The Fifth Lord is Born
They said a fifth lord had been newly born.
That he possessed the power to destroy mysteries by surpassing the crown of myth.
That he was a true monster who might even surpass the White King himself!
······ But rumors have a way of getting twisted in the telling.
"Yes. He is someone who holds the possibility of killing me."
"······!"
Yet the White King acknowledged it with pure, unvarnished honesty. Aria had never before heard him use the phrase "someone who could kill me," and she could not help but be startled.
Did that mean the rumors were true?
"If you ever meet the Fifth Lord, you will find yourself fond of him."
The way he spoke was strange.
Fond of him?
Was there some reason she ought to grow fond of this Fifth Lord?
Surely not?
Aria's face twisted.
"I have no interest."
"You will need to take an interest."
"······."
"The Fifth Lord is currently master of the Abyss Labyrinth. Once he has finished putting that place in order, you will be able to meet him. I shall arrange the occasion."
Her ominous premonition had not been wrong.
The White King intended to offer her up to this Fifth Lord—to that King of Crows.
Once the White King had spoken, his word was absolute.
It was precisely because she hated that fact that Aria had buried herself in the Mountain of the Cultivator.
"······ There is already someone who holds my interest."
"Forget him."
"He is a powerhouse who surpasses even Laktusha. ······ He saved me from Laktusha, and he may even be capable of controlling one of the Four Calamities."
If what she had witnessed was true, then he was without question a Sword God who stood above Laktusha.
He had cleaved the stele of the Mountain of the Cultivator in a single stroke.
More than that, he had been given the book left behind by the Sword Immortal. Just as the book described, he had cut the stele and thereby earned the right to control the most dreadful of swords—Baal of the Four Calamities.
As expected, the moment the Four Calamities were mentioned, the White King's ears pricked up.
"In that case, bring him here. I must confirm it with my own eyes."
He meant to weigh the Fifth Lord against that man himself.
And if the man truly could control Baal of the Four Calamities, that would be an extraordinary matter indeed.
If it proved true, the man might possess a value that even surpassed the Fifth Lord.
Aria spoke with resolve.
"Before that, I will awaken the Bukcheon Sword."
"··· The Bukcheon Sword?"
The Bukcheon Sword was a blade of unknown origin sealed in the North.
It was so dangerous and powerful that the White King had sealed it with his own hands.
"If I am to draw his attention, I too must grow stronger."
"Sophistry."
"It is the truth."
Aria did not yield an inch.
She had realized she had been nothing more than a frog in a well.
The world was full of geniuses.
True geniuses who surpassed even geniuses.
To face them, one could not fear any challenge.
Stronger than Laktusha, and capable of controlling even one of the Four Calamities, is he?
She knew it was sophistry, yet the prospect still tempted her.
Moreover, now that it was certain the Black King had set his sights on her, the White King could not simply sit idle.
He was already making preparations, but the more pieces one had, the better.
I would like to meet him once.
Damn it all.
His mouth tasted bitter, but there was no other path left.
Having failed to uncover Phantom's identity and having failed to abduct the White King's daughter, the only thing remaining for Master was the Special Auction being held in the Empire.
Incredible.
The moment he stepped into the Darkan Territory that was hosting the auction, the sight was nothing short of breathtaking.
He had heard the rumors of the famed sword family, yet from the warp gate itself a forest of artworks stood on display.
And the buildings—how vast they were.
Every structure was so beautiful in design that one felt on the verge of being overwhelmed.
Even the soldiers guarding the warp looked far from ordinary.
"Should I have come more extravagantly?"
"Is it even possible to come more extravagantly than this?"
Obsidian answered Master's words.
She had followed him with a half-resigned expression, intending to support him.
Master, who had brought a golden eight-horse carriage that the Emperor himself had outlawed, straightened his back with confidence.
··· From here on is the real game.
He needed to draw as much attention as possible and make contact with the Empire's nobles.
The carriages scattered around them were not more splendid than his own.
Some among them were surely those invited to the Special Auction.
They had clearly arrived early to gather information before the auction began in Darkan Territory.
"We're the first Players to participate, right?"
"······ Shut your mouth."
"Ah, are we not supposed to use that word here?"
This was the Empire.
The Empire openly loathed Players.
There was a strong possibility that the Death God Religion had roots somewhere within the Empire.
If one did not wish to be marked and killed for no reason, one had to watch one's tongue.
