After the Banquet
Yujun and his party had scarcely finished enjoying the banquet before they were granted an audience with the Emperor — not even thirty minutes had passed.
The Empire's finest mages and knights fixed the group with razor-sharp stares. Straight ahead, seated at his ease, was the Emperor himself.
They were walking the long stretch of red carpet when a knight stepped out and barred the way.
"You will approach no farther."
"Sure."
Yujun took the Emperor's measure.
Like the Black Knights, the Emperor seemed to be of an orc bloodline mixed with human — and yet he had held on to his youth better than most orcs.
Pretty strong, then.
Players did not age. More precisely, they aged at a crawl, so reading how many years someone had lived from their face alone was next to impossible.
"A pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise."
"How dare you—!"
Several knights bristled at Yujun's disrespect. The Emperor raised a hand and stopped them.
"It's fine."
"But..."
"Are you questioning my word? That man is no power the likes of you can handle. Stand there and watch."
"..."
At the Emperor's firm tone, the knights fell silent.
"What is it you want? I hear you asked to see me."
"There's a force about to invade the Empire. You know that?"
"...Hmm."
The Emperor glanced at the mage standing at his side.
Haren.
She was a player capable of seeing the future, and at the same time the finest mage in the Empire.
Haren offered a bitter smile.
"That matter has already been foreseen. The preparations, therefore, are already firmly in place, human."
Yujun shook his head at the mage's words.
"The Empire's strength alone won't stop it."
"And how can you be so certain?"
"A hunch? You said it was foreseen, so you already know, don't you?"
"...Yes."
This time it was the Emperor who answered.
"The Empire stands on the brink of ruin. Haren's prophecies have never once missed, so that future is as good as fixed. We will do everything we can — but I know we cannot stop the Empire's fall."
"Your Majesty..."
Mages and knights alike let out stricken sighs. For the Emperor himself to seal the Empire's doom — was that not a verdict that left not even a scrap of hope?
The Emperor paid no mind to the reactions around him.
"So. Are you saying you will help us?"
"I'll keep the Empire from falling."
"I know you are strong. But can you, alone, deal with the enemies who would bring the Empire to ruin?"
"It's not like the rest of you are just going to stand there."
"True enough. Still, you never answered my earlier question. What do you want in exchange for your help?"
"Items."
"Items...?"
"Yeah. Give me items."
"What sort of items do you mean?"
"The best of what the Empire has, if you don't mind."
"Listen to this bastard!"
A knight who looked well on in years roared.
In stark contrast, the Emperor remained perfectly composed.
"Enough. His words have merit. If the Empire's fall can be prevented, what does some mere item matter? I can prepare something that will satisfy you. However... I wish to see your skill with my own eyes."
"A spar, then? Fine. Who's my opponent?"
"Haren, and the captain of the Imperial Knight Order. The two of them."
"Both of us are to step forward?"
Haren asked, as if she could not understand.
The Emperor nodded.
"If he is to save the Empire from crisis, he ought at least to be able to handle the foremost expert of each imperial field without breaking a sweat. Wouldn't you agree?"
He looked at Yujun as he asked.
"Obviously. Even if every orc in here piled on, I wouldn't mind."
"...Hm."
Even the Emperor was briefly thrown by words that bordered on arrogance.
"Th-there's no need to go that far. Two should be more than enough to gauge your skill properly."
The mage Haren and Conte, captain of the Imperial Knights, stood side by side. Yujun's claim that they could all come at once had clearly stung their pride; their eyes burned with zeal.
"Starting now."
Yujun moved.
He had no intention of holding back. If he meant to persuade the Emperor — and to claim a good item — he had to show them overwhelming strength.
Yujun vanished from sight.
Haren and Conte startled and whipped their gazes around. Conte, whose physical ability was at least the better of the two, caught sight of Yujun appearing right in front of him — but it was already too late.
WHAM!
Yujun slammed the flat of his blade into Conte's helm with brutal force. The Mythic-grade helmet crumpled, and Conte's massive body went down.
Haren hastily cast Blink and opened the distance.
Yujun used Flash.
Before Haren could even breathe a sigh of relief, the edge of his sword was at her throat.
Yujun let the invisibility drop and spoke.
"Want to keep going?"
"N-no."
He lowered the sword and looked at the Emperor.
"That enough?"
"...Give me a moment."
The Emperor closed his eyes.
He, too, was a player of considerable martial power — roughly Conte's equal. And yet this... he could not even replay the fight he had just witnessed. Yujun had moved too fast for the eye to follow.
At first he had assumed some technique like Blink. It was not. Had it been, Conte would have answered in time. Without a shred of mana, on raw physical ability alone, Yujun had produced that speed — and Conte had been helpless against it.
The Emperor was not the only one shaken.
The knights and mages who had expected Haren and Conte to smash their arrogant guest's nose in could not close their mouths at the impossible scene before them.
"The Captain lost?"
"How is this even..."
"Oh — the Captain fell? No... he was defeated..."
The result could not be denied. It was no false illusion.
The Emperor acknowledged it.
"There is no question you are strong."
"So you'll give me the items?"
"If you successfully stop the invasion, may I give them to you then? Should you take the items and simply leave..."
"I get what you're saying. Then let me make a counteroffer. Give me one item up front. When the job's done, I'll take more on top. How's that?"
"...You mean you want several?"
