Bluffing the White King
"I knew it…! The moment I saw the name, I was certain. It had to be you."
The Death King nodded.
In that instant—
"The master of the Abyss Labyrinth is the Fifth Lord?"
"Huh. How long has he even been the Fifth Lord, and already…"
"That should put an end to the noise."
"Anyone eyeing a Lord's seat won't dare make a peep now."
"Is he stronger than the White King, though?"
I felt like a sideshow attraction.
This was the entrance to Kramdel — a thoroughfare thronged with monsters coming and going. The Death King was conspicuous enough on his own; the words spilling from his mouth only inflated the misunderstandings about me by the second.
"Is that what you were curious about, caw?"
The Death King shook his head.
"Not exactly… More than that, I sense a far more ominous aura from you than before. This presence — could it be… the Calamity Baal?"
The options on Baal's helmet remained active so long as I wore no other helm. Still — this was unexpected. I never thought he would notice.
We'd come this far. There was no point hiding it.
"That's right, caw."
Genuine astonishment colored the Death King's voice.
"Hah. You've claimed even the power of the Calamity Baal? Then the increase in your crows must have been Baal's authority at work."
Caw! Caw!
Countless corpse crows wheeled overhead. But these were no ordinary corpse crows. Empowered by Baal's helmet and pushed through Ultimate Enhancement, the superior corpse crows had begun to mimic the skills I used.
When I cast Superior Corpse Crow Summoning (Lv. 2), the eleven superior corpse crows that answered each cast Ordinary Corpse Crow Summoning (Lv. 10). The result: one hundred and ten corpse crows filling the sky — without a single additional drop of holy power spent.
So this was the power of Ultimate Enhancement.
"The Calamity Baal?"
"That legendary Calamity?"
"Hooooh!"
The surrounding uproar swelled as a bonus. Even among monsters, the Four Calamities were the stuff of legend. Just as Sword Saint Ryleigh was to the old empire, the Calamities were legend and myth to these creatures.
At any rate, I roughly understood now why the Death King had come out to meet me.
"Death King, caw. At present, I do not have Sword Saint Ryleigh's corpse, caw."
From the way he had brought up Sword Saint Ryleigh from the very start, he had clearly been waiting just to ask whether I possessed the body. He simply couldn't say it outright, so he had circled around the subject.
Just as expected, the Death King's shoulders sagged, ever so slightly.
"Mm. Is that so."
"I simply don't have it yet, caw. Search the Labyrinth thoroughly enough, and it may turn up, caw."
The Labyrinth had yet to be fully mapped. Just as ruins continued to surface even now in the Ruins City, I would need to invest more time exploring the Labyrinth myself.
A thread of anticipation entered the Death King's voice.
"In other words…?"
"We'll talk as we walk, caw."
"An excellent idea! This is an emergency summons — we cannot afford to waste any more time."
He was practically bouncing. His interest in Ryleigh's corpse really was enormous. Had he challenged the Labyrinth in the first place just to obtain it?
All the better for me. Using Ryleigh's corpse as a pretext, I could extract help from the Death King. And if it did turn up, I had no intention of clinging to it. Putting the Death King in my debt could only be useful.
"Do you know why the emergency summons was issued, caw?"
I asked as we walked. Since things had already come to this, it wouldn't hurt to learn what I could in advance.
The Death King stroked his chin.
"I don't know the details myself. Only that there are two items on the agenda. One of them is likely related to your city."
"I didn't expect the White King to take an interest in the Labyrinth, caw."
"It won't be for the reasons you're imagining. However…"
"…?"
"Mm. Never mind. It has nothing to do with you."
"That only makes me more curious, caw."
"Hrm. Now that you've become the Fifth Lord, you may need to know."
After a moment's deliberation, the Death King continued.
"Several years ago — shameful as it is to admit — we tasted defeat at the hands of a single human. At that time, His Majesty the White King also lost one of his fangs."
