The Expedition Club and the Hidden Piece Hunt
I pulled out what was left of the whetstone and worked it hard along the edge of Dawn Guardian. There was somewhere I still needed to go, and depending on how that visit went, I had a feeling I'd be putting this blade to use.
If the Expedition Club turns out to have deep ties to Those Who Recite Sins, that is.
I could always wrap things up peacefully. But would it really go that way?
That thought brought the Hidden Piece to mind. That was the real prize here.
As far as I know, there's a Hidden Piece sitting in the capital's underground tunnels.
I caught myself licking my lips. Something like that could fetch a fortune, and it could even heal conditions that were all but incurable.
The problem was how rare it was.
The Empress has lung cancer. Catch it early and it's manageable enough, but give it more time and it turns lethal. And an Emperor who loses his Empress?
I ran through the game's storyline in my head.
After the Empress dies, the Emperor loses his mind, stops attending to affairs of state, and the palace dissolves into a free-for-all among the powerful nobles. Then the whole thing gets exposed to threats from the outside.
So nothing good came of the Empress dying. And more than anything else — the Empress herself.
The Empress is insanely hot, too. There was only one illustration and one model of her, but she was so fucking sexy I used to jerk off to them. Ha. What a life.
I wanted to see her for real. To find out how those breasts felt, how that skin looked up close.
That was when the Goddess started complaining.
Ghk — no they didn't. Goddess, that hurts my feelings!
Heh… heeung, Goddess Mama.
Even getting chewed out like this felt too good.
I wanted her to step on my dick and trash-talk me while she did it. Or my aunt, for that matter.
I took a breath and settled myself.
Anyway, there was no need to rush. I still had things that needed doing.
"Alright."
I loosened up with a few light stretches and headed out. Dawn Guardian went into the ring, and I started down the corridor.
Everything I looked at felt brand new.
People's clothes were impossibly luxurious, a pleasant melody drifted through the halls without pause, and the lighting, the carpets, the sculptures — all of it was so lavish and beautiful I wanted to haul the whole lot home when I decorated my own place.
Hahh. Should I have asked for this stuff when they asked what I wanted as a reward? No — I'm the lord of Weverpool, aren't I? I'll just commission it all with my lordly authority. Heh.
I wandered the corridors and the lobby for a good while, then shrugged. My honest take:
Living in the Imperial Palace is nice and all. But it's really not my taste…
How to put it. Like I couldn't breathe? Maybe it was just that I didn't know anyone here.
Even the people had this staged, put-together quality that rubbed me the wrong way.
I started to leave the palace.
Legion Academy.
I've still got unfinished business.
The big fire had been put out, but I needed to go hunt down anything that might still spark into a smaller one.
A palace guard stopped me as I tried to leave.
"Hold on. Where are you headed?"
"Just going to look around outside. If I spot any of those cultists, I'll beat them down."
I summoned my sword and showed it to him. The guard rummaged through his coat.
"Then take this with you."
He handed me an Imperial Palace pass. A medal made of gold, and it looked ridiculously cool.
Whoa. Wasn't this the kind of thing they only handed out for winning Olympic gold? Look at this inflation.
"Oh, even the pass is gold…"
"Hero Lashu Leonhart is an honored guest of the Imperial Palace. Please do not lose it."
"Got it. Thanks for your hard work!"
I headed for the Academy. Maybe it was the VIP treatment, but I was in a great mood. Even my shoulders sat a little higher.
Is this my peak? No — don't put a ceiling on yourself. There's no end to show and prove!
Even the wind felt good. I hummed under my breath as I cut across the streets.
The area around the palace was still more or less intact. A few blocks out, though, you could hear the wailing.
Doesn't sit right.
I arrived at Legion Academy. The place was barely standing, half of it already gone. Cadets who should have been at the guard post were out helping with the wreckage and collecting the dead.
Which meant the guard post was empty. I wasn't sure that was a great idea.
I slipped inside. Watching the cadets work, something about it felt familiar.
Wasn't that supposed to be exclusive to the Korean military? Even the K-army doesn't hire laborers — they just have the soldiers pull weeds and do the grunt work themselves.
