Chapter 320: Ryanga (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 320: Ryanga (2)
Alon headed toward the South Gate, where the Ronobelli Jungle lay, feeling awkward as he was showered with praise like, "We believed in you! You're the hero of the village!"
The moment he arrived, the explorers there also began to sing his praises.
He even received a free escort to the explorer camp from a local tout.
By now, he had begun to realize, at least vaguely, why this was happening.
"You are truly incredible, Marquis. How you gathered mercenaries and knights like that to clear the dark clouds hanging over the United Kingdoms... I can only watch in admiration."
"...Is that so?"
"Yes! Thanks to you, Marquis, life has become so much easier lately!"
"That is... a relief."
As Alon responded awkwardly to the explorer, who was laughing with genuine admiration, Evan, walking beside him, spoke quietly.
"...Is that for real?"
"Do you really need to ask to know?"
"No, I just wanted to be sure."
"You're the one who posted the official notice..."
"Ah."
Evan let out a low exclamation.
Penia, who had been following behind, wore a puzzled expression. Her brow furrowed and relaxed repeatedly as if she couldn't wrap her head around it, before she finally spoke.
"...So, it's like this? The Marquis posted a notice just thinking he’d take in some subjects, but people completely misinterpreted it on their own, and that's how we ended up here?"
"Exactly."
"...This whole situation?"
"Without a single error in your assessment."
"...And it turned into this?"
"..."
Alon muttered hollowly, wondering how on earth such a rumor had started. Behind him, Penia glanced at the explorer.
Even though he was clearly working for free, the man had a wide smile on his face, seemingly delighted just to be of help to the Marquis of Palatio.
Can someone really be that happy working for free? she wondered. But then she thought:
"...Well, isn't it a good thing anyway? Even if it's distorted, it doesn't matter as long as it's a good rumor, right?"
Alon nodded at her words.
She was right. A good rumor wouldn't hurt his image.
However.
"The United Kingdoms only seem to be holding together because of people like you, Marquis. Hahahaha!"
He felt a sharp sting.
Mainly in his conscience.
Why on earth did such a ridiculous rumor spread?
Regardless of his internal turmoil, he had no intention of making a confession to the chatterbox explorer.
He had already received plenty of cheers and applause back in Caslot. If he spoke up now and the truth that it was all a misunderstanding got out, he didn't think he could handle the cold stares that would follow.
Thus, Alon chose to remain silent rather than correct the false rumors.
Thanks to that, Alon was able to reach the explorer camp comfortably by late evening.
And then.
"The Marquis of Palatio is here!"
"Why is the Marquis here?"
"No way—"
Even at the camp, Alon was subjected to the "You're the hero of the village!" treatment and couldn't bring himself to lift his head.
...If I actually had those intentions, wouldn't I be embarrassed?
The next day, after that strange thought crossed Alon's mind.
'...I really hate it here.'
He inhaled the incredibly humid air deep into his lungs.
[Kyuuu—]
[Mm—this is nice.]
He looked back and forth between Blackie, who was shaking his body repeatedly as if he hated the dampness, and Basiliora, who looked refreshed as if he were enjoying the humidity of his hometown(?).
"Marquis."
"What is it?"
"I just thought of this now that we've come this far. Did we forget something?"
"Forget something?"
"Yes."
"...Like what?"
"The Blue Ghost. Weren't we supposed to bring him along?"
"Ah."
Only then did Alon remember the existence he had forgotten, letting out a low exclamation.
"...I completely forgot."
"Well, he looked happy there, so I guess it's fine."
"...I suppose so."
While Alon recalled the image of the Blue Ghost looking incredibly happy when he last saw him, Penia, who had been listening, asked a question.
"If we don't have that Blue Ghost person, how are we going to get to where Ryanga is?"
"Oh, that's a good point," Evan chimed in immediately.
However, Alon spoke calmly.
"Don't worry about that."
Though the memory was a bit hazy now, he still remembered roughly where the King of the Hundred Ghosts was located.
'...Well, I just have to go to the deepest part of the forest anyway.'
With that thought, he prepared to leave.
"Let's get moving. It'll take some time, so it's better to move quickly."
They set off toward the heart of the forest where Ryanga was.
* * *
As Alon hurried through the forest, he overlooked two important facts.
The first was that the place where Ryanga—the King of the Hundred Ghosts—resided was further away than he thought.
But this part was fine. Since he already knew her location, it wouldn't take too long as long as he didn't get lost.
The problem was the other fact.
On the path Alon had to take to meet Ryanga, the King of the Hundred Ghosts...
There were an almost countless number of mutants.
Of course, at this point, mutants weren't a major threat to Alon. He possessed enough power to handle even a swarm of them.
However, the issue was sustainability.
Alon could deal with the mutants. Even if they came in droves, he could sweep them away if he didn't care about attracting more nearby.
But there was a clear limit to how many times he could do that.
And this forest was crawling with them. To use a game analogy, he encountered a mutant every five steps.
That was why, when he first entered the forest and encountered a mutant, Alon briefly regretted not setting up the "Offering Tribute" system from the game.
