The Incompetent Hero and the Holy Sword Awakening (4)
"…So you already knew about me?"
"Indeed. We have a rather gifted shaman, and… a guest came calling. Thanks to them, I learned of you."
"A guest?… And the shaman—"
"Is the old woman here?!"
Baekryeon's face lit up as she asked. Jinan smiled and gave a small nod.
"She said a person of great importance would come from the Western Continent by way of Yeom. At first I thought she meant another guest… but upon hearing the report from Pyeonggyeong, I realized I'd been mistaken. To think… that Baekho was within our lands—suffering humiliation at the hands of yokai, no less."
A heavy pressure rolled through the air.
"Humiliation, indeed."
You are under the influence of Emperor's Dignity.
All stats temporarily reduced by 3%.
A prickling, electric sensation. Almost identical to what I'd felt the first time I met the Emperor of Yeom. So she, too, was a true sovereign of a nation.
That unmistakable imperial presence crushed everyone in the room—but only for a moment. The pressure vanished as quickly as it had come, and she smiled again.
"Well, what's done is done. More importantly, Baekryeon—looking at the state of you, you seem thoroughly exhausted. Rest should come first. Above all, when Lady Baekho opens her eyes, her descendant greeting her in such a filthy state is something she would hardly wish for either. Clean yourself up."
"Ah…"
"Hoo… at long last, the time has come to feel that soft flesh of yours again."
Queen Jinan curled her lips and made a thoroughly lewd gesture with her hands. It was hard to believe this was the same woman who had just radiated that crushing aura—she looked every bit the pervert. Seollin and I both stared at her in blank disbelief.
Whatever she made of our stares, the queen only laughed heartily.
"Ah, of course I won't leave you two out, so don't worry. I do prefer beauties, but I don't discriminate against men either."
"I'll pass."
"Is that so? A pity. Then what about you? They say same-sex companions grow close through bare-skinned fellowship. Since you've come as envoys of Yeom, deepening the friendship between you and me would surely please the Emperor of Yeom as well."
"Eh? Eh?…"
Leaving the flustered Seollin behind, I looked straight at Queen Jinan.
"More to the point—I heard there was an assassination attempt on you, and that it led to a national isolation decree. Looking at the palace, inside and out, it doesn't feel nearly as tense as you'd expect for a country under lockdown after an assassination."
"Ah, that? We did issue the isolation decree, true enough… but assassination attempts are hardly rare. Did you know? Originally I had several older brothers. This throne was meant to be theirs. And yet the one sitting here now is me."
She let her eyes gleam with a wicked light and asked,
"Do you understand why?"
She met my gaze with a sly, playful smile. Given everything she'd said so far, the answer didn't need spelling out.
"You killed them all?"
"Haha—killed them? I've never killed anyone with my own hands."
"…"
She shrugged as she said it. That wasn't the important part, though. What mattered was—
"Who was after your throne this time?"
"Perhaps. This one was genuinely dangerous. If not for a certain guest, things might have gone very badly. I never imagined they'd hire an assassin from Tayogu. Hahaha."
"Who, exactly?"
"Who can say? Plenty of people pretend otherwise, but those who covet this body's throne are hardly one or two."
Whether to call her guts remarkable or her composure simply too relaxed—she spoke of such things as if they were nothing. Seollin's thoughts seemed much the same as mine; her expression had gone subtly stiff, as if she didn't know what face to make.
"But the assassination itself was merely a pretext for issuing the isolation decree."
"A pretext… Meaning there was another reason for locking the country down?"
"Indeed. A vile faction dared to sow poison across my nation, and I meant to stop them. Coming from Yeom as you do, you already know of them—the Beastman Alliance."
So Jo had already caught on that the pirates were receiving Geogeonhwan from the Beastman Alliance and smuggling it. This queen was no ordinary ruler.
Baekryeon answered as if to match her words.
"Of that, you need not worry. The pirates smuggling Geogeonhwan in Jo have all been dealt with by our side. More precisely, Doryeong resolved the matter."
