The Road to Sirius...
They had asked Sirius to show them the way, and yet the Underground Kingdom was not far at all. It stood directly before them—a soaring wall enclosing the realm. So this was the Underground Kingdom.
If Sirius calls it the Underground Kingdom, then the people here know there's a continent above them.
Why live in a kingdom underground, rather than on the Continent? He was curious. More shocking still was that the strength of a mere mountain bandit had proven a match for a top-tier player on the Continent.
"Sirius. We don't need some kind of identification, do we?"
"You do."
"We can't get in without it?"
"Yeah. They'll probably stop us..."
"Then we'll have to sneak in."
In truth, it hardly mattered whether anyone stopped them or not. He had an Invisibility Ring.
"No. Why should we slink in like petty thieves?"
He changed his mind. Yujun drew out the Item Appearance Replication Slate he had used to copy the appearance of the Synchronization Marble.
◈ Option: Replicates the appearance of any item other than equipment. Options are not replicated.
"Sirius. Let me see your identification badge."
"W-what are you gonna do? Uncle said not to give this to just anybody..."
"Are we just anybody? We're friends. Hand it over."
"Sorry... Here."
Put like that, it left him feeling uncomfortably like some kind of thug.
I'm only borrowing it for a minute, so I'm not a thug. Mm.
Sirius passed him the badge. It was astonishingly ornate—diamonds set into it everywhere he looked.
"Are diamonds common in the Underground Kingdom?"
"No. They're super rare."
"Then what's this?"
"There are only three of them in the whole kingdom. That's why."
"...Ah. Right. You said you were a prince."
Sirius looked like nothing more than a rather large rabbit, and Yujun kept forgetting.
Copy a diamond badge like that, and he would be found out at once...
"Hmm..."
Yujun sank into thought. However he looked at it, the thing stood out far too much. Carrying it would invite more suspicion than having no badge at all.
Even so, just in case, he replicated Sirius's badge with the slate. The badge must have counted as an item, for an identical one formed without a hitch.
"But wasn't that slate supposed to get rid of poison? How did you make an exact copy?"
A question that caught him completely off guard. Cold sweat broke out on Yujun.
"...Uh. Well. See. The slate has several functions. And it disappears after one use, right? It's not as good an item as you think."
"It's kind of a waste, using something like that just to make one badge."
Yujun laughed awkwardly at that.
A waste? I've got more than sixty of these slates alone.
The words itched on his tongue, but nothing good would come of saying them.
Yujun and his companions soon reached the kingdom's main gate. Two Black Orcs stood guard there, studying the passersby with fierce, ugly faces.
"Sirius. You go in alone. We'll get in on our own."
"You sure that's okay?"
"You know it'll cause more trouble if we go in together."
"Okay."
The moment Sirius appeared, the guards' eyes flew wide.
"His Highness the Prince?"
"Hhk—!"
"Send word at once!"
The kingdom had believed Prince Sirius missing, and no small number had gone out searching for him. For him to show himself in the flesh like this, an uproar was inevitable.
It was a troubled season. Day by day the Noble Faction grew stronger, and at the worst possible moment their one and only prince had stepped outside and vanished. Calton, king of the Underground Kingdom, let out a sigh heavy enough to cave in the earth. How had it come to this?
The kingdom's power had been split nearly even between the Royalist Faction and the Noble Faction. The collapse of that balance, however, was now only a matter of time. Mysterious figures had attached themselves to the nobles, and not a soul knew who they truly were. Duke Huserden, the highest power in the Noble Faction, surely did.
They must have brought in outsiders.
Without decisive proof, he could not corner them. Even if he tried, the Noble Faction had grown far too strong. Should they rise in some reckless rebellion, a storm of blood would sweep the Underground Kingdom.
No. Even now, slowly, bite by bite, the Noble Faction was gnawing the country away. Not long ago one of the Royalist nobles had turned his coat. The man had grown up beside King Calton from childhood, closer to a dear friend than a mere subject. The blow had landed all the harder for it.
"Haa..."
While the king's worries showed no sign of drying up, a single piece of glad news arrived. Prince Sirius had returned alive.
"Dad!"
"Ahem. Have I not told you to say Your Majesty?"
"I missed you!"
"Where have you been, that you return only now?"
The two rabbits clutched each other tight.
"Uncle took me outside."
"...Outside? Do you mean the Continent?"
"Yes! But I didn't go up onto the surface. You said it was dangerous!"
"Where is Genus?"
The king's eyes flared. Genus was Sirius's uncle on his mother's side.
"I don't know. He dropped me off, said something urgent came up, and left ahead of me."
"Genus, that scoundrel, I ought to just— Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No! I'm perfectly fine! And I lost the orb Uncle Genus gave me, but somebody found it for me!"
"Found it for you? Who?"
At those words, Yujun and Manuela—hidden until now behind their invisibility rings—revealed themselves.
"W-who goes there!"
King Calton jolted in shock.
As the king of a nation, he possessed considerable strength of his own. Players who could be called his better were few enough to count on one hand. That a man like Calton had sensed nothing at all meant the two who had just appeared were no ordinary players.