Suddenly, the conversation had turned to Wilhelm. The only person who had ever defeated the Four Lords and taken the White King's fang was Wilhelm.
I listened carefully. The Death King shrugged.
"The Third Lord, Gungi, suggested the fang might be somewhere in the Abyss Labyrinth. We all dismissed it as nonsense at the time — but there may be a connection after all."
"I see, caw."
"Aren't you curious? Who that human was — the one who brought us all down?"
"Not particularly, caw."
"…You really are no ordinary creature."
I had no reason to be curious about my own story. The Death King seemed freshly astonished by that attitude.
Still, the fact that the White King was still searching for his fang was unexpected.
The White King's Fang is still listed in the Golden Rule Shop.
It cost a full thousand hours' worth of fragments. Whether investing that much value would extract anything useful from the White King remained to be seen — but if he was searching that desperately, it was worth keeping in mind.
Trading idle talk like this, we arrived at the White King's hall.
The air was suffocating.
I stood once more in the same place, alongside every Lord. Dae-to-ryong. The Death King. Gungi. Medusa. Monsters each called the pinnacle of their kind.
Still as murderous as ever.
I was tense, but I would not be cowed. As the Death King's reaction had shown, they already knew I had become master of the Labyrinth. The way they looked at me had changed. Where once their eyes had asked what is this thing, they now said this one has something real.
"You are all assembled."
The White King appeared — still wearing the white tiger mask.
"You will be curious why I summoned every Lord so urgently. I shall speak without delay."
He met each Lord's eyes in turn. When his gaze finally reached mine, he spoke with that same unreadable look.
"The first reason concerns the Abyss Labyrinth. Fifth Lord, Randolph. Have you truly become its master?"
Under every stare present, I nodded.
"I have, caw."
"To claim the Labyrinth ahead of even the Death King — impressive."
"What business do you have with the Labyrinth, caw?"
"Indeed. I intend to proclaim the Fifth Lord's Labyrinth City in the White King's name. I will connect it to Kramdel by warp and make the declaration official."
"…!"
"…!"
"Your Majesty? An official proclamation? You have never done such a thing for any city save Kramdel."
While the others reeled, Dae-to-ryong spoke. The only city the White King had ever officially proclaimed was Kramdel itself — the reason no one dared touch the fortress that guarded the path north.
The White King exhaled a quiet sigh at the great dragon's question.
"It connects to the second reason I gathered you. The Black King's movements in the south have grown… irregular."
"The Black King…?"
"Is he trying to break out of the south?"
The Black King. If the White King was the absolute ruler of the north, the Black King was the absolute ruler of the south. Gungi and Dae-to-ryong asked in alarm; the White King confirmed it.
"He is moving aggressively. Expanding his influence with confidence. My premonition is not good."
The White King's "premonitions" were one hundred percent accurate. If his premonition was bad, something ominous was genuinely underway.
"Should he ever set his sights on me, he will strike the Fifth Lord first. And as former land of the old empire, the Arhon Empire will also covet the Labyrinth. If I make an official statement in my name, neither will dare touch the Fifth Lord or the Labyrinth lightly."
…I had only been thinking about connecting a warp.
An official proclamation by the White King. A direction I had never anticipated. If it were possible, the Labyrinth would truly become a safe zone. Reckless, fearless fools would always exist, so invasions would never vanish entirely — but no great power would dare step forward openly.
A solid deterrent. Nothing could be more reassuring. For a moment, the White King's shadow felt as warm as a mother's embrace.
"The final reason for this emergency summons is to select, from among you, someone who can uncover the Black King's intentions."
Hadn't there only been two items on the agenda?
In short: infiltrate the south. Someone who could secretly learn the Black King's designs from within his own domain. It would be an adventure of extreme and obvious danger.
"Is there any who will volunteer?"
The White King swept his gaze across the Lords. But this was not a task one volunteered for lightly. The Black King was the White King's opposite in every way. He was never mild. A madman who slaughtered everything that displeased him — that was the Black King.
Then the White King's gaze stopped on me.