"Is that so? How fortunate. We've just finished taking the heads of every official who accepted the smuggled goods. With the timing so neatly aligned, we can lift the isolation decree."
In response to Baekryeon, the queen spoke of beheadings as casually as the weather and gave a light clap of her hands.
A man in blue-green robes approached with careful steps.
"Your Majesty. You called for me."
"Yes. See that Baekryeon and her companions are given every opportunity to rest. And the Lady Baekho they have escorted and protected is more precious to Jo than anything else—convey to the Royal Medical Bureau that they are to spare no effort in her recovery."
"As you command."
He bowed half-way to the queen and came forward to guide us. Watching him, the queen lifted one corner of her mouth.
"Ah—and Baekryeon. I shall come find you later. Let us cleanse ourselves together and catch up on all that has piled up between us. And you as well—join us, and we can discuss the course Yeom and Jo ought to pursue going forward."
"…Eh? You weren't just saying that?!"
Seollin's startled stare at the queen was the last thing I saw of our first meeting with Queen Jinan of Jo.
"Lord Leon, this room should serve you well. Your companions are not far, so finding them should pose no great difficulty."
"Thank you. There is one thing I'd like to ask, though."
"What is it?"
"I heard a guest arrived here before us. That you learned of me through them, and that they kept you safe during the assassination attempt… Can you tell me who they are?"
The chamberlain answered as if it were no trouble at all.
"A guest came alone from the Western Continent. I was told she is a shaman who serves the gods of the West."
"A shaman who serves the Western gods?… Where is she now?"
"Around this hour she always leaves the palace and walks the village streets."
I thanked him and lay down on the bedding for a moment.
A shaman who serves the Western gods… a priestess, then?
Had the Holy Kingdom dispatched someone here? But only one person—that was a thin dispatch if so. Had she come on her own? And if she'd come looking for me personally…
Noren?… No. No way. She'd be moving with another hero party—there's no chance she'd just drop in here alone…
No matter how I turned it over, I couldn't figure it out.
"Hah, whatever. We got Baekho this far—all I can do is hope she pulls through…"
I had to hope this place had a way to restore a shattered vessel. And if it didn't…
What then?
To settle my restless mind, I left the room and stopped the first person who passed by.
"I'd like to take a walk outside the palace for a bit. Which way should I go?"
"I shall guide you."
Led outside the palace, I walked the village streets. The first thing that struck me was how much it felt like a folk village. Well—this place had been built on a Joseon motif, after all.
Ah, right. There was something I needed to do here.
One map, shoved into a corner of my inventory: the Complete Map of Filgurea. I'd bought it at Galea's General Store in the Roman Kingdom. It had kindly unlocked the map function for me—and then, once that function was active, the physical map itself had been banished to a dusty corner, never used again.
There was an event where you could use this map to obtain the Brush Sword…
It had been too long. I couldn't remember the details. I'd already been in this world for roughly half a year—forgetting was only natural. Still, after grinding my thoughts for a while, fragments came back.
"Right… find the descendants of whoever made this map… and get the location of a dungeon entrance from them?"
At the time, though, most of Filgurea's Eastern Continent had been reduced to scorched earth by the Heavenly Demon, and those descendants had been wandering from place to place to escape him. At this point in the timeline, I had no idea where they were or what they were doing.
"Tch. Guess I'll have to pick it up later."
The Brush Sword was high-performance gear. If I put it in Baekryeon's hands, she'd gain magic-attribute ranged attacks—extremely useful.
"Are you a lost little lamb?"
"Lost? Well, more like I don't know where what I'm looking for is, so I'm fretting… Hm?"
A soft, gentle voice. I'd answered without thinking—and when I snapped my head around, a white-haired woman in a nun's habit was looking at me.
Clothes you would never see in Jo. The moment I saw them, I knew exactly who she was.
"So you're the guest who came from the West?"
"Yes, that's right. At last we meet. It is an honor to meet you, Hero. I am Sister Lucy Wenlertera of the Holy Kingdom of Byzantia."
She smiled with a hint of mischief.
"I look forward to working with you."