Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Blacklisted Nobles and the Prince's Fury
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"What? Blacklist?"
"Yes... that's how it is. It says you caused a disturbance at the Illusion Tower..."
"What the..."
At that moment, a thought flashed through the Logos Count's mind.
A while back, he had sent one of his family's knights to visit the Illusion Tower.
That was the only thing that came to mind.
"...So you're saying I can't buy it now? Do you have any idea how long it took me to get here?!"
"...We're sorry, but there's nothing we can do. Until the Illusion Tower lifts the blacklist, we can't sell it to you."
"You mere merchants dare to..."
- If it's not gonna work, get out already!
- Count! There are tons of people waiting behind you!
- You think you're the only one? We've all come a long way to wait here!
Grumbles poured in from the nobles behind him.
If it were just dealing with merchants, he could have pushed through with his status.
But he couldn't handle the complaints from all those nobles.
"Waaaaaah— My, my Maple Leaf Taaaale—!"
"Ha..."
"What is this nonsense? Blacklist?!"
"Father! They'll all sell out at this rate!"
In the end, the count had to pick up his tantrum-throwing youngest son and leave the merchant guild.
His wife and eldest son wore dazed expressions as well.
Of course, the count was no different.
"Count! Logos Count!"
As they exited the guild, people were waiting for him.
His relatives.
"Because of the Logos family, we're blacklisted too now!"
"How are you going to take responsibility for this? I was waiting here since last night!"
"I've been waiting months for this! What are you going to do about it?!"
His relatives were on the blacklist too.
"K-Knight, fetch Sir Phenil right nooow!!"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "W-Wow..."
"I had no idea so many nobles would invest this much."
Hina's eyes went wide at the pile of money.
Unbeknownst to us, Maple Leaf Tale had skyrocketed in popularity among the nobles.
Starting with that annoying knight who showed up, various noble houses had visited the Illusion Tower directly.
Some were polite, but others were as obnoxious as that first knight.
We put all those people on the blacklist so they couldn't buy Maple Leaf Tale.
"But is this really okay, Rye? The nobles might retaliate."
Rain asked, looking worried.
That part should be fine.
For one, we had Galliard.
And if we shut down Maple Leaf Tale because of them, the other players already enjoying it would turn on them.
They'd be the ones who had to bow their heads.
Knock knock.
And right on cue, the blacklisted nobles came to the tower.
"I'll apologize in person for this. It seems our family knight made a mistake. Please lift the blacklist."
"S-Sorry! I was exhausted from rushing over late at night!"
The first visitors were the Logos Count and his knight.
The very knight who had picked a fight with us first.
Putting even his extended family on the blacklist had hit home.
The knight who had thrown a fit earlier was now prostrating himself flat on the floor.
"I'm begging you like this. My kid's been a real pain about it every day."
What to do with them.
I could take the money and lift the ban, but it didn't sit right with me.
"We'll think about it. You can't buy one right now anyway, so go home for now."
We couldn't sell even if we wanted to right then.
The second batch had sold out in a single day.
With our limited manpower at the tower, producing artifacts took a long time.
I planned to send them off and decide later, but the count grabbed the closing door in desperation.
"P-Please, I beg you! Just once..."
"If you keep this up, rumors might spread that the next production is delayed because of you, Logos Count."
"A-Ah..."
The count let go with a despairing look.
He collapsed limply to the floor—it was almost pitiful.
But that didn't soften my heart.
He was begging now, but he'd always looked down on the illusion magic school before.
Not just other mages, but many nobles dismissed illusion magic too.
For ages, whenever magic came up in high society, they'd trash and belittle illusion magic.
That had tanked the illusion school's reputation, leading to our poverty.
Why do people insult those who have nothing?
I couldn't understand it, but those types were everywhere.
Still, seeing those who used to scorn us now bowing felt good.
At the same time, disgust welled up at how quickly they flipped like a pancake.
"Did it go well?"
"Yeah. No need to worry. They won't mess with us anymore. What about the Tower Master?"
"She went in to play the game. She's been skipping sleep for it lately. It's fun, of course."
"Hmm... Game addiction isn't good, though. We need to hurry with the next production..."
With so few people in our tower, making artifacts took quite a while.
After setting up the main server, we just needed to imbue illusion sharing magic, but that was tough.
Illusion sharing magic was advanced—only high-rank illusion attribute holders like me or Hina could use it.
Clone magic and such didn't help with mass production.
"At this rate, it'll take forever for updates or the next game..."
We needed a solution.
Specifically, more high-rank illusion mages.
"Why don't we get any new recruits at our tower? Don't other towers scout high-attribute talents?"
"We do go scouting. But they all refuse to join the Illusion Tower. You're the first in about eight years, Rye, and no one's come since."
"Ah..."
They could refuse, huh. Should've done that back then too.
Maybe I should bail now while I have money.
"So I was thrilled when you came, Rye. Hehe."
I shook off the bad thought, remembering my first day.
"So there are quite a few talented people out there?"
"Yes, there are."
"Then let's go recruiting again. We've got money now—let's take a carriage."
"Sounds good!"
And so the employee hunt began.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The world of Maple Leaf Tale. Victoria Island.
Nicknamed <Empire's Light>, she was hunting for levels like any other user.
Her class was cleric.
The least popular second-job change across all classes.
When choosing mage second jobs, cleric was described as a support character that aids party members with heals.
