A Debt the Sword Princess Owes
Before my return, I'd pushed all the way into the level 200s on the beta server. There was even one loop where I played for roughly thirty-five years straight… and I'm fairly certain I managed to claw my way to around level 250 in that one.
In other words, I had a pretty concrete idea of just how strong the current rankers of the Earth server would be. I'd never actually crossed paths with any of them until now.
No—come to think of it, I might have just crossed paths with one for the very first time… because my gut was already telling me that the woman standing before me was, at minimum, a ranker above level 120.
“Wh-why are you here of all places—!”
Shiing—!
Dispersing a 2nd Class Advancement mage's offensive spell into empty air with a single swing of the sword meant only one thing: this woman was either a 3rd advancement player already, or standing right at its threshold.
…?
“I am, why?”
“I'm… sorry, what?”
“She's wearing a mask. How exactly am I supposed to know who that is?”
For a moment, my brain simply stopped.
The Sword Princess?
The ranker Sword Princess? The one I actually know? What is she doing here of all places…
After a quick glance at the Constellations' chat, I took a brief moment to admire the gloriously cool silhouette of the Sword Princess from behind. She'd looked impressive enough at her entrance… but somehow she looked even more impressive now.
So this is how ranker fandoms get born, huh?
I'd never quite understood the talk about how rankers commanded fandoms that rivaled actual celebrities. Maybe I was finally in a position to understand it myself.
In the meantime, the mere arrival of one Sword Princess sent my viewer count rocketing skyward at a frankly insane rate.
Two hundred new viewers in that handful of seconds. You've got to be kidding me.
Wait, isn't she younger than me, though?
And what does that have to do with anything.
Here in Laika, the higher level was always the one who earned the honorific. That's simply the rule of the land.
Shk—!
While I was busy pondering that, the Sword Princess slid her sword back into its sheath and turned toward the scavengers.
“Do you know what I despise most in this world? Player killing.”
“……”
“That's the only reason you're still standing.”
You could absolutely just kill them, ma'am.
“That's… what do you…”
“Fortunately for you, you haven't crossed that line yet—and I have no desire to PK anyone today.”
This woman is merciful in the most gratuitous way.
“So I'll give you five seconds. I expect you to be gone when they're up.”
Well, I can understand where she's coming from.
The Sword Princess was a named player of one of the Big Three guilds before she was ever a ranker. For someone of her caliber to PK in a place this crawling with eyes—no matter that the targets were scavengers—was the kind of thing you couldn't afford to do carelessly.
“Damn it.”
The instant her words ended, the two of them shuffled backward in furtive little steps, then bolted from the scene entirely. From their perspective, the choice had practically made itself.
After all, the Sword Princess killing them was at least ten times easier than them killing me. Their levels might have landed in a similar range, but anything past 120 existed in a completely different dimension altogether.
“Whew.”
With the situation resolved and the crisis behind me, I could finally gather my wits again—and it was to that version of me that the Sword Princess spoke.
“It's a relief I wasn't too late.”
L-love you—no, thank you so much, ma'am! You just saved me 100 million won…
Still, what did she mean by "too late"? The whole situation was so surreal that my head was a genuine mess.
“I imagine you have quite a few questions?”
Naturally I have questions, ma'am. "Too late" means you knew I was about to be attacked in advance, doesn't it…
“For now, this place is far too public. Let's step away for a moment.”
Having rattled off her words in a single breath, the Sword Princess drew something from her inventory and held it out to me.
◈ Teleports the bearer to a designated Varga Guild location.
And in the very next instant—
Fwoosh—!
The moment the scroll tore, the Sword Princess's figure vanished from where she'd been standing.
As if.
Something was clearly going on—but if something were, surely I of all people wouldn't have failed to recognize her mask?
“……”
In any case, I decided to tear the scroll myself. Just as she'd said, ever since her arrival a truly uncomfortable number of gazes had been drilling into my back.
It also seemed like she had something she wanted to say to me… and more than that, this woman had just saved me a Horus's Feather. Carving out a little time for her was basic courtesy, wasn't it?
That is slander, and I reject it.
Anyway, moving on.
Vmmm—
The scroll tore, and with a gentle, spinning lurch my vision flooded with white light.
Vuuuum—!
And in the next moment—
Tap—
What appeared before my eyes was a small garden inside the Varga Guild, the very place the Sword Princess called home.
There was one thing I hadn't mentioned to the Constellations—one thing that had startled me even more than the Sword Princess's entrance itself.
It was the technique she'd used to nullify the scavengers' fire magic… Radiant Sever.