...That is, until a mysterious entity suddenly appeared and crushed the head of the mutant lunging at Alon.
The girl, wearing a goblin mask and possessing long white hair that reached down to her waist, vanished immediately after smashing the mutant.
A few minutes later, when another mutant appeared, the girl reappeared, crushed its head again, and vanished.
This happened about five more times.
...Naturally, Alon knew exactly who this person was—the one who kept saving them and then disappearing into thin air.
"...Marquis."
"What is it?"
"That's Ryanga, right?"
"...It seems so."
"You mean the friend who saved you last time, right?"
"Yes."
Of course, Penia also noticed Ryanga's presence. It was only natural.
...In fact, it would have been stranger not to notice. This wasn't a cartoon. It was impossible not to recognize someone just because they were wearing an ordinary mask that wasn't an artifact.
So.
When she struck down yet another mutant.
"Ryanga."
Alon called out to her just as she was about to vanish.
"H-gaak—!"
Ryanga let out a strange sound.
Her limbs stiffened as if she never expected to be caught, which stirred a strange emotion in Alon.
"...I-I'm not Ryanga?"
'It's Ryanga.'
'It's definitely Ryanga.'
'That's her.'
Seeing her deny it without even trying to disguise her voice, the entire group had the exact same thought.
But Ryanga seemed determined to hide her identity until the very end.
"Ahem—hmmm—if you cross this forest and head toward the hill over there, you might meet a person with beautiful white hair??"
She said this in a rather brazen tone and then vanished.
"...What was that?"
"I think it's best to just follow her lead for now."
At Penia's suggestion, Alon nodded and continued walking.
* * *
Marty.
He was currently a soldier of the Divine Land created by the Marquis of Palatio.
However, his true identity was an operative belonging to Duke Colban's unit in Calliban. He had infiltrated to gather information when he heard the Marquis was building the Divine Land.
Of course, he wasn't doing anything particularly special. He was purely there to gather intelligence and hadn't been assigned any other mission. Infiltrating the Marquis of Palatio's Divine Land was a high-risk situation in itself.
Nevertheless, the reason his superior had embedded him as an operative was the suspicion that the Marquis might be up to something. The Marquis was a man with the power to make things happen.
Marty had participated in the mission with great tension, but at first, he wondered if he and his superior had been wrong.
After all, while Deus's training of the soldiers was grueling, there were no other concerning movements.
...Of course, as time passed, the expressions of the free-spirited knights became very solemn after one-on-one talks with Deus, but that was about it.
Even when the Marquis gathered soldiers and knights under the pretext of gathering subjects, Marty didn't think much of it. He soon realized that the mercenaries and knights had come because of distorted rumors and that the Marquis hadn't actually said those things.
But ever since the Saintess of Kalanon—no, the Saintess of Kalanon who served the Marquis of Palatio—entered the Divine Land.
"..."
Marty realized the situation was taking an ominous turn.
The knights and mercenaries who had gathered because of a misunderstanding and should have dispersed were beginning to truly integrate into the Divine Land because of the Saintess. The Divine Land was beginning to grow in earnest.
That wasn't all. Distorted rumors had already spread throughout the world.
In that situation, when the mercenaries and knights of the Divine Land wiped out the bandits, praise for the Marquis of Palatio began to be heard everywhere.
Marty thought that perhaps this entire situation was intentional.
Usually, rumors don't flow in such a positive direction. No matter how much good a Marquis does, rumors eventually tend to get twisted in a negative way.
But for it to be like this...
It was as if someone were manipulating the rumors spreading through the United Kingdoms.
And if those rumors were indeed being manipulated by someone's will, as Marty suspected, the only person who could be doing it was the Marquis of Palatio.
Of course, questions remained. The Marquis was a man who already had everything.
While having public support wasn't a bad thing, was it really worth spending so much money to manage it?
Absolutely not. No matter what anyone said, he was ultimately just a Marquis of the Asteria Kingdom.
In other words, public sentiment was useless to the Marquis of Palatio for now.
As Marty pondered what the intention could be, a hypothesis suddenly formed in his mind.
...A very terrifying hypothesis.
But once he formed that hypothesis, the Marquis's intentions made sense.
Why he had acquired such a massive territory like the Divine Land and gathered knights and soldiers.
Why he had spread distorted rumors to gather mercenaries and knights.
Why he was using the Saintess to settle the knights and mercenaries and recruit an army.
Why he was spending such vast sums of money to manipulate public opinion.
'The Marquis of Palatio—intends to become the sky himself...!'
As he reached a conclusion that felt like the absolute truth, Marty felt a shiver run down his spine.
...He had been suspicious all along, but he never imagined it would be something like this.
'I must... inform them quickly!'
Marty gripped his magic tool, waiting for nightfall to report the "truth" (?) he had deduced.
...And at that moment.
"...Why have my ears been so itchy lately?"
"Isn't someone badmouthing you, Marquis?"
"...I don't think I've lived such a rough life that I'd be cursed by someone."
Alon rubbed his itchy ear as he made his way through the forest.