The Hidden Authority in the King's Bedroom
The hesitation didn’t last long. A quest window had popped up.
No one could ever have imagined there would be enemies bold enough to assault the royal palace.
And yet, the palace is under attack right now, and people are fleeing in utter chaos.
You are currently an adventurer inside the royal palace.
Help the palace and distinguish yourself, or avoid the danger and escape.
🎁 Reward: ?
So I’m supposed to earn merit... but “escape” being listed means it’s dangerous enough that running is acceptable?
Normally, if a quest explicitly mentioned escaping, it meant there was no penalty for bailing.
Which, in turn, meant the enemy was that dangerous.
Well, yeah. If someone's bold enough to attack the royal palace, they’ve got to be pretty strong no matter who they are.
Tae-hyun looked around.
Far off in the distance, royal palace soldiers were sprinting over with grim faces, and explosions were going off all over the place. The nobles were running for the hidden safe shelters inside the palace.
If things are this chaotic... could we pull it off?
Ed-an’s suggestion suddenly sounded very plausible.
In a situation like this, they really might be able to ransack the palace.
“Ah!”
While he was still debating, Tae-hyun suddenly remembered something and shouted.
Ed-an, standing beside him, flinched in surprise.
“What is it?”
“No! My items!”
Tae-hyun spun around and bolted.
He was heading straight for the blacksmiths’ workshop.
The place where the items being made for him had been left behind.
“Aaaagh! Run! Run!”
“What the hell is even going on?!”
The area where the blacksmiths were working was even more chaotic than the kitchens.
It had been hit directly by the attack.
“Khhkhhkh... slaughter every last lackey of the king in this palace!”
Warriors in black armor had appeared and were swinging their swords at anything in sight.
Some of the items the blacksmiths had been making were smashed to pieces, and even the anvils and furnaces had collapsed with thunderous crashes.
Some unlucky blacksmiths had gotten caught in the middle of it and turned gray before they could even run, logging out on the spot.
And among those warriors was the player Burford.
This is going absurdly well!
Burford had to hold back the grin threatening to spread under his helmet.
The job wasn’t done yet. He had to keep looking dignified.
This assault on the royal palace hadn’t happened by chance.
It was a complicated scheme involving several factions.
Antonio, uncle to Damiano II, had joined forces with the Sadiq Church, worshippers of the God of Fire and Destruction, and together they had attacked the palace.
Burford was a player who had joined the Sadiq Church and changed classes into one of its holy knights.
The Sadiq Church was unlike the other churches. It wasn’t widely known, and getting in wasn’t easy.
It was a secret cult.
And now, after diligently carrying out its quests, the payoff had finally arrived.
Attacking the royal palace itself!
“Hahahaha! Sweep it all away! Wipe everything out!”
Burford rampaged with the other knights of the cult, drunk on excitement.
Anything he saw inside the palace, he stuffed straight into his bag.
It felt like he was finally being repaid for everything he’d done up to now.
Once this quest is over, I’m editing the footage and starting the stream!
He hadn’t revealed any of his quests properly up until now.
If word leaked too early, people might interfere.
But once the palace assault quest was cleared, it wouldn’t matter anymore.
There was no question the forums would explode for a while.
Burford clenched his fist.
Is that the Punglimhwasan Guild?
After smashing up the place and turning everything into a wreck, Burford glanced around.
He already knew from forum posts and streams that blacksmiths, chefs, other crafting classes, and artists had all been clearing quests for the king.
To Burford, though, that was just bonus income.
If he got lucky, he could take it all for free.
“Th-this is...!”
Burford trembled in shock when he spotted a ring lying between the shattered furnaces.
A ring packed with terrifyingly good options.
Normally, any items found during the quest were supposed to be handed over to the NPC officer above him.
But this ring...
It was really good.
Burford quickly looked around, then secretly pocketed it.
As long as he didn’t get caught, it was fine.
“Move out! Find the king!”
“Yes, sir!”
And then, acting perfectly natural, he moved along with the other knights.
“Aaaaargh!”
Tae-hyun let out a roar of fury.
He was standing in the middle of the ruined courtyard.
The anvils and furnaces were all smashed, and the bodies of fallen NPCs were strewn across the ground.
If someone had seen him, they would’ve assumed Tae-hyun was enraged by the sheer tragedy of the scene.
Ah, what a righteous man!
But of course, that wasn’t why he was angry.
My items!
Everything the blacksmiths had been making was either destroyed or missing.
The attackers had obviously taken them.
“M-Mr. Tae-hyun...”
Ed-an spoke up cautiously from beside him.
It was obvious at a glance that Tae-hyun was furious.
“What?”
“If not now, there won’t be another chance. Shouldn’t we be searching the palace?”
“Hoo...”
Tae-hyun let out a deep sigh.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
Now that the items were gone, at the very least he had to secure the Authority.
Ed-an had been right—if they let this chance pass, it felt like it would never come again.
But who the hell actually attacked the place?
If he found out who did this, he’d never forgive them.
“What?”
Tae-hyun was stunned by the whisper.
It had come from Choi Sang-yun.
“So... it wasn’t just NPCs or a faction. There were players involved too?”
His voice had turned savage.
Sang-yun shrank back before replying.
“A guy named Burford?”
“Thanks.”
He would hunt him down and get everything back.
Tae-hyun ground his teeth.
How dare some bastard flip over his table.
There was no way he was letting that slide.
