14 Realization

The king is on the opposing team?

I can deal with it, but things can never go my way, can they? How am I supposed to kill a ruler in his own castle, surrounded by his whole country, while having no support except for a brain dead child without being captured or killed?

I'm not some assassin.

Oh. Assassination. I could try that. Going head on would be the stupidest decision I could make, though, especially considering all of the security measures here. By security measures, I mean people like the knights and basically all of the servants.

The king being the Hider is the worst outcome I can think of. I'm not sure how he'll react to being a Hider, I'm not sure how he'll deal with that information, I'm not sure of anything when it comes to this situation.

It feels like something's off about this whole quest. The Hider is, of all people, the king? Of all figures here, it's the one who's well-protected and barely needs to hide. Further, the wheel of fortune lasted for too long, and eventually fell between two different sections. It feels like someone is rigging this quest against me. But who? The Fallen God? I doubt it, he probably has some other concerns. Some petty jannie, who took umbrage at me stealing from the store? That's actually quite possible, especially since this is a Japanese server, and maybe there are Japanese freaks in charge.

But there's not much that I can do about it for now.

If the king can make his own moves against the opposing team, rather than just hiding from the Seeker, me, then it's nearly hopeless. The only way to counteract that is by making sure he doesn't know that we're the opposing team, otherwise, he can basically do whatever he wants to us.

Placing us in prison would be easy, and executing us would be even easier.

The plans for assassination can be thought up of later, I need to deal with everything right now first.

Firstly, who's the Seeker? The Seeker is a crucial factor of this game. Depending on who the Seeker is, the game could be ruined no matter what I try to do.

If it's someone close to the king, then we're in trouble. Silica will be within their reach.

I hope the Seeker is some kind of random peasant that can't get into the castle, since I don't know who the Seeker is, I can't really prepare anything for them. I can't exactly hide Silica away from everything else either, because the king wants to spend time with her.

So many problems, so few solutions.

Now… time to deal with her.

Turning towards Silica, for some reason, she seemed more fearful than before. Didn't she just calm down?

"D-do I still ha-have to go with the k-king n-now?" she whispered, looking at me like a sad puppy.

Is this what the average person calls "puppy eyes"? Isn't this something that one uses when begging for something, usually to their… parents.

I dislike her more and more every second, and too bad for her, I eat dogs.

"Yes."

"B-But why? I c-can't st-stay w-with an enemy all day!"

So that's why. Realizing that the king is on the opposing team and that she has to stay around him so much scared her already fragile state, and she is now crying again.

"Just go to sleep for now, we can take care of all this in the morning."

"O-okay… Can you stay he-"

"No."

If she thinks I'll comfort her at her bedside until she goes to sleep like I'm actually her father, I'll 'go and get milk' like most 'fathers' who want nothing to do with their 'children.'

Like those of a certain ethnicity in the United States that comprises merely 13% of the population, yet commits half the crimes.

"Alright… S-Sorry," she said, now embarrassed at her actions.

She got into bed, and I got out of the room.

Sitting back down on my bed, I questioned whether or not I should take advantage of this night time.

Leveling up heals fatigue, apparently, so despite not having slept for a while and fighting, I still don't need to sleep. So, if I could walk around without being caught, this would be a perfect chance to scout out the castle more and possibly steal a few valuable items.

I could also cause a little chaos to distract the king from us.

But the risks aren't worth it. Not at all.

I could try finding the Seeker, but it's incredibly unlikely that I'd even encounter them, let alone actually finding out who it is. So, I guess it's time to sleep for the first time.

I would review my inventory changes, but it's not like there's much to review. I have 3,500 extra Cor now, along with twenty new slots, one of which is being occupied by my recently gained riches.

Doing one last thing before drifting off, which was checking to see if I could stack my other amount of Cor on top of the awarded amount, it worked, and I went to sleep.

Timeskip - The Next Day

{Nero? Are you awake?}

Sigh…

Of course she woke me up.

I was having a particularly pleasant dream as well. I was cultivating and about to pass my Heavenly Tribulation to become a Dao Lord.

They say that dreams can be a prediction of the future.

Waking up was nothing particularly special. I simply woke up, and sat in my bed, wondering what the common thing to do in this situation is. Do I start wandering around the castle until I find someone who knows what to do again? Should I just wait with Silica?

Maybe the king or a servant told Silica what to do in the morning, so I'll ask her just in case.

{...Yes, I'm awake. What do you need?}

{What are we supposed to do?}

Nevermind then. She doesn't know either.

{I genuinely don't know. Would you like to stay over here in the meantime?}

{N-No, I'm alright.}

And that's what I was counting on. She gets embarrassed easily for some reason, and is self-conscious, so she wouldn't accept something like that.

{Sure. I guess we should just wait, it'd be rude to just walk around someone else's home.}

{Okay.}

While this would be the most sensible course of action in a guest's view, I also need to think about this in the view of enemies. The fact that the king is the opposing Hider has not gone over my head, and I'm not sure if he knows whether or not we're the opposing team.

Though, I suspect that if he did, I never would've woken up.

{Nero?}

{Yes?}

{Yeah… I'm sorry about yesterday.}

{For what? It was my fault.}

While I don't believe that myself, in her view and with what I formerly told her, it is my fault.