Because that, unmistakably, was the signature skill of the 3rd hidden class I knew all too well: the Radiant Sword Saint.
Among all the 3rd hidden classes filed away in my head, the Radiant Sword Saint sat firmly in the rarest and most powerful tier—a cheat of a class, one of the very few I'd believed could stand toe-to-toe with the Demon King itself. Granted, you'd have to account for its favorable light-attribute matchup against the Demon King… but still.
'A server where even the hidden dungeon of Beginner's Island hasn't been discovered yet… and the Radiant Sword Saint exists here.'
Why am I suddenly bringing this up, you ask?
“……”
Because once I'd steadied myself after escaping the crisis, I realized exactly what the words "Radiant Sword Saint" meant where this woman was concerned.
'The person who bought my Zerathus's Flag… was her.'
The Zerathus's Flag—the unique artifact of which only a single one existed in all of Laika. And the Radiant Sword Saint—the one and only hidden class that could only be unlocked by using it.
“Was it too much of a shock?”
“……”
“Are you still not quite with us?”
This was, without question… a fairly devastating truth.
Devastating enough to shave my gratitude for being rescued from the scavengers down by roughly 0.1 percent.
The woman who'd bought the flag cheap off a certified rice-farmer like Dave! (I would later learn this was a misunderstanding.)
“Honestly, fair enough? If I'd run into scavengers the second I crossed over to Alterion, I'd have lost my mind too.”
“Do you mind being quiet for a moment, Kato.”
By the way—this man beside her was also a ranker, presumably? The sheer force of brain radiating off him was staggering…
“I'm… all right now. Thank you once again for saving me, Sword Princess.”
And then, from her mouth, came something even more astonishing.
“Honestly, there's no need to thank me.”
“I'm sorry?”
“I'm simply not built to live with an unpaid debt.”
“……!”
“I owe you a 'debt', Dave. One you couldn't possibly begin to guess at.”
Damn it all.
With that, my suspicion hardened into certainty. She was, no doubt, calling her bargain purchase of the flag a "debt." (It was, again, a misunderstanding.)
But she was putting it out in the open like this?
So she's a cooler woman than I gave her credit for…
“You do know why you were attacked today, don't you?”
“Most likely… because of my unique item.”
“I'm glad you're aware of it.”
“……”
“Then you'll also understand that danger may well find you again, going forward?”
I nodded quietly, and after a brief pause the Sword Princess continued, slowly.
“So be as careful as you can from now on. Next time, you shouldn't count on my help.”
Truthfully, from her standpoint, saving my life had more than settled whatever bargain-price "debt" she owed for the flag. She'd never have imagined I was carrying a Horus's Feather, so as far as she knew, she had effectively saved my neck outright.
Not that this stopped me from wanting to squeeze another 50,000 LP or so out of her…
But that's just it—I wasn't so broken by the situation that I'd actually go through with behavior that trash-tier. Right?
In any case, after a few more words with me, the Sword Princess began to rise. That a ranker of her standing had spent this much time on me was, frankly, a humbling thing in its own right.
“I have a schedule, so I'll be leaving now.”
“Thank you, Sword Princess.”
“If you need time to collect yourself, feel free to rest here a while longer, Dave.”
For a moment I simply watched her rise from her seat… and then a single thought surfaced in my head.
Demanding things of her here would be trash-tier behavior, sure—but when you think about it, a fair trade is something I'm entirely entitled to attempt, no?
“Actually, Sword Princess—might I ask you just one thing I'm curious about?”
Because I am, if nothing else, a man of initiative who knows to strike the moment an idea strikes him. Honestly, this particular idea felt like the kind I'd spend the rest of my life kicking the ground over if I didn't act on it right now.
“What is it?”
Right—first, let's quietly switch off the stream.
“My dear hyung-nims, I'm going to turn off the stream for just a moment…!”
Ending stream.
Thirteen hundred of them. A live audience that set the all-time record of my entire streaming career—and I cut the feed on them without hesitation.
That's how important the deal I was about to attempt truly was.
To pull it off, I first needed to sharpen the Sword Princess's interest in me just a little more. And for that, a single sentence would be more than enough.
“The Zerathus's Flag I listed on the exchange. You used it to become the Radiant Sword Saint—didn't you?”
“……!”
Mask or no mask, there was no mistaking it: the Sword Princess was genuinely startled.
And honestly, for a ranker who'd bet her entire life on the rankings, being shocked by those words would be the normal reaction. Anyone who wasn't would be the strange one.
And so I thought to myself:
'Just maybe… I'm about to pull off a very, very good deal with the Sword Princess.'