An Overwhelming Difference
And by an overwhelming margin, at that.
Gracia had held the number-one seat for so long with a score of 420. Then, out of nowhere, an absurd score of 600 appeared and reclaimed first place — of course the whole community lost its mind.
A score and a speed that defied all common sense. Faced with a result that transcended imagination itself, every player could do nothing but draw a question mark in the air.
When I used the Teleport Book to return to Labyrinth City, the scenery had changed considerably.
Warp engineers.
More than ten warp engineers were erecting warps. Several already completed ones radiated their presence from various points around the entrance.
At least we won't sink because every warp fails.
Just the ones in sight numbered around five. Considering that installing a single warp cost roughly five million gold, they were pouring tens of millions into this.
"Welcome back, my lord."
And right in the middle of it all stood Hudson. Since I'd entrusted him with overall administration of the city, he seemed to be directing the warp construction as well. Spotting me, Hudson broke into a broad grin.
"I saw the changes in the Hall of Fame. As expected of my lord!"
My lord. It wasn't wrong, but it still felt awkward. I shrugged and looked over the construction site.
"Aren't there too many warps?"
"The number of warps in a city is its competitiveness. It's a blank check guaranteeing safety from the Abyss."
Fair enough. If you were going to build a city, proving its "safety" was critical. Hudson's claim that the first thing people saw — the number of warps — was the city's competitiveness was not wrong.
Hudson ventured carefully, "...Shall I reduce them?"
"No. Hearing you out, you're right."
"But where has Saintess Seia gone?"
"She's in the mercenary city of Cartel."
"Ah, so she has separate business there?"
I nodded. In Cartel, Seia was treating Aria, the White King's daughter. Joaquin and the other mercenaries had rushed to the city's lord to report everything they'd witnessed.
"My lord. All the Old Empire treasures you entrusted to me have been successfully disposed of. The details are written in this report."
Hudson handed over a thick stack of documents. It didn't seem to be merely paperwork about selling Old Empire treasures. I slowly reviewed the report, then tilted my head.
"The amount is higher than I expected."
The profit from selling the Old Empire treasures came to 1.5 billion gold. When I questioned the figure that exceeded my projections, Hudson nodded.
"Yes. We opened a good channel with Arcana's City Council."
"It doesn't seem like 1.5 billion gold is the whole of it."
"Arcana wants full-scale trade with Labyrinth City here. So I used that as leverage to extract a few additional concessions."
You couldn't sell this volume of Old Empire treasure while hiding its identity. Split sales were impossible too. Inevitably, people would realize it was connected to the Abyss Labyrinth — so he'd opened that information entirely and extracted rights in exchange. Matters related to Casino Hudson, and the banks. Well, it wasn't only Old Empire treasure buried here. This was a city that had directly received the White King's grace. They must have been angling to forge a connection with the White King as well.
Then Hudson drew a letter from his coat.
"However, one of the City Council members turned out to be an Imperial. He approached me in secret."
"...An Imperial?"
An Imperial sitting on the City Council of the Golden City of Arcana was surprising enough — that he'd secretly made contact with Hudson was even more so.
"Yes. He seemed quite interested in me. He asked whether I had any intention of participating in the Special Auction being held in the Empire."
"And this letter?"
"He said if I intended to participate, I should open it. I haven't opened it yet, but..."
Meaning he'd been waiting for me. I slowly took the letter from Hudson.
Riiip!
I broke the seal and tore open the letter. Inside was a single sheet of elegant stationery. After reading its contents, I nodded.
...The items up for sale are extraordinary.
The letter listed the location of the Special Auction and a few of the items that would appear. Checking the representative lots, I couldn't help but be rather impressed by their caliber.
If things go well, Baal's Armor might even show up.
At this level, it wouldn't be strange if Baal's Armor appeared. Even if it didn't, this was a golden opportunity to infiltrate the Empire. There was no ordinary way to approach it. Of course, I had the Emperor's Seal received from the Silver Fox Mask — but flashing something like that would instantly draw enormous attention and expose my identity. I absolutely could not let this chance slip away.
The Empire. Darkan Territory.
"...Hmm?"
"Is something wrong?"
Seeing my puzzled reaction, Hudson asked. I passed the stationery back to him.
"Read it. Don't you notice something strange?"
"M-may I read it?"
"It's an invitation addressed to you in the first place, isn't it?"
It had never been mine to begin with — it was Hudson's. With trembling hands, Hudson took the stationery and read through it.
"...It lists the representative items appearing at the Special Auction. 'Ashmut's Leather Sash,' 'Diaros's Helmet,' the 'Berserker Set'... Ghk! Aren't these all Legend-grade treasures or higher?"
"Things you can't obtain through ordinary routes."
All of them were treasures you couldn't acquire without heaven-sent luck. And they were putting them up as auction lots that could be purchased with gold.
"As expected of the Empire. Even the scale is Imperial scale."
"Keep reading."
"...Let's see. Other than the fact that this Special Auction is jointly hosted by the Darkan Family and the Dercian Family, nothing seems particularly strange. Beyond that... ah, it says you can also consign items for auction, but unless they're of the grade of the examples above, don't even dream of it."
"Darkan. Dercian. Don't those sound familiar?"
At my question, Hudson stroked his chin.
"Darkan is one of the Empire's renowned swordsmanship houses. They've produced countless regular knights for the Empire. Dercian is... Dercian. I've never heard of them, but..."