It struck me all over again that people live the same way everywhere. Though some things really didn't need to be the same.
These were hero cadets, no less. The kind of talent that would one day become proper heroes and put their skills to use, or shift into strategy and tactics and stand against foreign tribes.
And they were using resources like that for this. Harsh.
I asked a cadet who was taking a break nearby, keeping it casual.
"Hey, what's going on?"
The cadet wiped his sweat and answered.
"The terrorist incident. The Vice Principal went missing, and then the main building suddenly collapsed. It's awful."
"Uh, how do I get to the Expedition Club?"
"Ah, are you a guest of the Expedition Club? Head to the annex building and go to the farthest corner on the right."
"Thanks."
He pointed me there without any fuss. Lucky break.
Compared to the other buildings, which were twisted into ugly wrecks, the annex was untouched.
Of course it was. Xia Jinping and I had fought in the Vice Principal's office in the main building.
I arrived at the Expedition Club's door and knocked.
"Who is it?"
Just a voice. These little shits weren't even going to open the door?
Knock knock knock!
I just kept knocking. After a moment I heard movement, and the door opened.
"Hey, I said who is it?!"
The second the door swung open I drove a front kick into him. A cadet with his hair spiked straight up let out a grunt and went flying.
Crash!
I walked in. The cadet I'd just dropped was dripping in luxury brands from head to toe, as far as I could tell.
"What the — what's going on?!"
The other cadets who jumped up in a panic were more of the same. People who dressed in designer labels the way other people breathed.
Well. Fine. People can do that.
The room was bigger than I'd expected. Cadets who looked like they came from serious money were drinking, and a nearby chalkboard was a mess — probably from talking through the incident.
"Who the hell are you? Are you insane?!"
Someone threw the question at me. I ignored it. Instead I climbed up onto a table and looked down at them.
Alright. Were these the guys Abeiru had been buddy-buddy with?
Abeiru, hanging out with these types? Would people like this have even treated Abeiru like a human being?
It might have been a prejudice, but looking at kids decked out in luxury brands, with even their wine glasses gold-plated — would they really have treated someone like Abeiru, who had nothing to show off, as a friend? I doubted it.
"Hey. Which one of you is the boss?"
"What?"
"I said, which one of you is the boss? You don't have one? This is all the Expedition Club amounts to?"
"Yeah. That's me."
A bald Eastern cadet stood up out of nowhere. Something about his face was just punchable.
"And who are you?"
"Abe Hideki. President of the Expedition Club. What's with the thuggish act?"
"Thuggish, my ass. Anyway, another guy with a ridiculous name. Great."
My head was already spinning. I didn't even want to guess what kinds of names were still waiting for me down the road.
"What?"
"Nothing. Let me ask you something. What's your relationship with Those Who Recite Sins?"
Abe went on guard the instant I asked. He glared at me through those slitted eyes.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because what I do next depends on your answer. Oh, I won't kill you. I'll send you to prison, which fits your name just fine."
"…Are you saying you're going to persecute our religion? Chikushou!"
"Persecute your religion, my ass. What, so giving human rights to 2D illustrations is granting digital citizenship now?"
Abe Hideki looked thrown. One of the other cadets drew his sword and stepped forward, all puffed up.
"The hell are you, you little shit? Where'd you even come from?"
I just looked at him. Then I said one word.
"Kneel."
Thud!
I brainwashed him on the spot and dropped him to his knees. The rest of the cadets started shaking as they stared at me, even more terrified than before.
Now that was a nice picture.
I looked back at Abe. Sweat was pouring off his completely hairless scalp like rain.
"…The organization backing us from behind is Those Who Recite Sins."
"That so? You know they're the ones behind this whole mess, right?"
"I do."
"Then they got their hooks into you too, didn't they?"
I finished the question with a smile. Abe shook his head.
"Th-that's… not true!"
"Whatever. If you're so sure you're clean, then come with me."
"Where do you think you're taking me?"