But <Empire's Light> skimmed through the dialogues and picked cleric without thinking.
Unable to reset her character, she gritted her teeth and started raising it.
The second-job attack skill, Holy Arrow, was total garbage.
Its damage was so low she had to spam the first-job Magic Claw for hunting.
The heals and buffs were top-notch, sure, but that was it.
Other classes got flashy new attack skills after second job, zipping around maps.
Here she was, still trudging along with Magic Claw.
She was sick of that clunky skill.
Then <Empire's Light>'s mindset changed when she noticed something in the skill description.
A description she usually skipped.
One day, she idly read Holy Arrow's tooltip and spotted a line.
[Deals massive damage to undead or demon-type monsters.]
That line.
And even the heal skill mentioned damaging undead monsters specifically.
<Empire's Light> headed straight to an undead monster hunting ground.
There, she discovered a new world.
"Whoaaa?! Th-This is it—!!"
She'd envied other classes' flashy second-job skills for so long.
But now, with heals and Holy Arrow, she could hunt just as well.
While power-leveling like that.
"This is my spot."
"Oh, sorry..."
"Wait, you're a cleric?"
"Yeah?"
"Wanna party?"
"Party?"
A party invite from another user one day.
Up to then, parties were rare for her.
When <Empire's Light> bought Maple Leaf Tale, it wasn't famous yet.
She'd lucked into the first batch via Lipert's recommendation.
With only about 500 users, running into others in hunting grounds was uncommon.
Even so, cleric was plenty desirable for parties.
"S-Sure, why not."
After her first party, <Empire's Light> often partied up.
Surprisingly, healing as a cleric's main role was pretty fun.
When the second batch released and user numbers exploded, party play and boss raids took off.
Naturally, veterans like <Empire's Light> who'd raised cleric from the start got lots of invites.
"Jebit, wanna go kill Balrog?"
"Jebit, you promised to party with me today."
"Jebit, party with me too!"
"No, she promised me!"
She had become a named user in the Maple Leaf Tale world as "Jebit."
"Hawawa~? Don't fight, everyone—I'll party with you all! Jebit can't stand users fighting!"
...Along with a drastically altered personality.
For reference, Maple Leaf Tale let you choose character gender, and "Jebit" was female.
Voice was customizable at creation too.
Since it was all illusion, differing from real gender didn't matter.
Of course, most new to games didn't bother.
"Fufufufu... Today was tiring after three boss kills... Gonna solo hunt a bit then log out..."
The named user <Empire's Light> was solo hunting one day.
She'd leveled via parties and raids, but solo hunting—the game's core—was needed too.
Then,
Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew!
"Eek! This is my spot— My money—! Stop stealing my exp—!"
A user suddenly appeared and swept the monsters in Jebit's spot.
Nickname: <xPowerArcherx>.
The hunter—a second-job archer—used Wind's Poem to hunt at blinding speed.
Mere cleric Jebit couldn't keep up.
All her prey and exp stolen.
No matter how much she yelled, the user wouldn't leave.
"Hah! Fine! So dirty and sneaky, I'm moving! Like stepping in poop on the road!"
Jebit decided to relocate.
Annoying, but clerics had no choice.
"Ugyagyagyagya! I'm done—!!!"
But the user followed to the new spot, stealing exp again.
This was blatant griefing.
"Eeeeek...! Why don't they ban trash like that—! What are the GMs doing—!"
Jebit returned to town.
Users flocked to her as usual.
She vented about the absurd incident in an agitated voice.
"You too, Jebit? Happened to me recently."
"Me too! Total jerk."
"Got hit by it myself."
Turns out, many had similar experiences.
Mostly slow-hunting second-job classes like clerics.
"Ugh... Can't they punish those users?"
In Maple Leaf Tale, you couldn't damage users or uncover real identities.
Meant for pure adventure, but it left no way to punish griefers.
"That's straight-up harassment..."
"Ban 'em from the game."
"Should tell the Illusion Tower?"
"Yeah! They have to handle this!"
"But if we piss off the Illusion Tower, we might get banned instead. Heard the nobles who messed with them got blacklisted..."
Talk shifted to the Logos Count and blacklists.
Town regulars seemed to log in just to chat, not adventure.
Anyway, it only affected clerics and similar classes.
Too minor to sway overall user opinion.
No one would bother reporting to the Illusion Tower themselves.
"Jebit's logging out now. See you tomorrow, everyone!"
But Jebit was different.
She couldn't stomach the injustice.
Logout music played as the illusion world faded.
"Those guys... I'll get them banned somehow."
A man set down the maple leaf artifact and stood.
He called for someone in a furious voice right after logging out.
"Y-Yes, Your Highness! What is it?"
"Prepare to head to Trinity tomorrow. I'm going to the Illusion Tower."
"W-What? Why the Illusion Tower all of a sudden... If something happens again, His Majesty will..."
BAM!
He slammed the desk, cutting off the minister.
"I'm going, so why so much talk? Gotta become like the other ministers to learn?"
"S-S-S-Sorry! I'll prepare right away!"
The imperial minister jumped and replied.
"Out."
"Y-Yes!"
The minister fled on shaking legs.
"Trash like that... Needs to be blacklisted for good. Bastards..."
The named user <Empire's Light> in Maple Leaf Tale.
The one with the highest recognition was none other than the empire's third prince,
Rikal Leonius—the infamous "playboy prince."