{I guess so? It's just that I overreacted and nearly got us in trouble too…}

{It's no problem. It all worked out in the end.}

Now then, leave me alone.

Getting out of my bed, I walked to and opened the door, hoping to see a servant or someone that knows what to do now.

The hallway was empty, so I walked out myself.

I'd rather not dawdle in a case like this. Since it's hard to predict what opportunities and dangers will arise, I should remain alert.

Walking through the hallway that led me here, the one that me and Archibald came through, I hoped to find my way back to the kitchen and ask a servant if I am allowed to walk around the castle.

On my way there, I came across Archibald, walking in the direction of our rooms anyways.

"Ah! Sir Nero, I was just coming to see if you and Lady Silica were awake. I presume that you are?" he said with a chuckle.

"Yes, me and Silica have risen. I was trying to find my way to you, since we aren't quite sure of what to do."

"Yes, that is what I feared. Please go have Lady Silica get ready, the king wants to have an audience with you two."

The king wants an audience?

…Should I run?

Him randomly wanting an audience could be related to the dinner today, or it could be since it's a common courtesy to inform your guests of their situation, or it's a trap, and he wants to kill us.

Hmmm… this is a very hard choice. To go or not to go.

"Alright, I'll go tell her to prepare. Please wait here."

If this is just a well-natured summons, then I'd be needlessly making an enemy out of the king due to paranoia, and if it really is a trap, then I could probably escape.

The king doesn't know that I'm actually a formidable opponent, so I could use the element of surprise.

In case Silica overreacts and worries over this information, I'll tell her through the mental link, and then tell her physically so that nothing looks suspicious.

{Silica? Get ready, we're going to answer the king's summons.}

{What does that mean?}

{We're going to meet the king, since he has summoned us.}

{...}

{Silica?}

{Is he going to kill us!? Why else would he summon us right after being part of the opposing team? He'll probably poison my dinner later today if he doesn't kill us right now!}

Her concerns are legitimate, though if you think about it for more than four seconds, they are less legitimate.

{Calm down. It should all be fine, since after thinking it over, we can fight our way out if it's a trap, and if it's not a trap, then we're just worrying for no reason.}

I reached her door, and knocked, telling her the same information as I did through the mental link, and this time, she didn't panic.

"Okay!" was her only response, and she closed the door afterwards.

Standing next to the door and waiting for her to come out didn't take that long, she was wearing that dress I bought yesterday within a minute or so, and we started walking back towards Archibald.

{Let me do the talking with the king, unless he specifically asks you to speak, alright?}

I just need to make sure this imbecile doesn't mess things up for us out of paranoia.

{Sure, I can do that.}

Good.

There are reasons, multiple of them, to be worried about this situation, but I believe I can face any consequences head-on.

"You hear about how the king locked down the castle? I suppose not, considering you just woke up," said Archibald

…What? The king locked down the castle? Why? Does it have something to do with how he's now the opposing Hider?

This could potentially be a huge, huge problem. Depending on why he did it and how much he knows.

Cursed Japanese. Being around Silica has lowered my luck.

"Oh? Why would he do such a thing?" I asked.

"I questioned that myself. In fact, I asked the king directly, but he did not say. Apparently, no one knows why he did it, but no one can exactly refute the decision. Everyone trusts the king, so we are all waiting to see what this leads to. He must have a reason."

What kind of king doesn't tell even his closest advisors why he does something so drastic? If he wouldn't even tell them, then he closed down the castle because of something he can't let others know. In other words, it's because he's a Hider.

He knows.

I could slice Archibald into two and continue on with escaping, but I still can't be sure of why he's summoning me. If Archibald knew why the king was summoning me, then he wouldn't have told me this. It'd be illogical to tell your prey about a key component of the trap, not when you can hide it.

So, either this is a well-natured summons that won't lead us to getting-

{Why do you think the king closed down the gates?}

…Sigh. She constantly does this, I can't even remember how many times she's interrupted my thought process since we got this mental link. I usually just ignore it and say; "hang on Silica, one moment," but it's extremely irritating.

Especially when every one of her statements is inane and every one of her questions is something I've already questioned myself and figured out. It only highlights how useless she is.

{Hang on Silica, one moment.}

{Okay.}

Back to my original train of thought.

So, either this is a well-natured summons that won't lead us to getting attacked, or it's a trap that Archibald is unwittingly participating in, and he just told me about the castle being closed off because he's a good man.

I guess the only way to find out is to see ourselves. I should be fine.

There's not much I can do anyways, I need to be in the castle to end this game, running away is not an option. I'm not sure if there's some kind of rule in the system that you can't escape the trial, or if there's some out of bounds area, but I do know that I can't end the game without "finding the Hider."...What does that even mean? Do I have to kill him?

Either way, just answering the summons is the best course of action.

No benefits will be achieved without taking some risks, and if I can stay in the castle, assassinating the king will be much easier.

"I see. Thank you for informing me."

{You were asking why he did this? I don't know. It might have to do with how he's a Hider, but even then we should be fine. He can't know that we're the opposing team.}

I am not sure of that, but whatever it takes to comfort her. Her knowing the truth is useless, because she won't do anything with it.

{Alright then, maybe I can ask him during the dinner or during this meeting.}

"We're here," said Archibald.

Walking into the throne room yet again, we were met with all of the paintings, and the king, sitting at his throne.