"Anyway, it's impressive. If a territory under an Imperial house is already like this, what must the Imperial Palace be like?"
The Imperial Palace.
He could not even begin to imagine it.
But if he could reach as far as the Imperial Palace, he would recover every loss and climb even higher.
Even so, the golden eight-horse carriage seemed to stand out quite well even here.
Receiving the full weight of the Empire's citizens' gazes, the carriage advanced slowly.
Stare all you like. Preparing this carriage cost thirty million gold.
Of course, that thirty million gold had been recovered from Obsidian.
In any case, savoring the attention, Master held his nose high.
"Wh-what is that?"
"A Hydragon?"
"How did a monster come through the warp······!"
At that moment the area around the warp grew noisy once more.
When he turned his head, a massive monster had crossed through the warp.
······ It was an impossible event.
The warps leading into the Empire were thoroughly monitored and supervised.
Powerful Imperial knights stood guard in person.
And yet a monster had ridden the warp and crossed over?
Even granting a hundred concessions, it was something that could not happen.
"That's no ordinary Hydragon."
"······ It is a Hydragon summoned with a Hydragon's soul."
Insane.
A Hydragon's soul!
Was that not the very item Gracia was scouring both Pangenia and Earth to find?
Yet he was certain.
Though it bore horns, a Hydragon so free of any sense of wrongness could only be an individual summoned with a Hydragon's soul.
Who in the world?
What bold bastard had summoned a Hydragon's soul and set foot in Darkan Territory?
Only someone whose mind had completely snapped would think to summon a Hydragon, hitch a carriage behind it, and arrive like this.
"Halt!"
"Stop right there!"
What was even more astonishing was the soldiers' attitude.
They ought to have attacked at once, yet they were acting as though they already knew something.
Before long a man stepped down from the carriage.
"'Skullcrusher'······?"
"Isn't that a weapon exclusive to the giant race?"
The weapon the man held looked particularly familiar.
Skullcrusher.
It was unmistakably the sword used by the greatest warrior of the giant race.
A human-looking man was wearing a weapon exclusive to the giants.
"And what's with that black goat helmet? His fashion sense is something else."
Obsidian muttered.
She had no idea what the helmet was.
But it was clear he was a powerful warrior wielding the giant-exclusive Skullcrusher.
His presence—how to put it—was overwhelming.
He gripped a greatsword over three meters long in one hand while wearing the mask of a black goat.
He wore no upper garment at all.
A perfect wild stallion's physique. Enough to make one lose one's mind.
"It took us thirty minutes just to get through. Are they going to let that through?"
"······ They won't."
No matter how one looked at it, he was not human.
Something wearing a human shell, without a doubt.
Either a transformed giant, or—
Naturally the Empire would never accept such an unidentified being.
Even they, who held invitations, had needed thirty minutes of identity verification to pass.
And this one had dragged a Hydragon into the heart of the Empire?
There was no way they would overlook that.
"Pass!"
"You may pass!"
"······ What."
Obsidian was dumbfounded.
The moment the man produced a single sheet of paper from his coat, he was waved through at once.
No verification procedures, no measures of any kind.
The carriage led by the Hydragon entered the city freely.
Receiving every gaze in the surroundings upon itself.
Martial Power
"It seems we did not draw any great suspicion."
Once they were clear of the warp, Hudson let out a sigh of relief.
He had been fretting the entire time over what would happen if they failed to pass.
I watched Hudson's attitude and gave a short laugh.
"Do not worry. We crossed over perfectly."
Being waved through the instant the invitation was shown meant the lord of Darkan had approved it personally.
He clearly regarded Hudson as someone connected to the White King.
Having come this far, there was no longer any chance of being caught within the territory.
"By the way, are you certain you are fine serving as my escort?"
"I am fine, so drop the formal speech."
"······ How could I dare."
"The one invited to Darkan Territory is you. I am more than enough as an escort."
"I-I will do my best."
It was something he would have to get used to.
I was participating here only as Hudson's escort, after all.
"············ Um."
That was when it happened.
A voice suddenly cut in from inside the carriage.
When I turned my head, a man was sitting there with wide, blank eyes, gripping a spear in both hands and awkwardly scratching his cheek.
"Th-this is the Empire, isn't it? Is it really all right for me to have come along?"
The spearman Valte!
The alt character I had picked up at the Mountain of the Cultivator.