"This whole incident was caused by Those Who Recite Sins, so you're going to the Imperial Palace Investigation Department and sitting through an interrogation yourself."
"Why should I have to do that?"
Was this guy not reading the room? Or was he asking because he was a rich kid and genuinely couldn't understand why he'd have to do something like that?
If it was the latter, I was going to get a little pissed.
Anything I do with you is fine, Goddess. You're my woman.
I smirked and locked eyes with Abe.
"Or I cut off one of your legs and drag you there. You've got to prune anything that might grow into a seed of evil, right?"
I didn't say I'd pull it out by the root. If I were pulling something out by the root, it'd be the root of his dick.
That'd be fun too, actually. Not that I knew if he even had enough down there to pull.
Abe swallowed hard at the threat. The cadets around him just stared at him, like they were begging him to save them.
It was almost funny. Kids with money and power, and this was the best they could do.
These guys are supposed to be heroes? Don't make me laugh.
They were probably only trying to become heroes for the money anyway. Sigh. The future of this country, folks.
I was roasting the Expedition Club in my head when Abe made up his mind.
"…Fine. I'll go get investigated."
"Smart choice. Oh, and don't even think about hiring a legal team and pulling some slimy stunt to wriggle out of this."
"Understood."
"One more thing. You know Abeiru, right? You guys are close."
Every cadet in the room tilted their head at once. What the hell was this?
"Abeiru? Who's that?"
I could feel a sigh coming on.
"You don't know him? The guy who talks all weird, like 'what'd ya do-no' and 'I'll koroshi ya-no'? You people started that, didn't you?"
Come to think of it, these guys talked completely normally. Wait. What?
The cadets actually started laughing at me. Like I was the joke.
"What kind of speech pattern is that? Sounds like a total loser!"
Fuck. Now I was the one getting laughed at for no reason. Then one of the cadets cracked up.
"Oh, wait. There was this one guy who tried to act like he was tight with us so we'd let him in, got completely rejected, and turned into a total joke! Is that who you mean?"
Finally, someone who actually knew him. But the story itself was… kind of…
I had nothing. So the whole "we're close" thing had been complete bullshit. The Expedition Club, the study-abroad year — all of it had just been seasoning he'd sprinkled on to look impressive.
"…I'm not asking anything else. Somehow guys like that are a scientific constant, whether it's here or back in the real world."
I shook my head, then called to Abe.
"Hey. Come on. And if you try anything stupid, you know what happens, right? Things are just going to get more fun."
We left the Academy together. Abe clicked his tongue as he looked at me.
"You make a pretty convincing threat. Almost like a real hero."
"A threat? Want me to show you what a real threat looks like? I can make it a field trip."
"…Never mind."
I hadn't even bothered brainwashing him and he still had a mouth on him. Part of me wanted to snap a leg just for that, but these guys had only been receiving support. They might not have had anything to do with the cult itself, so I had to be careful. Better to leave this one to the palace.
I handed Abe over to the guards and left him with a warning.
"Hey. Don't even think about using your parents to weasel out of this. As long as I'm here, I'll be watching every move."
"Kh."
"Heh… heh-hooooooh!"
I let out a deliberately obnoxious laugh just to piss him off, then even waved.
After that I headed for the underground tunnels. There was definitely an entrance around here somewhere.
I rubbed my hands together and cut down a deserted alley. I rounded a corner, and there it was.
An entrance that looked like a huge well, tilted at an angle.
Found it!
I was about to head straight down when a guard stepped into my path.
"What's your business here?"
"Ahem."
I pulled out the gold medal that served as my pass.
"I'm patrolling in case any of those cult fanatics slipped through. I'll be going into the tunnels, and I won't be long."
"Ah, a guest of the Imperial Palace! Understood."
I went down through the entrance. The temperature dropped the moment I stepped inside.
Which made sense, given that it was underground.
Thud, thud. Hollow, hollow, hollow.
My footsteps echoed off every surface and came back as a strange, warped reverberation.
I was properly inside the tunnels now.
"Alright. Shall we get started?"
I grinned and started walking, nice and easy. Let's wrap this one up just as cleanly.