Still, thanks to Sang-yun’s whisper, he at least understood the situation now.
Antonio, uncle to King Damiano II, had joined forces with the Sadiq Church and attacked the palace.
And Burford was one of the holy knights belonging to that church.
The Sadiq Church wasn’t an officially active church on the continent.
It was a cult that had once caused a massive disaster, been attacked in retaliation, and then vanished.
A heretical order that used vicious methods.
Naturally, the people within it were no joke either.
“They’re the ones who need to be careful.”
Tae-hyun spoke in a murderous tone as he walked down the palace corridor.
Just thinking about the lost ring still made his stomach twist.
“Right. Be careful.”
There was no one to be seen in the palace halls.
Only the sounds of fierce battle echoed in from outside.
Ed-an and Tae-hyun had slipped in quietly during the confusion.
“So where are you planning to search first?”
“I gave some thought to which place in the palace would be the deepest within. My guess would be... the king’s bedchamber.”
“The king’s bedchamber?”
“Yes. What place could be farther in than that? And surely a place like that would have plenty of valuable things in it.”
“How do you know that?”
“Fufu. My lord, who do you think I am? I’m the Great Thief Ed-an.”
Ed-an made a little circle with his fingers.
Meaning he’d looted quite a lot in his day.
Tae-hyun nodded.
“Fine. Let’s go there. The king won’t still be inside, right?”
“Of course not. The attackers have come to kill the king. There’s no way he’d still be sitting in his bedroom. He’s gone with the royal guard to a secret shelter. This is a perfect opportunity!”
Ed-an spoke passionately enough that even Tae-hyun found himself convinced.
You were not detected in a difficult situation.
Your Stealth skill has increased.
The two of them used Stealth and moved carefully through the halls.
It wasn’t as if the palace was completely empty.
Every now and then, soldiers or servants would come hurrying by.
Whenever that happened, they immediately used Stealth and avoided them.
“Is it here?”
“It seems so...”
The two pressed themselves flat against the corridor wall and peeked at the door.
Lavishly decorated, it looked important at a glance.
“Can you open it?”
“Fufu. My lord, who do you think I am? The Grea—”
“I don’t care if you’re the Great Thief or the Great Constipation. Just open it.”
“...Yes, sir.”
Looking dejected, Ed-an placed a hand on the door.
Click, click—
“Hm...”
“What is it? Can’t open it?”
Tae-hyun was already considering pulling out the Ancient Hammer.
Sure, it would make a lot of noise, but a door like this could definitely be smashed down.
“No. It’s open.”
“Impressive.”
“Actually, it wasn’t locked.”
“...Let’s just get inside.”
The two carefully opened the door and slipped in.
As expected of the king’s bedchamber, the inside was luxurious.
Even the bed was far from ordinary. It was dazzling with ornamentation and jewels.
“Search fast and get out.”
“Fufu. Leave it to me.”
Ed-an’s fingers twitched.
He moved quickly, checking every place where the Authority of Archisus might be hidden.
He was so thorough that Tae-hyun couldn’t help admiring him.
Ah... so when I steal things in the future, this is how I should do it to be more efficient.
That was the kind of movement it inspired.
Under the bed, behind the paintings on the walls where hidden safes might be concealed, the spaces beside the tables...
Ed-an searched every last one without missing a thing.
While he did that, Tae-hyun sat down in a chair.
There was writing paper on top of the table.
Blank writing paper, with nothing written on it.
A letter from the king?
Tae-hyun picked it up, thinking he might as well collect it in case it triggered some useful quest later.
At that moment, a brilliant light burst forth.
Not from the paper—but from the cloth draped over the table.
“?!”
You have discovered an ancient cloth engraved with the Authority of Archisus.
The Archisus Church was once a sect that suffered a devastating blow and disappeared.
To become the true Avatar of Archisus, you must gather the scattered Authorities of Archisus and restore the god’s lost power.
The Authority of Archisus lies scattered throughout the world in many different forms.
Do not dismiss ordinary objects at a glance.
They, too, may contain that Authority.
If you are qualified, absorb the Authority.
🎁 Reward: Acquire the Authority of Archisus
Divinity is insufficient.
“...!”
Several message windows appeared at once.
Tae-hyun quickly organized the information he had just gained.
So it was true—there really was an Authority of Archisus here.
It was just a shock that it hadn’t been stored like some sort of treasure, but had instead been used as a tablecloth.
Who the hell stores something like this that way?
Still, finding it was good—but at his current level, Tae-hyun didn’t have enough Divinity to absorb it.
I’ve got 760 Divinity right now... so I’m not that far off.
Stats like Divinity and Fame were easier to raise than things like Strength or Agility.
The problem was that the methods for raising them were limited.
What quests were there again that raised Divinity...?
For now, Tae-hyun hurriedly stuffed the cloth into his bag.
Then he called out to Ed-an.
Ed-an currently had his head shoved under the bed, rummaging around.
“Ed-an. Get over here.”
“Hm? There’s a hidden safe under here—”
“I found the Authority.”
“...!”
Ed-an scrambled out in a panic.
His handsome face was a total mess, covered in dust.
“Truly?!”
“Yeah. It was the cloth covering the table.”
“Of course! If you wish to hide a tree, hide it in the forest! A truly exceptional method!”
“No... I don’t think anyone stored it there with that level of intent...”
Ed-an was full of admiration, but Tae-hyun wasn’t all that impressed.