Kanisia Lora (1)

I still didn't know much about her, but if loyalty alone was the measure, she was undeniably an attractive prospect. Of course, wanting an alliance and actually forming one were two different things. To become allies, you had to be at least on the same level.

First things first — I need to hit 3-star myself.

Back in Indigo, I'd thrown myself into the Relay Dungeon and eventually succeeded in killing Hwaryongwang, the city's ruler and strongest Master. Almost no one even knew I existed, which meant that unofficially, I was now Indigo's strongest.

But an unofficial "Strongest in Indigo" business card was worthless here in Chinnimoni. The Master standing right in front of me — Kanisia Lora — was far stronger than I was. If the other Masters and Fairies around here were anywhere near her caliber, then the weakest person in Chinnimoni was, once ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠again, me.

Fuck me, is this Re:Zero? Back to being the weakest already.

The world was vast, and people stronger than me were as numerous as grains of sand.

Still, it'd be a waste to just walk away. Might as well leave an impression.

As Kanisia Lora brushed past me, I casually leaned in her direction. Thud — my forearm knocked against her shoulder.

"Ah, sorry about that."

"Hm? Nah, it's fine."

She waved off my apology without a second thought.

"Hmm..."

"Is something the matter?"

Then, without warning, she folded her arms and started studying my face with open curiosity. And then she asked:

"Hey, are you a Master?"

"Pardon? Ah — yes, I am. How did you know?"

I was startled by how quickly she'd clocked me. What the hell? Could she see other people's status windows too?

"You're crazy fucking handsome."

The tension drained out of me at once. Just as I'd looked at her and figured she was a Master or a Fairy, she'd looked at my face and known I was a Master.

Shit... I got all worked up for nothing.

"Hmm... but I haven't seen your face around. Who are you with?"

"Who I'm... with?"

What was this about? Affiliation, all of a sudden?

"Huh? Don't tell me you're unaffiliated? You don't know Paladin or the Gabri Family?"

"Uh... I'm sorry, but I've never heard of either. I arrived in Chinnimoni this morning, actually. And this is my first time visiting."

"Oh, really? Hmm... is that so?"

At the news that this was my first visit, Kanisia looked at me with genuine interest. Why was she acting like this all of a sudden?

I was planning to leave an impression, but... this wasn't what I expected.

Why was she looking at me like I was interesting? Honestly, it was a little unnerving.

"Ah! I haven't even introduced myself, have I? I'm Kanisia Lora. I serve the Blood Axe King, the ruler of Chinnimoni."

"I see. A pleasure, Miss Lora. I'm Alan Han."

"Hmmm~"

After introducing herself, she folded her arms again and regarded me with that same intrigued gaze.

"Alan Han, huh... I'll remember that. We'll be seeing each other again soon."

"Pardon?"

"Well then, bye, handsome~"

"???"

Having said her piece, Kanisia Lora waved and disappeared into the café. She was the kind of person whose personality you couldn't quite pin down.

Having confirmed the status window of Kanisia Lora — one of the Blood Axe King's subordinate Masters — and having successfully left an impression on her, I returned to the hotel with Aquaril.

"So he's confident he can beat anyone who walks in? That's a first."

I let out a hollow laugh as I looked over a pamphlet titled A Master's Guide to Chinnimoni.

I'd tipped a staff member in the hotel lobby, hoping to extract information about where the dungeons were and what factions besides the Blood Axe King had a foothold here. But the moment I opened my mouth, the employee handed me a pamphlet. Everything I needed to know was in there, apparently.

And after checking it, I had to admit the employee was right.

It laid out, in painstaking detail, where Chinnimoni's dungeons were located, their difficulty ratings, what monsters appeared in them, and what you needed to prepare for a raid. On top of that, there were photos introducing the princes and princesses under the Blood Axe King, plus brief descriptions of the Paladin and Gabri Family that Kanisia Lora had mentioned earlier that day.

Paladin and the Gabri Family were Master organizations operating independently in Chinnimoni, unaffiliated with the Blood Axe King. Well, they'd never even been mentioned in the game, let alone appeared, so they probably weren't anyone important.

"This is way too different from Indigo, isn't it?"

Where Hwaryongwang had locked down the dungeons around Indigo to prevent any rival powerhouses from emerging, the Blood Axe King was taking a completely different approach. The fact that I could get this kind of premium intel so easily left me deflated.

"As you said, Master, the Blood Axe King does appear to be a man overflowing with confidence. To release such valuable information so freely..."

Aquaril, who had been looking at the pamphlet beside me, nodded in agreement.

"Well, it works out for us. We can head straight into a dungeon without wasting time. Let's turn in early tonight and hit one first thing in the morning."

"Which dungeon do you intend to raid, Master?"

"Hmm... this one looks about right. Clowns' Grave."

I pointed to a dungeon listed in the pamphlet.

Clowns' Grave was a D-rank dungeon with a recommended level of 45. The monsters that spawned there were Undead Pierrots — creatures that looked like people in clown makeup. They fought with ambushes, traps, and poison, which made them fairly troublesome, but their durability was quite low, so they were easy enough to kill.

Traps, though — those I can spot like nobody's business.

Normally, for a dungeon loaded with traps, you'd want a Fairy with a Thief class to make the raid go smoothly. But a ranker of my caliber could find traps by instinct alone, even without a Thief Fairy. With all the hours I'd logged, this was nothing.

