strange, but Mother said Lenox was trapped in there, dying. She said she couldn't feel his happiness at all, so at least she had to be happy."
"Well, that could be. We know well how machine civilizations often leave humans deficient."
From the start, you couldn't expect the rulers of a worldview where they experimented on people and unleashed monsters into the forest to be normal.
They all looked beautiful on the outside, but how rotten they were inside—you'd have to cut them open to find out.
Looking at Ophen, I said.
"Take firm control of the center and carry out Lea's will."
Ophen hoped to resolve things through dialogue as much as possible, but in truth, if the central rulers didn't listen, I planned to use force to help.
With Lenox's prior approval, Ophen and I had jointly registered as the next administrators of the central control system.
I'd staked my name on positioning Ophen as 'administrator' and this nation's 'Führer,' so for me to intervene smoothly here, he needed to secure his position properly.
Lea's state funeral schedule was set, and Ophen and Lea's other children would now live in the central nation.
With three of them raised in the forest, and me backing Ophen, the central nation's policies would flow in a different direction than before.
Ophen said.
"I'm not sure it'll work out with the elders stubbornly holding out."
I laughed at that.
Even I, an outsider, understood why the Führer was called a 'god' after using the central control system once through Lenox.
Though he didn't seem like it, Ophen found his clan members unfamiliar and intimidating.
I said.
"What do you mean it won't go your way? You're this nation's 'god' now. I'll come by often to back you up. I'm taking Lenox, but if you need advice, we can ask him."
Ophen's expression softened a bit.
"...When will you come back?"
"I don't know the time flow difference between here and our world, but... I'll rest a little and come right back. When's your inauguration?"
Ophen and I discussed future schedules and my plans.
I'd already seized land in Midgard, propped up rulers who suited me, and done plenty of that sort of thing.
As I naturally guided and shared my plans, Ophen left with a relieved look.
Gilgamesh immediately asked me.
"When do we leave the Babel Tower?"
"Tomorrow, after Lea's encoffinment."
Curiously, they started the funeral proceedings with encoffinment.
In this worldview, the already-dead body held little meaning, and they proceeded while communing with the deceased's soul.
Anyway.
Since it was the death of a Linoxa clan member, they said no grand justification was needed for the state funeral.
Gilgamesh grumbled.
"I don't even know who Lea is—why do I have to wait for that? Can't I log out first?"
"Think of it as my friend dying. As her husband, you have duties."
"Whoa! You're using that now?!"
"Did you think the marriage buff was free? If you really wanna go, wait 24 hours after quest completion. If you leave now, you can't come back if something happens in the meantime."
"...True."
Gilgamesh conceded readily.
That was why the guild members hadn't logged out yet. They were excited sightseeing the SF city outside too.
Yugeon was among them, having fun.
Dart seemed bored without any knife fights, as Gilgamesh put it, but since he wasn't complaining, he probably agreed to wait.
Since I'd been the one to conquer the forest, this situation probably felt awkward and out of place for Dart and Gilgamesh.
They didn't know Lea or Ophen either.
I said to the two.
"If you're bored, go sightseeing outside too."
"Should I? No ancient artifact records or art exhibits around? Or tech we could take back to our world and sell."
"It'd be good if you thought about forest expansion and wasteland development too."
"That's my expertise."
At my words, Gilgamesh grinned and stood.
"Then I'll wander around till tomorrow, sightseeing and brainstorming. Call if you need me."
"Sure."
What an enviable guy.
Straight to finding tech worth taking back home—he was the epitome of an entrepreneur.
Once Gilgamesh left, Dart spoke up as if he'd been waiting.
"You're really taking that Lenox guy? How do you plan to handle someone three of us had to pile on to subdue?"
It was natural for Dart to worry about that.
"I'm worried about that part too. But once we leave this realm, his power will weaken compared to before, and it's a promise for letting me use the central system."
"...You proposed it?"
"No way."
Seeing Dart's surprised face reminded me of something, and I couldn't help but laugh.
He'd called me a fool for it.
He was even more handsome in real life, so what was wrong with me being one?
Dart gave me a puzzled look at my laugh, but I continued calmly.
"He demanded it first. His political life ended with the rampage, nowhere to go, but didn't want to die. Apparently, rampage isn't something you can rationally control."
"...If anything feels off, tell me ahead of time. Fixing it after shit hits the fan is too late."
Seeing Dart seriously worry about me made me laugh again, and he furrowed his brow slightly, staring at me intently.
"Why?"
"No, it's just weird having a normal conversation with you. Don't you feel it? Come to think of it, why'd you use polite speech when we first met?"
Dart stuck strictly to the guild's casual speech rule even in reality.
To maintain meritocracy or whatever.
At my words, Dart's eyes widened in fluster, then he quickly looked away and muttered an excuse.
"...I only do that in-game. I'm a normal person too."
"Good grief."
I murmured unwittingly, and Dart shot me a sidelong glare.
It was true Dart had mellowed compared to Midgard. But if I said he'd gone soft, absolutely not.
I'd suffered plenty from Dart in-game—not as much as Gilgamesh, but enough that a brief meekness couldn't erase his ferocious image.
I said honestly.
"Late as it is, that polite speech when we first met shocked me as much as the backstab in the last space war. I thought it was some new sneak attack."
"..."
Dart, who'd been staring silently at his system window, suddenly shot up from his seat and stormed out of the room.
His ear tips were red, I glimpsed.
"?"
I'd expected him to snap back irritably like in-game and braced for banter, but when the conversation just ended, I was left dumbfounded for a moment.
What the hell.
I hurriedly opened the chat window and messaged Dart urgently.
"Hey, why'd you storm out? You're not mad, right? You seemed like a different person then. That's why I thought we should stay close. For real."
["..."]
"Dart? Sa-hyeok?"
I called desperately, but sadly, no reply came from Dart.
* * *
Dart, who seemed ready to log out right then, surprisingly showed up at Lea's funeral and behaved impeccably politely.
Gilgamesh appeared briefly just before the encoffinment ended.
Husbandly duty or whatever.
My joke about family play unexpectedly suited his tastes.
The Fullminak guild members logged out one by one after the encoffinment, before the Linoxa state funeral began.
Of course, I was last.