The King and the Qu...eens (1)
The King and the Qu...eens (1)
I'd left the base for a bit, but no monsters had attacked while I was gone.
Or rather, any that did show up were shredded by the magic I'd set in place.
Thanks to that, the base was completely intact, and we could settle in for the night right away.
- Woooong...
But we didn't skip the watch.
Sure, we had undead and spirits scattered around—Lee Ji-yeon's and mine—plus my magic and observation, but getting too lax inside a dungeon was asking for trouble.
We'd decided to split the watch evenly: I'd take the first half, and Lee Ji-yeon the rest.
I sat in front of the heating magic tool at the center of the base, staring into space, my lips moving soundlessly.
After that brief uproar, silence returned to the camp.
Outside, monsters tore each other apart in the struggle for survival, but inside, it was utterly still.
"Hoooh..."
"Kuuul, kuuuul..."
In the stillness, I could hear several people breathing.
Lee Ji-yeon's steady breaths drifted from the tent behind me.
And next to me, from a camping chair, a jumble of sleep-talk filled the air.
The fairies had decided not to go into the tent. They'd pulled up chairs beside me and fallen asleep right there.
Just like before, they were crammed onto one chair, practically glued to each other, and not satisfied with that, they'd each grabbed one of my spirits and were deep in the storm of their slumber.
- Woooong...
Normally, my spirits would have been glittering with light, but now they'd gone dim and faint, like they were in power-saving mode so as not to disturb anyone's sleep. It was almost comical.
'They said they'd depended on each other from the moment they were born. No wonder they're so close.'
I'd heard the gist of the fairies' story.
They'd been born right here in this dungeon.
The fairies born before them had died off one by one, and in the end, only these children were left, struggling to survive together.
This was a Grade 2 Dungeon.
It must have been brutal for fairies with no real combat ability, but thanks to a fairy's naturally subtle presence, they'd somehow managed.
But recently, that crazy lizard monster—the one Lee Ji-yeon beat to a pulp—had been relentlessly pursuing them.
'Must have been its detection ability. They got caught by that.'
It probably picked up on a fairy's presence by chance, and from then on, it hounded them mercilessly.
To a monster, a fairy is a delicious, sparkly elixir that flits through the sky.
For a long time, it chased them, and the moment they were finally cornered and about to be wiped out...
In a moment of desperation, Rio had fired off a random distress signal. I'd picked it up, popped in, and barely managed to save them. That was the whole story.
'They got lucky.'
Pure luck. There was no other way to explain it.
So many things had fallen into place.
For me, someone who was usually drowning in bad luck, it was a genuinely novel experience.
And thanks to that, the nine fairies were still together, piled onto that one chair, snoring away.
- My king! My king, why are you closing your eyes?
- My king has six wings... Gasp! My king's wings are changing!
- But why isn't there a knight by your side?
'Ugh...'
But there were still questions I couldn't quite resolve.
Why in the world were they suddenly calling me their king?
When I asked, the only answer I got was, 'Because you're the king.'
They acted as if I'd asked a human why they were called a human.
'...Am I actually a fairy?'
Still, in the end, the fairies clearly viewed me as one of their own.
My expression grew complicated without me even realizing it.
Putting the clues together, it seemed almost certain I was what you'd call a pseudo-fairy.
The idea of thinking of myself as a fairy was a bit embarrassing...
But from the perspective of my species, it gave me a rather strange feeling.
Ariel had once asked me, 'By any chance, has the Savior become aware of their own species?' And, 'The characteristics of a species can function as a form of Innate Talent.'
She'd kept dropping hints within the bounds of the Tower's Restrictions.
She was telling me my unique ability was a racial talent.
'Mana Affinity.' It had to be my innate ability as a fairy.
It aligned perfectly with the trait of fairies, who are born with a high affinity for mana and its attributes.
I could understand it.
As narcissistic as it sounded, it made sense. A Tower Master wouldn't pour that much support into me just for my potential alone.
There had to be some kind of insanely special secret of my birth.
Then what about... 'My All-Rounder?'
All-Rounder. A unique ability in that ambiguous category—both an all-purpose type and a technique type.
I just couldn't see it as a species-based talent.
But Ariel had indirectly refuted that thought. She'd said, 'The Savior has not yet recognized their own species.'
She was saying I hadn't yet realized my species, that there was more to me than just a fairy, that there was something else.
And the only other thing that could rival Mana Affinity was my All-Rounder.
'...Just what kind of mental gymnastics do I have to do to think of All-Rounder as a species-based trait?'
It was a question with no answer. Nothing came to mind. My head felt stuffy, like I was trapped under a pitch-black night sky.
- Rustle
That was when I sensed a presence.
I didn't bother to go on guard.