…And did not move.
Wait.
Was this silent pressure for me to go? I'll protect you, so in exchange for the official proclamation, go and come back?
No. Perhaps he wanted me to clash with the Black King. Everything he had said until now might have been nothing more than bait for this final demand.
…So he wants me to take the bait?
Mother's embrace, my ass.
I did not look away. I had no intention of dancing to the White King's transparent design.
Caw! Caaaaw!
The corpse crows began to cry more aggressively. Slowly, I raised my hand. They would know what the gesture meant.
"Hrm."
"What do you think you're doing, Fifth Lord!"
Everyone drew a sharp breath; Dae-to-ryong roared. Of course they did. This was a threat to shatter his Mystery.
And not only that.
True Throne (Modified)
A bluff.
The technique of betting hard with a weak hand — a form of intimidation. Exactly my situation. A single attack from any one of the Four Lords, never mind the White King, would end my life. Bluff without grounds and you destroy yourself.
But a bluff with grounds?
The situation is very different from when I cleared the Gate of Mystery.
The flood of words I'd overheard just crossing the entrance. I had heard the rumors about myself with my own ears. It was absurd to think the Four Lords or the White King wouldn't know them.
And more than that—
The Death King laid the seasoning perfectly.
He would have thoroughly spiced the talk of the Abyss Labyrinth and Sword Saint Ryleigh. For the White King himself to call it "impressive," the Death King must have talked himself hoarse.
When I surpassed Myth at the Gate of Mystery, when I sealed Ahram the King of the Dead — there had been no real basis to estimate my actual combat power. But this affair would let them roughly gauge the level of my strength. They must have been more than a little shocked.
…To clear the Labyrinth faster than the Death King and kill Sword Saint Ryleigh!
Sword Saint Ryleigh was a being compared to the Four Calamities.
To these creatures, the Four Calamities were legend and myth. And the one who had left deep wounds on those Calamities was Sword Saint Ryleigh. That meant my minimum combat power was at least enough to threaten a Calamity — or so they would almost certainly believe.
Of course, that wasn't my only ground.
If the Death King recognized it, the White King certainly has.
Baal's helmet. An artifact carrying the authority of Baal, one of the Four Calamities. By now the White King would have grasped that I possessed it.
The White King does not want internal strife. Because he's a coward.
The final ground. That cowardly streak I had grown thoroughly sick of while playing as Wilhelm. When the White King felt a strongly ominous premonition, his first move was to hide. Even when every one of the Four Lords had been defeated and taken hostage, he never once showed himself. Only through a "transaction" involving his fang had a dramatic settlement been reached.
Having already mentioned that his premonition was bad, the White King would absolutely not want internal conflict. Above all, he was deeply wary of me destroying his Mystery.
If he tried to kill me, he would lose at least one thing.
"…If I don't want to die, don't play tricks? Are you truly speaking those words to me?"
The White King opened his mouth.
In that instant, everything froze.
To threaten death for playing tricks — to make that threat against him, here in the White King's own hall. He could never let it pass. He must not. The statement had clearly crossed a line.
And I had anticipated this reaction as well. No matter how cowardly he was, backing down immediately in front of the Four Lords who followed him would make the title of king a waste.
Hrm!
I had expected it — and still my mouth went dry. Without the Eternal Lord's Heart, cold sweat would already be pouring down me and my heart would be hammering fit to burst. I might already have fainted.
Everything was still only prediction. No one but the White King himself could be one hundred percent certain how he would actually act.
"I made myself clear, caw. The Lords and the White King hold equal standing, caw. I am not beneath you — so this 'emergency summons' feels extremely unpleasant to me, caw."
But a bluff once started cannot be stopped. A rocket already launched does not halt except by being shot down.
I had been clearly informed that the White King and the Lords shared no special hierarchy. But that was only words; a real hierarchy existed. The White King had just gathered every Lord with an "emergency summons." That authority belonged to the White King alone.
And that, in itself, was extremely unpleasant to me.