No matter how hard he thought, nothing came to mind, and Hudson tilted his head. The Darkan Family was famous as a swordsmanship house, but Dercian was unfamiliar to him. Well, Hudson might not know.
Isabella's surname.
Isabella von Dercian. Isabella's roots came from the Dercian Family. She had been abducted to the desert and called the Snake Princess, but her essence was Dercian blood. Currently, however, Isabella had taken advantage of the Desert Queen's death to head alone for the desert city of Faisalmer — she'd left saying she would inherit the desert and return.
How coincidental.
That the host of the Special Auction just happened to be Dercian. I'd known the name existed in the Empire, but contact had come faster than expected. Should I wait for Isabella? Inwardly, I shook my head.
I should make contact first.
Beyond the name, I knew nothing about the Dercian Family either. Why an Imperial like Isabella had opened her eyes in the desert, whether there was some story behind it — it might be better for me to grasp that first.
"Do you have some connection with those two families, my lord?"
"It's a bit strange that a famous swordsmanship house would gather people for an 'auction.'"
"Hmm. Certainly... and given that the notoriously closed-off Empire is inviting promising figures from outside to hold it, it may not be a simple auction."
This wasn't an auction that was only about buying and selling goods. An Imperial-style social venue. Gathering promising individuals, then making separate contact with those who stood out among them. With an Imperial house of Darkan's stature involved as a host, there had to be something additional. They weren't people who moved on money alone.
"Buying items will be important, but selling them seems important too."
"We'll need to show them something they wouldn't even dare to buy."
In short, to make contact with the Darkan or Dercian Families, purchasing items was important — but putting something on the auction block to "display" it was equally so. Contact with those two houses would open a path deeper into the Empire's interior. And if luck was on our side in the process, we might even obtain Baal's Armor.
"Do you have something to put on the auction block, my lord?"
"You don't need to worry about that part."
I did have things. Putting up Baal's Helmet to find the owner of Baal's Armor was worth considering. Anyone who owned Baal's Armor would certainly want to purchase Baal's Helmet. The Skullcrusher I'd obtained this time would also cause an uproar if it appeared. Or I could put up the Throne of Light entirely and draw every eye in the Empire.
"And even without putting anything on the auction block, there's a good chance both families will approach us."
"Because of the gold?"
"Won't they regard us as associates of the White King?"
"Ah. Well... that's true too."
Hudson agreed. The background behind their invitation to him almost certainly involved this labyrinth and the White King. There was no way they wouldn't report that, so even without participating in the auction, the odds of both families making contact were high. The White King and the Empire had zero exchange with each other. Yet from a suddenly appeared city of the Fifth Lord, a figure named Hudson had shown up selling labyrinth goods — from the Empire's perspective, it was worth casting a line. Now that I'd bitten that bait, the Empire would fall into fresh deliberation. How to handle us. They would spare no effort trying to discern the intentions of the Fifth Lord and the White King.
"By the way, my lord. If it's not too presumptuous... Baal of the Four Calamities... did you awaken it?"
"It wasn't intentional."
"... Cough! Cough!"
Hudson choked. He'd thought maybe, just maybe — and maybe had caught him after all.
"Don't worry. It's not as if there's no method of control."
It hadn't been deliberate, but now that I'd awakened one of the Four Calamities, I intended to handle it as thoroughly as possible. They'd said obtaining Baal's Armor would allow control for the time being, so I had no choice but to bet on that. And even if I didn't step in, a subjugation force might take care of it. As long as they weren't complete idiots, the surrounding cities would pool their strength and form a subjugation party. Of the five neutral cities connected to the Mountain of the Cultivator, blocking just one was an easy task.
They won't do something stupid like cutting the warps and severing relations. They are city lords, after all, for what that's worth.
If it wasn't stopped at the neutral city level, no one could predict where the Calamity would go. The moment the Calamity's possible destinations multiplied into dozens or hundreds, gathering strength became difficult. And if the Empire or the Goddess Sect then stepped in, the cities that had first cut ties with the neutral cities would find it hard to escape responsibility. The possibility of having their cities forcibly seized was high. So the wise choice was to pool strength before things got out of hand.
"By the way, where did Isaac go?"
"Ah... about that."
Hudson scratched his head. His manner was reluctant. When I watched him carefully, Hudson let out a long sigh and said,
"...He ran away from home."
"............?"
The White King's Hall.
The White King quietly regarded the one standing before him.
"...So you returned alive."
"Did you hope I wouldn't return?"
The White King's daughter, Aria. After recovering her senses, she had returned to Kramdel. The White King shook his head.
"I thought it would not be easy. I meant to send my swiftest aerial messenger, but I was already a step too late."
"You must have feared the Black King."
"I do not fear him."
"I did."
"Fear of what?"
"Laktusha. He was stronger than even the Four Lords. The Black King's other direct subordinates must be the same."
Originally, they had been comparable. But now she was saying the Black King's forces had surpassed the White King's. Laktusha was not the strongest among the Black King's direct subordinates. And even so, he had surpassed the Four Lords. If Aria had seen it that way, then it was so.
"Do not worry. I will not remain idle either."
"Are you making preparations?"
"Mm. All of the Four Lords will grow stronger. And a Fifth Lord has been added as well."
"...A Fifth Lord, you say?"
Aria, too, had heard stories on her way to Kramdel.