"Hyaaam... It's time. Thanks for the hard work."
The tent flap opened and Lee Ji-yeon trudged out.
[Did you sleep well?]
"Yes, I slept great, thanks to you."
Still looking a bit sleepy, she rubbed her eyes and plopped down onto the chair beside me.
Not the chair where the fairies were sleeping.
Thankfully, no fairies were crushed beneath her rather generous rear end.
'...Looks like she's not actually upset about it, thankfully.'
Even a subtle observation check showed no awkwardness in her attitude.
It seemed she'd dismissed the "queen-consort" talk as nothing more than children playing around.
A sigh of relief escaped me.
[I'll be heading inside, then.]
The rest of the watch was Lee Ji-yeon's job now.
'What should I do first tomorrow?'
Of course, I wasn't going to sleep.
To be precise, I was sleepy, but I had no intention of actually going to sleep.
I didn't want to sleep, and even if I did, I'd just have nightmares.
I was about to get up when it happened.
"Junior, can you actually manage to sleep by yourself?"
[Huh?]
Lee Ji-yeon's words made me freeze in place.
[W-what's that supposed to mean?]
Flustered, my mouth opened and closed on its own.
It felt less like being caught off guard and more like she'd hit the nail on the head.
I didn't let it show, though. Outwardly, I just shrugged nonchalantly.
[How old do you think I am? Jokes like that are too childish...]
"I heard it from Junior Ellia. She said that kid can't fall asleep without someone by their side, so she asked me to take good care of you."
[Tha—]
[Ellia...]
My counter was shot down instantly.
She'd already heard the truth.
I was truly happy that Ellia worried about me enough to say that, but at the same time, a wave of absolute mortification washed over my whole body...
"...You seriously can't sleep alone?"
[......]
I buried my face in my hands and gave a tiny nod. Lee Ji-yeon looked down at me with an unreadable expression.
"...Come here. I'll put you to sleep while I'm at it, along with the vitality infusion."
[...You don't really have to, I don't even need to sleep...]
"Ho there. In a dungeon, you have to rest when you can."
I slept soundly that night.
.
.
.
For the rest of the time, we swept through the dungeon, wiping out any monster that appeared, turning them into undead, and sending them scattering in all directions.
I contracted any spirit that came looking, organized them into squads, and hunted down the remaining monsters.
Two days passed like that, with Lee Ji-yeon and me essentially commanding a small army.
At some point, the seemingly endless flood of monsters began to slow.
In just two days, we'd completely wiped out every monster in the nearby area.
'Even a decent hero probably couldn't have pulled this off.'
It was an incredible achievement. If I had to put it into words, it was only possible because Lee Ji-yeon and I could both wield necromancy and spirit arts at a level far above the norm.
Even if a top-grade hero had entered, they never could have blitzed through the dungeon and slaughtered monsters at this speed.
The Association didn't divide combat into Anti-Personnel, Anti-Monster, and Anti-Army categories for nothing, and Anti-Army Combat-types among superhumans were rare for a reason.
In a fight against overwhelming numbers, Anti-Army Combat superhumans could truly exert their strength.
Necromancy was a skill that only grew more powerful as the battle intensified, so long as the caster's own skill could support it.
And Lee Ji-yeon was a necromancer whose skill was more than sufficient.
As for me, I was a spirit caster constantly increasing the quantity and quality of my spirits. Spirit casters didn't consume much mana to begin with, and my mana reserves were already enormous.
We were essentially auto-farming the monsters, so of course their numbers were thinning out.
Thanks to that, my original spirits had also maxed out the experience points needed for their ascension. Now all I had to do was get Professor Liana's help to perform the ascension once we were outside the dungeon.
[Is this where you used to live?]
"Yeah, right here! It was this tree!"
While clearing the dungeon, we also went to see the fairies' original home—a tree standing quite close to the dungeon's core. It was the old home they'd been forced to abandon when the lizard monster hunted them.
The fairies wandered around the area with expressions full of nostalgia.
I observed the massive tree they'd lived in, and my expression turned odd.
[There was a Fairy Tree here.]
The tree the fairies had lived in was a Fairy Tree.
"Hmm... and it's been dead for quite a while."
To be exact, it was a dead Fairy Tree. Stroking the withered trunk, Lee Ji-yeon delivered the final verdict.
"If it were still alive, it would've drawn quite a bit of attention... You really managed to live here."
"Hing... Queen-consort, can't you revive the tree...?"
"Wah, Queen-consort... Ahem. If its vitality were just depleted, it might be possible, but for a tree that's already dead, there's nothing to be done..."
"Hing, hing..."
Their survey of the area was brief. Soon enough, the fairies were clinging to the dead tree, letting out little whimpers.