"We're talking about stopping a country this big from being wiped out, and you were the one who asked what some little item mattered. If you're giving them anyway, give more. And if the items raise my strength, that's good for the Empire too, isn't it?"
"...Very well."
It might have looked as if Yujun were strong-arming a one-sided gain, but this was a deal that could only benefit both sides. Even if he walked off with every item the Empire owned, so long as he stopped the second foreign invasion without catastrophic losses, the Empire still came out ahead. Knowing that, the Emperor nodded without resistance.
"Mind if I see the items first?"
"Of course."
The Emperor called over an orc with a dark stubble of beard. He whispered a few words in the orc's ear; the orc answered in a booming voice and vanished.
The orc returned with some ten items.
Three of them caught Yujun's interest. More precisely, three of them were useful.
A Luck Imprint Scroll. A Long-Aged Elixir. Neutralized Behemoth's Blood.
He had already used Behemoth's Blood, so it was an item that could not be used a second time. He had even given what remained to Paranet, which meant he had no need of it now.
If I end up with it later, better to give it to Manuela.
Yujun looked at the Emperor.
"You don't happen to have a Synchronization Marble, do you?"
"What is that?"
"You don't know?"
"I do not."
"Then never mind. Give me this one first."
What Yujun chose was the Luck Imprint Scroll.
Having reaped enormous returns from a Weapon Arts Imprint Scroll, his eyes naturally went to imprint scrolls first. The elixir tempted him, but what mattered most right now was raising his luck. When he later consumed the Long-Aged Elixir, the higher his luck, the better his odds of drawing a good trait.
Grade: Ungraded
Option: Increases Luck. The imprint scroll is inscribed upon the status window. Imprint scrolls with duplicate effects cannot be used.
Why hasn't the Emperor used something this good?
Did he simply not understand how valuable luck was? Or had he already used one, and left this duplicate untouched?
Either way, it worked out for Yujun.
Never thought I'd get to raise my luck again.
"The remaining items will be yours once the matter is settled. Is that acceptable?"
"Yeah. Don't worry — just keep them safe."
Confidence poured off Yujun, and the Emperor felt himself relax. The man was arrogant, without a scrap of courtesy to be found, but his skill was beyond doubt. And if a player like that was going to fight alongside them, there could be no sturdier ally.
"So when does the prophecy come due?"
"Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? What time?"
"Early morning, I am told."
"That's basically no time at all."
"We were grasping at straws. Had you not arrived when you did, there would have been no stopping the Empire's fall. Of course, your being here is no guarantee we stop it either. Haren foresaw the Empire's destruction, after all."
Yujun moved to the guest chamber with his party.
Genus shot him a thumbs-up.
"What are you doing?"
"Saying you're impressive."
"How?"
"I knew you were strong. I didn't know you had that kind of nerve in front of an emperor."
"Come on. That's nothing worth talking about."
He didn't see the point of standing on ceremony with an emperor. It wouldn't make the situation better, and it wouldn't make it worse.
It's a virtual space anyway.
Even if it weren't, this sort of formality didn't suit his temperament. This wasn't Korea. It was the Tower of Infinity — a world where strength decided everything. Martial power was power itself. Bowing was something the weak did.
Time passed.
The second foreign invasion. The moment when that second option would lock in on its own was drawing near.
Soldiers gathered in droves near the walls.
The Empire already knew where the second foreign host would strike — and with good reason. From the east, storm clouds rolled in, and beneath them a pitch-black legion took position.
What race the enemy belonged to, though, was impossible to tell. They were utterly unfamiliar. To Yujun's eye, an Earthling's eye, it was as if the aliens he had only ever seen in science-fiction films had stepped into the real world. Grotesque tentacled monsters were the baseline; there were creatures whose shapes shattered every scrap of common sense. The sort of things that looked as if a mere touch would contaminate you.
The imperial soldiers stood dumbstruck.
"This is insane..."
"How are we supposed to fight that?"
"Those are monsters, right?"
"Where the hell have things like that been hiding?"
Watching the black tide surge in at speed, it felt less like an army and more like a calamity — a natural disaster bearing down.
While everyone tensed, the Empire struck first.
So many flames filled the sky that "vast" hardly did them justice. The heavens dyed themselves a furious red. Heat scorched the air and baked the ground.
The black legion advanced through that heat. And advanced again.
Then the fire magic slammed into the earth.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! KRA-KOOM!
"Kieeeek!"
"Kyak! Kyaaak!"
Detonations laced with the screams of a few monsters rolled across the battlefield. The flames spread fast, and the grassland was swallowed in fire.
Then, at a certain moment, the Empire's players felt the world stop.
A second that felt like eternity passed.
Every fire was extinguished.
"What...?"
"Huh?"
As if the fire magic had never been cast at all, it vanished without a trace.
The second foreign host closed in at speed.
Panicked, the Empire's mages each unleashed their highest-output spells. The result was the same. Every spell was swept away at once.
Genus, standing beside Yujun, was aghast.
"Canceling that many spells at once... is that even possible?"
"I don't think it's a cancel."
"Then what?"
"No idea. They used some skill, probably."
"...A skill like that exists?"
"That, I don't know either. One thing I am sure of — there are far more skills in this world that we don't know than ones we do."
"Then what do we do? Magic doesn't seem to work at all. Should the knights go out?"
"Charging in blind won't solve anything."
"Then?"
"We find what's causing it, and we remove it."