Even as the tension stood plain on his face, Sirius spoke.
"Dad. It's them."
"Them?"
"They're the ones who found my things."
"That is hardly the point. Why were you hiding and peering in on us? That is what We wish to know."
King Calton fixed his gaze on Yujun. Yujun bowed his head.
"I apologize for dropping in unannounced. I was hiding because I have a proposal to make."
"...What? Did We mishear? You had a proposal, and that is why you were hiding?"
"Ah, just let it go. Are you going to listen, or aren't you?"
"..."
Calton let out a hollow laugh. The human's manner of speech was so absurd he hardly knew what to say. Yujun pressed on, unbothered.
"I have a general sense of how the kingdom is turning. I will help you."
"It is true the situation is poor, yet We have no mind to accept an outsider's aid."
"Then let us make a deal."
"A deal?"
"We each provide what the other needs."
"And what can you do for Us?"
"I will fight for you."
"...Confident in your own skill, are you."
"Shall I show you?"
Yujun did not tread carefully merely because the man before him was a king. He was stronger than anyone else in the palace, for one—and the king, like Sirius, had the look of an ordinary rabbit. The only difference was the crown upon his head.
Honestly, without the crown, telling the two of them apart wouldn't have been easy.
"If you mean to show Us... you intend to prove yourself by fighting Us?"
"Any method will do. Summon the strongest player in the kingdom, or step forward yourself. The result will be the same either way."
"..."
An arrogant bearing—far too insolent a way to address the king of a nation. Even so, King Calton recognized, to some degree, that the human before him was a powerful player.
"We shall judge with Our own eyes."
"Even better. Saves time."
"Dad..."
Sirius looked at the king, worry written across his face.
"...That human is strong. Be careful."
"Sirius. We're not fighting to kill each other. Your dad just wants a look at what I can do."
Even so, Sirius's expression stayed dark.
Look at him. Now I seem like the villain.
There was a reason he had charged in so recklessly it looked as though he had no plan at all. Manuela's imagined prophecy.
It had happened not long after they slipped over the castle gate and infiltrated the kingdom. She had stopped dead, closed her eyes, and—of all things—suddenly begun to prophesy. What she foretold was this.
"A whole crowd of nobles is packed into the palace banquet hall, snapping at each other until it blows up into a real fight. And the Noble Faction wins, okay? Then one of them, a cloak thrown over their head, tells the king to hand over the Transcendent Stone. That's where the imagination just cut off. Well? What are you gonna do? You going?"
Hearing that, Yujun had made up his mind to meddle in the kingdom's affairs. He could have attacked the king outright and taken the Transcendent Stone, but that path was thick with uncertainty. More than anything, it would have been far too cruel a thing to do to Sirius. He had only made it here thanks to the boy. A debt like that deserved repayment.
"Let us begin."
King Calton rose from the throne.
Fwoooosh—!
For a rabbit, the mana pouring off him was tremendous.
King or not, he's far stronger than that bandit chief.
No wonder he offered to fight me himself.
Where did powerhouses like this keep coming from? This time he had been the one to seek them out, and yet the world held even more masters from beyond the heavens than he had imagined. And, as if the timing were arranged, they were always there the moment he went looking. It was almost enough to make him wonder whether someone was helping him raise his level as quickly as possible.
Ah, right. I can't kill him.
At some point he had started looking at the king as experience. This was why old habits were a frightening thing.
Yujun lifted his sword.
"You're a mage?"
"I am. You, I take it, wield a sword?"
"Something like that."
King Calton began to cast. That was when Yujun moved.
Thock!
He brought the sword crashing down—and stopped cold. The flat of the blade rested against the top of Calton's head. He could have taken the king's life on the spot.
Calton's eyes flew round.
"I think that settles it?"
"...What trick did you use?"
"Huh?"
"A skill of the Blink line?"
"No. I just ran over."
"...A lie. Had you done so, We could not possibly have lost track of your movement."
"Believe it if you want. Either way, you'll admit you lost?"
"..."
King Calton nodded, his face complicated. Losing was bitter enough. To be defeated before his son's eyes cut deeper still.
"So my skill is proven?"
"It is."
"And you'll accept the proposal I made?"
"We have yet to hear what it is you want."
"The Transcendent Stone."
"..."
Calton faltered at the words. How did that human know of the Transcendent Stone? Knowing the name was one thing—but where had he heard that Calton himself possessed one? He had never spoken of it to anyone but Genus.
Has Genus been running his mouth? He isn't the sort...
The shock lasted only a moment. The king reached his decision at once.
"We will give you the Transcendent Stone. Only once the matter has been seen through properly. Before then, We cannot hand it over."
"Of course. I have no intention of grabbing the reward and running, either."
"Grabbing the reward and running? What is that?"
"It exists. That sort of thing."
And so the deal was sealed.
Get one more Transcendent Stone, and I can use it on a ring then.
Thanks to No-Pay Casual Gamer, he had already obtained two level 600 Mythic rings for nothing. He knew exactly where a Transcendent Stone belonged.