Back then, they'd had to leave it behind to survive, but seeing it again must have brought all their longing rushing back. The sight of them was truly pitiful.
A bitter taste rose in my mouth.
[...Let's take it with us. Even if it's dead, there might still be some use for it.]
I gently peeled the whimpering fairies off and stuffed the entire Fairy Tree into my subspace.
"Woaaah...!"
The fairies' mouths fell open as a huge hole opened in midair and swallowed the tree, roots and all.
"...Is that seriously a spatial magic? That hole's way too big...?"
[Yep, it is.]
Lee Ji-yeon tilted her head with a dumbfounded look. I suppose the subspaces she knew couldn't open that wide. I turned my head away and put on a brazen expression, then changed the subject.
[Ahem. Did you guys also pick these up?]
I pulled out an object that had come into my subspace along with the Fairy Tree and the mound of dirt. A transparent glass bottle filled with a sloshing pink liquid. There were a few other bits of miscellaneous junk buried nearby as well.
"Ah, yes, that's right. We picked them up and buried them here a long time ago."
[Why?]
"They looked pretty."
[Ah, I see.]
She was right. Aside from the glass bottle, the other items were sparkly and looked pretty on the surface. There were even some Mana Crystals. Maybe they'd picked up the ones monsters dropped when they died.
I shrugged and activated my Observation... or more accurately, my analysis function.
...Normally, this was something the Status Window's Measurement could handle, but I had to use an Authority to do it.
'Wait, the Status Window was set up by the Tower Masters. So maybe Measurement actually is just Observation?'
Correcting my assumption, I ran the analysis.
'...What in the world.'
The analysis results made my expression turn strange.
"What's its effect? Why that face?"
Beside me, Lee Ji-yeon asked curiously, clearly waiting on my analysis. Even the fairies, who'd been pretending not to care, perked up their ears.
I racked my brain for a moment, then shook the glass bottle with an awkward expression.
[Well... A Potion of Being Hated?]
"Huh?"
Lee Ji-yeon and the fairies all had question marks floating over their heads.
I could understand why. I'd had the exact same reaction after analyzing it. The information the analysis gave me was that baffling.
If I expressed it in the style of a Status Window, it'd look something like this.
[Player Correction System: Measurement]
▶ Measurement: Potion of Being Hated?
▶ Elements: 「Potion」 「External Perception Manipulation」
▷Detailed Description: Upon ingestion, it severely distorts the way others perceive you for a set period of time.
It was a drug that could manipulate perception itself.
It was probably something akin to an artifact automatically generated by the dungeon. Still, its limits were clear. It certainly couldn't change past records or anything like that. At most, it would probably just twist what someone was perceiving in real time.
But even that alone was incredible.
The problem was, its effect was so utterly useless. The expression "all show and no go" fit it perfectly.
Still, there might come a time when it could be used. For now, I carefully tucked it away into my subspace.
.
.
.
Once everything that needed doing was finished, Lee Ji-yeon and I didn't waste any more time. We gathered up the fairies and left the dungeon.
Of course, there was a complication: regardless of their intellect or disposition, the fairies were lifeforms born and bound to the dungeon. By the dungeon's restrictions, they shouldn't have been able to leave.
- Wooooong...!
"Woah!"
But that wasn't a problem for me, since I had the Authority of Space. Since they couldn't pass through the real exit, I just tore a hole in the wall and made a new one.
The fairies' eyes sparkled as they waved their hands wildly at the vortex that opened in the air.
"...Is that seriously Spatial Magic?"
[Yep.]
So the doubt in Lee Ji-yeon's expression only deepened, but I paid it no mind. Truthfully, it didn't matter much if I got caught now. I had enough power and influence now that I wouldn't just be pushed around.
When we stepped out of the dungeon, it was evening, and the ground was painted in hues of orange.
[Senior, it's late. Would you like to have a meal before you go?]
"Ah... are you sure it's okay?"
[Of course.]
[You helped me out immensely. I'd like to treat you to dinner at least.]
It was already a bit past dinnertime. I brought Lee Ji-yeon and the fairies back to the mansion.
We'd ended up spending a day longer than originally planned, but I'd already told them I might be late by a few days, so it wasn't a big deal.
We arrived at the mansion. And just as I'd thought, being a little late didn't cause any issues.
The problem erupted from somewhere else entirely.
"My king, is this person a queen-consort, too?"
"Heh heh, that's right, I'm his... wait, what do you mean 'too'?"
[?]
Hong Yeon-hwa, who'd come out to greet me, blinked her eyes.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Lee Ji-yeon
●●●●●●●○○○(72▷74/100)
｢Affection｣ ｢Rock｣ ｢Dependability｣ ｢Stability｣