For a full two years he had raised every restriction to the maximum and done nothing but swing his spear in the Chaos Cultivator domain.
It would have been a waste to abandon a character who had succeeded in opening Outer Qi.
"It will be a good experience."
Hudson answered as though it were nothing of consequence.
Hudson also knew that Valte was one of my alt characters.
Just as he knew about Isaac and Isabella.
"A g-good experience? Will I be of any help?"
Watching Valte tremble madly, I turned my gaze and locked eyes with Hudson.
What a softie.
What a softie indeed.
It seemed spearman characters tended to be rather bashful.
I gave a shrug of my shoulders.
Amazingly, the spearman Valte's level was 10.
Once every restriction was lifted, his true level had appeared.
He had climbed the Mountain of the Cultivator at level 7 and was now level 10—proof that he had accumulated considerable experience over those two years.
Had daily sparring with the White King's daughter helped?
Though the man himself seemed completely unaware that the one who had tormented him was the White King's daughter.
"M-my pathetic skill will only hold everyone back······."
"You are excellent."
"N-no, not at all. How could the likes of me—"
Valte was completely ignorant of his own worth.
A level 10 spearman who had opened Outer Qi.
He was practically a prospective Transcendent with the overwhelming potential to devour a Star and transcend.
If anyone recognized Valte's potential, they would try to take him by any means necessary.
He even possessed the tenacity never to give up—truly a late-blooming talent of the highest order.
Two years of nothing but defeat must have twisted his personality like this.
Getting beaten black and blue by Aria every day had apparently made him timid.
Of course, the decisive cause was that I had abandoned him and left.
If I had not simply left him to rot, none of this would have happened.
I keep getting the feeling I only ever run into characters with a screw loose.
Back when I played Pangenia I had experimentally raised a great many characters.
Easily hundreds of characters had been left abandoned, and Valte was merely one of them.
Isabella, Isaac, Valte······ Ironically, I kept running into the very characters I had left behind because each had some flaw.
Meanwhile, the characters I had poured my heart into raising had not even sent word of their existence.
I had funneled Stars into Wilhelm, yet that did not mean my other characters had failed to transcend.
PollackRoeConan, ManCatchingAngler, ThunderGodAdvent.
The successor character who inherited from the swordsmanship master PollackRoeConan, into whom I had poured a full 10,000 SP.
PollackRoeConan.
Where was that one now?
"ManCatchingAngler" was a fisherman who could even reel in the Lord of the Sea, the Fish-Annihilator.
"ThunderGodAdvent" was a great lightning mage······.
I had stripped them of every good item and transferred everything to Wilhelm, leaving them as empty shells, yet they had been powerful alts who had transcended and whose abilities themselves were outstanding.
Where had they all gone?
Did they die?
If they were still alive, they were the sort of characters who would have made their presence known somehow.
With this complete lack of news, it truly felt as though they might be dead.
"Valte. Do not talk back to His Lordship's words. If His Lordship says you are excellent, then you are excellent. Repeat after me. I am excellent."
"Y-yes, sir. I am excellent."
"Good. You must never forget the grace His Lordship has bestowed upon you."
"I-I will not forget."
Hudson began drilling discipline into Valte.
Valte himself already understood that I was the one who had helped him open Outer Qi. Hudson was simply reminding him of that fact once more.
Before long Hudson brought the carriage to a halt and looked at me.
"My Lord. I am rather hungry—shall we begin with a meal?"
"Where is this?"
"The most expensive restaurant in Darkan Territory. It is said only Imperial nobles and city lords make use of it."
"Let us go in."
I nodded.
There was still quite some time until the Special Auction.
We had arrived early precisely so that we could explore Darkan Territory beforehand.
For the Special Auction, Imperial nobles and the masters of other cities would have poured into Darkan Territory in large numbers.
I could not afford to miss the chance to observe them in advance.
Darkan's Afternoon.
The entire four-story building was being used as a restaurant. Just as Hudson had said, a multitude of carriages in every color stood parked out front.
Imperial nobles and the invited rulers of cities.
They were dining here.
"A Hydragon?"
"······ What is that?"
"It looks like it pulled a carriage?"
"So a Hydragon is a horse now? Did the territory actually permit that?"
Even without any decoration, the Hydragon was more than enough to draw every eye.
Those dining on the outer side of the building all turned to look our way as well.
Paying them no mind, we leisurely stepped into Darkan's Afternoon.