Just grab a few extra antidote potions and we're good.

"Master."

Aquaril, who had been studying the pamphlet closely, called out to me.

"Hm? What is it?"

"It says you have to pay to raid a dungeon."

"What?"

"It's written here."

"Let me see."

Aquaril showed me the pamphlet. Just as she'd said, raiding a dungeon required an entrance fee, which went toward Chinnimoni's development fund.

The fee for an F-rank dungeon was 500,000 gold, E-rank was 1,000,000 gold, and the D-rank dungeon I needed to raid cost a staggering 3,000,000 gold.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me..."

I scowled as I read the details. I still had over 1.9 billion gold, but I planned to keep raiding dungeons to reach 3-star and push my stats as high as they would go. Getting them to the level I wanted would burn through an insane amount of gold.

Three million gold per run... that's 30 million for ten runs, 300 million for a hundred?!

The fees were genuinely insane.

Wait — am I actually broke?! I'm not a rich bastard at all?!

1.9 billion gold was a fortune, no question. But it was only a fortune to ordinary people. To a Master, it was pocket change.

Running dungeons as a business... humans really are terrifying.

In the game, you just raided dungeons. As long as you had the stamina, you could farm them infinitely. Reality didn't work that way. The kings and queens who ruled the cities claimed the dungeons as their own and charged enormous fees to use them.

The greed of humans who dared to call a dungeon — a place crawling with endlessly spawning monsters — their personal property... as a fellow human, it was enough to make me sick.

Learned something useful today, damn it.

I should take a page from these people. Someday, when I became king of a prime city, I'd charge dungeon fees myself. What? Gold that printed itself? Yeah, I wasn't sitting that one out.

"Ah, Master. There's something else here."

"Now what?"

Aquaril, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who had gone back to reading the pamphlet, spoke up.

"It says dungeon fees are waived if you join the Blood Axe King's service."

"The Blood Axe King's service? Why the hell would I work under that guy... wait a second."

This bastard dies if I don't help him anyway, right?

In the game's story, the player always fell into the trap set by Palos's Bird and ended up saving the Blood Axe King. But this was reality. I didn't have to follow the game's story beat for beat. If I just stood by and let the Blood Axe King die, he'd be dead.

If that happened, I could join his service and, before long, I'd be unaffiliated again. So I join the Blood Axe King's faction, use the dungeons for free, and when he dies, I quietly pocket his assets too?

...Not bad.

If I could just swallow my rebellious streak for a little while, there was a lot to gain. And I was a man who could suppress that streak if there was profit in it. The weak had to use whatever they could if they wanted to survive. That was the law.

Having settled on a direction, I looked at Aquaril.

"Does it say anything about how to join his service? Conditions, anything like that?"

"Um... it doesn't go that far. It just says to visit the Blood Axe King's palace."

"That so? Then tomorrow we go to the palace."

"You intend to join the Blood Axe King's service, Master?"

"Yeah. I can't exactly drop three million gold every time I want to raid a dungeon."

Three million gold converted to a whopping 300 gems. That was enough to summon a Fairy!

"Ahem. Aquaril?"

"Yes, Master."

I cleared my throat and rested a hand on her shoulder. Soft — I poked a finger into her chest.

Aquaril's face flushed as she caught the signal.

"It's a bit early, but... if we're visiting the palace first thing in the morning, we should get to bed soon, right?"

"I... think so too."

"Shall we head to the room, then?"

"Yes, Master..."

I led a now-docile Aquaril toward the bedroom.

After filling up on the hotel breakfast, Aquaril and I headed straight for the Blood Axe King's palace.

"What business brings you here?"

"I've always admired and respected His Majesty the Blood Axe King."

"Pardon?"

The soldier guarding the palace entrance looked baffled. His eyes said, What kind of idiot is this?

Doesn't even recognize a Lee Jung-jae-level spy performance... well, different world, so of course he wouldn't. Anyway, enough joking around. Time to get to the point.

"I may be weak for now, but I wish to put my abilities to use ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in service of His Majesty's reign."

He was just a soldier, but you had to put on a good face even for people like this. That was how reputation got built, brick by brick.

"Ah, I see. Are you a Master, by any chance? Then the person beside you..."

"Yes, she's my Fairy."

"Understood. Welcome. Mild! Escort these people to the training grounds!"

"Yes, sir!"

Since he had to stay at the gate, the soldier handed me off to another soldier named Mild, who led me toward the training grounds.

Training grounds, huh... so they're going to test me, I guess?

I could guess why we were going to the training grounds instead of the Blood Axe King himself. If I were in his position, I'd want competent, useful subordinates rather than random nobodies. And for that, a test was essential.

"Hah!"

"Hyah!"

"Hutcha!"

Not here, then?

We arrived at a training ground where soldiers were drilling, but the soldier escorting me didn't stop. He kept going until we were further inside.

In a wide training yard, a man and a woman were sparring. A hulking man nearly two meters tall swung a shield as large as his own body at the woman. She moved with feline ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠agility, slipping past the shield before thrusting her spear.

Huh?

The woman with the fluttering pink hair looked familiar.

"Princess Lora! I've brought an applicant!"

"Hm? An applicant? Oh?"

"Ah..."

At the soldier's shout, the woman who'd been sparring with the man — Kanisia Lora — spotted me and smiled.